As a professional photographer of course I have to shoot to live
i.e. take photos and get paid for them in order to earn a living. I do this by taking portraits of
people, occasionally animals, and of businesses, products and events. However,
there is another way to earn a living with a camera that I haven't explored
yet: shooting for stock, that is taking photographs and submitting them to
image libraries, where, hopefully, they will be purchased by people. Stock
photography is big business, with photographic images needed for newspapers,
magazines, websites, brochures, greetings cards, calendars, point of sale
material etc etc. and it can be seen as "easy" money; you post your
pictures and wait for the cash to come rolling in.
I've sold one image from a stock library and that was more by
accident than design. Before going professional I posted a few of my best
images onto a library that was a bit like Flickr and promptly forgot all about
them. Several years later a cheque for £75
dropped through the letter box; someone had bought an image of some masks that
I'd taken in Venice. I was really chuffed and started to look into how to get
images accepted onto the more well known galleries like Getty and Shutterstock.
I quickly concluded that I hadn't got enough images of the type required and
that I still needed to focus on building my portraiture and commercial
business.
Cut to the the present day where I now have an extensive library
of photographs of all sorts of subjects and every now and again someone tells
me I should be selling via image libraries. I was browsing the internet a few
weeks ago when a course on how to get into stock photography caught my eye. I
realised it was being run by someone who sold a lot of flower and garden
photographs and decided to sign up.
The course was yesterday and it was great, really informative and
I came away with all the knowledge I need to start submitting to image
libraries. But something's been bugging me since and I've been mulling it over
and over. The course leader is a successful stock photographer, selling tens if
not hundreds of images per month, some at less than 20 pence per image, others
for £400. This is no mean
accomplishment and it has taken her about four years to get to that stage. But
what struck me was how cynical she was about the industry and how
"un-passionate" she was about her trade. Photography for her was now
only a means to earn money and she didn't shoot the things she enjoyed
photographing, just the ones that she knew would sell. "If it won't sell,
I don't shoot it."
Now that is just good commercial discipline and I get that. When
I'm photographing a newborn I avoid unflattering poses and ugly angles as I
know the parents won't like the image and it won't end up as a framed print, so
why waste my valuable time. What I couldn't get my head around was that this
photographer would shoot stuff that was mediocre, uninspiring and in her own
words "not a great photograph" purely because she knew it would sell.
She laughed about us not reacting to her images with "oo's" and
"aa's" and didn't seem to mind that we weren't blown away by her
work. I spoke to her at lunchtime and she said she couldn't remember the last
time she'd picked her camera up for pleasure and just taken it out with her.
I couldn't do that, I love what I do and every picture I take has
to be the best I can do or it doesn't make it into my galleries, in front of a
client, or in the future, into an image library. I know who will make the most
money from stock photography and it won't be me, but I'm not willing to
sacrifice my passion and enjoyment for
the sake of earning more money. I've been trying to think of a comparison with
other industries and I guess it could be a bit like a talented chef giving up
working in a top restaurant serving
fine cuisine and instead setting up a fast food restaurant because it would earn him more money.
By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!
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