Derek Nielsen Photography

 

For many years now, I have been strictly selling limited edition prints to my collectors. This business strategy is often used by artists to create an exclusitivisity around their work. To give collectors an assured value to their purchase. This is something I will continue to offer for images I perceive to be above and beyond, award-winning, or incredibly rare moments in nature.

However, when you have been doing photography as long as I have now, you begin to amass a large library of quality photos. Images I want to share with the world.

 

(Open Edition Print Available Through Derek Nielsen Photography)

 

Offering open edition prints to a growing audience has allowed me to satisfy customer needs, expand my reach, and add additional revenue to my business. I had to search internally and think about why I am doing what I do. In the end, I want to share my love and passion for nature with the world. Share my experiences. Hopefully, by someone hanging one of my images on their wall, they will be inspired to help make a change or possibly inspire the next generation to take action. Get outside. Fall in love with nature.  

 

Before we start, I want to address the key question: what is the difference between limited edition and open edition prints?

 

Limited edition – edition numbers are selected by the artist usually ranging from 1-10 or 1-100 or some even go 1-1000. The fewer editions the more exclusive owning one is for the collector. These can even be done by size. A set of 8×10 inch prints can carry its own edition of the same image as 11×14 and so on. When this number is met or all the prints are sold the image is retired to the archive never to be printed again. My personal limited edition prints are printed on Truelife Lumachrome Acrylic giving them an incredibly crisp vibrant feel by one of the best printmakers, if not the best, in the world. I also use handmade Italian frames sourced from sustainable wood sources. 

 

Open edition – in an open edition, the artist can print and sell as many of the images as possible on any type of material or medium. Typically, open edition prints carry a far lower price tag. The beautiful part about open edition prints is that they are highly customizable to your interior design needs. I personally offer them in dozens of different sizes and product options. 

 

Satisfy Customer Needs With Open Edition Prints

 

I’ll be the first to admit it. Limited edition luxury fine art photography is expensive to purchase. Here is the reason. The cost of producing this caliber of art is expensive. If you factor in camera gear, cost of travel, time spent in production and post-processing, training and cost of production by the world’s best printmakers, and luxury framing of the finished product, you could easily be approaching $50,000 or more to bring these images to the world per location. That being said, not all collectors are looking for a priceless image blown up to 90 inches on their wall.

Oftentimes, we are simply looking for something that meets our interior design needs or even something that just makes us happy. I have heard countless times, “I wish I could buy one of your prints but they’re just too expensive for me”. Giving large discounts to friends and family isn’t fair to my other collectors or to myself as an artist. I hate telling people no who just want to support my work. What I’ve been able to do is find the best solution to this problem. This is something any good business should be doing. Client problem….Provide solution. By pairing up with an online print lab through a third-party integration platform, I am able to solve a problem a large number of my followers and customers have: the price of entry.

 

(Gold Coast – part of open edition gallery)

 

Think about this example… Most of us have been through an art museum. If you found a favorite popular piece in the museum there is a good chance you can buy it as a print or poster in the gift shop. The artist or their interest have decided they want to share the beauty of their work with the whole world. This copy will cost you a fraction of the price of the potential multimillion-dollar original. Something about it speaks to you. This open edition copy now hangs in your home or office for the world to see and it brings you joy every day. So if you are an artist and a large following of people want to enjoy your work at home, listen to your customers. Take polls. Do research. It is possible to deliver beautiful quality art at an affordable price while not giving away your entire collection.

Regardless of what my collectors decide, I stand behind my work. Just because something is in my open edition collection does not mean it is of any less technical value. My decision to open this collection was to better service my supporters who may not be able to afford my other premium products.

 

 

 

Expanding My Reach

 

When I first started pursuing my passion as a nature photographer, I had the goal of impacting as many people as possible while saving the natural world in the process. My entire business model is designed to give at least 10% of my profits to environmental organizations around the world. In order to do so, I need to have my images in front of people instead of sitting on a hard drive on my computer. As a professional photographer, I take a ton of photos. Social media has been a great tool for getting images out there but that feels so impersonal. Beautiful images come and go every second.

There is something meaningful about looking at a favorite image over and over again. Diving into it deeper. Letting your mind wander. Photography sales have been steady, but if my main goal is to share my experiences with as many people as possible, then opening my work up to a new market is crucial. As with any career, I had to ask myself again what my “why” was. Again, I want to show the world just how beautiful this planet is in order to save what we have left. Through art.

 

(Trumpeter – part of limited edition fine art gallery)

 

Many of us had a few posters in our room growing up that inspired us. It could have been a fast car or beautiful landscape or even a sexy model. I bet if you close your eyes you can still see those images. I want to inspire. If a child grows up to work in conservation or develops a giving mindset because of one of my prints hung in their bedroom, then I did something right.

 

 

 

Additional Revenue Selling Open Edition Prints

 

In the end, what I do (and any artist does) is a business. Unless you are hell-bent on being the poster child for the “starving artist”, we need to start treating our art as a business. Trust me, our art looks equally as incredible whether we got paid for what it’s worth or we gave it away out of guilt. I currently have 5 different revenue streams for my photography business: 

1. Limited edition print sales – I typically offer these in editions of 50 or fewer. 
2. Open edition print sales – I now offer these on a wide range of sizes and print surfaces. 
3. Licensing images – This is where a company or individual pays for the rights to use my images in advertising or other media with exclusive rights and limitations on usage. 
4. Travel photography tours – For given destinations around the world, I lead educational, instructive, and completely fun photography workshops. 
5. Social media affiliates – these are paid advertising arrangements with certain companies my core values align with. 

 

Any additional revenue streams you can add to your business allow you more flexibility to do what you love. Create art. 

 

 

Take a look back at what your goals are as an artist. If you only want to produce art as a hobby because it brings you joy and no one else will see it, that is perfectly fine. Maybe you want to make a living off it or someday become rich and famous. If you dream big and work smart that’s possible. The fact is there are no wrong answers. Many of us became artists because we didn’t fit a particular mold, to begin with. What I hope you realize is that we have options. Different models, we can use to reach as many people as possible while financially supporting ourselves. I was taught early on in my career that selling limited edition prints was the only way to make a living as an artist. The truth is, the more I learn about and understand business, the more people I have the potential to serve. 

 

If you enjoyed this topic or are interested in learning more about the business of photography please reach out to me directly or check out previous articles I’ve written. To learn more about my photography or my business model of giving back to the community that protects this planet click here. Thank you for your time. Be sure to support your fellow artist and if nothing else…be kind.