by Chris Page
If you are brave sole and willing to step into the Dark Woods then NFT Photography is an interesting place to explore. However, keep on guard for Hobgoblins who are out to steal your stock, they seem to be hiding behind every tree on the trail.
This is my account of my first journey into NFT’s, its not a guide to NFT’s as there is plenty of other out there that explains all the nuts & bolts, such as; https://opensea.io/learn/nft
Over the past few years I had noticed a growing number of messages left on my Facebook & Instagram pages from unknown people asking if my photographs were available to purchase as NFT’s. Not knowing anything about NFT’s I said no, but was intrigued as to what this was all about. I did a bit of digging but was none the wiser, that was until I found a photographer on Youtube that had an Idiots guide to the black arts of NFT’s. Looking back he made it all sound really simple and streight forward, however his enthusiasm in the subject prompted me to venture forth.
Eventually in February 2024 I decided to dip a toe into this world to see for myself what it was all about. It’s a world with a language all of its own that takes time to understand, and a lot of research is needed to navigate your way into it. It’s the world of Cryptocurrency, something that I had never considered dabbling in before, but there is a first time for everything, so I began to step over the line.
There was firstly a few things that I need to do to get going;
1 - Platform; a place to display and trade your NFT Photography collection. The one that seemed to be a good platform to start with for me was OPENSEA, so I created an account with them.
2 - Crypto Wallet; this is a diffrent platform/account where your money is held and you can convert your £ into a Cryptocurrency. I ended up using COINBASE; this was then interlinked to OPENSEA so that the two accounts could communicated between each other.
3 - Money; none of this is free and there are fees to pay all along the way. So you need to have a pot of cash in your Crypto Wallet. I eventually exchanged £200 into Ethereum currency to get me going. You have to be prepared to loose this!
4 - Images; you need to decide what photographs you are willing to trade and in what form they are being offered to buyer. I went with five images I had created in my Wistman’s Wood collection and to have these available as TIF Files. I prepared the set of five with the Metadata showing that these are NFT Versions.
With all the above in place I was ready to get going, however there was many delays and hurdles still to come. As a first timer I was surprised how clunky the process was, not a smooth ride at all. Firstly, once I deposit my money into the Wallet I had to wait seven days until I could convert these to Ethereum’s to pay the OPENSEA fees. When finally clear and transferred £50 worth of the cryptocurrency into my OPENSEA account I found out the fee had gone up and this was not enough, so had to deposit more funds and wait another seven days.
The reason I eventually worked out was that the OPENSEA fees are in Ethereum currency and these fluctuates in value all time; so fees one hour are the equivalent to £40 and the next hour they are £60, wait a bit then they are £50 - its a movable feast!
After about three weeks of messing about with cryptocurrency exchanges and transfers I eventually managed to pay the fees that enabled me to create a Account [ https://opensea.io/OPENPHOTO-NFT ] and a NFT Collection [ https://opensea.io/collection/chris-page-nft-collection ]. Believe me there was a number of times I was ready to walk away from it all, but held on despite the frustration.
The frustration continued…….When creating the individual photo NFT’s in the Collection I found that there was an upload limit that would not allow me to use the 307.8 MB TIF Files that I had prepared for sale. I was going to just use a smaller JPG image for upload on to OPENSEA and then create a download link from my website so that buyers could receive the TIF File. So I generated a new NFT veiwing page on my website which had a protected download link to each of the photographs. The idea being that once sold a buyer would receive the passcode to download the purchased photo TIF File. I don’t know if this is an acceptable way of trading but that is what I have done to get things underway, I may have to change this at a later date. This is my website NFT link [ https://www.openphoto-studio.com/nft-collections ].
In creating the collection you have to set a price (ethereum) for the photo NFT’s, which buyers can buy outright or make offer on. I was not going to start with a low price, best to start out high and negotiate down if need be. So I set 1 ETH for each photo NFT ( current value $3,543.98 ). Also you can set a resale commission back to the creator if the purchaser sell it on. I have set this at 10% every time it is sold on. Again I don’t know if I have created a competitive deal here or not, but can always change this at a later date if need be.
So finally everything live and up and running. Now What? You need to tell the World !
I created some posts on my Facebook & Instagram pages that these NFT’s are now available. Low and behold I am now getting messages from unknown people again saying they want to buy my NFT’s. I tell them that they can only purchase them from OPENSEA, no no no they don’t want that, they want to buy direct and sent me the money NOW, just open a transfer link and fill-in your wallet details. Was I born yesterday! You can spot these scammers a mile away, they send the same kind of message every time, they go something like this;
"I Love your artworks it's outstanding and fantastic do you have any outgoing sales? Your art are really attractive to me and would love to purchase some as NFT send me a Dm so we can negotiate".
This is a potential scammer that try to make contact through messages or DMs on social media platforms, privately or publicly. Recently, more phishing attempts have occurred through social media DMs using fake accounts from those pretending to be interested buyers. From there, they may try to get the target to share sensitive information, send ETH, or email information to a malicious email address. To stay protected check out: https://opensea.io/learn/web3/how-to-stay-protected-in-web3
So here I am, do I think NFT’s are going to work for me?…………only time will tell, it’s a new world which I am prepared to stand on the edge to see how it evolves. I have spent time and a couple hundred quid to venture into the Dark Woods to see if there are any genuine buyers in there, rather than all those nasty Hobgoblins lurking around on social media out to scam you.
To find out more about "Wistman's Wood" and the Photographic Art of Chris Page visit www.openphoto-studio.com
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