I Wanna be a Sellout

[HillPhotos2009]

Well, not a sellout - but I want to sell some pictures. Wth is up with that?

[KenJulio]

A bit more details needed as to what you want to do and what you currently have. For instance, if you're using Smugmug, they have a couple of options for printers. If you're wanting to do local, you can go the everyday option of walmart, sam's, walgreens, cvs options. Higher quality prints or custom prints, there are miller's lab aka mpix, and the like.

[HillPhotos2009]

I have three labs I'm comfortable with. I trust their quality and they've got great products to print on. I want to show in a gallery but I just don't know about it. I'm afraid of spending a couple hundred bucks on printing, framing, and a gallery spot and selling nothing.

I don't want to put them on some random website where someone may or may not even look at them. I put a lot of creative energy into my photos from shooting to post-processing and the ones that I let be finished, I love.

I'm not a starving artist - I'm a stay at home mom. So its not like I have to have my pictures sell. But I at least want them looked at and enjoyed and hanging in someone's den.

[Tom]

Showing in a gallery is great for stroking your ego and for brag rights, but you probably aren't going to sell anything, or near enough to recoup your costs.

How to sell all depends on what type of photography stock you have. I am going to sell portraits completely differently than I am going to sell landscapes.

If you want to make money, portraits are by far the best way to go.

If you want to have fun, find what suits you.

[HillPhotos2009]

Thanks Tom. I think I just had an idea. I do portraits for people and enjoy it, but it doesn't get the adrenaline flowing. I'm the goober that stands at the lake in the black of night getting 30s exposures of the clouds and moon the shouting "FREAKING A THAT'S COOL." I like to shoot cool stuff. Silhouettes of band members at the football game, the multi colored evening sky, bugs and flowers, horses with babies - crap like that.

My idea: at the first of every month out town hosts "Market Days" which is on the front lawn of the court house and vendors can buy a tent spot for $100.00 for the weekend. I can take foam board prints of some of my favorites and large frame prints of some others and sell them as "make an offer" prints. I think I'd be able to make back at least the tent space and I'd get to experience first hand the reactions people have to my photos so I can tell if they're as nice to look at as they are fun to shoot.

[Redneck]

Have you considered submitting them to stock agencies? I have just licensed a cowboy image for $140.

[HillPhotos2009]

Dang. No. But your stock photos are freaking awesome. My shots don't come close to your level.

[Redneck]

Aw thanks, Stephanie. But seriously shooting stock is not as hard as you might think. Normal people doing every day things is what sells these days. You can start within your family or among your friends. You just need to be aware that your images have to be of the highest possible technical quality.

[jeeper]

Originally Posted by Redneck

I have just licensed a cowboy image for $140.

Where do you sell stock? The microstock sites are not worth the time, IMO.

I have some stuff on Dreamstime, and I can make more by going to my day job for one day than I can make there in a year...

[Redneck]

I picked a couple of agencies like Inmagine, AGE Fotostock and Alamy.

[Howard Barlow]

Originally Posted by HillPhotos2009

...sell them as "make an offer" prints...

Stephanie, let me say as politely as I can, that is probably the worst idea you could ever come up with. There are several problems here. First, you will get your feelings crushed and you will get really ...well...mad, at the offers you get. Saying 'make offer' tells the public you do not see value in your work. Neither will they. It will look like you are just hoping someone will throw a couple bucks in your tin cup.

As well, should you decide to get serious about a photography business, you will have established your value to the public.

In short, that would be a monumental mistake.

Not that I have an opinion one way or the other.

[HillPhotos2009]

Lol. Thanks Howard - you've got a great point. Thats why I'm greatful for open forums - this way I can plot and scheme without publicly making an ass of myself!

[Flores]

Ten Quotes to Run Your Business By

good nuggets there...