Photography – Yes You Can Sell Your Pictures For Extra Cash

Instead of saying, “It’s not worth my time to earn a few cents on a photo”, what if you could look at each photo as an income generating opportunity – for life.

Some people look at vacations, weekend getaways, and even the occasional Friday off for running errands as a way for taking photographs for themselves. Others (like myself) see these same events as opportunities for taking a few great photographs, and making money from them.

There are dozens of stock photo places online (I buy from them as well as sell to them regularly) that let you buy the work of other photographers. Just because you’re good at photography doesn’t necessarily mean you have access to the perfect picture when you need it. If I’m doing a story that requires a photo of chicken soup, it’s a whole lot easier  for me to head over and buy one for $1 then to bring out my camera and get everything in place to snap the picture.

Some people say selling to stock houses is a waste of time. They only pay you a small amount per download, so why bother?

Let’s say they pay 80 cents per download. (IStockPhoto.com pays anywhere from 20 cents to $3 per download depending on the file size, and the royalty doubles if it’s an image exclusive to IStock.)

If you sell your image once, you gain 80 cents. But if you sell it 1000 times, you can make $800. Some of the top sellers on IStock sell individual photographs thousands of times each. And if you have a portfolio of images out there that are each earning you that kind of money; well, lets just say it’s worth MY time to put a few images out there each month.

How about you?

[Want a complete guide to selling your images to stock houses? Let me show you how to easily incorporate stock photography into your business strategy.]

Photography – 10 Things I’m Reading About

I surf online a lot. So I thought I’d share with you some of the things I look through – things you might find interesting too.

10. Film … or digital? I posted on this just a few days ago, and found this another interesting read on the same topic. Read Brian Auer’s Is Film Dead? I especially found his poll interesting – 57 percent (at the time I looked at the results) found using film to be a steady or growing trend. Wow.

9. As a photographer you have to put your photos online, right? Why not on a social site.  (I’ll be there soon.) In the mean time, check out this photo of Dubai in the fog.

8. Do you worry about theft of your photos if you put them online? Start with this great post on How Every Flickr Photo Ended Up on Sale This Weekend.

7. If you haven’t had enough on  the theft of photos topic, follow this continuing discussion by Photrade.

6. For an endless list of everything photography, head over to Alltop. Alltop helps you learn all you can about individual topics – like photography.

5. What do you do with all of your digital images while you’re on the road?  Read Peter Carey’s advice for Digital Photo Storage On the Road. I’ll add one other tip. When we traveled for weddings, we would carry plenty of memory cards with us. But if we were going to travel for awhile, we would also burn a set of CD/DVD’s and mail them back to our office. You can also upload them to your backup system, via your laptop.

4. I know everyone has an opinion on Flickr, but you  can’t deny you can find some incredible images there. Take a look at these photos of the Tour de France.

3. So you wanna be a studio photographer? Why not make your own backgrounds. We’ve made a few ourselves in the past, and still use them today for certain shoots. Take a look at How To Make a Background for Studio Photography.

2. If you haven’t seen the Red One, take a look. I’ve been talking about it with a few local photographers lately. (Check out their service policy at the bottom – I love it!)

1. A photo site used to help bring awareness to important issues around the world – how cool. Photography can be so powerful. Take a look at The Homeless Photographer. Then plan on some time browsing through the other images.

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Photography – Digital or Film for the Professional

Are you still based in film, or have you made the switch to digital?

I’m amazed almost daily at the number of photographers that are still film based. Digital has been such a big part of the consumer market for years, yet photographers still love their film.

We even have a niece who has taken a few courses in photography in college, and she’s still taught through film-based classes.

Yet the types of film that were once available are now quickly disappearing. Why? Because you can do so much more with digital. And it’s the way of the future.

If you are a professional, your whole goal should be to make money with your photography. (If not, there is no reason to start a business.) And one of the best ways to sell your photographs – at least from a portrait standpoint – is to sell immediately on the emotion.

If a client comes in, has their photograph taken, they are excited about their portraits. With digital, you can sell immediately with projection (find out how) and double – even triple your sales. With film, you have to spend days developing and putting together your sales presentation before the customer comes back in for viewing. That’s a lot of time for something else to happen in her life – making her portrait not the most exciting thing in her life.

When we used film, we knew every click of the shutter meant we were spending about $1. With digital, there’s no cost. It makes you a more liberal shooter – getting many more saleable images. When we decided to convert to digital, we decided to run parallel for the first year. After the first month, we had several issues with film (lost in mail, ruined by lab, etc) and converted 100 percent over to digital, and have never looked back. 

Because of technology, digital is here to stay. To run your business, you need to have a website and blog, and know about online marketing. And to continue competing with professionals you must learn the ins and outs of digital photography.

Agree … or disagree? I’d love to have your comments.

Is it the camera or the photographer?

What makes a great photographer? Is it the camera and lenses they use? Or is it the photographer?

That was the question of the hour yesterday as Andrew and I poured over a selection of images we had recently taken.

The next time you’re out with friends that aren’t photographers, watch how they look at things around them. Do they notice the flowers surrounding the cafe patio? Do they notice the bird soaring in the sky? Do they notice the signs along the way?

As a photographer – especially coming from a photojournalistic style of  photography – we see things in storyline fashion. We’re constantly looking for ways to tell the story with our photographs – and we pick up on ways to show that with each picture.

We focus on macro results, so the eye naturally picks up on what we focus on.

We show things in detail and put several images together to show the whole picture.

We use perspective to make a photograph better.

That comes from the education of being a professional photographer. It doesn’t come with the camera. I can get a great image from a point-and-shoot simply because I understand perspective and what to look for.

Of course the better the lens, the more I can get.  But ultimately comes down to the photographer.

What do you think?

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Photography and Blogging

Being a professional photographer for over 18 years, I understand what it takes to promote a photography studio.

It’s hard to promote the business without showcasing your photography. Yet how do you get your photography online, and front of your prospects?

Blogging.

Sure it’s nice to have a fancy website that showcases your work in a Flash presentation. But does it bring in clients? I’m willing to bet the answer is no. Unless you have a huge name, and a huge following, no one will find your Flash website because the search engines won’t find it. And you usually spend thousands of dollars to put up a few of your best images – and then leave it set unchanged for months at a time.

Blogging gives you control.

• Photograph a client on Tuesday morning – put up her photos on your blog Tuesday afternoon.
• Photography a wedding on Saturday – put up 100 images on your blog Monday morning.

People came to us because we had 20,000 images online – on our website – at any given time. They stayed on our site because they could get lost in the feeling of our photographs. They didn’t see the best-of collection. They saw album after album, and loved what  they saw. We stood out because we weren’t doing what everyone else was doing.

Are you?

For more information on how to blog about your business – visit this website

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Equipment Needed For a Photography Business

If you are contemplating opening a photography studio, use these guidelines to help you understand what equipment is needed for a photography business.

To start, spend a few minutes thinking about the type of photography you will be offering your clients. Will you be photographing commercial work? Are you in your studio, photographing portraiture? Are you out on location photographing weddings, and traveling to many different states and countries? Will you be offering your clients a combination of these services?

Once you have a goal in mind for your business, then you can begin gathering the proper equipment.

To give you an idea of what I consider to be the minimum amount of equipment needed, I’ve created the following list.

Equipment needed for photography business

• At least 2 camera bodies. At all times, under any circumstance, you should always have at least 2 camera bodies. Not only is it important to have an extra in case one shuts down or quits working, but it’s also nice to be able to have two cameras ready with different lenses so you are ready to capture anything at any time.
• Flash cards. Most photographers are now shooting with digital cameras. Having a variety of flash cards handy is a must. I recommend having several available for each of your camera bodies. I don’t recommend buying large cards with capacity to do an entire shoot. If you have an error in your card (low chance, but you never now), you’re better off using a variety of cards for different portions of your shoot.
• Laptop computer. And shoot can be better managed if you can place your flash cards into your laptop at the time of the shoot, download the images, and save them to one or more sources. You can view the images, and begin organizing them immediately.
• Lenses. I feel lenses are a personal choice, depending on the type of photography you will offering. Have a variety to use in many circumstances. Fast shutters are great for low light situations. Telephoto lenses are great for working event photography.
• Flash units. Depending on your photography specialization, you will need to have at least one on-camera flash unit, and at least one stand alone flash unit for a more controlled light source.
• Internet access. This is a must for any business, old or new. With Internet access, you should monitor your own website to market your business, and should have the ability to connect with your lab for quick results.

With these basic pieces, your photography studio will be off and running in no time at all. The better prepared you are at the beginning, the easier it will be to grow along the way.

Helping your photography business, how to start a photography business and wedding photography business visit virtualphotographystudio.com and keep up-to-date with all of the photography happenings via our free newsletter.