$$$ Photos that made you MONEY $$$

I haven't seen this around, but then again I'm new! If there's one sorry!

I was just wondering if you guys could share some of the photos that made you money.

Hopefully with a brief caption on how and how much ... Thanks!

I don't think this thread will be a successful one, no offense to you. Most buyers urge their clients (photographers) not to post the pictures elsewhere, or it would be a violation of terms.(if that makes sense?...)

I'm sorry, I don't have the exact image on this computer at the moment, but I sold a full-resolution image of utensils to someone to print out as a poster and put in their dining room. $20. I was 16, so it was like hitting the jackpot to get paid for a picture!

My highest priced sale was $5500 for complete rights purchase. So I can't display it, I specifically only have the ability to show as print in my portfolio and specifically not electronically. But it was a shot of a Grizzly catching a salmon and was sold to a national insurance company to be used in their training program.

jon.t. wrote in post #7165497
I don't think this thread will be a successful one, no offense to you. Most buyers urge their clients (photographers) not to post the pictures elsewhere, or it would be a violation of terms.(if that makes sense?...)

yeap perfect sense - goes to show you, how many pictures I have sold ..

nevertheless I wish I could see some work even if watermarked or a link to a place that I can see some of the work people have sold .. but thanks a lot for that info!

Dennis_Hammer wrote in post #7166038
But it was a shot of a Grizzly catching a salmon and was sold to a national insurance company to be used in their training program.

The Grizzly symbolizing the insurance company and the salmon symbolizing us?

just curious do you guys put your portfolios out there or did someone just stumble on your photos and contact you etc?

jon.t. wrote in post #7165497
I don't think this thread will be a successful one, no offense to you. Most buyers urge their clients (photographers) not to post the pictures elsewhere, or it would be a violation of terms.(if that makes sense?...)

Agreed. Licensing. I retain rights, but most of the publishers I work for ask that they publish originals that have not been published elsewhere. Also agreed is that they not be republished (by me) for 90 days after the publication (distribution) date. After that, they're available for sale again, but publishing them here might hamper any future licensing agreements.

Huh, I do wonder how much is being paid for people not able to post there own images or be able to sell them to other outlets. A total buyout OK, but a paper, magazine, etc. does not pay enough to do this - unless of course you're a full time employee.

I've had plenty of images make me money, hard to choose one and can't really think of one that stands out though I know some have made a good chunk of change. Usually it's certain players that make me good money, for example we had an outfielder this year who I shot all his cards for a few different companies plus usage in a few publications so it all added up but were different images for the most part. So not one of his images made too much, but a bunch of his did. Do remember one portrait of a player made me good money but don't have it on this computer as that was film days.

As for seeing "sold" work...
www.mikejanesimages.co​m is a direct link to my editorial archive. Published area shows some stuff that sold and some of the other images on the site have sold while others haven't. Many of my youth/high school images at mikejanesphotography.c​om have sold as well, to parents and family of course.

Ruckus99ss wrote in post #7167518
just curious do you guys put your portfolios out there or did someone just stumble on your photos and contact you etc?

Number one is you should have a PROFESSIONAL website to show off your work. Not a flickr or something like that. My images are all tagged and come up in searches so get contacted through that, plus of course working my backside off in the first place to have a list of clients who check my archives when images are needed as well as planning ahead for events contacting those who might use the images. Clients are not going to come running to you, you have to work to get your images in front of the right eyes.

It's not a bad idea to have a flickr or those sites with watermarked images and thought of putting my entire archive on there but with a very obtrusive watermark as MANY people use flickr and similar sites to steal as much as they can. However, now it's teamed up with Getty who search to find images on there. But, like I said there would be a nice watermark to prevent stealing.