If you shoot and license stock imagery like I do, then one of the things you always seem to be doing is editing, captioning and submitting imagery to distribution partners. I used to think there was a way around this, but reality has set in, along with regular stints in front of my iMac prepping imagery.

Working with a good stock library such as Aurora Photos is a great way to get my imagery out into the world and in front of potential buyers. The speed to market with Aurora is incredible.

I regularly have my submissions reviewed within a day or two and once I have provided the high-resolution files, they are made live on the Aurora site within days. Pushing the photos out to distribution partners such as Masterfile and Corbis, takes a little longer, but not that much longer. Some recent portrait work accepted by Aurora is already available for licensing at Corbis. That all happened within about 8-weeks, which is fast!

Working with larger, well established stock libraries works for me as I photograph quite a bit of what I consider general travel photography. If you don’t have a large, niche collection such as Art Wolfe, then leveraging off a distribution relationship with a stock library can make a lot of sense, especially if you are starting out in stock photography.

As I have been developing myself a niche and a client base for unique Maldives photography, I have been busy this year populating my own stock library – Thomas Pickard Stock Archive – with my Maldives photography. Leveraging off technology providers such as Photoshelter, I can now license and deliver hi-resolution photos direct to my existing client base, through my own stock site. This works well, in part because I am developing a niche in Maldives photography and also because I have an ever expanding client base seeking Maldives photography.

Below are just a few examples of licensing sales in the last few months. It never ceases to amaze me which images are licensed.

Licensed via Corbis. Image #: 42-22229345

Licensed via Corbis. Image #: 42-22229424

Licensed via Thomas Pickard Stock Archive. Image #: 08710.

Licensed via Getty Images. Image #: 94979111

Licensed via Getty Images. Image #: 90880255

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]]> http://thomaspickard.com/blog/2010/05/maldives-stock-photography-and-working-with-aurora-photos-getty-images-and-corbis/feed/ 1 http://thomaspickard.com/blog/2010/03/luceo-images/ http://thomaspickard.com/blog/2010/03/luceo-images/#comments Tue, 23 Mar 2010 03:29:21 +0000 Thomas Pickard http://thomaspickard.com/blog/?p=1411

“However, under the circumstances of freelancing, Work for Hire becomes less of a reasonable deal and more of a cynical way for companies to manage overhead at the expense of the people who provide the component pieces for the product that they sell.  Unlike employees, freelancers must provide their own equipment, insurance, and retirement.  Sick days and vacations become an expense along with things that are easy to take for granted like office space, transportation, utilities, etc.  In short, Work for Hire wants to treat you like an employee without incurring the hidden costs of having you as one.”

Matt Slaby via Luceo Images.

I have just started reading Luceo Images Blog posts. This extract comes from a section called Legal Left, Meet Creative Right, written by Matt Slaby. I have never read such a good account of Work-for-Hire and what it really means to the freelancing photographer.

If you are a freelancer and you have encountered WFH agreements (who hasn’t?), then I encourage you to read this thought provoking post.

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“Photography, the act of making art while taking pictures, is riddled with failure. As a photographer you will fail. You will disappoint your editors, clients, readers, and even your parents. But that’s how you learn technique and develop style. So when it happens embrace it.”

Trent Nelson via Sports Shooter

To celebrate the end of the decade, Sports Shooter has a number of articles from photographers’ looking back at key moments in their careers; what they have learnt etc.. It makes for a great read and I encourage the up-and-coming photographers that read this blog to head over and have a read.

The reason I have included this quote here, is because once I accepted failure as part of my photography, my photography really began to improve (like in leaps and bounds).

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“I quit my government job, announced to the world that I was a professional photographer and I had saved 60 thousand dollars. Within one year of running my business I was flat broke and had not sold a picture..”

National Geographic Photographer Paul Niklen in a must read interview over at PDN.

Last week I had my first stock submission to Getty Images reviewed. Of the 500 images I have submitted to date, I had 359 photos reviewed with 173 photos accepted into the library. Given I always submit similar photos – verticals and horizontals of same scenes – I have an acceptance rate of 1 photo for every 2 submitted.

While it is always good to have material accepted, there is always the processing of the final high resolution files prior to delivery. I am yet to have a high resolution file rejected by either Aurora Photos or Getty Images.

When I am preparing high resolution files for delivery, I always think ‘this is forever, so make the files perfect’.

And if you are new to stock or are considering getting into stock, then don’t forget these vital points:

- Always, always, always keep good notes on the who, what, where and when. You will need this information for your captioning and knowing the locations is particularly important

- Try and get model releases whenever you can. Model releases make your accepted work more commercially salable.

- If composition allows, always shoot a vertical and a horizontal of the scene.

- Shoot things a little looser. I’m not talking about being sloppy with composition, rather I am talking about giving the designers and editors that will hopefully license your work, some room for things like copy etc.. during the layouts.

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I spent 12 weeks in Antarctica and 7 of those weeks was out in the remote Northern Prince Charles Mountains. So many things made those weeks so incredible, that I barely know where to start.

The funny thing was, it wasn’t until after the trip that I really understood how amazing it really was.

I remember walking around for weeks afterwards with the most amazing feeling of contentment and calmness. I remember feeling incredibly happy. It was in those weeks after the trip that I really realised how fortunate I had been.

In the years that followed I often tried to replicate the feeling of that trip, until one day I realised that a trip of a life time is a rare thing.

You can plan to have a trip of life time, but reality has its own ideas. Such trips don’t happen in a vacuum. It comes down to the people you meet, the experiences you have and where you are at in your life with yourself and others.

For me at least, travel photography is pretty similar. You can have the best of intentions and plans, but unless you are open to the places, people and random encounters you have along the way, you can miss an awful lot of photographic potential.

When you embrace the unexpected and go along for the ride, your photography will love you for it.

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That statement might sound pretty stupid, but I know there are readers out there that can relate. After all, how many positions for photographers have you seen advertised in newspapers or online?

Exactly.

For some time it really did remain a mystery to me. Photography – professional photography – was like a black box. Closed and out of reach.

With time though, that changed. I read, talked with other working photographers, thought about my target markets and began going about getting work. I still do it to this day and given my client list is growing, I figure I must be doing something right.

I recently read a post by a person wanting to get into photography asking how one goes about finding editors and pitching story ideas for potential publication. This post was on a moderated forum of working photographers and it sank like an anchor.

No one responded and that didn’t surprise me.

You see the thing is this – it takes time and effort to connect with editors and to develop working relationships. I really believe that the post in question went unanswered because as a photographer wanting to break into a market, there are some things you need to figure out for yourself and how to find magazines and editors is one of them.

If this is you, then remember this: it doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as you find a way that works for you and which gets you connected with the right people at the right publication.

You have to back yourself, learn from your mistakes and enjoy the wins.

No one can do that for you.

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Portraits can be difficult. Often surroundings can be drab and uninspiring so if you’re not bringing ideas to the table then you’re setting yourself up for failure.

Damon Winter via Too Much Chocolate

This is a great interview with NY Times photographer Damon Winter (not to be confused with Dan Winters). Two things about this interview really stand out for me:

1. Damon Winter’s isn’t formally trained in photography

2. Damon Winter’s discussion about the difficulties in producing a photograph that connects with his subjects.

The quote above seemed to dovetail perfectly with my last post – 39 Second Portrait Session

If you haven’t seen his Pulitzer winning body of work from the Obama campaign, then you have missed some amazing photography. Hit this link to see it.

Thanks to APE for the Damon Winter’s interview link.

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When I arrived, I was introduced to the owner of the place, Jim. Jim is a great bloke and a real Aussie character. I knew within seconds of meeting him that I wanted to try and get a good portrait of him.

Cold call portraits are tough for a number of reasons:

1. You have to convince a total stranger in a very short time that hey they should let you take their photograph.

2.  You have very little time to actually connect with your subject and get something

Needless to say, you need a strategy. Here’s mine:

1. Know before hand where you are going to photograph your subject.

2. Know before hand what it is about your subject that interests you

3. Ask your subject if you can take a portrait, but also push it a bit (more on that in a moment)

4. Provide some direction to your subject

5. Keep the talk going as you want to connect with your subject and get him / her as relaxed as possible

6. Keep it short and know when you have what it is you are after

That’s the strategy. Here is how it broke down with my 39-second portrait session of Jim.

1. Before I asked Jim if I could take some portraits, I picked a spot for the shoot. I was after good even light and a relatively clutter free background. I did an exposure check and took a test shot. I knew that the darker background would provide good contrast separation, especially for a black and white photo.

2. Two things interested me about Jim – his eyes and his working farm man type of look. This is what I wanted to capture.

3. I approached Jim asking for a portrait. Jim was erring on the side of saying ‘no’, and I could feel the opportunity slipping away, so I said ‘Jim just walk over here, rest your arm on this gate. This will be over before you know it. And hey, it isn’t every day you have a photographer offering to take your portrait’.

By this stage Jim was walking over. I had his permission, but only just. This is what I mean about pushing it. You need to ask, but you can also help lead them to saying ‘yes’. Remember, it is easier to say ‘no’, than ‘yes’, so you have to help them get to ‘yes’.

4. Jim was uncomfortable in front of the camera. He was looking all over the place and his body language was telling it’s own story. I provided some direction, asking Jim to place his right hand in his pocket and to look at the camera directly.

5. I kept the conversation going, reassuring Jim about how good his pose looked. I asked him once more to look directly at me and it was during the next couple of shots that I got the portrait I was after. I actually stopped shooting, saying ‘just one moment while I check the exposure (I’m really checking the content)’. I knew as soon as I viewed it that I had what I wanted.

6. In the past I use to shoot more, but I have learnt from my edits that with cold call portraits it is nearly always the first few frames that have the winners. As such, when I knew I had the shot, I let Jim go, thanking him for his time. Always be polite. It is a privilege to have a total stranger let you take their photo.

39-seconds isn’t long. That was the actual shoot time from first frame to last frame.

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“If you try too hard, if you’re too uptight, the photos never seem to work…It’s especially important in other countries…You’ve got to tolerate the differences and flow with things that you didn’t plan or expect. If you stay loose, it’s going to work out.”

Christopher Anderson via Outside Online

I learnt this via a totally different route.

A couple of years ago I read a piece about how the process of chimping – reviewing an image right after you’ve taken it – actually engages a different part of your brain. The idea being that chimping takes you out of any sort of creative, photographic zone you may be in while shooting.

Back then I was chimping too much, so after reading that article I made a conscious effort to change my shooting. I started thinking of my digital SLRs as if they were my old film cameras, which meant no chimping!

It took some time, but a funny thing happened. I became a lot looser with my shooting. At the same time my photography improved and the process of photography was more enjoyable.

I realise now that part of the problem with chimping – at least for me – was that it inadvertently put this pressure on me to produce a good photo with every shot. Once I let go of that, it really loosened me up and my photos became better. In a way, I was learning to trust my way of seeing the world.

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