It finally happened, I'm a "pro"

Well, it happened, and rather quickly all things considered. I got my first sale! I sold a picture of Travis Pastrana that I took at the Oregon Trail Rally. Before you ask (or think), yes it was sold under editorial license so I didn't need a model release.

Here's the picture:



Here's the link to it at Alamy.

That's the nice thing about stock. I've been a little busy and a havevn't put up any new pictures in a week or two but the pictures are still out there. One even sold itself. June will only be my first full month on Alamy as well. Here's hoping I can keep the streak going and get some more quality up there!

Rejections Rejections

Well, I had a ton more pics rejected at PhotoShelter. This is the same series that got me rejections at Alamy. I'm wondering if my self editing skills are lacking.

Perhaps its my post-processing? There's a book on processing RAW files that I have on my Amazon wish list - Art of RAW Conversion: How to Produce Art-Quality Photos with Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Leading RAW Converters. I understand the very basics of the histogram and mainly I work on my processing to keep things from being to over or underexposed and have proper color correction. I'm probably missing a few tricks that could really help.

Its gotten a little frustrating but oh well.

Soft, and lacking definition...

Got another rejection at Alamy. Jeez, I think I got overconfident. I think I'm looking at two problems. First, the Rebel XT, while producing much better results than point and shoot cameras, really is at the bottom of the totem pole when it comes to DSLRs. Second, we have this really great light in the Seattle. "Seattle Gray" its when there is always a 100% uniform cloud cover that provides overly soft and drab light throughout the entire day. This really hurts because there are no shadows or highlights a lot of times. That means pictures end up looking soft, and lacking definition.

One picture in particular was a cruise ship... can you imagine the light I would need to make that look right? Yes, stack another 400 flashes over there please...

So I need to work more on composition and evaluating and dealing with the crappy light we have up here.

Research feedback from PhotoShelter

I like to peruse the forums at the different stock sites. You can see what sells if photographers feel like sharing. You can get suggestions. You can see whining. Sometimes you even get some great information.

The PhotoShelter forums yesterday had a blog entry about their research system and what is and isn't a good submission. They had examples that were actually submitted to the research request and provided individual feedback on what is and isn't good. While they don't have time to provide feedback on each individual submission, these general results are extremely helpful.

Alamy not Alamay

For some reason I always say Alamy in my head as Al-uh-may. To that end, I'm not even sure of the proper pronunciation, is it all-uh-me, al-uh-me, al-uh-my? Who knows? I like to think its all-uh-me as a play on "all of me". I'm just rambling now aren't I?

Rejection at Alamy

Garden 5-31-32
Originally uploaded by punkd0rk

Well, I failed my first quality control (QC) at Alamy. It was one of my artichoke pictures. I'm not sure which because I don't use a common naming scheme between Alamy and my Flickr account. I've got the image at home and I can figure it out there.

The rejection reasons were:
Interpolation artifacts
Soft or lacking definition

Well, perhaps they didn't like my depth of field regarding the Soft or Lacking Definition. I'll have to take a closer look regarding the interpolation artifacts too.

It looks like I should drag a strobe out to the garden for my next shots. There wasn't a ton of light for this artichoke and thats why I used a large aperture and hence the shallow depth of field. Again, when I get home I'll confirm exactly which artichoke picture was rejected and throw that one up here.

I was starting to think I was invincible on Alamy... no sales though. I am up to 15 views. The nice thing about the views from Alamy is they tell you what the key words were, this helps you to figure out what the customers are actually looking for and if you're missing the mark.

UPDATE: I had a second rejection on another artichoke shot so I pulled them and resubmitted. That submission was approved this morning. I guess I'll go back with more light or take another look at the shot to get some more dept of field in there.

A new opportunity at PhotoShelter

PhotoShelter has added a new opportunity. Research assignments. These are assignments where they have potential customers but their needs aren't met by what is currently in their collection. They post a research need and you can submit new pictures directly to that need.

I participated in my first one on Sunday night. There is a client looking for pictures of herbs and vegetables, etc. I uploaded a few shots from our garden. We'll see what happens.

I wonder how long before I get a sale somewhere. It'll happen, just gotta keep shooting...