Cameras

Photography: Grace Chon

Sometimes, the secret of building a successful photography business ? even a part-time gig squeezed around a full-time job ? isn?t hard to figure out.

Take good pictures. Treat your clients well. Understand that nothing is more important than making your buyers happy? and they?ll do the rest.

?I?m quite fortunate that I don?t look for clients ? my clients find me!? Grace Chon, an art director and part-time photographer told us. ?[I]f they?re really happy with you and their photos they?ll naturally tell their friends about their experience. And there?s nothing as valuable as great word-of-mouth referrals.?

For Grace, that?s true even though she does her photography work in one of the most competitive of fields ? one that every camera-owner thinks they can do themselves.

Dogs that Tell Stories

She takes pictures of pets. Putting in around 30 hours a week in addition to her job with a Los Angeles advertising agency, Grace shoots what she calls ?modern pet photography,? advertising her services through her site ShinePetPhotos.com. Rather than photographing pets in a studio with artificial lights and blank backgrounds, Grace shoots them in their own environment, surrounded by their own toys and in a context which, she says, tells their story.

?Shooting in a studio seems a bit sterile ? it strips away so much of this story-telling opportunity.?

The result is great images that capture the pet?s personality, portray character and, most importantly, satisfy the client. Grace has had an image appear on a magazine cover, was invited to be a juror at LA County Fair?s dog photography competition ? and has been shooting professionally for less than a year.

Some of that swift success may be due to Grace?s background. It might be easier to develop a photographic eye and understand the need to please buyers when you spend all day as an art director, putting together designs for clients like Wendy?s, Chandon, and yes, Pets Unlimited too. But there are a couple of other ingredients that have contributed to Grace?s success at turning what began as a hobby with a point-and-shoot camera aimed at a roommate?s two pets into a profitable passion.

The first, of course, is technical ability. Grace says that the best advice she can offer anyone thinking becoming a pet photographer is to ?practice, practice and then practice some more.? Learning the basics will help you to understand the rules before you break them, and focusing, she says, is essential for good portraiture.

Animals are Incredible ?Energy Readers?

But no less important is the fact that Grace loves what she does and the subjects she shoots, something that?s clearly essential when you?re doing it before starting work in the morning, after knocking off in the evening and instead of playing with friends at the weekends. Even before she took up pet photography, Grace had worked at the Philadelphia Zoo, interned at the University of Pennsylvania?s Emergency Animal Hospital, and had studied biology with the aim of going to veterinary school.

?I absolutely believe you have to love animals to be a successful pet photographer,? she says. ?Animals are incredible ?energy readers? and know immediately when people like (or dislike) them.?

Her understanding of animals helps too. Unlike human subjects, pets can?t tell the photographer when they?re nervous, tired or just having a bad day. A pet photographer has to be able to read their emotions and know when to give a dog a break, she warns.

But even for an animal-lover with an understanding of both pets and what it takes to please their owners, taking pictures of furry friends can be difficult. When Grace started shooting professionally, she was shocked at how tiring it was to run after a dog, change positions quickly and spend time building trust. She often felt sore for days after a shoot.

And then there are the jobs that break your heart. Asked about the toughest shoot she had to do, Grace described a client who had called her in tears after discovering that her dog, Ella, had a terminal illness and had to be put to sleep.

?I normally book about two months in advance, but my client asked me to come over the next day,? Grace recalled. ?Ella couldn?t move, so she was laid out on a blanket in the backyard. The family members were in tears throughout the shoot and it was really hard for me to remain composed while I photographed this beautiful dog. I was successful at not crying in front of the family ? but the minute the shoot was over and I left their yard I kind of lost it.?

Ella was put to sleep the next day. Her pictures, shot by Grace, are still available for viewing here.

Photography: Robert Buelteman

Every photographer has a different vision of success. For some, life would be perfect if Time Magazine were to send them and their camera bag to Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. For others, sipping wine at a gallery opening while collectors battle to buy their art would be the ultimate sign that they?ve arrived. And for many, just being paid for a picture or winning a commission for a portrait would tell them that they?ve got talent, technique and an audience for their work.

But what happens next? What do you do after you?ve got used to phone calls from editors, when you?ve seen the red stickers on your framed photos or once sales and commissions have become a standard part of your life?

That was a dilemma faced by Robert Buelteman, a 51-year old landscape photographer known for his pictures of California. His black and white images had already been published in two books. His photos form part of the permanent collections of Yale University Art Museum and The Santa Barbara Museum of Art. And a steady supply of commercial assignments meant that he was able to earn a rewarding living from his camera.

Ansel Adams, Fiber Optics and Sculpted Plants

For most enthusiasts that would be the stuff that photography dreams are made of. But the death of a number of relatives and a desire for new challenges led Buelteman to look at a completely new way of creating pictures.

?It isn?t that I was running from dissatisfaction so much as I was seeking new possibilities for myself and for my art,? he explains. ?As a witness to the loss of four family members to cancer in the late 90?s, I had learned that life is short, and didn?t want the precious gift that my life is to be spent doing what had already been done by so many so often.?

Twenty years earlier, Sarah Adams (the granddaughter of Ansel) had shown Buelteman Walter Chappell?s Metaflora portfolio of flower images at her home in Lee Vining. As he searched for a new outlet, Buelteman recalled that meeting and an idea he?d had about combining photography with fiber optics.

The result was a method that draws on his studies in chemistry, physics and optics at Berkeley to create a new kind of Kirlian photography, a technique that involves passing an electric current through an object on an a photographic plate to generate an image of the corona discharged around the object?s edges.

Buelteman?s approach though is particularly difficult. He takes live plants and ?sculpts? them with a scalpel until they?re translucent. Working in the dark, he then prepares an ?exposure matrix? made up a sheet of 8×10 tungsten-balanced transparency film mounted on an easel. This is supported by a sheet of metal in a solution of liquid silicone, which itself is sandwiched between two sheets of Plexiglas. To create the image, Buelteman connects to the metal sheet to a spark plug cable, places the sliver of plant material on the film, and fires 80,000 volts through the metal ? and the plant. The current leaves a glow on the film in the shape of the plant. Finally, Buelteman uses strobe lights and fiber-optic cables to add extra light effects.

3,000 Exposures? 30 Images

It?s a process that can demand a great deal of time and experimentation. A single photograph can take anywhere from an hour to create to a number of months spread over several years. Calla lilies, for example, only bloom for a few weeks, creating a short window each year to get the picture of the plant right. The 30 images contained in Buelteman?s first portfolio ?Through the Green Fuse? took 3,000 exposures and 60 hours a week for two years to produce.

?This is not a technique that one perfects,? Buelteman told us. ?It reminds me of dancing.  Dancing is its own reward, and once you try to do it right, you?ve lost the rhythm.  This process, impossibly difficult with so many variables that it defies the traditional controls that we have come to expect as photographers, is a roll of the dice.?

The images though, shot without a camera and dependent on the corona created by the electrical charge are unique, and certainly very different to the traditional black and white photos Buelteman had produced in the past. The response though has been phenomenal. Galleries have snapped up his photos and the Santa Fe Institute invited him to be an artist-in-residence, giving Buelteman the freedom to continue developing his technique.

At the same time though, Buelteman has continued shooting and selling his black and white landscapes which he prints himself. Without those sales, he points out, he might ?you know, have to get a job or something.? And creating the pictures helps to keep him grounded and engaged in his art, he says. It?s something he predicts he?ll never give up.

It would be wonderful to say that the moral of Buelteman?s story is that it?s always possible for a photographer to change direction, branch out into new areas and succeed. But of course, that isn?t the case. There was no guarantee that Buelteman?s technique would work, that any of the images he produced would be attractive or that anyone would want to look at them or own them. But that wasn?t the reason he did it. Being a successful photographer might be rewarding and satisfying but the thrill of success itself is never a reason anyone ever picks up a camera. That?s always done for the pleasure of creating pictures that make you proud. Buelteman himself notes the most important characteristic he looks at to measure the success of his technique isn?t the number of exhibitions, print sales or media  interest the images generate but his personal excitement and passion to continue doing it.

?When, as an artist, you have tapped into that special place where you no longer feel separate from the rest of life there is a spontaneity and a beauty and a rhythm in your art that others respond to,? he says. ?While this is a place available to all of us, I find myself able to visit only occasionally.?

And, of course, if it turns out that people like your new images well enough to buy them as much as they like your old ones, then that really is the stuff of dreams.

Log into Amazon at the moment, and on the front page, you won?t just find the usual list of recommended products that you probably don?t want. You?ll also see a homely-style photograph of a cake in the shape of a Kindle.

We don?t know if Amazon paid for that photograph (although we suspect it didn?t). We are sure though that the site that supplied it is now seeing its server costs fly through the roof as a portion of the gazillions of people who see Amazon?s home page every day click the link above Jeff Bezos? signature.

In terms of exposure, getting your image and a link on Amazon?s home page is like being chosen as Book of the Month by Oprah. It?s a guaranteed winner.

But you can?t wait for that to happen to you if you want to use Amazon as a way of earning income through photography. Nor do you have to sign up to the company?s affiliate system and plaster Amazon?s ads all over your Web pages (although there?s nothing wrong with that.)

There are plenty of other ways to pick up cash as a photographer with the help of the world?s largest online retailer.

Sell your Photography Book on Amazon
Probably the easiest way to make money with Amazon is create your own photography book and place it on the site that millions of people turn to first when they?re looking for a printed volume. Amazon?s Advantage program lets anyone sell their books, music or DVDs and even offers a print-on-demand service through CreateSpace so that you don?t have to splash out on inventory that just fills up your garage.

We like the way Blurb lets photographers create and sell books, but it?s worth comparing Blurb to CreateSpace to see which lets you build the better product and offer it in the best way. You might even find that it pays to use two different self-publishing systems depending on your marketing stream.

You could even take this further and create a DVD that teaches how to shoot photographs in your particular niche and sell it in the same way. If other photography enthusiasts often ask how they can shoot photos like yours, that should be a good sign that you?ll have a market.

Of course, it?s not enough to create your product and place it on Amazon. If you?re going to sell it, you?ll need to promote it too?

Use the Reviews
One very easy way to do that is to become one of Amazon?s reviewers.

Anyone can contribute their opinion of any product sold on Amazon. That means that you can leave messages under sales pages for any cameras, lenses and lighting equipment you use. You can let people know what you think about various photography books and photographers. You can even offer tips and advice about the sort of items the buyer is thinking of purchasing.

And if you also include a link to your website each time you do that, you?ll be creating a road to a sales page that lots of targeted buyers are going to travel down.

You could certainly just link to your home page and let the site do its job but you could also create a special landing page for Amazon?s shoppers to promote particular services or products ? even photography items that you?re selling on Amazon.

When a site the size of Amazon hands out free space on its Web pages, it?s just a waste for any entrepreneur ? and especially a photopreneur ? not to use it.

Update your Amazon Blog
Another tool that Amazon offers its sellers is a blog on the sales page. That might sound a little strange. Few people are going to log in to an Amazon sales page to read your latest thoughts. They might do it to read Dan Patterson?s latest thoughts but they?re less likely to do it to read the postings of a photographer they hadn?t heard of until just a few minutes before.

You can still use the blog though by adding a few brief articles that reinforce your image as a skilled photographer with good images and information to offer a buyer.

If you already have helpful posts you can take from your website, you won?t even have to do any extra work.

Steer Clear of Prints
One strategy you?d probably want to avoid though is trying to sell your prints through Amazon. Search for photographic prints on the site and you should find that you?re faced with a pretty meager choice, most of them placed there by large retailers.

Whether that?s because people just don?t want to buy art on Amazon or because photographers just aren?t doing it is hard to say. It?s possible that eBay simply does better. But it does look likely that you?d have a hard sell.

If you?re looking to shift your images on Amazon then, your best bet is to use one of the many methods of putting them on the pages of a book? then market it like mad.