Where can i sell my nature photos?

I have always photographed nature before my 10 year photography

career but I don't know where to start to sell them or publish them.

Help?

Someone suggested craft shows to you. Craft shows are generally not a good venue for selling photography. Inexpensive, functional wood crafts and artificial flower arrangements, etc. sell well at craft shows - not relatively expensive framed work to hang on the wall, or even matted photographic prints. The better, more worthwhile fine art shows can be good, if you have the right kind of work. These shows are extremely competative and you have to beat out your excellent, experienced competition, just to be able to be accepted by the screening jury as one of the exhibitors. Many more people apply than can be accepted. For every success story on the art show circuit, there are many failures. It is expensive and time consuming to travel to the various shows and there are many difficulties to overcome, such as bad weather, etc. You could spend five days of your time, a thousand dollars for the art show application, gas, motel, etc. only to be rained out at the show. It has become a highly professional business, requiring a high level of talent, business expertice and raw stamina. I've been in this business now for almost twenty years. It can be lucrative, but only if you're very good at what you do and only after you've earned your scars learning what not to do. I can't tell you how many start-up photographers I've seen go by the wayside due to burn-out, inability to produce the quality and kind of images that people who can afford the work are willing to buy and by putting themselves in debt because they don't understand the financial realities of the business. I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from looking into this aspect of selling their photography, but you should understand that it is just as difficult and competative as any other professional area of photography sales.

First, unless your photography is well above "very nice snapshot" level, it won't sell. If it is well above that level, you should be exploring many different ways to market your work.

 

Craft shows don't have to be either hard or expensive if you try out a few close to home. For many local ones, the fees are pretty nominal. If you have some excellent images of places that are recognizably local, you have a good chance of capturing attention and selling your work. However, there are a lot of pretty mediocre photographers out there trying to sell pretty mediocre prints for a few tens of dollars - without success, because their images just aren't good enough. On the other hand, if your work is excellent, you should be able to sell prints for a lot more than a few tens of dollars. Sometimes the average print buyer may have difficulty distinguishing between excellent and extraordinary work, but most people easily see the difference in quality between fair and very good work.

This book will get you pointed in the right direction:

John Shaw's Business of Nature Photography - A Professional's Guide to Marketing and Managing a Successful Nature Photography Business.

ISBN # 0-8174-4050-X

 

Good luck!

Ethan Meleg - www.ethanmeleg.com

I have a full review of this book at my website. Have a look at it. There is another good book on the subject by Nigel Hicks. I have almost finished reading it and I will put a review of that book on my site as well.

 

Http://www.wildpicture.com