To sell a photo

After deciding to become a professional photographer, I had a quick think about what it actually takes, more on this later. However, I decided the most important thing, above equipment, above what I tell people my occupation is, above approaching pretty girls in the street and asking to take their photo without getting slapped, above all else, was to sell a photo.

Now, at this stage, I am limited in many ways. I am limited in my photographic experience, I am limited in my camera equipment, and I am limited in my sales experience. Not to let these small details stand in my way – I decided to go back through my photo library (aka happy snaps from holidays) and see if I could pull out any photos that someone else might want to buy. After a few hours of searching and reminiscing, I ended up with a LOT of great photos! These photos were of me doing silly things in front of the Great Wall of China, of friends smiling while stretched out sunbaking on a beautiful beach and of some nice scenery shots. I was onto something here! This professional photography caper isn’t that hard afterall!

Now, at the moment, I don’t have a lot of time to wander around selling my photographs to local business and the art collectors who I know would want one of my original photographs. The value of these photos is only going to rise as my name gets out there and I become more famous. To avoid the effort of finding buyers, I thought I would let the buyers find me. After all, these photos are great and the internet will simply bring people to me - The cream (or is it crème?) always rises to the top. A quick Google search found a website where I could create a profile and upload my photos. They can be ordered by customers as cards, prints, t-shirts, all manner of things really. The website handles all the invoicing payment etc, and I simply add a mark-up to the base price, and this is my profit. Perfect! You can check it out here, have a look round and see if you like it.

After finding my soon to be award winning photos, I have since gone back through them and culled them down to three. I realised that although they are great photos, other people probably aren’t going to want to buy them. I think they should buy them, but they just don’t know they should buy them…yet. So I decided to focus on three photos – a photo of a flurry of goldfish, a photo of a piranha feeding frenzy and a tight crop of a peacock on display. I figure that these photos are generic enough to be searched for and all are interesting in their own right. This is where they are available for sale here.

I have since created an account and uploaded my photos. Let the fun begin! By the time I post my next blog, I will probably have sold my first photograph. This may not be enough to call myself a professional photographer – but at least I might be able to elevate my status from enthusiast to amateur?