by Tina Martin

Tips for Selling Your Photography at Art Fairs
Art and craft shows can be exciting opportunities for your photography business. Shoppers
are primed to spend money on art, giving you access to a wealth of potential customers. To
get the most from your registration fee, it’s important to plan and prepare appropriately.

Selecting Photos
As you select prints, ensure that the majority have a broad appeal. Eye-catching landscapes,
familiar landmarks, and abstract imagery often lead to higher sales. Photos with
recognizable faces, on the other hand, tend to have a more limited market. Invest in high-
quality prints to show off your work.

Displaying Your Work
A successful art fair booth is all about aesthetics. On the most visible areas of your display,
hang photos that draw people in. Don’t be afraid to use color, intriguing shots, or
spectacular images. Then, give customers a reason to stick around by hanging your best
photos on the walls, gallery style. Finally, use boxes of smaller, matted prints to encourage
people to flip through your affordable products.

Marketing Your Business
In addition to photos, you’ll need a sign to identify your business as well as business cards
and other marketing materials. Complete the booth with an attractive table or table
covering that matches the vibe of your work.

If you don’t have one, a logo is a must. It gives your photography business a professional
look and helps you stand out from other vendors. Don't have the budget for a designer? An
online logo designer is a free, easy option; all you need to do is customize pre-designed
templates with icons, text, and colors.

Choosing Prices
Pricing your photography is a big factor in total sales — it’s important to set prices that are
appropriate for the event, location, and expected clientele. If you’re displaying your work at
a small-town craft fair, bring a stock of smaller, more affordable prints. Fine art festivals
tend to attract collectors and people with higher spending limits, so you can get away with
larger, more expensive prints.

Managing Physical Prints
The supplies for a photo display can take up a surprising amount of space. In addition to
the prints, you’ll need to pack walls, a canopy, hanging supplies, a table, a chair, and
marketing materials. Ensure that everything arrives in good condition by renting a cargo
van or a small moving trailer.

Handling and Recording Payments
At a busy art show, a fast and seamless payment-processing system is essential. Consider
offering a variety of options, such as Venmo and a credit card processor from services such
as Square or PayPal. Make sure to bring plenty of change for cash payments.

After the fair, record all sales carefully in preparation for tax time. For more filing
flexibility, reduced liability, and less paperwork, consider registering your photography
business as an LLC. Read your state’s rules before you proceed; every state has the freedom
to regulate LLCs as it sees fit. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and want to avoid attorney
fees, a formation service can handle LLC registration for you.

Art Fairs Can Boost Your Photography Business
When you’re prepared, art fairs can be a great way to increase profits and find new
customers for your photography business. If you’re looking to expand your services, check
out The Real Estate Photography Course.

Image via Pexels

Here is a fun and lively portrait of Chelsea photographed against a white background. I used a large Octabox and two umbrellas on the background. The key to great white backgrounds is having them about 2 stops brighter than the light on the subject and no more than that.chelsea_6

Here is the light diagram:

LightingSetup

 

Want to learn more? Take my portrait course for $22 about 70% off. Use coupon code FB22 and click here: http://greatphotographycourses.net/mastering-studio-portraiture/

I recently had an architecture shoot in Washington State to shoot a beautiful custom home. Here is one image from the shoot. I was asked to get 10-12 scenes of the home, which is a lot but also pretty common these days.

I have determined the best way to do this is using selective lighting and Photoshop, which is lighting specific areas and then compositing a lot of images for the final result. This image had 20 layers.

Copyright (c) 2013 Charlie Borland

I teach these techniques in my class on Architecture photography here.

You love photography and want to photograph full time by launching a photography business. Maybe you are unemployed or wish to supplement your retirement income or simply wanting to earn money doing what you love.

For those with jobs you may not want to quit the day job until your business is launched and earning you an income and enough income allowing you can quit that day job. Maybe you are unemployed and if so you can get started right away but be careful if your financial resources are limited.

So how do you get started? I have compiled these ideas into the 12 most important steps I believe are crucial to finding success as a professional photographer in today’s markets.

I have photographed at companies that were in the aerospace business and always thought it would be great to photograph a rocket scientist, like someone in front of the space shuttle. There are plenty out there working for the defense industry, but I never quite landed that client.

So I decided to setup my own rocket scientist and photograph them in a style looking cold war and Eastern Europe. This is my wife with a lab coat on, wearing German WWII motorcycle goggles, holding a rechargeable battery with a 20′ long yellow extension cord duct taped to it. And a 5′ model rocket ‘enhanced’ in Photoshop.

Every once in a while a cool project or assignment comes along. That is what happened when a client of mine asked me to go photograph at one of the sites of The History Channel’s Ax Men TV Reality Show. How could I refuse?

I have photographed logging, the timber industry, and paper manufacturing for companies like Georgia-Pacific, Westwood Corporation, and International Paper, so I am familiar with working in the woods and safety issues.. While I always enjoy getting into the woods with anybody including these guys, the fact that this assignment was a TV reality show certainly raised the ‘coolness factor’.

My wife and I however, have a closer connection to the show than this assignment. My wife’s family; my mother in laws side in particular, are from Vernonia, Oregon, where this show began. In fact, one of the historic buildings in town is named after my wife’s grandfather. The first two seasons I think were exclusively filmed in Vernonia before the production company branched out across North America to film other crews.