Selling shots...

I posted this in Critique and have not really gotten an answer yet so I am sorry for the cross post.

I am neither pro nor semi-pro but I have a ton of shots from the past 2 years (See some here: www.vr6.org/msp/) and I was hoping to monetize some of them to help pay for more equipment.

I was thinking stock photography but that does not seem to be the answer as they want everyday people doing every day things.

I have, however, been getting quite a bit of feedback from people about putting prices on my portfolio and some info on myself (which with no formal training and shooting for 2 years will be... yawn... boring but necessary . The problem is I have absolutely no idea what on earth to sell them for.

How can I find a way to price my photos as the only sites I see with prices seem to be real pros... Also, does marketing your own photos work?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the novel!

onefastvr6, you have excellent shots and your website is cool.

Though I have not sold any of my shots I have posted mine to shutterpoint.com - hoping to sell some. You may want to check that site out.

You site is fantastically done. I am in the process of developing my site and would be very pleased if it came out half as well as yours.

- Digital Prophet -

Thanks for your comments and quick response! I will definately check it out. How long have your shots been on shutterpoint.com?

Well, I'm sure it will but if it does not I am hatching a plan to make my design public with everyone linked together. Not really great for pro's since it shows their competition but get the rest of us some more exposure.

I should probably add that I cannot shoot for others... I have done some product photography and really found it took the fun out of it. Photography for me is an excuse to go to new places

That, and an absolute refusal to specify in a few catergories, will keep me an amatuer for life!

I personally have been on shutterpoint.com for about 3 months now. However, I have a friend who has had her photos posted on shutterpoint for about a year now and she has earned some money. Nothing to make you a $M but some income to help out a bit.

Another site I have come across is smugmug.com. Again I donot have any experience with that one.

I donot have many photos as yet so am not investing much of my time to create a website. Hopefully once I have created a pile of about 100 or so I shall create a website.

Good luck

smugmug is good, but for a basic user, you won't make much profit from print sales, only if you are power user or pro user, then you can set price on your prints.

I'd like to hear more sites that would help you sell photos, do they usually charge you for their service or take a cut from your sales?

My hubby brought home a book. Photographer's Market 2004 ISBN 1-58297-186-2 Writer's Digest Books F&W Publications. It contains contact info from 2000 different companies. Everything from galleries, stock co., artists, etc. Also includes prices these guys are willing to pay. I found an artist in Conneticut that was interested in some of my photos of children.

I'm finding niche markets to be magic. They're out there ready and willing to pay us money for what we love to do. We've just gotta find them and some of them are in this book. Happy Hunting

I found the Photographer's Market book to be virtually worthless.

Before I had the book, I identified 18-19 publications that seemed appropriate for my work. Of those, only two were even listed in the book.

---Bob Gross---

onefastvr6 wrote:
I should probably add that I cannot shoot for others... I have done some product photography and really found it took the fun out of it. Photography for me is an excuse to go to new places

That, and an absolute refusal to specify in a few catergories, will keep me an amatuer for life!

I couln't have put it better myself

onefastvr6 wrote:
I should probably add that I cannot shoot for others... I have done some product photography and really found it took the fun out of it. Photography for me is an excuse to go to new places

That, and an absolute refusal to specify in a few catergories, will keep me an amatuer for life!

thats why u shoot first, then sell