What do people buy?

[Double H]

I want to suppliment my wedding/portrait/seniors business with some fine art photos but I am having a hard time figuring out the "central Texas consumer". Other than portraits of family and friends, what photos/paintings do people put on their walls? I have some great mountain landscapes, seascapes, pellicans, bluebonnets, etc. but people seem to pass them by for "discount store photos" of longhorns, windmills, cowboy boots, and horses.

What sells in your part of the state? Any advice, recommendations, or sympathy would be appreciated.

Randy

[adirty1]

It's a hard market and really depends on who you are going after. If you want to sell fine art at fine art prices you have to sell at the right places. Best to get picked up by a Gallery. Then your looking at 50 percent cut to the gallery. A gallery will only show what it knows it can sell. Like in Austin. I can have abstracts that sell great on the North Side but if I try to sell them on North West side or South forget about it.

A friend of mine just started selling postcards and Notecards of local Austin buildings and venues to small local shops and is doing well. If you can find a local shop that will carry your images and you are fine at selling the images for 25-50 range you would be surprised at how fast things move. Just remember it's hard to sell those same images for more when you are selling them cheap at other stores. The words limited edition seem to help move images more. I just hate keeping count.

Hand colored images are selling well from what I have seen and heard. That and old wet work images. People are looking for true b/w images again and Alt processes. The key as it has alway been to give the public something that others are not. Thus the return to real b/w and hand coloring. Not everyone can do it and that makes it special.

[CobyPhoto]

Originally Posted by adirty1

People are looking for true b/w images again and Alt processes. The key as it has alway been to give the public something that others are not. Thus the return to real b/w and hand coloring. Not everyone can do it and that makes it special.

I have a couple of opinons for you, though one you may no like to hear. (Not you Adam.)

I offer Silver Based B & W as a add on to my wedding packages...$850.00 for 4 rolls of 120. That gets them the proofs and nothing more. Prints are extra.

If you aren't making the income you think you need to make a living at this, take a look at your print prices. I think you should re-work that first in order to provide yourself with more income. Your prices are way below the average studio in this business.

Don't base your print prices on what it costs you to print an 8x10 and nothing else. Add up all those overhead costs, equipment etc. that you list on your site as being expensive and price your prints accordingly.

You don't hesitate to pay your plumber $250.00 for a job that the parts only cost $25.00 for. Why should the photogrqaphic industry be any different?

CJ

[Outlaw]

Just a thought, perhaps ask the venues that are selling the art what is moving well. Tastes can be as localized as the place they are sold in. I have a friend whose self-portraiture (very alt, dark, and moody) hangs and is sold in the only "coffee shop" in town, while across the street at the River Cafe, you won't find anything but black and white portraits of longhorns, windmills, and barns.

[adirty1]

very true. it all depends on the client.