Profit from your photos!

     In this post I want to touch again on the ways to get your photography business off the ground.  First of all photography for profit is something that is sought by many, but found by few, that is to say “it ain’t easy.”  Many a photographer with exceptional talent has languished in obscurity due to their failure to observe one basic principal, sell the public what they want, before you try to sell them
what you think they should want.  In other words search out the preferences of the buyer and exploit those segments of the market to your benefit.  Not all of us can be lucky enough to get that once in a lifetime shot like the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on VJ Day 1945.
     Playing on people’s ego is a great way to make money with your photographs, some of the target groups that I have exploited in the past include baby photos, custom automobile photos, flowers, and sports events.  But before we get started all of this information is predicated on the fact that you have purchased a wide format (13X19) printer and learned how to correct and enhance your images, and then mat, back and shrink wrap your finished product.  Everyone takes photos now and a great many people print them, but very few know how to make them frame ready, and that is where the money can be made.
     The very first way I made money with my camera was to go to local car shows carrying my camera and a couple of examples of matted and backed car photos that I showed to potential customers.  These guys and girls take tons of photos of their cars but rarely go to the next level of having them made frame ready.  If you can show them how great their car would look hanging on the living room or den wall by showing them a good looking example the sale almost makes itself.  If they have a favorite photo they have taken of their car but don’t have it with them, you can always give them a card with your email address on it and have them send it to you electronically.  It’s always a good idea to get their email address also (if they are willing) for future marketing purposes.  A good way to convince them to give you their email address is to take a picture of their car and offer to enhance it and then send them a copy of the finished image by email.
     Another great place to offer frame ready prints is a flower show.  Flower photos can be of multi-value, they not only appeal to the owner of the flower, but also to decorators, or anyone looking for a colorful wall print to hang on their wall.  This is a great cross over market and the fee for setting up a small booth at a local flower show is usually the cheapest form of advertising that you will find anywhere.  Setting up a small booth at one of these shows can be of untold benefit to your business and don’t forget to have an example or two of things like baby photos, or a local sports scene.  I have found that you can generate instant business by attending small shows but perhaps even more important future customers that will want prints made.
     Summing things up, photography is a discipline that almost demands that you start small or at the bottom and work your way up.  Becoming a financially successful photographer is a lot like trying to become a movie star by being discovered while working as a waiter or waitress in a Hollywood restaurant, it might happen, it did for Lana Turner, but I wouldn’t bank on it.  Hard work, perseverance, and a thick skin is a much more workable approach.