In 1876 he opened a portrait painting business in San Jose with Louis Lussier, continuing solo after Lussier's death in 1882. In 1889, he opened the Hill and Franklin Photography Studio and Art Gallery with J. C. Franklin. When Franklin left a year later, he partnered with his mother-in-law, Laura Broughton Watkins, as the Hill and Watkins Photographers Studio. For three years they were joined by Sidney Yard. In the earthquake of 1906, Hill's studio and the works there were destroyed, as was his painting "The Murphy Party", which hung in the historical room of the California Pioneers Association in San Francisco and depicted the first settlers crossing Sunset Pass. He then turned to absentee management of a goldmine in Calaveras County, with little success, but continued to paint and photograph out of his home.