Reptiles Trip Photos

“Ok here's my story. I've been serious about photography for about 2 yrs. and I get compliments from people I know about my work. Friends and family are now encourgaging me to enter my photos into contests and sell them at art fairs. I'm a very modest person and the thought that someone would want to pay money for a photo that I took is very weird.

I would like a stranger's opinion of my photos (though I really think of all of you as long lost friends). So here is a sample of my photos for you to look at and to comment on.

Thanks and flame away.

Kurt

http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1504021&a=12844727&f=0

Reptiles photos”

“Oops, please use this link instead.


Reptiles Photos”

“Great pictures, I liked all 26 of them!”

“I would have been willing to pay BIG BUCKS for your pictures, but instead, I downloaded them from your photopoint page. Thanks!
LOL!

Good eye,
and good luck.”

“I went to view your pictures with a great deal of skepticism. I had every intention of coming back here and telling you the pictures were nice but not to quite your day job. With that said?

Excellent pictures. There are a few that I could see myself buying at an art fair. There was one in particular that actually touched my soul (something that has become very rare, unfortunately, as of late).

Again ? excellent job. Keep it up!”

“Go ahead, take a chance. Your stuff is really, really nice. Do some local shows for grins and giggles. Don't expect to sell alot and you may be pleasantly surprised! If you don't sell much it is not an indication of the quality of your work. Do it if you think it would be fun! If YOU think it's art, it is.
Keep in mind that it will become a business. To some degree, you'll be able to offset income with your (travel-wink,wink) expenses and processing/equipment etc. Talk to someone at an Art Center about this stuff. Fellow exhibitors can guide you here also.
Find venues which will sell your stuff for you and take a (sometimes hefty) cut. This beats the heck out of collecting and remitting sales tax etc... Often state revenue personnel check out exhibitors for licenses and show producers would probably insist you are "legal."
Your work is "there." The market may be there. If nothing else, you'll have your Christmas gifts all ready!”

“Reptiles, good advice from flyguy6x. As for the photos, you show a good eye for composition and lighting, following up with good exposures. You also take a chance in some and pull it off, particularly the first of the natural arch and the Red Rocks reflection, both of which use negative space (the black) to very particular effect against the saturated color. The Death Valley ghost town pic is a very nice exposure with such a strong graphic structure, and the Death Valley dunes contrast of golden sand and textured clouds has great balance in both light and space. You really seem to be at some nice spots at the right time of day, and then have the eye to notice the convergence of elements.

Be ruthless in picking what images to offer the public. Waterfalls in particular are beautiful, but overdone by nature photographers. Look at the competition and avoid the me-too shots -- better to present a small selection of unique and striking photos than a cavalcade of commonplace, though very competent, images.

Consider such easy to assemble presentations as a set of note cards, say 4 or 5 images in a packet, printed 4 x 6 and mounted on heavy paper. Easy home assembly, moderate selling price, and not a huge outlay of capital for you. A lot of people go to art fairs and hesitate at spending big bucks on one photo, but can easily part with $10-15 for something small. Heck, you can suggest that they frame the note cards once they get home (many folks do).”

“I think you should go for it! :o)”

“Beautiful! I say do it.”

“Thanks everyone. I have no intention of quiting my day job! I'm just looking for some extra income to make a small retirement fund.”

“Nice stuff, TRUK! You have good vision.

OK, what film? Camera? Filters (or not)? Tripod?

Ahhhhhhhhh... don't ya just love red rocks and snow??! :-)

Also, check your other thread. I posted what I did to sell some shots, FWIW.”

“Fantastic Photo's! Put some up for sell, You'll do well.”

“Reptiles, I especially like the dunes shot done at death valley. You've got some great stuff. Here's some things to concentrate on: Study the rule of thirds..... although it's not a hard and fast rule, it will help you with your composition. Try to take advantage of that magic hour just after sunrise, and just before sunset. Keeps your images from being flat and adds a natural warmth to your photos that can't be manufactured with filters. Many of your photos already demonstrate that.

First and foremost, don't worry too much about what the people on a public forum have to say about your work. If you can sell it, that's what matters.”

“Lizs,
That's another big mental block for me. I shoot with "beginer" equipment so I think I can't compete with the pros.
Here's my current list of equipment:
Nikon N60, Tamron 28-300 zoom, polarizer, enhancing filter (picked that up last fall for the foliage), a Slik 2000 tripod, and I shoot with Kodak Royal Gold 100 film. I've just made the switch to slide film, (my first roll was a disaster, but I'm improving).
I'm looking to upgrade to an N80 and buying a Sigma 17-35 lense within 6 months.

A big question I have is what type of photo paper should I be using? Do I start out with Wolf Camera making all my enlargements or do I go to a pro shop and have them make my inlargements on those fancy named photo papers?”

“Ahhhh, don't worry. I don't have top-of-the-line equipment either!! Canon EOS Elan II...28-105 Canon zoom, 70-210 Tamron f2.8 zoom, NO filters, etc.

Make sure you using the tripod to get a rocky-steady shot. And use as slow a film as you can. That's one reason Velvia is my favorite. Less grain -- and tripod should eliminate even minute "wobbles."

On the Canon, I have it set to pretty much automatically bracket shots, which it will be at whatever intervals I tell it, from whatever beginning point I set (be it "right on" or 2 stops overexposed, I can then bracket in stops of .5, 1, 1.5, 2, etc.)

You use a lot of film, but with slide film you gotta have the exposure right on. Bracketing will hopefully ensure you do. (OK, sometimes I actually do the thought process and do this MANUALLY! Gawd forbid!!! lol!!)

Ask people on here for good processors for what you want. (Hobbit steered me to a great, economical slide processor in Salt Lake City. I was very pleased with my **45** rolls of slide film.)

Are you looking at 5x7s? 8x10s? 16x20? What? When I did my 16x20s (did you look at that other thread? I talk about pricing them there), I went to a place that goes direct from slide to print with an "R" technique. I think it is Fuji's technique, as opposed to Cibachrome (Kodak's). (IS THAT RIGHT??!) No internegative for me.

I went to a place in Milwaukee. Shots were a tad dark, but it worked with the subject. Others have said I should have had them redone, but I liked them fine.

Probably ("prolly") just go with some regular, fairly inexpensive paper. And remember that in getting quantities of your print, you get the price break and can price the prints to make some money yourself.

Hmmm... a friend had some Antelope Canyon shots blown up to around 16x20. Don't know who he used, however.”

“Go for it. Your talent really shows through. Plus, if you don't do it you will always wonder "What if...."”

“NICE shots, thanks!”

“Beautiful, just beautiful. What a nice hobby to have WHEN you retire as well. I'd try to enter the local art shows with some of those.”

“omigosh! beautiful......good eye!
leads me right into temptation....to be in those places.....”

“Lizs, Borge does a wonderful job with his custom printing also. FYI”

“Opinions from a stranger (a lurker cause I can't spend much time cause I lurk at work).
Your Pics are absolutely awesome!
The ones that really caught my eye were the one with the ripply sand, the canyon ones with the storms blowing through (imho, too many pics have the perfect sky so I like the different perspective of the storms), the misty mountain tops.
The ones I loved the best were the reflection ones where you can't see the original landscape, but you can clearly see it in the image on the still water.
Over all the scenery is fantastic. You seem to take a different perspective of the landscapes that would give you an edge in any contests you enter.”

“Beautiful pictures, Reptiles. I could use some notecards like pekka mentioned right now for Mom day and Dad day gifts. You could set up a web site selling your prints besides entering contests and selling at juried shows. You may not get rich right away, but you might find that you really like networking at contests and shows.”

“Hobbit.....They never sent me the promised calendar, however. Grrrrrrrrrr.... lol!

As far as what Wayward said, do enter contests, but don't go in thinking your shots are so unique you will win. Many people out there are shooting the same kinds of stuff. So do enter, but keep it all in perspective. (And then if some notification of being a winner comes along some day, just be happy!)

Youngandcreaky, art shows are fine, but DO take away from hiking time. Depends on priorities. (Ya can really get sucked into that "show" circuit...... then again, if ya don't have a job during the week, you can hike then and see even less people on the trails, so that would be a bonus)”

“Yeah, lizs, too bad you can't sign up for shows only for rainy weekends. In my area, a lot of shows are in the autumn, my favorite, so I skip them (as visitor, not artist) when it's sunny. You make a good point; a weekend job would allow quieter hiking/camping during the week. Can companies flex their hours this much? Nah. We'll have to start our own companies. You first, Reptiles.”

“Really impressive photos. I say go for it.”

“I'll try to get you a calendar next time I'm down there. I can't remember what he did for this years, but I'm not as wild about it as other years.”

“Hobbit, don't worry about that calendar. I may well be contacting them on getting a few prints made of a fav. shot (will check prices first). Plus, I have that sales rep's name and she SAID she would get me a calendar. Time to REMIND her..... ;-) (Should work well when done in conjuction with pricing prints, one would think.....lol!)”