You actually made money doing photography? I do some hobby-grade DSLR photography and have toyed with the idea of trying to sell some prints (at fairs etc), or trying to do it more seriously in retirement. But it seems difficult to pointless. Theres always somebody who's doing it better or cheaper. And since people have no appreciation of image quality most people are ok with phone shots of their kids/dogs these days, probably soon weddings as well.
Who would pay you? I ran into a pet photography lady at Petco one time, didn't seem like she was making a lot..
In general this is a problem I have thinking of a side business; there's bound to be someone doing it better or cheaper, or people can do it themselves. So why bother? How do you get people to pay you?
Find a niche, and do it better than the next person. I wouldn't bother selling prints at fairs etc, but I've entered a few photography competitions and have won a bit of money and overseas holidays. Mostly I found in my city Pet Photography worked really well.
We have a city full of public servants with high disposable income (usually dual). After a while I realised that my niche market was professional women (35-60) without children who had pets.
I started off cheap, just to build my portfolio and to get my images out there. After a while word of mouth spread and I had a regular supply of new customers and slowly increased my prices to pretty decent levels. I started selling 'packages' because the perceived value to the client was higher and I got more money per customer. I slowly worked out what this niche market appreciated from the experience and added canvas prints, photo books etc etc.
After a while, a few of my customers got married, so I photographed their weddings. Then they had children, so I started on kids photography. I really just took the business where the work led me and where I enjoyed what I was doing and it all seemed rather effortless. I guess that's what they mean by following your bliss.
Anyway, I closed down the business to move overseas, but it might be something I do as a side-gig after retirement. At the moment I'm considering putting together a photobook of my images from India. It's something I've always wanted to do, and they are truly my favourite images to date.