What do you do with your photos?

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by nzric, Oct 3, 2005.

  1. nzric

    nzric on lookout for bad guys

    In the spirit of the Amateur Photography thread, you've spent $$$ on an expensive camera and loads of time finding/capturing interesting things with your lens. Now what?

    Personally, I've got a stack of images on www.sxc.hu. I like the idea that it's a free forum for sharing your photos, and I've had mine used for websites, brochures, cd covers, logos, even book covers. Also www.deviantart.com is a great place to display your pics, especially if you're one of those people (like me) who likes a bit of digital editing every now and then.

    Anyone have other interesting ways to use your pics? do you have your own personal website? do you sell yours commercially through a website, or print and frame them and sell them at your local market? how about eBay? or local art exhibitions?

    And does anyone have prints of their best stuff on display in your house?
     
  2. Grifter

    Grifter Edited by White Wizard

    Deviant Art is a great websites. You use the same name on there nzric?? Id like to see some of your deviations.
     
  3. slipthejab

    slipthejab Hark, a vagrant! Supporter

    nzric,

    Hi mate, there are a ton of ways that you can go with selling your shots. Just bear in mind it can be a long so process to get the ball rolling until you actually see a regular check coming in.

    Granted, not everyone is looking for that. There is something to the old addage something to the effect of:

    In many cases this very very true. There have been at times up to a whole year that I've taken off just from what you could class a burn out.

    But you don't always have to go hard and heavy or use you photography as your sole source of income. Here are some options for you to consider:

    1) Once you have roughly 10K images then contact a stock agency and arrange an appointment for their photo editor to look at your work. The response may be harsh and critical but it can provide valuable insight into how to cricitally look at your images. The best advice I've ever gotten on work has been from photoeditors that slammed my work... once my ego healed... I realized they were bang on with their crits.

    As a footnote: Stock photography has changed drastically in the past 6-8 years. Drastically. Prices that can charged for stock by the photographer are not what they used to be. Thank Bill Gates for that one. :bang: The figure of 10K worth of images may seem like a lot at first... it's not... I'm sure you see how images can add up fast... one day it's one filiing cabinet of negs or tranny's or a 150GB hd... and the next it's an entire room in the flat or 7 Terrabyte HD.

    2) You can always check out the finearts market. I dunno that much about it but check on Photo.net - I used to be a regular there and there are some insanely talented people there - the forums are a great help.

    www.photo.net

    3) I've never really put together a web site... I guess I never had to... the majority of my clients are from word of mouth. Like anything once you get the inside track then it's easy to keep that hooked up. I do however send out promotional CD's. With a show that I built in director that has my images in it.

    One of the main reasons I don't care for a web site is that it doesn't allow me to get in front of the client with my book. I like the client to be able to put a face with the name and with the work.

    Lastly, one thing I can't stress enough... categorize and organize your shots. Do it like a religion. If you don't no photo editor/art director will take you seriously... you could end up losing on out if they call for a particular shot and you can't find it and get it out the same day or send it via FTP.

    When start getting towards 1K's worth of images if you're not organized you have no hope. :D

    And the other last thing.... learn the different modes of selling images... never undersell yourself... NEVER. Photo's and images are most definitley intellectual property (IP)... try to read up slowly on how IP laws effect you and what your rights actually are.

    Never sell your copyright to the image... You sell the rights of usage of an image for a certain amount of time or a certain region... but never sell the image and give the buyer the right to reproduce at will or the right to sell your image on to a third party.
    The only time you would is if they offered you a 'buy out' and they're extremely rare and they mean big big bucks. So protect yourself and keep your copyrights! :)
     
  4. nzric

    nzric on lookout for bad guys

    Wow, thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated!

    Yeah, I think the main thing is for me to get confidence in what I produce. Also, Melbourne isn't exactly a current affairs photography "hotspot" so it's easy to make excuses rather than getting creative with the pic subjects.

    And no, I don't have anything on deviantart at the moment. The standard of a lot of work is so high I don't want to put anything on it unless I'm really proud of displaying it. I've got a load of stuff on sxc.hu (under nzric) but I need to upload some of my latest photos.
     
  5. Kwajman

    Kwajman Penguin in paradise....

    Mine are all digital now anyway. No need to print, no one but me ever looks at them.
     
  6. wrydolphin

    wrydolphin Pirates... yaarrrr Supporter

    Beats the heck out of shoeboxes under the bed I guess. :p

    Since I don't do digital, yet probably will have to give in eventually, I have literally hundreds of prints that are worthless. I tend to keep them because for some of them I will end up using elements in a painting or sketch, but it still means I have a massive amount of prints to store somewhere in the house. The good ones get reprinted and framed and usually are farmed out to my friends as presents. Whether they wanted them or not. :D
     

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