[pure-silver] Re: Fees
- From: "Justin F. Knotzke" <jknotzke@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pure-silver@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:04:35 -0400
<quote who=Gianni Rondinini] date=[21/04/2006 03:58/>
> i mean: i've never seen or heard of a pro taking more than one roll of
> 135 hp5+ for a couple of 8x10" print and i don't think my area is
> worse than others, speaking of italy.
One roll ? Wow. Either the Pros in your area produce really crappy
photos or they have the best hit/miss ratio in the world. One roll?
> just talking of rates, i have something more.
> i'm not a pro, nor can i make great prints; however my prints are the
> only available at local jazz concerts because no pro's would ever
> think of loosing an evening and some rolls knowing (or thinking)
> they'll ever print anything (and i agree with them). then, even if my
> prints can be rated 6 or 7 out of 10 --i think sometimes i could go up
> to 8 out of 10 ;)--, you can get no better than that.
> when players see i'm shooting, they ask if they can have a print of
> themselves playing and i answer "sure: i'll be glad to print the best
> shots for you". they ask the price of a print and i say that "a
> handmade 8x12" print is 10 eur. i'm charging you only the cost of
> chemicals and paper, plus a little bit for the film [1]. no charge for
> the time, since it takes 4 hours to get a very good print [2]". at
> this point, you see all the face expressions known to the human
> people: that's impossible for them to pay that much for a print, since
> an 8x12" at the local lab which uses a frontier costs 1.89 (and people
> complains that's expensive - nobody ever checks how expensive are home
> made prints with a pixma).
I think one of two things can be summarized by your experiences
Gianni, first is that the market in Italy for photography is zero,
zilch, zippo.
The key however to your anecdote is "Jazz musician" We aren't
dealing with people with tons of disposable income.
A few quick anecdotes about choosing your market. I used to shoot a
lot of sports, mostly cycling. I sold a few, but I never really tried.
Too much work for too little money. In the winter, I make trips to
London Ontario (Canada) to an indoor velodrome. There's racing there
every Saturday night. I go to race. Every Saturday night a photog
arrives (sometimes two) with a D70 and a kit lens and he shoots a good
100 frames of the riders racing. Then at the end of the night, he sets
up his laptop and tries to sell. I've yet to see him make a sale. And
yet, every weekend he returns. Part of the problem is that his photos
aren't very good. The velodrome is inside an old hockey arena (this is
Canada) and the lighting is HORRIBLE. The other problem is the people
that race there have little money and they are the same racers week in
and week out. He'd have to invest is some serious strobes and put them
into the rafters to give his shots some pop. But really, for the
pathetic amount he sells, it's not worth it. So instead, he complains
that no one buys his work.
Every July, there is the North American Masters Road Cycling
Championship. Men and women, ages 30+ come in from all over the Eastern
US and Canada to race this. It's a whole weekend of racing.
Masters road racers generally have cash to spend. It's not out of
the ordinary to see a guy with a $8,000+ bike. They train all winter for
this race. It's a big deal for them.
Every year, a photog arrives. He shoots entirely digital with a
300mm and a 400mm. He shoots the time trial and the criterium. For the
TT, he sets up in the bush, far away from the road where he can see the
riders coming. In a TT the riders are sent off one at a time, a minute
apart. This way, he picks them off one at a time.
That night, he shoots the criterium. A "crit" is a 40km race of
1.5km loops. He picks off each rider. Saturday night he prints
everything he has. All on inkjet.
The next afternoon he has an assistant who sells the images. He does
very well. I know, I asked him. He sells about 80% of what he brings.
All go for $20 a pop.
In the states, in some areas, photogs sign exclusive agreements with
local baseball minor leagues to ensure they are the only ones shooting
and selling photos of little Timmy playing T-Ball. The league does this
because it's extra income for them (the photog pays for this
exclusivity) but more importantly, it keeps photogs from fighting with
each other on the field!
The photogs biggest problem there is little Timmy's dad who just
bought a Nikon D70 and is giving his shots of little Jimmy away..
So really, it's a question of market. There's a reason Gianni that
the pros don't shoot Jazz concerts.
You have to compare apples with apples.
I suspect that Uncle Dick does as well as he does because much of
his work comes from referrals. "Hire the dentist. He's good. And if you
don't like his work, he'll throw in a root canal". So the pricing
structure means little in this situation. People are getting peace of mind.
Lloyd Erlick:
> We could start with the portrait of Henry Kissinger by Karsh ...
I was visiting Ottawa this past weekend and we took a stroll through
Le Chateau Laurier. In the lobby is a few Karsh portraits.
Stunning. Completely stunning.
J
--
Justin F. Knotzke
jknotzke@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.shampoo.ca
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