Premium – ideas for September 2021

This is going to be an article about things that I should have done, rather than images that I have actually taken! I’ve been in a somewhat lazy mood and while I keep thinking of concepts that could be created, I’ve not actually got up the enthusiasm to actually do them. And its not that sales generally have been poor – I’ve had some good high value sales this month. Just one of those things! So I’m afraid this post is text heavy.

So what would I be taking photos of, and what do I think could make money?

The first one, and I can kick myself for not spotting this earlier, is the Ivermectin controversy that is raging in the USA and perhaps other countries. There is one study that shows that high concentrations of this drug can kill the coronavirus and so this product (which is normally used to kill worms in horses and dogs and so can be bought in animal feed shops) is now being consumed by humans to stop the virus. It is available for people, but I guess you need a prescription for that. Anyway, it is the regular subject of articles both for and against its use and it is exactly the sort of discussion that needs a simple image of the product, or someone holding tablets in their hand with the product behind them etc. I can buy it at some cost on Amazon and I am sure I could find it in an animal store, but just haven’t got round to it. So here is your chance to get ahead of me!

The next one I am actually waiting to buy. I have made some good money with Impossible Foods burgers and meat and they are launching chicken nuggets later this month in a range of US supermarkets. Not sure about its availability internationally. So I’m planning to buy that when it arrives and photograph in all stages from the box to actually cooking and eating the nuggets. These ones are easy to do and I think it will be in the news if it sells well.

Back to the virus – there is increasing focus on at-home testing and the latest mandate from the US government is for vaccination or weekly testing. The tests are also going to be sold for 3 months at cost. So I plan to buy a couple of the main tests and photograph them both in boxes and also in use. I keep myself pretty safe, but having a test in the house might not be a bad thing! And you can photograph it in many different ways – the actual test, the swabbing up the nose, the testing process and the results.

The USA again is in the middle of another controversy – the question of vaccine mandates. The actual truth is slightly different, the mandate is just for government employees to be vaccinated and the rest of the working population (in companies over 100 people) to be vaccinated or have weekly tests. This one will run and run as they used to say and it also is the sort of thing that can be illustrated as concepts such as “no vaccine” signs and things like that, or signs for weekly tests. Again, I haven’t done anything on this yet, but there is an opportunity there for something that will be discussed a lot, but doesn’t lend itself to live photos and videos in the news.

Finally, vaccines for children will be a big topic around the virus. Maybe too late for many new images, but if you have a set of syringes and a child you could practice some new images (safely of course!)

Next up is a much more conceptual thing – the Metaverse. I’m reading a detailed report on that from a company that focuses on looking at new trends and what they mean. You can download it yourself here.

The metaverse is going to be a major change to many lives – it essentially is an open source (not owned by any one company) virtual world that you can go to online to meet your friends, socialize, buy virtual goods, like clothes for your “person” online, buy the same things for your real life and so on. The idea is that it remembers what you did last time, so each time it is like re-entering a room and continuing what you were doing. Sounds scary and it doesn’t exist yet ( although some online games are getting quite close) and the big companies such as Facebook, Microsoft, Google etc. are investing heavily in making it work. You will need 3D virtual reality headset and probably ways for the system to track your movements to translate them into the virtual world, but it is thought that increasingly this will take the place of TV, browsing the internet, watching movies and so on. Anyway, there is so much money pouring into it that something will happen. So I think more and more articles will be written about it, and demonstration or concept images will be in demand. I was thinking of an elderly couple sitting at home and each watching through headsets rather than watching a TV, or instead of chatting with each other. You could look at all those cheesy couple images online and envisage them with 3D headsets instead. Holding hands while watching something online – that sort of thing. I’m sure there will be lots of online sex on a virtual world, but not sure I want to go there!

So that will test your imagination and perhaps get there before there are too many other images. There are maybe 150 images on Shutterstock against this one keyword – and many are illustrations. Time to buy a 3D headset I think!

Sticking with technology, there is an increasing focus on getting rid of passwords for websites, accounts and so on. Microsoft has just given you a way to use authentication apps or just your face to open up their software and I think many others will follow. I have an Authy app on my watch that gives me access to Adobe Stock for instance rather than get a text for authentication. So no more remembering lots of passwords and just an App instead. You could imagine lots of yellow sticky notes with passwords on them being replaced – something like that.

A bit of a strange one – Cottagecore, ruralcore, cluttercore… The first is a new trend among the young to dress and decorate in an idealized rural environment. There are 28 pages on Shutterstock, which is not much, and so I think it could be a neat keyword to add to some of your idyllic rural images. So a small cottage covered in roses could have the keyword Cottagecore. Not much work, and it could get you additional sales for existing images. I would only do it on Shutterstock and Adobe – too much trouble to do it on lots of sites.

Well, that is it for now – I’ll write more as I think of new concepts and will try to actually take some images for the next update!