Saturday, May 23, 2009

Making a living as a photographer


Many times i get asked: "Do you make a living with photography on Samos island?" My answer is "yes" and sometimes people are very surprised about my answer. They are surprised because they think: "... how many photos of Pythagorion and Samos town could he sell? " Well, indeed if i where only photographing the beautiful sceneries around the island, my sales potential would be very limited.

To make a living with photography you need to create many sellable photographs, not only beautiful ones. A good sellable photograph is the one that could be used for publications like newspapers, brochures or magazines to visualize different themes.

The above shot is a sample of a sellable photograph. I shot it in 2008 at the airport of Samos island. After taking the photograph, i made it available to editors, Publishers, Graphic designers, PR-companys etc. via different marketing channels.
The photograph got licensed just a few weeks after it has been online and its now used in a brochure of the German State "Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety".

Here are the links to the PDF brochure, my name is mentioned on page 2, the photograph is published on page31