How to earn money through Wildlife Photography? as a Wildlife Photographer?
Most never openly ask this Question! But,
Most have this Question in their Mind!
Asiatic Lioness Portrait
Some even give an excuse like “Wildlife Photography is my passion and I never want to monetise it”. Common! With due respect to the passion towards Wildlife Photography, you are spending close to a Million Rupees on your Wildlife Photography equipment and Wild Travel, will you say ‘No’ to get something back???
Let get some facts straight – the highest recognition for your Wildlife Photography is when someone not just admires your work but ready to Pay a price for it to see your work decorating their wall!
With that note, let’s get onto find out how we can start earning as a wildlife photographer. There are multiple ways how you can monetize your work on wildlife photography but I’m going to explain only the proven ways which worked well for most of the professional wildlife photographers.
I. Selling Wildlife Photographs through Social Media
Investment $ – Nil (Unless you would like to spend on Paid Ads)
I consider this as a good starting point to test yourself on the quality of your work and the willingness of people to pay a price for it. Having said that, you should at-least reach 50,000 people weekly on your social page (2,00,000 monthly). It doesn’t matter how many people have liked it but what matters is how engaged the people for.
I sell my wildlife photographs through my social media pages and mostly through Facebook (80%) and Instagram (15%). I have a total of around 50,00o people connected on my social media pages but I get a reach of around 2,50,000 to 3,00,000 monthly and a healthy engagement of 25-30% which is really good. You can see the wildlife accounts in the following links: Facebook Wildlife Photography Page | Instagram Wildlife Photography Page
Tip: Work towards engagement of people on your page by (1) posting only quality picture (the best of your work), (2) be engaged by responding back to people, (3) share your experience which may be of help to the visitors and (4) engage the fans by a poll, wildlife question, sharing facts about wildlife, wildlife competition, tips on wildlife photography etc.,1
Organic way of increasing your fan base is the best way to have a good engagement on your page and exit rate will be very less!
But, if you want to see more people in quick time on your page, please go ahead and promote your page through paid Ads. Keep in mind, engagement is the key.
Serpent Eagle Take off from Perch
II. Selling Wildlife Photographs on Online Photography Market Places
Investment $ – Nil (Unless you would like to spend on Paid Ads)
There are hundreds of market places where you can sell your wildlife photographs; I’m going to categorize the wildlife photography marketplaces – you can sell wildlife stock images and wildlife prints. There are two main categories: Micro stock photos and Macro stock photos. Micro stock sites sells picture with a non exclusive rights to multiple customers (buyers) and Macro stock sells pictures with exclusive rights to the buyers.
As a ball park number, each wildlife micro stock photo will earn you around 40 to 60 paise per download and on an average a good image can earn you easily INR 40,000 to INR 60,000 through out it’s life cycle. Wildlife prints and macro stock wildlife photos will sell from a starting fee of around INR 15k and in that the market place fee would vary between 20% to 60% depending on the platform.
Tip: Have an unique style for yourself and only by that you can sell in these platforms. See lot of published images in magazines picked up from these platforms and that would give you an idea as well.
Following sites are the best in the market as on date: 500px, Getty images, Alamy, Shutterstock, SmugMug Pro and iStockPhoto.
Wild Male Tiger at his Habitat
III. Tour Leader in Wildlife Photography Tours
Investment $ – Nil
Another way to enjoy wildlife, teach wildlife photography as well as earn some money is to be a Wildlife Photography tour leader. For this, you have to tie up with a wildlife tour agency who is ready to partner with you. Before you do this, you should have a good name in the Industry; this would be the only value proposition which would motivate an agency to partner with you.
Barn Owl in a Flight
IV. Teach and Coach Wildlife Photography
Investment $ – INR 50K (One time cost) and INR 10K per Wildlife Photography Workshop
You can start teaching wildlife photography to the Beginners. This may need an initial investment on preparing materials and equipment for training. While conducting the workshop, you may spend around INR 500-700 per person for the place and other workshop needs.
Tip: Master the skills of wildlife photography before you share your knowledge and thereby, people would really love to participate on your workshops.
I run workshops in India and you can have a look at what I teach and the content: https://alvislazarus.photography/photography-events/
Jumping Black Buck Fawn
V. Run Wildlife Photography Tours
Investment $ – INR 200K (One time cost for Infra set up)
Wildlife Tour operators easily make a margin of 30% and above. Sounds like an easy go but wildlife photography tours are really crowded with very stiff competition. So you need good contacts and a sound marketing skill (team) to get this going. You can also operate at Premium tours or as Budget tours.
Most Wildlife tours are priced alarmingly high and you can use this as an opportunity to penetrate market by giving a good value proposition to wildlife travellers. Read this article to know about the greedy wildlife tour market: https://alvislazarus.photography/dont-get-cheated-read-planning-trip-sasan-gir/
Tip: Run reliable tours at a Right price and all inclusive deals (Stay, Food, Safari, Rental etc), I’m sure it will be a Winner!
Wild Tiger head on Portrait
VI. Wildlife Photography Exhibitions
Investment $ – INR 200K
This is actually the best way to project your work but there is a callout – make sure your wildlife photography is unique to make the fine art buyers interested in your wildlife photos. You should also need to market your event to get footfalls. The initial effort / investment is high and will give you return only if your wildlife photography is really special. So, I suggest that you should do this only after years of wildlife photography.
Mother Elephant with Calf
VII. Selling through Your Own Website
Investment $ – INR 600K
The risk involved is very high if you are hoping to earn through your website. The initial investment needed to drive traffic is really high. Content is the key (either through your unique photographs or through wildlife photography articles) and it takes a Himalayan effort to get this done. If you have the patience and capital, this route would be a great bet in the longer run.
My Wildlife Photography Website (www.wild.photography) but I use this to share a lot of free wildlife photography related tips and techniques. I do sell wildlife pictures through this but very less compared to my Facebook page.
Vulture on a Perch
VIII. Wildlife Photography Editor | Brand Ambassador | Wildlife Photographer in Nat Geo / BBC
Investment $ – Nil
This is a real Cherry on the cake and every wildlife photographer’s Dream. The Investment may seem Nil but the amount of effort, dedication and perseverance needed to reach this far is so high. So, to reach here you would be doing a mix of all the things explained above and spend as well. In addition, You have to invest at-least a decade on wildlife photography and contribute well to the Wildlife conservation and related activities.
Tip: Be active and Participate in Photography Forums. I suggest two forums which are recognized at International level – National Geographic and BBC Wildlife.
You can see my profile here: http://yourshot.nationalgeographic.com/profile/1169772/
Tiger resting on a waterhole
I’m sure you got a good understanding now. Happy clicking and have an awesome Wildlife Photography journey!
About the Author:
Alvis Lazarus is a Wildlife Photographer from Nazareth. Top Shot Winner 2017 (National Geographic) and Your Photo Winner 2017 (BBC Wildlife). Alvis’s work is published in Nat Geo, BBC Wildlife and Conde Nast Traveller Magazines. See his work here: Instagram | Facebook | Website
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