Sparta Calendars

I have to say I was shocked when I received an email about showcasing one of my photographs in there 2009 "Four Seasons" Calendar. Misty Morning
Well as you know I have never sold my artwork in such a capacity so I had no idea how much to charge, or anything about the copyrights involved.

So I set about to do a bit of research and came across a few sites that were very helpful and useful so I thought I would pass them on to you guys.

Bergman Graphics is where I started.
Bergman lists several sites on how to set a price for your work. And here they are

Cradoc Corporation
www.fotoquote.com
PO Box 1310
Point Roberts, WA 98281
800-679-0202

Now I went to this site and it is a program you pay for you punch in the information and it will give you a price to ask for based upon your answers. Such as, commercial or private sale. Or magazine or brochure, size of picture, length of rights, world or national. Well you get the idea.

Now Photographers index is similar to the fotoquote site but it is free and it is a great place to start.

Seth Resnick offers free stock photography pricing tables.

Editorial Estimator is a bit more complex and has a lot more options. It does appear to be free however and we all know how much I like free. :)

Now you will notice there is nothing in there about calendars and most of the price vary quite a bit from each different source.

Here are some of the prices I came up with. I used Brochure/catalog, full page color, and less than 10000.

Photographers Index
Type of Use:: Advertising
Specific Use:: Brochures / Catalogs
Press Run:: 10,000 or less
Size:: Full page or Major Illustration
Low Price:: $400.00
Average Price:: $600.00
High Price:: $800.00
Survey = 168

I also ran across an article mostly written for writers but has a small piece in there about photographs sold to calendar companies.
SELLING TO THE GREETING CARD AND CALENDAR MARKETS

" Compared to greeting cards, magazines or some of the other specialty markets for photographs the calendar market isn't as big as you might think. The reason? Calendars are very seasonal and they only have one to 13 images each. So even a company that publishes 50 calendars will only need a max of 650 images.

Reality Check:
The competition is fierce because getting your photos published on a calendar is VERY GOOD for the portfolio as well as the ego. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing your photo(s) on a nice big high quality calendar.

Pay Rates:
The fees range from poor to great $50 to $1200 per photo. Some calender companies want an outright purchase of the image and transfer of copyright, while others just want exclusive rights for the year of publication.

If you have been in any of the "all calendar" specialty stores that open up in November/December ... you know that there are calendars on virtually every hobby, and interest you can think of ... cars, locomotives, cats, dogs, flowers. The biggest sellers are scenic's that show the changing seasons. If you have a photo niche, the calendar

market may be interested!

Weeding out the competition. Most calendar companies want to see medium to large format transparencies. If you are shooting digitally you should know what RAW is, and what to do with it ... because the calendar companies want the final image submissions in very high resolution files.

Did you just weed yourself out of the market because of what I just said? All is not lost, because there are some back door markets that still use 35mm transparencies. This could be your entry into the calendar market by paying for your new equipment!!"

I am basically going to let the Calendar company make the first offer. I just basically said I was new to this and had no idea how to proceed and ask them if they have a set of guidelines or a standard "offer", I figure that way we both know what the expectations are and can start negotiations from there.



PhotoSecrets This is also a great resource and it is free.

I'll keep you up to date as I learn more on this.

Books & Calendars

Well I wanted to keep everyone up on what has been going on but as usual there is always so much to do and so little time to do it in.

1st off I received some prints from winkflash.com if you will recall in my last post I told you of a lot of sites that are giving free prints away. Well I can't say they are bad, because they look pretty good. The only thing I can say is the color and the definition is different from shutterfly.com but that is only because I was comparing the too side by side.

There is a definite difference but not one that will prevent me from ordering prints from them again. Especially with there shipping prices so low. You can't beat .99 cents.

Now as i said in a previous post I am also putting together small "mini memory book" They are 5 x 7 soft cover books from Kodak. The shipping was $1.99 and it took 11 business days to get it.

However I am not entirely pleased with it. As you can see it has a window cut out in the cover to see a picture through, now the picture I chose was plenty big enough to fil the spot but it doesn't and only fills it vertically not horizontally. And some of the other photos have similar issues with white borders on some and edge to edge printing on others.

The quality is what you would expect from Kodak the pictures look great. But the presentation in the book looks really bad. And you can't give each page a title just a title for the book. And there is no choice of layout or color of the cover.

All in all though it was $6.99 + shipping making it a total of $8.98 cost, if I sell it for say 13.98 I am only making $4 a book. And a reseller would have to mark it up another 50% to 75% to make a decent profit. So it is unlikely this will be a good choice. Although the idea is great. Just have to keep looking until I find a better solution.

Unfortunately Kodak doesn't offer much in bulk discounts you have to buy over 1000 books to get a discount at all.

420 4 x 6 Prints for FREE!

Yes thats right Free. OK there is one catch you have to pay for shipping. Now I have tried a few and I will be getting more in soon so I will let you know which ones have the best quality and the shipping cost also.
This will save me around $70 for prints. I have been using Shutterfly.com but frankly there shipping is outrages. I love the quality but $10 just to ship one book, and then $13.00 for 260 prints. I placed an order the other day and it cost almost as much in shipping as it did in items.
So I am looking for a cheaper option with the best quality.

* Yorkphoto offers 50 free prints
* Snapfish offers 30 free prints
* AdoramaPix offers 25 free prints
* Kodak EasyShare Gallery offers 20 free prints
* Shutterfly offers 25 free prints
* Winkflash offers 100 free prints via coupon code "VP32WE54" Shipping .99 cents and the quality is outstanding.
* dotPhoto offers 50 free prints
* PhotoWorks offers 25 free prints
* photomax offers 20 free prints
* CVS offers 10 free prints I don't remember the shipping but the quality sucks, the colors were way off and they cropped everything way to much.
* ClarkColor offers 20 free prints
* fotomat offers 15 free prints
* MyPhotoAlbum offers 20 free prints.

I'll keep you posted

How Do You Know When Do You Become A Professional Photographer?

Is it by going to photography school for years? Checking out all the local art galleries in hopes of finding your photographic artwork displayed? Owning expensive photography equipment that most people wouldn't buy? Or maybe it is simply buying business cards with your "Name and Profession" on it.
Could it be selling one or two photographs online? Or just having fellow photographers tell you how great your work is. Maybe being offered a job on commission.

Whatever we think of our abilities to take amazing or even critically acclaimed photographic art work, it really is subjective just as being called a professional is.

No I didn't study for years, nor do I own expensive equipment. And I haven't seen my name up in lights or at any galleries.

But I can say this I feel like a Professional Photographer. The reason you ask well mostly a state of mind. And mostly because suddenly in the midst of my extremely boring week I stopped in to a shop locally and asked about putting my work on consignment, They said yes!

That in itself set me on a quest to see who else liked my work. Well it turns out lots of people like my work and are amazed I don't have a studio. No I still don't have a studio.

What I do have is a new found exuberance and drive to get my work shown and sold. I have managed to secure some financial backing from my family and I even have buyers lined up for my artwork.

Not just greeting cards, but note cards, prints, books, and well a few other things I have ideas for.

So I guess to answer the question, being a professional photographer is being able to sell your work on a regular basis, and to be able to support the business, and yourself some day soon.
So YES I am a Professional Photographer and I am proud of it! And excited and a bit scared. But I finally made it to a place that I am comfortable at, and I also know there is still so very much to learn.

And yes I plan on sharing all my ups and downs and a few sideways trips along the way.

Autumn Colors of Vermont

These are just a few of the pictures I took yesterday in Old Bennington. As you can see peak season is here and the colors this year have been exceptional! And even better is they have lasted for weeks as opposed to last year when the colors only lasted a few days. And the colors where more muted and less vibrant.

I have so much more I want o share with everyone as I have had such great feedback about my art work and selling them. But I am afraid it will have to wait just a few more days until I get it finalized. Lets just say that things are going fantastically in that area and greeting cards do pay off! :)

Famous Ghoshtly Images on Film

In honor of the Halloween spirit (sorry I couldn't resist) I found this slide show of famous ghostly pictures caught on film.
I did try to embed it in the post but it didn't work. So here is the link. And please take a second and read about each picture it really is interesting.
Ghostly Images

Wow! What a Day!

It all started innocently enough with a very early morning photography expedition. I went to one of my favorites spots over looking the Pownal valley in hopes of getting some great sun rise shots on the quickly turning all foliage.
I haven't even had a chance to check out my work from this morning as I have been so busy. Busy? You ask yes very. It seems I have managed to jump start my photography career in about two hours time!
You see on the way home there is a touristy shop called the "Apple Barn" It was open and I got to thinking since I worked there years ago I might see if the owner would be interested in having my photographs, mainly my greeting cards on consignment.
So I stopped in totally unprepared but really I just figured on making an appointment and coming back later on.
It seems a lady owns the place now and she was very keen on seeing my work. They have a small area setup for artist to sell there work and it's not for profit 80% to the artist and 20% to hospice.
She said she was leaving early today and I could bring them in before she left or come back any time.
Well I only live about 5 minutes from there, so I ran home printed a bunch of labels. I bought some clear labels to put my info on the back on the cards. You see the cards are embossed so I can't print on them.
Anyway the owner told me she loved my work and said to leave her a selection and she would set them up in the shop. She also loved the photographs I did on slate.
Well while I was out I decided I would stop at a few other places on Main street.
Well to make a long story short I sold 12 cards outright at $2.75 a piece. So I made $33.00 today in cash and I have two places in town that will be taking my cards on consignment. I also have an appointment with a lady at a gift shop here in town on Thursday and I have a call back for another shop as well.

The owner at the shop where I sold my cards is recommending me to her friend as a wedding photographer! Yikes! Never did that one before, so I don't know how that will work out.

And it has been suggested that my work be matted and framed and shown at a local gallery.

The funny thing i these are all last years photographs I am working with, this years photographs will be added for next tourist season. So I have a lot of work to do to get ready for spring!

So I guess I got what I wanted selling my work and it is sure going to be an adventure too! I can't wait, although I am a bit nervous but I think it will work out.

Coming up with the money for all the greeting cards, prints, mats, frames and everything will take some doing but I figure I got time on my side.

I'll post a few of my shots from this morning as soon as I get them done.