Hello all.
I'm a photographer (http://www.flickr.com/photos/christiancorich/sets/72157635425696128/) who is doing his first art show on Sunday. I"m still matting the hell out of my prints - I will have about 130 4x6 matted to 8x10, 60 or 70 8x10 matted to 11x14, and 30 to 40 12x18 matted out to 18x24. I have a selection of prints in frames to hang on the walls. Spent last weekend building walls per Ernie's instructions. What am I forgetting? I mean, yeah, I haven't listed much info here, but what do you see newbies forget the first time?
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so how did it do yesterday?
Did well enough for a first time. Had a ton of foot traffic. Learned a lot. Little things like, if you have color-coded price stickers, have the pricing matrix shown in multiple places. And yeah, after looking at my photos too many times, I really do have a lot that have similar looks to them!
I had a number of other artists come in and marvel at my walls (ernie's plans)and my professional-looking set up. I used a display rack from a defunct Blockbuster and was able to put a lot of stuff out there in a relatively non-crowded way.
Thanks for the update, congratulations on getting your first show under your belt.
Heh, found out another show in the area is taking late applicants (very late...is that a bad sign?) so I'm going to try and do another one in two weeks. Two-day show with Friday setup, so a little less pressure.
Christian, I took a look at your flickr link and I think you have some very nice images! There is a guy named John Fielder out in Colorado whose work you should take a look at; he's been shooting mountain images since forever (well, at least the '80s) and you'll learn a lot from him.
Your work scales well to larger sizes, IMHO. I think you will find that your profits will lie in the larger sizes, too.
My other thought, based on your photostream: If you have printed everything in that Flickr set, be careful about selling images that are very, very similar to each other. Nearly always, the public will prefer one over the other; the ones that don't sell as well represent additional expense that drains your bottom line. Much better for you to pick the strongest one and present that. It will reduce the "browse time" for your prospective customers. If you give too many choices--whether it's sizes (as others have pointed out) or by including multiple variations on a theme--customers will be indecisive. Indecisive customers, sadly, don't buy. (One of the things I HATE to hear a customer say is: "I love 'em ALL!" ;-) )
Christian,
One thing that I would think about is how you will answer the question "Who prints your photos". Even though they do a good job, I'm not sure that most people will be wowed with the "Costco" answer. And note, I'm not trying to come across as a printing snob, just know that to some it might sound like "this guy prints his photos where my grandma prints hers" and that could be good or bad. Were it me, and some others might disagree, I would say, "My work is all printed by a lab using equipment that is regularly calibrated, and I check all the work to insure it meets my specifications". If pressed, I would NOT lie about it, but think I'd spin it a bit first.
Again, that is just me. I'm at the point where I print my own but when I started I didn't and found myself fumbling with the "right" answer the first few times.
Dang, good point. I need to practice that line.
(I have an old Epson 2200 that was my workhorse back when I was printing a lot of stuff for myself, but it's just not feasible for production runs - tiny ink carts, thirsty printer)
My take is that you may have printed too many pictures for your first show. Be prepared to throw out the images that don't get any interest after a few shows and then reuse the mats. I wouldn't have suggested printing any 4x6. I would have started larger with 8x10 matter 11x14. The 4x6 prints will hurt the sale of the next larger size.
I've posted this time and time again. Over the years I've learned that the best way is to print only two size, one small and one large. It saves on material costs and eliminates confusion and your customers make decisions faster. And if your work is priced properly, over 75% of your sales will be unframed.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
You may be right, Larry...for this show there are a number of high-level buyers (it's in a better part of town) and a lot of casual neighbors that I figured the 4x6 will attract. I hope.
I'm only in second year so take this with a grain of salt. Have you figured out pricing? That is a lot of prints IMO, how are you going to display them? Have you thought of a way to show your work that you do not have matted/bagged (i.e. mobile device with internet, portfolios, etc). Do you do your own printing? Will you take custom orders? Do you take credit cards (if so, have you worked out how and tested it), cash (if so, are you going to have some change on hand to break bills), have a receipt book, a guest book? Have bags/wrapping for the prints/framed items when they sell? Business cards to display/hand out?
Sorry for the stream of consciousness, just some things off the top f my head.
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