Making a living from Landscape photography..

[SwissJon]

I'd like to know if there are many landscape photographers on here that actually make a living from their photography, and how?

From what I can see, landscape photography can make money from the following things, but I've no idea who to approach and how to go about getting commisions:

- Postcards
- Cards (Sympathy cards, birthday cards etc)
- Posters and framed photos
- Comisioned work
- Books
- Stock photos
- Photo tours and walks
- Exhibitions

So, any other ideas, and really, how can you go about starting with these things.

I know I'm going up against competition, but from the postcards I've seen of Switzerland, they are all pretty much along the same lines.. The most over photographed (and hence recogniseable mountain) in Switzerland is the Matterhorn (The mountain featured on packs of Toblerone) and it's in about half the postcards I find.. Along with several promenant castles, the fountain at geneva, and some vineyards overlooking the lakes.. But this isn't everything there is in Switzerland, and I've been trying very hard to bring some other faces of this beautiful country to my photos.. We have a thousand, maybe 10,000 lakes here, large and small, and so I've focussed mainly on this.

I've just been asked to do my second piece of commissioned work, photographing the areas around a campsite for their website.. This one is in exchange for free parking of my boat at their site for as long as I want, or as long as they use my photos, which is worth $350 a year, so not bad, I'm not unhappy with the exchange. And a friend of mine is a massage therapist and has offered me and my wife 10 free massage sessions each in exchange for a website and associated photos, I do like to do this kind of work where no money exchanges hands, I feel that way everyone is a winner, they give me time and effort from their skill or belongings, I give them my time and effort, and in that way I like to think everyone is a winner, and since no money has changed hands, nobody has to tell the tax man!

But I'd really like to earn some money somehow, at least in order to pay for an upgraded camera body and main lens (I've got my eye on a 24-70 2.8 and once most of my lenses are FX compatible, I'll consider saving for the D800, or whatever follows the D700.) My ideal future sees me starting to get more and more professional commissions and eventually retire from my current job in 10 years.

So any advice on how to proceed, and how much to charge, would be greatly appreciated. I think one of my first "Photo Tours" might take place next summer.. If any of you are interested then let me know.. It's by no means a certainty, I've no idea about numbers, but my feeling is that it should be small, maybe 6 or 8 of reasonably fit photographers that I can minibus around.. (Sorry Mods, if you feel this last paragraph is inappropriate, please delete it)

[Dodge]

Not sure if this will help at all SJ, but these two guys seem to do quite well locally especially. I often see their work in Cafe's/Shops/Restaurants in the area. Their sites offer quite an array of products and services, might be worth checking out for Ideas etc. Maybe even drop them an Email, see if they can offer any advice.

Scenic Photos of Northumberland
David Taylor Landscape Photography

[SwissJon]

Thanks Dodge.. I'll have a word.. Since I'm not treading on their patch, they might be willing to talk..

First thing that strikes me is that I need to pay some serious attention to my website..

[OsmosisStudios]

The key is having marketable images. Dont get me wrong: Your work is excellent. But very little screamed out "ZOMG BUY ME".

Just going through the first 10 pages, I grabbed a dozen that might grab some interest, but it depends greatly on your market. In most cases, you get photographers shooting local touristy scenes and selling to tourists. Its easy because it's just shooting whats there and your customers come to you. However, if you're shooting all sorts of things (as I do, and as you seem to) and you dont have a tourist market to draw upon, you have to work a bit harder at it

[digirebelva]

I looked at the websites of the 2 that were posted...you are right, they do offer a number of services, more than I have seen at most similar sites (which could be a clue as to the overall market for landscape photos)..but the question still remains, do they make a living from it, or is it just suplemental income to their regular jobs?

[SwissJon]

Thanks for that.. I'm aware that my work needs some improvement, I'm just starting out, and I've got some work to do, but I've a decent job that pays my bills, I'm just looking forward to a retirement where I can do what I enjoy and still afford to pay the bills. This is a long term goal, I'm just investigating how I might go about it so I can reseach the markets and find out what people like.

I certainly have a tourist market, I'm in a very tourist area.. But I have no experience in self marketing.

Out of interest, which ones did you spot?

[nickbedford]

If you know what you need to improve, how to do it and are passionate about what you want to end up doing then you can do it.

I don't suppose photographers Peter Lik are inspiration for you?

Looking through your Flickr photos, I can see you're on the right path, but using Peter Lik's work, for example, as inspiration for the kind of work you need to do to pull it off, there's many things you probably need to do.

I think the first thing you might want to look at is how you're developing your photos. I assume you shoot raw. If I were to get into landscape photography in particular I would look at hundreds of photographs which strike me as amazing and try to see just why they are so. Working on how you process your photos, by increasing the contrast, to working on the saturation, vibrancy and white balance would go a long way to greatly improving your existing photos.

Also, you might want to look at some of your framing, and possibly try doing some more widescreen crops of your 3:2 photos, or alternatively using an even wider angle lens.

This in particular is an example of what I'm taking about. I think personally the only thing I would tweak is to add a little more saturation and to possibly do a 16:9 crop to make the photo appear panoramic and more vast. Again, just my own ideas.

If you don't mind, here's what I would probably try.





Another one that, with a little processing, could really shine!

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by SwissJon

I certainly have a tourist market, I'm in a very tourist area.. But I have no experience in self marketing.

It's not just the market: you have to have the images that market wants too. Local touristy stuff, namely.

Originally Posted by SwissJon

Out of interest, which ones did you spot?

Wont go through the whole bunch, but here are a few:
Three Rocks | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Le Lac Bleu | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Waterfall (Long Exposure Portrait) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Reflections | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[nickbedford]

Originally Posted by OsmosisStudios

It's not just the market: you have to have the images that market wants too. Local touristy stuff, namely.



Wont go through the whole bunch, but here are a few:
Three Rocks | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Le Lac Bleu | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Waterfall (Long Exposure Portrait) | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Reflections | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Those are some great ones.

[JFSanders]

I am currently reading a book about the business side of photography just for my edification and the ability to have an intelligent conversation with the professionals on DPS. And in one of the first chapters the guy recounts a conversation he had with Ansel Adam's CPA and from the gist of that conversation, if it hadn't been for the fact that his wife's parents had a store in Yosemite and she had a full time job Ansel would not have been able to make those incredible landscape photographs because he would have had to work on other subjects. The guy also said that AA never took a vacation and worked everyday not only because he like to but because he never had much more than a hundred dollars above what he needed to keep the doors open.

Must have spent a boatload of money on supplies and equipment...

Jim