From Lens to Screen: How Can You Unleash the Creative Potential of Your Captured Moments?

I had no idea that this post would be so demanding. It sounded too easy and simple when it was only an idea in my mind.

I have been an amateur photographer for more than 5 years and during all this time I have tried too many different options, and done too many things with my photographs. Some of my projects failed, some of them I find to be still useful for me, and there are many more ideas for the future!

I would like you to ask yourself first.

• Why do you photograph now and what are your favorite themes?
• Do you take spontaneous photographs or do you set them up?
• There are many different photography styles, and one photographer usually cannot be perfect in all different styles. As time goes by, we usually find what inspires us the most, and we choose specific photo categories.
• Are you interested in using your photos to grow your brand?
• Would you be interested in donating them? Or do you wish to monetize them without providing anything for free?

In this post, I will try to give you some ideas of how you can use your images, mostly based on my own experience and on observing other photographers.

.1. Selling your photos

This is the most straightforward, ultimate goal.
All photographers try to sell their photos, either on site (i.e. in restaurants, events etc) or online. There are a few options here

(a) You can create your own website where you will include your portfolio and images that are for sale. This means that you will need to pay for doing it professionally, or use free resources and learn how to do it yourself. This can take time, but if you build your brand, got special photos and keep growing your audience, this could create a substantial income.

(b) You can use websites such as shutterstock, 123rf (and others) and upload individual images. You need to know that every website takes a good percentage of every sale you do, so please consider this. Of course, there will be no other expenses from your side, so in a way, you can consider this a type of 'passive income

(c) You can search for platforms such as Picfair, where you can have a lite version free of charge or to pay a monthly fee and sell your images - as well as printed products.
(Note: This is my shop but I have not done any sales here https://www.picfair.com/users/katerinaramm)

(d) There are websites where you can upload your images and sell them in custom products, such as t-shirts, cups, towels etc. (i.e. printify, redbubble etc). They keep all inventory for you, so of course you will only get a small amount for every sale of a product that has your photo on it. Again, you should have many sales to have a decent income.

To succeed in all the above, you need to make a good research in advance and see what is trending, if your style & content would bring something different, new and see what would be the best option for you!

.2. Donating your photos

You may ask:

• Why, why? Why would I donate images that took me so much time to create?
• Well, this is entirely up to you. Nowadays, the internet is full of free images almost on every topic (see websites such as pexels, pixabay, unsplash etc). Why would someone buy a photo, if they can find similar ones free of charge?

What advantages could this have for you?

• If you are a new photographer, you could easily create a new audience and potentially get people to either hire you or to donate through the platform. (Attention, not all platforms with free images offer donation options - I mostly use Pexels, where I receive a few donations per year)
• You can increase your own brand awareness
• You can participate in contests and either win, either contribute for a good cause

(You can see my account here)

.4. Create content with your photos or digital products
There are so many free ways to use your photos and earn money!

• Create any digital product (calendars, templates etc) using your photos and sell them online
• Create e-books with your photos and sell them online
• Create blog posts or poems based on your photos and post them online, to websites where your content can be monetized (there are many, I mainly use hive.blog & medium)
• Create a project, a brand etc and grow it through your photography.

.5. Affiliate Marketing
This is a very complicated solution that needs time to be set up by the creator.
You can use your images to promote products/services and then use affiliate links to specific products. When users click on the links and purchase a product, you will receive a small commission.
This is something that needs more research, and you can use channels like pinterest etc to set it up. I have not tried this out yet, so I cannot express an honest opinion at the moment.

You need to know that especially now, the competition is insane. There are not only abundant (and many many) talented photographers, but AI is here and can create photographs that we could not imagine in our wildest dreams.

If you want to excel, you need to be unique. To think out of the box.

In this digital era, every photo-instance is a potential story waiting to be shared and a memory ready to be preserved.
We live in an era of very powerful technological evolvements, which provide everyone equal opportunities to shine!

My tip to you?
Snap away, experiment with your lens, and let your pixels paint a vivid tapestry of your journey There is absolutely no limit in your creativity and your ideas! 📸✨

I would love to know your thoughts on the above and if I have left something out!
Feel free to find me on Instagram or on Twitter if you have any more questions for me :)

Thank you for your time!