Disclaimer: We are not worried about money. Brandon has a job. Our families love us and support us. We are paying all bills on time and can indulge in fast-food or $3.75 matinees occasionally. Life is good. We are not worried about money. But…
I found something I really, really want to buy Brandon for his birthday. It’s only 9 months away and I need to sell my soul a few photos to help pay for it.
A little bit of random research into photo printing and publishing options led me to a few conclusions:
1) There are a lot of bad photos for sale online.
2) I really don’t want to add to that cyber landfill.
3) I have a sneaking suspicion every professional photographer out there dies a little inside when someone armed with a digital camera and Flickr account decides to “go pro.”
So, I had to step back and ask myself a few questions.
Would I print and hang Photos By Me on my wall? Heck, yes! I would love to have an unlimited printing-and-framing budget to add some personality to our little home.
Does that mean other people feel the same way? I’ve learned to stop believing my intrinsic view of the world is shared by many others.
Is it worth a shot to find out? With a free service like RedBubble, I’m not really sure what I have to lose. I guess stranger things have happened.
So, where do I begin?
After spending even more time flipping through my photo archives (16,000+ images in the last 4 or 5 years), I realize I am a horrible judge of the quality of my work. I like some pieces for personal reasons. I hate others without any reason. I am not trained in art. I have no idea what the difference is between a photograph that is artistically and technically flawless that doesn’t sell and other weird crap that people love to buy.
I think the last paragraph just made any professional photographer out there throw up a little in their mouth and nearly pass out while choking on fumes of disdain.
I’ve decided to take the amateur-ness of my lack of photography (or art or marketing) training out of my decision to sell my photos online. Or rather, I’ve decided to increase the amateur-ness exponentially by including all of you in the process. Yes, that’s right. YOU are going to decide which photos I upload to sell online.
Each week I will choose a different theme. I will upload 5 photos and open the voting to ye loyal readers. You don’t actually have to say “Yes! I’m going to buy that photo! Here is my money!” but if you did buy a photo from that set, which one would it be? At the end of the week, the winner will be uploaded to my RedBubble account and we’ll see if anything sells.
And since I’m making you part of the “work” process, I have to include you in the “payoff” process. For every 10 prints I sell, I will send 1 for free to a random reader/voter.
Do we have a deal?
my immediate family (bless them) has been telling me for years that i should be selling my photos and should already be famous. um, hard to make that happen when it’s just a hobby. i just tell them someday… someday… :) i’m in for the voting!
sounds fun, i’m in !
great idea! can’t wait to see what photos you choose.
Wonderful idea!! I am looking forward to voting. Just think how much money you can save by sending the random photo winner to the reader across the room : )
Hells yeah! :))
Good idea, although it’s a big step from hobby to business, I have heard the same thing from friends and relatives about selling some of my photos; but I keep them on my walls instead, or give them as gifts.
Friends of mine who have successfully sold photos started out with a theme, either taking car photos, or snowboarding shots for magazines, or pet photos, or wildlife/ birds, and then getting more business from that smaller focused market.
I suspect that your photos would do well, from what I remember of your old flickr page you have a great creativity and a sense of fun to your photos.
ps, the AE-1 was my first camera, my parents got it as a wedding present 30 years ago and only ever used it on Auto. lol.
Great idea! I looked at doing that once on istockphoto.com which is an Alberta company. Looking forward to voting and probably buying too!
:-)
I demand that BCWB be disqualified from the contest! He can vote, but that’s it!
I have an all-time favourite picture…out of all the pictures i’ve ever looked at of yours…it’s the one with you and maddy walking ankle deep in the water. Just sayin’ that’s a nice one.
I’ve been needing a new camera for years but have no money to buy one. I’ve been squeamish about selling my photos to a stock site but I’m afraid I’m going to have to. Same goes for you – If you really want to earn some money, I think you should forget about Red Bubble and go microstock. You have A LOT of photos and they’re technically well done – this is what counts on stock sites and this will get you money fast. You need to put work into uploading and tagging though.
Great idea Jen. Everyone is feeling the pinch these days but certainly the students must be feeling it worse than the working folk who have something reasonably steady coming in. It certainly does get the brain storming about new ways to support the cost of living. I’m wishing you big success with it. How do we vote? I just went to Red Bubble and can’t see a “vote” button. Or is it old school voting…I write my choice down in a comment field here on your blog? My choice is for the spiral. I like all your shots but I like that it is less geographically specific than the others.
I love voting!
Are we allowed to purchase as well?