# My first sale!!!



## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

I went to a local flea market Saturday morning to see a friend and see what kind of traffic they were getting. I took my sample license plates and sure enough, a lady asked if I could shoot her dog (no, not with a gun . . . ) I came back an hour later with her plate and I thought she was going to cry. While talking to her, she was showing everyone who came by and I gave out five business cards. Here's "Peewee"











A few minutes later, as I was walking around, I ran into a friend so I showed him what I had. He saw a plate I made up Friday night and wanted one with minor text modification.










Two sales and lot's of business card requests. Future looking bright.

dan


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## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

BTW - The second one was just a compilation of three photos I shot at different times over the last year.

dan


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## BigRigGrafix (Sep 1, 2011)

CONGRATS Dan! It feels good to make that first sale, knowing that things WILL work.
Keep up the good work.


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## iprintnstyle (Aug 28, 2011)

Congrats! Lets drink to that 


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## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

BigRigGrafix said:


> CONGRATS Dan! It feels good to make that first sale, knowing that things WILL work.
> Keep up the good work.


Thank you. I've been unemployed for five months and it feels good to make a dollar. With the responses I got Saturday, and from others who's advise I asked, I think I'm on to something. 

dan


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## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

iprintnstyle said:


> Congrats! Lets drink to that 


 
Thank you. I did - Pepsi - C&S 18 years. But you can have one for me.

dan


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## Catbox (Oct 3, 2007)

Good for you... Follow your dreams! your website is nice also.


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## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

Catbox said:


> Good for you... Follow your dreams! your website is nice also.


 
Thank you very much. I appreciate you taking time to check it out.

dan


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

DaytonaDan said:


> Thank you. I've been unemployed for five months and it feels good to make a dollar. With the responses I got Saturday, and from others who's advise I asked, I think I'm on to something.
> 
> dan


Dan, 

Since you have a photography BG you can push hardcopy photos along with your photo novelty items. Once you got their photo you can upsale hardcopy ... or sell hardcopy then upsell photo novelty.

Also, chroma-key and custom on the spot heat heat transfer worked for me when I did live retail.

And print up lots of sample and display them !!!

I later cleaned up the ugly clutter and fixed the ugly table apron but here is what I setup once.

I had a green/blue screen setup barely showing in the photo left center adjacent to my work area.

[media]http://www.mgparrish.com/ts/P1010021.JPG[/media]

I also kept customers files and let them know I save them if they want "reprints" later. I named their folder by the last name, they just tell me the last name and I retrieve the folder.


For hardcopy "upsell" I used a an Olympus P400 (90 seconds 8 x 10) and cheap novelty frames from CASI/QLT. 

I also would shoot different poses ... not just the first "shot" that looked good, a lot of customer's bought several of the poses and mixed/matched on different substrates. Customers hate to waste a good photo.

I am still getting customer repeat sales on those old files now working from home. My business card had both my shop info and my home/cell phone number.

My next setup when I go live will be adding 3d lenticulars.


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## tonytw (Nov 20, 2006)

can you actually print license plates on a Brother 541 GT thanks if so how is it done, are they plastic, metal any info helpful


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## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

tonytw said:


> can you actually print license plates on a Brother 541 GT thanks if so how is it done, are they plastic, metal any info helpful


Here's a link to the basic information on license plates. I know nothing about your printer so I don't know if you can do dye-sub printing. Maybe someone else here can answer that. The video shows how to press a plastic license plate, but I use the aluminum.

License Plates for Sublimation Imprinting - DyeTrans.com

dan


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## skdave (Apr 11, 2008)

tonytw said:


> can you actually print license plates on a Brother 541 GT thanks if so how is it done, are they plastic, metal any info helpful


 
Hard surfaces are narmally done with dye sub.
Please PM me for details.


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## mgparrish (Jul 9, 2005)

tonytw said:


> can you actually print license plates on a Brother 541 GT thanks if so how is it done, are they plastic, metal any info helpful


I believe that printer you mention is specific to garments, however, there are other flatbeds designed for hardgoods, including license plates.

Brother-Jet Flatbed printer,T-shirt,CD Digital flatbed printer Manufacturer


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Good for you on your sales! That's got to feel great!


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## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

EnMartian said:


> Good for you on your sales! That's got to feel great!


 
Thank you, and yes, it sure does. I just did one for a local realtor, and she was very happy with the way it came out. The first Sunday of October, Dirty Harry's, a bar here in Daytona is having a benefit for a lady who was in an accident. I offered to set up there and for every license plate I sell, I'm going to donate half the proceeds to the young lady. I figure it will help her, and help me get noticed. 

Here's the realtor's plate:


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## BigRigGrafix (Sep 1, 2011)

DaytonaDan said:


> Thank you, and yes, it sure does. I just did one for a local realtor, and she was very happy with the way it came out. The first Sunday of October, Dirty Harry's, a bar here in Daytona is having a benefit for a lady who was in an accident. I offered to set up there and for every license plate I sell, I'm going to donate half the proceeds to the young lady. I figure it will help her, and help me get noticed.
> 
> Here's the realtor's plate:


 Beautiful work here.


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## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

Thank you, Dru. Much appreciated.

dan


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## Riderz Ready (Sep 18, 2008)

Realtors is a great market to explore. They all know each other and are constantly looking to promote and separate themselves from the stiff competition they face. In our early days we did custom door mats for them. For those doing the average home they would basically be like their business card. They were great when they were doing an open house or at the house they list. For higher end houses we did specific door mats for the property. Door mats print incredible - I could not find our old realty mats but here are a couple I did for my sister and for a BMX manufacture. It requires a wide format set up but check to see if Conde still carries them as they can also print them for you.


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## jemmyell (Jan 26, 2010)

Hi Dan,

Your work is really beautiful!

I am very interested in the equipment and techniques you use to get these spectacular results. Some questions for you:

What printer and inks are you using?

What software do you use to print?

What paper do you print on?

Color management?

-James


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## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

jemmyell said:


> Hi Dan,
> 
> Your work is really beautiful!
> 
> ...


 
First, thank you very much, James. 

For printer and inks: Epson WF1100 with ink from Cobra Ink. I bought a set of refillable cartridges and extra ink.

Software is actually different programs. I shoot in RAW format so I use either Canon's DPP or Lightroom to make some adjustments and convert to a PSD file. From there to Photoshop CS5 for final edit and composition.

Paper is the Dyetrans Multipurpose.

I use the ICC profiles from Cobra Inks and turn off color management on printer. 

I really appreciate the compliment, but I'm really new at this. (dyesub) The only thing I might suggest is taking time with your photos. A little levels and curves adjustment can go a long way.

dan


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## jemmyell (Jan 26, 2010)

Hi Dan,

Thank YOU for this information. I have EXACTLY the same equipment as you except my Canon cameras and lenses are consumer (Digital Rebel - No L glass ).

Anyways, we have NOT been able to get the Cobra profile to work for us. Our last test (From photoshop CS on Windows XP) produced a dark GREEN instead of black.

Are you on Windows 7 or XP (Mac???). The color management is pretty different on those platforms.

Would it be possible to tell me the workflow and settings for printing from Photoshop? We have CS, CS3 and CS5. Screencaps would be REALLY great.

Thanks in Advance,

-James


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## bweavernh (Jun 26, 2008)

DaytonaDan said:


> Thank you. I did - Pepsi - C&S 18 years. But you can have one for me.
> 
> dan


Congratulations on your first sale and the 18 years of success in your other venture.


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## DaytonaDan (Jul 12, 2011)

jemmyell said:


> Hi Dan,
> 
> Thank YOU for this information. I have EXACTLY the same equipment as you except my Canon cameras and lenses are consumer (Digital Rebel - No L glass ).
> 
> ...


Unfortunately, I've had to sell my "L" glass. I had the 100-400L, 70-200L, and a 24-70L. Anyway . . .

Here's a screenshot of my color settings. PS-CS5, Win 7, and I'm on a Dell Inspiron laptop. I'm not sure it's set up right and looking at it, I should probably change the "desaturate monitor colors by" to zero.

As for the ICC profiles. I'm printing tags, so that's the one I use. Attached should be print settings in Photoshop. (First time using attachment manager)

Be sure to turn off printer color management. Richard has a video showing how he has his set up, and mine is pretty much the same.


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## jemmyell (Jan 26, 2010)

Hi Dan,

Thank you!

This all seems to be what I have done already. Richard thinks there is a chance that my inks in the print head cartridges are contaminated. He specifies that none of his preinstalled printers are to ever be on an airplane but he says that those instructions are not always followed. The low barometric pressure can cause the wrong inks to be 'sucked' into the wrong places. He will walk me and my daughter through a diagnosis tomorrow.

Thanks for all you help.

P.S. my best lenses are my Canon 50MM (fixed), 85MM (Fixed) and a Sigma 30MM (Fixed). I have to 'zoom with my feet' but that's life.

Do you ever do any HDR? The auto-bracketing was the reason I chose Canon over Nikon when I wanted to upgrade from my Olympus E-20.

-James


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