Do I stand a chance?

I've made my money, I've served my country, I've done the impossible before and quite honestly, I'm not worried about doing it again. I know it'll be difficult but as ShaneF said, even bad photos can sell. It's about marketing and exposure. I'm truly not worried about the money. I'm worried I'll never make an impact. I really truly appreciate all the feedback, even the deviation in topic. It's all extremely helpful.

Oh well in that case go nuts.

If you don't have to actually make a living at it then you can just kick back and enjoy. Sell a few, sell none, as long as you still learn and enjoy it.
 
Thanks a ton for all the advice. I really truly appreciate all of it. I have a long way to go.
 
As the other guys have said your photos are decent enough, but you need to refine them a bit. I think that you have enough technical proficiency that you could probably get to a stage where your photos have that stop in your tracks wow factor that's missing currently. I agree with the guys who said that looking at it from an art and design perspective and the good news is that it can be learned too.

If you look at the guys who have made it to the top (and I'm not talking about just photography here) often the thing that separates them from a lot of others out there is the drive and determination to keep going along with the balls to do it in the first place. So if that's what you want to do go for it, get the information you need to move up a level and get stuck in.
 
You might want to do a little research into the number of people who have in fact made a career out of landscape photography. I do not have any hard answers here, but would not be surprised to learn that the number of people who have managed to make even a modest living purely at landscape photography numbers less than 10.

It's a bit litle being a concert pianist, at best. Being excellent isn't enough.


Here's 1 of your 10 Gallery | Joe Cornish Gallery
 
Everyone stands a chance. It's what people decide to do with that chance which makes the difference.

Ignore those who say you don't stand a chance...
 
Be proud of your work and stay passionate and I am sure you can reach any of your goals. To be honest Photography is an Art like any other, there will be people out there loving what you do and people who don't, the wider the audience you can reach the more success you'll have! :mrgreen:
 
I'll tell you this... I am learning from one of the absolute best landscape photographers in my state. He is extremely successful in his photography, has had major companies pay for him to travel to photograph for them and has had museums purchase his work.

He still has a day job...
 
He still has a day job...

That's what I don't understand. Is there simply no market for landscapes?

The potential market is affected by several things:
Some of those who would buy now make photographs.
With digital imaging and intelligent cameras, there are countless more people making landscape photographs
The traditional buyer/seller interactions have been distorted irrevocably by the deluge of images, the steep rise in quantity and drop in price of stock photography.
 
No, there isn't much market for landscape photography.

The cost of many a good quality reproduction for sale is substantial, virtually all landscape photography is sold as decor, and there's a LOT of people trying to make some money selling their pictures. The fact that the pictures are sold as decor makes the market somewhat price sensitive. They're going to look for the cheapest picture that matches the couch and is the right size. The upshot is that the canvas-wrap manufacturers are probably doing pretty well, but the artists are in a race to the bottom, cutting margins like crazy.

Absolutely anyone can get into the business trivially these days. There are several web sites that let you simply upload some pictures and set some prices and wait for the money to roll in.

If I wanted a landscape to go behind the couch, I'd spend an hour on one of these sites and pick the cheapest picture that had the right qualities for me. You would too, most likely.
 
I just wanted to say thanks again for all the feedback.

I've given it a lot of thought over the past week and I really just don't want to quit because it'll be difficult, or because of the competition, or because I might not make it. Nothing worth doing is ever easy and this will not be an exception to that rule.

You've all given me so much to think about and in the end, I'm really just don't think it'll be the same if I try and force myself to follow another path just because it's difficult, or even impossible, I won't respect myself no matter how successful I am.

I'll likely fail but I'll never quit trying. :)

Edit: oh and btw, I won the Viewers choice award for the 15th annual California Amateur Coastal Competition. Fairly stoked about that. :)

http://mycoastalphoto.com/winners/2013-winners/ :D
 
Congratulations on the award.

I make my living selling to the public. In my field (contracting), there are a lot of competitors (many/most are contractor wannabees), and there is tremendous competition for every dollar. To survive, I've had to figure out which niche we could operate in which would be large enough to provide enough revenue, narrow enough to eliminate most of the competition, and valuable enough to persuade clients to let go of some of their hard-earned money. In the process, I've learned that my niche may represent only 5% of the potential market, but when I'm in front of them, I have a better than 50% chance of getting them to become clients. The other 95% I have only a 1% chance of getting (mostly due to price). So my marketing efforts are concentrated on finding the 5% of the market that will respond well to the message that I'm putting out. My sales efforts are focused on qualifying the people who respond to our marketing (because maybe 25% will respond and in the end only 5% will actually need my services and be willing to pay my price).

Is this experience relevant to you? Maybe, maybe no. But the fundamental issue for both you and me is to know what the profile of the customer is that meets the criteria (want/need your product or service, willing to pay your price). We both need to know their reasons for buying, their criteria for selecting among a number of possible suppliers, and the trigger points that would move them to (or away) from a buying decision. In other words, KNOW your customer.

The other aspect to remember is that almost no-one buys a product. They buy a set of benefits associated with the product. The benefits may be only in their minds, but since perception is reality, that may be what gets them to decide. Brand marketing is all about associating a set of benefits to the product in the minds of certain consumers. The big boys (and girls) spend a ton of money putting out a consistent message (or sets of messages) to make us believe that their offering (product/service) is unique to them, and if purchased, will fulfill all of the customer's dreams/aspirations/needs/wants. So if your product is landscape photography, you need to think about which set of attributes/benefits you'll need to push to get people to want to buy the photography, and why YOU are the only one who can give them these benefits.
 
Here's my take:

**Disclaimer- I know NOTHING about selling my photos, so take it for what it's worth!**

I figure that people really don't buy regular prints of landscapes because...where are they going to put them? Who really wants an 8x10'' of the beach in a frame unless they were in the picture?

The only landscape art I've ever bought was a large canvas print of the Rocky Mountains when I first came to Colorado. It wasn't anything super special looking (I could've taken it) but it was nice and it made me feel like I was really in Colorado.

I put it over my couch.

I find that the only landscape photographers who sell their art do so in a small niche. For example, there's two real "big" guys here who solely sell prints of shots taken in Colorado. Only the Coloradans are going to buy it, but they will buy it and do so because of the same reason I did. I bought my canvas print from a furniture store that carried several copies of the same photograph. Also, I've only ever been interested in big prints since they make the most impact on me and guests in my house. So, the little 8x10 or whatever really isn't going to do much, unless you are creative with framing.

Since you live near the water, maybe focus on your niche and what you're best at shooting and go from there. Pick a category and run with it.

"John Gannon- Coastal Sunrise Photographer" or what have you.

But again, I am just talking as a consumer.
 
I have a friend who is a 'successful' photographer.
She only does B&W only, she has gallery representation in several good galleries, has won many international prizes and her prints are all limited editions that start in the 500-700 dollar range and up for 8 x 10 (approx).
Is she rich? I don't think so.
She does OK but that is after many years of trying and working and damn good skills in a niche that isn't so crowded.
She does it for the love of it.
 
Hey elementgs,

My name is Austin and I work for www.dripbook.com. I look at professional photography portfolios everyday and I see no reason why you wouldn't stand a chance.

Your photos are really good. Yes, making money in landscape photography is difficult, but it can be done. I see really good landscape portfolios on tons of photographers' pages on our website. My advice to you would be to take the talent you have for landscapes and apply it to other things like food, fashion, beauty, and other genres of photography that companies are hiring for.

With a very diverse portfolio, you will be likely to succeed because you certainly have a knack for it.

All the best,

Austin

You wouldn't be biased towards his developing a portfolio because your company exists to host these portfolios would you?
 

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