Abstract Photography- Hard To Stand Out

Patrick,

Hold Your Horses! Don't remove ANY images! You've got a lot of great images and just need to organize them better! You have some "abstract" images, mixed in with regular images. If you ENJOY shooting mostly abstracts, then fine, but any time you see a good "regular", capture that.





On your flowers, make sure you name them, scientific,latin and common names. Flowers is probably the largest group of images here and you have nice ones, but won't ever be seen. I've got some great flower images and I don't know if I've sold one yet! In almost 4 years!

You have less than 100 here and that's way to low a number. Once you've paid the $30 for 26 images, might as well have paid for 2600!

Don't lower your prices. In fact some of your stronger work, should be higher, $30 or so.

You've been here a month longer than I have, but you only have 100 images or so. I've got 3700 or so. It's "quality" here, but also quantity and of course sales!

Good Luck!

Rich

p.s. I've got relatives on both sides, from Cork,etc.

Thanks for the input and suggestions
3700 images! Is there any bulk way to upload and have tags etc. added?

p.s. where in Cork are the relatives from? I'm from Cork but live in Galway.

abstract is the hardest thing to sell. because it has to appeal and everyone has some. its hard to advertise because abstract is an abstract word.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

if you put your tags, title and description in the ITPC, it will be there when you upload. you can use the bulk uploader of 5 things, but i never use it. just one at a time.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

I love abstract photography but I agree it must be hard to sell it on here. I have been here almost 4 years also, and although about half of what I have sold have been my digital abstracts I have not sold a single abstract photograph. I am glad you brought this up because I would like to do more in that direction, but wonder how to reach a market for it. I do think it helps to have more images, I now have just over 1300 images-- a mix of photographs and digital art.

After you figure out how to stand out, your next hurdle is figuring out how to make the majority of people love abstract work.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I should upload a lot more photos.
I might pay some more attention to floral photography as well; will buy some roses today and get to work.

If you are not already doing it, I would definitely add the object or building type maybe even location of the abstract.

flowers are very hard to sell because EVERYONE has some, including buyers. its hard to get original looking images with any kind of flower. and they don't sell that often. and i second the building naturally occurring abstract. easier to keyword. can't say how popular those are either though.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

If only there was a big market for 'Galway abstract' I'd be a rich man!

It's hard to stand out in any photography - it's easier to not stand out - don't have to be 'abstract' photography.

Patrick,

Just try and begin to produce more images that "say" Ireland or Galway and work on the keywords. I've got hundreds of flower shots here and don't think I've sold a one! Too man really good flower people here. Do a search on Ireland and see what your competition is showing. The images near the top of the search are sellers.

There "may" be a way using Lightroom to upload lot's of images, I've seen hundreds uploaded at a time from some of the stock houses, but don't use Lightroom and don't know how they do it.

My relatives are Fagans and Cullens and not sure where each came from, but my grandfather always sang about County Cork!

Rich

i'm not sure what a galway is, but i do know what a gallbladder is.. well more or less. if your trying to push it as a brand, you'll need to make up a style that is totally yours.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

Personally I think your definition of abstract is pretty loose. A photo of a tail light is not abstract. Dada maybe. but not really. There are others in your abstract gallery that are questionable. But of course that is just my opinion ;O)

But to answer your question.. to stand out you have to be different. Every photographer... has images of reflections on water.. but they just call them images of reflections on water. These will not stand out. The all have images taken moving the camera while exposing the image... these will not stand out... the all have car light streaks from long exposuers.. these will not stand out.. smoke, bubbles, macros... these will not stand out... Photoshoped with distort filters will not stand out.. soloarized will not stand out, inverted colors will not stand out....

So.. be different.. find a "thing" that is yours, and riff off of that.. make it your own. We can't tell what that "thing" is though. ;O)

Oh... and somehow you have to be in peoples face all the time. You have to go to them. You can't wait for them to find you.

Simple right LOL but most important have fun.

In my opinion, you sometimes have to stage an abstract piece to project your vision and definition of abstract (whatever it is). I recommend taking a passionate, active and manipulative role to create your masterpiece. I purposefully try to avoid the cliche settings (water, flowers, etc) because they are monotonous.

Patrick, your work is accomplished and creative, imo. I can see that doing creative and/or abstract photography is what you like best. There is always room for more, by all means. Do what you love. I don't think a tail light is abstract, however, because you can see that it's a tail light. If I read your bio and wanted to buy something, I might not like to see that you "aimlessly wander around photographing anything and everything" (which you state, although I may not have that verbatim). Your gallery selections show that isn't true, at all! It looks as though you are quite selective. Keep going! I'd love to see more.

Considering that abstracts of any kine are not exactly the best selling art in the world, I would not use the term at all.

Expecting people to search on abstract photography, well, I just don't think that is going to happen to any great extent.

I, like Bob, also question if taking a picture of something is really not an abstract my just confuse people.

Just put the images out there and put the terms abstract in the keywords and the descriptions, but I would not put them in the titles it was me.

Let people make up their minds as to rather then are abstracts or no.

I liked the pool one too.
Keep a mix of items up until you have consistent sales and can determine what people want from you.
Then, remember that it is a numbers game - a wide mix so you will be found, but free of technically poor work.

Thanks for the replies. I guess my style isn't just abstract but abstract/patterns/symmetry.

Anyway, for fun more than trying to sell I bought myself some roses and here's one of the photos I like. I know what Mike said about floral being vvv hard to sell in but no harm in adding more photos to my collection-

Certainly no harm especially since you have your flowers all in one gallery for those customers looking for flowers ;O) and they do exist.