I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about photography, art, my business, and my happiness lately. As a result of this thought, there are a few business changes I’m considering and a few more that have already been made.
I’m considering starting a trend where I edit fthe photographs *with* the model after the shoot. If you’d be interested in trying this, let me know. I think it might be beneficial for several reasons. While I *always* edit my paid sessions in a *very* timely fashion, I’m a bit more lax about my test sessions. I edit what I really like, and the others just… wait. Editing the images with the model will not only give me valuable feedback about each image *before* I waste my time editing something the model doesn’t really like and I’m not going to use, but it will also ensure that I schedule time to get them done. If you’d be interested in being my guinea pig for this process, let me know.
Also, due to some complications that need not be explained right now, I may begin charging a small sitting fee even for my test sessions (and I’ll include some prints in exchange). It’s not something I *want* to do, but it may be needed. It won’t be more than $25 or so, and there will be some exceptions but, for the most part, it will apply. So, if you want to work with me while it’s still free, you may want to let me know now.
Starting now, I’m only taking two sessions a week, one during the week, and one over the weekend. Exceptions can be made, of course — as I’m going to want to get into projects that really excite me as soon as possible — but this is the general rule. So, my time’s become a bit more limited. This is all the more reason to *hurry up and email me*.
I’ve rethought my pricing entirely. As a result of this, I’ve added a few new product options for purchasing my work and I’ve lowered my prices significantly. I was a bit leary about doing this as I know that lowering my prices can make my work seem cheap and without value. However, having my prices all over the board doesn’t really create any sense of value either and it isn’t fair to my patrons. So, unless I manage to find a much less expensive supplier of the materials and services I use to produce my prints, the prices I have now (“sample image”:http://djamesphoto.com/image/view/115912996/ with prices and products) are the lowest I will ever sell them (outside of clearence sales and special promotions). As supply,demand, popularity, free time, and other conditions dictate, these prices will go up in the future. However, they will not be reduced.
I’ve divided my products into two sections, regular prints — machine titled, unnumbered, unsigned — and collector’s editions — hand signed, titled, and numbered, and cautiously cared for by me every step of the way. I hope this will satisfy all of my patrons and allow me to create value in my images and yet still allow my art to reach as many people as possible. So take a look at my “new prices”:http://djamesphoto.com/image/view/115912996/ and then look at my “body of work for sale”:http://flickr.com/search/?q=forsale&w=37996577120%40N01&m=tags&s=int&z=t
and see if you can’t find something that interests you.
I’ve also started “a sellers account on Etsy”:http://danieljames.etsy.com/. Feel free to look at my work there and, if you have an account there, please add me and my images to your favorites so that others can see my work too.
As always, I’m interested in your feedback.