Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2002/03/17
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Those of us who are not very talented photographers need to learn tricks if we are going to make money. My trick was to be employed as a computer engineer and not as a photographer, but since I've always worked in research and not product development, I don't get paid as much as "real" computer engineers and from time to time have had to supplement my income. I have sometimes used "hack photography" as a way of supplementing my income. School class pictures are definittely hack photography. If you are willing to sacrifice all of your artistic scruples to make some money, there is a lot of money to be made in class pictures (and sports team pictures, and dance party pictures, etc), because lots and lots of people want to buy them. If you take a photograph that shows 50 people, there is a good chance you can sell an 8x10 of it to every one of those 50 people. Doing it for free is a separate issue. But I've found that I can get kickbacks from the local photo processor. They have a standard price for an 8x10, and the price is posted in their front window. If I tell the school "I'm having the prints made at Joe's Photo, and their price is $15 each, so please give me $15 for each print" then I don't look like a profiteer, but Joe will give me $5 for each print someone orders as long as he can make them all at once. Joe is very happy to make 50 8x10's of the same negative and make only $10 each on them. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html