Micro Stock Pot Luck

At the risk of getting my feelings hurt, I submitted a couple of photos to a micro-stock website to see if I could get any of my work accepted.

Since I seem to have a lot of photos that are likely never going to see the light of day again, I thought micro-stock photography seemed like something worth exploring.

This morning I went through all the photos I made with my Nikon D70 during the year of 2007 and found that I had very few if any images that I thought might work as stock photography. First I rejected a bunch for technical defects; like noise and chromatic aberration; while some just were not that interesting (what was I thinking). Many of the other photos contained trademarks or recognizable buildings and landmarks that can’t be used without a property release. There were a few shots of people that I could have used but then I would have to go back and get a model release from each person before I can submit those photos. I certainly didn’t want to spend hours editing a pile of images just to have them rejected for one reason or another.

I was hoping I could come up with enough stock images to at least buy a new flash or some other accessory but the truth is I don’t know if I can come up with even a hundred images suitable to use as stock photography that would actually sell. My best guess is that the name of the game is specialization and that a streamlined work-flow is essential to making money in micro-stock.

As usual, I was looking to harvest the low hanging fruit but I don’t think that is going to work very well. I’m not sure the return on investment is worth it unless you get in on a massive scale. I’m thinking that you would need a dedicated workspace to serve as a small studio and then come up with a standard lighting scheme. Everything would have to be done in an assembly line type environment in order to make an average of less than a dollar per image. Is it really worth it?

I don’t have room to keep a tabletop studio set up all the time, let alone a big seamless backdrop for shooting models. What I am going to try to do is to incorporate some stock shots into my regular photography routine and see if I can come up with a few good samples each week. It never hurts to try something new except maybe to bruise the old ego which hates being made to look like a fool.

Eve Of Destruction

Nikon D300 f/5.6 @ 50 seconds, ISO 200. Tokina 12-24.

Today I took a long ride

With no particular destination in mind

Today I took a solitary journey

In the company of many others

I rode in a car and a plane and on a train

Just to go somewhere and come back again

To the very same place that I began

I found nothing new and less to do

I might just as well have stayed in my room

Nothing ever remains the same

Except for imperceptible change

Under the light of a full moon

The past begins to fade too soon

And I do believe we are on the eve

Of destruction

It's In The Mail

I bit the bullet today and ordered myself a new Nikon SB600 flash. I can’t afford the SB900 at the moment and I have come to the conclusion that two smaller flashes (thinking ahead) are actually more useful than one really big, powerful, good looking, sexy…

Everyone has to start somewhere. A flash is a flash but it helps when they all match and you don’t have to scratch your head trying to figure out different settings and controls every time you want to use them.

I wasted some more time at the hardware store today looking for things to use on lighting (light modifier) projects. I didn’t find the part I was actually looking for so I think I’ll just hold off on any projects until my new toy arrives. I just wanted to make sure it came in time for my vacation.

I went over to the park at lunch time. There was a blimp flying around downtown so that was sort of cool. No good sunsets lately but at least I came prepared today with my big-boy camera and manual flash (off camera) which someone asked me about so I gave a brief and confusing (I'm sure) explanation of why flat lighting is bad. Just trust me, it's bad.

I can't believe all the cameras (and tripods) I saw downtown today. When I say cameras, I mean big-ass DSLRs though there were plenty of people with point and shoot cameras with confused looks on their faces as though technology had somehow let them down when they were shooting directly into the sun with no fill flash. "Huh? They didn't say nuthin' about that in the TV ad."