Woman's Head Exploding From Technology Overload In A Funny Stock Photo

A woman's head explodes from technology overload in a humorous stock photo.

Feeling Overloaded By Technology

Have you ever felt overloaded by technology? Well, I feel that way a couple of times a day! Sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode from it all.  If I am feeling that way, then others are too…and that means fertile ground for a stock photo…a surprised woman with her head exploding from technology overload.

A Technology OverloadStock Photo

To create this technology overload stock photo I turned to a previous shoot I did to create a humorous head exploding from social media stock image. I used one of the out takes of the model with an expression surprise. I also turned to my archives to find a suitable “explosion” image…in this case a pile of face powder being hit with a burst of canned air. The final raw material image was a close-up, or more accurately several close up images of the computer circuitry traces on a motherboard.

Complex Computer Circuitry And A Face Powder Explosion

I combined the circuitry images, stripping out the traces, to create a very complex set of circuits with varying colors and brightness to add a sense of complexity and depth. I wanted the circuitry to be unusually complex to add to the sense of overwhelming technology. I used a white to gray gradation as a background. I then dropped in the face powder “explosion”, and finally, added the woman’s face using a layer mask to fade her head into the explosion.

Enmeshed In Technology

The final steps were to add a bit more of the circuitry on top of her and adding a layer mask and “painting” out the circuits from her face. By adding the additional layer of circuitry on top of the woman we further “enmesh” her in the technology boosting the idea of the overwhelming nature of her situation.

Easy Cropping And Royalty Free

The image was composed to allow for easy cropping to any format be it square, horizontal or vertical. Finally I chose to distribute this image through Getty Images as a Royalty Free image (whoever came up with the name Royalty Free…jeez).

Strong Woman's Back Showing Health, Fitness and Strength

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A strong woman's back for illustrating concepts such as beauty, health, fitness and strength.

Beauty, Health And Fitness

A long neglected category for me is that of beauty, health and fitness. But it was less my desire to tap into that category than my appreciation for the particular woman in this shot that led me to create this strong woman’s back stock photo.  The woman whose back is the subject of this stock photo is an avid indoor rock climber and an awesome example of physical fitness and I wanted to capture her strength and beauty on film, uh, er…pixels?

A Strong Back And An Active Pose

To create the shot I photographed her in my studio, then isolated her back onto a separate sky image, then added a blue monochrome look to make the image more artistic and less literal.  I lit the image with soft but directional light to bring out her muscles. I selected a pose that both showed off her musculature and the graceful lines of the female body and provided a more dynamic body position than a more traditional straight on shot of her back would have offered. Images with a more dynamic feel to them generally sell better.

Women, Strength And Boldness

One of the beautiful things about this image is that it can actually illustrate a pretty wide variety of concepts. Obviously this image can work for health, fitness and beauty ideas but it also works for strong women and for success. It fits well the new paradigm of women with strength and boldness.

Cropping Flexibility And Copy Space

As with most of the stock images I create I composed it to work well whether used as a vertical, horizontal or square image. Additionally, there is room for copy on either side of the woman’s torso.

Variations And A Royalty Free Licensing Model

I actually created this image ten years ago…that brings up an interesting change in how I shoot stock. Had I done this image now I would have created several versions…one with no breast showing (because Getty has labeled this image as "nude" and therefore remains unseen on the default settings).I would also create a version without the blue tint creating a more "commercial" image. In addition, I would make these Royalty Free images rather than Rights Managed as is the current image.  Matter of fact…maybe I’ll start working on that now!

How The Internet Works Stock Photo

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How the Internet works: A stock photo about cloud computing, networking and cloud computing infrastructure.

Communications Technology Stock Photos

With the importance and ubiquitous nature of networks, cloud computing, and the Internet, it’s hard to go wrong when making stock photo images to create images dealing with communications technology. It was with that in mind that I created this image that shows, conceptually, the infrastructure of networking, cloud computing and the Internet.

Servers, Routers And Internet Technology

Servers, routers, and other equipment necessary for running the Internet, are visually represented in this stock photo with gears, sprockets and chains. This intricate set of gears illustrates the complexity of communications technology as well as the physical aspects of running the net.

Light Trails, Streaming Data And Online Connections

Multi-colored light trails, created with long-exposures of city lights at night and camera movement, provide a metaphor for streaming data, online connections, and networking. The light trails provide a sense of motion and add color to the image. The background is a gradation of blue to black. Blue is the color of business and both the blue and black areas provide copy space for headlines and text.

Big Data Collection, Management And Distribution

Another concept area that this image can illustrate is that of big data issues. The merging of the separate light trails into one as they go through the gears symbolizes the collection, management and distribution of data…and big data in particular. All manner of data ideas can actually be visually represented with this image of light trails and gears.

Internet Infrastructure, Speed And Bandwidth

One hallmark of a great selling stock image is in it’s versatility…it’s ability to represent numerous concepts and to be easy to use a lot of different ways. This image can represent Internet infrastructure, communications technology, network and complexity, not to mention speed and bandwidth issues. I was also careful in composing the image to allow for vertical, horizontal and square cropping.

Internet And CloudComputing Royalty Free Stock Photo

This Internet and cloud computing stock photo I have assigned to Getty as a Royalty Free image. I chose RF because I think the image will be easy to use and appropriates for so many different clients. RF gives more visibility than RM and I am hopeful that a high volume of sales will offset the lower fees. I’ll let you know in a year or so (which is often how long it takes me to really see how well a stock image is doing).