hi i'm adam and welcome back to first
man photography in today's video we are
talking about how we can approach
selling our photography prints and
discuss an uncomfortable truth that
can't be ignored
[Music]
before we get going today though this
video is sponsored by squarespace if you
need a domain name a website or an
online store make your next move with
squarespace over the last few years i
have been lucky enough to spend time and
work with some of the very best
landscape photographers in the uk one of
the things i learned early on which i
found a bit disconcerting but at the
same time reassuring was that none of
them sell that many prints and certainly
nowhere near enough to make up a large
percentage of their income now i find
this reassuring because i don't sell
that many prints either in fact over the
last couple of years i'll be lucky if
i've sold one per month now there are a
number of reasons for this firstly i've
done no marketing whatsoever and that's
exceptionally important but one of the
main issues is scarcity scarcity is what
makes up the value of any asset say if
10 of us are stranded on top of a
mountain when the weather suddenly
changes but only one of us has a coat
that coat suddenly becomes extremely
valuable and everybody would want it the
uncomfortable truth is that following
the dawn of digital cameras photography
became accessible to almost everyone as
the years went by loads of us started
taking really good pictures and suddenly
there were hundreds of beautiful images
of well-known landscape locations that
essentially flooded the market almost
overnight destroying the scarcity that
older photographers older film
photographers used to enjoy the supply
now far outweighs the demand which
reduces the value and i doubt that will
ever change again over the last year
i've spent a lot of time researching
nfts and if you follow me on twitter
i've actually got i've pinned a thread
to the top of my profile which shares my
thoughts but essentially i believe
they're in a bubble and a lot of people
are going to lose money and get hurt the
reason they've become so popular though
is because they've created this
narrative of scarcity
where essentially the blockchain
technology confirms the artwork as a
one-of-one but it's not a one-of-one
it's a false narrative because the jpeg
can be recreated infinitely with a
simple screenshot and the image itself
does not even reside on the blockchain i
don't want to get bogged down with nft
talk but what has been interesting is
the community that has built up around
it and the organic marketing that
creates it's led to artwork being bought
all over the world and even if we
subtract the so-called investors it
still shows there is a demand for great
artwork and great photography i have no
doubt that digital assets will become
commonplace but for me
really nothing can replace the enjoyment
you get from looking at a physical
tangible piece of artwork so maybe we
can use some of the lessons learned from
the digital asset asset boom and apply
it to our own strategy when trying to
sell our physical prints now normally in
these types of print videos the
photographer just suddenly produces a
beautiful looking print but part of what
gives artwork its value is the endeavour
the time and the struggle the artist has
gone through to create the work so we're
gonna head out and about now and capture
an image with the intention of making a
prince and then we'll come back and
discuss a new approach that we can take
to selling our prints
[Music]
so you join me out and about on what is
an absolutely stunning morning but
it is
it's one of those mornings when
everything around you looks absolutely
incredible you're inspired by the
landscape but for some reason or other
actually making an image out of it
seems to be really difficult because
the thing i'm struggling with at the
moment is actually finding a subject
that inspires me the landscape as a
whole with these kind of
360 degree views that i've got are
fantastic but trying to
find a composition and pull that down
into something more interesting is
really hard and that's what i'm
struggling with right now really
struggling although i have set up a
composition probably the most obvious
thing that i've found is this frozen
pond or small lake the clouds
are absolutely stunning they are high
they weren't there at sunrise but since
the sun has come up a little bit more
these really high altitude clouds have
come over and they just look fantastic
still got some lovely orange and yellow
colors in there so that is kind of
making this image work i think a bit
better than it would otherwise i've then
got because of how cold it is
these reeds that have just frozen so
beautifully and it's made them got a
really interesting white color i've then
got this group of
kind of
pine evergreen trees over to the right
hand side and then some sort of
interesting trees frozen over the other
side as well and that kind of
is about as basic as it gets at the
moment i'm not particularly feeling like
it's going to be anywhere near
a portfolio image but it's early in the
morning
and
i'm having to work hard to keep the
positivity going because i'm still tired
and a bit
uh bleary-eyed so
uh
when i get home and i'm feeling more
positive after getting this fresh air
getting this exercise getting the
feeling of well-being up that doing
landscape photography gives you i may
feel a little bit more positive about
the image and i may later on be happy
with it which is why i've kind of
essentially forced myself in to taking
it
what i do like though as well is the
reflections on the pond because i want
those reflections there's not gonna be
any use of any filters or polarizer or
anything like that it's so beautifully
still as well that all these trees and
grasses in the in the foreground just
allowing me to use the exact exposure
time that i need
if i have the camera at iso 100 which i
do
so i'm playing around with the
composition a little bit left and right
i'm happy with i'm happy with
kind of this tree here i'm happy to cut
that out on the left hand side
and then using the trees kind of as a
kind of a guide into the wall into the
center of the image and then just
playing with the tilt up and down to
include a little bit more of the reeds
because i really like them they're
interesting
although then to include a little bit
more of the sky as well so
uh maybe it'll be a vertical image i
don't know but let's have let's have a
play
i'm focusing on the reeds just kind of
on the edge of the pond there
and bracketing as well f11 125th of a
second as the middle exposure
oh the light
can you see just here as the sun starts
to come just where my hand is there the
light's starting to come up through
those trees and that is now reflecting
in the image with a golden light so that
looks really good and there's some
lovely color in the sky lovely yellows
and oranges that i can still see yeah
and i think that's probably gonna be
probably gonna be a decent image but
we'll see i'm not hugely excited about
it at the moment but i shouldn't play it
down should i
decide for yourself
[Music]
so a lesson i learned time and time
again is that how you feel about an
image in the field is often very
different to how you feel about it after
the fact back at home i've had times
when i think i've captured something
great in the field but then when i see
it on the big screen i'm absolutely
disgusted with myself happily today
though it's the other way around because
i now
love
this image and it's printed beautifully
with very minimal editing
but before we discuss our sales
strategies as you know this video is
sponsored by squarespace and squarespace
is the best place for photographers to
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website we're talking about selling
prints today and squarespace is also
perfect for that because you can upgrade
your site to an online store and like
some other platforms squarespace do not
take a fee when you sell something they
also have 24 7 customer support so hit
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squarespace.com to start your free trial
today and then use the off code first
man to get 10
off your first purchase so what do we
need to think about when we're selling
our prints so firstly we need to
consider the market who are our
potential customers
traditionally i think with landscape
photography it has not been other
landscape photographers who buy our work
it's normal people that want a pretty
picture on their wall so how do we make
people value our work the most basic way
is to i think produce work that shows a
place that means something to them this
is why shooting locally can be so
effective seascapes i think also do well
because truthfully a beautiful rocky
shoreline in australia might not look
that different from say one in north
yorkshire another way is producing work
that stirs up an emotion an exciting or
positive feeling because when the
artwork goes up on their wall they want
to feel good about it every time they
look at it now with this in mind
non-photographers will almost always
prefer warm bright and saturated images
opposed to
photographs that are moody muted or with
cooler tones to be honest though i think
it's going to be increasingly difficult
finding this audience for our work until
as photographers we start properly
supporting each other which up to now
truthfully has not happened because if
we don't support each other and value
the work of others how can we possibly
expect anybody else to take music for
example musicians support and appreciate
the work of other musicians all the time
they listen to each other's songs they
go to their gigs it's an entirely
collaborative economy i think
photography has to do the same and we
can inherit that community aspect from
the nft space into the physical space so
follow me on twitter share your images
and i'm pledging to buy the work of
another photographer once every month or
so to start building out
my collection into something very
significant but what about price i hear
you ask this is definitely one of the
most difficult aspects and i have always
been very aware that i do not want to
undervalue myself in any way i know
people will pay 40 pounds for my book
but i don't think other photographers
are paying upwards of 300 pounds for a
print so to start selling more of my own
prints and make them more accessible to
everyone i'm going to try something new
and hopefully innovative
i'm gonna call this new project
continuum and it launches today one way
that scarcity has always been created in
photography is to
essentially sell a print as a limited
series where
you promise there will only
be say 50 copies of the print made and
once they're all sold you can't make or
sell any more thus the value increases
over time if the demand for the image
exists but i want to take this a step
further create more scarcity where the
image will be limited to just one of
five or one of ten but not only will it
be limited by space i'm also going to
limit it by time hence continuum so
every week when i put a video out where
i make an image that image will then be
released
alongside the video but will only be
available for seven days seven seven
seven days then to make it accessible
for everyone i'm going to price it in a
way to provide maximum appeal to other
photographers who watch these videos you
and then reward those who are quick and
first in the queue so we're starting
with this image today so if you click
down below and go to my website there
are six available now one of five will
cost 35 pounds where pretty much i'm
only going to break even two of five
will then be 55 pounds three of five
then goes up to 99 and so on and so on
there is a sixth available which i'm
calling the artist edition which is my
copy literally this one and i've priced
that in a way to basically discourage
you from buying it but if you do the
presentation will be incredible and i
won't own a copy of my own image one of
three will be shipped rolled in a tube
and you get a digital certificate of
authenticity four and five will be flat
packed with a physical certificate and
the artist edition comes with an acrylic
band certificate
and also optional framing all additions
will be a2 in size printed to the very
highest of standards and i will also
sign them all there are more details on
the website so get in there quick
and this will be happening every week
when a video goes out for the
foreseeable future so my most loyal and
dedicated followers will have the best
opportunity
to
essentially collect my work at a very
attractive price because after seven
days the initial period
the seven day initial period the unsold
copies will revert to their normal price
that non-photographers
would have to pay this might not work it
might not but i think it's a model that
could
and hopefully you can try it too i'd
actually
love to create a platform that gives
others the opportunity like this to sell
their work
and generate that kind of buzz
for
buying physical photography much like
has happened with digital in a nft space
but that's it for now check out the
website and leave a comment down below
and let me know what you
think and yeah that's it i'll see you on
another one very very soon
bye