Backyard Silver Latest Posts

Which Stock Agencies do I support?

As I was gathering my earnings for the month of October from the various sites, I got to thinking about which agencies I still upload images to, and why? I have tried various sites in the past, and have never actually deleted images from an agency, but for some, I just stopped uploading new images. I thought is would be interesting to put that in a table so that you can see how many images I have with each site,...

Equatorial Guinea – stock photos off the beaten track

I’ve not been posting in the past couple of weeks as a result of a trip to Equatorial Guinea in Africa. In most people’s mind, a visit, at this time of Ebola scares, to West Africa is probably very low on the priority list, but I found it to be a fascinating location with a chance to photograph things that are not present in very many stock agencies. I’ve not decided what to do with my images from this trip...

Image Brief – Second Award

I mentioned Image Brief before as a great source for ideas for future stock shoots, but it is also a potential revenue stream if you are lucky enough to win one of their briefs.  You can sign up here if you are interested in joining them. They will check your portfolio so make sure you have a representative set of images available that shows both the quality and range of images you can take. I’ve just been awarded my second...

Nature Visions Photography Expo – November 14 – 16th

If you are anywhere near Washington DC, don’t forget that Nature Visions Photo Expo is on again this year between November 14 – 16th. We have some great speakers – Rick Sammon, Julianne Kost, Ian Plant, Jay Patel, Deborah Sandidge and a great photo exhibit as well. I organized the speakers this year so please come along and see what we have in store for you!

Fine Art America still good for me

I’ve had two sales on Fine Art America in the past month or so. The first one was a framed print of fireworks over Washington DC. This sold with a profit to me of $51.70 in late September. This was followed up in October with a very large print (just a rolled paper print) of a stitched panorama I took of Santa Monica Beach in California. This print measured a cool five feet long – 60″ x 13″. My profit...

Sales in September 2014

As usual, I’ve been a bit slow in posting – this time because of a 3 week trip to Europe including a cruise down the Danube (photos still in development…). As a result, I have only just updated my records of sales for last month. As it turned out, the month of September was OK – again, not great, but I ended the month with $2300. I’m sure a lot of you will think that “if, only…”, but I’ve noticed...

Work those images….

I mentioned, a few posts back, that I look at the Image Brief site regularly, both to see if I can submit an image for a request, or just to get some idea for another shoot. Earlier this week was a request for outdoors adventure type images, but they were looking for landscape format. I immediately thought of this shot: BUT – the shot is clearly vertical and can’t be cropped into a horizontal format, and I don’t have a...

How much effort does stock photography take?

One thing that beginners don’t appreciate is how much work goes into stock photography. If you track your earnings per hour, it can sometimes look pretty depressing unless you are taking the photos because it is also something you enjoy doing. As a practical example of what I mean, I recently went on a short trip to Colorado to see some friends and, or course, take some photos, including the climbing ones I blogged about last week. Total time in...

Rock Climbing in Colorado

Well, to be more accurate, taking photographs of rock climbers in Colorado… I spent the past week in the mountains of Colorado near Buena Vista both taking in the sights and getting some climbing images (with model releases) for my stock portfolio. I was also trying out my new Canon 16-35mm F4 L lens – the one with image stabilization. I have to put my earnings to something, and I was really impressed with the reviews of this lens and...

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