Photography jobs? Employment as a full-time photographer? Is that a possibility? Have all of your questions about photography and the jobs in the service industry answered. Photography has evolved to be an inevitable part of all of our lives, for the foreseeable future.

But your next good question might be, if everyone holds a camera in their phones, how is the job of a professional photographer relevant? Well, good question. The answer is just as equally good. There are places and spaces where the rarity of a professional photographer with a proper skill set is inevitable. Here are 9 career paths laid out for a photographer with a professional certification.

1. Portrait Photographer – We know this person. The profession is such a staple in our communities. We go here to get our photos printed. We go to them for all sorts of occasions, from weddings to school photos, portrait photographers are on site with their equipment to capture the moment. They may operate out of their own studios as well as working on location.

2. Commercial Photographer – The most lucrative and trending career paths that pay the bucks the field promises. Commercial photography encompasses a whole wide range of photography careers that specialize in helping clients market their products or services to become a brand photographer. Commercial photographers take pictures of everything from merchandising to products or services, for media such as catalogues, advertisements and websites.

3. Scientific photographer – They document a variety of subjects in order to record experiments, illustrate technical information and bring to life images not normally visible to the eye. As a very recent trend caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the scientific photographers are much needed for educational websites and smart class rooms that require the same skill set to be employed for the benefit of high-schoolers.

In the pre-pandemic days, the skill set and talents of scientific photographers were often used for the benefit of government agencies, research facilities or universities. They often use special imaging techniques and equipment such as micrography, infrared photography, underwater photography and many more.

4. Photojournalists – They document people and events for newspapers, magazines and other publications. Whether they use only images to tell their stories or whether they also accompany them with words, photojournalists must be skilled storytellers. Press or news photographers usually work for newspapers either on staff or as freelancers, and cover local or national events such as sports and politics.

5. Fashion Photographer – Fashion photographers work in the fashion industry and focus their skills specifically on styles of clothing and personal image. They take and produce pictures of people, places, and objects by using a variety of cameras, photographic equipment, computers and image editing software.

6. Wildlife Photographer – It is an umbrella term for anything that involves nature. But, to be put in simple terms the term wildlife photography mostly refers to all the breath-taking images of animals and plants you keep seeing in the National Geographic magazine or the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition exhibitions.

7. Travel Photographer – A Travel Photographer’s job is to travel to places and photograph them in new and unusual ways. Although you might be commissioned to take photos by publications such as conde-nast traveller or NatGeo, in which case you’ll probably be sent on an all-expenses paid work trip, you typically travel on your own dime to take these photographs, then reimburse yourself later.

8. Stock image photographer – Macrostock photography, also known as “traditional stock photography” refers to agencies that sell high-priced and exclusive images. These agencies license the individual images directly to the client and sell the images. The photographer then gets royalties. Stock photo agencies are companies that compile, verify and curate large catalogs of stock photographs, issuing and managing licenses for them, and splitting the profit with the photographers.

Freelance Photographer – The entrepreneurial career path that everyone craves, in case of a photographer it is almost a norm after a few years of experience in your belt. The opportunities for freelance photography careers in just about any industry, from news photography to event photography. Though it can be challenging to establish yourself in the business, networking is the key to unlocking that particular door.