Last Quarter of the Year Reflection

This blog will actually cover a number of things as I haven't posted since July when I joined the art gallery, and many things have changed.

So I'll start were I left off, the gallery. Since I have started in the gallery I have made many connections within the art world in Kenosha. I've learned so much of the art culture, that I couldn't believe how much of it was hidden in plain site! Just about every weekend is a gallery showing, local music, or a farmers market happening. It's amazing how communal this city is, but at the same time how it is hidden in plane view that you may not see it when you come here. I sure did. Also, I sold my first print last month in the gallery! It was such a great feeling receiving my first check and felt I reached another milestone in my photography.

At my day job, I have been constantly asked to work on my manager skills, organization skills, and over all more education. Another thing I found out myself, is that I lacked general business knowledge. I didn't really know how to record things, organize things, or even what options are out there to grow my business. I simply knew how to sell things and do a general decent job at marketing. So I reviewed my options and found a perfect opportunity with my work to go back to school and get a Bachelor of Science in Business Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurial Studies. This is a mutual gain for my day job and for my own business, and I have already started and just over halfway through my first set of classes.

Another new thing is I purchased the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 AT-X 116 Pro DX Autofocus Lens for Nikon DX-Format DSLRs. Why? I was missing my landscape pictures. I was missing being able to take a photograph and not having to take 4 images to capture the subject (even though the benefit was a very high res image for printing large prints). I reviewed many online videos and read many blogs about this lens, and decided this is what I wanted. I have to say that this lens is incredible for the price. Here is a sample image I took with it.

f/4 1/400sec ISO 100 16mm

So what new am I doing in the photography business subject? Building an inventory. I started this year with 5 products (5 different prints). These were to be used in the gallery and when sold, I take the profit and purchase more images. So I have been paying what I need to on the bills for the new purchases to where I draw no interest, and _all_....I repeat all of my extra money is going to buy prints. One of the things I need to have is product as next year, in August, I will be one of the featured artists that month and have a room dedicated to show my pieces. I wouldn't fill a wall with my current images, so to make sure I have a strong presentation I have started to build an inventory. This will also allow me to do flee markets, or similar things, next year if I choose to do that as well. So over the next months I will only be purchasing prints on sale days where I purchase my prints from. Just a last week I ordered 5 metal prints, each at 30% off!  I also have to renew all of my permits with the state this year as they are due every two years. This year, I plan on taking a loss on my business as this year I only make money on prints I sold and not on photo sessions and events like I did last year. To date, I have turned 9 weddings and over 20 portrait sessions. Those numbers, I may have to purchase my portrait lens.....but that would be another $1,300 purchase. I was actually thinking of starting to print all of the 13" width prints and less at home, which the printer is $1,000. It would pay for itself in 3 years at the current rate of sales. So I have some decisions to make with that; do I return back to portraits or continue doing what I love.

Upcoming blog, that I actually started last month and never finished, is about photo processing. I also have another blog subject in my head as well, so hopefully In October I can at least give 2 blog posts.

milwaukee skyline canvas prints

Into the Gallery

This will be a short and sweet blog, as I have just started the next adventure in my photography; Getting into an art gallery!

I now have 5 pieces at home that I feel are strong images and are ready to be put up into a gallery. After a bit of internet searching the last few days, I have found pretty much nothing beyond of:

• Visit the gallery before you offer your images to be displayed in it
• Learn how much the staff knows about art
• Talk to other local artists on their experience with the gallery

Most of the articles found are all about setting up your online gallery, setting prices, and getting the word out. Last year I reached out to one local (Milwaukee area) retail shop that also sold photographs, and ended up getting the cold shoulder after one e-mail of them expressing they would be happy to sell my images. So now my photography concentration will be finding out how to get into a gallery and getting it set-up (and the special image requests). . 

I also found the following recommendation about the artwork when you submit it to be entered into a gallery:

• Have the image framed or displayed the way they would be sold to the customer
• Have your information and sale price already on the piece
• Remember the gallery gets a cut out of the sale, so adjust the price to make sure the profit you desire is there
• Don't sell a piece for $100 if the cost to make it is $80 (paper, time, frame, ect..) and the gallery's cut is 20%.  It only covers the cost to make it, leaving you with $0 for yourself and unable to move forward with additional product.

I will be keeping my blog updated as soon as I have learned something new, or have successfully put my photographs into a gallery.

Photograph taken on vacation while in South Carolina in early July 2014.

kenosha wisconsin art

2013 Year Review - The Good & Bad

I was able to think on this for a very long time and I felt it was worthwhile to share with those who read my blog. Part of this blog is to give those who want to start on the same trail as I did; make your hobby of photographing into something more.

Now that it is 2014, I can look back and go over the good and bad things that I ran into. I'll start with the bad.

The Bad:

Starting up is the second hardest thing with moving your photography from a simply hobby to something more. The amount of money to become a legitimate name to sell items was crazy. That alone took  7% of my earnings the first year. Getting an EIN, getting the tax number, application fees, license fees, fees, fees, and more fees. I started of not thinking this was a great idea, but it was. Make it your first year goal to make double your fee's, cover any cost through the year, and you can call it a successful year because you didn't spend one dime on photography (if you don't purchase any gear).

Time is the hardest thing for me. I work a full time job that can take 40-60+ hours a week of my time, all during the day hours. Since I like to take wildlife and landscape photos, this is the peek time for me to do that. So that narrowed my time to days off and weekends. Weekends I had to balance with family and friends, and last year they got the tail-end of the deal. I did two weddings, over a dozen portrait sessions, and some volunteer work. One wedding was about a total of 50 hours for all of the editing and live coverage, so you put that on top of the 40 I already work there isn't much time for a social life. I decided weddings are not something that will be in my 2014 goal, unless it is for a direct friend.

Selling photos was the third hardest part. Pricing things is one of the trickiest things. You don't want to be to cheap to not be taken serious, and you don't want to be to expensive to not get the sale. Pricing your prints to where if someone really wants it they will buy it is the goal. I think I found the price point mid year through, but it had very little profit in it for me. This made me re-think of what I wanted to do with my photos, which is covered in the Good part!

The Good:

The portrait lens I purchased; paid off. Quarter of my camera body; paid off. Web hosting, licensing fees, and operation costs; paid off. Extra gear I purchased this year; half paid off. I made more money on this the first year than I thought I would. I was almost able to come off this year as even, and I probably could have if I didn't turn down as many gigs as I did. Look above at the time paragraph in the Bad Section above.

I had fun. Once past the bad part of getting everything started up, I had a lot of fun. I met a lot of fun people, learned more than I thought a was available, and really found something I enjoy doing. This first year was simply a test for me to see if this was something I wanted to get into, and at the end of the year to see if my interest is the same as it was a year ago. To my surprise it was not, it is actually more than what I started out with. I'm looking into buying hunting blinds, camo gear, booking cruises/tours to get out of Wisconsin photographs, and doing youtube videos on how I edit my photos. This is something I really want to do and for the longest time it was hard for me to concentrate on anything but work.

A New Year. I'm continuing to go through with selling my photographs but at a different level. I sold over a 150 prints, ranging from 4x6 all the way up to 24"x36". Those large photos are extra special to me as I know they are being hung up where more than just the family can see them. They found that photograph to be something special that they wanted on their wall to make them feel happier and anyone else that walks by and looks at it. So instead of just selling prints, I have now decided to sell this more as an art instead of as a product to get out. The smallest print will now be 8:x12" and the largest is 40"x60" and also removed a lot of the "just have it on there as an option because it's cheap".

So hopefully the above gave you an insight of what I had to go through last year and helps you decide if you are ready to take the next step in your photography. I can already see the first question; "How much time total last year did you spend on photography". Well, I was always on my computer looking at my past images and playing with them. If we put that to the side and count the actual time photography for money and for product; less than 1000 hours. Which ends up being just over 40 days out of the year, so if we round that out to actual days worked; about quarter of the year was spent on photography.


If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them here, or visit my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/StevenSantamourPhotography

I hope you had a great 2013 and hope you take 2014 by the grip and get your photographs you dream of! My New Years resolution is to get more wild life photos, which requires blinds and traveling.

wisconsin photos

Why did I start selling my photographs?

Selling my photography was actually something that came up in a conversation with one of my friends. Prior to that, I simply enjoyed going out and getting photographs and sharing them on either Facebook or Flickr. I enjoyed reading peoples' feedback on what they liked and didn't like, and I enjoyed seeing my pictures getting "likes" or "favorites". If you have have read my past blogs you would know that I only did Landscapes, Nature, and Close-Up (they aren't true macro shots) photographs and my friend asked me if I would do some portraits for him for holiday cards. I said sure, not even expecting to get anything out of it but just some practice in taking photos of people. He ended up giving me a few things that I was not expecting and that is when it hit me.

Why not sell my best photos and offer discount portrait photos to help pay for my hobby?

That is when I started looking into going more professional with my photography. I learned there are numerous ways to make money selling your photos, but majority of them required you to do to it full time and this is not what I currently want to do. My current goal is for the sales to be able to pay for my current equipment and future equipment, not for me to live off of. This may change in the future (I'm hoping that it does as photography would be a really neat career), but it is not something I want to rely on to survive. Once I was able to define my career goal with photos, I was able to lay out a pretty good plan. I added up everything I spent in equipment, registration fee's to be able to do legitimate sales of photography in Wisconsin, and other expenses that was only specific to my photography. That is how much I would like to make in profits in a year. I estimated how much I would like to sell my photos for and also if I decided to go into portrait shooting how much an hour I would charge, how much for a photo, and all the other license costs (example giving someone unrestricted license to a photo). When I got through all of this, I was very please to see how many photos I needed to sell, how many portrait shots I would need to do, and how many prints of those photos I would need to print. I then compared those numbers to companies around my location and found that I came up much less than what the current pros offer and I was glad with that as I do not count myself as a Pro yet. A professional photographer to me is someone who actually lives off of their photography, or a majority of their income is from their photography. I count myself as a semi-professional photography or an extreme hobbyist.

I really thought this was a great idea when I actually ordered one of my own photos on a 20x30 print, and actually saw that my photos would make great wall decor and that this could actually work. If it doesn't, it wont bother me in the slightest as it's not my goal to make a living off it but to help with the cost that goes with this hobby. I mean, 1300 dollars for a lens hurts the wallet a bit. Why not offer others the ability to use this lens in a way and have them pay for a bit of it? :D

Spring is coming around and I do have some traveling plans scheduled this year that will allow me to capture some great landscapes. So far this year, I have planned on going to North and South Carolina which will offer great mountain and ocean landscapes not to mention some fun street photography.

Don't forget to check out my Online Gallery  which will have my best shots. If you would like to see other photographs that didn't make the cut you can check out my Flickr page. If there is something on there you like, and is not found on my Online Gallery please email me and I'll post it up there for you to order!

One of my newest photos:

Eye of the Gerbera