Selling my first landscape print
Today is a pretty awesome day! I'm selling my first limited edition landscape photograph and I have no idea what to expect! For about a month, I've been telling people that I was getting into landscape photography. I've shared my pictures through social media, mainly Facebook and Instagram and have gotten a lot of good feedback.
I'm currently a full-time wedding photographer in Nashville, TN and have been for 7 years now. It's the only way I make money for my family. My wife runs the business side and I do all the creative work. It hasn't been easy, but I wouldn't trade it for the world! Now that I have a 3-year-old son, I'm starting to think about my future and what's going to happen when he starts playing soccer on Saturdays and I have to shoot a wedding. I've always said and believed that wedding photographers don't retire.... they become landscape photographers ;) Either that or they get a 9 to 5.
Photography is in my blood. I've been shooting for over 22 years now. I got started in the NAVY and it's been with me ever since. I can tell you without any hesitation that photography will be with me till the day I die. I absolutely love it!
After talking with my wife one night, I realized that I had pretty much seen half the world while in the NAVY and she hadn't, so we came up with the idea to travel more. I saw it as an opportunity to try my hand at landscape photography, so we planned a trip out west and combined the two! If you follow me at all, you'll know that we had the best time ever! In fact, we've been trying to figure out how we can do this full-time ever since, but that's easier said than done. I've been praying about it a lot and selling landscape prints is the first step in gong that direction. It's not easy, by any means and I'm finding out really fast how many people actually believe in what I'm doing.
I've already sold a number of prints and I'm honestly so humbled by it, but the daunting thing to me is whether or not I'm going to be able to sell prints for the rest of my life? Right now I'm selling my prints as "Limited Editions", but that means I can only sell so many of them and that's it. If a print gains popularity and people start demanding it, I can't print any more! It's a little stressful when you think about it, so this first print may or may not be my only "Limited Edition" print. I will still be printing "editions" for future prints, but they will probably be first, second and third editions.
This brings up an interesting point. I caved into the pressures of social media and my friends and I'm selling my first ever "limited edition" print for dirt cheap! The price is $275 and it's printed on metal.... it's beautiful and a STEAL at that price! In fact, I fully expect to get comments telling me how I'm "bringing down the industry" for selling a print for this price. I made this decision, because I wanted the "believers" to get in early on one of my landscapes.
It's actually selling a lot faster than I thought it would! I'm glad that people are buying it, but I must be honest and say that I am also glad I'm limiting this one, because I don't want to sell more than 20 for this price! I'm barely making anything off of it and if I expect to make a living at this one day, then I have to make a lot more off my prints.
I wrote much more than I expected.... I guess this whole process is a little overwhelming and I just never know how many people are going to believe in what I'm doing and want to be a part of it. I'm in no way basing my future career off of the sale of this one print ;) I understand there's a lot of work ahead of me and I will have to be face to face with many galleries and art collectors if I want to be a success in the Landscape Photography industry. For now, I'm going to be taking a lot of pictures, learning along the way and sharing what I learn with others. We live in a great time to spread the wealth of knowledge and that's exactly what I plan on doing.
I hope you have a great day. I would love for you to check out my print when you get the chance! You can see it at www.joehendricks.photography/limitededition/vertical-grand-canyon Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. If you have any advice, I'm open ears. As for you're own adventure, I wish you the very best! I hope you never give up on your dreams and you chase after them every day. Whether you believe it or not, you have what it takes inside of you to do whatever you dream!
Take care,
Joe