is there a market for flower photography?

Hi all,

 

I'm not sure if I'm posting this one in the right forum.

 

I love photographing flowers (mainly close ups and less so macros) and I am

just querying whether there is a commercial market for such shots.

 

Anyone shooting this type of photography who could advise on what type of

clientele would be interested in this.

 

I thought one option would be to print relatively large (up to approx. 23x33

inches) to attract a more corporate client base of limited edition prints,

rather than selling smaller prints to the 'man on the street'.

 

I'm assuming stock photography does not pay at all these days.

 

Any ideas?

I tried the same thing myself and found only a limited market for it, though I did not try the corporate market. Landscapes are the best seller followed by animals, with flowers a distant third. But maybe your area is different from mine (I live in Oregon). Steven Terrell has made a success of it to some extent by doing the 'water droplet acting as a magnifying lens on leaves' thing, so you might give it a shot. You can see his work at: http://www.yoshidasfineartgallery.com/index/artists/7/14/.

 

And you're right, stock does not pay much, if anything, at all.

I've seen a couple of people successfully selling notecards with their flower shots. (Neither quit their day job however.) As with most photography, I honestly think marketing/sales ability is more important than photo ability.

 

 

Kent in SD

There is a relatively large market for flower photography. The problem (as is the case in

many sectors of the photo market) is that it is saturated with a great deal of high quality

work, with too many people pursuing the same limited amount of dollars. Also, in most of

the market, there is little value in having a catalog of every little known wildflower unless

you can identify the potential market for your work and inform niche buyers. Marketing is

the big trick, once you have created a critical mass of excellent quality images. When

shooting flowers, you are better off identifying the potential use and targeting your

shooting for that, whether it is the cover of a specific magazine, a type of corporate client

that often uses floral imagery, or the fine print market. Do your own research to

determine who might be interested in the kinds of images you are making. Marketability is

the key. Otherwise, you might be pursuing a very emotionally fulfilling hobby.

In the last few years both Howard Schatz and Joyce Tennyson have published big coffee table

books of their flower shots. This fact suggests that not only is there a market for flower

photographs, there is a huge market. But this fact doesn't really help you, because the

question, 'is there a market for x' is to vague to be useful; there is a market for almost

anything. The more important question is: are your flower photographs profitably marketable

considering the market and competition? Almost anybody--art buyers, book publishers, card

companies, advertising agencies, etc--would be interested in <i>the right</i> flower

photographs.

Regardless of the market, flowers are one of the more popular photo subjects, so you'd need to really stand out in the crowd, and that would be hard to do.

 

If you're going places other people don't, or shooting things other people don't, you have that much less competition. But making a living by taking flower or cute baby pictures has got to be tough.

I wasn't planning to use flower shots as my sole income but I'm just thinking about what type of photography sells compared to my photographic interests.

 

I appreciate all your comments. You have given me food for thought.

 

Cheers.

All,

 

After being in the photo business for 20 years, some names become recognizable. One of

those names is Justin Black. He has been, and I'm assuming still is, Manager of Mountain

Light Photography out of Bishop, Ca., Galen Rowell's gallery and an excellent shooter in

his own right.

 

With no offense to anyone else, his advice should have some very credible weight that

comes with it.

 

cheers,

Go get a copy of 100 flowers by Harold Feinstein or Adam Kulfeld's excellent portraits of

flowers books or Barbara Bordnick's stuff. Better yet look at some of Mapplethorpe's stuff. If

your stuff is that good then it will sell. As everyone else has said, the world is full of excellent

flower photographers. It is a very crowded space.

Thanks to everyone for your realistic (though not discouraging) comments.

 

Very helpful.

If you like flowers, maybe you should think "gardening" instead. There are millions of gardeners and many gardening magazines that consume a vast quantity of images. Stock is nuts these days, but magazine rates generally aren't too bad. You will have to cultivate relationships and carve a niche.

To second the last response, you are far better off direct marketing your images to clients

who you have identified as potential users of your work, rather than simply placing flower

photographs with stock websites and waiting for paltry checks to come in few and far

between.

 

Also, I can't emphasize strongly enough that you must be ready to really push the

standards of quality in your work. The oversupply of images in the market means that your

work will really have to stand out in terms of design, lighting, etc., etc., to gain any kind of

competitive edge. This is particularly true with images of easily accessible and

"cooperative" subjects like flowers. It isn't enough to make flower photos that are "as

good" as the shots you've seen in popular photo how-to books, or the standard photo

magazines.

 

To maximize the marketability of your work you should be setting your standards higher

by

looking at flower photography that is selected for use in media that exemplify excellent art

direction (that could mean magazines, advertising, commercial websites, etc.). If

you can make images that meet that high standard, research the market, identify, reach

out to, and build relationships with clients, learn to negotiate licensing fees and terms to

your advantage, and present yourself and your work in a professional manner, then you

should do quite well. Otherwise, you probably won't even come close to covering your

expenses trying to reach the commercial market.

I'm guessing printing flowers large is really not going to connect to some untapped market. I recall one wealthy photographer who printed and exhibitted a number of large prints of colorful flowers. At least comments I heard were not too positive. Who wants to see inch wide petals blown up 10x? Fascinating yes at first but I'd speculate ordinary people better relate to flowers at their normal sizes in terms of what they might consider for a place on their walls versus some large framed magnified picture of a single poppy. One reason I shoot individual wildflowers with a smaller format and for closeups only point my view camera at masses of dense flowers. Wide landscapes of wildflower fields does work large of course.

 

The market for flower images is so saturated commercial clients easily are satisfied by well oiled stock, well known photographers, and image corps so they have little need to look at the myriad other sources screaming look at me me me. At the low end, ordinary folk, especially women love flowers. And they don't connect to those commercial sources so those selling locally in galleries and art fairs will always receive some business. ...David

<p>Flowers are one of the more popular photo subjects, which means you need to capture amazing images to really stand out in the crowd. To accomplish this, it's important to cultivate a photographic eye.</p><div></div>

<p>Hello. <br>

I would like to thank you for your post. I have been honing my photography skill for more than 10 years, and some of my best stuff is still coming.<br>

I did see the photographers sites you mention. There work is beautiful and technically precise, but I feel it lacks a certain passion that available light photography of in situ wildflower photography provides. <br>

I have been thinking long and hard about buying John Shaw's The Business of Nature Photography. But I'm not sure I'm ready to go that route. I know the bloom time of every wildflower in my area, and now where to find fields of them, and not just isolate one blossom.<br>

I sometimes do wonder what's the point of having 40,000 slides and thousands of dollars in equipment if I can't share my vision. I'm not asking how to profit from it, I just want to share. <br>

I have contributed to books, online databases, and even got a picture published. But I haven't made a sale. And really wish I had the time to scan and publize my best work. I don't really have the web skills and time to make my website into an art house. <br>

I just wanted to say thank you, because I agree that the part of my photography that's missing is business savy, and that's probably a bigger part than precision, but not, I dare say, vision.<br>

I also wanted to say how rewarding I find photography. Every year I can find the same flowers, or even the same plant, and try to get the picture right. I just wish I wasn't so lazy that sometimes I say, well, I'll get that plant next year.<br>

Thank you.<br>

Matthew</p>

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