Sales of chaser art, videos, and photos

[Tim Vasquez]

When I was at the Denver convention last month I had a discussion with someone there about the large weather photo prints that were being sold at a couple of the tables. These were poster-sized, framed photos of tornadoes and storms. I don't know how they did specifically, but I recall from other conventions a lot of those prints & photos tables got no sales, or very few. Is there much of a market for artistic photographs and chase videos, especially at conventions? I suspect these kinds of items were big back in the 1980s, but now we've landed in the era of media saturation (Flickr, YouTube, ChaserTV, etc, etc). I'm really curious how the business model thrives in this day and age, or whether it even can thrive.

As a reference point, back around 2001 at the Des Moines conference I recall a certain chaser (I'm sparing his name) who was a vendor and was selling large poster-sized photographs of tornadoes and storms. At some point Saturday afternoon he began breaking down his display, grumbling loudly ("waste of time", "no one appreciates it"), stormed off and was gone.

I also suspect that chaser conferences vs. selling online may be diametrically different markets... maybe there is more success in the latter?

Tim

 

[Dan Robinson]

Yeah - it's one of those harsh realities of chasing. There are a small handful of still photog chasers who've developed a large following, and rightfully so, as they are extremely talented. For the rest of us, truly no one cares about the images we treasure. My storm images tend to get lots of "oohs and aahhs" and "wow, cool!", but that never translates to sales.

The only venues I've had consistent sales are at local art galleries selling prints on commission. It's not been much, usually around $300-$400 in gross sales per year (not counting printing expenses). A few of those have been local-themed storm images (city skylines and landmarks), but most are not storm related at all. My non-location specific (IE, out in an open field in the middle of nowhere) photos of tornadoes, lightning, storm structure and supercells never sell. It's a downer to learn how few people truly appreciate what you personally prize so much, but it's reality

As for online sales, I spent literally weeks of man hours over the past 2 years putting my photo catalog online (and building my own catalog pages) with a service provider who handles the printing and shipping. So far, each year I've barely made enough to cover the annual fee for the service. It certainly hasn't paid off in terms of the time I've put into it. I keep making adjustments now and then to see if I can hit some proverbial sweet spot to encourage sales, but so far those have been unsuccessful.

 

[Bill Hark]

This is an interesting topic and something I've considered when pondering selling prints of my photos. As a photographer and chaser, I really enjoy looking at photographs but I have no desire to purchase framed images. The main reason is that if I go the the expense of framing and hanging a photo, I want it to be one of my own photos. In addition, I would become tired of hearing from visitors, "that's a really nice tornado photo, where did you take it?" and I would have to say, "oh, that's not my photo." I am not known as a painter and therefore I wouldn't have a problem hanging framed paintings. I suspect many chasers have similar attitudes. There are non-chaser/photographer weather enthusiasts at some conferences and I would expect them to purchase framed photos.

I have heard that storm and weather images are best for sales when they include a known landmark. For years, a best selling poster at the University of Virginia was of a lightning bolt behind the Rotunda ( a very important symbol of the University) and the letters, "Enlightening." This sold well to the general public.

Bill Hark

 

[STexan]

There are plenty of stock storm, tornado, and lightning images of high quality around. I still strive to seek out those classic images of beautiful storms with beautiful landscape imagery, but I agree, some sort of a key landmark is vital to a photo's desirability and sellability. Yes, that makes it EXTREMELY difficult and chancy. The indians appreciate well done storm/weather images with one of their casinos in the foreground, small town squares or easily identifiable water towers, a readily identifiable tractor-trailer passing in front of a well-lit discreet super-cell, etc. If photography is your driving force (as is mine), this completely changes the dynamic and your strategy of storm chasing and requires a high degree of commitment and patience.

 

[Chris Kridler]

My storm images tend to get lots of "oohs and aahhs" and "wow, cool!", but that never translates to sales.

Well put. I did art shows for a couple of years - a handful a year - with (mostly) storm photography. I maybe sold enough photos to cover my entry fees, and I won a couple of ribbons, but in the end, it wasn't worth all the time and effort. (Plus fine-art photography is a pain to sell at outdoor art shows with all the wind and weather.) People seemed really excited to see the photos, and everyone had their own tornado story to tell. It was like my little traveling storm museum. But financially, it wasn't worth it, and I've had the distraction of other work, so I didn't make it a full-time business.

I, too, hesitate to buy other chasers' framed work, just because our walls are full of all kinds of art. But I do love snagging the occasional amazing photo as wallpaper or browsing everyone's work online. Maybe one of these days we'll all have giant digital slide shows of our favorite photos on the wall, in addition to our giant TVs. (Good luck trying to monetize that!)

~ Chris

 

[Mark Blue]

This post is from a buyer's perspective versus a seller. I don't sell photos online or at other venues, but I have dabbled in buying a couple in the last year. Last year was our 25th wedding anniversary (July 5), so I decided to buy this really cool photo from a fairly well known chaser in the Kansas City area. I arranged all of the details while we (my wife and I) were chasing in June and had him frame and ship it out to arrive a few days beforehand. I know he is a professional photographer who normally does weddings, class pictures, family pictures, etc., and during the chase season he goes out and captures still pictures of storm structure, tornadoes, and any kind of interesting weather. I'm not sure how profitable it is, but I would imagine from the price I paid for a 24" X 30" framed photo he can't be doing too bad in the end. The only outlier is how many folks like me buy those to hang as art on their walls inside their home?

For Christmas I decided to give it a go on my own and selected a photo of the northern lights taken by a chaser who used to belong to this forum. I asked him what he would charge for a copy of the photo (24" X 16") and as it turns out he indicated he was going to give it to me for all of the computer/technical information I had advised him about in the Equipment sub-forum over the last few years. I was totally floored that he would give me something so interesting and hard to capture, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. I ended up having it printed on canvas at Fedex Kinkos and framed by a professional framing shop. The owner of the framing shop said she set it out front for a day after it was finished and she had so many inquires from clients wondering where it was taken and if they could buy it. I think I wound up with the better end of the deal, but it did make a very nice gift for my wife and she loved it.

I suppose in the end it's kind of a niche market that only appeals to certain individuals, but speaking for myself I absolutely love these types of photographs and if I happen across one that really sticks out as special I'll be looking for the third piece to showcase in our home.