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Stock as a job - what's your schedule?


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I know for many of you stock is your full time job.  What's your schedule in a typical week?  Do you, say shoot Monday and Tuesday, process and upload to Alamy on such and such a day and tag on this and that day?  Is it not that structured?  I'd love to have some sort of idea so I can stop being so 'ad hoc'!

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First of all holidays are out the window. Just had a week's "holiday" in Brittany with the family but it's very hard to turn off when you see so much material around you.

 

The majority of the time that I do my real stock work is very pre-planned in that I see what cash I have and then plan trips to various places to get the stock.

 

When at home time is spent:

 

Processing

Vlogging

Taking kids to school/ picking them up

etc

 

Impossible to work on a schedule when so many things come into play.

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As a nature and travel photographer AND running a small agency, I work according to the weather and the seasons. 

  • Fine weather with blue skies >> travel and landscape photography
  • Overcast weather >> ideal for shooting in forests (wildflowers / mushrooms / birds)

Most of the wintertime and when dealing with rainy days >> editing, keywording and submitting to several agencies.

From April till October I'm out roaming through Europe in my tiny Kangoo micro campervan looking for subjects to shoot. 

  • January - February: lots of editing + one or two week trips to shoot winter wildlife + musea
  • March: lots of editing + amphibians + musea
  • April: lots of editing + amphibians/reptiles + first wildflowers + migratory birds + nesting birds + travel
  • May - October: travel + wildlife + editing only during bad weather
  • September - November: mushrooms + fall colors + rutting season of deer + editing
  • December: rutting season of ibex + editing

This week:

  • Sunday: spend all day in a fixed hide photographing migratory birds in a wetland
  • Monday: quarterly TVA bookkeeping
  • Tuesday: editing + keywording
  • Wednesday: editing + keywording
  • Thursday: shooting cave (tourist attraction, no speleology involved ;))
  • Friday - Saturday - ..... trip to Luxembourg looking for nesting dippers (Cinclus cinclus)

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

- and what percentage of the time are you spending at the "productive" forums, Philippe?  :)

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I'm very much a point and shoot stock image photographer. So, while I've been focusing more on my stock and less on looking for a job, I spend whatever time I can on shooting and editing and uploading and tagging. I have no rhyme or reason to my schedule and other things do distract me. Right now I'm building my "That App" portfolio, and when I get my backlog finished there, I will start shooting again with the big-girl camera. 

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Plan where i want to go.

Research what i`d like to shoot.

Have a look on Alamy to see what else is there.

Probably go and shoot it my style whatever anyway  !

Always download to my comp as soon as.

As photography is a second business to me alongside another full time business,

I will then go through and check what i wish to upload.

I am probably selecting more carefully what i shoot now than i did at the start.

Once uploaded to Alamy and they have passed QC, Saturday afternoon seems to the best time

for me to keyword whilst listening to my football team win lose or draw on the radio.

Then start over again.

But i guess like a lot of people this cycle just repeats and repeats. 

 

Sales tend to make me do things quicker ;-) 

 

Plus treat it like work, its not a hobby.

But i love this work !

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Sunny days (or when I suspect a general election is about to be announced) - go out and take photos.

Other days - sit at the computer dealing with the huge backlog of photos going back months (after I did all the best ones quickly, leaving the rest until 'later')

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Get up, go to bed. :P

 

Allan

 

OMG, I don't want to become a pensioner....... never  :o

 

Cheers,

Philippe  :P

 

I quite agree although I passed 'so-called' pensioner age five years ago. Still as busy as ever and capable of lugging a 10" x 8" around the landscape. (Better than a gym). Full schedule 7 days a week. Combination of travel, shooting personal projects, printing as the requests for prints come in from galleries, dealers and collectors. Last few days, platinum printing. Planning and researching new projects /exhibitions / publications etc. Also writing, teaching and leading workshops and masterclasses. 

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Get up, go to bed. :P

 

Allan

 

OMG, I don't want to become a pensioner....... never  :o

 

Cheers,

Philippe  :P

 

I quite agree although I passed 'so-called' pensioner age five years ago. Still as busy as ever and capable of lugging a 10" x 8" around the landscape. (Better than a gym). Full schedule 7 days a week. Combination of travel, shooting personal projects, printing as the requests for prints come in from galleries, dealers and collectors. Last few days, platinum printing. Planning and researching new projects /exhibitions / publications etc. Also writing, teaching and leading workshops and masterclasses. 

 

 

 

What I do in between get up and go to bed is another matter but I assure you it is a full day. A very full day. -_-

 

Allan

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The level of my present involvement with stock?  I think of as falling somewhere between having a part-time or a full-time job. I was going to say just part-time, but when I add up the hours I spend planning, doing PP, and tagging (yeah, I also snap pictures), it can come to 8 or more hours a day. Lately I've been uploading 100 or more images a month.

 

I'm selling well now, even though I shoot no Live News or special events, just do common access subjects . . . so this activity will not pay my bills. I'm lucky enough to be a pensioner, and if Philippe is not attacked and killed by a wild duck, he may be lucky enough to become a pensioner too. 

 

Understand: I don't do this for the money. I don't play golf and I don't watch daytime TV.  I shoot stock to have something involving, that is both physical and mental, to do. I enjoy the activity as much as I once enjoyed being a pro assignment photographer. 

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Get up, shower, porridge and tea, play Ibiza prom, do stuff.

 

"porridge and tea"  :huh:

 

Yuk!  :blink:

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

 

I have mine with fresh blueberries and almond milk. Scrumptious!

 

Oatmeal (a.k.a. porridge) is also really good for you, probably even better than beer and chocolate. B)

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Get up, shower, porridge and tea, play Ibiza prom, do stuff.

 

"porridge and tea"  :huh:

 

Yuk!  :blink:

 

Cheers,

Philippe

 

 

I have mine with fresh blueberries and almond milk. Scrumptious!

 

Oatmeal (a.k.a. porridge) is also really good for you, probably even better than beer and chocolate. B)

 

 

Are you sure oatmeal isn't food for horses?  -_-

 

200px-Cheval_Cappadoce.jpg

 

Cheers,

Philippe  :P

 

 

Horses are my friends. They don't lie, start wars, or have huge egos.

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I had oatmeal and blueberries with honey for breakfast everyday for the past three years. My beverage at the start of each day is two large mugs of very dark espresso . . . with sugar.

 

I've lived for sometime in a few tea-drinking nations, but never acquired the habit. Right now, however, I'm having a few bits of Parmigiano-Reggiano, Kalamata olives and a glass of very inexpensive but good red wine. Life on Earth can be a very good experience -- don't screw it up!

 

To your health, ladies and gentlemen!  :D

 

 parmesan-cheese-with-a-glass-of-red-wine

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I took some snaps today of what I was about to eat, and I'll post them for you and John, Mark.  And Philippe, of course.

 

The wine is Trader Joe's two-buck chuck ($2.99 now in NYC). It's a Cabernet Sauvignon (blend?) from California. If you let it breath for about 2 hours it is very drinkable. I used to live in Europe, and I was a restaurant reviewer . . . and on a few occasions with rich friends I've shared a $1,000 bottle of French wine. Am I some sort of expert? Hell no!  :)

 

a-bowl-of-oatmeal-with-blueberries-and-h

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The trick is to have the oatmeal / porridge and berries before you get into the vino.

 

And, yes, oatmeal is very economical. I buy a big bag (organic, of course) for a few bucks. It lasts me for ages, and I even have some left over for my horse. B)

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"The trick is to have the oatmeal / porridge and berries before you get into the vino." - JM

 

Damn! I knew there was something I was getting wrong! Don't mention this to Peter O'Toole or Richard Harris. What? They are both gone now? Oh my -- I hope it had nothing to do with their drinking? I want Andy to know that I do have an Irish passport, thus I'm taking certain liberties with this thread. Although I was born in Brooklyn. 

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"The trick is to have the oatmeal / porridge and berries before you get into the vino." - JM

 

Damn! I knew there was something I was getting wrong! Don't mention this to Peter O'Toole or Richard Harris. What? They are both gone now? Oh my -- I hope it had nothing to do with their drinking? I want Andy to know that I do have an Irish passport, thus I'm taking certain liberties with this thread. Although I was born in Brooklyn. 

 

Didn't those two invent the gin and porridge breakfast smoothie?

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