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Is Photography an Expensive Hobby?

Photography can be an expensive hobby.

However, it can also be done on virtually any budget – as low as just a couple hundred dollars to purchase a starter camera and lens kit.

Where photography becomes expensive is when you start to grow in your abilities and outgrow the gear you are using. Where we’ve come to spend a lot of our own money on photography equipment is through upgrading over time to better-and-better gear.

In practice, this is really like any hobby out there. There are almost always price tiers that go along with skill level, technical requirements, and equipment quality too for most hobbies. Normally, it will look like this:

Beginner gear.

Up to $500 for a full camera setup.

These are low priced items that are meant to be an introduction to the craft. These days, we’re talking a couple hundred bucks at most to get a good DSLR camera. You could also get a really affordable point-and-shoot camera as well.

With this type of gear, you can get a feel for whether photography is something you really want to do long term.

Example: The Canon EOS Rebel T6 camera.

Intermediate gear.

Up to $2,000 for a full camera setup.

The next step up, these are respectable products that cost more money, but still aren’t so expensive to be out of reach for most people with a little saving. Some of these products just make things easier, while other things (like upgrading a camera body and lens) will bring with it better quality almost instantly.

Example: The Canon 7D Mark II camera.

Professional gear.

$4,000+ for a full camera setup.

The last step is the pro level tier. These are the pieces of equipment that are undeniably expensive and have the purpose of being used by professional photographers or people who really want the best quality and performance possible. Hobbyists with more money to spend and (usually) a lot of experience with photography equipment will want to get these pieces.

Examples: The Canon 5D Mark III and Mark IV camera bodies. We also highlight more of the equipment we use on our Resources page – mostly items that would fit into the Pro/Intermediate budget range.

Looking at the photography hobby in this tiered way, it is only as expensive as you want it to be.

But is it worth the cost?

business money pink coinsUnless you are looking for a totally free hobby to experiment with, photography does not have too high of a barrier to entry. Whether you start off with a cheap DSLR, your smart phone, or a more expensive camera – the end result is really the same.

Photography is a science and art that is easy enough to pick up.

Taking pictures is easy.

But, as you learn the ropes, you will come to find that there is a lot of room for improvement.

Being able to play with light – and better yet – predict it – will be one of the things that you can really come to love from this hobby.

In our experience, photography has been a life changing thing for us. We grew up together – from a young age going out and taking simple photos while we were at a local park or even in our backyards. Now, as we both are nearing 30 years old, we’ve managed to turn our hobby into a career where we take photographs for people.

In all this time, we still love photography. We love the simplicity of it, and how it can be used to convey emotions that are hard to relay with words. Photography has been a fuel for us to get out and explore the world, meet new people, and so on.

So if you want a blunt opinion, it’s this: photography is a great and worthwhile hobby accessible to virtually anyone.

How to Get Started with Photography?

pexels photo 408518If you’re questioning whether or not to pick up photography as a hobby, let us tell you – now is a great time to get into it!

So…how do you do it?

In just a couple easy steps we will show you how to get started in photography the easy way!

1). Get a camera

The first step is (probably obviously) – just get a camera.

As we’ve already covered, photography as a hobby is as cheap or expensive as you want it to be – so just find something well reviewed in a price range you are comfortable with.

In truth, you can even start with experimenting with your cell phone’s built in camera. We have iPhone 6’s – and the quality is actually quite good especially considering we already have them. If this is a route you’d want to go for now, you might want to consider getting a super cheap phone camera accessory pack like the Godefa Cell Phone Camera Lens & Tripod kit to give yourself a little more flexibility.

Whatever you decide to use – get ready for the fun stuff now!!

2). Educate yourself

All right, so you could start by just going out and taking pictures (and by all means if that’s what you want to do, go for it!), but the best way to get into photography is to have a little sense of what you are doing.

Fortunately, this is really easy to do!

There is a virtually unlimited amount of educational content on photography available for beginners. Reading articles, watching Youtube videos, and checking out books and online courses is how we pieced together our skills. This foundational knowledge will make practicing photography much better.

Some great resources we can suggest include the following (we’ve sorted them by free and paid options for your convenience):

Free photography education resources:

We’ve put together a lot of great guides on our website to help educate new photographers. A few really useful ones to start with:

Another great resource is this video:

Paid photography education resources:

You can get a whole lot of starting points with just the free resources.

Paid options like books and courses are great to build on this because they tend to be more comprehensive and provide more detailed examples. A few that we have used and really benefited from in the past include:

Books:

By design, these books are made for beginners, but there are applications in each no matter the skill level. For example, Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs remains one of our favorite books on photography because it offers up bite sized pieces of information about taking pictures paired with a mindset that is critically important. Photography in practice begins with a technical understanding of how to use your camera, but never really ends as you explore things like…why do you take the pictures you do? And…how can I make this composition better to evoke more emotions?

Courses:

The courses we recommend are provided through Digital Photography School. These are excellent starting points to get exposed to photography in a more formalized way – without paying the premium to actually go take a college class on it.

We view these classes to be the equivalent of photography 101 courses in school. They will cover all of the basic knowledge and get you comfortable to start shooting. The courses are broken down into modules for easy learning, and come paired with videos that really get into excellent detail.

3). Practice

Now that you have the equipment and a basic level of knowledge on how to take a photograph, you’re ready to get out there!

In our experience, photography is really a low stress hobby. Sure, you can make it complicated or a career (like we do in wedding photography), and then it gets pretty challenging at times – but just starting out as a hobby you are doing for FUN – your practice should come paired with a lot of joy and smiling.

The best way to practice is to pick a subject matter that appeals to you.

Do you really like landscapes and nature? Go take a picture of some mountains and flowers!

Do you like portraits of people? Meet up with a friend and take their picture!

Do you want to make some crazy and abstract photo art? Then just do it!

In this post, we covered how photography is a hobby that can be as expensive or cheap as you want it to be.

Whether you’re just shooting with your phone, a point-and-shoot camera, a starter DSLR camera, or a pro level camera – you can get into photography easily. The real fun comes in exploring it as an art form – a way to express yourself. As we’ve come to experience, you can use photography as a deeply personal thing, or use it to connect with other people who share similar interests.

So…what do you say? Are you going to take up photography as a hobby?

Chris Romans

Chris Romans is a photographer, educator, and the creator of Formed From Light, a resource for photographers who want to build stronger creative skills, better business systems, and more sustainable photography businesses. With over 10 years of professional experience as a wedding and portrait photographer, Chris brings a practical, real-world perspective to topics like client communication, photography workflows, business strategy, gear, editing, and creative development. He also co-owns Hand and Arrow Photography with his wife, Jes, where they have photographed hundreds of weddings, elopements, and portrait sessions throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and beyond.

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