It is a really nice shot. Popular Photography had an article about selling your pictures to sites that only pay like 25cents for each use, but quite a few people are making their living that way. YOu'd need a big portfolio, though. If I knew where to sell them, I'd do it! LOL.
JoanMN

Great photo.

I'm no expert, but here are some thoughts:

Getting your work seen is the first step.

You need to get together a portfolio. An agency might be a good idea. Take a really spectacular portfolio to some agencies and see what they say. They usually expect you to have at least a certain number of photographs available.

Or, you could try both photography magazines and nature magazines. They might not pay much, but you will be getting your work seen and it might arouse interest and get you assignments (provided you're interested).

I would look at photography magazines. I subscribed to a couple of them and I seem to remember seeing some articles on selling your work.

Hey Peggy!
How nice to run into you again.
Anyway, I have absolutely no advice about selling your photos. But I did want to say that this is really a great image. It's beautiful and scary at the same time.

I know that with freelance writing, people often suggest starting a website where potential clients can see your work. However that might be more appropriate if you were marketing yourself as a photographer rather than the photographs themselves. But it's not my field, so, hopefully, others here will be more helpful.

Best,
Emily

People are starting to want to pay me for my photos, or coming and photographing their flowers, their family get togethers, a wedding; I don't push it in any way. Am NOT skilled enough to do a wedding, they are challenging and you have to ease into that and need expensive gear and flashes.

My sister suggested I contact a regional magazine. I haven't.

The way mine are getting noticed, is that I take photos of what I like, sometimes peoples' houses, business, flowers, gardens, trees, whatever catches my eye, etc., and save up my favorites to send in for 8X10's in a large batch. Then I order a few extra of some (they're only $2 apiece) and give them away as a goodwill gesture, a few here, a few there. People appreciate it. Word gets around . . .don't know who you'd give a bug photo to :-).

That's a nice shot, good composition, I'd put a little curves on it to make it pop more, do you use USM? The field is very competitive and there are hundreds of wannabes out there, good ones, too. I'm a lightweight. You have an A85, a nice little camera, but not the dslr with the interchangeable lenses. They are the best for selling photos in the right hands. Taking the photo with top-quality lenses (with Canon L glass) is only part of it, post-processing is what can make or break you. Good thing you have Photoshop. It's the best out there imo.

Oh and watch for local contests. The web ones get too many entries.

Good luck!

Hey Emily!! so this is where you've been hanging out. I've missed you at the veggie forum. So how's your garden?

Thanks everyone, wow...this is much more complicated than I thought. I thought it was a matter of sending off a couple of pictures and making a few 100 bucks. Portfolio? (blush)

I'm just an amateur with a nice lil digital camera. Aliska...I don't even know what a USM is.....or "curves." The camera is a
Canon A 95. Still that was a very good guess.

I don't even have that many photo's that are noteworthy, just a few lucky shots. I'll keep taking pics tho cause it's fun.

Em, this one's for you...This picture was taken last summer and it looks so different already. I've since planted blueberry
bushes in the backgreound. I Can't wait till the grape vine covers the arbor.

Thank you everybody, this is a great forum.

Love the rustic look to it. Wish I had room for, actually I would call it a pergola, as I found out when I was shopping for same, found out what I wanted was an arbor, the difference is still a little fuzzy.

Camera. I didn't guess. My eyes are going bad. Photoshop and other image editing software preserve the exif along with the photo, and I dl'ed and installed a special little program where I can view what a lot of people used if I right click on the photo and scroll down to "view exif". I read it as A85. Bought my daughter an A95 and she has fun with it.

Now some people really get upset about this, and I don't do it often, but I played with your photo, didn't save all the numbers, and this is not the best that can be done, but I tried to give it a little more punch, first image>adjustments>levels, then did a slight s curve in image>adjustments>curves, ran a light touch of Velvia Vision (a plugin), tried to remove the blue fringing in the trees (didn't get it all, my cam does it too especially on overcast days), then finished with sharpening it using filter>sharpen>unsharp mask (confusing, but it sharpens rather than unsharpen more gently than the sharpening tool). It has a little more punch. I'll never do this to you again if you mind, some people do, a lot. A lot of people are MUCH more knowledgeable than I am; I picked it up reading and reading and asking questions.

Your version followed by mine, may have overdone it, love your yard:

{{!gwi}}