Workshop prep 2-fer

Transitional from the series Insomnia: Hotel Noir photograph copyright Douglas Stockdale

It is nice sometimes when you get an opportunity to work on a single task but accomplish two things, what we would call a 2-fer. Which was the case as I was completing my book workshop presentation for Portland in about a week. In this case, I needed some Photoshop screen shots as I went through my 2-step image sharpening process needed for POD digital halftone printing.

AND I had one photograph in particular from my recent biz trip to Boulder that I really felt was needed for my Insomnia series. But trying to get this workshop prep completed, I had just about everything else on hold. So I had the wonderful inspiration that instead to re-tracing my sharpening steps with an existing photograph, why not make the screen captures with a new image? Especially one that has been bugging me to explore?? Thus the 2-fer! nice.

So now I just about have all of the PowerPoint presentations complete and have to let them set a day before the final edit. Thank goodness that the PowerPoints use a bullet point format and are not complete sentences and I need to worry about all the grammer aspects. I will be printing these PowerPoints this week end, then off to a quick print joint to print and bind these as workshop notes. My stress on preping for this workshop is now way down.

AND I have another photograph for my Insomnia series, as I like how this is working with the rest of the series. I can almost visualize where this photograph will be sequenced.  As this is at that period of finally turning in for the night, staring at what ever it is in the dark night beyond the windows. In this case, it was some two story office building, a small division of a big Corporation. The parking lights are on but nobody is at work, the far building appearing as dark, cold and desolate as I felt. Like I said, this photograph will work just fine.

So in a couple of weeks after I return from Portland, I will put the finishing touches  on it to prepare it for my book.

Best regards, Doug

Stock Photgraphy – Fine Print

Okay, this is part two following on from yesterday’s article about the potential for shooting Stock Photography, which is one more post than I planned, but I am on a roll. As Gordon had reminded me off-line, beware of the fine print with a potential stock agency.

And the fine print includes, who takes on the copyright of your photography, do you keep it or do they get to “assign” it? (hint: you want to keep the copyright, unless they offer you a ton of money). There are all kinds of financial and legal aspects that you should keep in mind and read at least once before you sign up.

Also, make sure you understand the photographic technical requirments for you images.  As an example, hereare the digital photography requirements at alamy.com Thus, the Bavarian castle picture above is nicely composed, it does not meet the technical requirements for a submission. I was leading a small group from my day-job on a sight-seeing week-end day and was only carrying my Canon G-2 for “snap” shots. The G-2 is a 4 Megapixel compact. Alamy needs Pro-level camera platforms with a minimum of 6 Mp. Now a difference of 2Mp may not seem like much, but when you compare the sensor sizes, lens quality & resolution, pixel density (12 bit RAW vs 14 bit) and the list goes on, I have a very nice memento, not a stock photograph.

So there are some minimum equipment requirements for Stock that you need to be aware of. Even my Canon XTi at 10.2 Mp shooting RAW at 12 bits is very borderline, although I use the top end Canon L lens. I do not have any image capture issues when I use my Hasselblad and 120 film, but it does take an investment in time to spot those digital files after I scan the negative or transparency.

So read carefully, but if you think that this might be an opportunity, jump in. Just as I might.

Best regards, Doug

Stock photograpy

King Ludwig II’s Bavarian castle, Neuschwanstein, Germany

Gordon McGregor recently wrote about his fleeting experiences with selling some of his photographs on alamy.com, a stock photographic agency. We have continued this dicussion off line, but I thought I would like to share my previous experiences, and perhaps obtain some recommendations for a course of action.

First, I apprecaite Gordon’s point about finding the right stock photo partner, and think well enough of yourself and your work to avoid the micro-stock agencies. Thus, the first goal is to find the best stock agency partner, so besides alamy.com, any recommendations?

Second, I have to understand 1) how much time do I want to spend on this? 2) what existing images that I have that might be attactive in this market?

Okay, I don’t want to “shoot stock”, that is, specifically spending the time to go looking for images that might be excellent stock photographs. But in the course of photographing things that interest me, and I do make a pretty good image, leverage those photographs to eek out a little income for the time spent to get them to the stock agency. As an example, the photograph above of Neuschwanstein that I made while working on an assignement in Southern Germany. Right place at the right time, eh?

So this may be like maintaining a blog.  Spend a little time each week to upload a couple of potential images, and over the course of a year or two, have a nice quanitity of stock images that generate a nice little cash flow. Or so the reasoning goes.

And one of the things that I have noted with this blog, is that I get a fair number of Google image searches for a small group of specific photographs, thus good candidates to start with, eh?

But the trade-off for me, is that the time I have for photography or anything creative is at a premium, just not enough time in the day to do all that you would like to do.

So if I do start this venture, I’d like to partner with the best stock photography option that I can. As Gordon told me, he tried this as a trial and has not spent any time beyond the initial upload of his 11 images, but yet the checks still keep dribbling in. nice.

Best regards, Doug