The Future May Be The Commercial Nature Photographer

Most nature photographers shoot landscape and nature photography for the peace, solitude, and personal experience that comes with it. Most shoot for that joy with no ambitions to be in business.

Others seek a full time creative career and feel that if they can shoot, license lots of images and make a living at it, then they’re set.  However, nature photographers today are challenged to make enough sales that provide a living wage.

While the economy sucks in all areas of photography, wedding, advertising, and commercial photographers can historically earn thousands of dollars per day while the nature photographer might be challenged to make that in a month. The real question is can or will the markets continue to support nature photography as a viable profession?

I wonder this myself as I continually evaluate my business and the future. From the time I seriously picked up a camera 35 years ago, I intended to be a full time landscape, nature, and adventure recreation photographer. During my career my nature image library sold well in advertising and publishing markets, but it was never quite enough by itself. 

Lower Antelope Cyn

Despite my passion for photographing the wilds there is one thing for certain: my training at Brooks Institute of Photography (commercial photography) has kept me in business for 30 years! It was the good money from commercial assignments that funded many of my adventures shooting all 50 of the American States and National Park system. It paid for adventures like rafting the Grand Canyon 3 times, taking models on multi-day stock photo production shoots, and trading with adventure outfitters for free trips. And it’s that commercial training and outdoor portfolio that led to assignments for outdoor product companies and nature related photography assignments.

But times have changed! Once upon a time, adventure photographers counted on editorial assignments and commercial stock sales of their extreme sports imagery to pay for their adventure travel lifestyle. The world was hungry for extreme and daring images from far away places. Climbing Mt. Everest was only for the best of the best alpinists. Today, the mountain is far more accessible with numerous guide services willing to take almost anyone up for the right price. And now that adventure imagery is pretty common like most outdoor and nature photo subjects.

To stay in business, some adventure photographers have moved into new markets like adventure travel apparel and product photography, video production, and humanitarian work, but those markets have become tight as well.

Certainly, across the board, much of this is a natural evolution as markets change and photographers grow into new areas of interest and try to stay ahead of market demands. But I cannot help but wonder, like some of you, where the future is going.

Oregon's Santiam River

Can the exclusive nature and landscape photographer eke out a living shooting nothing but nature? I am not sure but with the drop in publishing and competition from low priced stock images, many photographers are moving into other areas. Many now teach workshops and self publish e-products as new ways to bring in business.

Other still photographers are moving into video to test those markets. Has the demand for video exploded due to the new HD dSLR video cameras? I don’t think so but in a chat last week with one of my stock agents, he mentioned that still image demand will continue to drop while video demand will slowly increase. So if his predictions are correct then that is a glimmer of good news.

I think one thing is true and that is it will never be as it once was and everyone knows it. Stock image sales will in my opinion never return to the glory days and assignments for the nature photographer, already elusive, will be even fewer. My career and the methods that made it successful is a thing of the past. It’s the old way.

Reading the crystal ball

So what does the future hold for those nature photographers who wish to be in this business no matter what? How can they adapt? Will the future be kind to the photographer who shoots nothing but stills? Well photography isn’t dead or dying but the old ways are. Images are used more than ever in the history of photography, but the markets and ways to earn income have changed.

If I was asked advice, and I am from time to time, I always recommend that aspiring nature photographers become Commercial Nature Photographers. I define that as the photographer whose focus is on nature photography but who has also developed a broader set of skills such as mastering strobe lighting and expanding into video production.  The reasoning is simple as the more you can offer clients the more business you will have.

If you are already competing as a professional you may have already experienced the client who has looked at your fabulous nature photography and asked if you can also shoot commercial subjects. As an example, this happened to me years ago when a graphic designer looking for nature subjects to grace the pages of a brochure for a golf community, (designed with ‘green’ in mind), called looking for the local mountains and rivers and deer and other wildlife images. When that was done, they asked me to shoot golfers and the model homes. At the time the going photography rate was $1200 per day and was a nice addition to the stock sale.

It seems the future may be brighter for the ‘New Media’ photographer-videographer-multi media designer. They can still specialize in the natural world while offering more income producing options to clients. With print media racing to digital the evolution and demand for creative visual storytellers will follow.

And in another example, if you would prefer a staff photography job, look at the U.S. Government job listings at www.usajobs.com. My search today for Photographer showed 2 listings while the title Visual Information Specialist (an imaging jack-of-all-trades) was in much higher demand with postings mixed across 40 web pages.

Best Business Practices

So the point is not about what to do with your passion, it’s whether or not the markets support your passion to create beautiful imagery and earn a viable income from it. If you are contemplating your future and how you will compete, consider the concept of the Commercial Nature Photographer and the increased opportunities that may bring.

Like any profession, there is always a need to improve skills and there are plenty educational options available online from studio and location lighting classes, to multi-media design, and video production.

The future is here today, zipping by, and the photographer planning and adjusting for the new markets will have increased earning opportunities.

We would love to hear what your crystal ball is telling you about the future for nature photographers, please leave a comment.

Related posts: Are We at The Beginning of the End of The Photography Recession? Outdoor and Nature Photography is a Business. Consider Looking at Yours.