Selling wildlife images

[Veldranian]

Hey WAB

Im a 14 year old young wildlife photographer. I was hoping to sell my images. I am trying to think of places to sell them, for example the tourist information centre. If anyone could give me some ideas that would be great.

[PMG]

Hopefully someone will be along with advice for you soon Veldranian. I do a lot of photography but I'm not particularly concerned about selling images so I cannot properly advise you.

It is tho an extremely competative field with many people having very decent equipment these days: some of the so called amatuer photographers are beating the pants of the professionals with their results The trouble is the pros have their work 'in the right places' to get noticed like Alamy and Getty Images and other agencies and publishers go seemingly automatically for the well known names - which results in the same tired well known shots keep appearing from well known folk! It seems crazy to me when I look at the standard of photography on here and the number of just wildlife websites that folks have - it would take weeks of continuous 'surfing' to look thro them all And that is probably why publishers don;t look for other stuff - they don't have the time.

But all that said my reccomendations for you (and myself!) would be yes find an outlet who will display a few of your photos as you have already said Tourist INfo. Your local Wildfowl Trust and RSPB may display framed pics but will want a percentage of the profit if you sell any (I should think they will?) The two best ways are to have your own website (tho I have sold two in two years! That maybe cos I don't push it?!) I get approached quite a lot for use of photos for publications and told there is no money for 'fees' .... if its for education or conservation I usually give permission for free in exchange for my name being credited as the photographer - its all exposure - your stuff being seen. If its for firms with money I make a nominal charge on principle! If my pic/pics are for a book I will accept the offer of a copy of the book in return esp if its a subject I'm interested in - tho the last time this was offered when it came round to it the offer of the book was taken back and I was offered to buy a copy at a lesser price - which I did as the book was of interest. In future tho I will refuse such offers and accept money for photo only! Its only fair the author gets paid (not a lot - I'm a published author and have made no money out of it - I might have covered my petrol costs getting the info for the book!). People who publish more or less have to ask permission - if your work appeared in a book or magazine and you hadn't given permission you could sue for copyright. These days with Windows 7's 'snipping tool' tho theres nothing that cannot be taken - for all I know someone on the other side of the world could be selling my pics with their name on and I wouldn't know

Apologies if all the above sounds negative - its really not its just the way things and people operate in a very competative field. At 14 you stand a very good chance of being around when the rest of us oldies have 'kicked our clogs' so new names will have to come up and fill the hole that we leave and you might very well be one of those up and coming young folk who will become a world renowned wildlife photograher Good luck young Veldranian!

Pauline

[pressld2]

I think the way to sell wildlife images through agencies is to use the specialist agencies such as RSPB Images or Nature Picture Library. For example, I joined Alamy in 2009 and uploaded just over 800 images, about 80% of them wildlife and the other 20% mainly landscapes but with a few other subjects thrown in. To date just five images have sold and they are all from the 20% - four landscape shots and one of King Charles I's bed in Carrisbrooke Castle. I stopped uploading in September 2009 on the basis that the returns weren't worth the effort but have just started again. This time though, I'm only uploading non-wildlife shots.

Also, don't expect to make a fortune at it. I've still not received a penny from Alamy as those five shots, after commission, still total less than the minimum amount that will trigger a payment.

I approached RSPB Images before Alamy but was turned down. They said there was nothing wrong with my images qualitywise but they were looking for a wider range of subjects. I might try them again now that I've got a wider range or I might consider some of the other specialist agencies. It's not easy to get on their books though and they will expect a regular flow of very high quality images. I think RSPB wanted 100 per month but that was three years ago and might have changed.

I know someone who has much greater success selling mounted or framed prints at local tourist attractions, and I would suggest that's possibly a better way to go than trying to sell through agencies.

Whatever you decide, the very best of luck with it!

Dave P.

[JaySteel]

I would agree with what's been said already by Dave & Pauline. I have been passionate about wildlife photography for years and I too once had hopes of making some kind of income from my photos. Unfortunately I've had to accept that the field of wildlife photography has too many talented photographers with top equipment chasing after what little revenue there is to be made out there.
I've uploaded some of my work to agencies like Alamy and I've had minimal success selling my work this way. Unfortunately these images have sold for such a paltry amount that I was more offended by their apparent worth than pleased for the sale. I've also had a couple of shots published by people that have found images on my site and have contacted me for permission to use them. These have brought in fees in the region of £50 a time but again that has hardly covered the petrol costs in chasing after these shots.
It's just a sad reality that with the ready availability of images on the web these days the value of wildlife images has all but disappeared. I love my wildlife photography and will continue to pursue this hobby but I have accepted that it will never be a viable source of income.
I'd advise setting up your own free website and promote it on networking sites such as Facebook to generate interest in your work. There are many companies that offer free websites such as 'Yola' that I use:

http://www.jasonsteelwildlifephotography.yolasite.com

One other idea that you could try (that I once considered) is getting some of my images printed up as postcards and finding tourist attractions that would be interested in buying them from you. Many places such as zoos and wildlife centres are still selling the same poor quality postcards that they have been using for many years. Of course this could just be because nobody buys postcards any more?

My best suggestion is that you continue taking shots out of passion rather than getting your hopes up too high on making a sustainable income from it.
Good luck with your photography though and please share any success stories you have with the rest of us.

Jason