Ideas and Execution In Stock Photography

 

Ideas are fundamental for the success of stock photography, but they are secondary to the importance of action and execution.

 

The Most difficult Aspect of Stock Photography

The most difficult aspect of stock photography, for me, is coming up with ideas; Ideas that fit the parameters for my success. The ideas I am referring to need to be ones that I believe will sell multiple times, that either have a clear strong concept or stand out enough that they will doubtless draw attention.  I have to be convinced that the images will earn an amount appropriate for the resources that go into them. The most money I have ever spent on a stock photo shoot was $12,000.00, but that shoot has returned me over $50,000.00. If I am going to spend a lot of money on the execution of an idea then I need to be very convinced that it is a smart investment.

Ideas And Diversification

Ideas can be simple, quick and inexpensive, or complex and challenging to bring to fruition. I try and balance them out creating a mixture of RM and RF, of dramatic concepts and photos as simple portraits. Since I can never be totally sure of what will sell and what won’t, I diversify as much as possible. I like to have images in many categories from finance to travel to lifestyle…though I have to admit I don’t do enough of the lifestyle imagery.

The Importance of Execution

While the ideas are the most challenging aspect of my stock photography, execution is the most important. If you execute enough mediocre ideas you will earn money. If you don’t execute then even your very best ideas will earn nothing.

The Importance of Quality

Another important aspect of execution is in the quality of the imagery. Again, I have to admit that sometimes I fall down in that area. I tend to get in a rush and sometimes take short cuts in not spending enough money on props, wardrobe and locations. All too often I also fail to give the images enough time before submitting them…then a few days later I see some detail that could or should have been done better, but it is too late.  With so many images competing for attention it is vital to make sure your images are better than the ones they are competing with.  That is something I still need to improve upon.

The Formula For Success In Stock Photography

Lately I have been hearing from more photographers who are doing well with stock photography. What seems to be a consistent thread with these photographers is that they consistently produce imagery and do so with ideas of what the market needs in mind, and a clear understanding of what will sell. Ideas + Execution x Distribution is one formula for success in stock photography.

The Power of The Unexpected

 

There is power in the unexpected and a continuing need for images depicting creativity, ideas and thinking outside the box.

 

The Power of The Unexpected

There is power in the unexpected. Showing the unexpected, the unimagined and even the bizarre has the power to capture a viewer’s attention, which is, after all, the function of a stock photo. Harness that power in your stock photography.

Shattered Expectations

In this photo of a hammer, unexpectedly shattering against a light bulb, there are a wide variety of concepts that are being illustrated from creativity and inspiration to the impact of the unexpected. In a world drowning in images there is advantage to standing out from the crowd by creating visuals that can easily illustrate ideas and that have the advantage of not being seen before.

Creativity, Ideas And Inspiration

The light bulb obviously represents such concepts as ideas, creativity and inspiration. Having the hammer, an iconic symbol for strength and power, shatter against the light bulb makes a strong illustration of the power and influence of creativity and ideas…and does so in what I would argue is a creative image. This photo is further an illustration of the power of the unexpected and possibilities. It is an argument for opening your mind, thinking outside the box, and allowing for serendipity.

Rights Managed vs. Royalty Free

I don’t see this as a image that will sell a gazillion times, rather as one that will definitely have multiple sales, but sales totaling in the tens rather than the hundreds. As such I think it would be better served as an RM image, and I will suggest that to my editor at BlendImages (thought I will leave the final decision up to him).  BTW, these days one of the hardest aspects to stock photography is deciding whether an image should be RF or RM. Anyone who still thinks RM images will earn more money is probably in denial, and yet there is still a place for Rights Managed imagery. I do my best to make intelligent decisions but there just isn’t a foolproof set of criteria for such choices. Oh well.

Crafting A Concept Travel Stock Photo

Going through my "Idea" folder of images resulted in this composite image illustrating travel concepts.

My Next Project And An “Ideas” Folder

Sometimes I find myself in front of my computer, having just completed an image, or series of images, but before having had a chance to figure out my next project, and still wanting to create a new stock photo.  At those times I turn to my “Ideas” folder.

Interesting Images With No Immediate Use

My “Ideas” folder is one in which I put interesting images, that I don’t really know what to do with, as I edit shoots or run across them looking for composite parts.  In that folder you can find patterns, portraits, background images, interesting light experiments, landscapes…whatever images strike my fancy, but that I don’t have an immediate use for. 

Perusing Photos And Finding Solutions

A few days ago I found myself in just such a situation…between projects but wanting to jump into making an image. As I perused the photos an image of light reflecting off of water caught my eye. A use for this image  (probably from a swimming pool shoot…but one that I no longer remember) has long eluded me.   This time, however, I believe I came up with a solution…or two.

Stronger Concepts And Multiple Uses

I could have submitted the image as a background image pretty much as it was, but I really wanted to take it to another level. What I was looking for was another image I could use as a reflection in the water and that would make for a stronger concept… one that had a legitimate shot at multiple uses.

Pretty Pictures, Tropical Vacations And Room For Headlines

I found the image I was looking for in a shot of tropical clouds from a trip to Hawaii. I faded the clouds into the water. Adding the clouds transformed the image from pretty reflections in water to a tropical vacation scene. I felt it still needed one more element. A silhouette of a commercial jet completed the picture. Now the image speaks of travel, adventure, vacations and getting away from it all.  There is plenty of room for copy and headlines, room for inset destination photos, and can be cropped square, horizontal, vertical or as a banner ad.

Many Uses, Similar Versions And Royalty Free

My gut instinct tells me it is a royalty free image: It can have many uses and isn’t a difficult image to produce.  Further, I believe that a version without the jet will also be useful in the marketplace and as an RF image the two similar versions won’t be a problem. Now the only question is…should I have had a suntanned, bikini clad woman swimming through the water? Hmmm, maybe I’ll take another look in that “Ideas” folder….

 

Assignments, Stock Photography, and a Rich Life

Getting out of your normal environment can stimulate ideas. This shot from my working vacation can be a travel photograph, or a concept stock photo about skill, balance and small business. But the most important benefit from this trip was recharging my batteries (internal...not camera)!


Shooting Assignments And Stock Photo Production
In a way, a photographer who shoots only stock and no assignments is putting themselves at a disadvantage when in comes to stock photography production. When shooting assignments you end up in places, and with access to people, that you probably would never even think of, let alone be subsidized to shoot.  So I have often asked myself if it wouldn’t help my stock photography career to shoot assignments. Ah, but then I think of all the wasted time associated with assignments. 

Estimates, Prep and Post
There are the estimates, that to do a good job, can take a least a day and sometimes several days to complete.  And if you do get the job there are the days of prep and of post, and the endless little changes the clients always seem to want, and the last minute additions that they don’t want to pay for…and the hassles to get paid.

Introducing Fresh Ideas
OK, I say to myself, I won’t return to doing assignments just yet.  But how can I introduce new and fresh ideas into my work that are comparable to those that would come in via assignments?

Expose Yourself To Something New
Well, I have come up with a couple of thoughts around that. First, I get out of my ordinary environment and expose myself to something completely new and different.  One way in which I have done that very successfully is by doing what I refer to as adventure travel. I have a friend and colleague who leads photo trips to some pretty cool places.  Places like India, Jordan, Myanmar and China. Every time I have taken one of these trips I have come back not only refreshed and with a whole notebook of new ideas, but also with photography from the trips themselves that have invariably paid back the cost of the trip and have each become their own little profit center.

Travel, Time, and a New Paradigm
Occasionally I have undertaken such travel by myself, but it is a lot more fun for me to be with like-minded people and to have the logistics handled by someone else.  In a way these trips are far more efficient for me as well. I avoid spending all that time in researching places and putting together the trip.  Instead, I just step out of my business world and into a whole new paradigm, and then, recharged, step back into my “real world” existence.

An African Safari, A Photography Blog And Great White Sharks
The other method I have for injecting some unusual ideas into my work comes as kind of a corollary to the travel. I keep a list of 100 things I want to do before I die (OK, I have never actually gotten more than about 60 things written down). Things like go on an African safari (haven’t done that one yet…but think of the cool stock photos that could come out of that…and I don’t mean photos of wild animals, but of camp life and so forth…), shoot photography for a world humanitarian organization, dive with great white sharks, start a photography blog (oh yeah, I did that one), Visit Rio de Janeiro during Carnival, anyway, you get the picture.

Dream Assignments and Stock Photography
Make a list of things you want to do before you die. Go crazy with it! Then look at that list with an eye for how you can accomplish those things and make them pay off for you through stock photography.  It is kind of like giving yourself your own dream assignments…and using stock photography to enhance your life in more ways than just monetarily. In the end, it is a full and rich life that I want more than a full and rich estate!

Generosity, Attitude And Possibility

A little over a week ago somebody parked their trailer in the parking spaces alongside my studio. They are public spaces, but I still felt a little put upon. I really didn’t want someone’s trailer being stored there. Apparently I wasn’t the only one as the property manager dropped in on me and asked if I knew anything about the trailer. I told her I didn’t, and was about to add my own complaints about the trailer, but decided that, as the trailer really wasn't hurting anything, I would just keep my complaint to myself. I just decided to let it go.

The next day as I walked out of the studio and glanced over at the trailer I thought to myself “what a good looking little trailer”. Then it hit me what a great stock photo I could create around it. The trailer is one of those small shiny aluminum Airstream numbers, in essence, a giant mirror. Where it was parked wouldn’t work for my photography. I decided to keep an eye out for the owners.

The next morning I saw someone was working on the trailer. I introduced myself, complimented them on their trailer, and asked what they were doing. They were very enthusiastic in telling me about how they were preparing it for their upcoming trip to Burning Man. I asked if I could shoot the trailer for a stock photo, and they assured me it would be no problem. When it came time for them to move the trailer I had them pull it out and line it up for me so that it matched the lighting for the background that I wanted to put it into.

The Airstream trailer has a cool factor that would make it key for my image. I could put the trailer into a vast empty plain to illustrate a concept like “solitude”, I could put it in front of a tropical beach to illustrate “getting away from it all”, or I could place the trailer in an urban environment to illustrate concepts such as “ideas” or “bizarre”.

Eventually I will end up using this trailer photograph in a myriad of ways. I couldn’t have asked for an easier set-up. I only had to step out of my office door a few feet to get the shot, spent no time scouting for the trailer, and didn’t have to spend any money. The important point in this story is really about generosity, attitude and possibilities. I started off with a sort of antagonistic attitude that really benefited no one. When I changed my attitude, when I became a bit more generous in that attitude, then the doors opened up for my ideas and creativity.