Ed Rooney Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 With all this activity around Stockimo and special effects and the avant garde and apps and extremely wide lenses and gear galore, am I wrong in assuming that most picture buyers are still looking for specific subjects to lease? Not just boots and cups and knifes and hats and burgers, but maybe something that suggests love or hate or fear or neediness or fun or global warming or . . . other stuff? And I think each of us have an idea of which subject (subjects) that would be best to capture, no? Unfortunately, I do not, for one reason or another, have access to many of the subjects on my own short list. One would be the Obama family having a Sunday breakfast in their end of the White House. I just don't know who to call to set that up. Subjects can be overdone, of course, but tell me they're still important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giphotostock Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 I do not think that things are any different now than they were previously: editorial: subject matter is the king commercial: concept, styling GI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ann Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Edo - Your Obama breakfast reminds me of a reply I posted on another forum when someone asked what's a good place for a stock photographer to live: the White House I felt that was more practical than my other choice (parallel universe), even if one has ftp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Edo, Style? Give me substance..... Chuck Nacke (still the original one) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linda Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 With all this activity around Stockimo and special effects and the avant garde and apps and extremely wide lenses and gear galore, am I wrong in assuming that most picture buyers are still looking for specific subjects to lease? Not just boots and cups and knifes and hats and burgers, but maybe something that suggests love or hate or fear or neediness or fun or global warming or . . . other stuff? And I think each of us have an idea of which subject (subjects) that would be best to capture, no? Unfortunately, I do not, for one reason or another, have access to many of the subjects on my own short list. One would be the Obama family having a Sunday breakfast in their end of the White House. I just don't know who to call to set that up. Subjects can be overdone, of course, but tell me they're still important. I know who to call to set up the Obama photo op,LOL! But I get your point on the picture needs! Some of the want lists from many sources I've viewed lately are just out of line of my own little world. L Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Brook Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 With all this activity around Stockimo and special effects and the avant garde and apps and extremely wide lenses and gear galore, am I wrong in assuming that most picture buyers are still looking for specific subjects to lease? Not just boots and cups and knifes and hats and burgers, but maybe something that suggests love or hate or fear or neediness or fun or global warming or . . . other stuff? And I think each of us have an idea of which subject (subjects) that would be best to capture, no? Unfortunately, I do not, for one reason or another, have access to many of the subjects on my own short list. One would be the Obama family having a Sunday breakfast in their end of the White House. I just don't know who to call to set that up. Subjects can be overdone, of course, but tell me they're still important. Woman, family, business......the most used search terms on the G for this year.... it's a pretty consistent picture. Hype comes and goes, the fundamentals of what to depict remain fairly constant. Relationships between people, in all forms, are still the best place to set up camp. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlbertSnapper Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Subjects sold over the last two months: Petroleum industry Religious house in Cuba Chemical outflow from former ICI works Landfill Hospital departments Industrial security Wastewater from paper mill Budget clothes store Yes - content is still king. I'll add to that... Out of tune TV Light pollution Stonemason working on gravestone British countryside and litter Reversing lorry Derelict industrial building Pensioner with shopping in winter none of it particulary happy nice stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Brook Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 .. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 With all this activity around Stockimo and special effects and the avant garde and apps and extremely wide lenses and gear galore, am I wrong in assuming that most picture buyers are still looking for specific subjects to lease? Not just boots and cups and knifes and hats and burgers, but maybe something that suggests love or hate or fear or neediness or fun or global warming or . . . other stuff? And I think each of us have an idea of which subject (subjects) that would be best to capture, no? Unfortunately, I do not, for one reason or another, have access to many of the subjects on my own short list. One would be the Obama family having a Sunday breakfast in their end of the White House. I just don't know who to call to set that up. Subjects can be overdone, of course, but tell me they're still important. Yes, subject counts - though it may be collection dependent..... Here are two from last week and I have one of carolers pending in the queue I have more shoes and groceries to shoot for the main collection later today ...images licensed the last few months.... Johnny Cash Museum (twice) A kitten isolated over white (twice) A row of rental bicycles A cup of yogurt over white A child being carried in a coffin during a festival (still alive of course) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 With all this activity around Stockimo and special effects and the avant garde and apps and extremely wide lenses and gear galore, am I wrong in assuming that most picture buyers are still looking for specific subjects to lease? Not just boots and cups and knifes and hats and burgers, but maybe something that suggests love or hate or fear or neediness or fun or global warming or . . . other stuff? And I think each of us have an idea of which subject (subjects) that would be best to capture, no? Unfortunately, I do not, for one reason or another, have access to many of the subjects on my own short list. One would be the Obama family having a Sunday breakfast in their end of the White House. I just don't know who to call to set that up. Subjects can be overdone, of course, but tell me they're still important. Woman, family, business......the most used search terms on the G for this year.... it's a pretty consistent picture. Hype comes and goes, the fundamentals of what to depict remain fairly constant. Relationships between people, in all forms, are still the best place to set up camp. I picked the Obama breakfast as an extreme example (not knowing about Linda's contact ), but I was not really referring to my own situation or my own limitations. My point is that we all have subjects we can access and subjects we cannot, cannot easily access, at least. Throwing money around is one way to gain access, but is it cost effective for creating stock? Let me take the three subjects you mentioned, Geoff: woman, family, business. When I worked in the theater and the film business there were beautiful women falling out of every closet, major stars and hopeful starlets. It was hard to keep up. That has been over for a long time now. Family? Much the same thing. Many have passed, the rest have moved elsewhere. I have one nephew who works and lives in NYC, but he's single. Business has some limited possibilities. Even "landscapes," everyone's favorite, it would seem, is not doable for me . . . I don't even have a driving permit anymore. At the moment my subjects are New York City and food and whatever. I did not post this to ask for suggestions on what I should be doing---I'm just trying to stimulate self-examination and conversation. Edo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Brooks Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Every subject has been done. Therefore any subject but done with concept and style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted December 7, 2014 Share Posted December 7, 2014 Edo - that's exactly why I decided to set up the small studio and shoot everything I buy over the winter...usually over a white background. I'm single - small 710 sq foot home. Little table top is in the front room. Here in Denver, we have many young women ready to shoot - they want that "bad ass" look, or they want "glamour" type subject photos (if I knew that back when I was in my 20's....). Just on Thursday I asked one of these young women if they were going to the Santa pub crawl on Saturday and the response was "Oh the naughty Santa crawl?" This is great for art prints but it doesn't sell as stock. It's the boring subjects that sell. I have licensed two images here of models at Alamy - one of a young woman in a little black dress, and a second of a male bodybuilder. Women, family, business - those are the images that are saturated on the micros. I'll let 40,000 other people compete with Yuri Arcurs on that topic....I'm not going to compete with that...I'm going to try to shoot what you can't find on the micros as much as I can. I try to keep track of things going on around town...I try to show up with camera. In the winter, when the sun drops at 4:15 and 4:30pm here, and the shadows are long, it's tougher to get a good image outside the studio. I mentioned Stockimo in my post above. I've only been submitting for a week - my Chrstmas Carolers were rejected. It's an interesting concept because it's a bit like a video game for photographers. You shoot an image with your phone, you edit the image on the phone, you upload it, you check your score based on how it's ranked if it isn't rejected. Those images then can get licensed...I'm very surprised at what has been accepted. I'm not surprised by the rejections (after viewing them on my home computer). I'm not sure what my point is, aside from there needs to be some fun about it....go out and have fun and take a camera (or a phone) with you and grab a few images while you're there. ...I'm off to lunch with some friends at a micro brewery. I'll have the iPhone and the Fuji XT-1 one with me. I'm sure I'll be able to drum up at least 10 images of something while I'm there.....beer? food? people? We'll see how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted December 7, 2014 Author Share Posted December 7, 2014 Interesting post, Ed. (I wonder what and how Yuri is doing these days?) I don't know if we'll be going to Mars or if cellphone photography with effects apps will be hanging around for long. I didn't want to say Stockimo here because I'm on Alamy's side, and I hope they get things right. I don't even want to explain why I don't involve myself with Stockimo, because I don't want to rain on anyone's parade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giphotostock Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 shoot everything I buy over the winter...usually over a white background. That would be a fine path to microstock, and with a lot of competition already. Choose your subjects more judiciously, add contemporary style, and you have a path to commercially successful stock. GI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 ...and Edo....just like clock work....I can't make this stuff up. I was invited this afternoon to guess what.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 shoot everything I buy over the winter...usually over a white background. That would be a fine path to microstock, and with a lot of competition already. Choose your subjects more judiciously, add contemporary style, and you have a path to commercially successful stock. GI I have experience at multiple levels in microstock - from 2005 to 2011 (even having worked for two different agencies behind the scenes) they aren't too favorable about brand names as subjects Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
giphotostock Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Every subject has been done. I beg to differ. There's a lot of hard-to-get, not obvious, specialists subjects that are in high demand. Finding them and shooting does take time and effort. GI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Brook Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 New subjects and things to photograph arise daily, just as news and life itself does! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
losdemas Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 New subjects and things to photograph arise daily, just as news and life itself does! +1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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