You might think of photographers as people who take pictures at weddings and schools or as part of an elite, jetting around the world photographing catwalk models and media stars. Then there’s the paparazzi, lurking about wherever they might get a juicy snap of a celeb in a compromising situation. There is in fact far more to being a photographer, and there are many niches that it is possible to specialize in. With the rising demand in picture media for advertising and the internet, the prospects of being able to make a living out of photographing your favorite things are very good.
Sport
Sport photography could be considered a niche in itself, but a lot of photographers concentrate on one type of sport, such as ball games, swimming or equestrian sports or even exclusively on one individual sport. Live action shots are always popular, but there’s plenty of scope for mood shots, training, views of sports fans, the stadium or location of the event, family members and friends, famous visitors and so on. Having an understanding of the game and what will be of most interest to people is a necessary attribute of the sports photographer. A food photographer doesn’t need to be a chef in order to take stunning pictures, but for sports, the photographer needs to be familiar with the rules, tactics, and participants to take the best photos.
Food
Publishers are always in need of expertly shot food pictures, given the popularity of cookbooks and the proliferation of food-related websites. Good quality, well-structured photos that make the food look mouth-wateringly delicious are key to capturing peoples’ attention. Some food looks and sounds so good it is a joy to photograph, like the blueberry pancakes at Pocket Change Gourmet. Other dishes can be a little more challenging, for example, there is a huge appetite across the world for insects as food, but how would you photograph dishes made from crickets or mealworms to make them look appealing to a Western audience?
Travel
The travel industry is a massive business, and it’s expanding all the time. Travelers are looking for new and exciting places to visit, cityscapes are changing all the time, new hotels and resorts are being built, and alternative styles of vacation are being launched on a regular basis. Then there are the activities, facilities, restaurants, native flora and fauna, local people, tourist landmarks that can be taken as travel photography. All these aspects need to be photographed for websites and brochures, and regularly updated to reflect the most current appearance of a location. There is also the transport side of travel; airlines, cruise ships, car rentals. The list of associated opportunities is long and varied.
If you have a passion for a subject and some knowledge to match, then using your photographic skills to capture the action and take photos that inspire and move people can be a very rewarding career. Whether your passion is for archaeology, rare mammals or car engines, there will be someone who needs photos of those things, and if you have specialist skills, your work could be very valuable.
The internet has provided a convenient and easy to use platform for sharing content and making money. Just about anything can be monetized if there is a willing audience. Content creators have constantly found new opportunities for making money from platforms such as YouTube. Most people are aware that there are now individuals who have become millionaires on the backs of their YouTube videos, but how exactly are these videos turned into cold, hard cash?
Making money on YouTube sounds easy and straightforward. You post some videos, attract millions of viewers, and cash out on the huge ad revenue. The actual process is a little bit more complicated than this and it isn’t nearly so simple and painless. If it really were that simple, everyone would be making their money on YouTube! The reality is that YouTube isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme and you will need time for your channel to gain subscribers.
Advertisers are certainly willing to pay a decent amount of money to promote their products and services through YouTube, but even so, only a portion of the money that they spend will go directly to the content creators. The majority of the funds will be taken by YouTube themselves. Because of this, if you want YouTube to become the source of a full-time wage for you, then you will need to be one of the most viewed channels on there. Fortunately, however, advertising revenue isn’t the only way of making money from YouTube.
YouTube is a powerful marketing platform, especially for small businesses, and it provides an excellent way to sell your products and services to an audience. It is now incredibly easy to set up an e-commerce website. In fact, it requires absolutely no prior knowledge of web design or coding. There are now a number of services, such as Etsy and Shopify, which allow anyone to easily sell their products over the internet.
By using your YouTube videos as a means to advertise your products to consumers, as well as giving them first-hand demonstrations of them, then it is easy to use the site to drive up your own sales.
Just as you can now easily sell products on the internet, it is also easy to sell on-demand media content such as videos. Using these services, it is possible for content creators to make money directly from their videos and to not have to depend on indirect methods such as advertising through YouTube. YouTube videos can be a very effective means of building up your brand’s reputation. Once you have made an impression on YouTube, you can then direct viewers to visit your main site or store.
If you are planning on selling videos, then they need to be of superb technical quality. Check out indreviews.com for reviews of webcams and other tools necessary to YouTubers success.
Making money from YouTube is far from easy, especially if you are hoping for the kind of revenue that will replace a normal, full-salaried job. However, it is definitely possible to make money directly through YouTube, as well as taking advantage of the possibilities that it offers such as, being able to travel and work, as a way of promoting other businesses and interests that you might have.
(Image: 36% of the world popular are expected to be using smart-phones by the end of 2018)
Traditional and Online Photography
The word photography was first used in the 1830s and is derived from the Greek words photos and graphein meaning “light” and “to draw.” The first commercial camera was built by Kodak founder George Eastman in 1888. The camera had one fixed lens and one shutter speed and required a heavy tripod as it was about the size of a microwave. It had 100 exposures and after use, the camera would be sent back to the Kodak company for processing. Afterwards, the printed photos would be returned along with the device with another 100 exposures.
The first digital cameras existed back in the 1970s but they were not much of a common consumer product until the late ’90s. Storage is easier in the digital format with photo albums being replaced by hard drives capable of holding a family’s entire photographic history. Social media services such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter have resulted in an abundance of photos on the internet and a very obvious trend for everyone to take photographs.
The vast majority of the western world now own a smart-phone and it is predicted that just over 36% of the world’s population will be using a smartphone by the end of 2018. This is an increase of about 10% from 2011. People tend to carry their smartphone in their pockets or bags at all times and are able to upload good quality images to social media instantly. The emergence of digital technology and easy access to a camera via a smartphone has transformed photography from an elitist and expensive craft to a toy of the masses.
The Future of Video Online
Smartphones and digital video cameras have also led to an increase of videos filmed. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index Forecast for Internet Traffic global IP video traffic will be 82% of all consumer Internet traffic by the year 2021. This is up from 73% in 2016. The report also states that live internet videos will account for 13% of all Internet video traffic by 2021, and that every second, a million minutes of video content will be crossing the network by 2021. Moreover, it would take an individual more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2021. Live video traffic will account for 13% of internet traffic by 2021 and live video will increase 15-fold from 2016 to 2021.
Internet video to TV increased 50% in 2016 and is expected to continue to grow at a rapid pace increasing 3.6 fold by 2021. Internet video to TV traffic will be 26% of consumer internet video traffic by 2021 which is up from 24% in 2016. Consumer video on demand traffic will nearly double by 2021 and the amount of Video on Demand traffic in 2021 will be the same equivalent to an amazing 7.2 billion DVDs per month.
(Image: Any sport conceivable can now be live-streamed to a smart-phone)
Live-Streaming
There are countless live-streaming applications which also seemingly threaten traditional photography, also allowing easy access to entrainments such as concerts, sporting events, and gaming.
Twitter launched Periscope as its live video-streaming platform in March 2015. It also allows users to transmit live recordings to Twitter follows and allows viewers to ask questions and comment. Facebook launched Facebook Live a little later, in August 2015. It allows users to broadcast from their mobile devices straight to their Facebook News Feed. It also allows viewers to like or comment on the videos during the feed.
Specialised applications have also utilised live-streaming – for instance, Twitch, which is a subsidiary of Amazon. Twitch primarily focuses on video game live-streaming. The site offers broadcasts of Esports competitions, gameplay, creative content and even music broadcasts. Content on the site can also be viewed on demand. There is also a vast number of live-streaming applications which offer live coverage of sporting events. Online casinos are also making the most out of live-streaming. Leo Vegas is an online platform which claims to have taken the best bits of world’s gambling capital Las Vegas and digitised it. Leo Vegas features via live-streaming dealer tables offering punters blackjack, roulette, and poker. The application also features live roulette games with multiple HD camera angles allowing viewers to feel involved in the action.
A Preference for Video?
Humans actually appear to have a preference for viewing videos rather than still images. In a video released by Facebook IQ in 2017, the social network service explains how it conducted a study of participants based in the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates. The goal of the study was to try to gauge the content consumption of the participants and to analyse related viewing trends. The Facebook study derives from a lab experiment where people’s eye movement and facial expressions were tracked while they scrolled through their personal feeds. This was followed up by interviews about the role of video in the participant’s lives.
The study discovered that the people in those regions would gaze at video content on Face and Instagram 5x longer than they did at static content. It was also found that on Instagram even a cinemagraph – which is an image which moves ever so slightly – could capture a person’s attention for twice as long as a comparable static post, which could be bad news for traditional photography.
Some professional photographers are also taking advantage of the advanced cameras as video quality on digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) and other cameras continues to improve. The frame of a 4k video contains 8 million pixels, which is enough to provide a quality print of an image to use in print or online. Professional photographers are taking advantage of this tech by shooting the whole event such as sporting game or wedding on video and then selecting a single still frame from it to feature as a photo. We know some would disagree that this counts as photography, but there’s no doubt it’s a rather widely used practice.
Conclusion
Online video consumption is predicted only to grow through access to smartphones to watch and create content. More applications are focusing on live-streaming to entice users and research has shown that humans prefer to watch movement over still images. However, while video may dominate, it is very unlikely to completely replace traditional photography, but rather become another tool used by professional photographers in specific contexts.
Being a professional photographer is a lot more than taking lovely pictures with your camera phone. If you are one who has eyes for beauty, you just might have what it takes to be a good photographer. Capturing beautiful moments on camera is an art that requires training, skill and knowledge. There is a lot of information that the newcomer has to consume to get started.
More Than a Hobby
The good news, however, is that you might enjoy photography as a hobby like many photographers do. Instead of toiling away at a job you detest, there might be a way that you can make the decent income from doing something you love doing. We refer here to those who love the art of photography and are looking to start a career as an amateur photographer or a start-up travel photographer. Even if you are only interested in taking a few interesting pictures for your personal consumption, it is not likely you will object to making a couple of hundred bucks extra through photography.
Quick information that you should know
In an attempt to cut through the BS, here is a quick list of what you should know. This is valuable information for all amateur including intending photojournalist and wedding photographers.
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3 Reasons why you shouldn’t travel abroad, without a VPN:
1. You can use a VPN to bypass censorship, whilst you’re traveling
Whilst traveling in certain parts of the world, you may find that you’re unable to access sites, which you use on an everyday basis, due to government censorship. As an example, without paying for a VPN you may find it difficult to access popular western social media websites such as Facebook and Youtube, whilst traveling in China. In some parts of the world such as Burma and Vietnam, you may even be unable to access popular international news sites such as CNN, without a reliable VPN. Access to certain sites and applications may especially be important for work purposes. As a photographer, you can’t go without your top software programs and sites needed to complete your job.
If you try to access accounts which you have paid for, such as a Netflix account or a Spotify account, whilst you’re overseas, you may find that you’re blocked out of your account. As certain content which may be freely available when you’re at home may be blocked to individuals in foreign countries. However, if you purchase a handy VPN, you’ll be able to spoof your current location, so that it appears that you’ll still at home. When in fact you’re on a safari in Africa, sunbathing on a white sandy beach in Fiji or exploring a museum in Europe. Which means that you’ll be able to utilize free WiFI and avoid paying for WiFi, which will save you money to spend on activities, food, and souvenirs. After all, nobody wants to be forced to pay a king’s ransom, in order to pay for data. Especially, if a hotel or internet cafe forces you to purchase data by the gigabyte.
It’s becoming more and more commonplaces for cities, shopping centers, restaurants and hotels to offer free WiFi. However, if you attempt to access free WiFi without a VPN, you’ll risk having hackers try to steal your details. Such as your username and passwords to your online bank accounts. Fortunately, if you pay for a reliable VPN service, all of your data will be encrypted and protected from would-be hackers, who are looking to prey on unsuspecting tourists, who are looking to take advantage of free WiFi.So if you plan to use WiFi on a free network whilst you’re traveling it’s well worth purchasing a VPN before you leave the country. As the last thing you want to happen whilst you’re 3,000 miles from home is far your credit card details to be stolen. Especially if you plan on using your credit card to purchase flights or accommodation.
So if you plan on traveling internationally in the near future, it’s well worth making sure that you purchase a reliable VPN, which can be found at vpnsrus.com, before you step foot on a plane.
Introduction
Travelling is a passion and every traveller understands the importance of capturing the precious moments and framing them forever. When you are back from a trip, all you have are the images of various places, person, food and every single thing you have experienced.
And then, it is time to showcase them for the rest of the world so that they take on a similar journey through your images.
When it comes to editing photos and making them livelier, here is a list of 5 of the top software for photographers worth considering.
1. Picasa –Picasa, a product from Google, tops the list because as free editing software, it is as much loved by the pros as it is suitable for the amateurs. Apart from being a simple yet amazing photo editor, it helps in sorting, tagging and organizing your photos under categories. The built-in photo features help you fiddle with the alignment, contrast, brightness and red-eye quotient of your photos. You can also add interesting colour and blur effects using a number of filters that are available. What makes Picasa outstanding is its feature that allows creating slideshows, web publishing and sharing photos via email.
2. Lightroom 5 – The Adobe Lightroom 5 is the perfect photography editing software for photographers working with large volumes of images. Creative professionals and travel enthusiasts love this super-efficient product that makes it possible to edits to entire batches of photos at once. You can also geo-tag and group your snaps instantly using this program. The software might not be too easy to adapt for the beginners but once you get a hang of it, you will simply love working with it. The best part is that Lightroom 5 is compatible with all types of files along with multimedia slideshows.
3. PhotoPlus 6.0 – This one is an older version of the PhotoPlus family but it is free and is worth a mention because it is amazingly good and user-friendly. With several similar features as in Adobe Photoshop, it allows you to create, edit, enhance and manipulate your already brilliant travel photos. The user-interface is slightly older but extremely easy to handle even for the amateur photo editors. Downloading it might require you to provide some personal information but overall, it’s a good value for money and a photo editing software you can rely on for quick and effective outcome.
4. Elements 11 – Elements 11 is yet another product from Adobe and it comes with easy-to-navigate tutorials for beginners. It is one of the most intuitive photo editing software allowing you to learn new skills, work on retouching quickly and try hybridizing the photos in an Expert mode. If you are up for some detailed and precise editing, you are going to love the Auto-analyzer feature that automatically picks your best shots among the lot. All you need is to give it a companion program for video editing and a plug-in for RAW files and it will work just fine.
5. Gimp – An open source alternative to Photoshop, Gimp offers you with a whole range of travel photo editing features including excellent filters, cropping, resizing, layer support and so on. If you are used to Photoshop, you will be able to adapt to this software rather quickly. You can follow a few tutorials and realize the amazing ways in which you can turn a rather plain image to a beauty with the Gimp. Installation gets easy when you follow the documentation accompanied by the software itself.
So, get your hands on these advanced software products and let your travel photos shine brighter and more enriching to look at.
