Looking through the viewfinder, you can see your subject framed nicely and press the button. Wow, instant classic photograph...If only it was that easy.

Most people today have access to a digital camera. The majority would be point and shoot cameras although an increasing proportion are semi professional camera kits, an SLR body with a lens or two. A lucky few have full professional setups even though they don't make a living out of photography, more a hobby.

I'm sure we can all imagine ourselves as a photographer spending our days capturing the perfect shot. Picture yourself on an African safari commissioned to take amazing photos of wild elephants and lions. Picture yourself trekking through the mountains in New Zealand to get a perfect snap of Milford Sound as the light dances across the mirror like water. Picture yourself walking the streets of Mississippi looking for the most character filled old person to take a portrait of.

The reality is that very few people can make a decent living out of photography, it is a tough industry and takes a lot of training, skill, effort, costly equipment, knock-backs etc before it starts to make financial sense. So for the majority of us it will remain a hobby.

There are endless websites out in cyberspace where photographers can showcase their work to whoever is interested in looking. There are endless photoblogs dedicated to showing off a persons skills. There are endless forums where photographers can post their work for peer comment and post their views on all things photography. Some of these sites even run in house competitions however the prizes on offer are usually small compared to the number of people entering. In all fairness the main focus of such sites is critiquing each others work and getting photographs off hard drives and into the public arena. It's a bit like the old saying "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Is a photo a great photo if nobody ever sees it?

One option for making decent money out of your hobby is to enter competitions and pit yourself against your peers.

There are a number of dedicated competition websites available. It can be very exciting to enter your photographs into a competition, even if you know deep down that you're not up to scratch with the other entrants, there's always the allure of the chance you might strike it lucky, your photo may strike a chord with the judges. Some photographers see competitions as a lottery based on chance and wonder why they should bother entering. The fact is though that if you win you're earning your money with talent and skill. If you don't win at least you are having a go and you can learn and grow from the experience. Some of the competition websites available have cash prizes – either fixed or variable according to how many entrants there are, some have equipment prizes such as cameras, bags, tripods, vouchers etc. To pay for these prizes a competition organiser may charge a nominal entry fee or may obtain sponsorship from other companies in exchange for advertising. Either way, competitions can be an exciting and fun way of making tax free money out of your passion for photography and can provide the incentive to pursue that very special shot in a world filled with disappointment and knock-backs.

Making money from competitions is not a sure thing, but as they say "If you're not in it you can't win it."