Photos – Mixx

Archive for the ‘stock photos’ Category

Gambling is not accepted for some people, because it spends much money and if you lose you will loose your money. There is only lucky person who will be the winner. But there are many people love to do gambling. Another word of gambling is casino. Casino is more popular than saying gambling. People love to play casino, because it gives people pleasure and they have got fun when playing that. That’s why in some states such as USA and UK, it is legal.

Casino games are games which you have to play with your money, if you are lucky you will get your money back even much than the first. But if you lose, you will loose all of your money. Nowadays, there are many places which build for casino. And some people who cannot go there prefer to choose play casino via online. It is easier to play than go to the real casino; even you can download casino games for your own.

You can play many kinds of casino games that you like by visiting the web on Casinoscandinavia.com. One game that is recommended for the beginner is slots game, because it is very easy to play casino slot games.

Sumo Wrestlers and Trapeze Artists

A good example of the approach I am currently taking to my stock photography can be seen in a recent shoot based around a Sumo wrestler. The idea originated from a shoot I did a few years ago. I had photographed flying trapeze artists to illustrate concepts such as teamwork, risk and skill. During the process of digitally compositing the trapeze picture it occurred to me that one trapeze artist about to catch another very heavy, overweight trapeze artist could be both humorous and effective in illustrating “the impossible”, risk, and the need for assistance.

Large and Proud, Funny and Compelling

Thing was, I was too embarrassed to ask an extremely overweight person to model for the shot. I even wondered if such a photograph would be insensitive or demeaning to people with weight problems. I don’t remember exactly what triggered the idea of using a Sumo wrestler, but as soon as the idea hit me I knew I had to do it. Sumo wrestlers are both the epitome of large, and are proud of their size. That solved all of my above concerns. Using a sumo wrestler would also emphasize the size difference and make the image all that much more funny and compelling.

An Imposing Force and A Kitten

My producer contacted a sumo wrestling association and we secured the services of a three hundred pound plus Sumo Wrestler named Americus. A very imposing fellow, but also very nice and enthusiastic about our photo shoot, though we did have to clear our shot list with the director of the association. The principle image was the trapeze one, but we filled out the list with ideas such as the wrestler as an imposing force, about to wrestle a small business man, holding up a small kitten, walking a tightrope and a number of other conceptual ideas.

A Day to Shoot, Ten Days To Image

The photography took a day to shoot and I spent the next ten days or so putting the digital composites together. Eventually I got bored and moved onto other projects. I still have more scenarios to complete with the sumo wrestler but they involve additional location photography. Someday I’ll get around to them.

Blend Images and A Rights Managed Collection

In the mean time I placed the images with Blend Images, a stock photo agency (in the interest of full disclosure…I am one of the founders of Blend) specializing in the celebration of ethnically diverse business, lifestyle and conceptual images. The sumo stock images are part of Blend’s new Non-exclusive Rights Managed stock photo collection, though a couple of images were deemed more appropriate the royalty free collections.

This shoot embodies a lot of my stock strategies. The images are primarily for Rights Managed collections, I base a shoot around a strong concept and add to the shot list as many related concept images as I reasonably can, and I try and find the best possible distribution for the images.

Photography is getting easier.  A lot easier!  Being a stock photographer is getting easier too, perhaps even to a greater degree than getting “good” pictures.  The result is a tremendous pressure on “pros” that make a living at stock to be able to continue making that living.  So what’s a pro to do?  The answer lies in using your whole brain, not just the left or the right hemispheres.  You need to use the left part for creativity and right for practicality, or pragmatism or whatever you want to call common sense.

As digital cameras continue to evolve and drop in price, and as Micro sites and online communities offer every greater degrees of education for would be stock producers, creating technically competent images becomes easier and more feasible for the masses.  Too, the masses are to an ever greater extent being made aware of the possibility of “making a few bucks” off of their hobby, and of the very real possibility (real but exceedingly elusive) of making that hobby into their profession.  Indeed, after a few hours of viewing Microstock forums it seems as if every amateur photographer out there is bent on becoming a professional stock photographer! The competition is increasing.

This brings us back to that increasingly important question, just how is a professional stock photographer going to thrive, or even survive, in this new environment?  I firmly believe that despite the “democratization” and “commoditization” of the stock photo industry, there will always be more reward for great images.  By great I mean images that fill a need and do it superbly.  A quick analysis of downloads at the current Mecca of Micro stock sites, iStockphoto, shows clearly that the best of the best images do return rather significant amounts to the photographer. There is still, and always will be plenty of money to be made.

Continued success is very simple really.  Make great images that fill a specific need.  To make those great images you need the left half of your brain; you need to be creative.  To make images that fill a need you have to use the right half of your brain.  You need to stay abreast of the images that are already out there, of what businesses need what kinds of images, and of what your competition is.  You need to have knowledge. I usually do a search on the major stock sites before I commit to creating an image just to make sure I am not re-inventing the wheel.  I am always amazed at what hasn’t been done, or hasn’t been done well.  In many cases the images that exist for a given need haven’t been updated in years, sometimes in many, many years!

While no one can know what the future will bring, I can see with my own eyes that it is still possible, at the time of this writing, to make huge amounts of money in stock photography.  Photographers are doing it in Rights Managed, photographers are doing it in Royalty Free, and yes, photographers are doing it in Micro stock. There is no magic bullet here.  There is simply putting the time and intention into coming up with creative ideas, putting the time and effort into researching the market, and having the gumption to actually do it. So what are you waiting for!