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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Getting Started -- how to first get my art out there?

Nick Masson

New member
Hello everybody,

I recently bit the bullet and decided to try and get into the small-scale photo buisness. I have a showing in July of my work, but I was wondering if anybody could give me some tips on how to get my images "out there", besides the normal word of mouth and handing out cards. I am also not sure how to approach magazines or publications that may be interested in using my photos, as well as the licensing protocol, expected return ($), and such.

Anyway, if anybody has a few words of advice on how to get my foot in the door I would really appreciate it. And any constructive criticism, technical or artistic, about my images is ALWAYS greatly appreciated. You can find my work at Aysana Images.

Thanks a million,
-NICK
 

Mike Shimwell

New member
Updated to make link work Nick.

Welcome - others here are more likely to be able to suggest how to be commercially successful with your photography.

Mike
 
Press release to print / electronic media with a promotional CD/DVD slideshow of the images on exhibition
facebook
Blog
Offer a print to be raffled for some 'good cause' that will get a lot of local publicity
 
What market do you want to sell to?

That's the first question you must answer. Then from that you should develop a marketing plan that creates a structured approach to "getting your name out." It doesn't do much good to get your name out to the wrong people.

If you want to shoot weddings for example, you should research wedding marketing tools, and figure out what the best bang for your buck is. And bucks is necessary. You must create a budget, no matter how small, for marketing and advertising.

Make a plan and stick to it. You won't get results over night. It might take 6 months of marketing efforts to get your first job, but you have to persevere in keeping you name in front of your target audience.

The specifics of how and what depend entirely on what kind of photography you want to do/sell, because that determines your target market.
 
Oh, and ditch the music on your web site. It drives more people away than it attracts.

Search forums like FredMiranda.com or Photo.Net for endless discussions of the why not of music on photography sites.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Well Nick,

Nick Masson

I revisited Aysana Images to see what has transpired on your foray to marketing your photography.


Bolivan Woman with stick.jpg


I am impressed with the Bolivian pictures! Those folk do love hats!


Update us on your experience!

Asher
 

Nick Masson

New member
Update:

Hey All,
Thanks for the constructive feedback; I apologize for the late reply. I have since this past summer moved to Colorado to finish my studies, and have been quite swamped with work of another nature... I have continued to expand my portfolio, though at a muted pace, seeking out aspects of my environment closer to home. I find it hard to put myself in the place-of-mind that I find necessary to really appreciate my environment aesthetically when i'm swamped with other obligations, and as a result the return rate on my efforts is lower, and I am not enamored with the bulk-majority of my recent work. If the goal is Nature photography, as it is for me, is to convey the emotions and aesthetic appreciation perceived by the photographer, then the necessary premise is logically that the photographer be in a desirable state-of-mind prior to and while photographing. I hope that when the tides of life shift a bit I might find, once again, the contemplative and quiet state-of-mind that is most conducive to photography (for me).

That being said, I have had my pieces on circulation most of the year at local cafes and other venues. Boulder, CO is certainly a location where a decent percentage of the populous subscribes to an outdoors oriented lifestyle, and I find that I need not be hyper-proactive in 'getting my work out there', as the mentality and modes of appreciation of this milieu seems to be in-line with the nature of my photography.

Thanks all, and happy 'shooting'!
-Nick

p.s. i've uploaded a few long-exposure night images to my site. I have always been enticed by night exposures (with good glass), when the moon is out, and the result is rich, saturated mid-tones where the human eye, with rods only, perceives graytone. At some point i'll need to travel with a tripod (versus propping my camera on rocks, etc...), but I have yet to invest in a stable, light-weight model (don't really feel like dropping $1000), and I find that what I loose in not having a tripod (less sharp images, restricted vantage-point/composition) doesn't exceed what I get by traveling light and fast. Someday i'll figure out a good system...
 
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