Business of Photography ⇒ Online image sales with Smugmug

[Steven G Webb]

Oh, before I forget. On the same note...

One other idea I've had was to rent a booth area at car shows that allow car owners to drive their car into a large tent with a nice nondescript background and get their portrait taken with their car. Again, people are prequalified by filling out a form and paying for the service prior to having their portrait done. This would be a major setup and lots of equipment but, again, if priced right it may be feasible. How often do these car owners get the chance to have a really classy photo taken of their car?

I like your cosplay portraits idea much more than this one. Space to shoot cars and shoot them well might make this one prohibitively expensive and a logistical nightmare. I don't know how you put this together and keep the price attractive to owners who have shelled untold thousands getting their rust bucket nightmare into a show piece.

[Duck]

No wet blanket here. I learned a long time ago that things always sound much better in one's head than in real life. Having a community to sound ideas to is a great value and I really do appreciate your input here. Specially since I know you've worked your butt off doing events. I really take what you say to heart and appreciate the feedback.

[Steven G Webb]

On that Cosplay themed thing, how might this work: Rather than using the authentic view camera and all that would require, could a modern dslr be contained in something that resembled a view camera, perhaps with the taking lens actually being used. A tethered computer's monitor under the focusing hood maybe as well. I'm fairly certain you could contain an ink jet printer in some sort of prop as well. Your print output media could then be what ever you fancied from some deep matte, gloss or anything in between. I know the Old Tyme photo operations love using sepiatone, parchment and "Wanted" poster blanks. I know the Steampunk folks are all about the fantasy so I don't know that anything absolutely authentic is necessary. If you could employ some bubbling lamps and the camera breathed fire it would surely be a hit.

[Duck]

My original thought was to place a digital camera into a lightweight, steampunk-afied camera and just take photos and hand out instructions on where to download/purchase images. Something along this line...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GD9EBLfhBY

But then I came across this video and my mind went elsewhere...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76_p89JW7v4

I have 25 sheets (and chemicals) for Galaxy's new 120 ISO reverse process paper. While the developing process is more complex than regular direct process, there is no reason I can't have a portable darkroom. The Afghan box (above) is a cool, self contained idea but not suitable for a four step process with washes in between. Maybe someday someone will bring true DP paper back ("Damn you Ilford!"). I'm going to play with this a while and see it it's something that may be marketable at faires.