its america land of the free?

[JLiu]

That article is one of the reasons why I’ll be a hobbyist until I retire…and even then I’ll not go pro.  I’ll be one of those old dudes wearing a funny hat at an artfest with random landscape shots in my tent.

[dont.care]

Everybody here was defending her.. I thought she was being stabbed in the back, thus the link I posted on her site to bring her here.  (Bolejack). Rachel was playing dirty, I hate that shit. Low down, dirty and cut throat.  I don’t care how bad of a photographer you are.. Never undermine or defame your competition because you suck and you want to get a leg up in the game.  Karma is a bitch and this forum is a good example of it.

[IHF]

Thom is completely right Amber.  This is not out of reach for you.  Like I said before I want  you to succeed.  I want Rachel to as well, otherwise, I would have just kept my mouth shut, and not cared one bit.

The article doesn’t completely pertain to Amber’s situation.  I think full time tog and part time are very different scenarios, but I liked it.  No sugar coating, up front solid advice.

JLiu, can I set up my booth next to yours?  That way if we don’t break even on all we invested in setting up, we at least got a good chat out of the deal

[JLiu]

I’ll bring the drinks if you stock the snacks.

[JCFindley]

I do not shoot people except for fun, and I am not particularly god at it either.

I did “start” my career doing the art tent. I looked into a few good images but it was mostly your standard “everybody” shoots things without much of a markup. I was lucky enough to have three very good mentors and one is my pricing guru. When I started selling on the net, I listed my pricing inline with my shooting mentor, who is very very good. Instead o lowering my prices I worked on my skills until I was in his general neighborhood but with my subjects and style….

Interesting thing about art photography, people that can afford large wall art often equate price with quality. You still need to have the quality to sell, but people are willing to pay well for it. Those that aren’t can get a 36 inch “canvas” at Wallyworld.

[JCFindley]

Obviously it is late, I lucked into a few good images not looked, and not good at it instead of god at it….

[IHF]

JC,

I’m about ready to highjack this thread.  I’m so sorry, but JCFindley got me wanting to talk.

So here’s my story

I’m shooting and having fun learning, and then it came time to stop being a wuss and start sharing.  I noticed that a lot of my facebook friends weren’t commenting on my posts anymore, which was a little out of character.  OPPS!  They are hiding me, because I’m posting too much photography!  lol  OK so I start a page, and invite everyone.  I was right, and only about a quarter of my friends actually clicked that like button, and now I get a lot more interaction on my personal facebook account, like it used to be before I bored people to death with my pictures.  So , there I am sharing my pictures, and getting “Oooh nice!” and “Oh so pretty!”  It was time to get a little braver and start sharing my work with other photographers, but I looked for somewhere “nice” and landed at red bubble.  I put a price tag on my work, and on my facebook port as well.  Well… surprisingly I’ve actually sold 42 of my 90ish images, some multiple times in varying formats from greeting cards to 30×20 mounted (mostly fulfilled by myself, and a few regular sales and greeting cards from redbubble).  oops!  I wasn’t expecting this.  I don’t know exactly what to do with it.  So I’ve just been sitting, doing nothing.  I dont know if I really want to become more serious about selling or not.  I know I LOVE it when one of my images sells.  Just the thought that someone likes my photograph enough to buy it, and decorate their home with it thrills me, but at the same time… its a little scary to take things further than what they currently are.  It means investing more, it means a proper website, better marketing, more finishing and printing, possibly business cards and such, business license? and of course investing more means my prices would have to go up.  What if my stuff is only selling because it’s priced on the low end (I only make approx $20 off self fulfilled orders, and pennies off of redbubble sales).  I dont look at my work and think “high end collectors would LOVE this!”  my photographs are very simplistic, colorful, kind of immature, happy little things.  I’ve played with my mark up a little, and so far no change and I still have a steady trickle.  Should I keep marking up slowly to see if I find a cap?  Just wanting to pick your brain a little JC.  Everyone around me is kind of pushing, and I’m not sure if I want it or not, even though it does sound very very appealing to maybe have my hobby pay for itself someday.

[JCFindley]

You can email me if you want to show me your work behind the scenes and I will give you an honest opinion but the fact that you have sold more than a few to friends indicates to me you have good potential.

I am NOT a fan of Redbubble because of how they do their pricing structure with a % basis. If you price your 8x10ish prints in the 30 range then large prints are in the thousands. If you market price your large works then your 8x10s are around 7 bucks and you get less than a buck.

I am a big fan of pricing within the bell curve right off the bat. You may have simply outstanding work but people see a low price and think something is wrong. That and people that buy a large framed work are going to pay hundreds to have it shipped at my main sales site and hundreds to have it printed matted and framed regardless what the artist charges so the only thing cheap about selling a large print is the profit low priced artists get.  (When I say bell curve I mean somewhere in the area the majority charge)

Business cards are a must. A license may or may not be depending on how you sell. Online, the standard PoD does the selling so you simply get a royalty for them being allowed to sell your images. The right finishing can be had at many PoDs without any effort on your part. Marketing IS up to the individual artist though on most all of them. I have my own URL but it simply links to a PoD site that prints the majority of my sales. (PoD is print on demand btw)

Not sure if you can PM here but feel free to do that if you can and want to discus anything in private.

 

[IHF]

No PMs here, so I’ll start a new thread in “Photography Showcase” I guess.  Titled “Selling Art?”  Thanks a ton JC  Yes, if I do this redbubble would have to go.  Totally agree there

[JCFindley]

http://www.JCFindley.com

There is a contact artist link on there you can use to email direct if you like, but I will find the thread and talk there too…..

[RachelGPhotography]

I posted this in the other thread also:

Ok everyone keeps talking about how I’m not a big enough person to answer back well here I am. I’ve been in Ohio (I’m from NC) for two weeks taking care of my 2 year old nephew who had surgery.  I tried to use my phone to say something, but it wouldn’t work, and I didn’t have my computer. It’s not that I didn’t want to say something, it’s just I was putting my sick nephew first, which I’m sure anyone would do.

 

Ok  when I first posted this I immediately wanted to delete it. It’s not who I am, and not what I’m about. I will never fully understand why I did what I did. I made a mistake. A very terrible mistake. I owned up to my mistake. When Bolejack confronted me, I told her right away I deserved every thing she said to me. I was a jerk and I will admit that. I can’t take back what I did, and I’m truely sorry for what I did. Like I said It’s not what I’m about and not the type of person I am. I don’t know what  more I can say about it. All I can do is take this as a very harsh lesson in my life. This experience brought me down tremendously, and I learned a lot from it. Bolejack is a very nice person, and photographer and didn’t deserve what I did to her. All I can say is sorry.

As for my work, I’m really taking what you guys said to heart, and really been working on correcting my mistakes. I just recently done a shoot that I’m really proud of.  I really think it’s been a big improvement. They should be up later this week, I hope you guys can see how bad I’m really trying.

 

Again I know what I did was wrong, and put it bluntly was a bitch move on my part. I’m thankful for Bolejack for accepting my apology, and hope you guys see how sincere I am with this.

[Thom]

Hey, my home town is Ohio…good to hear from another Buckeye and I hope people will accept your apology. I never read the original post, but you seem very sincere.

Cheers,

Thom

[Author]

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