Earning money on theatre events

[lars69]

Hi everybody,

 

I am not actually a full time pro but once year a friend of mine who owns a theatre school has a show

for the parents and I take pictures and sell them after the shows.

 

So the problem is, even the pictures are very well received and generate a lot of interest, I don't actually

earn much money. Or at least not enough to make it really worth while.

 

So what I do is, I take pictures during rehearsal. Spend a sunday selecting the best ones, making sure

each kid is at least one time on each image.

I then print around 50 shots on 10x8 at home. I use an Olympus P-400 dye sub which has quite nice

photo like quality. And put them into frames, the card board type you can buy at photo supplies.

 

I then also make contact prints of around 100 images.

 

On the show date (3 shows, around 100 people each time) I put the contacts on the wall and the

images on a table.

I sell the pictures for 10 pounds (UK) = 15 dollars each plus postage if people order.

 

So in total I sell maybe 40 images, which is after deducting petrol, 4 days working, and costs not much.

 

Assuming that the pictures are nice (and honestly they are). What can I do to make a bit more money?

I don't want to become rich but at the moment I would earn more selling newspapers and that doesn't

really support my photography.

 

I honestly believe I should change the sales pattern.

Should I take only orders to save printing costs?

Offer online sales, even though as I do it only one time a year it sounds a bit too much fuss to do?

Or anything else?

 

If any of you do events photography let me know if you have any ideas.

Any help would be really appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

Lars

[alec_myers]

If you want to sell more, print more. And work on building a reputation for having the "must have" shots of each event. Don't print less, the printing costs are a tiny proportion of your outlay, if you include your time. Online sales are simple given that you've done the editing, and so worth doing.

 

(By the way 10UKP = $20 at the moment.)

 

Otherwise, you're just discovering that photography doesn't (necessarily) pay very well, and you'll have to decide whether you want to carry on doing it or not!

[rcox2]

You might try getting a website from which you can sell. That way parenst could log on anytime and you don't have to invest in the printing.

[peterlyons]

Does Smugmug work in the UK?

 

I couldn't function the way I do without online hosting and printing. Don't know how you do

it at your prices. I'd double those prices, and I'm cheap.

 

Peter