Prints for Sale

I was asked several times while doing my 365 Project if I thought about selling my photography. At the time I didn't feel like I was in a good place to sell. I was putting more effort into learning how to take a good photo. Well...over the past two years I have been putting some effort into selling my prints...here is the link to my Smugmug and affordable photography prints.

http://robweiher.smugmug.com/

A stroll on a foggy beach

IMG_1964-Edit, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

Pelicans

pelicans, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

Smugmug & what ended up being my journey to it

One of my biggest failings as a photographer has been selling myself to others. When I was doing my 365 project back in 2009 I got a little recognition and was asked several times if I was planning on selling my work. My answer was always yes...I'm just not there yet. Not sure if I lost potential sales or not but it probably wouldn't have hurt to have some way of selling my photos back then.

The biggest issue really was that I didn't even have any of my work on my own walls. I hadn't had anything printed so didn't know if it even looked good on paper. This was misstep #1. I finally got around to having some of my images printed and decided with having a landscape, a flower and a black and white printed on all the different types of paper available from the printer. It doesn't cost much to do this if you go with a smaller size just to get a feel for what your images will look like on different papers. I love black and white on metallic paper...heck I enjoy almost all my images on metallic really. This I wouldn't have known if I hadn't experimented.

Misstep #2 was thinking I needed to comply with some industry norm on printing and pricing. I scoured the internet looking for the best way to print my images. For as many books, magazines and blogs there are on every other aspect of photography there is very little on printing and selling. My questions were...do you print full page or do you leave some kind of border? Some people always showed prints with their name emblazoned on the bottom...like a poster. Other's printed with borders so the mats wouldn't cover parts of the photos and others printed full page and expected that some of the photo would be cut off with the mat. Argh...no standard way of doing it. The best thing for me would have been to print them out different ways and see how like them. I finally got around to doing this and found that printing with a border made it painful with cutting and sizing mats. Printing and matting a full page was better...sure it cut off some of the photo but usually only 1/4 inch or so around the outside...hopefully the best parts of your image are not on that small amount of space.

Misstep #3 was assuming that there is some kind of pricing standard for fine art photography. It really comes down with what you feel comfortable charging and if you want some kind of profit all of your sales. I think I have a pretty decent price on my images...I've sold one 4x6 image in the 1+ year I've had my Smugmug account. I think I have $1.76 sitting in my account waiting for me to spend.

That brings me to misstep #4...not promoting myself effectively. Or rather not really liking the idea that I may have to spam my friends and family on Facebook and other social networks in hopes of selling my work. This I have not gotten over and is the single most frustrating aspect of being an artist...for me. You know...those time honored questions have entered my head...does my work just suck? or is my audience not the right audience for my work? back to my work must suck. You know the drill.

Okay...this blog post was not intended to detail my missteps. It was supposed to be about me having a Smugmug account and that as of today I'm using the new Smugmug designs.

http://robweiher.smugmug.com/

Field of Pink & Green

36520090524_3063-Edit, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

Backyard Garden

IMG_1656-Edit, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

Sometimes you don't have to look any further than your own backyard for a photograph.

Brown patterns

Google+ has been a great place to meet other photographers and see a vast array of images that inspire me to want to be a better photographer. There are also things like scavenger hunts and daily themes that help with pushing you out of your safety zones. One of the most popular events on Google+ for photographers is the Chrysta Rae Scavenger Hunt. The hunt is limited to the first 500 people who sign up and there are 10 categories to do. You have a month and then all the photos are collected by Chrysta and given over to a group of "photography celebrity" judges to vote on. The above photo was for the "Brown" category and was taken when I was in Indianapolis for a conference. It didn't win but I was happy to have found something that I thought fit the category pretty well. It's interesting to see all the different ways people interpret each category. I'll probably not do the scavenger hunt again but will still look forward to the reveals for those who continue to do them.

Sexy Flowers

strawflower3, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

There was a time during my 365 Project that I told myself that photographing flowers was boring and not very manly. I know I know...kind of a stupid thing to think.

The funny thing is some of the best flower photographers that I know, personally or online, are burly manly men. From an outsider perspective I would think it would be kind of funny seeing a group of guys standing around some flowers taking photos of them as if they were scantily clad female models. :)

I'll take flowers over models any day...I think flowers are sexier.

Allen Hummingbird

hummingbird1, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

It was incredibly fun trying to photograph these hummingbirds the other day. While it was fun it was also a bit frustrating. Frustrating more in the sense that to truly do birds, wildlife, landscape and so on you need really expensive lenses to get the tack sharp images you see in the magazines.

Don't get me wrong...I like how these images turned out and I've gotten past the point of caring how my images compare to others. What I lack in expensive gear I make up in pushing what I have to give me the best possible image. My gear limitations have also helped me discover my enjoyment of experimenting with abstracts and blurs. Which has really become my favorite style of photography.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird, originally uploaded by Rob Weiher.

I drove up to the Santa Cruz Arboretum this morning to meet up with a few people I've met on Google+ and spend some time photographing flowers and hummingbirds. It was a fun morning.

This was my first time trying to photograph these little birds. I always assumed you needed a really big lens but was informed that my 55-250mm would be just fine. My new friend Barry told me what settings he uses and off I went.

minimum 1/1250, f/7.1 and whatever ISO you need to keep a fast shutter speed (in my case today between 400 and 640).