I recently had the opportunity to photograph two different genres outside of my comfort zone, a baseball game and bicycle parts. I certainly don’t believe these to be a part of my regular shooting style since I consider myself to be a landscape, travel and wildlife photographer. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed taking a chance and seeing what I was capable of with these new assignments.

I have a problem though, I really enjoy shooting all kinds of different things. Is that an issue for a photographer? It sure can be when I try to market my professional work and it covers so many genres. I struggle to niche down to just one or a few areas to sell. You can’t shoot a little bit of everything and still be a professional, right? Most people would say no, but I’m not so sure. On my journey into making photography my life, I find myself struggling over and over again with “what’s my photography genre and do I really need one?” Should I have a particular subject type that I am known to photograph and if I don’t will I get lost among all the other photographers out there?

From research I have done on this topic, I have come to believe that having a niche as a photographer is important for promoting your work. If you want to monetize photography then it helps to be known as a specialist in a certain genre of work. A hobbyist has the luxury of shooting all the things they enjoy and have a great time doing it. As a professional be sure to narrow down your niche to something that you love, not just because it will sell. If that’s the case, then you may find yourself not enjoying your work in a year or two. If you really can’t narrow it down, then start researching different avenues to sell your work. You are able to have multiple niches if you are using them in different ways.

To solve my problem I have started to stretch myself beyond fine art photography to find uses for the large variety of images that I like to create. There are a number of markets that if you are willing to put in the time and effort may be worth your while. Over the past couple of years I have been putting images on stock photography websites https://stock.adobe.com/contributor/209346323/Carrie. While these may not be big income sources, it has given me a place to market photos that I hope others can use. I supply a large variety of images to https://rvlife.com/magazine and have also started to write for www.rvdestinationsmagazine.com as a travel photographer. While writing isn’t my strong suit, I was willing to put myself out there and give it a try so that I could share pictures of the awesome places I travel to.

So I return to the question I started with, “What’s my photography genre and do I really need one? I know that I can’t stop shooting what I love, which happens to be almost everything. I will continue to photograph different subjects that push my creative mind knowing that I can find different outlets for my work. I will always be a fine art photographer first, but am thrilled to have found other ways to use my photos. I am happy with my working plan for now and can’t wait to see what the future brings.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Please post comments below.