New York Photography Blog - Volume I

Brent asked how I decide what to put in the store? A few things:

I need to print it at a decent size first (I want to make sure I know how it will stand up in case someone orders it at 12 x 18). From that I can also tell how it will print at 24 x 36 or so.

And I want the print to have been hanging around for a little while, so I have some objectivity about it. I sometimes ask myself - is there anything here that says New York? This is not critical - but it is a factor in terms of posting it in the store. So many of the images that blog readers like are not sellable. At least not by me.

If someday I became wildly famous - and that is unlikely as there are only a couple of famous photographers in the history of photography - but then these shots would sell. I’m happy for now to put them in the blog, once in a while just for fun I’ll put them in the store - and once in a while I’ll be proven wrong - but not that often.

So how do I decide? I put my sales hat on, and picture myself sitting either in an office cube somewhere in Minnesota, or a living room in Key West. Or maybe a farmhouse in Iowa. I try to put myself into the head of the usual buyer (a woman for sure), or someone looking for a special gift; and with all that in mind, I can get close to what people are looking for. Remember, I’m now doing this nearly nine years.

Sometimes, I’ll let my own taste have it’s day - and put up something that I love - and mostly this is a mistake - in the commercial sense as it may take 9 years to sell one print. I kid you not. It’s happened a couple of times where I’d have a favorite up for a long time, then take it down, and maybe five years later someone asks me about it and does buy it. It doesn’t bother me. I’m happy to be able to get stuff that may be recognized at some later time - or maybe not at all. What do I care. I got the thrill when I saw the negative or the arrangement of bits.

See image above for an example. It is like an imaginary movie poster. I would hang it on my wall (if I had space) but I doubt if I could sell more than one or two small prints in a decade.

Spooky Turnstiles - a photographer might buy one, but it’s unlikely.

Girl tasting snow - that’s up for grabs. I’m not sure if that will sell or not.

But Snowman, Great Lawn - that will sell better than anything else I’ve done recently. (Don’t believe me - but - it’s true.) And look - when I wanted something pleasant to put on the top of this blog - what did I do? I took the top third of one of the snowman shots. I’m the same as everybody else and you probably are too.