We were lucky to catch up with Ken Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.
Ken, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?
I believe that Covid got the blame for many things and in many ways received a bad rap. Being a fine art photographer, I traversed the nation attending about 25 fine art festivals while accumulating between 40-45 thousand miles on my Sprinter Van.
When Covid essentially shut down the nation back in 2020, my only source of income vanished before my eyes. I knew I had to come up with something and had to do it quickly.
The first thing I did was revamped my website. I went with an industry leader who built websites for photographers and painters. This fresh new look enabled me to keep my presence in front of my already developed customer email list that I grew from art festivals.
The second thing I did was look at options besides my website that enabled me to sell my work on line. I found several platforms that gave me just the right exposure with a customer base that I was able to tap in to.
The third thing I did was hire a marketing firm through our website designer who specialized in social media marketing. This allowed me to grow my current email list and bring in new prospects for me to convert to customers.
The final thing I did was build my YouTube channel. Ironically, it has nothing to do with fine art photography, but rather a shared interest in an era that I love, cars from the 20’s and 30’s. This allowed me to reach a new audience while creating yet another source of revenue.
The end result was a paradigm shift from traveling all over the country, to now working from home. This allowed me more time with my family, and the freedom to photograph or now create videos without having to manage time for that in-between traveling and attending art festivals.
Ken, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My start as a photographer was anything but conventional. It was actually the result of a passion for model railroading and a love of steam trains. I came across an article written by the late John Allen for Model Railroader who incorporated his professional photographic skills into creating diorama scenes for advertisement photos for model railroad manufactures. John was so infatuated with creating realistic scenes for these ads that he soon ingulfed himself into building a realistic railroad empire. I wanted to do the same.
I also lived in the Chicago area and was around trains as the city was a major hub for all points. I began building my little empire while photographing the real trains. The first photo I sold was an abandoned train station once operated by the Norfolk & Western which has since been demolished.
Off and on for the next 30 years, I developed my eye and expanded my horizons as I began photographing landscapes. A move to Colorado, in the early 1990’s put me in the nucleolus of some of the greatest areas to capture the beauty of the west. It also provided me the opportunity to still photograph several steam excursion trains in operation. I had the best of both worlds within the palm of my hand.
In the early 2000’s I was writing and photographing for Model Railroad Magazine as well as attending small train shows selling my photographs. This continued until I left cooperate America altogether in 2012 and began selling my work full time. Without the support of my wife, I never would have been able to pursue this new and exciting chapter in my life.
Today, I have a successful on line Fine Art Gallery that specializes in landscapes, and Americana images, as well as a YouTube channel that provides historical information with an emphasis on Fords from the 1920’s and 1930’s. It has truly been a blessing for me and my family.
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
Selling my photography started out as a side hustle. I was working for corporate America full time. I guess you could say, I was trapped. I had a solid career and was miserable. When my youngest daughter was born, I developed a line of photographic CD’s that were geared towards model railroaders. I essentially photographed detailed parts of steam and diesel locomotives, caboose and freight cars, vintage passenger cars, stations, houses, all on specific CD volumes. There was nothing at the time like this that was available to model builders. Ebay was the platform I used to launce this product and became an overnight success.
That allowed me to expand my camera gear and to invest in the displays and equipment needed to begin doing local art shows. over the next several years, that conti9nued to grow until on August 12, 2012 the ambilocal cord was severed, and I began the life of a full time artist.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
I was not at all savvy in social media. In fact, I dislike most platforms and honestly feel that it does more harm than good. However, like it or not, it is here to stay.
in 2020, I knew I had to do something with social media or there was a good chance I would be left behind. I fired a marketing guru, that knew how to build an email list from Facebook and he delivered! I used him for most of 2021 until my website builder began offering a service that not only included what he was doing, but also provided weekly email marketing.
That switch in 2022, allowed me freedom to do two things. First, I was free to begin photographing without the pressure of having to do that in-between art shows.
Second, I was able to begin focusing on a second revenue stream, my YouTube channel. This has been new seas that I have ventured into, but it has been loads of fun sailing these new seas.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kensmithgallery.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kensmithphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kensmithphoto
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kensmithgallery4432
Image Credits
Ken Smith