Flip side of Herein2021 -- I've found it difficult to become an expert in that many things, and if you're not an expert, you're going to have trouble building a market in my area. And I avoid wedding work totally. You get only one chance to get it perfect, or you'll have a really unhappy client. Roofing photos for insurance companies is low pay business in my area, with the big companies having their own in-house aerial photographers and lots of entry flyers seeking jobs. And roofing jobs are tedious because of having to fly so close to obstructions (great training though).
Video is whole 'nother beast from photo. Harder to capture good video well, and exponentially harder to edit.
Totally agree with his comment about needing to be both a hand-held ground photographer as well as an aerial photographer to get some types of jobs, e.g., real estate. Real estate is hard to build a market in because most realtors already have a stable of photographers, and they don't like to change.
My main recommendation is to have modest expectations for building a consistent revenue stream. You may have to try lots of markets to discover what's got growth potential in your area. Once you do, you'll likely find it a full-time job building a decent market in that arena. It takes time/energy.
Good luck............... Bob R.
These are great tips, people have no idea how hard it is to break into new markets and make money in those areas. I agree 100% about roof inspections as well, I did one thinking it would be a piece of cake and it turned into a very tedious, hazardous, battery draining project which I did not charge nearly enough for.
I now only offer a few pictures of a specific area of a roof if needed but no longer offer any inspection services. I think to be profitable in that area some sort of automation software would be needed to expediate that workflow from start to finish; and that software would still only work in areas where there are no obstructions around the roof. The inspection that I did had huge trees overhanging the roof in every direction; I quickly scratched that service off of my list.
Weddings are a natural progression from the other types of events that I film, for most if not all of them you only get one chance to get it right so I'm used to that. With those types of projects you need a minimum of two of everything and a backup plan for the backup plan. I don't shoot many weddings though mainly because they simply do not pay enough these days not to mention there is still a pandemic going on and weddings have been downsizing into smaller and smaller venues (ending up with people even closer together and most of them have travelled from out of town for the wedding...what could go wrong) as couples try to maximize what they get with smaller budgets.
Real estate like you said typically does have their own preferred photographers but not for video, my own niche is higher end real estate and commercial properties and mainly video. Real estate photography does not pay enough since agents refuse to pay one penny more than they paid 10yrs ago even though everything has gotten way more expensive
and even though they are making bigger commissions since housing prices have gone up.
Video really is the present and future, so offering both really gets you far more opportunities than either by themselves. Many times I've had clients approach me for video and hire me for photography or vice versa. Of course video is more involved (audio, lighting, camera movement, camera gear, stabilization, editing, delivery, color grading, etc. etc.) but it also pays far more these days than photography. Also in some ways it is actually easier than photography (I can get a shot in 30s for video that would take 10min to set up the lighting for with photography).
Out of all of the projects and different types of clients that I have provided footage for, I would say aerial construction progression photography / video is the easiest and most lucrative. You get to park under a tree somewhere, let the drone do all of the work, and the work itself is pretty simple. In my area the local government requires progression footage for every government funded construction job and the companies pay very well for the service. Yes the work is pretty boring but its also very lucrative. Also there's the companies that want the footage to advertise to their new clients some of their past projects. But of course this only works if you are in an area where a lot of construction is going on and even then the area is saturated with aerial drone photography companies so you will still only get a certain percentage of that work.
