Cameras

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.

Photography: Gil Plaquet

There are few moments more exciting, more thrilling and more satisfying than your first paid photo shoot. And if that first shoot is a wedding, there are also few moments more nerve-wracking. A couple have hired you to document the most important day of their lives. They?ve trusted you to produce the pictures that will spark their memories, record their celebrations and which they?ll show their children and grandchildren in the years to come.

Get a portrait shoot wrong and the client will go to another photographer. Get a wedding shoot wrong and there are no second chances. The couple will have nothing but poor shots to remember their day ? and nothing but word-of-mouth criticism to offer other couples instead of positive recommendations.

And wedding shoots aren?t easy. They can last for hours, require the co-operation of dancing, boozy guests and demand lots of preparation and plenty of post-production. But they are the bread and butter of many photography businesses and for good reason. While retail firms may cut back on their product photography and magazines can reduce their budget for editorial images, people will always get married. And they?ll always be willing to splash out when they do.

My Mother?s Friend?s Wedding

Winning that first job though is perhaps the hardest part. Without a portfolio of shots to show a client, persuading a couple that you have the temperament to handle the pressure and the skills to create the photos isn?t easy. Many photographers, in fact, begin by shooting for friends or family, people who already know and trust them.

Gil Plaquet, a journalism student who usually shoots for StampMedia and occasionally for local Belgian newspaper Gazet Van Antwerpen, recently completed his first wedding shoot. He picked up the job through family connections.

?They were friends of my mom?s who knew about my photography and wondered if I wanted to document their very special day for them,? he told us. ?I was honored to do so, met up with them, showed them my portfolio and discussed pricing and the itinerary with them.?

To fix the prices Gil contacted a friend who had done wedding shoots in the past and followed his rates, lowering them a little because it was his first job. He also managed to upsell the clients an interactive DVD and a dedicated website to show off their images. Other photographers though have been known to shoot their first job for free in return for the portfolio. Joanna LeMasters, for example, shot her first wedding in December 2008 as a wedding gift to a former colleague. The couple agreed that she would use the photos in her portfolio and they would link and credit each photo to her.

Although she didn?t regret that choice, it took Joanna about half an hour after arriving at the church to decide that the work and planning involved in wedding photography meant that this would be the last time she shot for a gift.

Guests Placed My Posed Photos Online in a Day

When it came to the shoot itself, Joanna did have the advantage of having assisted her father, a professional photographer, at wedding jobs in the past. Gil, despite also coming from a family of photographers, hadn?t even attended a wedding for a number of years. Both were surprised at the co-operation they received from guests. People were generally willing to do as they were asked, Joanna found, and even the minister asked her how the wedding was going to go and when she wanted him for the shoot. The only trouble came when she chose to take the posed photos of the wedding party immediately after the ceremony.

?The subjects were very willing to obey. The guests who remained inside the church caused some problems though,? she recalled. ?The groom and bride asked them more than once to quiet down and stop taking pictures. Still, some of my posed photos showed up on the Internet less than 24 hours after the wedding via the other guests? cameras.?

Joanna can probably put that down to experience and now recommends that photographers get the posing and special requests out of the way as early as possible while there?s still light and before the celebrations begin. She also suggests using a flash for everything to save on post-production, taking multiple shots whenever possible, and above all, remembering that you?re the photographer, not a guest. While that means you have to wolf down the food quickly at the reception ? a good opportunity, she discovered, for candid shots ? it does provide a little leeway to be pushier than others. You can interrupt the couple to ask them to pose, suggest that subjects adjust their hair and clothes before you shoot and stand with your back to other guests as they take their own pictures. Gil too discovered the value of discussing the itinerary with the couple before the shoot, knowing exactly what they expect, and making sure that you?re properly equipped with enough batteries to get you through the day and either a versatile lens or multiple cameras. The practice at shooting portraits and documenting events was useful, he noted, and of course, the extra money was certainly helpful too.

Despite the difficulties, both Gil and Joanna indicated that they did have a good time shooting their first wedding and would want to do it again the future. And having done it once, winning the second job should be a lot easier too.

?All in all, I enjoyed the experience,? said Joanna. ?Giving them the finished product and reading/hearing compliments on your work is very rewarding. The nice thing about shooting a wedding is that there are often quite a few friends of the happy couple who will soon be getting married themselves.?