What’s the point of having a Point and shoot or a DSLR camera?

I’ve been thinking about the state of photography over the past decade. How things have changed in the last 10 years.  I’ve been shooting for stock photography for the past 5 years.  That’s how I make a part of my yearly income.  I’ve noticed over the past three years, while my portfolio on Shutterstock has gone up five fold, income has gone done by at least thirty to forty percent.  I’m still shooting with a Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I shot with a Sony a7II and Canon EOS 6D camera bodies with various professional f2.8 lenses costing thousands of dollars.  The return on investment has not materialized over the past several years.  I don’t shoot weddings, portraits, school kids.  I do mainly landscape and wild life stock photography.  I haven’t printed my photos in about 4 years or so as ink costs about $240.  That’s $240 for 8 cartridges to fit into my printer which lasts maybe 15-20 prints.  I don’t shoot do art shows.  Just shoot for stock.  

I’ve been thinking of getting rid of the Sony RX100 Mark VII and just shooting with the Apple iPhone 8 Plus for now.  I’m probably going to upgrade my phone to the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max in early 2020 when my contract with Freedom Mobile is up.  From what I see, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max is an excellent phone with a fantastic camera setup.  I hardly go to Parc Omega to do wildlife photography as the park no longer offers viable spots to photograph the animals without getting some fencing or glass in the shot.  Particularly,  it’s difficult, if not impossible to photograph the Arctic or Timber wolves as there is either high fencing or glass in between my camera and the animal. 

I’d be crazy to get rid of the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  It’s a very convenient, portable Point and Shoot camera.  I can fit it into the same case as my iPad Pro and not have to worry about braking it or losing it somewhere.  I find the iPhone to be more convenient but the Sony RX100 Mark VII a far more professional camera especially for travel.

I think my next photographic purchase will be a better drone.  I don’t typically fly a drone in the winter since, by the time I get home, it’s pitch black outside.  I’m saving up my photography money for a better drone than the DJI Spark.  I don’t know what kind of drone I’ll get since I have a huge hate on for DJI and the way they treat customers.  Plus, DJI being a Chinese company does not help.  I’d rather support a Canadian or American drone company.

Lousy photo and video sales

12,356 photos on my Shutterstock portfolio and 1 photo sale in 4 day on all my portfolio sites.  Summer vacation for everyone I guess.  I realize it's mid August and everyone is on vacation just before school starts but 1 photo sale in 4 days.  August is just killing me.

Death from above

So I took this picture of the Mississippi in Pakenham, Ontario over the Mississippi River and started a video.  Roughly 5 seconds into said video, I lost any and all contact with my DJI Spark drone.  Most harrowing 30-44 seconds of my week and it's only Monday.  I know it's a beginner drone starting at $499. But to me, that's still a lot of money.  I'm planning to upgrade my drone next year to the DJI Mavic Pro 2 when it comes out.

I am just relieved to have my DJI Spark back safe and sound.  It's actually a lot of fun to operate and it's easy.  I've seen a lot of videos of drones crashing and/or what's called fly aways.  Thankfully I still have my drone.  I'm planning to fly it a lot more and take more pictures and videos with it.

Fort Henry, Ontario - Arial view

Just one of the videos I took over Fort Henry when we were in Kingston, ON over the August long weekend.  The drones are a lot of fun to fly but I fear losing it.  I try and keep it in visual site.  I think next year I will upgrade from the DJI Spark to the DJI Mavic Pro just so I can take better video with the drone.  The DJI Spark takes really good videos but I want something better.

Fort Henry, ON - Canada

So we were in Sandbanks Provincial Park, Ontario yesterday which was fantastic.  Weather was sunny and hot.  And I mean real hot.  We went back today only to find out that the wait to get in was about a two hour wait just to pay to get into the park.  My girlfriend and I decided it wasn't worth the two hour wait as they already closed the big beach there as it reached capacity.  We decided to head to Kingston, ON as my girlfriend has never been to Fort Henry.  

I took the opportunity to fly my DJI Spark.  Take some pictures and some video.  I'm learning on how to fly the drone as it's a bit scary the first few times.  On occasion, I would lose sight of it in the sun.  I keep forgetting to look at my Apple iPhone 8+ to see what I'm actually photography and taping.  I've just finished uploading to my Shutterstock, Pond5 and Videoblocks portfolios.  Hopefully they will be accepted and available for sale soon

On a side not, I got a nickname of Red Lobster because of the sunburn.