A bunch of roses

Following on from the idea of love and hearts, I went out and bought a bunch of roses from a supermarket. Cheap, pretty, should be good for a couple of days.

Let's see what we can do with them.



© Photographer: Jeanette Teare | Agency: Dreamstime.com


Another quite successful image, using led wire fairylights:



© Photographer: Jeanette Teare | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Some landmarks in stock photography

I've had some successes and some failures with the stock photography, and I'd like to share my findings.

The first success is selling an image on Alamy for $30 it may not seem much, and Alamy sales do seem a bit thin on the ground, but this one was my highest so far for one sale, so I'll count that as a success. I like Alamy and the way they work. I particularly like the way news editorial photos go live almost instantly if you get the format right.

This particular image has sold several times with Alamy.

The second success was total sales on 123rf.com now totalling over $100 so I shall reward myself with a payment request.

Here's the landmark image:

http://www.123rf.com/photo_40859219_photovoltaic-array-panels-at-solar-farm.html

Stock Photography

Theres going to be a bit of change in direction on this blog. 

My long term ambition, for about 20 years, is to shoot stock photography, especially travel and concepts. Way back before the days of digital, I got as far as putting together a collection of transparencies, (remember them?) but never managed to amass enough for a submission. The minimum requirement was in the region of 500 images, and they were seriously picky!

Last year I went to PTO and one of the speaker was the redoubtable Mr Dave Wall, who was talking about his stock images and experiences with libraries. He gave me enough confidence to dip my toe into the water, and I now have about 500 images with 3 different agencies.

There doesn't seem that much helpful information out there, and a lot of people seem to think its not worth bothering with. So this is my attempt to share a bit of what I have learned.

There's a great buzz from selling photos. Even a small sale of say $0.50 gives me a thrill. It doesn't even cover my costs yet, but I think about how much money I  would have to deposit in a bank to generate it, and suddenly the small sum looks a lot more! The buzz however, is priceless. It has given my photography a new lease of life, it gets me out of the house, and its a massive learning curve.

It wouldn't be a blog post without a gratuitous link, so have a look at my stuff on 123rf.com

And here's the most surprising sale yet. Rising damp. Yes, really!



 http://www.123rf.com/photo_41492456_rising-damp-and-salt-crystal-salination.html?term=rising+damp+salination