Calling all Photography nerds!

Here's a few questions:
How do y'all go about cleaning your sensors/ lenses I know many ways but more info couldn't hurt/ good discussion topic
And besides your normal senior/ team/ wedding photos that most photographers make money at, do any of the landscape/ wild life/ etc. attempt to sale photos? And how so? How did you get started?
I've had a lot of people want to buy my stuff, but I simply don't have much printed, is it a "spend money to make money" deal where I just need to spend the initial cost of printing then I'll have something the client can actual hold in there hand and visualize on their wall? I've also thought about printing things then hanging them up (with permission) on coffee shop walls so coffee customers could potentially be a customer of mine?
Or do most people just do it as hobby?

 

In early DLSR days I'd have to wet clean every so often using appropriate solution and proper sized wipe/wand for the sensor.

These days I shoot m43 and all the m43 cameras have frankly amazingly good dust reduction systems on them. I don't know exactly what is different but works way better than the ultrasonic cleaners on my old Canon gear (though the Canon system could of course have improved since then). I check every so often at minimum aperture and never find anything small on the sensor. Once or twice I've had something large get on there - big piece of dust - and in both cases a rocket blower got it right off. It seems like the m43 dust shakers do a wonderful job keeping small to medium stuff off of the sensor. The bigger stuff so far sticks up enough that a rocket blower removes it.

For lenses always use air first. Only then break out anything mechanical. Pretty much never use a liquid directly on a lens element - apply to a wipe first. I actually have really good success with Lens Pens for finger prints, oils or water residue. So usually I just use rocket blower to remove any dust followed by Lens Pen if there are any surface marks. Neither leak and can both be carried on a plane. LensRentals has a great write up on lens cleaning.

Just hobby for me. Though I had one person purchase a digital copy to use on a book cover, have no idea how they stumbled on my image. In the end while the author wanted to use my photo the book editor wanted to use something different for sensible marketing and production reasons. This was not any sort of money maker for me (less than $50) but I did get a free copy of a great book out of it!

I've heard of mixed success from others all trying a variety of ways to market things. It really seems to be finding a match between your material and the location selling. I know of one guy who takes nice landscapes but never tries to sell them in his local coffee shop but has good success selling other photos there (still life and street if I recall). I knew a guy that took pretty nice landscapes and tried hitting art fairs setting up a booth and never broke even and got rather sick of setting up for the fairs. Remember most pro landscape photographers only make a portion of their income from selling prints and digital copies. They write and they run workshops to pay the bills too. So don't expect much, but I have heard of people successfully paying for gear upgrades with side sales.

Alain Briot is a professional landscape photographer. He has some really good articles and books but his writing style is a bit annoying (if you think I'm long winded or occasionally sound condescending then stay away from his books ). He pointed out once that he sells completely different photos in his gallery and in National Park gift shops. Even at the same price point patrons at the NP gift shops don't by the kinds of images he shows in his gallery. In general NP gift shop buyers are more likely to want a picture of a viewpoint roughly the way they saw it - so mid-morning or mid-afternoon light. According to him glorious sunrise/sunset/magical weather phenomena shots that are required in his gallery don't sell so well to the standard NP tourist! He takes time to shoot images in more common "tourist light" for NP sales.

 

That's pretty much what I do for cleaning purposes, air before anything.. I'm pretty hard on my equipment so that's why I ask.
That's intersting on the bad light for more sales, but makes sense.
I figure it had a lot to do with target market, like in the Reno area it's all about Tahoe, and maybe a little Yosemite (not incredibly far away) would sell best because it has to do with the area, so I would probably print more Tahoe, even if I have better pictures of other places.

 

I got extremely lucky, my brother was getting out of photography and sold me all of his equipment for extremely cheap. I was planning on buying a starter dslr kit, but he offered that setup to me for less than it cost for the kit. Trying to take advantage of it!

 

Did you shoot these in shutter priority or manual?

 

Pentax K3 mainly with my 2.8 Sigma 17-50mm. Landscape is my escape!

New to Taco World! Finally found a thread I can call home! lol. No pics yet but will post some soon.

Here is a link to my photography if anybody gets bored! https://www.flickr.com/photos/paemon/

 

Just got my 2016 Tacoma OR.

 

daym, these pictures are good

 

iPhone & Sony shooter

 

Is this... for any photography nerd? Or just 3rd gens?...

 

Nikon D7100 Tamron 17-50mm 2.8

 

One more from the sandy wash

 

Nik D300 stock lens

 

That is also my goal. I haven't shot any pics actually of my truck yet but I used to be heavy into landscape. I'm trying to find a way to shoot where my truck is part of the landscape not the subject. Chris burkard usually pulls this off very well. The vehicles in his landscapes are usually older and for some reason that flows better then a brand new shiny tacoma

 

And when I forgot to charge my Nikon batteries I have my Nikon addition iPhone *sarcasm*

 

Manual always

 

Not a photo of my truck. but I used it to get here and was right behind me in this shot.

 

well done!

 

First, I agree with your statement although its applicable to all photography in my opinion. EVERYONE gets lucky now and then, great shooters get "lucky" often! The BW conversion on the image you posted above is superb btw!!!!

 

I don't have any truck pics yet but will post once I do. I am a semi-pro (translated, I get paid to shoot but can't make enough to support my family in the manner I want). Gear is assorted but all Canon. 2x 1D MkIII and the 70-200 f/2.8 II is probably my go to glass for what I do (although I look for reasons to shoot with my longer glass just because I love the compression!). Mostly sports photography and concert work but I have done a few weddings as well as work for Disney/CBS shooting things like The Bachelor and Shark Tank. Easy work really once you get on good terms with the video guys!