Yeah, it's definitely not the easiest way to make a buck.
Then again, in the digital sci-fi art world, he with the most (software) toys tends to win...
Very hard to compete with the photo-realism that college kids are putting out with their "academic priced" copies of '3DSMAX', 'Softimage XSI', and 'Maya'... especially when everything you are using is freeware.
(I wouldn't even have Photoshop, except someone gave it to me.)
I enjoy both, but photography was always something I wanted to keep as just a hobby. It was chronic illness from a contaminated well which caused me to take it up as a business. I have always dreamed of creating sci-fi artwork for a living, but I think I'm "a day late and a dollar short". (Probably a few thousand dollars short, actually...)

Okicyapo