If you are just getting into photography with the hope that one day it will earn you a living, then you need to know it’s a hard business to get into, but with a little time and effort you can make money from photography.

There are a few ways that you may know of, and have ideas about, so here is an overview of three ways that photography can be used to generate income.

Wedding Photography

There will always be a need to capture that special moment at a wedding. Whether you are taking the formal posed shots or are wandering around trying to capture that candid moment of the bride or groom, or the guests. Wedding photography can be a good money maker, but you will have to sacrifice your weekends in most cases and if you shoot digital, time on the computer afterwards preparing the images. Different people want different things from a wedding photographer. They may want you around all day getting pictures of the preparation, the wedding and the reception. That’s a full day of taking pictures. Or they may simply want you at the ceremony to get those few memorable shots. They may want the formal, traditional style, or maybe the more candid style which is popular nowadays. Either way you will need the right equipment for the job.

Equipment is key. You need to know that you can rely on your equipment, and that you have backups should one part fail. The bride and groom are relying on you to get the pictures they want so there is the added pressure to deal with should something go wrong, or maybe the weather plays it’s part and prevents you from taking your pre planned shots.

If you want to get into wedding photography then a great way to learn the ropes is to help an established wedding photographer. Learn the best way to do things, the way to manage the guests in the time you have and learn how to make the best of given situations. Then you can branch out on your own once you have the equipment and the confidence to do a good job.

Stock Photography

There are many stock libraries you can submit your images to, which they will then sell and you get a percentage of the selling price. It is a very competitive area though, and digital has made it more so with more and more people submitting their work. Finding a niche is a good way to do well as well as search for the photos that aren’t in the library. You are more likely to make sales if you supply pictures on a theme which is not already flooded with thousands of examples.

Stock images have to meet strict standards for most image libraries so always check what they want before submitting your work.

Stock has the beauty that once you image is in the library it can get multiple sales over time, therefore making you money for doing nothing, once it’s there. The larger your collection of images in that library, the more money you can potentially make.

It’s well worth looking into though, and over time can earn some good money, but you are competing with a lot of people so make sure your images stand out from the rest.

Magazines and other Publications

Magazines, newspapers and other publications are always looking for images and this can be a great way to earn a bit of money as well as get your name known. If you are interested in a particular hobby, or other interest, find out what magazines are linked to that subject and submit your images to them.

I would suggest writing to the editor first to see what sort of images they want, what format they want them in and if they pay for the images used. Regular submissions of good subject matter will help get you noticed and if you are good with words you may want to submit articles to go along with them. You’d be surprised how many magazines are dying for content to fill their pages.

So there you go, three ways to make some money from photography. They each take time and commitment and you may not make a lot of money straight away, but over time as you pick up experience you will find ways to improve your work to suit the market and thus improve your chances of making more money.

Macro photography is a term used for close up photos. It is a term applied to most close up photos but should actually only be applied to photos which have a 1:1 or closer magnification.

Macro is a great area of photography as you can take macro shots where ever you are. Find small details of larger objects to create abstract looking images, or maybe you want to take pictures of creepy crawlies like spiders and beetles (my favourite subject) or maybe close ups of flowers.

However, you do need the right equipment to do it properly.

Depending on your budget and the type of camera you use, there are many ways to achieve a suitable magnification for close up images. The ideal solution is an SLR or dSLR with a dedicated macro lens. This lens will have the 1:1 capability built in and the lens will be good quality designed for this purpose. These lenses can be expensive though, costing several hundred pounds new, although there are a few bargains to be had via auction sites like ebay. Having the all in one solution reduces the hassle and you can concentrate on taking the picture.

An alternative to a dedicated macro lens is to use extension tubes. These go between the camera body and the lens on an SLR or dSLR, they don’t have any glass in them, but they allow you to focus a lot closer than the standard lens would normally. So let’s say you had a good quality 50mm lens, but it didn’t focus particularly close so you couldn’t use it for close up work. If you added 50mm of extension tubes between the body and the lens, effectively moving the lens 50mm further away from the sensor you would get a 1:1 magnification ratio and would be able to focus very close to the subject. You don’t want to add too much extension though as it can put extra strain on the lens and lens mount.

A cheaper way to achieve close up capability is to use the various diopters that are available to screw onto the front of your lens. These are like the filters you buy, such as UV filters or polarisers, but are designed to allow closer focus. You can also stack these, so maybe you want a +2 and a +4 to get really close up, or you could just use the +2 on it’s own. You have to remember though that each one you add to the front of the lens adds an extra piece of glass. Too many extra pieces of glass can have a detrimental effect to your image, so don’t go mad with them. It is a cheap option though, especially if you can find them in a camera shop’s bargain bin!

Another way to achieve good macro capability is to reverse one lens onto the front of another lens. So if you already have a decent 200mm lens and a decent 50mm lens, you could fix the 50mm onto the front of the 200mm with the filter threads facing each other to give a 4:1 magnification ratio which is very high, but the possibilities with this type of arrangement are very good as different combinations can be used to achieve different results. The adapters are cheap too.

So what if you don’t have an SLR or dSLR and can’t add anything in between the body and lens? Well the diopter route is an option and so is the reversing a lens route although you may have to be a bit creative with how to connect the lenses together. See if you camera has a macro mode too, usually a little yellow flower appears on the screen, as that can help you get closer. Several point and shoot cameras are great for macro, especially the Nikon Coolpix 4500 which I used for a while before upgrading to a dSLR.

When you are actually taking the close up shots you will need to keep the camera totally still, so a tripod or a beanbag is essential. You will also need to be patient, especially with insects as they are very quick, so get used to the settings which work best on your camera so you are able to get the shot quickly when you need to.

Depth of field is also going to be more obvious. Being that close up you will need to use a small aperture to make sure you get a suitably large area in focus, although you can also use aperture creatively to pick out one area.

With the facebook craze continuing to grow, I thought I’d start a group to work along with this site.

So, if you are a facebook member, then stop by and join the photography basics group, or if you aren’t a facebook member, get registered now and join a huge community.

If you are trying to take pictures of wildlife, the first thing to do is to sit down, out the way, quietly, and just watch the animal you want to take a picture of.

Getting used to how it behaves will let you get closer to it, and you might get a more spectacular image from it. I’ve used the example of a dragonfly before, but it is a great example.

If you come across a dragonfly basking in the sun and scare it off, just stop, stay quiet and chances are the dragonfly will return to the same point, so you can line yourself up ready for the shot.

For birds (the feathered variety) watch for where they perch. They are likely to be using the same perch over and over again so just sit and watch them and see where they go before trying to get the shot.

Patience is the key here. Don’t expect to just walk up to something, take the picture and walk off, you might have to sit and wait for half an hour or longer until the subject becomes comfortable with you, then you’ll find it easier to get the picture you intended.

I will be covering shooting (photographically, not bulletty) wildlife in more detail in the future, but I just found a good post by Chris Garrett from the DSLRBlog called Wildlife Photography Tips For Beginners. It’s got some good advice for going from taking pictures of your pets or creatures in your garden to getting out and taking some proper wildlife.

Wildlife photography is so varied and can cover anything from taking pictures of butterflies to buffaloes. Some of it requires some specialist equipment like long fast lenses but if you can get close to the animals without scaring them off then the more basic lenses can be fine.

Knowing the animals behavior is key too, and that can only be learnt by watching them from a distance. For instance dragonflies will usually return to the same spot if they get scared off, so it’s just a case of being patient, quiet and still and should get the shot.

Ever since I started photography, it’s given me a greater appreciation for wildlife which is no bad thing. So take a peek at Chris’ DSLRBlog and pick up some good tips.

Tripods will ensure that your picture is free from camera shake, giving you a much sharper picture. Of course this depends on whether the tripod is sturdy and you get the focus correct.

Tripods can be quite cheap, but you will find the the cheap ones are fairly flimsy when extended to any height. It is well worth spending a bit on a good tripod as it is one of the accessories that will work with any camera and it can have a positive effect on your images.

Along with your tripod you will need a good head. Not the one on top of your shoulders, the head is the bit that connects your camera to the tripod and allows you to pivot the camera and secure it in place. Again a good quality head, whether it’s a ball and socket or pan and tilt head will be a big benefit to your photography. The last thing you want is to set your camera up for the perfect shot only to find the head slipping just as you are about to press the shutter.

There are alternatives to using a tripod, a beanbag placed on a wall or rock or some other solid object can support your camera just as well as a tripod and can be a little easier to carry, although it will still be fairly heavy. Beanbags are great for getting set up quickly as you can just chuck it on the floor, on a rock or wherever, plonk your camera down on it and start taking pictures. Tripods take a little longer to set up.

These last few weeks, since having an operation, I was hoping to get loads of useful info on this site and really get it going, but as usual life just got in the way. My freelance web development work suddenly got busy and the sun came out too.

The good thing is that I have been making sure I got out and about taking lots of pictures to help demonstrate some of the things I have already talked about on this site, plus I have some photos ready for future articles which again will help demonstrate the points I am trying to make. I have several articles in ‘production’ that just need a few things finished off before they can be published so we should be back to regular updates soon.

I want to make sure when I write information that I don’t confuse people, and hopefully so far I haven’t done that. Example photos are the key to this, so it’s been good to actually take some pictures, and good that I know I will be able to explain some key aspects of photography clearly.

I have also been spending a little and have bought 2 new lenses, plus a set of extension tubes for my Sony Alpha 100 DSLR. This brings me up to an almost complete kit bag with only a decent flash, a tripod and maybe one more lens to complete my set up. OK, so it’ll never be complete, but it’ll give me everything I will need to satisfy a wide range of photography styles. I just need to resist buying too much more!

What I hope to do is to review the kit I use, not so much from a technical point of view, but from a photographer point of view taking into consideration cost, build quality and results plus anything else that applies to that particular piece of equipment. So that’s still to come once I’ve got more of the basics posted.

An online photography course is also planned later in the year. This will take the form of a weekly email giving you tips and information about a particular subject, and a task. Your photos for each task can then be uploaded and reviewed giving you advice on ways you could have improved your picture, or ways you could have done things differently.

As the web site grows, hopefully in popularity too, I will try and get guest articles by photographers giving their views and advice for beginners and those of you considering digital photography as a hobby or maybe a career move.

So, lots of big plans. Each will take some time to plan to make sure it is executed in the best way so you, the reader, get the most benefit from it, but rest assured, this site won’t be left to gather dust.

Here is an example of how shutter speed can be used creatively. The subject of these two shots is the same, the position is the same but the images look quite different.

You can see that the image on the left shows the water drops more clearly. This was taken with a fast shutter speed, so the action gets frozen and the detail is sharper.

The image on the right uses a slow shutter speed. When this image was taken, the shutter was open long enough for the water to move a distance which gives the more blurred and smooth effect.

Both shots have the good points, but both are interesting in how they show the detail. Water is a great way to experiment with different shutter speed settings as you can see the effects very easily. It’s worth remembering that with a slower shutter speed, the problem of camera movement becomes more apparent. A tripod, beanbag or supporting the camera on a wall or solid object should be used stop camera shake ruining the image.

Writer’s have it so why can’t photographers? When you are new to photography, or have just bought a fancy new camera, there comes a point when you think “I want to do some photography, but I just don’t know what to take pictures of!”. Maybe the weather is rubbish, maybe you have some time off work or school, but you just can’t get inspiration. So what do you do?

Well, for me, I look at other people’s work to see how other people view different things. I usually do this on the internet, or sometimes I thumb through several photography books I have. Web sites are easiest though as there are so many of them. Being a Flickr user, I use the “Last 7 Days of Interestingness” and see what photos have been popular. Photo communities like Photo.net are also good to see what other people have been doing photographically too.

Another thing to do is set yourself a challenge. Choose a theme, make it simple, and make yourself take a series of pictures. Themes can be as simple as “The Number 2″, “The Colour Blue” or “Circles”. This keeps it very broad but gives you enough focus (no pun intended) to think about your images. Try and make each image very different, ok some may not be successful, but you learn more from mistakes and you will start to train your eye to be creative in what you are looking at.

Another challenge to set yourself is to take one everyday object and get 10 different images of it. Use different camera settings, different lighting, different angles and different viewpoints but try and make every picture unique.

This is a simple tip and it’s that you should carry your camera around with you whenever you can.

Even it’s just your mobile phone camera, you’ve got a means to record an event. OK, you may not get the best picture, but you can capture a moment that may be important to you, or an unusual event.

This picture is one I managed to get using my DLSR and a 70-210mm lens set at 210mm. The conditions weren’t good, very overcast and the smoke from the fire added to the poor visibility.

As my DSLR has 10 Megapixels it enables you to crop (cut off) a lot of the image and still retain a usable amount of quality. So using the same image and a tighter crop I ended up with a nicer composition that shows enough detail to tell the story of what was going on.

So because I had my camera (as did lots of other people gathering on the shore to watch) I was able to capture a record of an event with a reasonably pleasing result.

Having a small compact camera is great to just put in your pocket of you go out for a walk, or you go for a drive, just in case that moment comes along.

By the way, all six crew got off the boat safely with no injuries and the boat was left to burn all the fuel off and it finally sank an hour after I took these shots.