Quote:
Originally Posted by onlyabloke
Anyone on here sell their photos? I'm looking into dabbling a bit, but not sure where to start.
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I dabble, selling a print here and there. I got on with Getty a few years ago and that results in some sales. Still, altogether it's not near enough to pay the rent. I'm hoping that the sales will exceed equipment cost
in the next year or so.
I got affilitated with Getty through Flickr, but Getty no longer trolls Flickr.
Selling in galleries can be very good, BUT you usually have to pay for wall space and, of course, printing. You can get a very good Canon Pixma Pro-100 printer for $150 after rebates. It'll do excellent 13x19" prints and you can mount them to gator board, or frame them simply to sell.
Looking at your Flickr, I'm reminded about my comment about your stuff seeming dark. Most buyers are looking for bright and punchy. Your style is going to display best in a gallery that specializes in dark art.
Generally, selling photos is a tough way to make an extra buck. Landscapes sell the best, but it needs to be iconic to sell to the overall public, or something of great local interest (we have lots of that in Colorado) to sell for display in local houses. Your past work doesn't aim at those markets.
Street photography is a hard sale, because EVERYBODY is doing it. However, there is a lot of it in galleries. If you can get on a wall, you might makes some connections and get lucky.
Some people "dabble" in wedding and senior pix. I just don't get it. To do it right requires lots of time. The people that ask me, knowing that I'm a photographer, are expecting me to give it away. I tell them that they can't afford me. If they insist, I give them the name of a top wedding photographer. Still, some people go at it quite casually. I've been at "events" (reunions, etc.) where my equipment far exceeded the official "photographer's" equipment. I even met one shooting JPEGs and getting paid (probably just a few hundred bucks). She just shot and posted them to a site.
I have seen a pro shooting auto events, like and autocross. He had a site and you could order pix of yourself. Smugmug and some other sites let you set up an automated system. Your interest in autos could lead to something like that.
Anyway, it's not easy. The full-time pros are suffering from all the competition from us "serious" amateurs. Dabbling over a period of years can start to add up and you can slowly build a reputation and start to pay for your fun.