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10 Ways to Make Money
With Your Digital Camera

Do you love to take photos? Do you carry your camera everywhere? Are you a gifted amateur? If people constantly tell you, "You really should be a professional," you may be wondering...

Is there any way that you could turn your passion for photography into a professional business opportunity?

Becoming a pro takes years of practice and learning, but there are a few steps you can take to get you started on a career in photography. This article by C.S. Deam should help get you thinking about the various ways to make money with your camera right now:

1. Pet photos - advertise a Pet Photography business where you photograph pets with their owners. Most owners won't struggle to take a photograph with their pet all by themselves. You can be the one who makes it easy for them. Not only can you charge for the service and your time, but you can offer the photograph in it's digital form or as a print that you can mail to them later - either created by your own photo printer or by a photo processing service. Many of these services also offer to print the photos on T-shirts, mugs, pillows and greeting cards. This service is often welcome by camera-challenged pet owners!

2. Fishing contests - be around at the end of a fishing contest to take photographs of the contestants who didn't even think of bringing a camera. Most fishermen are more concerned about fishing than carrying cameras, but they want a picture of their stringer full of fish... or the big one that they're going to have mounted.

3. Parades - be in position to get great shots of folks and floats in the parade and sell the prints back to the individuals or to their family members. The folks who take part in the parades are often way to busy to take pictures before or after, so someone who captures them in action might really be doing them a favor - and a profitable service. Remember, you can't use photos of the people to sell to the local paper unless you get releases from the people who are recognizable.

4. Landmark and tourist photographer - if there's a famous landmark in your area, offer your photography services to tourists who want their photo taken in front of it. You'd be surprised at how many people might forget their cameras that day. Even if the tourists are carrying a camera they may want someone else to take a more professional-looing shot, especially if they are part of a large group.

5. Graduations - preschool, high school, or college graduations offer dozens, if not hundreds of opportunities to capture a significant moment in someone's life. If the family members of the graduate aren't located in as good a location or don't have as good a camera as yourself - you'll have even greater opportunity to get the shots they can't. (also see: How to take perfect graduation photos)

6. Holiday Family Postcards - offer your services to families that want their picture taken for a greeting card to send to their extended family and friends. By using your digital camera you can not only get photo-postcards through online photo-processors, but you can make the prints available in your online gallery and have the customers refer their extended friends and family there to purchase a larger print if they desire it.

7. Photo Novelty Items - take photographs of people who want pictures of themselves, their loved ones or pets imprinted on coffee mugs, mouse pads, keychains, tee-shirts, and other items. Usually you can find suppliers of such photo-transfer merchandise and equipment in business opportunity publications, or check out online resources for how to start your own business.

8. Used Car Photos - work out an arrangement to take snapshots of cars for used car dealers who don't have photographs of their current inventory. If any of the car dealers don't have websites that need photographs you could provide an additional service by learning how to make and maintain a website of their inventory.

9. Promotional slideshow production - taking digital photos of a convention, church, business, college campus, or other promotable location - you can create a digital slideshow on Video CD or DVD for your customers to promote their business, organization, or event.

10. Newborn photo service - parents of newborns are some of the busiest people in the world. Advertise your services on an on-call basis so that you can take great baby pictures or informal snapshots for the growing family either before they leave the hospital, or after they get home. This way both parents and the child(ren) can be in more of the pictures all together, and the parents have one less thing to try and figure out.

[ed. note: Online galleries for those who want to have a pro site without setting up a domain are easy to find. Here's one comparison chart that includes a few. Look for sites that allow you to edit and play with the photos before you put them on display if you are not familiar with any of the standard graphics programs. The upside to this is that, in many cases, the online gallery will print and deliver the photos so all you really need to do is take some great pictures. Hook up with a gallery that offers your prints on t-shirts, calendars and holiday cards to increase your sales.]

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More about how to make money with your digital camera:

How to Make Money With Your Digital Camera - 10 Suggestions on where to look for freelance work - Tips and advice on the best ways to start-up your own photography business in your spare time.

33 1/3 Ways to Make Money with Your Digital Camera - An extensive list of ideas and tips on how to profit from your own start-up with lots of good, related resources. In PDF format, Adobe Reader required.

How to Make Money With Your Digital Camera - Hubpage guide to making money from stock photography, with related resources and instructionsl videos.

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