Luis - 2
Me - 1
Residents of North Carolina - 1
Residents of Beverly Hills, Ca - 1
Everyone Else - 0
Don't really have much to say, which is code for I'm about to ramble alot. Kids are back from yet another trip. They travel more then I do. Can't wait until they can use a camera. My son was pretty good at using one when he was three. He could pose and zoom as needed. The best picture we have of Angela and I is one he took. He told us where and how to sit. To be honest, you don't expect much from a three-year-old taking pictures, but they came out really good.
He was the inspiration for me doing photography. Just after he was born, I got a bonus at work, and I didn't tell my now ex-wife because she would make me give it to her to spend on "bills". I wanted to get a camera, but not just any ol' camera. I wanted a nice camera. One with the interchangeable lenses. So I went to Wal-Mart and bought the Canon 35mm Rebel kit and a 70-200mm lens to go with it. I brought it home and started shooting. I was the most awesome-ist photographer ever. I could take a photo of anything and it was stockworthy. I started my own stock website to sell my photos for $300-$400 dollars each. Guess what.... never sold a single one. Here's a sample of what I tried to sell (Bug in Amber):
So I took a step back and re-evaluated my photography. I also decided I couldn't sell the photos on my own so I looked for companies who could sell for me. I found Shutterstock. I submitted a few and after I sold a couple, found other companies like Bigstock and Canstock. I read the forums alot and rarely responded, just listened. I learned about Photoshop, composition, what would and wouldn't sell. I've seen companies start up and shut down. I found I am very picky with my photos. I may go to a shoot and shoot 500 photos of different poses, models, props, etc., but would only submit 10 photos, each one completely different from the other. I learned enough Photoshop to improve some older photos, such as:
Here's my opinion of each company:
Shutterstock: top seller, quickest approval, best forum
iStock: picky, forum is ok, best artistic photography, most profitable
Dreamstime: forever to approve, picky, like their photo "levels" the more it sells the more it's worth
BigStock: accepted almost anything early on, starting to get picky, low payout rate
Canstock: slow seller, like their series option
Fotolia: used to approve quick, now pretty slow, used to tell you who bought, but stopped.
123RoyaltyFree: accepts almost anything, slow seller
Whenever people ask me who I shoot for, I say Shutterstock and iStock, because to me they are the most professional and respectable. So to those of you who want to start shooting, click the links in the column to the right and sign up, I'd start with Shutterstock, their 7-of-10 initial approval is the biggest lesson you'll get in the proper type of photo for stock.
Oh, while you're at it, click on some ads anywhere on the page. I got bills to pay.
Hope I rambled enough for you. If they turn this blog into a movie, I'll get Antonio Bandaras to play Luis. Hugh Jackman will play me. Rachel McAdams will play Angela. Danny DeVito will play the rest of you.
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