Shooting What You Like Or What Sells?

I like to shoot all forms of nature photography. My favorite is wildlife as I love the interaction with the animals. However, I have noticed that by far it is landscape that sells.

I just got back from a trip to the Southwest where virtually all of the photography was landscape and have already sold 3 images. When I return from wildlife trips I get a lot of appreciative comments and people certainly enjoy the images, but sales are few and far between.

So, I have come to the conclusion that if I want to actually develop a better cash flow from my photography I had better do more landscape. I understand this as not many people will hang an image of a bear of elk in their living room. A beautiful mountain scene however has more universal appeal.

Is this the experience you all have had as well?

Why not do both?

How about a beautiful mountain scene with a bear or elk in it? In my experience wildlife shots that "back up" with shorter lenses always sell better than hair and fang closeups.

But to answer my own question, when I've got my 500 f/4 mounted on the tripod, I've always got my 80-200 f/2.8 on another body. I've even glued a foam rubber pad on the highest point of my Wimberly head to allow me to brace the zoom for shooting while also using the longer lens. During slow moments for the long lens, I'm composing and shooting landscapes with the shorter lens. I might even switch to a shorter zoom for an even broader view of the same scene. And if a silly old bear happens to wander out into one of those landscape shots, then I know I've got a good seller on my hands.

Others experience will most certainly vary, of course.

Sometimes I wonder if we wouldn't be financially better off by playing the stock market than trying to determine the photographic market!

My best selling stock images currently are what I call coincidentals. One I shot to kill time while my wife was attending a professional seminar in an afternoon. The other is of a buffalo I took while waiting for a ferry.

It is a business and one has to pay attention to the markets, but suspect if you don't do some shooting for your own pleasure it may diminish the joy of the vocation.

Fortunately I like to shoot lots of different things, but I shoot what I like. If you don't like it, I don't think you will do as good of a job shooting it.

Having said that, when trying to decide what to shoot among the things I like to shoot, I will often migrate towards what well sell - can't ignore the mortgage!

I try to do both. In my experience the grand landscape, which I prefer to shoot, does not sell very well for stock purposes any longer. Since my primary "focus" is stock I tend to find myself shooting nature subjects conceptually so that they can be applied in a variety of ways, not just for calendars and prints. Including people in the landscape, for example, is something that works for stock, not necessarily for prints. So, if I have time I shoot for myself after I have satisfied my stock requirements for the day.

i have a small gallery at the north entrance of yellowstone (gardiner, montana),, i dont do stock, but i can tell you,,there is no figureing out the buying public,,,some of the things i sold this summer were just "things" i put up to fill wall space,,,,so when yall figure out what the public wants, you let me know so i can fill my walls with it and i can only shoot and only edit good stuff,,,all that being said,, those things i shot were things i like to shoot or experiment with so it worked to the good,

I am of one mind with Kim! Try to figure out what the public wants in terms of photography that they're willing to pay for and you'll go nuts.
Do what you like and have fun and as you can try to be aware of trends. Do what you like and have fun is primary-- you're photos will usually be better.
All imho, of course!

Had an interesting chat with a photographer who owns a gallery in Kayenta, Utah (outskirts of St. George). According to him and also to other folks with whom I've discussed this topic, the buying public likes iconic images. Some well known mountain or rock or falls or or water-pool or river in some known location; example, the wave near Kanab, Corona Arch in Moab. That said, most of our photography, unless we are specifically headed in a well-known location, is going to be the best scene we can compose from whatever we find. And if we're fortunate enough to have a gallery in which we hang our work, you never know. Someone will come along and say, "Far out, I must have that" on some image that is simply a joy to look at and to live with. And I think the latter point is most important. Is this image something that a person can live with? Does the image have a compelling feature that draws a viewer? As I'm writing I'm thinking of a giant painting of a storm-tossed vessel that a friend of mine owns. I could sit and look at that for hours. I have an abstract waterfall that is a joy to behold. Each time I look at it, I see something different.
I think if we aim to capture scenes with those qualities, they will interest the buying public--iconic scenes or not.
My 2-cents ;^)

Carol

I'm on the verge of making an actual living with wedding and portrait photography. While I truly enjoy the hell out of weddings, senior portraits and reunions (I reckon I'm really a sentimental fool in misanthrope's clothing) I shoot nature totally for love.

I have a permanent show that's run several months now, and I have had several temporary shows before. All those shows feature nature photographs.

I shoot what I love the way I love to see it. Some of those sell. But my wife hangs over my shoulder some days when I process images, and things that I just shrug my shoulders over she says "WOW" about, and her wows outsell my wows every time. So I've learned to shoot what I love and also shoot what she wows over, and that makes me doubly happy, because I get sales and I get satisfaction.

I'm just pretty darn glad she's got a more "public" or "common" eye than I do, because it would be a pretty short career for a nature photographer if he didn't sell anything. Art indeed is art, but it won't do me any good to starve my whole life for art only to have the public decide it's art after I'm dead.

I would agree with Kim 100%. Perhaps some can figure out the buying habits of the public, but I certainly haven't been able to. It seems you can never tell what might hit someone's fancy, or why. For some reason, probably sentimental, something just "clicks" with someone and they have to have it, even though artistically, it may be lacking somewhat.

Ed, to get back to your original question, landscapes definitely sell better here at the beach. The tourists want to take home a piece of the beach with them, not a critter. The lone exception might be Pelicans, those images move well because they "are" the beach to so many people, and can be included within a landscape easily.

Yes, forgot to even deal with that question.

I rarely have shot landscapes because I'm not moved to do so, and because so many others have done it, and well, that I didn't think it was worth doing. I've changed my perspective on that, though. I'm shooting more of them these days, because I see that they do outsell other types of work by other photographers, and I've gotten a number of inquiries from clients about why I don't offer any landscape images of the Boundary Waters. Guess it's time to spring for that 5D.

Why not shoot what you like then also make time for "stock library" type of shots? Most of what I have sold are travel images, but my biggest sales were for nature. Kind of weird how that works.

I photograph subjects that capture my interest. I also offer prints for sale; these are prints of photographs that I really like a lot and which meet my production standards. When someone purchases one of my prints (and it bears my signature) I want them to know that it is something I am proud of.

My print sales are by no means large, but whenever one gets sold it is satisfying to know that someone else (most often a complete stranger) has taken a delight for something that has meaning for me. This is a wonderful feeling and justfies all the hard work and labor I put into creating my prints. I wouldn't want it any other way.