Making a living from Landscape photography..

[lonni]

Try hospitality prints, basically selling framed prints in larger volumes to hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, etc also try offfice buildings, medical waiting rooms and interior designers.

HTH

[digirebelva]

Originally Posted by lonni

Try hospitality prints, basically selling framed prints in larger volumes to hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, etc also try offfice buildings, medical waiting rooms and interior designers.

HTH

That would work for a while, but unless you live in a very LARGE city, I don't see it lasting long enough, or producing enough stable income to be your sole job.

In reading the articles posted, what really struck me was he was in the right location with a pre-filtered (read have money to spend) client base and had what they wanted and had a large number of customers who where on a time schedule..which gave them an extra incentive to buy...how often does that happen....

[lonni]

Originally Posted by digirebelva

That would work for a while, but unless you live in a very LARGE city, I don't see it lasting long enough, or producing enough stable income to be your sole job.

Its not just the one city, but the whole area, trick is to take pretty, unique images of generic touristy things. I have sold to 3 motels now and made good profit on each, since i sold them all the same images, pretty beach, nice bush, native flowers - all austaliana stuff, not too specific to one area but done nice enough to stand out.

[digirebelva]

Originally Posted by lonni

Its not just the one city, but the whole area, trick is to take pretty, unique images of generic touristy things. I have sold to 3 motels now and made good profit on each, since i sold them all the same images, pretty beach, nice bush, native flowers - all austaliana stuff, not too specific to one area but done nice enough to stand out.

Thats good & congrats on the sales, but the question remains...could/can those types of sales be consistent enough to provide you with a steady income...steady enough to be your sole income...enough to live on..?

[andyw]

Originally Posted by digirebelva

Thats good & congrats on the sales, but the question remains...could/can those types of sales be consistent enough to provide you with a steady income...steady enough to be your sole income...enough to live on..?

They could be but you would have to spend a heck of a lot of time marketing yoursel/the images.
There are already a number of companies "out there" who supply art to hotels and offices so you would be trying to compete with some pretty large players.

That said, a single contract with a hotel chain could net you many thousands.

I have done this on a smaller scale and got into it when I offered some prints to an independent hotel. They were members of a large organisation which promoted similar hotels throughout the country (France) and the organisation had their own directory of hotels etc. The deal with the single hotel led onto supplying about 25 different places and a free ad in the directory.

It was good money for a couple of years whilst I was doing that.

[JeffColburn]

Myself, and the landscape photographers I know, make most of their money from three sources.

Print sales - Usually through a gallery as most people don't buy off of a website. They want to see the print first hand.

Classes - Offering classes to other photographers is pretty popular, as long as you are well known, or at least have great images that other photographers want to duplicate.

Books - Either ebooks or print the books through a printer. The latter usually requires a thousand dollars or so to get the first run printed. Be wary of print on demand. There are many hidden costs, and you may have to buy your book back, at a very high price, if you want to go to a different POD publisher.

There are other ways, such as stock, shooting for clients, writing and illustration magazine article, but the three I listed are the most common income generators you will find.

Check out these site to see what some photographers offer.
Stock Photos Arizona - Home
Jeff Colburn - Fine Art Prints of Arizona - Home
Bret Edge Photography
Ashland Oregon Professional Landscape, Nature and Travel Photographer, Fine Art Prints, Stock Photos Blog
Photo Cascadia Blog
Guy Tal Nature and Landscape Photography

Have Fun,
Jeff

[lonni]

Originally Posted by andyw

They could be but you would have to spend a heck of a lot of time marketing yoursel/the images.
There are already a number of companies "out there" who supply art to hotels and offices so you would be trying to compete with some pretty large players.

That said, a single contract with a hotel chain could net you many thousands.

I have done this on a smaller scale and got into it when I offered some prints to an independent hotel. They were members of a large organisation which promoted similar hotels throughout the country (France) and the organisation had their own directory of hotels etc. The deal with the single hotel led onto supplying about 25 different places and a free ad in the directory.

It was good money for a couple of years whilst I was doing that.

This is pretty much what i would have said, except in my area there is no real competition, no one who does hospitality prints as such, the decorators usually organise a deal for art reproductions in bulk same as they would the lamps or kettles, so i have a niche, untill some one else figures it out too.

It is a lot of marketing, talking to managers, sending letters etc, but its not marketing that costs a lot of money, just my time, and some postage. You wont be making a sale a week, but what i made from the few sales i have made is more than all but the top 3 wedding photogrphers in my area make in the wedding season.

So the answer is yes you can make a living out of it, if like everything else, you put time and effort into it.