| Author | Thread |
|
|
06/29/2005 07:08:07 AM · #26 |
Originally posted by keegbow:
His work is just fantastic and his name is Adam Pretty
|
Enjoyed the link, thanks for posting.
(And I can't help but think that his company name should be "A dam Pretty Picture)! |
|
|
|
06/30/2005 12:44:11 AM · #27 |
Ron Beam, Sounds like we could learn alot from you, please post again and tell more.
I am not professional, but I went to a work shop where there was a wife and husband team ("www.imagesunique.com") and I thought it was the coolest way make a living and to work photography into your life. They have workshops where they teach people about photography, in class room and on trips. Imagine, the price they charge for these workshops probably pays their bills plus the expenses of the trip. It looked like a fun way to make a living. They get to travel and meet people, take photos the whole time to sell in anyway they choose. It just looked like "the life" to me. And they were the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. They have alot of repeat customers I believe because some of them appeared to be old friends dropping by for a week or weekend to"hang out". It's great to be around other people who love photography too. I thought about doing this as a side job on a smaller scale that might become bigger with time. If you don't get to be around photographers much, you should try a workshop, you will feel it's a place where you "belong" amongst people with the same interest and it can be very inspiring!
|
|
|
|
06/30/2005 11:06:56 PM · #28 |
Originally posted by Gil P:
without going into a whole thing about how and what... the only thing I can say about pro work in the glamour biz, is that it's 25% talent, 75% networking.... |
Never was a truer word spoken. I think it's the same in any facet of photography and art. It really isn't what you know but who.
After completing a degree in Photography over a decade ago I took time off to have kids and now have recently started getting back into my career. I exhibit my fine art and have recently opened a studio for portraiture. I also do some fashion and commercial work and am the staff photographer for a successful gothic band. I've recently been offered an official position with a magazine for which I do fashion and event work. I've found that with every place that opens up to me, it's all started by getting to know someone first. It really is about networking and making people remember you and like you.
Oh, and I also suck at my results on here ;-)
Message edited by author 2005-06-30 23:09:45.
|
|
|
|
06/30/2005 11:31:17 PM · #29 |
Originally posted by Anjella:
Oh, and I also suck at my results on here ;-) |
You should post more stuff. Me likey!! ;-D
|
|
|
|
07/02/2005 03:14:09 AM · #30 |
Originally posted by jenesis:
You should post more stuff. Me likey!! ;-D |
Thanks :D
|
|
|
|
07/02/2005 03:48:38 AM · #31 |
| I can't say much more.it's all been said above, apart from 25 years as a paid professional freelance, I would not change it for the world..good luck to new professionals... |
|
|
|
07/05/2005 01:13:42 PM · #32 |
After recieving a couple of emails and an additional request here, I want to provide a little more help to those wanting to make some money from their passion for photography, based on my experiences. This is not about me, but about where desire can lead.
I do not recommend weddings to anyone with a profound desire to make art. While wedding photography can be financially lucritive, even giving moments of opportunity as an artform, a wedding photographer must be more of a director/choreographer than artist. This control aspect escorted me out of that field quickly, though I was in demand and well paid. That said, if you what to make good money fast and you are confident in your photographic skills, just let your friends, acquaintances and relatives know you are available to shoot weddings. Compose a shot portfolio, get some cards printed and share both these items with anyone you meet. Within 6 months, you will become a commercial photographer. Within a year, you will be very busy on the weekends - if you maintain a high level of image excellence and are prompt and efficient.
Portraiture as a business is started the same way; word of mouth to all you meet. In the beginning, work cheap but produce expensive. I am still trying to find my ultimate market value as I slowly creep my price upward. I produce a series of about 20 edited images on a CD for my clients within 2 days of a sitting. (I avoid being responsible for providing/delivering prints. I supply the CD and tell them a lab I recommend to make their prints.) I may take 30 - 35 shots (all in RAW full resolution) to get the final 20 on the CD. I spend 5 to 10 minutes setting up each shot and never take burst images. Clattering, rapid fire, shot after shot belies the relaxed atmosphere I work to achieve for the style of portraiture I desire to produce. For each sitting, I always edit a few shots in an artistic manner (using a variety of effects) in addition to a "straight" style for that shot on the CD. This is a "signature" of mine and helps me to stand apart from the factory-like portrait studios out there. Also 90% of my portraits are done outside. I use the human/nature juxtaposition in almost all my work.
I am married to a Brasilara and since I have only been in this country for just over a year, she is my interpreter/arrangement assistant/second pair of eyes. We work well together primarily because we respect one another. She understands that as the photographer, I have final say as to when the shutter is released and her ego is never a factor. But her artistic eye and instincts are correct a vast majority of the time, so I always heed her input and my ego is never a factor. This is the only way a married couple can stay friends and work together ... no "ego war." Our work is merely an extension of our love. She helps me on about 50 percent of my jobs and nearly always when a single woman is the subject, at MY request. She offers creative ideas on occasion or suggests body movements and positions when she gets the visual inspiration. Standing back from the camera, she sometimes sees things that I do not.
Art print sales takes time, belief and determination. Initially, I assembled 20 large (about 13X15 inch) prints into a themed portfolio and started making appointments to see gallery owners/managers in person. No gallery is too small. No exhibition is fruitless. My first exhibit was only attended by people my wife and I invited and a handful of regular attendees at a small, out-of-the-way gallery. Not only was it a venue to list on my resume, but I sold 4 prints in 4 weeks and got a portraiture sitting while broadening my base of potential clients. Despite the stereotype, most people who attend gallery exhibits are NOT stuffed-shirt, wine-and-cheese snobs. They are people interested in seeing good photography, just like you and me! I have made some great friendships just by answering an attendee's question or trying to find out why someone is interested in a particular photograph. The key is: you never know who will come into your life as a result of baring yourself through your images. It is the theory of the "Endless Chain." One exhibit leads to another opportunity and then to another and so on, while all the time people buy your work and put it on their walls and talk to their friends about their new print. Like a snowball, it takes time to get it started, but it CAN become self-perpetuating.
Very rarely does one ever get rich by being a photographer (I am barely above the poverty level.) But never in my life have I been so enriched by doing something that I love to do. That is priceless.
|
|
|
|
07/05/2005 02:54:28 PM · #33 |
well, I don't know if my post belongs here but I'm putting in my 2c anyway. I am college student, a digital portraiture major to be exact. I also run my own freelance business and am an apprentice to a local photographer. ALL of my very small income comes from pictures in one way shape or form.
I as a freelance photographer work on a client data base. The more people that see your name the better. I have been working on the business for about a year now and it's going ok. like it was said before though no venue is too small. I got my start by taking pictures of my mom's hairdressers kids and I didn't charge anything as long as she would let me put a small portfolio and business cards on her table. it ended up that my next job was taking pictures of people with new, hip, haircuts to put on the table also. if you want to run freelance, your signature is everything. I took a calligraphy class and then bought a tablet, if your name is easily recognizable then your work is easily recognizable.
enough about me
I also work for a man name Pat Brown. He is one great cat, let me tell ya. He has found a niche in the market...we don't do much in the was of artistic things though. What we do is we travel to different places locally where they have class reunions or barmitzfas (sp?) or any sort of gathering where people will want to see a picture of a large group with their names under the picture. We take about an hour and set up about 50 billions risers....ok so it's more 10-20 depending on the size of the group and we have everyone get on the risers and then past clip boards down the rows to get the names in the right order. we then snap the picture and run to the studio while someone from the team stays behind to sell them. We then load the picture into Photoshop, edit it for blinks, call back whoever we left behind and see how many orders and then print the number of orders plus five. we then run back to wherever we took the picture drop them off that night and sell them for twenty bones a picture. it cost pat about 75 cents to print them because he buys in bulk and we usually do 7 to 10 a weekend. There is good money to be made doing that, but it's not exactly the glamour shot kind of photography. I personally think it's stressful but fun.
Now I know I'm just a poor college kid and no one is prolly going to read this but for what it is worth there it is
|
|
|
|
07/05/2005 04:13:23 PM · #34 |
Am I a pro??? I don't know yet but my experience might help a few...
I have a passion for massage therapy. I graduated in 1999 in massage therapy and was looking for fine art massage prints for my studio and couldn't find any anywhere locally, nationally or on the Web. So I borrowed my good friend's (DrJones) studio and camera (I didn't own a camera at that time, imagine that!). He gave me my first lessons on lighting and camera basics on the fly (what's aperture again?). I did 3 different shoots and chose the best ones from that for my clinic. Then I thought that maybe other people might want to buy them!
So I started TouchPhotography and started selling my prints online. At that time I only had the Healing Hands series. The though part was marketing. I started with local therapists then got a mailing list of massage schools. Then I thought, why not have distributors selling them? So I sent out lots of samples to potential distributors around the world. I now have 6 distributors and growing. I still sell my prints individually on my website but 95% of the income comes from my distributors. So I'm reselling the same photos over and over again. Is that sweet or what? :-) What's you niche?
I also wrote to massage and massage-related magazines to see if they would do a write-up on my unique product. With some of them we actually did an exchange where they would have the rights to use x amount of photos for their magazine in exchange for an editorial and some advertizing.
I invested about $800 and had postcards made to be inserted in hospitality bags at the Big US massage therapy annual meeting. I first thought it was a bad move cuz my sales didn't increase at all. But a year down the road I got an email from a top US publisher wanting to hire me to shoot an 800 page book with roughly 500 photos. The editor got the postcard the year before and kept it until one of the books was ready for a new edition.
I was lucky enough to have stared getting professional contracts right at the top of the food chain (scary as it was). But only because the quality of my photographs reflect my passion (and many here are soooooo much better at it then me!). Now I freelance for them and another big US publisher on a regular basis doing health realated photography... for now.
So I've combined 2 passions into one and this sideline is becomming quite lucrative. What I'm trying to say is that part of being successful is having, yes a passion for photography, but moreso a passion for what you photograph! Your passion will show and clients will see that it's not just a money thing. When you talk about your passion you're actually selling your business concept to prospective clients without intentionally doing so.
What's your passion? :-)
|
|
|
|
07/05/2005 08:11:29 PM · #35 |
|
|
|
07/24/2005 06:39:34 PM · #36 |
I have been a visitor to this site many times, but I have never taken the opportunity to post images or add to the forums. I hope to change that. But you can only come here so many times before being inspired to join in the process. What a great gathering of truly talented people. I appreciate this thread for the chance to introduce myself and tell one professionals little story. Thank you!
When I was twelve, my father, a police officer, showed me the photographic print
development process in the police station darkroom. Seeing that latent image magically
appear on the print captivated my interest. I knew then and there that photography was
going to be my passion.
I worked on all the yearbooks in junior high and majored in Media Communications in
high school, with photography as my main emphasis. I worked as a lab technician for a
local photographer throughout my senior year of high school. After I graduated from
high school, I enrolled at The Ohio Institute of Photography in Dayton, where I earned an
Associateâs degree in Commercial and General Applied Photography. During my time as
a student at OIP, I worked as a lab technician for a large portrait studio.
I then returned to my hometown and showed my portfolio to every ad agency, commercial
photography studio and color lab in the area. Eventually my persistence was rewarded
when a seasoned and respected industrial photographer asked me to âcome in for a week
long try out!â I ended up working and learning with him for six years until his passing. I
continued to direct his operation for five more years before opening my own studio.
When I was ready to make this move, one of the commercial photographers I interviewed
with ten years earlier approached me with an offer to purchase his existing studio. I spent
a few months putting together my business plan, and soon my dream had come true. My
studio is only two blocks from the police station darkroom where my passion began.
I am preparing to celebrate my tenth year as a studio owner in 2006. I have had the
honor of working with and learning from some of the best photographers in our area.
Their experience and teachings have been priceless for me and continue to be foundational
for the work I do today.
The digital technology of today has renewed the passion that the darkroom inspired in this
12-year-old so many years ago.
Spenlee
|
|
|
|
07/24/2005 09:10:10 PM · #37 |
Registered in Feb of last year and just now made your first forum post? You're not shy are you? Hope it doesn't take you that long to show us some of your images.
Seriously, Welcome to dpc Lee. I'm sure you have much to contribute. Hope one of the challenge topics will pique your interest soon.
|
|
|
|
07/24/2005 09:46:49 PM · #38 |
I've got to recommend the new book by Dan Heller, "Profitable Photography in the Digital Age". It will open your eyes up to the realities in being a pro, that way more than being a good shooter it's about your ability to run a successful business. Marketing. Strategy. Pricing. Negotiations. I agree with most of his POV, FWIW. I hung my shingle out by shooting for a prominent magazine in my niche in Jan 03 but didn't really do much else until June of that year, changing to the dSLR in August. Now happy to be able to say that I've won multiple awards in my field, and now shoot primarily for stock/advertising for two agencies rather than editorial. Editorial was a good way to get started, and get "known". Happy to have name recognition after a relatively short time, but I've got to say that the photography business is very tough (and I've been self-employed since 1989...) It's not necessarily the best shooters that will make it, it's the best businessmen.
|
|
Home -
Challenges -
Community -
League -
Photos -
Cameras -
Lenses -
Learn -
Help -
Terms of Use -
Privacy -
Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2025 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 03/12/2025 02:24:27 AM EDT.
