Committment To Your Photo Shoots (And Photos!)

Commitment

Word on the street is that the “low hanging fruit” in the world of stock photography is gone, harvested by Micro stock and the glut in RF images. I don’t know if it is totally gone, but I certainly agree that the bar is being constantly raised. For those of us serious about making a living at stock photography, now is the time to bring a new commitment into our shoots. For me, that means being more disciplined, more organized and more prepared.

In the past I would throw together a shoot and not worry too much about getting the most out of it. I pretty much knew that whatever I shot was going to earn me money. My dilemma now is how to have increased efficiency without bringing in a dark cloud of concern, how to make each production dollar and minute be more productive without taking the fun out of my stock career. Keeping the shoots fun is very important to me. I didn’t get in to this business to have it become work! For me, success in stock photography is more than just money, it is also an interesting and fun lifestyle.

I pulled together a shoot last Saturday that is typical of my new way of working. I managed to still keep it fun while having it also be one of my most productive stock photography shoots to date. What I did differently: Checked my shot list with an agency art director (Blend Images); Rehearsed and set-up each lighting scenario ahead of time; Added a video component to the shoot; And hired an extra assistant with the understanding he would also do some modeling.

To keep it fun I kept the shoot to only five hours in length and allotted extra time for each set up. I also had a separate photographer there to shoot the video; all I had to do was add a couple of suggestions (I also provided the camera, lights, studio and models). Another very important ingredient to insure that I am having fun is to be working on shots that I am genuinely excited about. I am not concerned about squeezing every last drop out of a shoot, rather I want to have a well thought out production that gives me the resources to do the best possible job of creating images that are interesting to me, relevant to the marketplace, and as low-stress as possible.

I base my shoots around one or two central ideas; then fill the shot list out from there. The central image for me, with this shoot, was based on Social Networking or what is now called Social Media. The shot is comprised of endless hands reaching out to each other. In some cases the hands will be clasped in a handshake, in other cases the hands will be about to touch. The need for images illustrating Social Media is huge and growing. I wanted to create an image that could be used to illustrate and advertise themes based around the social networking groups such as MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like.

I ended up putting more prep time than usual into the shoot. I also hired more crew. The shoot ended up costing a bit more, but I was committed to the shoot and to the final images. In the long run, especially in these new more competitive times, the commitment to spending a little more money and a little more time (in this case pre-shoot set up) to get the best possible outcome will prove to be a very “economical” strategy…and a fun strategy as well!

A stockphoto Idea Generation Exercise

A week or so ago I wrote an article on coming up with ideas for stock, How to Generate Effective Ideas for Stock Photos
, something I think about a lot. I am always feeling like I have used up all my good ideas when suddenly I come up with a new one, or several new ones. Then I have a brief period where I am confident that I will always be able to come up with more ideas…followed again by more doubt. With all the amazing images out there how can there be any ideas left to do? Well, maybe there aren’t any really new ideas, but somehow there are always ideas that are new to me and will be fresh with my execution of them, something I know in my heart even when I am feeling my most doubtful.

In that article I mentioned a couple of exercises for coming up with ideas, and I had a new “idea exercise” occur to me this morning. Yesterday I was feeling stressed by the economy and by the fact I hadn’t made an image in a while (making images is like therapy for me…or maybe more like an addiction!). I was at my computer using Bridge to browse through my archive of uncompleted images. One image caught me eye: A business man with a stressed out expression as he sat at his cluttered cubicle. I had created the image with the intention of putting a dog cone, the kind that is used to prevent dogs from chewing on themselves, around his neck. I had never finished it because I had never gotten around to finding one of those cones. But I was feeling really in-tune with his expression. Was there something else I could use besides a dog cone (I don’t know the technical term for that apparatus). I look around my studio a bit. I found a blue funnel for pouring liquids into a container. That would do! I quickly shot it with available light and used Photoshop to turn it grey and strip it into the shot. It took about an hour of touch-up work, adding shadows and so forth, but the image was done. And my stress was greatly relieved!

That experience came into my head this morning and I have used it to come up with an exercise for stock ideas. The exercise is as follows: Grab a pen and paper. Sit quietly, close your eyes, and get in touch with how you are feeling. For example, this morning I am up early and everyone else in the house is asleep. I awoke this morning from an unpleasant dream. The cumulative result is that I am feeling a little lonely.

The next step in the exercise is to run through some mental pictures of what that feeling looks like until a image comes up that feels like it might work for stock. For me, I fairly quickly pictured an aerial view looking down on a man standing alone on an empty street.
Now quickly write down that visual. Now go back to your “mental movie”. When you come up with another intriguing visual, write that one down too. If you don’t write your ideas down they will disappear as quickly as they came!

After coming up with one or more visuals you can choose to play with it a little to see if any of them really do work as an image ideas for you. For me, the man standing alone in the street morphed into a person standing on a street corner at an intersection; a solitary person with a decision to make. I no longer have time to be lonely this morning because I am excited about creating this image. I already have thought of a location and am busy working out the details. This image might convey loneliness, the way forward, decisions, or even possibilities. It is a great stock idea because with the addition of a headline the image can convey many different concepts.

No matter what you are feeling, there are millions of others feeling the same way. If you can capture that feeling in an image you will have a successful stock photo, and hopefully, a feeling of accomplishment and success!

An Interesting Life

A more interesting life leads to better photography

It occurred to me today, as I ran across this stock photo (while adding meta data), that one thing you can do to increase your success as a stock photographer is to lead a more interesting life! How do you lead a more interesting life and make it apply to your photography? Well, I would say the answer to that is DO SOMETHING! Do anything. Action always takes you somewhere…and even if you later find out it took you in a direction that wasn’t quite the one you wanted, that in itself could help point you in the direction that you do want to go in. I would contend that going in the wrong direction, and finding out what the right direction, is, beats the heck out of doing nothing and getting nowhere.

The stock image that I just uploaded to my site is of a man falling through the sky. If I hadn’t decided to go to Bonaire I wouldn’t have shot that background image through the window of the aircraft. If I hadn’t gone to Buenos Aires I might never have rented a gymnasium, hired a gymnast, and created a shot of him dismounting from the parallel bars wearing a suit (and then been able to Photshop the composite together)! The more interesting my life has become the more interesting both my photography and my archives of interesting raw materials have become.

Making your life more interesting is an investment…and as far as investments go it is hard to imagine either a safer investment or one that has a better return. Like anything else, to get the most return you will have to have some follow-through. For example, a few years back I decided to do a stock photo shoot in Buenos Aires with two of my good friends. We decide to shoot in Buenos Aires because we wanted to, because we wanted to have an adventure, because we wanted our lives to become more interesting. It wasn’t cheap. Actually, at the time, it was the most money by far of any photo shoot I had ever done. And the pay-off has been huge!

That first time of undertaking a produced stock shoot outside the borders of my own country opened up a whole new world for me. I have now done “produced” stock shoots (as opposed to just grabbing whatever shots opportunistically came up) in Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Thailand and India. My life is more interesting, I am making money off of all of those shoots, and I have a wealth of raw materials for my compositing that I otherwise never would have had. I have friends I can turn to in each of those locations. In Argentina I even feel like I have a whole second family!

Not only can leading a more interesting life lead to better photography, stock photography can lead to a more interesting life! Under the guise of shooting stock I travel, I rent animals such as lions, tigers, elephants, monkeys, I meet a ton of new people (models, assistants, producers, photographers and everyday people we end up interacting with), and I am forced out of my shell and my daily humdrum existence. Even this blog is a result of my stock photography career! I wake up every morning and am thankful for my life as a stock shooter!

Advice from your future self

My future self and my present self

How many times have you wished you knew, back then, what you know now? I know I have sure had that thought enough times. Now I know, however, just what advice my future self would give my present self.

I realized that the advice that I wish my younger self could have received is always the same. That advice? Go for it. Throughout my life I have always been the one who limited myself. For whatever reason, fear of failure, fear of success, lack of confidence, or even low self-esteem, many times I have stopped myself from reaching for something I wanted. Yet, there are times when I look back at my life and am quite amazed at some of the things I did go for.

Look into your heart and see what you really want

It was those times when I reached beyond my comfort zone that have been most rewarding. I can’t tell you how I have agonized over some decisions, agonized about whether I was good enough, whether I would regret my decision due to failure and/or embarrassment. I can look back and wonder why, in some instances, I chose not to extend myself. But as I write this I can’t think of a single instance where the decision to go for it was a mistake. I didn’t always get what I reached for, but it was always a valuable experience. And so it is that I know that the advice my older self would give my current self would be to look into my heart, see what I really want, and to act with courage and boldness to go out and get it.

A new line of work…not!

When I first decided I wanted to be an advertising photographer, I managed to get an appointment with one of my heroes, a well-known professional. His work was featured in camera advertisements at the time and he was one of the top shooters in the world. I showed him my portfolio and he suggested that perhaps I should find a new line of work. A couple of years later my accountant told me it was about time I got a real job. Once I had a bookkeeper quit because, as she told me, “You aren’t going to be in business three months from now”.

But I really, really wanted to succeed in advertising photography. Somewhere along the way that dream came true. It was hard work, and a lot of it, but even after 30 plus years I still wake up every morning excited about it.

Look into your heart. If you really want it, go for it…but don’t forget to enjoy the journey!

Seeing the "Big Picture"

Seeing the big picture

I once read an interview with a man who lived in the Canadian Rockies. He was quoted as saying that "…the mountains are OK, but they sure do block the view". I'm not sure that exactly applies to my following thoughts, but hey, I always liked that quote!

Social media is great. I really like the fact that I can let a lot of people know right away when I have new material up by just sending out a tweet, or making a quick post on Facebook. Looking at the "Big Picture" however, I also realize that it is very easy to get caught up in trying to get a lot of followers, and in general, spending an inordinate amount of time perusing various posts. Some of those posts can be very entertaining, but few are actually valuable to my goals. How many SEO tips does one need to read? In one post it was guaranteed that you could be in the top 10 of search results. I wanted to ask what happened if eleven people followed those tips….

I currently have just over four hundred followers on twitter, and something like 200 "friends" on Facebook. I have seen some tweeters (don't know if I am using appropriate terminology) with something like 100,000+ followers! But even if I were ever to get anywhere near that number of followers, would it be worth the effort? I doubt it. To get the kind of traffic I want to get to my site I really need to come up very early in search results. As big a number as 100,000 followers might sound, I want that number of people, or more, landing on my site each month. Those kinds of numbers can be much more efficiently achieved with providing quality content and optimizing for search engines. Social Media can be a part of that effort, but for me it is all too easy to spend too much time scanning posts. I would be much better served creating a new image, putting it up on my site, and making sure it is well key worded; and that my site is thoroughly optimized for those search engines.

For some, who perhaps are seeking a "True Fan" base, or need a more intimate connection with their "clients", perhaps social media is a more important endeavor. For me, I believe I am better off getting back behind the camera, pushing pixels with Photoshop, and doing what I do best: making images relevant to the market for stock photos. OK, I’m off to create an image (and maybe tweet about it).

Thoughts on keywording

Keywords, the most important element of stock photography

Do you place enough importance on your keywords? If you do your own key wording do you spend enough time on the task? If your agency handles it do you check on them? I recently had an image go up on Getty’s site; An image of an impossible golfing green. In the picture is a small grassy area perched atop a steep rock formation on the jagged California coastline. It is hard to spot in the image at a thumbnail size, but as with any golfing green, a flag hangs from the pole that protrudes up from the hole.

Searching for golf, Chakras, and the Internet

If you do a search for golf on Getty’s site, you won’t find the image. Not yet, anyway, because that keyword was omitted. This is hardly the first time an important keyword has been omitted by an agency, and I am certainly not the only one it happens to. Another example of an egregious keyword omission happened with an image of Chakras. I even submitted the file with the name of jl_Chakra_001. But it took me weeks to get them to finally add that keyword! In yet another example, an image I created to symbolize communication and the Internet does not include either of those keywords, and Getty maintains that neither keyword is appropriate for the image. Oh well, I guess you can’t win every battle.

Mistakes are going to happen

If you made the most perfect stock photo ever, and it nobody ever saw it because of missing or inappropriate keywords, it would not sell as well as a mediocre image that was will key worded. In a sense, the keywords are more important than the image. People perform key wording; mistakes are going to happen. But its extremely important for all of us photographers to make sure that our keywords are done as well as possible whether we do them ourselves, or whether it is a matter of checking on the key wording of our agencies.

My strategy, the best and most appropriate keywords

As I write this I have just finished spending hours key wording the images on my own website. I still have hundreds to go, too. My strategy is not to load as many key words as possible with any given image, but rather to do as clear and concise a job as possible. I want people who search my site to find just what they are looking for and have as good an experience as possible. I don’t want them to have to wade through a lot of images that are not what they are looking for. Further, we have all heard it said that it isn’t nice to fool Mother Nature…and it isn’t nice to try and fool Google either! So when you do your key wording, think about the person who might be looking to find that image, and help them find it by providing the best and most appropriate key words you can.

Now and the future

I firmly believe that one of the best things you or any of us can do to help our stock photography businesses, both now and for the future, is to make sure the images are thoroughly and properly key worded. It might even be more important than the making of the images themselves.

The most dependable income

The most dependable income

I just read on the net that a study showed the most dependable way to earn money is to win a novelty half-time contest at a basketball game that requires sinking a basket from the half-court line. Apparently mathematical calculation also took into consideration that the consolation prize often includes a food item from the concession stand.

Yesterday, for just a few moments, I overhead a radio show in which the topic was recession-proof jobs. I heard the radio announcer say that the most recession-proof job was high school portrait photographer. He pointed out that no matter how bad things get parents will always want high school portraits of their children, especially high school graduation pictures.

My stock photo income

That got me to thinking. Right now my stock photography income is down about 18%. Now that is a lot, but I personally know four people who have lost their jobs in the last three months. Having my income dip by twenty percent isn’t nearly as devastating as losing my job. Even down by twenty percent stock photography is a cash cow for me!

Job security, a misconception

That brings up what I believe is an interesting misconception. Many people I have spoken to over the years cite security as the reason they wouldn’t want to be self-employed. Let me give you a couple of examples of “employment security”. My sister-in-law was working for Bank of America as a writer. Within a week of winning an award and being cited for her work by her supervisor, the entire department was let go. Surprise! A friend of mine was a senior art director for a greeting card company for many years. A venture capital firm bought the company and then proceeded to sell off the assets tell there was nothing left. So much for that job security! Self-employed people have far more security. We can measure what we earn from our efforts. Nobody else takes the blame; nobody else can claim the rewards. Our futures are in nobody’s hands except for our own.

As a stock photographer I feel exceptionally lucky in these difficult economic times. Sure, there are lots of those who are predicting the demise of the whole industry do to Micro stock, a glut of images and large agencies that don’t care about the interests of individual photographers. OK, so maybe I have to work a little smarter and a little harder. I can do that, and since I love what I do I don’t mind it.

The stock picture industry has become more interesting

In fact, the whole industry has become more interesting to me now that I have to really think about what I am doing. I am optimizing my site to increase sales both through traditional channels and directly to industry players and to the public. I am thinking more strategically in what I shoot and how I shoot it. I am paying attention to my sales and I am not forgetting that creativity is paramount. The changes in the industry and the economic climate have pushed me to collaborate more and I love it. I am growing more than I ever have.

The ultimate security

Further, as a stock photographer I can see my income rise or fall and take appropriate action. I don’t wake up one day and find that I am out of a job and have no income! Being self-employed as a photographer offers me far more security than any staff position. I am responsible for my self and my success or failure. I am under no (OK, few) illusions. That is the ultimate security!