I tend to be a photographer who learns by seeing a neat idea, researches how to do it, and then incorporates that technique into my workflow. I’m not good a watching online videos, and have never been on a training course. So, what I am doing spending $695 on a two day creative photography workshop with Bryan Peterson? I saw Bryan speak at last years Nature Visions Expo in Northern Virginia and really enjoyed the day. He is full of...
A recent reader of my eBook, Getting Started in Stock emailed me recently to ask if it was too late to make a start now with Stock Photography. If you read the microstock forums (and sometimes that is interesting but be aware of a lot of angry and negative people on some of the forums), you will often see references to the good old days in the mid 2000’s when it was easy to get images online and they sold...
We are always looking for something to move our images out of the ordinary to really capture the interest of the buyer (and hopefully the general public) to our stock photo images. Building up expertise in exposure, composition and processing in Lightroom (or Photoshop) helps tremendously, but what tools can give our photographs the edge? I’ve been experimenting with the Singh-Ray Gold-n-Blue polarizing filter which can make some spectacular changes to the scene in front of you – the sort...
I miss being able to present the complex graphs I used to do, but the edict from Shutterstock that you should not provide detailed information on your earnings has put a damper on that for me. I think the line they are taking is not necessary (I’m sure it is to do with analysts trying to estimate their earnings), but they are the ones with the power and I can’t afford to annoy them! Anyway, my Shutterstock earnings are continuing...
Sometimes, on a dark winters night, it is fun to just see what can be created from little bits of photos that are already sitting on your hard drive. Here is one such effort, that I think nicely illustrates the concept of “being adrift” and can be used as a stock image for many leadership (or lack of) illustrations. This could have been a beautifully seen shot with a boat floating on a calm sea, or it could have started...
The Symbiostock network has reached a new milestone – 250,000 images now available to license directly from the artist in a simple straightforward process! My own efforts are slowly paying off as well – since I started my own stock photo agency, BackyardStockPhotos.com, I have now sold 12 images for a total of $120. Things appear to be picking up a bit with two full size sales in March for $20 each. This month I’ve sold the following: It is...
I’ve decided to write a fuller post on my experiences on Fine Art America as I’ve been increasingly impressed with the sales coming from the site and thought some of my landscape/fine art readers may like to know more about this site and the opportunities for selling non-stock images. Fine Art America is a combination of a social site for photographers and a print on demand site for connoisseurs of good art! There are millions of images from abstract painting...
I wrote about the electronic magazine Photographing Food a couple of months back – although they are quite expensive at $5 per issue, I enjoyed them coming along at intervals as you could read, absorb and practice each technique as they were published. It was quite rightly pointed out that you could buy a full book about photographing food for less than the price of all the back-issues. However, I still found them useful and entertaining (and gave me some...
I spend a lot of time on Stock Photography, looking for images that may meet a particular commercial need, but what about Fine Art Photography – does that get a look-in? My local camera club is part of a group of Northern Virginia clubs that organize a large Nature Photography Expo each November. We get some great speakers – this year the lead is Bryan Peterson, have multiple workshops and then host a competition for the best nature images from...
As I mentioned before, I uploaded about 500 of my images to Fine Art America. This is a site that provides a way for the general public to find your art and have it printed (and framed) for their home. I was slightly worried that people could easily copy some of my best stock work (at least for website use), and so I have removed some of the obvious stocky isolated shots from the site. September brought me two great...
