The beauty of the career path you have chosen or the hobby you are cultivating through a passion you have is that it is wide-spread. Photography is all around the world. It comes in so many different forms.

There are so many niches in the photographic business that there is bound to be one that fits you perfectly. If there isn’t, photography is the kind of profession that will allow you to create your own niche. Finding a type or particular area of photography that fits you, while understanding and knowing that it is a broad and deep pool of business is just one part of seeing photography as a whole.

Traditional Photography

When we think of photography, the traditional niches come to mind first. The order of these will vary person to person, but the standard assumptions are the same. This is prefaced by saying just because these niches are some of the most popular does not mean that they are areas you should steer clear from. These are the most popular for a reason.

  • Wedding & Engagement Photography is a crowd favorite. There will always be a wedding and unfortunately (or fortunately) there are so many divorces that now people are getting married twice. Wedding and Engagement Photography is one of the larger stems of the business. They bring in a lot of money, are very challenging, and are given a lot of social media attention.
  • Senior Portraits are another hugely popular niche. The same ideas apply to senior pictures that do for weddings. Kids will always be going to school and want to get their senior pictures done. There will always be a need for this niche. It also brings in money but is often more challenging simply because you are likely doing many seniors from one school, so creativity is a must in this niche. Geographically, there are always schools around, and you turn people over year after year.
  • Family & Newborn is another popular niche. This is a popular one but can be scattered in the timing. Especially as families get older and kids and members become harder to track down. This is a great niche to add to other niches, like the examples above. These are ideal for someone who lives in a large community or a small community. Families love preserving memories and may be recurring, but families are also a much better way to get the word out about your business. Families talk, and word of mouth works extremely well for this niche.

Non-Traditional

There are a few types of photography that are becoming more popular all the time. These niches are just a bit more challenging to get started in but have found their way into our everyday lives. Whether you know it or not, this is the photography that surrounds all of us. That being said, it’s not popular because we take it for granted. We almost never meet these photographers like we do wedding, engagement, senior or family photographers. With little interaction between large groups of people, these photographers must work even harder within their niche.

  • Business Photography is all around us. Magazines, websites, billboards, commercials and more. Yes, professional photographers have to take these pictures to be able to show you a person or service. This could consist of real estate photography, headshots for businesses, or fashion photographers. They work within a specific business or faction and hustle to grab more and more business clients to photograph and work for. This niche is difficult to break into but will grow quickly after you land a few solid gigs.
  • Travel Photography is becoming more and more popular all the time. This niche encompasses animal, nature, landscape and more. These are the photographers who give us our amazing desktop backgrounds, for starters. They are snagging these incredible pictures that most of the population will see. The photographers taking them, are often the ones that most of the population will never see. They climb, sail, hike, and swim to get some amazing wildlife or nature photographs. You will find these photos in documentaries, magazines and more.

Unique Photography

In photography, there are so many creative people that there are bound to be some areas that are not as popular but are just as captivating. The niches listed above are fantastic niches in themselves. They are thriving and growing all the time. It turns out, there are other, less popular niches, that are also breaking into the mainstream flow of photography businesses.

  • Food Photography is one that comes to mind as more unique than we think. It’s another we take for granted a lot. It could fit into business photography, but it’s very wide-stretching. These people photograph food for commercials, menus, weddings, and restaurants. It’s becoming more and more popular because there are tons of food blogs that are hiring photographers to take amazing photos of the steps and final product of tasty recipes.
  • Military Photography is one that not many people consider as a real niche. These are often combat-trained creatives who want to make an impact that hits, quite literally, close to home. Almost all of us know someone who has served in the military. Whether they just went through training or got deployed and anywhere in between, it affects us all in a way. Some people have no idea that there are war photographers. These people are taken out on missions to gather images for the media. They take snapshots of soldiers, battlefields, and anything else that most citizens will never see in real life.

Creativity Counts

These are just the tip of the niche-iceberg when it comes to groups, categories, or facets of this unusual business of photography. You have one of the most lucrative and impactful career paths at your disposal, and you have so many choices within that career that you are sure to make an impact in this business.

No matter what niche you find yourself in, you are not alone. Unique, Non-traditional, or Traditional niche, it doesn’t matter. There is someone out there just as nervous, excited, and passionate as you waiting for someone else to help them continue the popular niches as well as blaze the trail for the more unique and special niches.