>On Jan 19, 2012, at 8:56 AM, selling_stock_photography@yahoogroups.com wrote:
Whiners all-
In the film days, it was easier because talent, skill and persistence stood out.
Now in the digital age with multishot, no developing expense, really good cameras for under 2 grand, virtually everyone is going to get more good photos just by keeping the shutter down/autoexposure and photoshop.
It is less art and skill now than it is luck and positioning yourself in a good place, so philosophy aside, you mid to low talents are competing with a few more hundred thousand people all wanting to be called professional photographers.
All convinced that their work is worthy of high prices, when in reality it has to be the market driving the price.
More of anything in a situation where demand is lower and has more choices aotomatically reduces the price.
If you aren't a Liebowitz where name is worth $ you have a problem in increasing price.
Ed Morrow
Phone: 530 577 4141
Phone: 530 577 4141
Siga Resources Inc<
In the days of successful digital photography talent, skill and persistence still stand out. You might just have to be more persistent and certainly the competition means to be successful you need to have above average quality and take pictures that will be in demand. Merely taking pictures and throwing them into a vast collection of millions of pictures is not a recipe for success regardless of how good your pictures are. I just looked up a random subject, bicycle, on Alamy and came up with 134,743 pictures. ISTOCKPhoto 30,723 Getty has 29,481 Shutterstock 39,545.
Regardless of which of these you choose to use do you really think that dumping your pictures in with any of these vast collections is going to guarantee you any kind of success?
Your odds of making a sale at Alamy if a person is looking for a bicycle shot are .00075% and as long as the buyer finds one picture they can use the chance of Alamy making a sale are 100% and even when you do make a sale the larger percentage of the fee goes to Alamy. Nice to be an agency. Sure your picture might be better than all the rest and you could have several hundred bicycle shots with Alamy and increase you chance of a sale but only if the client every comes across your picture.
A google search for bicycle+magazine brings up 15,200,000 results. If you specialize and have a few thousand bicycle shots and put them on your own web site you could promote your site to bicycle magazines you find online and invite them to visit your online library. You could create galleries on your site and have one for young people on bikes and another for retired people on bikes, another for vacationing on a bike and promote these galleries to magazines and advertisers that might have use for that kind of image.
This of course means putting a lot of time an effort into creating your "niche" collection. You then have to put a lot of time and effort into preparing and keywording the pictures and putting them on your web site. Finally you have to know how to negotiate with the client and learn what a reasonable fee is for your pictures for every use. You have to be disciplined to walk away from a sale if the client doesn't have the budget, not lower your price to the lowest possible denominator to compete with Bigstock or Shutterstock. Sure you will lose lots of sales. On the other hand you will be recognized by clients with a budget as a good resource for outstanding images and that is the market that you need to target if you want to make a living from your photography.
I know we have all heard of very successful photographers that rely on volume but given the fierce competition your chances are slim. Other photographers with a good agency can and do make a good living. However, good service, hard work and a business plan of how your are going to market your pictures will go a long way to making you stand out in the crowd.
If this seems like a lot of time and effort are needed, it is, this is what's needed if you are going to be a professional photography. It isn't that amateur photographers don't do good work but there's a lot more to running a photography business than merely have some nice pictures.
David Barr
PS: I have 32 years experience of making my living as a photographer.
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