Do you Make Money with your Rangefinder? Please share!

CameraQuest

CameraQuest

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If you make $ with your rangefinder pics, please share how! Subject matter or specialties? How do you market yourself? Type of prints offered and price range? Full time pro or occasional sales? Advice?

Others would like to hear your story to inspire them to make a few bucks too! Help others fight the evil of DSLR world domination!

Thanks
Stephen
 
I sell my prints from my website. I don't think thats going to help most people though. To get to where that's possible, it takes more than putting some pics on the web. You need to dedicate yourself to fine art photography as a fulltime or near-fulltime job, with years of work for people to see online, an exhibition and publication record; all evidence that you're an artist whose work is worth paying for. I have 1100 photos on my site and I have had the site for 9 years. Its only been in the last few years that I have sold a lot of pictures, enough to make a significant part of my income.
 
I do event photography on a part-time basis and have recently switched to a Leica M8. So far, only done a corporate shoot (shooting promotional material for a community project) as well as an engagement shoot. I used to shoot my dslr with prime lenses before switching to the rangefinder, but I can definitely recommend a rangefinder system for available light event work - the engagement pics especially, came out rather well :)
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
I sell my prints from my website. I don't think thats going to help most people though. To get to where that's possible, it takes more than putting some pics on the web. You need to dedicate yourself to fine art photography as a fulltime or near-fulltime job, with years of work for people to see online, an exhibition and publication record; all evidence that you're an artist whose work is worth paying for. I have 1100 photos on my site and I have had the site for 9 years. Its only been in the last few years that I have sold a lot of pictures, enough to make a significant part of my income.
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Chris

Nice website and excellent images if you don't mind me saying. Very inspirational.

p.s. Handy tech tips as well
 
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Thanks ReeRay. What you see on my site is a sampling of the last 16 years of my work. I have a lot more to add someday, and slowly I keep adding more. I know I have over 200 rolls of recent film to select and scan photos from, and a lot of older stuff that never got done!

I'm glad my tech notes have been helpful to everyone. I've tried a lot of films and found developing times for them so I might as ell save others the testing trouble. Everyone's actual times may vary a bit depending on how you agitate and how careful you are on temp, etc. but they should get you close.
 
why yes i do.

why yes i do.

i'm a freelance music photographer.
i shoot all my photos <90mm with my M's (m6, m7, m9)
and the tele work with my D3.
The nikon files look so lifeless compared to the M stuff.

I'm working on getting a 180 summicron which should help with the d3, but i've been spending that money on film and other film cameras lately.

check my work jesselirola.com --> i have a photo shot with my m9 + 15 distagon in fader magazine this month. (matt + Kim add, B&W image...)

jesse
 
I sell inkjet prints of NYC/Brooklyn architecture and street scenes to my realtor neighbor, who gives them as gifts to her clients. I sell 6x9 prints for $70 and 12x18 prints for $110, all framed and matted. It's not a lot of profit but it covers supplies for my personal prints. I buy my framing supplies from Frame Destination, an outfit with great customer service. I sign the mattes (at my customer's request--I don't really care to do it), and I sign the prints verso, as well as the backing material.
I develop my own b/w and scan the negatives with a Nikon Coolscan 9000 ED. I print with grayscale cartridges on an HP Photosmart 8750.
My client usually chooses photos from my flickr feed and emails the links to me. Most of my images have a date or print file number, so I can easily cross-reference my digital files.
Most shots were taken with a Leica MP or M4, some with a Canon L1, and some with a Yashica Electro 35. Once in a while a shot from my trusty old SR-T 101 finds its way in there.
 
I use both D3 and M8 bodies for newspaper work, corporate reports etc. I don't sell images online as I don't have the time to set it up, and monitor/update it, properly. However I have steered clients toward my RFF galleries when they've needed a shot to illustrate an article or such when they have no specific imagery. Obviously this tends to come from a select few clients who a) like my personal images b) can use that kind of image and c) can actually find an image that works with the article or whatever they're doing.

I don't know about anyone else who uses RF gear for Press work but I get alot of banter from other snappers about it. If they see me on a job using my D3 gear they ask if I'm "back in the fold," or " you going back to your noncey toy camera after this?" Despite alot of banter the M8 has converted one of these guys into buying into the M system. I let him have a play whilst we were in some 'downtime' during a job and he loved it...next time I saw him he'd bought an M8 - he didn't look at the M9 due to price and the fact he'd not used an M extensively.
 
I do some newspaper and magazine work but I mostly work on long term projects that I fund through grants and fellowships. I also teach one on one classes. I'm not getting rich but I am doing what I love, which I think is far more important!
 
I sold bunch of prints to my friends and colleagues. nothing major but I would love to make a living from my beloved camera...I am still working on it.
 
As I've said before, I supplement my retirement with a reliable, although modest, income from microstock. The safe bet is to use my Nikon DSLR for stock shots and my M6TTL film camera for the fun stuff. However, lately I've found out how to get digital film conversions past the reviewers and into my portfolio.
 
Of course, the $64,000 question -- more like the $3.39 two-for-one question, given modern editorial rates -- is "Do you make ENOUGH money out of your rangefinder?"

But the vast majority of the pics in my books and magazine articles were shot with Leicas.

Cheers,

R.
 
I recently have taken a walk on the wild side (funny this used to be standard fare) and gone to shooting Fujicolor Press 800 on an M6 for weddings. But the money still sucks.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Of course, the $64,000 question -- more like the $3.39 two-for-one question, given modern editorial rates -- is "Do you make ENOUGH money out of your rangefinder?"

But the vast majority of the pics in my books and magazine articles were shot with Leicas.

Cheers,

R.
Click to expand...


Enough is relative isn't it? I think if you are making any money at your craft that is already a step ahead of most folks...
 
Damaso said:
Enough is relative isn't it? I think if you are making any money at your craft that is already a step ahead of most folks...
Click to expand...

Indeed. But there's a lot less money in it than there used to be, for just about everyone I know in just about every field: editorial, all but the very top end of advertising (a handful of people), stock, even weddings. The internet has lowered expectations dramatically. Frighteningly many people are unwilling to pay for ANYTHING, EVER. And as one of my Fleet Street chums points out, a news photographer's equipment a lot more expensive (and bulkier, and harder to keep track of) than it used to be. Once it was two M-series Lecas and a Nikon F. Now it's 2x DSLR, M9, laptop, satellite 'phone...

Cheers,

R.
 
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Couldn't agree more Roger. But then again most photojournalists I know, at least the serious ones, aren't in it for the money. Of course now they have to often decide if they are in it at all since it is increasingly difficult to make a living. But The dedicated and passionate ones do indeed seem to find a way, I point to myself as an example.

Boy do I wish it were a bit easier though!
 
Well, yes. There's a big difference between "I'm not in it for the money" and "I can no longer afford to do it."

Distressingly many photojournalists I have met have had to do other things as well in order to survive. This includes major award winners. I knew one who worked as a cinema usherette in order to pay for her photography habit.

Cheers,

R.
 
I sell my prints on a sliding scale, expensive, and free, free for good friends and photographers who exchange for them.

So far the numbers favor the latter. ;-)

A former editor friend of Roger's asked me for a print, specified a fiber print, though by the time I got it to England, he has left for France, was shot in Paris using a Fuji 645.

I photographed a hundred or so weddings, made enough to get along at the time, even photographed recently sold houses for a real estate company, try that today.

I do have friends who shoot weddings yet, after a long run up, they can make decent dough and digital is a boon, just as commercial processing was a boon from the days I did my own printing for weddings. Inflation in wedding costs has helped -- no more $100 weddings, but to do right, is a very skilled and disciplined effort.

I did win $50 from a street festival contest with my M8, 12mm CV, and 50mm Summicron, so I should tick that off from the investment. ;-)

Nice to see guys selling signed prints though, whether the Charles Bridge, or local festivals.

May be a bit like the line from the great Marx, about not belonging to a club that would have me as a member. Groucho, you know the real one.

Can turn it around a bit, do the rest of you collect any contemporary photography of others?


Regards, John
 
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