I'm writing this blog, some 24 hours after going live selling my #02 Zine - 12 mths with the GRii.
In three weeks time, its the first anniversary of setting up my website.
After pondering on setting up the print and zine store, I finally went live some 3 months ago. It's crazy that the catalyst to get this sorted was the boredom of the COVID-19 lockdown.
I have no idea why it's taken so long, but I can say that it's been a real labour of love.
Lockdown has afforded me the opportunity to ‘marinade' some images and projects, whilst jettison others. I have found this part of the process to be really cathartic.
The steep learning curve was getting to grips with MailChimp (for marketing), squarespace (commerce on the site) and finding suitable professional printing houses to print my work. Whilst the stumbling blocks were several, they were not insurmountable, it's also a process that you really need to go through to understand your prospective customers and business model.
I watch quite a few photography YouTube videos, whether these are POV street photowalks, discussion groups or influencers, which I have found highly informative during this journey.
I think it will be helpful to share this reference list in an upcoming blog post, so watch this space.
A recent post by Ted Forbes on the excellent The Art of Photography YouTube channel, pretty much sums it.
We get too hung up on buying gear, testing lens, tinkering with post production (Lightroom / Photoshop), we all need to be producing our work. Whether this is printing postcards or prints for family and friends, or prints or zines for our website stores, we must take our photos off the hard drive and print into a physical object, to hang it on a wall, put into a picture frame or a zine on a coffee table.
Whilst I would be a little happier if my print sales were a little more active, during this initial period, I'm really enjoying the activity surrounding the zine sales and after all, this is a marathon not a sprint. I also want to cultivate a steady and loyal following of clients, who want to enjoy this journey with me.
I have received some lovely feedback from customers on their purchases so far, so it's also been rewarding.
For those pondering this side of their photography, i urge you to take a leap of faith and go for it!, you (like myself) will be surprised and enjoy your journey!
Until next time. keep snapping.