New Zealand Stock Photography advice for newbie photogs to the industry

November 2nd, 2009 § 12 comments - add yours

I’m regularly asked about making money from stock photography. Here are some thoughts:

Producing quality stock photography requires a huge commitment. The business models are changing continuously and will continue to change in the future, but through your hard work, keeping the faith and producing quality work then it might just work.

The trouble is there are plenty of places to flog your work for a pittance (or likely a big loss) these days such as the micro-stock industry like I-stock, and it’s becoming harder to find a sensible route. Photography has been commoditised* and if you want to make some dough you need to figure out a way around this problem.  It seems like everywhere you turn there’s a chance to make a few cents from your photos – but a little thought easily uncovers a major problem:

Recently I met a Canadian chap (not a local canadian boy whose name rhymes with ‘potatto’ I should stress) who proudly told me that he’d licenced 268 images. I was impressed because I knew he took the odd photo, so I was keen to learn more. He proudly told me he’d made “$67.00″ total for all 268 images through an online microstock website! I asked him why he bothered for that tiny amount given the huge amount of work and expense he’s put in? “To make some money” was his reply. $0.25 per license isn’t making money – it doesn’t even cover the time taken to upload the images (let alone equipment, travel, or even make some income), but this seemed irrelevant to him.  In his mind he’d made some money.  I wondered if he’d ever work willingly for someone on this return? I bet not – so why had he been taken advantage of so easily? … > > > Continue reading : full post + comments > > >

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