I was showing at an art and craft fair a while back, and another photographer was showing also. I have been tryng to figure this out ever since. My sales were o.k. and was priced a a good bit highier than hers. I always double mat, package in clear bags. have my photographs printed by a professional printer, the whole nine yards in other words, where as this photographer prints at home on probably a HP deskjet 250, doesn't edit the photographs in any manner, they are soft, blown areas, colour off, etc, packages them in used ziplock bags, taped to th back of a window view mat, no back board. She was selling pretty well, Get this, I even bought an 8x10 from her for $20.00 bucks. This makes me think that people just buy what they really like, and that the general public is not so hung up on sharpness, colour etc, or could it have been the difference in pricing. What do you think. Believe it or not, this was a pretty good size art and craft show.I'm not critizing her, if I were I would not have purchased one myself. She probably had 50 cent invested in the one I purchased for $20.00.
Jackie, I'm with Kent on this one! I too do shows and majority of the time people are just looking for pretty pictures. Unless something in the capture is really awry, most do not care, as long as the overall capture looks good! Don't take this wrong, I take pride in making a good capture that would hopefully meet the criteria of my fellow photographers here, but to the eye of the general public, MOST of the
time they are looking at the whole and not small details!
Jackie, I think you hit it with "people just buy what they really like". Unless you're a big name and people see your work as an investment, people will always prefer what they find aesthetically pleasing, before considering technical aspects.
There is a state park about 80 miles from me that has a gift shop, in that gift shop they have large prints for sale that are matted, supposedly by a well known local photographer. They wanted between $75 and $150 for a print, I am guessing sizes between 8 x 10's and 11 x 14's.
The images were dreadful, blown whites, critical areas of the images were soft, the color tones were whacked, angles were terrible and most were taken in very harsh light. I didn't look closely enough at them to determine if they were even printed professionally.
I mentioned to a friend who was with me, that those images look like the files I delete.
I don't really sell photos any more. I did some of that a few years ago, and it was too much time and work that never paid enough. I never want my photography to feel like a job that I HAVE to do. I use my photos mostly for personal use and for my sharing things on my web pages. I also have some of them on a slideshow screen saver at my job where a lot of people see them. One of my customers has bought several prints from me - she sees something she likes and asks me to sell her a print! I don't think they are technically perfect in any way - but she sees things she likes and wants them. I also submit them to our local news-paper for their "Our Town" page, so that I can share the neat birds and wildlife in our town. I am lucky in that I don't need to make money from my pictures. I just take photos of the things I like, and as my husband tells me, I seem to have "an eye" for good shots. I just think I get lucky sometimes!! (SMILE) I also look at photos with an eye for what I like, not neccesarily the technical aspect of it all.
We choose based on emotion most of the time, and the technical aspects of a photo don't speak to the soul. The general public is not trained to see these technical details and will choose the image that 'speaks' to them the most.
Jackie,,,I've been doing shows for many years and have seen it all. Many buyers not all don't have a clue when it comes to technical detail. The economy doesn't have a thing to do with choice however it does affect overall sales. I've seen people choose poor quality images during good and bad years. A person I've known for a long time never mats or frames his work. He prints it off (before we had the inks we have today) shoves it in a bag with cardboard behind it. His images are average and he sells them way below what others are charging. He cleans up every show!! The person buying doesn't think about what it will take to get their purchase framed. I guess as they say "More power to him" he's making a living at it. I guess pride comes into the picture for some and not others. I retired my show circut this year after 21 years and it was good to me. The key is to continue to put together a product that your proud of and build your reputation and buisness on that. The diserning customer will return!
I think I have not sold more prints because of the furniture than actual numbers of prints I have sold. It is kind of disappointing, but the reality of the market.
The trick is to figure what of your images the public wants, present those, and have high quality. If I knew that with certainty, I wouldn't have a day job.
People will buy what they want to buy, for reasons only they understand.
Considering what my wife likes, loves, hates, and just plain doesn't understand, I have always thought that non-photographers are into the mood that a photo presents and could care less about how technically perfect it is.
this is a hand held, grab shot, photo of the Secesh River that I took on our honeymoon. It's blurry, horribly blown highlights, blocked up shadows, there ain't nuthin' right about this photo. Yet it is one of my wifes favorite photos. She has the damn thing hanging in our living room, right out in front of God and everybody!
I can second Chris's remarks and the others as well, I had a smilar experience as you, however the buyers i did have were discriminating buyers who knew the value that they invested in and they referred more buyers to me over time. What I'm trying to say is that if you put as much work into presenting your work as you did creating it, the rewards will balance out in the end. The quick sere not always the better sells and tend to run out faster.
I've been selling my prints for 20 years now and the sales are still slow, I'm not famous and my book deals are self published. But I know that in the end, if i stay true to the quality of the image and put quality into my long term investment, my rewards are greater even if I don't make as much money as the point and shoot guy in the next booth.
Besides, that's why in my day job, Im a photojournalist.
One more thing... I wouldn't want to sell my best Columbine image to someone who's lookimatch it up with their shower curtain. Lastly, you need to ask yourself. Why are you in this craft, this art, this form of photography? Is it for the money, fame, or because you're passion about your art and form of expression. I tend to go with the latter in my approach, makeel better when I am in that situation you told us about.
I stayed in a terrible, run down hotel the first night I moved to NH. There was mold, bugs and sulfer smelling water. The place is still open, and I always see people staying there...
There are all types of photographers, and there are clients for everyone. Your quality will pay dividends...
Well, the photograph I purchased, will never be framed or hang on my wall. It was that bad, but had it been technically processed, I would have loved it and do regret that it will never be a nice viewable photography for me to enjoy. I have it sitting down in my work room and will glance at it ocassionally as it in some way triggers a memory from long ago. I certainly did not buy it for public display. She took several of my sales, one I remember was of a beautiful humming bird that this particular lady just loved, but she didn't want to pay the price although I knew that she could have. I mentioned to her about this other photographer, and my husband caught her at the other photographers booth purchasing a photograph of a humming bird , and the only way you could tell it was a humming bird was that the head was somewhat clear. It was much cheaper tho. Learned my lesson tho. See, I was thinking that she would go down, look at her quality of work, think about how much better my photos looked and then come back and get that humming bird photo she had wanted for two days. But it didn't happen that way . She did purchase several of my other photographs the day before tho, before I told her about my competitor. What got me was that this was a juried show. Guess you live and learn. Thanks everyone on your thought, I feel somewhat better.
Just goes to show ya.. buyers are fickle. Matters not if they are "fine" art buyers or just casual photo buyers I think. I prepare and frame my work for high-end buyers but I am starving! So I am working now on quality images but a lower cost product; no frames, maybe just a simple mat and backing board in a plastic bag. Probably will be 8x10's and mabe 11x14's. It is tough out there!
John
"I have always thought that non-photographers are into the mood that a photo presents and could care less about how technically perfect it is."
I think all of us would make a lot less money if we depended on sales to photographers for our income. Face it. We're a bunch of photo geeks and nothing is "right" unless it technically perfect. And even so, we're darned unlikely to buy each others' photos. It's a pretty skewed system when we rely so heavily on the views of our geek peers while ignoring the clients we all pine for.
The general public with a P&S camera in their pocket and no technical background responds to mood and subject matter. The more clearly or overtly we can make a subject or mood jump off the page, the more they respond, and the heck with the technical details that don't contribute to the jump.
I did an experiment with the same photo in two galleries. It's an almost profile of a bear standing in the river with it's back to the camera, with shallow DOF so only the bear is in focus. It's arms are hanging limply at its sides but for the paws, which wrap around in front of the bear and out of sight.
For all the world it looks like a bear standing up in a posture to urinate in the human male fashion. To complete the illusion, the water running down it's forearms follows to the paws and arcs out into space in a distinct stream.
My wife was concerned about the reception of the unaltered image by more "genteel" audiences, so I prepared a version with that convincing arc of water removed. The original version with the arc of water went in one gallery and the version without it went into another.
The version without the arc sold exactly two prints in a year (both 5x7's, as I recall), even though that particular gallery is more artsy and has a bigger sales volume. The version with the arc in the smaller gallery completely sold out in the first week, a total of 24 prints ranging from 5x7 to 11x14. It still requires me to replenish stocks in that gallery once a month, and the owners upped my commission considerably in exchange for my agreement not to put it in any other gallery. It's one of their bigger draws. Two different novelty companies are bugging me to license it for T-shirts, gag cards, mugs, and more. You just might see it on the shelves of a resort store in your own neighborhood one day.
So much for "art" and technical excellence to drive sales. Bring on the emotion and subject matter.
Posted by Kent Staubus on May 10, 2008 at 11:22 AM
Hank, as Larry the Cable Guy would say, "Git-R-Done!" LOL!
Kent in SD
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public" --H.L. Mencken
I did art fairs for several years and noticed the same thing. You might do better by concentrating on art fairs and not craft fairs nor ones that call themselves art and craft fairs. Look for the high end art fairs, check reviews by artisans who have done the particular art fair. You also need to take a look at what work you are offering and what your audience is looking for. For example, I noticed that scenic images sold better than closeups; travel images (to foreign countries) did better than landscapes. When it comes down to it, a lot of it is knowing your market and then targeting that market. Good luck with your future shows.
Discussion
23 repliesKent in SD
time they are looking at the whole and not small details!
Guy
There is a state park about 80 miles from me that has a gift shop, in that gift shop they have large prints for sale that are matted, supposedly by a well known local photographer. They wanted between $75 and $150 for a print, I am guessing sizes between 8 x 10's and 11 x 14's.
The images were dreadful, blown whites, critical areas of the images were soft, the color tones were whacked, angles were terrible and most were taken in very harsh light. I didn't look closely enough at them to determine if they were even printed professionally.
I mentioned to a friend who was with me, that those images look like the files I delete.
But I guess people buy them?
I
The trick is to figure what of your images the public wants, present those, and have high quality. If I knew that with certainty, I wouldn't have a day job.
People will buy what they want to buy, for reasons only they understand.
this is a hand held, grab shot, photo of the Secesh River that I took on our honeymoon. It's blurry, horribly blown highlights, blocked up shadows, there ain't nuthin' right about this photo. Yet it is one of my wifes favorite photos. She has the damn thing hanging in our living room, right out in front of God and everybody!
I've been selling my prints for 20 years now and the sales are still slow, I'm not famous and my book deals are self published. But I know that in the end, if i stay true to the quality of the image and put quality into my long term investment, my rewards are greater even if I don't make as much money as the point and shoot guy in the next booth.
Besides, that's why in my day job, Im a photojournalist.
There are all types of photographers, and there are clients for everyone. Your quality will pay dividends...
John
"I have always thought that non-photographers are into the mood that a photo presents and could care less about how technically perfect it is."
I think all of us would make a lot less money if we depended on sales to photographers for our income. Face it. We're a bunch of photo geeks and nothing is "right" unless it technically perfect. And even so, we're darned unlikely to buy each others' photos. It's a pretty skewed system when we rely so heavily on the views of our geek peers while ignoring the clients we all pine for.
The general public with a P&S camera in their pocket and no technical background responds to mood and subject matter. The more clearly or overtly we can make a subject or mood jump off the page, the more they respond, and the heck with the technical details that don't contribute to the jump.
I did an experiment with the same photo in two galleries. It's an almost profile of a bear standing in the river with it's back to the camera, with shallow DOF so only the bear is in focus. It's arms are hanging limply at its sides but for the paws, which wrap around in front of the bear and out of sight.
For all the world it looks like a bear standing up in a posture to urinate in the human male fashion. To complete the illusion, the water running down it's forearms follows to the paws and arcs out into space in a distinct stream.
My wife was concerned about the reception of the unaltered image by more "genteel" audiences, so I prepared a version with that convincing arc of water removed. The original version with the arc of water went in one gallery and the version without it went into another.
The version without the arc sold exactly two prints in a year (both 5x7's, as I recall), even though that particular gallery is more artsy and has a bigger sales volume. The version with the arc in the smaller gallery completely sold out in the first week, a total of 24 prints ranging from 5x7 to 11x14. It still requires me to replenish stocks in that gallery once a month, and the owners upped my commission considerably in exchange for my agreement not to put it in any other gallery. It's one of their bigger draws. Two different novelty companies are bugging me to license it for T-shirts, gag cards, mugs, and more. You just might see it on the shelves of a resort store in your own neighborhood one day.
So much for "art" and technical excellence to drive sales. Bring on the emotion and subject matter.
Kent in SD
"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public" --H.L. Mencken
I did art fairs for several years and noticed the same thing. You might do better by concentrating on art fairs and not craft fairs nor ones that call themselves art and craft fairs. Look for the high end art fairs, check reviews by artisans who have done the particular art fair. You also need to take a look at what work you are offering and what your audience is looking for. For example, I noticed that scenic images sold better than closeups; travel images (to foreign countries) did better than landscapes. When it comes down to it, a lot of it is knowing your market and then targeting that market. Good luck with your future shows.
David Gubernick
Carmel Valley, CA