by Bill on September 26, 2008
I finally finished up my application at iStock. I went through the process earlier this year and one of my images did not pass quality control. After PSC came along I didn’t bother to finish up the application.
After a lot of thought and bickering with myself I decide to complete the application. I was approved really quickly, like 2 hours and I then submitted a batch of microstock’ish images. My current definition of microstockish is images with only objects in them, not people. I am hoping I get through the QC process at Alamy and I can send all my people shots there.
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by Bill on September 19, 2008
I have roughly 50 images sitting in the queue at Alamy, One batch is in arrived state (for about 4 days now) and the other has made it to processing state. The batch is processing state says “Processing - can take up to 25 days”.
For everyone that was getting used to PSC’s 9-10 day review cycle this is a little shocking. I think it is a pretty good thing for me at least since I am not continually checking image status to see if they went through, instead I go out and shoot more pictures!
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by Bill on September 15, 2008
I sent an initial batch of images to Alamy last night. For one large batch I automated e upsizing in PhotoShop Elements. These may not pass as I can’t choose the sampling method for batch resizing (boo Adobe!!). I then found this post over on the Alamy forum about upsizing directly out of Aperture. I gave this a shot on one additional image. Being able to export straight out of Aperture would dramatically speed up my workflow, I hope it works. I really miss the PSC Aperture plugin, exporting directly out of Aperture into PSC saved me tons of time.
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by Bill on September 14, 2008
So I have had a few days to recover from the unexpected closure of the PhotoShelter Collection and collect a few thoughts and plan a course of action. First a few thoughts:
1. For those that think your time was “wasted” keywording and uploading images, it is only wasted if you keyworded on the PSC site directly. If you keyworded locally in the EXIF of each image, that work will be recovered when you upload to your new agencies.
2. Thanks to the PSC team for giving it a go. I have worked at many startups so I know what a tough decision it was to try PSC in the first place then have to pull the plug 1 year later. I am sure the numbers where just not working out. Good call as I have seen far to may companies ride a bad decision all the way into the ground.
OK so now whats next?
1. Diversification is really important. I rode PSC into the ground and failed to upload anywhere else with any regularity. Now I am starting from scratch again.
2. Alamy seems like the next logical choice but man upsizing and uploading big ass image files is going to suck.
3. I need a microstock play. Yeah I said it, it sucks, and I hate it. I have images in my portfolio that are best suited for a RF microstock site. So it looks like iStock here I come for at least a few images.
4. I need to focus on a few niches. I spent most of this year shooting a little bit of everything. Some silos, a lot of kids, some landscape/nature, and a few travel shoots. I live in an area that has great travel and lifestyle photo opportunities, it is silly not to take advantage of them. Plus these types of photos tend to do fairly well in a RM portfolio.
5. My goal is in major jeopardy. I need to have an insane 4th quarter comeback. $1000 is going to be really tough given that I am still at $0. I got lazy waiting for that one big PSC sell instead of focusing on my goal.
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by Bill on September 11, 2008
In a major blow to my fledgling stock career, my sole agency PhotoShelter Collection called it quits today. I really admired what they where trying to do there and wish them all the best with there Archive service. It was never going to be easy but from a business standpoint you have to pull the plug.
So where do I go next? Almay?, iStock(bleh), DigitalRailroad? I would rather not go micro so please let me know where some good RM agencies are.
Update: Vincent LaForet gives his thoughts on his blog
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So nothing to show for Q1 as far as earnings. I am still basically exclusive at PhotoShelter (I have like 5 images on Dreamstime) and my portfolio is up to 73 images but I have not really be shooting much with only stock in mind. I have some good ideas I want to shoot and hopefully can get some time to shoot them in the next couple of months.
Work flow I have pretty much nailed at this point. PhotoShelter’s Aperture plugin rocks! I can go from import to upload really quickly. What I really need is key wording help. I was browsing around iStock the other day and see images with like 30-40 keywords, most of mine end up in the 10-20 range. Not sure what resources I can find to help with that though. Any ideas on key wording would be greatly appreciated.
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by Bill on March 20, 2008
It is not a sale but I am pretty stoked one of my images made editors choice. It will be interesting to see if it brings more traffic or not. I *think* I am getting a better idea of the style they are going for in the collection so I will hopefully get even more images accepted. Check out my editors choice image:
Smiling girl in Spring
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by Bill on March 19, 2008
I have decided that Aperture 2 is going to be the main part of my workflow moving forward. The time i used to spend in Photoshop is now spent in Aperture. I can do 99% of the stuff I need to do with my photos I can handle right inside Aperture.
I also got the awesome UberUpload plugin for Aperture. It adds a super handy Export function to upload to ftp servers. For stock agencies that support ftp this is a godsend. My basic workflow looks like this:
1. Import images
2. Do a quick yes/no pass
3. Perform any adjustments needed
4. Keyword
5. Upload with Uberupload
I can rip through a ton of images using this technique.
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The Moment It Clicks is an amazingly inspirational book that is easy to read and understand. The book is written by Joe McNally (blog) Who the heck is Joe McNally? A brief snip from his bio:
is an internationally acclaimed photographer, whose career has spanned 30 years and included assignments in over 50 countries. Although the majority of his career has been spent shooting for magazines such as Time, Sports Illustrated, and National Geographic, in the mid-1990s Joe served as Life magazine’s staff photographer, the first one in 23 years.
Joe is an amazing photographer and it would be a great book if it just had his photographs in it. In addition to his stunning images though he has 1-2 page stories and “How to get this shot” sections that explain the story and technique behind the photograph. These are straight and to the point. This is the first book I have read that is both inspirational and instructional at the same time. This tips cover the gamut from photography to being a photographer to life in general.
Amazing book that you must add to your library!
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Still 0$ in sales although I did have a lightbox add at PhotoShelter. As I mentioned before I am throwing practically all my eggs over there. I have one or two images at a few microstock stock sites but almost all of my images are submitted to PhotoShelter first. They seem to be lagging a bit on the reviews lately but I take that as a good sign that they are getting busy. More photographers over there is a good thing.
I did get to go to the Bay Area Strobist mini-meetup which was awesome. I also rented a Sigma 10-20 for Borrow Lenses and captured this photo that I love of my new son.
I am also trailing Aperture 2
which looks like I am going to choose for my main workflow app. I can do 95% of my post work there. Hopefully there will be a PhotoShelter plugin soon.
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