somehow I have been able to sell a lot of prints without ever owning a calibrator.
Most people cannot tell if the colors are correct or not; they just want a shot of their kid in action. You could probably take a used Rebel and an old 70-300mm low end lens and sell prints to parents, so long as you are there when it's happening and cash in on momentum/impulse buying.
I'm kind of just reenforcing points other people have already made, but my sport of choice is roller derby and I work with one team as their league photographer. The league treasurer pays me a flat fee per game, and I deliver all the images to them. This goes back to what kikoprice said, the individual skaters aren't paying me out of their own pockets. To them, the photos are 'free.'
I also occasionally shoot different teams in the area on spec and put them on smugmug for sale individually. My individual photo sales for the entire year were less than I get paid for a single game with the first team. I even had one person email me asking for free photos, I suggested she could purchase downloads, and she replied with "they're photos of me, I'm certainly not going to pay for pictures of MYSELF."
I'd say spend a while just shooting more and post things here for feedback.
Comments
An "accurate" reproduction of a scene and a good photograph are often two different things.
Most people cannot tell if the colors are correct or not; they just want a shot of their kid in action. You could probably take a used Rebel and an old 70-300mm low end lens and sell prints to parents, so long as you are there when it's happening and cash in on momentum/impulse buying.
I also occasionally shoot different teams in the area on spec and put them on smugmug for sale individually. My individual photo sales for the entire year were less than I get paid for a single game with the first team. I even had one person email me asking for free photos, I suggested she could purchase downloads, and she replied with "they're photos of me, I'm certainly not going to pay for pictures of MYSELF."
I'd say spend a while just shooting more and post things here for feedback.