Selling framed photos

trainboysd40 · 10-30-2009, 06:02 PM

Does anyone here have a good way to market framed railroad photos? With my current job, I have good access to both frames and prints, so I can naturally see this going somewhere. Every time someone's contacted me so far, I've only made a pittance selling just a print or even just a digital file.
Where and how can I sell these things?
Even just photos in general, I have a handful of landscapes that I figure are good enough to sell.

lock4244 · 10-30-2009, 06:14 PM

From what I've seen here, strategically placing an attractive young woman somewhere in your images seems to work wonders in terms of marketing.

trainboysd40 · 10-30-2009, 07:35 PM

brb, photoshop.
But in all seriousness, where do I go to say these are available?

Chase55671 · 10-30-2009, 07:48 PM

Matthew, I've wondered the exact same thing, but unfortunately cannot provide any advice. Hopefully we can both get some input from other members.

I would imagine it wouldn't be too hard to sell one of your railroad related photos with one of those photoshopped, errr "interesting" skies.

Chase

Walter S · 10-30-2009, 08:54 PM

Have you tried local craft shows, trainshows, etc? You will always find railroad fans or people who just like the shots I am sure.

NathBDP · 10-30-2009, 10:00 PM

You could try local shows but your prices will have to be lower. Sold about 11 prints to a collector last year. It was my first major sale but I live in an area where there is a decent demand for emerging photographers. Generally people are not interested in a straight up wedge shots with the locomotive in them, and unless you just want to sell to railfans you will be limiting yourself. You can certainly do railroad photography in such a way that the image is appealing not only to railfans but ordiinary folks alike. That's often my goal.

Lee Baxter · 10-30-2009, 10:02 PM

Walters on the right path, the model train show we just had at Liverpool,NSW had a lot of stands selling framed and unframed prints in all sizes.

Lee

trainboysd40 · 10-31-2009, 04:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NathBDP

You could try local shows but your prices will have to be lower. Sold about 11 prints to a collector last year. It was my first major sale but I live in an area where there is a decent demand for emerging photographers. Generally people are not interested in a straight up wedge shots with the locomotive in them, and unless you just want to sell to railfans you will be limiting yourself. You can certainly do railroad photography in such a way that the image is appealing not only to railfans but ordiinary folks alike. That's often my goal.

heh, that's easy for me...
I'm going to be trying to find some places for a few of my best landscapes as well, I'm pretty sure some of my oversaturated sunset shots will sell well.

wds · 10-31-2009, 10:03 PM

Maybe somebody with the right experience and connections could partner with RP and set up a railroad stock photo agency. Heck, they've already got a screening process in place along with great contributor and viewer bases! Oh wait, this sounds a bit familiar. Didn't somebody already suggest that a month or three ago

Joey Bowman · 10-31-2009, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wds

Maybe somebody with the right experience and connections could partner with RP and set up a railroad stock photo agency. Heck, they've already got a screening process in place along with great contributor and viewer bases! Oh wait, this sounds a bit familiar. Didn't somebody already suggest that a month or three ago

80% or more of the stuff on here would definitely be of good enough quality for stock photography. But I dont see there being enough of a market for a railroad photography specific agency.

Rich K · 11-01-2009, 02:38 AM

You need to be careful when selling photographs that contain logos or trademarks, as you might be inviting a copyright infringement problem.

For example, selling a photo of a train with BNSF power in which the logos on the locomotives are visible can get you in hot water. Even subjects like photos of John Deere tractors are not accepted because John Deree has copyrighted the green color they use.

I sell photos of many kinds using several of the most popular stock photography sites, but in general they won't even accept a photo with any sort of brand name, logo, trademark, etc. visible. A couple of them will make an exception for images with editorial merit.

Not long ago a friend told me that TTX Corp. was looking for photos of their rail equipment in action. I submitted 12 images to them, they purchased 2 at $250 each. I would not have even been aware of this if not for a heads up.