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I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

(OP)
I've been taking pictures since I was a kid and while I did supplement my income a bit while in school taking photos of hockey games and snow statues and selling them to the university as well as taking senior pictures for the yearbook, the extent of their publication was limited. However for the past year or so I've been uploading photos to a stock-photo house in the UK which acts as a broker selling stock photos to publications, the media, organizations that need images for whatever purpose, etc. Over the last few month three of my photos have been sold, and I just received my first payment, a total of $55 (I get half of what the broker sells the images for). Now the copyright and ownership of the images are retained by me as the company is merely acting my 'broker' helping to facilitate the sales.

Now the amount I get paid depends on the size of the image sold and how the image is going to be used. I don't know who purchases them nor what the actual usage is going to be nor where they will appear, just the amount of the sale, the size of image provided to the buyer and whether it was for one-time usage or not.

Here are the images that have been purchased so far:



This is the Copper Harbor lighthouse on the shore of Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula taken in August 2008 with a Sony A100 DSLR, and it sold for $50 as a medium-sized, one-time usage.




This is a shot of my alma mater's campus, Michigan Technological University, in Houghton located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, also taken in August 2008 with a Sony A100 DSLR, and it sold for $10 as a thumbnail image, one-time usage.




This is a shot of the main entrance to the Olympic Coliseum in Los Angeles taken in December 2013 with a Sony A65 DSLR, and it sold for $50 as a medium-sized, one-time usage.


Now it's obvious that I'll probably not make a living selling photos this way, but it is fun and who knows, if I manage to sell enough of them to make it more than a hobby, I might be able to recover the cost of some of my camera gear.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

Well done.

Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

Very nice. Congrats!

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

Michigan Tech, Copper Harbor, Upper Pennsula... Well done and thanks for the memories!

I was fascinated by that area when I went on a recruiting trip to Michigan Tech in the early 80s..

I was so fascinated from what I saw and a book I bought there "Boom Copper" by Angus Murdoch, that finally I took a trip back to that area in 2013. We spent the night in Copper Harbor and on the way back down the U-P we took the tour into the Quincy Mine...

Incredible that that mine goes down to the 90th level, shaft length 9260 feet and depth of 6,225 below ground level, and the purity and size of copper nuggets that came out of that mine.

There a "classroom" off the side of the tour level (7th level) shaft that was used by Michigan Tech to teach mining, and students actually did mining training work down there in the 7th level.

If I remember correctly this is around a 400lb nugget of copper

Inside the Nordberg Hoist House. Takes a huge hoist drum to go down that many levels




thanks again for the pics and memories.

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

(OP)
Yes, I've been down to that same 7th level of the Quincy as that's where the water level was up to when I was last inside the mine in 2010. Back when I was in school there (the late 60's, early 70's) the water level was much lower and while technically the mine was totally closed to the public, many students used to climb down as far as they could but getting caught could prove a problem since you could get expelled. I never attempted anything like that as I have a fear of heights, and even though it would be going DOWN, it still felt like I would fall, so I left it to others. Of course they've now opened the mine up and the buildings there as a museum and national historical site.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

Nice photos. It would be a thrill to come across ones own photos on a web site or in a publication.

----------------------------------------

The Help for this program was created in Windows Help format, which depends on a feature that isn't included in this version of Windows.

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

The photo's look great, especially the light house.

I would think the GREAT thing is now that your status change to professional...

You can deduct the travel expenses to take the photo's and depreciate the camera equipment to offset the income you made!

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

A lot of love here for MTU, which isn't even that big of a school. When I did my outreach masters, I picked Michigan Tech over University of Idaho just because Dr.Mork had a yooper accent, which reminded me of my homestate Minnesota.

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

In looking back at my life, I wish I had taken more photos! I shot trains and aircraft, but missed the mundane stuff. I lived in a small town, and would have enjoyed looking back at 35mm images of things like McClure's garage, the barber shop, post office, hardware store etc. And the Great Gurnee Discount Center.

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

Good on ya, John! That's terrific when one can squeeze some revenue out of a hobby. For others to show credence in your skill in monetary form must be very satisfying! I need to go talk to my wife about the profit potential of a new 18 inch lapidary slab saw!

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.

RE: I guess I've moved past the purely 'amateur' photographer status, but only barely...

Hi John,
I've been on the purchasing side of the transaction, so here are my thoughts.

About 10 years ago, I was looking for decent photographs of a product my company was making. The product was visible on the outside of helicopters but the only photos I had were taken during the initial fit-ups (cluttered up with tools, and taken at odd angles to document part clearances etc.). Then I discovered pictures of my product on websites like www.airliners.net. These pro photographers were taking pictures of helicopters - that just happened to have my product on them. I was impressed by the quality, and the shots often included scenes with my product at work. I was happy to pay more than a hundred dollars (300 for one stunning shot) and I could afford to refresh the pix every year on our website. The photos we purchased had resolution that allowed blow-ups to several feet tall, so our sales guys could make posters and trade-show backdrops with them. Hope this gives you an idea of the value that interesting product photos can have.

The company I now work for recently hired a pro photographer to thoroughly document the interior of an aircraft we just outfitted. He came with good equipment (Canon 5D mark 4) but I am sure that if I had a more cultivated eye for these things, my own more modest equipment would be adequate for the job. If you are interested in product / documentary photography you may enjoy reading this: http://www.northlight-images.co.uk/make-living-pro...

I've enjoyed your previous postings of amateur photos - mostly due to their professional quality. If you pursue it, I'm sure you will do well.

STF

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