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RickyBPhotography.com is online!

Ricky take some advice from some one who has been in your shoes.

You have been bustin your ass taking pics of every ones rigs and now you have gotten very good at it. Now it is time for you to look at the future in a way of it is going to take money to survive out in the real world. So you make a web sit where your work can be seen and you can SELL a few of your pictures that you work so hard to get.

I know when I first started fabing it was all for fun and the learning experience. Then as I got older and my parents started giving me less and less ( as they should have) then I needed some money for my time spent or spend my time doing something that made me some money. I went to work at a "real" job then people still wanted me to do fab work for them . Now I was at the point of where I could charge some money ( not enough though ) because my regular job paid for the rest. Then one day I just told my self if people want me to continue doing work they were going to have to pay me enough to make a living.

Now all of my so called friends that I used to do stupid cheap and free work for don't come around any more. All of my friends that supported me thoughout my career are what I call my true friends. Fro instant Bob! We have known each other since I was 16 years old and has supported me and my work for ever. When it came time to build his buggy he didn't want any favors or give Me's. In fact it has been totally the opposite.

The Moral of the story is it will be a little challenging for you to step out of doing all of this work for free and turning in to a profitable adventure. Don't give up because you will make it and you have a ton of friends that will support you the whole way. If you want to give people occasional prints then it will be no ones business but yours and if you don't want to it still won't be any ones either. I know I had people talk bad about me saying I was ripping them off and tons of other stuff, but when they want you to spend your time then get what it's worth.

Check out my buddies site http://www.philkunzphotography.com/ he and many others have made a good living from taking photographs of motor sports. He even a photo machine in his work van where he can print of pictures right at a race site from that day. You will have to find that market you can get in and make your mark.

Go get em man because your already on your way!!!!

THIS IS NOT MEANT TOWARDS ANY ONE THAT HAS POSTED OR READ THIS POST. IT IS JUST SOME ADVICE TO A FREIND OF MINE AND MAYBE A WAKE UP TO WHAT CHANGES RICKY WILL BE FACING.
 
One thing I notice about Adams link. The guy goes to a lot of trouble making sure his watermark in not in the action of the photo. Moving it around is not an option with SmugMug. But, I think this looks so much better and keeps it from being stolen, unless you want a real short photo!

kunz3_home.jpg


kunz5_home.jpg
 
well said woodlee. I'm at that juncture currently. go all out or stay at my day job and do it all the rest of the time. I'm currently laid off and more work keeps piling up. just one of those things. ricky, I know everyone hates the watermark, but if its what you feel is right, do it. if you talk to someone in the same biz and they advise against it, don't ignore them, take their advice at face value and apply it as you see fit. you are in the photo biz deeper that most on the board, so you know where you want to go. that being said, you are young and havnet been in it as many years as several others. you have your gut to trust as well as advice from others to consider. don't close you mind to anything. that being said, like 5 posts up it was said that trying to crop your watermark was hard. doing the same to the CJP4x4 photos wouldn't be hard. I say keep it, but make it a little less obnoxious (thinner font).
also, I agree with john to a degree on moving the mark.
 
I Think Adam gave some great advice and spoke purely the truth. Unfortunately the world is not free and you cannot make a living giving away labor The good thing about Ricky is he is young but from what I see he uses his head well for his age. Congrats Ricky and run with it. Quality work will always excel.
 
Seems like if I was worried about People snatching my shots, i'd have to lay the mark smack in the middle...

Anyone looking at the pic can see the quality of the shot and can understand the photographers motives...
 
I agree with Adam you start out with somewhat of a hobby and everyone figures out that you know your ****. You help your friends which i believe in and constantly get better at what you do. Then one day they'll do like i did with Adam take your rig to him tell him what you want, get the hell out and when it's ready he'll call you. No bickering about the price cause you trust him, thats where your at in my opinion. Hope you didn't mind me using you as my example Adam, but felt it was the truth and was a good comparison.
Keep up the good work Ricky and i'll have the chicks lined up by summer. pepper.gif
 
Speeding said:
;D
Yeah, I gotta get a buddy system goin' before the Hannibal and Badlands XRRA though. That's a looong drive by my lonesome.

Hi, my names Paul... headed my way ? laughing
 
P said:
Hi, my names Paul... headed my way ? laughing
LOL, i'm hoping my old travel buddy is up for more roadtrips this year, but I'm happy to know i've got backup! ;D


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Thanks guys, I'm really excited about this website and I appreciate all your feedback! 8)
 
Speeding said:
LOL, i'm hoping my old travel buddy is up for more roadtrips this year, but I'm happy to know i've got backup! ;D


- - - -


Thanks guys, I'm really excited about this website and I appreciate all your feedback! 8)
too good for paul? Oh, you don't wanna split fuel with the 1/2 ton pulling the 1 ton
 
Hey Ricky,

It is interesting that we've never met before particularly since you live so close to me. I presume I am about the same age as you, but I don't know. I have some excellent tips for keeping the money you have in your photography and making more. My father has been a professional commercial/advertising photographer for twenty-five plus years and would probably be more than happy to help you with the electronic/digital copyrighted stuff, web stuff, and anything else that you may have a question about.

I use to photograph, run, and organize Birmingham's event photography segment and I got quite the volume of work with all of the academic folks (UAB, Samford, Birmingham Southern, and every other place that had a party in Birmingham and used us), but had to stay in touch with the realistic side of things and coordinate things to prevent theft of photographic work. Although event photography deals more with taking photographs in more of a journalistic style, the concept was still the same: make money from the photography.

Feel free to contact me or my pops with any questions that you may have:

www.Kupferphotography.com

My pops:
[email protected]

Me:

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

I would be glad to hear from you. I understand what it feels like to take photographs for a group of folks or an organization and to only not get paid, but also to not even be recognized or have credit given for the photography. I even took photographs for a local off-road club one time and they thanked me and everything for my time and their words were nice, but they copied and scanned all of my photographs (I had them where they were only reproduceable at a 4X6 size, but) and when I confronted them about it, they said they would order more (I was shaking my head because I knew they wouldn't, as they had made 4X6 copies of everything and didn't place one order to begin with), so I guess what I am trying to say is: don't let people take you or your work for granted. You are a photographer and deserve money for your time and work just like everyone else.

To add to that, I would love to meet you for lunch one day, but currently I am in Europe continuing my studies, but I will be sure to stay in touch and maybe we could go out for lunch when I get back sometime (around the start of June).

I hope I provided some insight and I wish you the best of luck!

Peter Kupfer
 
Thanks Peter. You sound like you know your stuff! This started as a hobby about 6-7 years ago when I first started wheelin' with my dad, I loved to take pictures every trip out. A few years into it I started posting my pictures online for our local 4x4 club and it went from there! Now that I've gotten more professional and more serious with my photography I've run into a lot of copyright issues. People cropping my name off and sending my photos to magazines, I even had a problem with a local club claiming ownership since the photos were of thier club. ::) So that pushed me into finally setting up this site, and I get to make a little money on top of having a secure place to share my photos. So...yeah, little useless history i'm sure most of you really don't care about. :flipoff1:

But yeah man, hit me up this summer when you get back into town, I'd love to talk to you about this stuff.
 
Live and learn Ricky, live and learn. If we all had foresight to avoid all pitfalls in life, life would be pretty mundane huh?
I'm glad you took it to the level you need to be presenting your work on. And with that you should start to see some fruits so to speak of your labors in green.
 
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What do you guys think? I spent a whole 15 minutes on that design. ;D (I'm redoing the background image right now but you get the idea)

EDIT:
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