Do you Make Money with your Rangefinder? Please share!

[hudsong]

Hm,

I've had a few shows where I've made about $150 selling prints. Not very much money, but for someone who lives as simply as I do, that's actually one months rent 🙂

 

[sar-photo]

Can't find Click's website either! Very intrigued to see his photographs - c'mon Click, share your website with us!

Simon

 

[Turtle]

Marketing and self-promotion is essential (and I have spent an inordinate amount of time on that), but you have to work harder still when your work is not that strong or unique. Its therefore an awful lot better if it is.

Some years ago, while still finding my feet from a creative vision perspective, an established thirty something PJ told me that my work was somehow 'reminiscent of (listed various photographers I admire greatly)', while adding that it was 'not exactly like any one of the aforementioned.... clearly my own.... but too 'old school'. He suggested I go on a course to learn to shoot in the curent contemporary style. It did not take much brains to realise that shooting like the rest of the pack at a time when that pack is struggling to stay afloat was not terribly clever. Besides, I could not stand that style then and I can't stand it now and shooting in a style you dont like is hardly a recipe for passionate engagement!

Ignoring that PJ was the smartest move I could have made. Soldiering on with film and my Leica M did not seem very clever until my soon to be released prints were valued 🙂 So yes, a film RF can be a sound commercial tool, but only if you can find people to part with money for your images, whether in a gallery or for editorial use.

 

[emraphoto]

Marketing and self-promotion is essential (and I have spent an inordinate amount of time on that), but you have to work harder still when your work is not that strong or unique. Its therefore an awful lot better if it is.

Some years ago, while still finding my feet from a creative vision perspective, an established thirty something PJ told me that my work was somehow 'reminiscent of (listed various photographers I admire greatly)', while adding that it was 'not exactly like any one of the aforementioned.... clearly my own.... but too 'old school'. He suggested I go on a course to learn to shoot in the curent contemporary style. It did not take much brains to realise that shooting like the rest of the pack at a time when that pack is struggling to stay afloat was not terribly clever. Besides, I could not stand that style then and I can't stand it now and shooting in a style you dont like is hardly a recipe for passionate engagement!

Ignoring that PJ was the smartest move I could have made. Soldiering on with film and my Leica M did not seem very clever until my soon to be released prints were valued 🙂 So yes, a film RF can be a sound commercial tool, but only if you can find people to part with money for your images, whether in a gallery or for editorial use.

some sage words here folks. i know our friend is rather humble but i assure you the work coming out of that leica is top tier!

 

[atlcruiser]

All sort of good info here.....thanks and especially thanks Click!

I have never, ever, not even once made a dime selling a photo. I have grossed about 250k in 2-3 years from my photography. How?

Click really summed it up in his post. I own a small business where we cater to a very particular type of person. We have directed almot every aspect of the business to that type of customer and we reinforce it through our physical location, paperwork, letterhead, customer interaction etc... My goal as a business owner is to sell them what they want but first I need to tell them what they want; I am good at it.

How does photography weigh into this? Simple...I take pictures of their stuff and post it on my website, I make MF, and now LF, prints that I frame and present to them. No charge for any of this. Some of the PICs are good but most are typical crap just taken with better than normal cameras 🙂 I have made the photography a part of what we offer and it playes into the ego of the customer. I use pictures from one customers project to show the next customer what he needs.... It almost always works 🙂

I have folks mail me stating they need what so and so had done...from the pictures on my website. Right now we have over 7gigs of pictures on line and it has gotten to the point that my pictures are used by other folks on forums to illustrate what they are talking about...that is free advertising and fine with me.

The point of this is that photography can be an end in of itself or it can be a part of a greater business plan. No matter how you go about it Click really had it nailed down...you are selling yourself as much as your product.


The ultimate example of this:

http://www.peterlik.com/

 

[Louis Cantin]

i took early retirement from commercial photography on Dec 24 1999.
I was burnt out, did not want to fart with photoshop and computers...
sold everything and bought a 200 acres ranch in the townships.


I was shooting mostly location environmental portraits for magazines, travel and corporate photography.


6x6, 35 mm, an assistant, 2x 800w Speedotron power packs, 4 flash heads, grids, softboxes etc.

Times were getting harder for photogs back then...Graphics designers were going belly up.

I recently got back into photography for the fun of it...shooting B+W and Velvia. Bought a b+w darkroom, Speedotron stuff, Tungsten lights, Voigtlander gear, 6x6 etc.

My only hope is that film is still around for the next 10 to 20 years...

Change...constant change...

 

[Damaso]

Nice to see this thread still going!

 

[Haigh]

Very little with the Leica. Lots with the Holga b&w.

 

[Naumoski]

Very little with the Leica. Lots with the Holga b&w.

I'm just curious, can we see some examples of projects you have done with the Holga?

Thanx in advance. 🙂

 

[menos]

Technopunk,

I've stuck my toe into just about every kind of photography from pinhole to HDR. ….

Thank you very much for these thoughts!
This is very inspiring!

I have had some other people's input as well, leading me into some direction, which sounds interesting to me.
So far, I do not need, to make money off photography, but just enjoy it absolutely as what it is to me.

If there is the break form the little turnover, I do with the occasional print to a more serious approach, I hope, I have your words in mind!

I might be wrong or not, but what I see, where photography around me is headed, my personal interest goes in a very different direction than that.
Whatever I will do, I hope, to stay true to this and will be able, to enjoy every bit of it.

@David
That is one important point, to stick out bold and do market yourself.
The link to Peter Lik is absolutely eye opening!
I didn't even remotely thought, that something like this actually is existing!!!
This guy's marketing is absolutely gigantic!

The master photographer … wow!

@Louis
I think, you don't have to worry about film, although, many people on digital forums want to make believe otherwise.