Renewing the photo blog

It seems that despite my efforts to be a photographer, I keep returning to writing to satisfy some unfulfilled urge in my soul. Taking good photographs is exciting for me (taking great ones is more earth shattering...) and I'll continue to work at that. But then, I want to share the work with... whoever. Thus I'll start contributing to this blog again.

During the past 4 months while we have been living on Jekyll Island, I've had the urge to provoke some income with photos. This challenged me to create opportunities. Along the way, I learned a lot.

The campground residents tend to be thrifty, and they live significant parts of the year in homes that have zero wall space. These facts suggest that the hard sell wouldn't work, nor would lavishly framed wall art. I would have to find ways to expose my attractive photos and look for small, inexpensive offerings.

I first tried posting images on the Jekyll Island Facebook wall. That may have got a few people familiar with my name, and done some good for Jekyll, but there was no sales associated with that effort.

My next effort was to consider postcards for sale in the campground office. As I evaluated this, I realized that I could not realistically compete with the commercially printed postcards that were offered.

The next opportunity that I created was to put some of my images on 13"X19" posters which I could print in my motor home. I selected a few good prints, added "Jekyll Island Georgia" on the bottom, and posted some in the windshield of my motor home. These were nearly invisible, so I got permission to post in the community room. This was very soft sell... I didn't even mention that they were for sale anywhere at first. Later I added an 8-1/2X11 sale sheet with contact information. This produced a couple sales, but these got much more play when I presented them at the craft/art sale during the February Pancake Breakfast.

The Pancake Breakfast craft/art sale is the only opportunity for the rest of the Island to come see what we're up to. To fill the table at the craft sale, I also generated some note cards, in packages of four, and a few matted prints.

The next event was the Art Festival at the Jekyll Art Center. This juried competition was free to enter (for members)and framed prints could be sold. I scrambled off to Michael's and bought a few frames that I thought looked good, and selected some prints to frame. For the first time, the Festival created 5 photo categories, as well as beginner, intermediate and advanced classes, with a limit of 6 photos. I consulted with another artist, Nancy Hoffman, for her input on photo selections, and entered 3 landscapes, 2 people, and one "alternative" photo, collected 2 second place ribbons, a third, and an honorable mention for the alternative. In addition, my second and third place landscape photos were sold, one during the Festival and one before.

Another way to get known was to offer photography classes in the campground. This was primarily on Picasa, but the first session was about taking better photos.

Yet another effort was to ask friends to pose for me on Driftwood Beach. I had been helping them with their computer problems, so it was a fair exchange. It took a while to find the right combination of weather and tides, but I got some great shots on the beach. This generated two additional requests for portrait sessions, all taking place on three consecutive days.

A friend of mine in St. Mary's, GA, is retiring from the Navy in July. We met through photography, as he hired me to help with Christmas Party portrait photo sales. He thought that he wanted to be a professional photographer full time after his Navy PR job, so he bought some more equipment, rented some space and set up a studio. He lined up some weddings. A few days ago, I got a call from him, saying that he caved to the money and decided to take a non-photo job in New York. He is selling his studio.

I've heard it said that it takes 4 years to develop a photography business. I'd say that I'm now in about 5 years. I keep studying and reading, improving my quality and skills, and now I'm discovering marketing. I might make it before I die.