Intention: A Powerful Tool For Success In Stock Photography

INTENTION is one of the most powerful tools you have at hand for achieving success in the stock photography business. I have written several times about generating stock photo ideas, and that I believe “Intention” is the primary tool for doing so. That is, having the INTENT to come up with a stock photo idea makes practically any other endeavor in that direction work.

I think the same thing is true when trying to learn from looking at the photography of others. Have the INTENT to learn something. It is a great exercise to decide consciously that you are going to learn something from looking at other photographer’s work. That “something” might be lighting or propping and styling or Photoshop effects. Whatever it is, if you set the intention first then look at pictures, the learning is almost guaranteed.

This morning I came into work and had the INTENT to create a stock photo from existing files that I had on hand. I keep a large number of images in a folder I call“Resource Images”. I continually add to the folder and occasional purge images. This repository, or library of images provides me with such “parts” as skies, backgrounds, textures and occasionally, people, to utilize as necessary in the creation of my stock photos.

This library of pictures also acts as a kind of idea playground for me. Often I will decide to create an image on the spur of the moment and turn to these images for ideas as well as for parts. I will find an image that catches my eye and start to play with it, putting it in different backgrounds, maybe combining the image with another, or altering it in some way, to create a viable stock shot.

Sometimes I find all the parts I need to create an image, sometimes I get an idea but need to shoot some more to bring the idea to fruition, and sometimes it is just an exercise in frustration. This morning things came together and I was able to create a stock photo and send it off to an agency for consideration (in this case I sent the photo to my editor at Corbis). I’ll let you know how it turns out!

The image (above) is a fabricated skyline, a cityscape of some future metropolis that doesn’t actually exist, except on my computer. The idea germinated as I looked at a skyline shot taken in Buenos Aires. The buildings looked very cool and futuristic. It occurred to me that a whole skyline of ultra modern buildings could be a very useful concept image for stock. I picked through my digital files finding some skyline shots of San Francisco that I could mine for buildings. I used Photoshop to combine and alter some of the buildings and to simply stretch-out and adjust the color of others.

I made sure that the finished image could be cropped either as a vertical or horizontal. This image isn’t going to set the world on fire, but I will be willing to bet that it sells reasonably well…and it only cost me a couple of hours work…nothing more.

Because I don’t see this image selling like gang busters I have submitted it for RM where there is actually more flexibility in pricing than in RF, where I get a larger percentage of each sale, and where there is always the possibility of a truly large sale. Large sales do still happen. Last month Getty sold one of my images for $18,000.00+. My share was over $8,000.00. Stock isn’t dead yet!

Getting back to my original point, intention is a potent tool for so much of what we do in stock photography; for coming up with ideas, for learning, and for creating images. Get in the habit of setting conscious intention; cool things happen when you do!

One Photographer's Criteria for Successful Stock Photos

I had a minor epiphany today. I was talking with my brother and he commented that my stock photos were fun to look at. It instantly occurred to me that “fun to look at” might actually be a good standard by which to judge whether an image idea will make a successful stock photo. Certainly my favorite images to make are ones that are fun to look at.

I use File Maker Pro to keep records of all my stock sales. I took a look at my sales for the past five years and ranked them. Almost without exception my best selling images were fun to look at. They either contained a high element of humor or drama. These images are entertaining. It makes sense too. Given the choice between an image with a high entertainment value and an image that isn’t such fun to look at, it makes perfect sense that clients will choose the former.

While it is a bit unrealistic for me to only create those entertaining images, certainly that is what I am focusing on. They sell the best and I enjoy making them the most. That being said, when I set up a shoot for one of my ideas there are inevitably opportunities to create lesser images that make financial sense. For example, I have an upcoming shoot in a surgery center. I have several “main” ideas that I am eager to do. But as long as I have a surgery center at my disposal it makes sense to shoot some of the more pedestrian images that can fulfill a need in the market place. Shots of patients in the waiting room, of doctors and patients consulting and so forth. Naturally, I can and will continue to do some of those images. It just makes good business sense. However, at this point I will limit those “filler” images to ones that naturally evolve from the images I am drawn to create.

For moving a stock photo idea to a photographic reality my new criteria is that the finished image must be:

Fun To Look At
Have a message applicable to the market place
Be a quick read even at thumbnail size
Make an emotional connection
Have an unexpected Twist
Be fun for me to create

Keep in mind; these are my goals for my own work. Certainly other criteria will be more appropriate for other photographers. And my images certainly don’t need to fit all of those criteria. If an image fulfills two or three of them then the image is probably worth doing. And finally, as promised a blog or two ago, above is my falling piano image. I hope it is fun for you to look at!

Of Editing And Rejection

Today I received an e-mail from Getty basically saying that we should aim to get at least 50% of submitted images accepted, and that our acceptance rate will be taken into consideration when our submissions are edited. I guess they want us to edit our work a bit tighter…OK, a LOT tighter.

This helps validate my belief that tighter editing is better editing. It also seems, in effect, that we need to brand ourselves for and to the Getty editors. Part of what I used to find desirable about stock was that it was all about the image and not the photographer. But change just keeps happening and now branding for stock photographers has truly become important.

If you want to make a good living at stock, making great images simply may not be enough. Getting those images in front of their audience just keeps getting more difficult and more important. To do that, I believe, is going to require branding, marketing and a lot of strategic planning. Your body of work is going to have an impact on how many images you get into agencies and how quickly those images come up in searches.Your body of work is a key part of your branding. Your reputation, your branding, and your marketing (for me "marketing" means a solid web site with great SEO) will help you get your images seen, whether they are seen through agencies or your own site, or both.

Just for fun, above, I have included a couple recently rejected images: The “brain” image was rejected by Getty for being “too complex” and the stairway image for being “oversubscribed”. Oh well….

Collaboration And Strategic Alliances

I have written before about the importance for me of collaborating with others and developing strategic allies. Well, I have just finished two weeks of shooting with a Phantom HD video camera. This amazing camera shoots 1280x720 HD (720p) at 1,000 frames per second! The reason I got this opportunity was because I have developed a strategic alliance with my main supplier of computer and networking solutions, Grande Vitesse Systems.

I agreed to help them test a software solution they have developed for the Phantom Video Camera that greatly speeds up the efficiency and use of said camera. But the strategic alliance didn’t stop with Grand Vitesse Systems (GVS). The shoot took place with the help of another photographer friend of mine, David Fischer. We collaborated on our ideas and execution and used his much larger and better-equipped studio. Unlike me, David has lots of hot lights, large camera stands, and some custom made lighting gear. Having the use of such resources for two weeks of shooting made a huge difference.

Now we have two terrabytes of digital assets (video) to edit. As we complete the edit I will make the videos available for viewing through my website (above are two of the stills we shot during the filming). We shot some pretty interesting stuff. As we put the software through its paces we tried to shoot footage that would have a market, and that would provide a revelation, a glimpse into things that happen so quickly that viewing them in slow motion reveals the unexpected, reveals something we have never seen before.

We couldn’t resist doing the old “Dart into a Water Balloon”, and I have to say I think we captured the best version I have ever seen. Among the other things we shot were flowing hair, bouncing dice, falling coffee beans, raining money, fire, water, flying food, a dove release, flying insects and more. The right subject matter, shot in super slow motion, is truly entrancing.

One side benefit for me in shooting video for two weeks straight is that I began to see how I could work more video into my stock photo business. I have become much more comfortable with working in motion and with using hot lights. I am also about to get a whole lot more experience with editing. As I get more experience with the entire video process I will be a lot less resistant to incorporating motion into my stock mix. The increasing use of video is definitely part of the change that is going on around us, and as Sarah Fix, creative director for Blend Images commented (see her interview here: http://www.johnlund.com/Interview-Sarah-Fix.asp), “It is exhausting, and ultimately self-defeating if one doesn’t see change as opportunity”.

So I have just had a great and productive time diving into change and opportunity. In the long run that will prove more valuable than all of the videos David and I shot in the last two weeks. But without cultivating those collaborative and strategic relationships, none of it would have happened at all.

Crowd Sourcing Crowd Enforcing?

Crowd Sourcing Might Become Crowd Enforcing

A few days ago I had a very interesting conversation with Randy Taylor of The Copyright Registry. The Copyright Registry is a service to help photographers deal with the ramifications of passage of the Orphan Works Bill (should it pass). But the interesting thing to me, at least at this point, is a possible side benefit of their service, finding, and establishing a record of unauthorized use of images. Figures on copyright infringement on the Internet indicate the problem is truly staggering with upwards of 80% of photography usage being without permission.

The Copyright Registry makes it possible for anyone to find the copyright owner of any content, as long as the content has been entered into the registry. The Copyright Registry sends out spiders that use image recognition software to match photography on the Internet with the works identified in their registry. This process creates a record of where and for what time periods those works have been used. This information then becomes available to the owners of the work and can be used to ferret out unauthorized uses and help establish abuses for use in legal proceedings.

As you can imagine, The Copyright Registry isn’t the only registry out there, but they do have some unique approaches, and at $25.00 per year, they seem like a bargain. The efforts of The Copyright Registry and other such services just might turn the tide against the massive copyright infringement that we see on the web today. If it becomes simple and affordable for every photographer to protect their work, then crowd sourcing might not just be the origin of so much artwork, but also the ultimate safeguard of that artwork.

Some salient points about The Copyright Registry that Randy shared with me:

-Users can find the owners from copies of their
images, including the uncredited, altered,
unattributed, stolen ones. It's all about
enabling users to find image owners.

- No pictures are uploaded or stored. It's all
done with text, which can be a simple database
export with hundreds of thousands of records at a
time. Very easy and efficient.

- Though we created this to counter the effects
of Orphan Works legislation that is progressing
worldwide, it has real-world benefits right now,
today, while statutory damages still apply.

- The cost is $25/year to register unlimited
images - a price set to attract semi-pro
photographers. Photo agencies get a huge benefit
from that ultra-low price point.

- Though it seems too good to be true, there is
no risk, no downside. Rights granted are less
than those granted in click wrap agreements with
major search engines. No images are exposed
beyond their current web exposure. Rights holders
are merely enabling people to find them from
copies of their images.

Check them out for your self: C-Registry.com

Pianos, Passion and Stock Photography

I just finished shooting a piano. I found a small music shop that let me shoot a piano in their showroom…for $25.00. Now I am all excited. That was an awesome price, but it isn’t why I am excited. I am dying to get into my studio and start putting an image together. I shot a model, a businessman, standing and looking at his watch, a few weeks ago. Last week I photographed a tall building in downtown San Francisco as well as shooting a piece of rope with a frayed end in my studio. I have all the parts I need to create an image of a businessman, standing unaware, as a piano, trailing a broken rope, plunges down towards him. This is going to be great. The idea is little bit corny, a lot cliché, but is certainly one that will grab a viewer’s attention with humor and a clear message. The message is about risk and the need to be alert and aware. And I am fired up to complete it.

What is important about my excitement is that it is this excitement that makes me successful. It is my passion for creating my images that propels me to do all the things that are necessary to keep my business going. It is this excitement for creating not just photographs, but the kind of photos I love to do; conceptual digitally manipulated stock photos, that drives me to continually think up ideas, and that has me happily putting in fifty or more hours a week.

I don’t think that you can succeed in stock right now without that excitement. Stock photography seems easy to me because I love doing it so much. I have encouraged a lot of people to enter the business. I have seen a lot of these people struggle. A few have gone on to succeed, and many more have drifted away from stock. I am far less likely to encourage others to jump into stock these days. The business has changed dramatically. Micro stock has made is easier than ever to get started in the business. Over supply of images and downward price pressures have made it harder than ever to make real money, but it can be done. To succeed in this stock photo environment you can’t be that businessman standing unaware. In a sense we are all that man standing under the falling piano. You have to be on top of everything, and it is just too much if you aren’t really into it. To succeed in today’s stock photography business requires dedication, creativity, awareness, a ton of elbow grease, and above all else, passion.

Above I have included the parts for my upcoming image. To see the final stay tuned! Now I am off to indulge myself in my passion, creating that stock photo.

Long And Arduous And Worth It

This process of making the web work for your stock photography business can be a long and arduous one. I started my serious efforts eight months ago, and while I have seen results, they aren’t as impressive as I hoped for. But I am not discouraged, far from it. I am more convinced than ever that a strong presence on the Internet is going to be increasingly beneficial and important to all stock shooters.

My goal is to be getting 10,000 to 20,000 visitors a day to my site. Right now I am averaging a tad over 300 a day. That is up from one visitor a week eight months ago, but obviously I have a long, long way to go. But even with just 300 a day I am seeing a benefit. Today I was contacted by an Agency in New Zealand about licensing an image they found on my site. I asked them how they happened to find me. They told me they had searched Getty and Corbis and the “usual places” but couldn’t find the image they wanted. They then did a Google search and found my image.

Since virtually all of my images are handled by various agencies, most of those who find something they are looking for on my site are sent on to the respective agency handling that image, and I don’t know if they make a purchase or not. But I do see that every day numerous visitors do go to an image page and then on to Blend Images, Getty, Corbis, and Kimball Stock. I don’t know what percentage of these visitors’ license stock photos, but some do, and as my traffic increases so will those sales.

As I mentioned, success on the Internet, for me, is proving to be not just long, but arduous as well. The process of uploading my images, along with the metadata entry, is agonizing for me. In each of the arenas I am attempting to incorporate there is a ton of work to do. I am way behind in tagging and key wording the images I have on ImageKind. My CafePress site requires mountains of work before it will be ready for prime time. My efforts with Flickr at this point are pathetic and my own site is rife with mistakes, misspellings, inadequate key wording and lack of images…and what I really want to be doing is making images! But I firmly believe that in the long run getting my images seen is at least as important as making new ones.

Getty has instituted “stacks” in their search. The result is that while overall the bulk of my images will be seen more readily, some images will be buried much deeper. What can I do about that? I can get more eyeballs on my images through my Internet presence. I can do that by getting all of my images up online, making sure that they are key worded well, and that my site is filled with well-organized quality content. I am attempting to add quality content by writing articles, interviewing important people in our industry, and sharing my experiences in this blog.