I promised to split the normal earnings post this month and concentrate on some better earners in this second article. As I was thinking about it, I began to think about what makes for a good stock portfolio. As I cover in my video talk, I see stock photos as falling into three categories – People, Places and Things. I don’t tend to do many People shots even though I think those are probably the most popular images on the...
Yesterday I wrote about my Memorial Plaque from 1918 and how it was unlikely to be covered by copyright. I was basing this on a table on the Cornell University website that says that works published before 1923 in the USA are in the public domain. However, I made a simple but stupid error here – this medal wasn’t published in the USA. It was first used in the UK and so copyright law in that country applies. Copyright in...
After posting my results for August, I had three good questions posted in the comments section: “I have 2 questions could you help to share your thought? – Do you think spreading photos on wide spectrum of agencies is slowing down your sale on Shutter, or it’s just the nature of summertime? – How about your sales on Deposit photo, is this a right vehicle to park your photos?” “From your experience, is it ok to sell an image as...
Another day another dollar as an old American song goes! August may be a slow time of the year with vacations and holidays, but the stock world keeps on turning. I’m going to split the post this month and talk about earnings today and then come back on some of the notable sales – ie those images that earned more than $10, of which there were 14 in the month. As it turned out, August continued my record breaking run...
Looks like this is going to be a good month – at least on the print on demand sites. After my sale of a print of Hanalei Pier in Kauai last week, I received another notification yesterday for a second sale! This one was for a stitched panorama of the town of Avalon on the little island of Catalina off the coast of California. I always liked the image – with a nice contrast between the lights and the sunset...
After a long, long drought, I got an email last night about a new sale on Fine Art America, and what a sale! But before I go onto that, I rethought my plan on charging for the video I created of my Master Class in Stock Photography. It is now “Pay what you want”. I do recognize there is a conflict between me talking about big earnings on the one hand and asking people with much lower earnings to pay...
Earlier this week, I gave a talk to the Winchester Photographic Society on Stock Photography. Originally planned for 40 minutes, the depth of interest as shown by the questions asked throughout the session made it overrun to almost 60 minutes! Through the course of 70 slides, I explain what stock photography is all about, what the legal issues are, in particular with regard to releases and the appropriate marking of images as commercial or editorial, what you can earn, what...
One of the things I don’t like about the Sony (perhaps the only thing?) is that it seems to attract dust on the sensor. I try very hard to avoid dust – putting the lenses face down on a hard surface and keeping the camera body facing down as I unscrew one lens and move across to the new one – but somehow dust just gets on that sensor! Dust is more visible when you have stopped down to a...
Ever wished for the chance to see me speak about stock photography? No, well move onto the next post! I’m giving a talk to the Shenandoah Photographic Society in Winchester, Virginia, on Monday 20th August. I know that will be out of reach for almost all my readers, but if you happen to be in the area, feel free to come along and listen! It will be at Bethel Lutheran Church, 2077 North Frederick Pike, Winchester, Virginia at 7pm. Everyone is...
I’ve entered the Dreamstime Blog Contest on Locations with an entry that hopefully gives some ideas about how to be a success at travel stock photography. If you are a Dreamstime member (either as a buyer or contributor) you can vote on the entries to determine who wins their prize! You can find my blog post here, and you vote on it by clicking on the “Useful” tag under my name: You don’t see this box unless you are logged...
