The three photographers I know personally who actually make their living from stock all eschew the agencies and do their own marketing, Sandy. Ron Niebrugge, a familiar participant here at NPN is one.
We derive only about 20% of our income from stock, but it's virtually all sales in addition to contract photography for established clients. They hire us to take photos for them, and in addition to licensing those photos, we license use of stock images to fill out their needs.
Posted by Andreas Resch on February 20, 2010 at 3:43 AM
I do stock to put a use to some of my less artistic images (they wont take my more processed ones), but I only earn a few bucks every month. So the one or the other beer is paid by microstock. I guess I could do more, but I just never think about it in nature.
Here are my main stock agencies ... istockphoto, dreamstime and fotolia. It takes some time to prepared the images for the stock agencies, but once they're up there they don't need any maintenance - that's the good thing. The most important thing is to have a sense of what might sell and what not.
Posted by Rodney Ninow on February 20, 2010 at 12:10 PM
The only photographers I know of who make decent money on microstock agencies (online ones) shoot tons and tons of people photos. They have photo shoots every week in their studios and on location and upload a dozen or more new images a week. There are a few success stories out there, and this seems to be the formula. Nature photography is so prolific that making a decent living off just nature stock is rare these days.
Posted by Kent Staubus on February 20, 2010 at 4:17 PM
I used to make some money selling photos of agriculture type stuff, but over the past five years the bottom has dropped out. It's just not worth my time to pursue any more.
Kent in SD
Posted by Mark Windom on February 20, 2010 at 4:24 PM
If you are considering entering into stock look at microstock only as a last resort unless you are willing to sell your work for pennies. The traditional rights managed agency would be the place to start however it ain't what it used to be. I've been with Index/Photolibrary for nearly 20 years and have watched my average income per sale steadily decline. I shoot nature and the market is so saturated with high quality imagery that making any serious income from nature stock is going to be hard to do.
The key is to find an agency that is well established and has a need for the type of imagery you produce. Find a specialty that you are comfortable with and good at and stick to it.
I think the key to making a "living" in photography is to diverisfy.....stock agencies, prints, workshops, self stock, etc, etc.
Posted by Don George on February 20, 2010 at 5:56 PM
I did a considerable amount of stock in the 80's and 90's untill the bottom started to fall out as the mega stock companies came into play. My wife and I managed our own activity.
We contacted the photo editors and tracked our own submissions.
I don't know if this is still possible today but it might be worth a try. You can locate the photo editors usually by reviewing the periodical that might best fit your images.
Discussion
6 repliesIf so, would you please share the company you use, and a few tips?
Thanks -
Sandy r
We derive only about 20% of our income from stock, but it's virtually all sales in addition to contract photography for established clients. They hire us to take photos for them, and in addition to licensing those photos, we license use of stock images to fill out their needs.
Here are my main stock agencies ... istockphoto, dreamstime and fotolia. It takes some time to prepared the images for the stock agencies, but once they're up there they don't need any maintenance - that's the good thing. The most important thing is to have a sense of what might sell and what not.
Kent in SD
The key is to find an agency that is well established and has a need for the type of imagery you produce. Find a specialty that you are comfortable with and good at and stick to it.
I think the key to making a "living" in photography is to diverisfy.....stock agencies, prints, workshops, self stock, etc, etc.
We contacted the photo editors and tracked our own submissions.
I don't know if this is still possible today but it might be worth a try. You can locate the photo editors usually by reviewing the periodical that might best fit your images.