Thank you all, for the props, kind words and views.
ShootingStars: the gallery deal is not easy and is little profit.
My CEO has had her art quilt and fiber art work in some big name/busy galleries around western NC, for several years.
She sells a lot of 'commercial' artsyfartsy stuff, esp 'mtn/nature' scenes and designs, and does a few big time/big buck commissions each year.
She wins regional awards, (Asheville Quilt Show), national juried shows, and a few international shows. My point is she is very talented and works at it, yet aside from the $3G-$5G each commission work, she makes peanuts literally, from the galleries that move a considerable quantity of her work. It is more like an avocation that sort of pays for the materials.
Same, or worse for photography... By the time one sends an enhanced/adjusted 'great shot' to the custom lab, and has a dozen prints done, mounted or mounted & matted, and finds a gallery that will take on photo art, (usually on consignment), and then that gallery takes the usual 40-60% of the sale, that photo that cost the photographer $25 in materials alone,
may net the shooter $20-$25 if lucky. One has to move a bunch of $25 sales 'things' to make it more than a hobby.
I sell my large size prints at our country club 'members art show' every season, and am glad and proud that friends would want them in their homes, but I sell them at basically my cost of materials, with zero 'talent' or time factored in.
Photo biz is very difficult these days, esp for large size, (16x20 through 3x4+ ft and larger), and it too is simply an avocation...
Those racks of interesting photos, often flush mounted, sometimes matted, for sale in the gallery racks for $10-$20 are seldom even break even to the photographer, after gallery commish.
Everyone on the planet with a smart phone is a 'photographer', and I have no quibble with that. But serious, well composed, well 'adjusted' RAW or jpeg digital photos, when printed/matted/framed, are a considerable cost, and much more time consuming and 'good eye' driven than a snap with a smart phone or pocket cam.
I do Giclee photos on canvas in 3' x 5'+ sizes for wall hangings in our homes, and for friends at my cost.
Just glad and proud someone likes them enough to do that, but knowing what my wife goes through with the 'gallery dance', I will take a Pasadena on that aspect.
Best Regards,
David
Couple examples of large format Giclee ink jet photo printing:
A wide angle shot of a formal living room/grand piano room/stuff room, we have in our Mtn home, with a few large format photos on left wall:
A Mtn scene view from our deck, that hangs on a lanai wall, at our FL Winter hideout home, to remind me of 'the mountains':