Christmas is over,
I’m afraid. At least, the opportunity to upload Christmas photos is over (you
haven’t missed it, don’t worry).
If you’re really
serious about selling holiday images (and I recommend you consider it, it can
be quite a big earner), then you need to stay well ahead of the game. Most
customers will be downloading holiday images months before the actual day,
earlier each year, in fact, so the earlier you get your images out there, the
more likely they are to sell. You surely must have noticed that Christmas
adverts start around September these days… You should take advantage of that.
Come January, I’ll
be shooting images for Valentine’s Day and Easter, when I have the time. These
are always popular ones for advertisers, so you’ll have a good chance of
getting images accepted and sold. It’s not difficult to choose what to
photograph either, which is nice. Obvious things like love hearts, chocolates
and plenty of red spring to mind, with eggs, rabbits and sunshine being obvious
choices for Easter. These have been done to death, there’s no getting around
it, so try and be creative with your images as always. You’ll quickly get a
taste of what sells well and what doesn’t and hopefully you’ll be able to put
your own spin on this; working with different angles and lighting on familiar
subjects can often be just as creative as photographing something new.
You never know,
you might have a look through the best sellers and spot something that’s
missing completely that will go on to sell thousands of times. That’s what I’m
hoping for, at least.
If you’re from a
region or religion that heavily or uniquely celebrates particular celebrations,
it’s worth making the most of this too, even if you think it’s a celebration
that isn’t particularly commercial – you’ll always find buyers looking for
images from religious festivals or patron saint’s days, shooting what you know
is always a wise way to go.
As with a lot of
subjects, the list of subjects to shoot is a long one. Naturally, each holiday
comes with its own iconic images (Santa, Christmas trees, etc.…), which is a
good starting place, but these are by no means the only things to shoot. The
food associated is always similarly iconic and is often the most important of
some people’s celebrations and the memories that the food triggers can play
right into the hand of advertisers. Apart from this, decorations are often a
good thing to consider shooting, especially if you can turn these into a
background, as these are also potential top-sellers.
If you can get
people in your photos too, do it. A smiling face or group of smiling faces can
bring a celebration to life, so this is what people will want to see – make
sure you get model releases signed though!
Start planning
your next holiday images now, it may feel a little strange when you first take
pictures of Easter eggs next to your Christmas tree, but it’ll be worth it when
your photos are on there for twice as long as others.
No comments:
Post a Comment