Patience, Perseverance, And Perspiration: A Stock Photo Strategy

Google Searches, Consumers and Stock Agencies
I believe are many more potential purchasers of photography doing Google searches (what I will call the 'consumer' market) than those searching stock agencies. This 'consumer' market includes everyone looking for fine art prints and bathroom wall dcor to photo-imprinted coffee mugs, tote bags, T-Shirts, greeting cards and, yes, licensing stock photos (though they might not know that they are seeking to license a stock image).

Stock Agencies, Publishers and More Money
I also know that it is a heck of a lot easier for me to make money by licensing stock through the traditional agencies than it is for me to license images directly or to penetrate that consumer market. As I have said before, if I want to earn more money as quickly as possible then I should be shooting as many pictures (intelligently) as possible and getting them into Blend, Corbis, Getty, Kimball and SuperStock (my agencies in alphabetical order) as quickly as I can.

Similarly, I can earn significant money by getting more greeting cards of my silly animal pictures into the market through brick and mortar publishers.

A Ton of Work and Slow Progress
After over a year of pushing SEO, upload and key wording images, blogging, writing articles, and putting images up on Imagekind and CafePress, I have learned a couple of things. Firstly, it is a TON of work! Secondly, there is progress but it is agonizingly slow. I have gone from an average of one unique visitor per week to my website, to an average of almost 500 a day.

I have gone from about 1 sale on CafePress every couple of weeks to pretty much an average of one sale a day. And don't forget all the click-through ad revenue'about $5.00 a day.

Pumping Out More Images
Given all of the downward price pressure from low price stock and an oversupply of images the idea of trying to pump out more and more images, and adding to that oversupply, just doesn't make a whole lot of long-term sense to me. I still very much believe in stock photography, and frankly, particularly looking at my Blend sales, I'd have to say there is still a lot of life left in the old girl yet. But it ain't like it used to be. Not in RF or RM. But creating more new quality content can still work for both the short and long term.

Changes in the Photo Market, Bad Business Decisions, and the Recession
I used to make a killing in greeting cards as well, and I am down about 70% on those (I am only down about 30% on stock photos but still earn enough to make me feel a little guilty). Given that the greeting card company that used to publish my cards made some seriously questionable business moves (like firing their entire sales staff), it is unclear how much of that drop is due to the changes in the photo market and how much due to bad business decisions and the recession.

Shipping Product, Generating Traffic and Income Streams
This brings to the point where I am now, trying to continually adjust my time and efforts to provide for the maximum return. I have to look at both the short and long term. For me, the short term is creating images and getting them to the stock agencies, what Seth Godwin would term 'shipping product'.

The long term, for me, means tapping into the vast powers of the internet and continuing to build traffic to generate income from that 'consumer' market as well as guide more users of stock photography to my images at the various agencies that handle them. The seemingly slow nature of that process is secondary to the evidence that it does work. Ultimately, they all work together.

Creating more images for agencies, which I can then put up as additional content on my site, will both generate that short-term income (hopefully middle-term and long-term revenue as well), and will generate more traffic that I can channel into various income streams.

Creating Compelling Stock Photos as Quality Content
My tasks, then, are to create compelling stock photos, market-needed images, get them onto my site, and continue my SEO through key wording, blogging, article writing and link-building. In short, creating quality content for the agencies and my site. I guess it boils down to patience, perseverance and perspiration'all with a sense of urgency.

Photo Hosting 101: Choosing The Right Provider

Web hosting comes in several different types including file hosting and photo hosting. Web hosting per se is considered as the most utilized hosting service available as it allows a user's website to be viewed across the Web uninterruptedly and at any time people wish. A data center having several servers is often available in web hosting services. Software packages are also being offered by host services to allow users access to email as well as particular databases. Thus, web hosting in itself guarantees that websites are accessible on the Internet through the server of host providers.

File hosting is similar to web hosting in a way although only the files are stored and not the whole website. A huge amount of data is stored and registered so that the data can be accessed from anywhere across the globe. Successful and prominent corporations and companies having subsidiaries around the world make use of file hosting to ensure that information is readily available to the corporation as a whole.

On the other hand, photo hosting is comparable to file hosting; however, a web host server stores the image files only. Users can choose photo hosting websites to serve as means of sharing their images. This type of hosts allows users easier methods of making personalized photos accessible to whomever they want. Apart from downloading images, most photo hosting websites also offer users video downloading options. The chosen images for upload can be linked to blogs, social networks, online scrapbooks, and message boards among others.

Most users opt for a photo hosting provider so that they can have means of storing as well as sharing their images less the hassle of taking the memory space of their personal computer. This type of web hosting is used for storing photos, mostly for online auction sites. Say, if a user has items they want for auction on eBay, all they have to do is take pictures of their items and store them in the server of an image host until they are ready to display them for online auction.

Users should consider several factors in choosing the right image host. One of the most important factors to consider is that the image host can provide enough compatible space and band width suited for the needs of users. Having a lot of space does not necessarily mean it has enough band width. Thus, space is wasted if the band width is not sufficient. As such, it is advisable to find an image host offering unlimited band width. Some image hosts offer users the means to create photo albums with the personal URL of the users. This allows the family and friends of the users to view the images anytime, anywhere. In addition, some image hosts provide features for customizing photos and photo albums to give users a personalized touch.

Most image hosts offer their services at free cost while some have varied ranges in price. On the other hand, some users opt to pay for the image hosting services as these providers offer a more complete package. A complete package usually includes

unlimited image size, links, domain restrictions, and ability to upload multiple image files among others.
in Photography

Creative Photography Experiments - 3 Things You Should Try

Though many people don't realize it, photographs are a vastly flexible art medium. There is absolutely no reason you should ever feel limited to shooting what's in front of you or documenting reality. Just as with painting or sculpting, there is plenty of room to exert your influence on the way your photographs turn out. So, let's talk about several fun things you can do with your pictures that you may not normally consider.

1. Change Your Angle
One of the most common things done in photography is the eyeor head level height in which photos are taken. While this makes perfect sense, it may not necessarily be the best angle for what you're shooting or the statement you want to make.

Spend an entire day shooting entirely from the ground (get down on one knee or crouch) and see how getting below your subjects changes how reality appears to your viewers. If you're feeling really lucky, try shooting entirely from your hip without double-checking the focus or the framing - you may end up with a lot of throw-away images, but you also might end up with something you could have never captured with a traditional method of shooting.

2. Push Your Film
All film has a recommended development time at any given temperature. For example, when developing 400 speed film in 70 degree chemicals, you would need to soak the film for 7 minutes before rinsing but don't take my word as you should check the recommended times off the developer manufacturers box. What many people don't realize is that the longer the film develops, the more stark the contrast becomes. The lights get lighter and the darks get darker.

If you're fortunate enough to develop your own film, try pushing your film an extra two or three minutes and see how it affects the final product. While it's easy to push your film too far into an overly contrasty mess, a little extra time can sometimes create a stunning result by adding extra contrast to important areas of your photograph.


3. Use the Bulb Setting
Any camera (even most digitals) that has manual settings will have the option to set your shutter speed to 'B,' or bulb. Simply put, this setting will make your camera shutter stay open for as long as you have the button pressed and is a terrific way to capture some images you may not have thought possible. Unfortunately the bulb setting won't work in daylight since it will overexpose the image, but in a dark environment it can create lots of new photo opportunities.

Place your camera on a tripod facing the night sky and leave your shutter open for 5 minutes (using a cable release) so you can capture the stars moving as the earth rotates. You can also hold the camera shutter open and have someone spin around holding a flashlight and then snap the flash and you'll have a shot of them encircled by light. This setting requires a lot of practice and experimentation but can often have tremendous results.

The next time you're feeling adventurous, remember these three photo experiments. For these experiments all you need is a cable release and a single lens reflex (SLR) camera or a digital SLR (DSLR) camera and you're all set. Just remember that you should only do experiments with photographs you're willing to lose - your daughter's wedding might not be the best time to try shooting everything from the hip. At the end of the day all that matters is that you have fun and create images that are beautiful, truthful, and important to you.

Few Tips To Photograph Fireworks

The main secret behind shooting the firework is to use the slow shutter speed so that you can easily record the colorful and dramatic light. This also means that you need a kind of camera that would help you to click the steady and non blurred shot. The best method to make your camera steady is to use a tripod. However you can try to support yourself beside the building or tree. If you are using the digital SLR camera than buy the shutter release cable as this would help you to click the photo without even touching your camera. And if your camera has the firework mode than it will automatically adjust your camera's settings for night photography.

The firework mode would help to achieve better results. It makes the flash off, bumps down aperture and shutter speed, helps to lower ISO. Most of the photographers use long exposures for the more creative control. Some camera may lack the firework specific mode, but still it would allow you to manually adjust some settings. In that case set the lowest ISO setting of your camera which would help you to minimize the distraction. Then you must also turn off the automatic focus so that it would not search the subject in dark especially when you start the exposure. If your camera does not have any manual focus control than try to use the landscape mode of your camera, which would also set focus to the infinity.

for the slow speed of the shutter (between one to fifteen seconds would work) depending absolutely on the light and how many fireworks are there in the sky. So the longer your exposure would be more fireworks you would be able to click. So you can start with the shutter speed one second to five second and you can see the difference in the result and for more long exposure you can aim to cover the lens with the lens cap or the hands so that you can easily avoid the overexposing of the photo.