From Art Wolfe and Outdoor Photographer Magazine: Get into the Stock Market. In this article, famed photographer Art Wolfe shares his wisdom with aspiring outdoor & nature photographers who are starting down the path of wanting to sell their images. While he discusses many of the fragmenting and frustrating changes in the industry, he does point out that there are still opportunities for photographers, especially as it relates to direct selling.
And speaking of Direct Selling, there’s this from PhotoShelter: Building a “Monumental” Photo Business: How Randy Santos Succeeds Selling Stock Photos. A real good interview with a photographer that self-markets his own work outside of typical agency channels. He gives some great pointers for what is needed if you want to travel the path to success.
From John Cornforth: How Are We Ever Going To Keep Making Money At Photography? A real photographers take on the struggle of trying to survive in the face of a market – on both suppliers and buyer side, that continues the trend toward further devaluing photography. Not a rant of doom or gloom, but a good honest questioning that I’m sure many of us have asked ourselves.
From John Harrington: Burning Bridges. “Don’t take a proactive action where the purpose of that action is to destroy an ongoing interaction pathway between you, and someone else.” On the other hand, are there times when it’s OK or the right thing to do? What about when a question of ethics are involved? Even today, I am struggling with the question of ‘firing’ a client.
From Don Giannatti; the man just keeps firing them out, and each one as good as the last. 10 Pricing Challenges and Strategies for Photographers. – A Must Read. And if you do location photography, you’ll also really appreciate his list of 20+ non-photographic things to bring with you on a shoot.
Bonus Links: This was posted earlier this Spring by photographer, Rosh Sillars, “The Case for Per-Image Pricing“, and serves as a good follow-up read to Don’s 10 Pricing Challenges.
Finally, this brought a smile to my face; For those that know Douglas Adams, do you remember the words on the cover of the Hitchhikers Guide? Oddly, those same words appear in the first bullet point on the Getty Images Blog under ‘what to do if we send you a copyright infringement notice’. See their post on Clarifying Copyright – What It Means for Imagery.
Great post, Gary! Thanks for these links!