Why do you (as an amateur) want to sell your photos

[greybeard]

I've sold a few over the years, usually spend the money on more photo gear.

 

[LRYoung]

So is this thread a subtle way to suggest selling your photo's can make you money

I assume most people know that selling stuff can make money

 

[LRYoung]

Why is it that the people who are trying to sell something are the only ones who equate "Free" and "Worthless"?

If you give something away totally for free it takes no effort on the part of the receiver, "It's free, I'll take all the free stuff I can get". The fact they downloaded it is not any indication that they want it - they are just seduced by "free".

As soon as they do something in order to get your photos, they are showing they value it. Money is one way of doing that, even if its just $1, but may not be the best way. If they made the effort to send you an email asking for a copy of your photo. That took some time, so it is no longer "Free".

Thats just how I feel, you may well disagree and I won't try and argue you round

 

[SCraig]

Why is it that the people who are trying to sell something are the only ones who equate "Free" and "Worthless"?

If you give something away totally for free it takes no effort on the part of the receiver, "It's free, I'll take all the free stuff I can get". The fact they downloaded it is not any indication that they want it - they are just seduced by "free".

As soon as they do something in order to get your photos, they are showing they value it. Money is one way of doing that, even if its just $1, but may not be the best way. If they made the effort to send you an email asking for a copy of your photo. That took some time, so it is no longer "Free".

Thats just how I feel, you may well disagree and I won't try and argue you round

So, by the same argument, if someone gives you a gift at Christmas then it's totally worthless, right? It has absolutely no value whatsoever simply because someone gave it to you without you having to do anything for it.

You are right in that I disagree.

 

[molested_cow]

I don't completely agree with you. I've not sold my photos before, but would love to.
However, I've given photos away for free, because people asked if they can have a copy to print. They wanted to pay with something but I just offered the photos to them for free.
Other times, I've given framed prints as gifts. I can tell you that they appreciate the photos more than if they paid for it.

I don't really want to get into the stock photo business. I am thinking along the line of selling for a purpose, like fund raising, and it should not be just random photos but perhaps themed around the purpose of the event. For example, if I were to sell photos to raise fund for a school, I'd probably shoot with subjects related to the school.

 

[LuckySe7en]

I don't understand why some of you would give away your prints. The way I see it is very simple: I put time and effort into my work so at the very least if you want a print, you can purchase a print for what it costs me to print it. I'm not going to buy the print for you.

 

[RedVixen81]

I voted and i put other.. The idea to sell my photos is one that has crossed minds many times.. but right now since i am still an armature i don't think i would till i was 100% confident in the work that i was producing. Now that is not to say that if someone offered to purchase a photo, that i would tell them no. But for right now i don't plan to market my photos for sale on my own.

 

[SCraig]

I don't understand why some of you would give away your prints. The way I see it is very simple: I put time and effort into my work so at the very least if you want a print, you can purchase a print for what it costs me to print it. I'm not going to buy the print for you.

I don't understand why there are people who feel that they have to put a price tag on every single thing that they do in life.

What happened to doing something purely and simply because you enjoy doing it? Does absolutely every thing that people do have to be so they can get paid for it? I ENJOY photography. It isn't my career, nor have I ever wanted it to be, it's something I do because I want to. If I take a photograph of someone at a race they are more than welcome to a copy of it. I have never turned anyone down, nor have I ever charged a penny. It makes me feel good to give them something that is useful to them and that is "Payment" enough for me.

 

[LuckySe7en]

I don't understand why some of you would give away your prints. The way I see it is very simple: I put time and effort into my work so at the very least if you want a print, you can purchase a print for what it costs me to print it. I'm not going to buy the print for you.

I don't understand why there are people who feel that they have to put a price tag on every single thing that they do in life.

What happened to doing something purely and simply because you enjoy doing it? Does absolutely every thing that people do have to be so they can get paid for it? I ENJOY photography. It isn't my career, nor have I ever wanted it to be, it's something I do because I want to. If I take a photograph of someone at a race they are more than welcome to a copy of it. I have never turned anyone down, nor have I ever charged a penny. It makes me feel good to give them something that is useful to them and that is "Payment" enough for me.

Maybe you misunderstood me. I enjoy photography as well and I've done a lot of free stuff and continue to. I'm more than happy to order you a 4x6 or maybe even a 5x7, I'll just throw it in with my next batch of prints. But you have to draw the line somewhere or people will take advantage.
Let's say you took a picture of someone at a race and they come up to you and say "hey, do you mind giving me a 20x24 framed print of that shot?" Are you willing to do that?

 

[JeremyDueckPhoto]

What happened to doing something purely and simply because you enjoy doing it? Does absolutely every thing that people do have to be so they can get paid for it? I ENJOY photography. It isn't my career, nor have I ever wanted it to be, it's something I do because I want to. If I take a photograph of someone at a race they are more than welcome to a copy of it. I have never turned anyone down, nor have I ever charged a penny. It makes me feel good to give them something that is useful to them and that is "Payment" enough for me.

I dont want to criticize people who are hobbyist photographers (because they do have a choice). Overall I need to take the best photos to require payment anyway. It pushes me to excel. But many photographers dont understand economics. The reality in the industry is that 1 million hobby photographers giving away free photos is like Napster giving away free music, it drives the professionals out of the industry.

I talked to a budding photographer last week that was doing a free gig for a client. She thought she was getting exposure and experience and there wasn't anything else she could do. But what she didn't realize is that she probably took money out of the hands of a paid photographer. And it was like a light bulb went off in her head when I said she could charge for her work... she didn't think she was "good enough"

 

[Tkot]

For me, as an amateur I want to sell photos 1) just to make some extra money to support my hobby, and 2) as a way of gaining experience in the art/photography world. Eventually I'd like to have my work in galleries, so this is my first step in that direction.

 

[KmH]

If you have $1000 invested in photography gear, another $300 in image editing software, $1000 in computer gear, and sell a photo for $25 - you didn't make any money by selling the photo.

However, you only have $2275 left to of your capital gear investment to recoup. Of course that's assuming you don't take your time shooting and editing into account.

In other words, if you sell photos for an average of $25 each, and have $2300 worth of gear, you will have to sell 92 photos to break even on gear amd software alone.

 

[Railphotog]

I never started out taking photos with the idea of making money from them, but it sorta happened. I belonged to a car club that operated a local drag strip, and the club needed a few photos of the action for PR. I evolved from taking a few photos once in a while to being the track photographer. I did my own B&W developing, and offered enlargements to the racers; my part time career had begun. I would have been at the races if I wasn't taking photos, so I had the fun of being trackside seeing the action up close. Next race I'd offer photos for sale. I expanded into other distant tracks too, and then to a stock car track. While my trips to these distant venues probably didn't actually make much if any profit, I was enjoying two hobbies at little or no cost.

Got into part time wedding photography, did that for about 25 years. It was always nice to have some extra cash to support my photo hobby, and not have the guilt of spending money from our household budget.

Started photographing aspects of another hobby of mine (model railroading) and submitted photos to hobby magazines. Have been doing this for about 35 years now, and it has been fairly rewarding. Again I was participating in two hobbbies and having fun, and getting paid for it! With over 850 hobby photos printed, including 30 covers, my wildest expectations have all been met. And they paid me for the photos too! Doesn't get better than that.

 

[SCraig]

Maybe you misunderstood me. I enjoy photography as well and I've done a lot of free stuff and continue to. I'm more than happy to order you a 4x6 or maybe even a 5x7, I'll just throw it in with my next batch of prints. But you have to draw the line somewhere or people will take advantage.
Let's say you took a picture of someone at a race and they come up to you and say "hey, do you mind giving me a 20x24 framed print of that shot?" Are you willing to do that?

No, I'm not willing to do that. I go to events such as races as a spectator and when I do I take a lot of photographs. I'm more than happy to give anyone who desires one a high-resolution copy of the photograph, post-processed and everything. If they choose to have it printed that's up to them, and that's what I would tell them if they asked for one.

I dont want to criticize people who are hobbyist photographers (because they do have a choice). Overall I need to take the best photos to require payment anyway. It pushes me to excel. But many photographers dont understand economics. The reality in the industry is that 1 million hobby photographers giving away free photos is like Napster giving away free music, it drives the professionals out of the industry.

Yep, and I couldn't care less. I've said this before and I'll say it again: If you are in a position where amateurs are taking your business away then you are either doing it wrong or charging too much.

Professional photographers bemoaning the fact that amateurs are taking business away from them have lost sight of the fact they that are supposed to be professionals. They are supposed to be able to surpass the abilities of any amateur, they are supposed to have the equipment, abilities, and knowledge to accomplish that, and they are supposed to be able to accomplish this in a timely manner and at a reasonable price.

This is not optional. A professional photographer is REQUIRED to produce professional results. If they cannot do so then they are in the wrong profession. If amateurs are taking business away from them then they need to look long and hard at how they are doing things and figure out a way to reverse that situation. It is NOT the responsibility of the amateur to stop giving away photographs, it is the responsibility of the professional to justify their fees through professional conduct and abilities. If they cannot do that, then it's time to look for another job.

 

[LuckySe7en]

My initial comment was "I don't understand why some of you would give away your prints."