making money :)

[bob bothner]

hello, I'm a rookie here but am interested to maybe become a pro. I was wondering weather you have any simple and easy tips to start selling my pics, knowing that i am a 17y.o and do not have unlimited money to do so...

[surfg1mp]

might like to do some reseach on the web and in books on how to sell pictures. Theres lots of information out there on how to do this, but its not to easy, lots of people have the same idea.

[yelvertoft]

I have no idea if there is a French equivalent, but in the UK you can buy an annual Photographers Guide, can't remember the exact title but you'll see it on sale in most bookshops. It lists by category, names and address' of just about all the magazines, agencies, businesses, etc. that are looking to buy photos, together with the type of photos they are after and the conditions attached.

As Lee says, it's a highly competitive market and there is no easy answer.

[surfg1mp]

Thats interesting duncan, i may try and purchase myself a copy of that. Been looking through magazines jotting down contact numbers etc, trouble is you dont know what their sourses of images are most of the time because they dont always list contributors. plus you dont know what they need, this directory could come in handy.

[ABphoto]

This is a controversial approach but the only reason I got started was selling through microstock sites. There is very intense debate as to wether they harm the business but it's an excellent way to start out.

It's worth taking a look, I havn't uploaded any images in 3 years and I still receive a regular payout from what are quite frankly poor images, some links here.

I should say I only ever uploaded 'disposable' images to microstock.

[surfg1mp]

joined 123rf a while ago, uploaded the required 10 images, just had word that 5 out of the 10 were excepted. Just uploaded a few more and will continue too when i have some good stuff. Hope to soon get my first sale.

[jzhao1688]

Originally Posted by bob bothner

hello, I'm a rookie here but am interested to maybe become a pro. I was wondering weather you have any simple and easy tips to start selling my pics, knowing that i am a 17y.o and do not have unlimited money to do so...

In order to be a professional photographer you need be a member of a photography association and produce a minimum of 2 years portfolio and be judged by a panel of professional photographers, but since you are young if you are keen to learn then you'll make it as a professional photographer. I've been doing photography for the last 6 years and a member of the Australian Commercial + Media Photographers (ACMP), but when I first started photography 6 years back I learn a lot from other photographers as well as self learning photography and do research to become successful. I think one day if you do what I did you'll become a pro like myself.