Dive Photos that Sell!?

[kelemvor]

I don't believe any instructor would want you filming new/discover divers while they're doing skills as you'd be a distraction. For the same reason most don't allow cameras on those dives. So that may not be as profitable as you'd expect.

Good point. An instructor at an SSI shop (where my daughter was certified) once told me that it was strictly forbidden. He lead me to believe it was an agency policy, but it could very well just have been his policy. Reason cited was just as you said, it's a distraction.

However, filming seems to be a regular part of more advanced classes. I recall Harry Averill filming my first day of Cave1. Presumably so they could laugh over beers or something . Harry wasn't teaching the class.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

A local GUE instructor once asked my then girlfriend to tape one of his Fundamentals classes to show students how bad their trim was. The video ended up showing how bad the instructor's trim was.

 

[KathyV]

Thank you for the feedback thus far!!

I'm not looking to make a profit from selling stock or fine art photos, more to the tune of an experience album of images of divers and the marine life/reef on the dive.

Diving isn't the biggest or even the best thing on Kauai, unless you go to Niihau which many come back raving about. I'm leaning toward aiming at divers that are not certified and are experiencing diving for the first time, usually couples, friends, and families that are looking to try something new and have a fun experience together. I believe photos will be most marketable to them, and I'm trying to get an idea of what folks would like to have offered, and what they are willing to pay. I'm also looking into delivery methods and as the margin is pretty thin, I'd like to find a cheap/free way to share.

If you ever get a chance to visit Grand Cayman (quite a distance from Hawaii!) you should visit Cathy Church's photo center at the Sunset House Resort.

She has created quite a business that includes a gallery of beautiful photos and videos for sale, as well as a camera shop, repair shop, studio, and a training center for underwater photography, in conjunction with the Sunset Divers:

Cathy Church's Photo Centre - what we sell

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I bought my current camera and housing (Nikon D3x in a Subal ND3) from Cathy Church. I've been very happy with that deal.

 

[FettSolo]

In 2012, I worked for a company on Koh Tao (Thailand) producing videos of Open Water scuba divers. Basically, I (or one of my coworkers) would show up the last morning of an Open Water course, film the two dives, edit into a 20min video in the afternoon, screen it in the evening. At which point, hopefully the tourists would buy a DVD of the edited video. Koh Tao is a backpacker destination, so not really the ideal venue for selling souvenir imagery. I left after a couple months of struggling to make ends meet. I would imagine the clientele on Kaui would be more willing to purchase these sorts of items.

As an underwater photographer, I've never purchased anything like this from anybody else. I've had people ask about purchasing photos from me, but when it comes down to it, they never actually want to part with their money.

I have a full-time creative job (I produce videos for an Ivy League school), and I'm very grateful for that, because I think it is really difficult to make a living just selling photos or videos in this age.

 

[emoreira]

Hello folks and fellow divers! I'm looking into making a career of dive tour photos and if you have a moment, it would really help me (and possibly other aspiring underwater photographers) if you commented your feedback to these questions!

If you've ever purchased photos or video from a dive: what did you pay and what did you receive (cost, how many photos, delivered by CD/website download, etc.)?

If you've never bought photos or video, what is the reason (have your own camera, too expensive, never offered, low quality, etc.)?

What would you pay for photos and/or a video and what would you expect to get? Have you ever sold your photos/videos; what did you charge and what did you deliver?

If you're a dive shop owner/operator, have you tried offering photos/videos to your customers - what worked and what didn't?

In February 2016 I visited Cancun and I dove the C-58 wreck and a second shallow dive. I bought the foto kit offered after the dive. The whole dive excursion was great and I was very pleased with the whole experience. I paid US 53.85 for all the photos I would ask from the whole photos that the photo guy took (I picked 33 pics). My camera flooded 3 days before in a deep dive in Palancar (Cozumel), so I could not take my own photos.
Next year in January 2017 I visited Recife (Brazil) and I dove 2 deep wrecks. I had no camera. The owner of the Dive shop was my guide. He was carrying a camera with 2 strobes. A huge setup. He was permanently taking pictures of me diving the wreck. I don't know why, perhaps he was confident of my attitude.
The whole experience was great, the water, the wrecks, everything was perfect.
I bought the whole set of pics. I didn't care the cost of the pictures. They were expensive, but I wanted the pictures of those memorable moments. I paid something like US$ 120 for all the pictures.
I normally carry a camera with me, but I'm never in the pics. Buying the pictures from the dive operator is a way to be in the pictures.

 

[katefu]

If you want to make a career of it, I'd be doing my research carefully. If you are looking at filming try-divers - how many of them does the dive shop take out?

I've been working as an instructor on Kauai for over a year, so I'm as familiar as a year can make me diving and teaching here. PADI limits 4 non-certified divers to 1 instructor for DSD experiences. With several dive shops on island, there are times that many groups are in the water together but I'm not sure about working freelance and going with different groups.

Someone else mentioned the liability of having DSD skills documented.. as an instructor I can agree there. I would aim for land photos, water surface photos, maybe a few posed underwater and some candid underwater trying to get the scene/marine life included in the photo. I wouldn't want someone filming or taking photos of me while I worked with a DSD for both liability and potential for distraction.

The reason I'm more focused on DSDs and students is because the instructor is not allowed to have a camera in hand while teaching/leading these dives.

 

[lowviz]

...//... I'm also looking into delivery methods and as the margin is pretty thin, I'd like to find a cheap/free way to share.

Pick something easy to transfer images onto. We had this problem on a PSD event years ago. Forget emailing or burning disks, takes too much time and not everyone is equally connected.

Inexpensive sim cards come in many (physical and storage) sizes and have cheap converters that allow you to plug them into USB ports.

Get a nice holder with your brand silkscreened onto it, something like:
Drawer Design Case Holder For SIM Cards & Memory Cards, Storage Case With 3M Grip Pad Technology

you could even offer a cheap USB converter for the digitally challenged...

 

[dhaas]

All good honest replies and I hope this helps the OP with her decision process. It's easy to spend lots of $$$$$ and find out you can't recoup even part of it

Shoot for your own personal enjoyment is my mantra these days If someone wants to pay you for some images go for it but don't count on it!

David Haas
www.haasimages.com

 

[James R]

I have sold a good number of prints via the typical websites, which to date total enough to pay for maybe the memory cards I just bought for my D850. Fortunately I don't need underwater photo income to pay my mortgage, else I'd be on someone's couch begging for an extra month before getting booted out