08.11.11
Round Table Dec 11: Making it as a Landscape photographer
THE ROUND TABLE
Each month tp hosts a round table discussion on particular topics affecting the photographic industry. This month tp asked four landscape photographers to discuss how difficult it is to make a living in that sector and how the industry has changed.
This month's panel:
DAVID CLAPP www.davidclapp.co.uk
NICK WALKER www.walkerphotographs.co.uk
MARC BEDINGFIELD www.marcbedingfield.co.uk
MARK LAKEMAN http://marklakeman.weebly.com
Each month tp hosts a round table discussion on particular topics affecting the photographic industry. This month tp asked four landscape photographers to discuss how difficult it is to make a living in that sector and how the industry has changed
David Clapp: What’s changed? Me, if I’m being completely frank. For the first time in my adult life I actually made myself work as hard as I was claiming to others that I was. I couldn’t live with the guilt of another failed attempt at being creative for a living, so I gave it everything I had. A photography business is a massive, heavy ball to start rolling and it is always a solo mission that is daunting, disappointing and incredibly stressful.
Nick Walker: It’s incredibly difficult, no matter which avenue you take: selling images online as prints, selling stock, going to craft fairs or even trying to get published. Part of the problem is, this is the dream career, right? Getting to go out and be among nature taking photographs and getting paid for something you love; everybody wants to do the same, but does your work shout loud enough to be heard?
DC: The most important thing to remember is that there is hope. If you push hard enough it will move, but it is also about steering your lifestyle. Trying to break through with a family in tow is extremely hard; a crushing full-time job makes it just as hard, but again it’s not impossible. It’s all about efficiency, planning and adapting. My initial escape was engineered over four hard years, teaching guitar in schools and at home as well as building my work behind the camera. I have only been fully professional for the past two years. It was something I didn’t design, but photography pulled me onwards with a series of large commissions.
Marc Bedingfield: The best advice I can offer is not to put all your eggs in one basket and also to proceed with extreme caution if any library or gallery requires exclusive rights. There is no single way to make money from landscape photography; you have to go at it through a range of avenues. There is no magic formula and very little help or practical advice for up-and-coming photographers. In most cases it is something that grows organically, although you can, of course, set yourself targets. You must exercise the same amount of patience it takes to create images in building up income from your photography, and time is the most important thing you need.
Mark Lakeman: It pays to key into your ‘potential’ audience. By that I mean aim as high as you think you can handle! Don’t get out of your depth without learning those basic survival strokes first. Gauge your feedback, pick your pitch and, as DC says, give it your all. Location knowledge versus conditions is my formula. A lot of togs travel hundreds of miles to capture a location because it’s a tick in that box (we have all done it: Durdle Door, Lands End, that hill with trees in Dorset?), but I think my most successful images have all been within 20 miles of home. Combining location knowledge with the best weather conditions to suit those overlooked spots is a sixth sense. When it works and interest is positive, there is potential in prints, publishing and agency sales.
MB: I totally agree, local knowledge is very important. One of my best-selling images was taken two miles from my house, whereas on a recent project in Cornwall I had two days of good light out of a nine-day trip.
ML: With so much technology at our fingertips I would say that landscape togs have a real advantage in ‘getting it right’: smartphone apps, the Photographer’s Ephemeris, endless online picture sharing for research. I believe in planning: no wasted journey times, guaranteed conditions using every source you have and planning the possible use of the images, even as you press that shutter button. Cover shot click, magazine feature shot click, calendar capture click.
NW: In reality, how do you know you’ve got that cover shot or feature shot? We are creating a piece of art. As landscape photographers are we trying to say that we should shoot to capture the image that sells or would it help us professionally to shoot in the way we would if we were doing it purely for ourselves? In order to survive or to make a living from landscape photography do you have to sell your photographer’s soul to get the shot that might sell to the masses over capturing the one shot that is going to stand the test of time? What you and I consider is the ‘million dollar photo’ might be just another shot to everyone else.
ML: I agree on the personal opinion side of things, but I’ve learnt that if the conditions are good and you are in that ‘zone’ you may see the potential for a cover shot or an image that might contribute towards an agency collection. My mind now switches to making the most of the time and filling all possible avenues. After spending time with seasoned pros like DC and others I now think differently about shoots and where they can lead. I still shoot for me, but I look for the possible commercial usage as I capture. I also find my post-processing has become more ruthless. Not being a pro, I make it my main objective to recover the cost of my kit and keep updating lenses whenever possible. I have done this through Getty sales and framed print sales, not magazine or publishing. Again, planning those cover shots for when it happens...
NW: Good point; not being a pro, nor having had the chance to shoot with anyone but myself, I don’t have that commercial angle. I have tried shooting with a sale in mind but often what I choose to print and sell is not what a potential buyer may want and so you lose out by printing that stock. However I do feel that in order to survive as a professional you would have to diversify. Adaptation and change are probably the key to success to appeal to multiple markets.
MB: It is nearly impossible to second guess which image a customer might like to buy as a print; if they have an emotional connection to a location then you have a good chance of a sale. Trying to predict which image an editor may choose is even harder. Make your images as strong as possible and try to develop a style that makes your work stand out as one of yours’.
ML: My photographic ethos has always been: my patch, my way; shooting it in a way that will appeal to them asses is a technicality. An example would be my local pier (piers... yawn), which I have shot in every weather, light, season and angle. It is a subject overlooked by most ‘serious’ landscape togs because it’s another pier, but the images sold have easily paid for one of my lenses, if not two! Personal perspective, together with a degree of commercial understanding, has led to these images being sold as postcards, framed prints and downloadables. Connection with your landscape, shooting what you love to shoot and realising financial avenues can prove a complicated yet winning formula.
DC: I rarely look at my images as anything other than commodities or building blocks. I never get caught up in the reaming, or the romance. I don't ‘chin rub’ about photographs either. I am not that sort of person, despite being a deep thinker. Of course, I love to create imagery and revel in the journeys that take me to them, but there are a number of factors that keep landscape photography spilling over into the self-righteous.
1. Be creative behind the camera and then strike with a sharpened business acumen, or join the queue of bleeding-heart artists.
2. No editor, magazine or agency cares about how you feel regarding your work. It is a product, so learn to detach yourself from it.
3. Keep scrutinising your photography and photography business. Photography is a window into the mind, and your mind. Sloppy compositions, laziness in the field and over-processing all add up to an ‘adequate’ photographic persona. “He’s not the worst, but he’s not the best.”
4. Show your very best work and don’t dilute yourself in public. You may be surprised how little imagery you actually have, which means you need to work far harder.
5. Remember, success is not linear, it’s not a runway heading towards the stars; something always goes skew-whiff that brings you spinning off axis. Your landscape photography business will develop magnitude, density and value, but rarely size.
MB: Well put David; a runway heading towards the stars it is not. It doesn’t matter how well-known you become within the industry, pretty much no one will have heard of you outside of landscaping. Even the top landscapers (Joe Cornish etc) are hardly household names. Keep your feet on the ground, take the knocks in your stride and keep working hard.
NW: That’s a brutal, but honest and refreshing approach. I run a graphic design business by day so understand that you cannot hold every piece of creativity dear and get too connected to it, because in the end a client can simply say, “I don’t like it”. The way I’ve seen it is that this bit of creativity is mine and someone else can’t say, “I don’t like it, change it,” unless, of course, I want them to pay for it! So the lesson is that to make money from your landscape photography, put your business head on, even when you are behind the lens.
Let us know your thoughts on the round table discussion and the topic covered this month at feedback@photographymonthly.co.uk
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