Selling Fine Art Photos

On Apr 21, 6:05 pm, Paul Furman wrote:
I don't expect to make a full living from fine art photography but I
need to start selling them. I think I've posed most of this to the
groups before but it's on my mind again.

For framed stuff I think I just need to find an agent, I don't have the
motivation to scmooze galleries, I'm just not a networking kind of guy.

I can submit my images to one or more stock agencies, most of my work is
nature shots which is probably low demand, some urban scenes & scenic
postcard type stuff in san francisco. I'm not sure it'd be worth the
effort if these aren't marketable but even a little dribble of royalties
would be nice. I have thousands of images on my web site, mostly
annotated & I could figure out a way to automate the keywording process
but still that would be a big project. Should I exclude the fine art
images from that because it would cheapen the value of them as original
art? I don't currently do numbered sets... I guess that's a question for
my art dealer... if I can find one.

Some of my shots are suitable for post cards or calendars. Again, I
don't have it in me to market those. Any idea how to get that rolling?
Again, this could be just a nice little dribble of royalties. I guess I
could go to some gift shops & ask the owners where they buy their post
cards. When I looked into it, I found one photographer had a 'book' of
post cards published... lots of them floating around on ebay, so I guess
a book publisher might be another route but I don't know if he actually
made any money from that.

I could do a coffee table book... I suspect that's a tough market. I
could collborate with a writer & publish a book on California Native
Plants, which is sort of a narrow market but at least it's something
useful versus a coffee table type book. My other business is a native
plant nursery so I use the images with short descriptions, so it's
almost as simple as recompiling that like a catalog. Actually my
business partner in that is a writer. I don't think he really wants to
put the time needed into actually publishing a book though, he has other
things going. And people can see it all for free on our web site so I'm
not sure anyone would pay for it :-) I suppose I should make the photos
on our nursery web site for sale since that one does get great google
ranking and it's hitting the target market of nature enthusiasts. But
then I'd have to split the proceeds with my partner :-) and roll all my
expenses into that too... lenses are expensive & I don't charge anything
to that business for my photography. Hmph. I did write into the business
agreement that I retain FULL rights to my images. If he wants to buy me
out, we negotiate a price and I would ask a lot because IMO those pics
are a huge part of the success of the web site. That's advertising and
that's one place where photography should pay well.

At the moment, a couple people are wanting to use some of my photos, one
for a web site, I know she's on a very tight budget & the pics aren't
that valuable to me but really for a web site, that's not a one time use
but should properly be a yearly liscensing fee. Realistically I think
she only intends to pay maybe $25 or $50 one time. She's also a writer &
that's about what she paid photogs for her little newsletter. This web
site is promoting one of her books. Should I ask for something like
$10/year instead? Sounds like a hassle.

The other person is giving a lecture on native plants and wants to use
some of my photos in this one slide show promoting her book and native
seed business. She had asked about using my pics for her web site seed
catalogue before but when I explained it would need to be a liscensing
fee arrangement, she backed out. She's also a starving artist type.
She's probably thinking $30 or something... I have no clue. I said just
let me come to the presentation with some framed prints & business
cards, it's an interesting little artist colony town with some wealthy
people, a bunch of old hippies & artists so maybe a good chance to try
my hand at schmoozing art dealers or sell a print or two.

I've sold a few shots to a local nature magazine but it's just
ridiculous, they only pay $50 & they send out a very picky detailed
photo needs email to a bunch of people who are obviously just doing
photography as a hobby. Basically you need to go do a custom shoot for
them to meet their needs and apparently lots of people do just for fun.
They do put together a nice looking publication so at least it looks
good on my 'resume' but it frankly ****es me off. Last time they were
desperate & I did go out & do a custom shoot for them. 8 hours of work &
they only chose one photo... they agreed to pay me more ($100) since I
worked so hard for them but crap that should have cost them $400 as an
hourly shoot. I've heard national publication magazine work pays well
but I don't see how california nature scenes would be of any use in a
national magazine. Back to the stock photography idea where they might
want a pretty flower in some advertisement...

My web site gets very poor google rankings, I think there are some
technical issues I can address but I doubt it'll ever attract much
attention and I wouldn't want to put ads on it. Would it be worthwhile
to upload a bunch to some place like Flickr? That whole scene really
just seems like a hobby type thing. Who cares if more hobby photogs see
my work? I want money. I need to eat & pay rent. I can't imagine many
people buy prints from those sites or art dealers look at them, there
are just too many photos, it gets lost in an ocean of pretty pics.

Oh, and if you aren't completely exhausted & bored yet, the writing on
the following web page is all I've got right now as far as published
prices:http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=framed-exhibit
I recently rewrote that for the purpose of emailing to an art dealer
that a friend refered me to.

Paul,

Your photos look great - my only critique would be that I think you
could increase your prices! As a fellow artist, I find it hard to
price any work I've done, but in the dealings I've had with galleries
and buyers, oftentimes I am urged to ask for much more than I think an
image is worth. Kind of a professional standard, I guess. An
unfortunate side effect of higher prices can be greater respect -
sounds a bit backwards, doesn't it? Much like wine, I still hold onto
the belief that price isn't a reflection of quality, but again, I
don't think this is the standard.
Anyway, keep up the good work. Feel free to check out this link where
I sell some of my photos - www.johnkenneyink.com If you are
interested in using a more permanent site to display and sell your
works, the fellow who did mine is very reasonable and has a great
artistic eye. Let me know what you think.

John
www.johnkenneyink.com

wrote:
On Apr 21, 6:05 pm, Paul Furman wrote:
I don't expect to make a full living from fine art photography but
I
need to start selling them. I think I've posed most of this to the
groups before but it's on my mind again.


[ ... ]


Oh, and if you aren't completely exhausted & bored yet, the writing
on the following web page is all I've got right now as far as
published
prices:http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=framed-exhibit
I recently rewrote that for the purpose of emailing to an art
dealer
that a friend refered me to.

Paul,

Your photos look great - my only critique would be that I think you
could increase your prices! As a fellow artist, I find it hard to
price any work I've done, but in the dealings I've had with
galleries
and buyers, oftentimes I am urged to ask for much more than I think
an
image is worth. Kind of a professional standard, I guess. An
unfortunate side effect of higher prices can be greater respect -
sounds a bit backwards, doesn't it? Much like wine, I still hold
onto
the belief that price isn't a reflection of quality, but again, I
don't think this is the standard.
Anyway, keep up the good work. Feel free to check out this link
where
I sell some of my photos - www.johnkenneyink.com If you are
interested in using a more permanent site to display and sell your
works, the fellow who did mine is very reasonable and has a great
artistic eye. Let me know what you think.


I was in a seminar a few years back, one designed to give a
perspective to new arts-crafts marketers. I remember an example of
how-to-think involved a jewelry-maker who did fine, original work that
sat consigned in a shop where it had few sales at $75-$85 per item, a
price that gave the artist a comfotable profit, but seldom.

The shop hired a clerk who misinterpreted some re-marking instructions
and tripled the affixed prices, rather than marking them down to a
"clearance" 30%.

Over the course of the following two weeks all the jewelry sold at the
higher prices, and the shop owner was clamoring for more.

By some lucky combination of circumstances, the mistaken prices were
within a perceived value range that struck a chord with shoppers'
perceptions of the items; lower prices set by the maker inhibited an
evaluation in the frame of buyers' ideas of "worthwhileness", which
ideas were apparently congruent with the new prices.

Trick is in finding a person with the right kind of eye to evaluate
your products (or a clerk who will make the correct mistakes).

--
Frank ess

Frank ess wrote:

wrote:

On Apr 21, 6:05 pm, Paul Furman wrote:

I don't expect to make a full living from fine art photography but I
need to start selling them. I think I've posed most of this to the
groups before but it's on my mind again.


[ ... ]


Oh, and if you aren't completely exhausted & bored yet, the writing
on the following web page is all I've got right now as far as
published
prices:http://www.edgehill.net/1/?SC=go.php&DIR=framed-exhibit
I recently rewrote that for the purpose of emailing to an art dealer
that a friend refered me to.


Paul,

Your photos look great - my only critique would be that I think you
could increase your prices! As a fellow artist, I find it hard to
price any work I've done, but in the dealings I've had with galleries
and buyers, oftentimes I am urged to ask for much more than I think an
image is worth. Kind of a professional standard, I guess. An
unfortunate side effect of higher prices can be greater respect -
sounds a bit backwards, doesn't it? Much like wine, I still hold onto
the belief that price isn't a reflection of quality, but again, I
don't think this is the standard.
Anyway, keep up the good work. Feel free to check out this link where
I sell some of my photos - www.johnkenneyink.com If you are
interested in using a more permanent site to display and sell your
works, the fellow who did mine is very reasonable and has a great
artistic eye. Let me know what you think.

I was in a seminar a few years back, one designed to give a perspective
to new arts-crafts marketers. I remember an example of how-to-think
involved a jewelry-maker who did fine, original work that sat consigned
in a shop where it had few sales at $75-$85 per item, a price that gave
the artist a comfotable profit, but seldom.

The shop hired a clerk who misinterpreted some re-marking instructions
and tripled the affixed prices, rather than marking them down to a
"clearance" 30%.

Over the course of the following two weeks all the jewelry sold at the
higher prices, and the shop owner was clamoring for more.

By some lucky combination of circumstances, the mistaken prices were
within a perceived value range that struck a chord with shoppers'
perceptions of the items; lower prices set by the maker inhibited an
evaluation in the frame of buyers' ideas of "worthwhileness", which
ideas were apparently congruent with the new prices.

Trick is in finding a person with the right kind of eye to evaluate your
products (or a clerk who will make the correct mistakes).

Sounds like the story I heard on the radio about the waitress who was
polite & got crappy tips then tried being more abrupt & got much better
tips. What I did compiling cost estimates for architectural work is make
my best asessment, then double it.

BTW thanks for your comments John, I remember your web site, with the
manhole covers, nicely done, I've got a gallery named 'gritty' with
dirty urban stuff too :-)

I'm also considering rolling my photography business into the nursery
business. For example, just add a "buy a print or license this image"
link to these pages:
http://www.baynatives.com/plants/Chl...-pomeridianum/
So I'm not sure yet where to go with the web site yet.

--
Paul Furman Photography
http://www.edgehill.net/1
Bay Natives Nursery
http://www.baynatives.com

On 2007-04-21 15:05:23 -0700, Paul Furman said:

I don't expect to make a full living from fine art photography but I
need to start selling them. I think I've posed most of this to the
groups before but it's on my mind again.

For framed stuff I think I just need to find an agent, I don't have the
motivation to scmooze galleries, I'm just not a networking kind of guy.

Ultimately, that is what you need to be. You can learn.

Your pictures are good. Seems to me what you really need is the
confidence to put some effort into selling them.



--
Waddling Eagle
World Famous Flight Instructor