I am a hobby photographer, but I have often wondered about the viability of a small professional business. There are no stickies offering any market intelligence on the photo business, but I wonder a few things.
Wedding photography is probably best known and the individual can make a decent living doing that, but I am more wondering about what other areas of commercial photography exist and what most of the forum posters here do.
What are viable part-time businesses ventures for amature photographers? By viable I mean that my average hourly wage would not be below McDonalds and that I can supplement my annual income without dedicating all my freetime to running the business. Basically I would like to take the hobby and passion to the next level to at least let it generate enough Net Income to buy more equipment 
I know an ex-photojournalist who was independent. He did photos for Doctors on the Frontier and several magazines, but said he makes more money now working for a company than funding his own trips, buying his own equipment and hoping to sell a few pictures. So it is really viable for a normal Joe to turn his hobby and passion into something more?
