>>3306746Had a friend who was a part time professional photographer who could afford cheap studio space with it. She was super connected in the local community downtown and through her church, had a facebook and a website, but got most of her gigs through word of mouth. Her easy money was macro shots of products for the local shops and jewelry store. Her favorites were themed portrait sessions she'd either do in blocks or rent herself out and do like 20s flapper pinups at basic bitch birthday parties. Weddings were a crapshoot as far as money early on because of time spent driving and editing. Lesbian dog portraits will make some bank but they're insane and notoriously hard to work with. Withholding essentially half your income for potential taxes and doing expense accounting is also a cunt. All you have left until the end of the year is beer money.
Matted and bagged art prints at the right local events that don't have a ridiculous table fee can also net some serious income. The print game is a slow trickle of side money, but can yield results and present you as an art photographer.
The real trick to running it as a side hustle seems to be making a lot of connections with the right crowds of people (business owners, rich hipsters, lesbians, and twentysomethings who need engagement photos, wedding photogs, baby pictures). You have to be extraordinarily affable to make it anywhere. You're basically conning your way into social circles as a friend of a friend who's a professional photographer and comes well recommended. Before you do that, curate your portfolio down to 2 types of commercial work and spin your bio to make you sound way more professional than you are. You can expand later. Get business cards with good, appropriate graphic design (that's a whole nother talk). As much as web presence and facebook shilling is crucial, so is being well connected.
