I was happily processing my images from a recent trip to Athens when I came across this one: This was taken in the area between the Plaka district and the Acropolis in a lovely neighborhood called Anafiotika. Tiny paths separate the colorful (although a bit worn) houses and the ancient Acropolis overshadows it all. Something about this image attracted me – not just for stock, but perhaps for wall art as well. But all those cables and shadows of cables...
Late last year I did a lot of research into the pricing that some of the competition used on Fine Art America. That research seemed to suggest that I had been underpricing my work and so I changed all the prices and marked them up, especially for the larger print sizes. The theory was that those large prints were already expensive and so a few more dollars wouldn’t impact the buying decision. Well, that move was followed by what seemed...
I’m becoming more and more impressed with Society6 – I sold two items in March for $24.60. One of them is a digital painting of the skyline of San Diego printed on wood blocks. My profit was $18 on that one: Yes, the site is very manual in terms of how you can upload images and apply them to products, which I have written about before, but with only 32 assets on the site, the earnings have been great. The...
Following on from my previous post about total earnings from stock photography in March, this is the next layer of detail of what worked, and what didn’t. I’ll talk about video first – as I mentioned, this was a great month for video with total sales over $500. In fact, it was actually better than that! Due to the way iStock reports earnings, I always include the money I get from them in the month as the earnings for that...
One of the mistakes we often make as stock photographers is to think that we know what the buyers want. Of course, we often do, and we see those sort of shots online each day, but a key message is to always be on the lookout for something unusual or different. If you can think of a use case for it, then take it to the best of your ability and get it online! I was reminded of this today...
I mentioned back in October that I had uploaded a few images to Society6. I only put 12 shots onto the site and then promptly forgot all about it and never heard any more from them. Then, out of the blue I got a payment from them for $5.70 so I thought I should check! So I was surprised when I visited my page to find that I had 3 sales – one paid and two pending for a total...
Update: I’ve updated this post with new information and some photo improvements. The new version of the 10 best photo opportunities on Kauai can be found here on BackyardImage.com I’m just back from a trip to Kauai (yes, again) and here are my top ten locations that you must visit and photograph if you are lucky enough to visit the island. Think of it as my top 10 instagrammable spots on an island full of them! Kauai is the oldest...
I create quite a few stock photos and videos in what I laughingly call my home studio, but what does that entail? Do you need a lot of gear to make excellent images and videos? I think the answer is no! Basically, I have a room (at the top of the house which keeps me in shape) that is my computer room, TV room and studio. I’ve moved recently to a stand up desk arrangement with my two monitors and...
Way back in 2015 I did some research on the pricing of images that had sold on Fine Art America. I’ve stuck with that pricing ever since and I have had sales as I report here, but am I leaving money on the table? So I decided to repeat my research and see how pricing of a representative sample of images that had sold this week on FineArtAmerica had changed. What I found was intriguing!
I’m still working through my images from China, but recently put together this high resolution panorama (10,500 pixels) of the skyline of Shanghai as the sun started to set. Nice photo, but definitely editorial as all the buildings have various sorts of signs on them and it was too much work to remove them. So being in a playful mood I decided to try a painting instead and used the Jixipix Watercolor Studio plugin for Photoshop to create a more...
