Page 308 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

good money.

“Many photographs are not salable,” Clarke pointed out, “because they have
poor composition, or lack human interest. You can take a photograph one
way, and it doesn’t mean anything. Take the photograph from a ‘sharp’ angle,
however, and it stands out. Photographs of kittens, puppies, babies and
prominent people sell best. Snap a good photograph of a small kitten poking
its head above the rim of a shoe, and you have something that will bring five
dollars or more from a newspaper syndicate. I put three little brown, curly-
haired puppies in a wire paper basket, took a fast close-up of them, and got
$20 for it from a New York advertising agency. They used it sometime later
to advertise a client’s canned dog food. Another reason why Lee Clarke’s
pictures sell is that he analyzes the pictures being used today in national
advertising, watches the trend, and then keys his output accordingly.

Because developing and printing negatives and prints has a great deal to do
with the salability of a photograph, Clarke has it done by professionals who
know best how to get results. Some photographers prefer to develop their
films themselves. It costs him twenty cents to have a film-pack developed,
and he pays five cents for each print. Not every photograph he takes sells, of
course, but his average is about one in nine. He takes between thirty-five and
forty photographs every day and his costs, including films, printing and
developing run close to six dollars daily.

You can readily discover the best angle from which to take a photograph by
studying the subject through the camera ground glass. The image shown in
the ground glass is exactly the same as that which will appear in the finished
photograph. Making camera studies in spare time will prove lucrative and
enjoyable. Newspaper syndicates, magazine publishers, advertising agencies,
big corporations, department stores, dress shops, men’s stores, and schools
furnish a ready market for the proper type of photograph. Striking
photographs are hard to find but there are many opportunities for snapping
them right in your own community. If you have good “camera sense” and
develop the necessary skill, you will find a good market for out-of-the-
ordinary photographs among companies which produce calendars for
syndicating the retail stores, such as, the Gerlach Barklow Company of Joliet,