Gerald Wiens turns hobby into lucrative business
Gerald Wiens of Marion is a wildlife biologist, a home builder, and does remodeling and repair work.
He also is a photographer of wildlife. Using slide film, he takes pictures, then develops them into prints and reprints for sale.
He currently uses a 35mm Nikon camera. He said he likes the camera because he can put a manual focus lens on it if he so desires.
Wiens estimates he has about 50,000 slides, all categorized and labeled. He said the pictures he sells at art shows generally are the kind people like to hang on their walls, but occasionally someone wants something less popular, like a reptile or some other such creature. He often can find what they want among his collection.
Wiens has a master's degree in fisheries and wildlife biology from Emporia State University.
He enjoyed photography in 4-H as a youngster and took a photography class in college, but his real venture into the world of picture-taking began when he became a wildlife biologist at Chaplin Nature Center west of Arkansas City.
Part of his job at the nature center was to present slide shows of wildlife.
In the early 1980s, he submitted an opossum picture for a Wildlife Federation photography contest and won first prize. He said people began asking for reprints.
Then he began participating in art shows, making his reprints available to the public.
Since 1997, he has been self-employed and has begun to sell at more arts and crafts fairs.
He is participating in eight or nine relatively large art fairs this year including shows at the Wichita River Festival, Bartlesville, Okla., Overland Park, Omaha, Neb., and St. Joseph, Mo.
Most of his reprints are sold as matted pictures. They range in size from 5x7s (matted to 8x10s) to 20x30 inches.
Wiens estimates that he has enlarged and sold somewhere from 200 to 300 images. Most are of wildlife from the Midwest.
Every two or three years Wiens travels to Yellowstone National Park to find new subjects for his photographs.
He hopes to expand his sales territory to the west and northwest.
Wiens said he doesn't consider his photography a hobby.
"It's a business and it's fairly expensive," he said, noting the high cost of camera equipment and film.
Selling his work for a profit allows him to be able to deduct expenses from his income. He said he has to show a profit at least two out of every four or five years to maintain it as a business.
He said sales at art shows cover his costs and allow him to travel on picture-taking trips.
There is a very competitive market for wildlife photographs, Wiens said. Some of his photos are displayed at Dillon Nature Center in Hutchinson and Great Plains Nature Center in Wichita. Some find their way into wildlife magazines, calendars, and books.
In 1991, the hardcover book Kansas Wildlife was published. The pictorial contains numerous photos by Wiens.
To see his work firsthand, stop by his booth Sept. 21 at Art in the Park in Marion.
