pocket money photography

mastertrinity

mastertrinity

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i was reading through the DSLR user magazine and saw the pocket money photography guide and am now enthuasiastic about selling some prints at a car boot. i dont plan to make loads only a £1 or 2 of each one. i was going to do craft fairs but you have to pay about £25 for space and so i thought i would start off with car boots.

(this post was originally in the business section but no one was looking)
 
It's a good idea, and can be done relatively cheap, and can be made to look smart with a nice frame.

I did this for my neighbour, for his birthday, it was his dog but unfortunatly he couldn't handle it with it being a puppy, so I thought it'd be nice for him to have a nice photo.

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And I did this one for my best mates mum & dad, of their dog, Penny.

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Cost me less than £6 for both photo & frames.
 
I went to a car boot sale trying to sell some photos. Didn't sell a single one. Luckily I had some other stuff with me to sell, which went pretty quickly.

Damn car booters and their lack of taste and culture.
 
david1701 said:
what about shooting sport for the local paper they might pay for shots they use?
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Unlikely, they'd rather get the photos off of someone for free who just wants to be published.

I think the best way to make pocket money out of photography is to get some business cards together, get a web address together to display your photos (even if it's just a flickr gallery to host them on, mine is flickr.com/stphotographs) so it doesn't look too rubbish to the unknowing eye.

Hand out business cards to all your friends, your family, your family friends, your friend's family, neighbours, workplace, just anywhere and everywhere.

So far, I've done a paid horse shoot and a paid private prom shoot. I charged £60 for the horse shoot, and £70 for the prom shoot.
Fees for the horse shoot included the actual shoot at £45 and then £15 for 3 10x15 prints (i get them free at work.)
The prom shoot was £55 for the shoot, £8 for the travel, and then £7 for a 12x8 print.

In the future I have lined up a room shoot (i.e. someone wants to place a self-contained room in their house for rent, and wants decent photographs of it) and a family portrait shoot for a mate.
Just do a bit of everything, and research loads beforehand.

It is definitely easier than trying to sell prints to people. If they see it in a shop, they'll buy it. If they see it as a print that someone they know has printed, they think its lovely, but they don't want to buy it.
 
mastertrinity said:
thats a brilliant idea foodpoison! but the trouble is the maximum i can print when i go into jessops is 8x6
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No it's not :p
I work in Jessops. On the menu simply choose 'Custom Order' and then you can print at the following sizes

6x4
7x5
8x6
9x6
10x8
12x8
12x10
10x15

Some branches also offer an 18x12 print service, but very few do.

You can also send off for A0, A1, A2 and A3 posters.
Not the best print quality around, but it's pretty cheap.
 
You've done a couple of dog pics. Why not try and do some more of these. Dogs, cats become part of the family, so why not try an cash in on this.

Look at a simple offering, a picture of the pet in a nice frame for a fixed price. The picture is personal to the owner, so has more relevance than something in a car boot sale.

Put a card up in you local Spa or similar shop if you can, offering a pet photography service. It may bring you in the work you want.
 
Go round your local industrial estates at night and during the day, take a few pics then offer them to the factory bosses as framed prints. Works also with pubs at night when all lit up ;)
 
mastertrinity said:
lol im 15 why should the taxman know about such a small income
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Doesn't matter how old you are they'll want to make sure you are diddling them. If you don't have any other earned income you won't need to pay tax as you will no doubt be under the personal tax allowance. Ring them see what they say (they're actually quite nice people).

I don't want to appear to be stomping on your entrepreneurial talent (we need more in this country) but if you don't have a bigger photographic business (portraits, weddings etc) you are using this technique to promote (i.e. loss leader) then I doubt you'll make enough for it to be worth the effort.
 
GarynLea said:
Go round your local industrial estates at night and during the day, take a few pics then offer them to the factory bosses as framed prints. Works also with pubs at night when all lit up ;)
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Good idea, ive been taking a few shots of Pubs, as so many are closing now. Do you not think that taking photos then trying to sell them to the owner of the pub/local industrial estate would seem abit awkward?
 
I framed up some landscapes (£3.50 frames from Wilkos, 45p per A4 print from DS Colour Labs) and put them on a tabletop sale at my lads school. Plenty of "oh they're nice, did you take them" but no sales. Then a lady came over and asked how much they were. "£6each or £10 for 2" says I. "Oh thats a bit expensive" she replies "I only wanted them for the frames". Miserable, uncultured chav.

Andy
 
what was the question? there's no point in bumping with no questions asked.
or are you just looking for more ideas?
 
jimmy83 said:
Good idea, ive been taking a few shots of Pubs, as so many are closing now. Do you not think that taking photos then trying to sell them to the owner of the pub/local industrial estate would seem abit awkward?
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Why not go back when its closed (like 10am) and post a letter through the door with a 6x4 proof attached and in the letter give them their price options etc. They might want a couple of prints at £25? they might also not want anything, but its only the lost of a couple of 6x4s

Mike
 
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