We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Betsy Botsford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Betsy , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

Landscape photography is hard. There is nothing else to say except it is very hard. There are so many factors that make it so challenging.

The quality of an image is heavily dependent upon weather, and not good weather by the way. The stormier the better for an image that “beats the competition.” That being said it can’t be so stormy you can’t withstand the wind, the rain, the hail, the cold. Mother Nature is a dangerous woman when she’s storming.

And now everyone has a camera in the palm of their hand. An iPhone can take spectacular pictures. And everyone has that capability now with a phone in their pocket. Scrolling on social media exposes us to countless images everyday. The sheer number of images we are exposed to has a numbing effect making it difficult to actually sell the images.

Many photographers create “light” in Photoshop so that an ordinary image becomes extraordinary with some tinkering. The arrival of Ai has is changing the creation of images so that a phantasmic image can be created without ever experiencing the wild places. Not every day is a wild light situation. Many days are drab with the sunset fading without any explosion of color. This can be a major challenge in the creation of images.

And if you can compete with all that, there is an aspect of human connection that has to be addressed. To be profitable in this industry you have to connect with people and people have to connect to your images. I may create the most dynamically beautiful image in Glacier National Park, but if the buyer doesn’t connect to Glacier National Park on some level that image won’t sell. Art is a business of connections; real human connections, and that cannot be faked. Finding the audience to connect with you as an artist and your images is a huge uphill climb.

I feel so lucky to have built the audience I have. It is still a growing process but I have a wonderfully active audience on Facebook. I have an engaged email list. And I have a little bit of a fan base here in my home state of Colorado that holds my heart. I am so grateful to have found these people who support me and are helping me grow Point of Light Photo.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always been drawn to photography. I love the creation of images. I love the power of photography to capture a moment in time that can be relived over and over. I love how photography allows our memories to deepen and our appreciation of that moment can expand through the viewing of an image.

I began photography as a documentary means of saving experiences. I worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a Fire Lookout. I was exposed to beautiful mountain sunrises and sunsets while in my fire tower. I was lucky enough to watch thunderstorms form from the heat from the desert floor of Arizona and roll over the high mountain peak my tower lived on. I sat in my fire tower and often had the thunder and lightning right at my doorstep at 10,000 ft. I saw waterfalls flowing in foggy canyons and the brilliance of the wildflower blooms. I wanted to take those experiences with me. I wanted to share them with everyone I knew so they could experience it too. My camera allowed me to do that.

As I shared these images. many people gave such high praise, eventually leading to a request from friends to make a calendar featuring my images. The response was overwhelming. I had no idea how many people would engage and purchase this calendar. I didn’t really know what to do with the money but I knew I wanted to do something good with it rather than just pocket the cash. Profits from the sale of that first calendar were donated to the Las Vegas Mission, an organization helping the homeless in Nevada. A second calendar was created the next year with an even stronger response. Again I just wanted to do some good with the money. That year profits were donated to Save the Children Foundation and Best Friends Animal Shelter.

Point of Light Photo was formed shortly after that second year as a more formal approach to share my photography. The idea for my business was inspired by the “Thousand Points of Light Initiative,” I wanted to use my photography to become a beacon of light in a hard, dark world. Point of Light Photo aspires to be one of those Thousand Points of Light by donating profit from the sale of my photography to local and national organizations involved in providing aide to organizations involved in housing the homeless as well as animal rescue and shelter organizations.

Each year we have grown and our donations become more substantial. I could not do what I do without all the support I get from my audience and my followers. I hope this continues to grow and Point of Light Photo can be a substantial force of good in the world.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

As I said earlier I have a kind, dedicated and engaged social following on Facebook. I have many followers that have told me they look forward to my posts daily. I try my best to post daily and give the stories behind my work, I try to share a little of what I love about an image. I try to remember the kind comments and remember the people who comment regularly. I remember that these are real people on the other side of the digital screen. These are my people. These are people who connect with my art. I should treat them as such. The internet can either be a place where we disconnect or it can be a place where we reach out to connect to others. I choose to connect. If you’ve found me and my work online I want to know you. I think that is what comes across through my social media. I think that is what keeps my audience engaged. I regularly invite my audience to join my email list. The people who really do want to know more will take that extra step and subscribe. I try to email at least once a week with more stories behind the art, stories about the images and the experiences I had while taking the pictures. I usually share behind the scenes videos as well. I am moving more towards limited editions of my work. My email list will be the first to know about new work and have first dibs at purchasing the limited edition images. When I am at a local show I make sure to collect email addresses and hand out business cards like candy. I think just being a real person and sharing who I am through all these avenues has allowed me to grow and keep growing.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I am currently in the middle of a pivot. As I said before the business of landscape photography is a very hard business. There has to be some way that I separate myself from the masses. What I have found is that finding a niche is important. I have found that having a unique style is necessary. And that the old adage “build it and they will come” is not true when building a website and an e-commerce art business.

Just because you have built the website does not mean they will come. You must market the work, you must let people know you, you must let people see you have a product. Your work must not just be another pretty image in the feed. The internet is a hard, lonely place. As I said before I choose to connect. I want people to know both me and my work in a very real and human way. I am currently moving away from an e-commerce website moving towards producing limited edition prints and spending my energies on local art markets and local art buyers.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.pointoflightphoto.com
• Instagram: @pointoflightphoto_
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063487361741
• Youtube: @betsybotsford9719