People are mad.  People are disgusted.  Politics have always been a dirty business, but this is different.  People are fed up with what is going on in the government.  There are incumbents trying to stay in their positions of power.  There are massively unpopular policies.  There are revelations about massive government salaries, pensions, and kickbacks.  The negative campaigns are filled with smear tactics that ruin the reputations of good people trying to do the right thing.  Most of all – there is waste.

My tax dollars (and I pay a lot of taxes) are being used to fund programs and policies that I don’t agree with and our leaders don’t seem to care.  The spending is out of control!

The Tea Party movement is gaining continuous momentum because there are a lot of people that feel the same way I do – disgusted with the partisan politics – voting straight party lines – refusing to balance the budget – taking more and more and more of my money in the form of taxes and fees.  Just stop!  Do the right thing!  For crying out loud – stop the out of control spending!  We can’t afford it!

In the midst of all the madness, there is opportunity.

There are tons of people that feel the same way I do.  They write blogs.  They write articles.  They write for magazines.  They write books.  They even film commercials and documentaries.  And in all of these publication mediums they need pictures that back up what they are trying to say.  Some articles are positive; some are negative.  Some are critical of the current administration policies; some are supportive of those same policies.  Some believe that we need to raise taxes to earn more money to support the government programs; some believe that we should lower taxes to give people the chance to go out and create businesses and jobs to lower the unemployment rate.

Regardless of what political party you agree with, a stock photographers opportunity is to think of the writers and designers.  What do they need?  What are they thinking about?  What message are they trying to deliver and how can you shoot images that can be used to convey those messages.

Here are some stock photography shoot ideas:

• Smiling politicians
• Angry politicians
• Cheering crowds with flags
• Images to do with voting (vote buttons, vote signs, voters standing in line, ballot boxes, electronic vote displays, dangling chads (thank you to Florida for that idea), I voted stickers, vote republican signs, vote democrat signs, etc.)
• Things to do with the Tea Party (Kick the bum out signs, historical dress, etc.)
• Patriotism – flags, capital buildings, flag shirts, etc.
• Political parties (elephants, donkeys, etc.)
• and more – much, much more!

There are thousands of ideas. Think like a buyer and shoot what sells!

When I wrote this post, I searched istockphoto under the keywords “election” AND “politics” and there are 2,187 results.  In the first 100 results there is a good combination of both vector images and photographs, with the highest download a photograph of a paper with boxes on it with a closeup of red pencil and a checked box.  This image had been downloaded over 1,300 times.  The second highest downloaded image was a vector illustration of a vote button – red, white and blue with stars and stripes that had been downloaded over 1,300 times as well.

Check out istockphoto’s portfolio on “elections” AND “politics” to evaluate where you can add your own creative stock images to those already available.

Flickr image courtesy of Andrew McFarlane

The book Digital Stock Photography – How to Shoot and Sell is an excellent addition to a Stock Photographer’s library. I went to my local library and found that it wasn’t carried in the libraries collection, so I did an Inter-library loan (ILL) and within a couple of weeks, the book was sent to me from a library in Colorado.

The book is a comprehensive introduction to the world of Digital Stock Photography.

Contents:
1. The Business of Digital Stock
2. How to Shoot for Stock – Style and Concept
3. Equipment for Capturing and Scanning Images
4. Shooting What’s Needed
5. Twenty-five Stock Assignments you can Shoot
6. Preparing the Shoot
7. Editing and Post Production in the Digital Work Flow
8. Running a Stock Photography Business
9. Marketing your Stock
10. Finding a Stock Agency or Portal
11. Negotiating Prices
12. Copyright – What Do We Own
13. Model Releases and Business Forms
14. Appendix 1: Bibliography
15. Appendix 2: Organizations
16. Appendix 3: Workshops
17. Appendix 4: Promotions/Source Books
18. Appendix 5: Manufactures

The chapter on Style and Concept provided good thought provoking shoot concepts. How do you capture togetherness as a family in an image. How do you shoot stress? How do you shoot teamwork?

There was also a good section on shooting symbols and what things mean (i.e. the topic of cooperation could be represented by images of teams, a barn raising, shaking hands, etc.)

My favorite portion of the book was the 25 Stock Assignments I can shoot. Each assignment contains the category, purpose, and subject of the image. It contains variation and how to frame the shots, what models are needed, props, ethnicities, and location. Each shot includes what things to avoid and several general notes about each shoot.

As I looked through the assignments, there are good assignments that if shot completely would result in a solid selection of stock images that can make some money. Some of the general subjects include Elderly with technology, Families, and Health Care. All of these are great topics for stock downloads.

In the preparing the shoot section it talks about arranging for models, asking permission from businesses to shoot at a location, offering incentives to get permission for the shoot, creating a storyboard, working with a Production Coordinator, building a prop closet so you have the props you need for multiple shoots, even sending a thank you note to the models after the shoot.

The section on Releases and forms contains sample Model releases, Property Releases, Stock Picture Delivery Memo, Stock Shoot Estimate Worksheet, Stock Photography invoice, and a Stock Photo Request Form.

All in all this is a great book and highly recommended for those looking to get into the business of Stock Photography.

Lake Reflection in the Uintas - About 10 miles from the Trailhead

As an aspiring stock photographer, I am always looking for what to shoot that will sell well. What can I shoot that will make me the most money?

However, there is a huge difference between what I like to shoot and what sells well.

I love nature. I love the quiet solitude that exists in the mountains as you endure the chill in the air and the mosquitoes buzzing around your face. I love to have my fishing hook in the water while I sit and talk with my son about basketball, school, girls, and life in general. I love the stillness in the middle of the night and love to bury myself in my sleeping bag and have the frost on the top of my tent because it dropped below freezing outside. I like it because everything tastes better in the Mountains. Even Top Ramen tastes good when you are above 10,000 feet.

However, anyone can take a hike or drive to a lake and shoot a landscape shot that is beautiful. Even those long hikes out in the middle of nowhere to a lake that only a handful of people in the world have ever seen are only appreciated by a relatively small number of people. Even if you capture that amazing, once in a lifetime sunset where the sun is reflecting on a crystal clear lake don’t generally sell well in the market today. The market isn’t generally looking for sunsets. The market isn’t looking for images of flowers. The market isn’t looking for pictures of your pet dog or cat.

Instead, the market is looking for stock images that will reflect the image that they their companies are trying to portray. They want strength. They want stability. They want creativity. They want inspiration. They want power. They want professional.  They want growth.  They want diversity. They want to portray good health. They want to portray active lifestyles. They want to portray “green” and environmentally conscious behavior. Those are examples of what the market is looking for.

You should consider how companies are going to use the stock image.  They are going to put it on their website.  They are going to incorporate it into their advertising materials.  They are going to include it in their annual report. My Uintas Lake Reflection image is never going to make it into IBM’s Annual Report to their shareholders because there is no obvious connection to their annual results and the amazing scenery that I saw at 12,000 feet.

So how do I find out what is selling?  I look at the various stock photography websites.  Most of them have a link to their most popular files.

iStockphoto.com has a link to their Most popular stock images.  On this page you can view all their content including photographs, illustrations, flash, video, and audio files. You can sort it by what is most popular over the last 3 months, the last month, or the last week.  It is very interesting to see what sells the best on iStock.

Bigstockphoto has a similar popular stock images page.  You can also search the most popular files by category which is a nice feature if you specialize in a certain genre of photography.

It is also easy to identify some trends that will be coming up.  For example, most advertising for Christmas is completed and ready for the press sometime in the September/October timeframe.  So if you are going to take Christmas pictures, you need to have them completed and uploaded to your portfolio when the creative work is being done in the July/August timeframe.  Those December Christmas images that you shoot won’t get looked at until the next year, because the creative departments are already planning for their spring break sales events.  Similar lead times exist for other holidays as well.

Similar trends exist in other industries.  Have you ever gone to the Mall in February and they are displaying all of their swimsuits in all the stores?  February is the last month that I am thinking about buying swimsuits for me or my family, but if you wait until summer, that is when all the fall clothes are available.  Go figure…

These tools are just helpful to see what types of images are selling and are the most popular.  I do not advocate copying the style or ideas of other photographers, instead, evaluating other successful photographers content can help prime the pump and get the creative juices flowing on what you might shoot that will result in you making more money with stock photography.

Chime in and provide your input!

They have created a tool called ProStockMaster that automates the microstock submission process to the following micro stock and photo websites:

• Shutterstock
• iStockphoto
• Dreamstime
• 123RF
• Bigstockphoto
• Canstockphoto
• Fotila
• Luckyoliver
• Myspace
• Alamy

They recommend getting accounts with multiple vendors rather than going exclusive with just one to maximize your revenues as a stock photographer.

ProStockMaster manages the required metadata (title, description, keywords, etc.), and even provides suggestions to help with the keyword brainstorm process.

After completing the metadata for each image, you have the option to batch upload or to manually upload the images to the stock photography websites listed above.  After the upload process completes, ProStockMaster shows an upload statistics window with a short summary of the uploads to each stock photography website.  They track where each image was uploaded and the current status of each image on that site.  Typically you will have to finalize a submission by selecting image categories and adding appropriate model releases.  They are working on automating that process further for each supported stock agency.

This seems like a useful tool that can automate and streamline the stock photography submission process if you have accounts at multiple stock websites.

They have a free version of the software for you to try before you buy.  If you want to purchase the tool, the Pro version costs $89.99 with a $39.99 annual License Renewal.  They also have a Basic Version for $29.99 with no annual license renewal fee.

Anyone have any experience with this tool that they would be willing to share?

One of the methods that works for me is submitting images to an online micro stock agency, iStockPhoto.com.

My portfolio is featured at http://istockphoto.com/legacyimagesphotography.

The Internet has changed the world of stock photography. Twenty years ago, the typical way you became a stock photographer was to have a portfolio of thousands of slides (with releases) which enabled you to be signed at an agency like Getty Images or Corbus. Today, you could have a handful of images available and be a profitable stock photographer at a micro stock agency.

I joined iStock to get some of the images I had taken for fun – and that I thought were pretty good – off my hard drive and out of my slide collection and make them available to be purchased. The beautiful thing is there is a market (however small) for almost every type of image. It could be nature, food, landscape, flowers, even brick walls or wood floors. Obviously, some markets are much more lucrative than others and some markets are more popular than others.

Most magazines you look at will contain images that were probably purchased from a stock agency. This is also true for book covers, corporate brochures and reports, websites, even billboards.

Stock photography has changed the way I approach photography. The images I am shooting today are different than the images I used to shoot. I am constantly trying to maximize the potential revenue that I can make from each shoot. I think to myself, is there a market for this (besides adding to my portfolio or the model’s portfolio)? What are the most profitable types of images and markets for stock photography?

I am more conscious of image quality (lighting, focus, eliminating distracting elements, using depth of field and other techniques to center focus on the subject, eliminating artifacting in my post processing, etc.) I am also much more aware of copyright issues and obtaining model releases and property releases (i.e. you can shoot a model sitting on a statue in a park and publish it for sale if you get a release from the model and a property release from the statue artist).

Micro stock photography is not for everyone. You maintain ownership of your copyright to each picture, but you don’t make a lot for each image that is licensed (the revenue you make is definitely volume-based). You also don’t have control over where or how your images are used – only that the images cannot be used in a way that is pornographic or defamatory.

But, for me, stock photography is providing an additional revenue source from my photography. I have had pictures used on Forbes.com and the PBS “Antiques Roadshow” homepage among many other places. I have been submitting for about a year and a half, and it is addicting. Every day, I come home from work and check out my portfolio to see how many images were downloaded that day and how much money I made. I maintain a notebook of ideas and thoughts of potential stock shoots that I think will be lucrative and fun. I even downloaded an application for my iPhone that I can check my balance during the day.

This last year, I traveled to Californa to shoot for a Chef just graduating from cooking school. That assignment motivated me to start shooting food so I feel comfortable doing it. There are so many tricks that can be leveraged in shooting food and I want to learn them all. The best thing is that I will maintain the rights to submit those images to iStock in addition to my fees that I will make on the shoot.

Stock photography definitely has helped me to make more revenue and has helped me to become a better photographer.

Much more on stock photography, how I got involved with stock photography, stock agencies, how to choose what to shoot, how to maximize accepted images, etc. in the near future!

Let me know what you think of stock photography as a source of income for your photography!