Does anyone make some cash doing photography alongside their day job?
How do you get ‘into’ this racket? How do you get started/make yourself known to those who will pay for photographs etc…
It seems like if I can make a bit of money off it I might do it more and so get better at it (and make more money as a result).
I realize it might not be as ‘simple’ as that but I’d still like to know… And don’t worry, unless you’re in the Isle of Man I won’t be invading your turf! 
One of my co-workers does. He does weddings and parties mostly. He doesn’t make a ton of money but does get to write off most of his camera and equipment habit.
He started by doing a couple of events for free, put up a web site with some of his work and little by little word of mouth gets him business.
I used to do weddings years back when Studebakers and Dinosaurs roamed the Earth. A friend and I didn’t make too much money, but we enabled folks who couldn’t afford a lot of money have some nice photographs of their wedding. We’d make maybe $150 profit on an average job. Most jobs were obtained from relatives and friends of folks we’d already done jobs for.
I used to have an eBay store, from which I sold prints of my photography, mostly from travels. All of my photos were edited in Photoshop, often with special effects way beyond what could be done with a camera.
Then eBay raised their rates and put me out of business. I’m currently developing my own site.
panache45, do you do the prints yourself and send them out, or sell the images to download, or do you go through someplace like CafePress? (Why yes, I have considered doing some thing like this myself. Why do you ask? :D)
I do the prints myself; that’s the only way I can control the images, especially colors. And all of mine are 11x17.
You mean you actually print them, or you have them printed by a local shop? I can’t see putting in a dark room, especially since my only experience with developing film was over 20 years ago and only with black & white.
And while I am being nosy, do you ship them flat? Do you matte and frame or offer the option? I can see why you would have a standard size, it would make it much easier to deal with everything. Unfortunately, one of my best shots is 36x8. Not really a standard size.
My sister used to make her living photographing weddings but she ended up getting out of it. The growth of digital photography was eating up the profits.
I do the occasional wedding or other event on the side. It’s not the most profitable thing in the world and I don’t do it that often, but I’ll usually at least cover my expenses and make a bit of extra cash. I’m really not at the level where I feel like I can charge people anything remotely in the range of the serious true professional portrait and wedding photographers in my area, but that makes me an option for those on a limited budget who are willing to accept something a bit less than that sort of absolute perfection and professional services.
I can’t really offer a lot of advice as far as making contacts other than to just let it be known that you’re available through advertising or such. My day job is as a reporter and photographer for a small local daily newspaper, so most often I get connections from people who know what I do for a living and have heard by word of mouth that I’m willing to do a small job on the side.
I used to take the pictures in the real estate multiple listing services way back in college. I spent every Saturday morning doing them & took in about $400 each week for the work. (Great for a college kid). I am pretty sure the agents do all that themselves now with digital.
I may not be a good example. I am a professional newspaper editor, but I used to be a relatively highly regarded photojournalist. If someone (usually magazines sometimes news chains, occasionally photo agencies) needs me to shoot something and I have some free time, I will do it. It brings in some good cash and it can be a nice paid vacation. It does not hurt that I live in a pretty isolated area and there are not many known photographers out here.
I will not do weddings. I hate dealing with the whole hassle that entails.