Monday Madness: Some news and Making Money ideas for Small Timers

Hello again all, and first off, let me apologize for not making my typical Friday appearance, some stuff came up here that called me away from the blog on short notice. I’m back today though, and I’ll give a Friday Funny at the end, courtesy of WTD, but for the time being, I have a few exciting things to share:

1. I am almost done with my photo gallery articles! – I will likely have another podcast or two on using other apps like Jalbum, but would like to finish out the written version first before devoting time to that. More to come this week on that subject.
2. As my photo friends return from PSW chock full of their own tips and excitement at the show, I saw two of them throw a few trackback links to some stuff from here at CB, so thanks and shout outs to Mark and Jason!
3. As if I don’t have enough things to do on my plate, I also started yet another project that I had been meaning to pick up. I am ditching all my photo magazines! I have been a regular subscriber to Popular Photography, Shutterbug, Rangefinder, PC Photo, and Photoshop Insider for some time now, and they are now all going in the garbage can. Read on for more info on that!

We’ve all done it…stacked and collected magazines from various publishers for various lengths of time until eventually we threw them away in a huff. Well, I was no different… I pretty much hoard them for reading fodder too. The problem was I would never go back and re-read them! The stack gets pretty big and every six months or so I end up just chucking the ones I’ve not opened in that time frame. Well, no longer. I am no longer going to worry about saving the precious print, ink, and paper. They are now getting cut up, shred, torn and otherwise destroyed as I clip articles and topics out. These articles I am either cutting out in their entireity, or I am cutting out the portion I found interesting, and taping it to a 8×11 sheet of paper. All are then getting 3-hole punched and stored in my new photo tips binder! As I work my way back through the magazines to date, I will likely come up with some subjects for inclusion here on the blog. Today marks the first day of inclusion from just last month in Popular Photography, but I’ll get there in just a minute. What I would like to do is offer mself as a garbage can for all of your old magazines too. So…if you have an old magazine not listed above and you think that could be of use – send it to me and I’ll tear it up and use it! (And give you shout outs to boot!) Email me for details on how to get old copies to me!

So, without further ado, go back in your latest issue of Popular Photography, and look at page 114. There, buried in the ads are tips and tricks for making money- 3 of them!

So, courtesy of Popular Photography April 2008 (Kathleen Davis article), here’s how to…

MAKE MONEY FROM YOUR PHOTOS:

1. Pet Portraiture – Most photographers try studio, people, architecture, and event stuff – this is a market that really is likely not fully capitalized and people love their pets almost as much as their kids (sometimes more it seems!). So, throw an ad out in Craigslist, use a garage or go on location. You won’t buy Yahoo, but you will certainly build a portfolio!
2. Go to events with your camera and a printer! Typiccally things like street carnivals, fairs, parades and such are great grounds for taking pictures and portraits. Sell for a buck or two and not only will you get more comfortable talking to strangers, but you can build your portfolio this way too (even if they don’t buy).
3. Self published photo books are a growing trend and a great way to promote your own work. I’ve been thinking about doing this myself with local bookstores and the like. I don’t have any experience with this but the writer (Kathleen Davis) suggests Blurb.

And, last but not least, a leftover Friday Funny:

Monday Post Update:  I couldn’t help it, there’s another funny that just got posted with a “golden hour” theme, and a happier time – that’s right, it’s the latest installment (Episode #10) from You Suck at Photoshop!  Absolutely hysterical!

You may now continue with your regular surfing – oh yeah, happy shooting and watch those apertures!