Sell your work

[jkshyt]

I pose a question.
How many photographers on here are selling their landscape prints?
I've seen some exceptionally brilliant images and wonder if the creators are bringing in revenue from their work.
Thanks in advance.

[xpatUSA]

I pose a question.
How many photographers on here are selling their landscape prints?
I've seen some exceptionally brilliant images and wonder if the creators are bringing in revenue from their work.
Thanks in advance.

A great silence has followed the question, Jack.

For me at 81 yrs old, the whole process of selling is too boring and my stuff is not good enough anyhow.

So, count me out ...

[pschlute]

So, count me out ...

Me too

I once had a book publisher approach me. They were doing a new edition of "War of the Worlds" and had seen an image of mine on Flickr which they wanted to use. It came to nothing in the end.

[mugge]

I am 74 years old and no one has approached me for the use of my photos. Oh dear!

I enjoy photography and that is that.

Be happy!
cheers Ole

[Manfred M]

I have sold one piece and the buyer saw an image here on CiC. It was sold to a well known, California USA based, high tech company. I did not have any interest in selling and I gave them a price I felt was ridiculous and they still bought it. It was an urban landscape.

I will be putting two pieces up for sale at a show at a major local gallery when they go on show next week. These are also urban landscapes.

[DanK]

I've sold 5 in total, only one of which, if I recall, was a landscape. All were sold via a gallery that had my work for about a year and a half. They politely tossed me out because of insufficient sales. None of the photos I've displayed in other places have sold, even when I have explicitly listed them as for sale.

When I started on my first book a long time ago, my very experienced editor said to me: "There are two reasons to write a book: love and money. Your reason had better be love." I think this applies to photography as well, particularly in the digital age.

Some years ago, when digital was just taking over, I bought a beautiful print from a landscape photographer in the Adirondacks. When I asked him about other work, he said that he had decided to give up photography as a business. He said that with digital, everyone thinks they are a photographer. In my opinion, this problem is even worse with landscapes than with other genres of photography. Just look on the web, and you'll see an endless supply of mediocre (or worse) landscapes with exaggerated saturation.

I put prints up for sale mostly because I enjoy it when other people want them. It also gives me more reason to print, which I enjoy. My partial solution to this is that I give prints away.

[Donald]

I sell if someone wants to buy, I'll sell. In other words, I don't go out there and market myself or my images. I have exhibited at some local exhibitions, not with a view to selling, but if someone wants a print, then fine. And I have sold a couple as a result of them being seen on my website.

[Geoff F]

Some of my wildlife images are attached to recording data which I submit to recording schemes like I Record with an automatic note saying that they can be used if I am credited. From time to time I see them popping up in identification keys and other wildlife publications. Also on the websites of a few wildlife conservation bodies.

Today, I have been sorting out suitable images to use in the next local history society calendar.

So, some people are willing to accept my photos as freebies but actually selling them is a different matter. A few years ago, the national Natural England organisation used one in two national newspapers; but that was another donation.

Some years ago, a friend had a small cafe so I lent him a few framed photos for his walls and they had a price tag attached. If he sold one I got the money and let him have another image. I also did some postcard sized prints (A4 folded to A5) inside a cellophane cover plus an envelope. Some of them also sold but the returns never really covered my time.

Nowadays, I can't really be bothered with all the hassle of making prints for sale. Recently, I gave a friend some prints of him fishing for scallops (images are in my Project 52 thread) and he gave my half a dozen scallops in return.

[DanK]

One other thought: The real marginal financial cost is frames. It's quite cheap to display prints in plastic. The problem with frames is that what you use might not be what the viewer wants, making the large additional cost a negative. The problem with not using frames is that the prints aren't as striking.

The gallery I was in had a 50-50 consignment arrangement: we each got 50% of every sale. That meant that I had to double my framing costs merely to cover them when selling framed prints. I buy framing materials from Frame Destination online, which has very good prices, but even with that, and with sticking with simple metal frames and 4 ply matte, materials for framing made the prints very expensive.

[Martin A]

In the mid-80s and into the 90s I did a lot of festival and event photography. Things such as hot-air balloon festivals, music festivals, custom auto and motorcycle shows, drag boat racing, and air shows. I sold quite a number of images (and supporting articles occasionally) to specialty and enthusiast publications. Never made a dime I suspect! I had more time and costs wrapped up than the small payment received for the images. But I loved seeing my photos in print, and also the experience of attending these great events. And now I am beginning to go through all the transparencies and negatives with an eye toward digitizing the best and possibly printing some of those.

[jkshyt]

The reason I asked the question is since I've retired and taken up photography as a full time hobby I've gone to a few local street/art fairs and I don't usually see anything moving.
I approached a gentlemen who had a kiosk set-up at one such fair, he had some "WOW" pictures on display, so I asked him, does he generate a fair source of revenue from these exabits? His answer surprised me. He said he's lucky if he even sells one! I asked, why do it? He told me his main source of income is events; bat mitzva's, bar mitzva's, weddings, corporate events and some real estate work. He went on to tell me he uses these event's to build his brand, that was his goal.
Keep in mind, every picture on display that day was either a landscape, cityscape, seascape, or mountain view.

I found it interesting.

[Geoff F]

The only times I made any easy money from my photos was back in the days when I was still a commercial fishermen and would occasionally write a few articles with photographs for the Fishing News. I got £20 for a photo and 10 pence per word.

Several photos have made the front page of my local weekly newspaper but, once again, they were all donated images.

Still, I suppose all of that would mean I could add Press Photographer to my CV if I was ever forced to seek employment again.

[DanK]

I had an opportunity (perhaps) many decades go, but it slipped through my hands: when I was a year or two out of college, I did a candid of someone's toddler that got some circulation (which in those days meant that someone showed the print to other people). As a result, I was contacted by a Christian music group, of what sort I don't recall, asking if I would do the cover for an album they were about to release. Unfortunately, my only camera at the time, a Mamiya/sekor 500 (a poor man's Pentax substitute) had just broken, and it took too long for me to save the $$ to replace it. That was the end of my time as a professional photographer.

[jkshyt]

Still, I suppose all of that would mean I could add Press Photographer to my CV if I was ever forced to seek employment again.

That's thinking outside the box!