A Few of My Favorite Things

A Few of My Favorite Things
Originally uploaded by Daryl Davis

A cheerful little, "Up Yours!" to all the self-righteous, meddlesome, Nanny State prigs out there. You know who you are. Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms should be a convenience store, not a government agency.

Taken with my wife's Canon Powershot A530. Pistol is my 20-year old Colt 1911 .45 ACP, customized by Robar. Streaks above trigger are artifacts from using Picasa to obliterate S/N.


One of these days, maybe soon, I'll start experimenting with real product photography.

How not to make money with your digital camera

How many times have your seen the "How to make money with your digital camera" come-on on the Web? For a paltry sum, the promoter will sell you an e-book telling you exactly how you can make a bundle taking pictures and uploading them to microstock sites.

Save your money! It's not going to happen, at least not in the way the pie-in-the-sky artists would have you believe. Here's why:

• Market Saturation. This is your first and foremost impediment. By the time a trend gets noticed in the popular press and hawked on the Internet, you can be pretty sure the market is well and thoroughly saturated. You have a ton of competition out there, which is the source of most of the other hurdles you face.


• The acceptance process. The come-on artists won't tell you this, so I will: uploading photos doesn't get them into the marketplace. Submissions are reviewed by human editors. Anything that doesn't meet their technical standards, artistic standards or inventory needs, will be rejected. Usually, you must have a certain number of images accepted before they'll even begin to catalog your work; even then, subsequent submissions are still subject to acceptance.
  
  Since reputable stock sites are free to join, you can try this yourself at no cost other than a bit of your time. Please post your results here.


• Technical standards. As I mentioned above, real people review submissions to the stock agencies. To avoid wasting their time with submissions from inept amateurs with $100 digicams (the come-on artists' target demographic) the technical standards can be pretty rigorous. Their servers are programmed to reject submissions that don't meet minimum file size requirements; you'll need a professional grade or a high-end consumer grade digital SLR to make the cut (good 35mm or larger film scans easily make the grade). Exposure errors, focusing errors, sensor dust, unwanted artifacts, unintentional blur, etc., are summarily rejected by the editors. You'll need to be good with Photoshop or a similar editing program to get the best out of your photos.


• Artistic standards. Composition is critical, as are production values. Your snapshots won't do. Lighting, makeup, wardrobe, staging, etc., all need to be done to professional standards. Be prepared to spend time and money scouting locations, paying talent (models, makeup and hair artists), buying clothes, renting or purchasing equipment, and schlepping stuff back-and-forth.


• Inventory needs. The most profitable stock photos are those that can be used for a variety of purposes. You might see the same photo used to advertise mutual funds in one magazine; to sell an erectile dysfunction remedy in another magazine; and to illustrate a point about family in a sociology textbook. You might well have a killer fine-art photograph in your inventory, but if it can't be recycled this way it probably won't be accepted for stock. Buyers want photographs they can easily build advertising copy into or around.
  
  Subject matter matters: pets, flowers, flags and sunsets have been done to death (so much for all the digicam shots). You can still submit these shots, but you really need to know what differentiates your rose photo from the billion others circulating on the Web.


• Legal issues. You will be surprised at the number of things you can't use in a commercial photograph: faces; identifiable, non-public buildings; trademarks; logos; readily-identifiable products. You'll need model releases for any identifiable persons in your photos, including your own children. You'll need property releases (Good Luck!) for trademark items, logos, non-public buildings, etc. Otherwise, these photos will be relegated to "Editorial" use only. "Killer shot! Perfect, except for the Nike swoosh on his jacket, the iPhone in her hand, and the Sydney Opera House in the background."


• Volume. You'll need thousands of images online in order to see any kind of money. You'll need to continually refresh your image library as older ones get "stale," fashions change, etc.

You can make money in stock photography, but it's not as easy as uploading your vacation snaps and waiting for the checks to roll in (the e-book peddlers are less than candid about this). You'll need imagination, artistic sense, technical proficiency, persistence, business sense, legal knowledge and organizational skills.

Photoshelter seems to have the best deal going these days for stock photographers. Go to their "School of Stock" for more and better information, for free, than you'll get from the e-book hustlers.

Michael Benipayo

I have to give props to my friend, co-worker and fellow photographer Michael Benipayo.


Mike's daughter and my twins attended pre-school at the East Valley Family YMCA. Mike's gone semi-pro with his photography. He pitched up with his Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 lens and got several shots of my kids that I just didn't have the reach for.

If you're looking for a photographer in the San Francisco Bay area, give Mike a call. Tell him Daryl sent you.

NowPublic

I was asked yesterday to contribute photos from my Reid Hillview Airport gallery to NowPublic. The photos ran with the story about the drunk who broke into the airport and refueled his car with aviation gasoline (not jet fuel).

NowPublic is a Web 2.0 user-generated news website. I admit, I'd never heard of them until they contacted me about using the photos. It looks interesting. I'll be spending more time on the site in the near future.

Missed opportunities

I went out shooting a bit this morning, and stumbled on what would have been a great shot if I had taken it.

No excuse, really. It was a tree trimmer who created a great composition just by walking into the frame. If I had asked him to repeat it after I got into a better position, I'm sure he wouldn't have minded: just do what you're already doing, but when I'm in a better position.

Lesson learned.

Murder & The Mortgage Meltdown

1700 block of Schulte Avenue, San Jose, CA: On October 1, 2007, this house had been on the market as a "short sale" for about six months. Then the owner was fatally stabbed, and his wife and two daughters wounded, by the 19-year old boyfriend of one of the daughters.

The house is now bank-owned and has been reduced in price by half, from its already short position, but still no takers. I guess people think $320K is still a bit steep to live in constant noise, crime, grafitti, traffic congestion and gang activity.

Mr. Excitement was arrested at his mom's house the next day.

Nikon F100, 50mm f/1.8D, Kodak Portra 400VC.

Note: I am not affiliated with the realtor, the bank or the former owner.

Nikon F100

I've started a Squidoo lens specifically to chronicle my experiences with the Nikon F100 35mm film camera.

Please click here to go directly to the lens. Ideas, suggestions and feedback are always welcome.