[turboast4]

Don't quit your day job. I say that only half in jest.

I'm very fortunate to be in a job that pays the bills with enough left over to support my hobbies. I have no intention of quitting, as I do find the work interesting, challenging, and rewarding. I've said that it's OK if photography is still a net-loss for me financially, although, hey, if people are willing to give me money for it I certainly wouldn't object.


Philbaum, I'm glad you're able to stay involved and be active with your photography. I'd love to find a similar way to stay active.


On a side note, I'm always interested to hear of other engineers who have "discovered" photography. It seems there's definitely some kind of link between these two fields, which on the surface couldn't be more different.

[philbaum]

Philbaum, I'm glad you're able to stay involved and be active with your photography. I'd love to find a similar way to stay active.

On a side note, I'm always interested to hear of other engineers who have "discovered" photography. It seems there's definitely some kind of link between these two fields, which on the surface couldn't be more different.

Until i retired, i had never ever been in an art gallery. That was just something my family never did and I continued the practice. Now, you can't keep me out of them. And i don't know what big city galleries are like. But if you live in relatively small towns, say 50,000 or less, there are probably low-fee co-operative galleries in your area. I had to bring in 4 pieces and interview to get into the gallery. The fee is $65 a month and 22% commission on sales. But if you think about it, thats about the value of one new lens a year. (i don't think of dollar value any more, i evaluate purchases based on their value in lenses :-)) The support i've gotten from fellow co-op artists and the contacts i've made have been very useful and made the whole experience outstanding.

The really serious artists are in 2, 3 or more venues. 2 of our ex-members now hold a yearly summer art "festival" on a 7 acre "farm". It lasts over 3 days and the attendance has been growing every year. I called one of the female artists who run it, about another matter, and she invited me to participate this year. Thats how it works from my experience. People to people contacts. I'm not even sure i'll participate - sales have been good enough that i don't have much on my walls at the moment for a show.. But i'll attend just to experience the event.

[Ron Boggs]

Visit some of the high-end galleries where quality photos are on display...see what they are doing--no big gold letter signatures and priced like art, not like ink-jet prints. From my experience, the galleries will need 40%-50% of the selling price. I've always worked on a 40% margin on sale above my costs (costs only include the value of the printing/framing/freight, not the costs of being on location, camera gear etc.). THEN you have to factor in the gallery getting half. Usually it's tough to sell any volume without connection to a serious gallery. My best single art print sale came from a restaurant but was in a display of art represented by a top gallery with a BIG reputation (and in a restaurant known to display high-end works). Also, don't expect to collect high-end art dollars without making sure each step of the process is done at the highest quality possible. Who does your printing? That's important! How is it framed? Very important. Numbered prints with a small run can command higher figures than unlimited "poster-quality" pictures. I've personally been out of the game for about 5 years due to other priorities, but the key to being taken seriously is to serious-up a bit.

[philbaum]

Gallery Fees and Framing costs can add enormously to the prices you have to sell at. The more you can do on the print yourself, the lower price you can sell at.

Reportedly, a number of fine art galleries went out of business in New York during the 2008/2009 recession. Its an illusion to think that art galleries are immune to cultural changes - they aren't. Oftentimes, sales aren't so "fine".

[polachekphotography]

I'm also a mechanical engineer by training, but I don't necessarily fit the typical definition of one. I was always drawing as a kid and doing well in art projects at school, and people generally viewed me as "artistic", with the notable exception of my art teacher who disagreed and said I was more of a "technician". I officially took up photography as a hobby while living in a small town where I had a lot of down time after work and didn't know a lot of people. My dad found me a Ricoh XR500 35mm SLR at a yard sale for $2, which I complemented with a string of K-mount lenses I found on eBay for next to nothing. The primary goal was a creative outlet so I took a lot of long-exposure night shots, photos of weathered buildings, abandoned cars, and stuff of that nature.

That turned into a part-time portrait photography business shortly after getting married. Part of the inspiration for taking that path was a really terrible work situation that ended with a layoff and had me considering giving up the engineering profession altogether. Photography seemed much more appealing, so I made the switch to digital with the purchase of a K-7 and a pair of lenses and dove right in, taking classes and shooting portraits for friends as practice. Shortly after getting laid off my wife and I started our business. I had the technical knowledge, she had a great eye for composition and excellent business sense.

For me I think a big part of the appeal of photography is the challenge of using both sides of your brain to create an image. A photo can be technically excellent without being great art, or vice-versa. I also think the subjective nature of it can be a welcome break from the more rigid rules of the engineering world, where creativity isn't always rewarded.

[AquaDome]

Produce the artwork. Challenge yourself. In the end, it's about personal growth, not how many pieces you produced or how much money it costs.

[eddie1960]

Would agree with that. It isn't something you just grab a camera and do. (Well not me anyway). Learning to take technically good pictures is step one. Then taking well composed, interesting pictures. Then finding that extra something that takes it beyond a well focused, well exposed, well composed, interesting photo to whatever 'fine art' is. It is a journey and studying masters and artists of other disciplines will help. You can be a great photographer without being an artist. Being an artist is more about vision than technical correctness, though that helps. Some of the best 'fine art' photographers I know are actually rather lousy photographers if you pixel peep their work. But the image doesn't have to be perfect to be good art.

The technical aspect is the least important, the presentation medium ranks the same, the first thing of any fine art project will be defining the concept you want to present and setting parameters for the project. I'm fortunate in that i have a large circle of friends in various areas of the arts and i draw on them for advise. One has been pushing me to develop a more serious show than the ones i've done in the past and i am in that process right now. my goal is a gallery opening during the annual Contact Photography here in Toronto fest next year because this project will take most of the year. in the 4 weeks i have been working on the early stages the idea has developed depth and meaning and complexity---without picking up a camera yet aside from location scouting---and has started to encompass a more multimedia aspect to it. Without the encouragement of one artist friend in particular and her collaboration / critique it would just be another coffee shop sell pretty prints show, the goal of this is to stretch me much more artistically ....having never gone through the art school process i needed that push / guidance . already since i need a variety of subjects for the various shoots i have 20 volunteers from all over the local artistic community. Certainly i would highly recommend forming a group with other graduating people, and don't limit it to photographers look at all artists since the goal in the end is producing art regardless of medium i would think.
and what people consider fine art is very subjective. for me Nan Golding is an amazing fine art photographer, so is Cindy Sherman. its a very broad field open to interpretation . Good luck with continuing your work

---------- Post added 21st Mar 2017 at 09:16 ----------

Produce the artwork. Challenge yourself. In the end, it's about personal growth, not how many pieces you produced or how much money it costs.

excellent advise.

---------- Post added 21st Mar 2017 at 09:20 ----------

Gallery Fees and Framing costs can add enormously to the prices you have to sell at. The more you can do on the print yourself, the lower price you can sell at.

Reportedly, a number of fine art galleries went out of business in New York during the 2008/2009 recession. Its an illusion to think that art galleries are immune to cultural changes - they aren't. Oftentimes, sales aren't so "fine".

art galleries go out of business all the time in big cities though. I imagine landlord greed has killed a few out in BC, it sure has here in Toronto . The gallery i am in taqlks with is a co-operative with a lot of grant fundoing to make it more affordable for more emerging level people (I fortunately qualify by having been very lazy about shows sticking to easy places like coffee shops - my current project will really need a proper gallery atmosphere since it is rapidly becoming more multi media)