Bring your camera to work

greenpea · October 2, 2006

The above mentioned advice is obviously for those of you who are not full time professional photographers.

I work in IT for the Graduate School of University of Washington, and I try and bring my camera to work at least a couple of times a week, with hopes getting out at some point in the day and capturing a few photos of the University’s beautiful campus.

Because it’s such a common sight to see me wandering off with my camera during lunch, everyone knows that I’m into photography, and that fact finally paid off.

The University of Washington is a member of the Council of Graduate Schools (based in Washington D.C.). The Council of Graduate Schools decorates its walls with photos of all the universities which have been represented by their board of directors, but they lacked a photo of the University of Washington. So the person that they came to for a pictures was me! I got a nice sale of a 16 x 20 of this image:

My only regret is that I didn’t charge more for the image. :rofl

SpeshulEd · October 2, 2006

red x

greenpea · October 2, 2006

SpeshulEd wrote:

red x

weird. should be fixed now.

SpeshulEd · October 2, 2006

got me, i'm still getting a red x, but when i get the properties of the picture, and then cut and paste the addy, i can see the picture.

nice!

edit: and now after i posted, i can see it.

BeachBill · October 2, 2006

Strange, I'm using Firefox and I don't see the image nor do I see a red X. What is going on here?

Oh, I bet external images is turned off... SpeshulEd can see the image on the second try because he viewed it directly and now it's in his cache...

SpeshulEd · October 2, 2006

firefox doesn't display a red x, if a photo isn't linked properly, nothing shows up. thats just the way ff is. I only have IE on my work computer.

but yes, strange indeed.

BeachBill wrote:

Strange, I'm using Firefox and I don't see the image nor do I see a red X. What is going on here?

greenpea · October 2, 2006

BeachBill wrote:

Strange, I'm using Firefox and I don't see the image nor do I see a red X. What is going on here?

Oh, I bet external images is turned off... SpeshulEd can see the image on the second try because he viewed it directly and now it's in his cache...

My bad. You were right, external images was turned off.

Sorry about that. Now it should work.

saurora · October 2, 2006

It's working! Beautiful image! Congratulations!

BeachBill · October 3, 2006

Very nice image; congrats!

greenpea · October 3, 2006

Thanks saurora and BeachBill!

Originally they wanted a donation, then they saw how *cheap* my pictures were and decided, sure they could buy it.

Someone once told me that the magic price for selling photography is under $100; over that its an investment, under that it could be an impulse buy (not that I want to be considered just *just* an impulse buy). However I've pretty much come to the conclusion that people will pay what ever you ask if they want to buy your art, you've just got to market yourself enough so that they know about your photography and be lucky enough to have the image that they want when they want it, and as it turns out, marketing can be as simple as bringing your camera to work all the time so they can see you going out to take pictures at lunch.

Which brings me back to...I really got to raise my prices.

mmroden · October 3, 2006

I just had a problem with UCLA and selling images-- UCLA wants licensing fees for all images of the campus that are recognizable for the campus. If you sell the image for commercial use that isn't to the university, there could be serious issues. I don't know if that's true for U of W, but maybe.

It's a beautiful image, and I hope it does you well

greenpea · October 3, 2006

mmroden wrote:

I just had a problem with UCLA and selling images-- UCLA wants licensing fees for all images of the campus that are recognizable for the campus. If you sell the image for commercial use that isn't to the university, there could be serious issues. I don't know if that's true for U of W, but maybe.

It's a beautiful image, and I hope it does you well

I had previously not had any of my UW photos for sale (because of the sort of issue you mention), but since it was the UW that wanted to buy my photo (for giving to the Council of Graduate Schools) I figured I'm ok.

However, now that you mention this, I think I'll turning off the ability to buy those photos, at least until I get it all cleared up what I can and can not legally sell.

Awais Yaqub · October 3, 2006

Great news

bham · October 3, 2006

This photo brings backs memories of my childhood when I would occassionally visit the campus and the Seattle area. I sure wish I could visit Washington more. The last time I made it up there was 2001.

dogwood · October 4, 2006

brought my camera to work...
... and they made me shoot a promo shot for the boss! Luckily, it was a paid shoot. It's funny though, 'cause those of you who have ever had to shoot a manager or boss know how nervous it can make you-- your vision is rarely what they have in mind and it's a bit different than shooting an independent client.

greenpea · October 4, 2006

dogwood wrote:

... and they made me shoot a promo shot for the boss! Luckily, it was a paid shoot. It's funny though, 'cause those of you who have ever had to shoot a manager or boss know how nervous it can make you-- your vision is rarely what they have in mind and it's a bit different than shooting an independent client.

Funny you should mention that. They also made me shoot a promo shot for the boss (Dean of the Graduate School). I did not get paid...and it was not a fun experience. The Dean hates to have her picture taken, I was given maybe 5 minutes, and I ended up with 3 out of 35 photos where she had both eyes open.

By the way, nice pic. Yours turned out much better than mine.

jsedlak · October 4, 2006

Great picture! I love the trees, so pretty.

I won't bring my camera to work once I get it. For one I work at a car shop, and I don't want anyone's greasy hands touching it, and secondly everyone wants to try it out... I haven't even gotten the thing yet!!!

dogwood · October 4, 2006

well...

greenpea wrote:

Funny you should mention that. They also made me shoot a promo shot for the boss (Dean of the Graduate School). I did not get paid...and it was not a fun experience. The Dean hates to have her picture taken, I was given maybe 5 minutes, and I ended up with 3 out of 35 photos where she had both eyes open.

By the way, nice pic. Yours turned out much better than mine.

Thanks. I had about 45 minutes to shoot with the guy but I also had an hour and a space to set up lights and a backdrop-- which makes a big difference. It's funny, though, how once people see you can shoot photos, they suddenly decide they want a portrait-- and they always need them right away.

Bring your camera to work

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