Think outside the box

I am going through my California images and one came to mind, I spent some time shooting American Coots, Differing from the Euro coot by the bump on the head although they still have that 'fight at every opportunity' mentality, Now how many Coot images do you think agencies have on the books-right, thousands, So although i wanted to improve on what i had on file which to be honest wasnt a lot i also wanted to submit images that were different from the norm but usable to publishers, Now i would guess that this images would be slated if i put it up on a forum due to the unusual composition but think like a publisher and you will see that it makes sense, The bird only takes up half the image allowing for text etc but also the bird is a good size in the frame and as always needed nice and sharp, If you are going to submit to agencies and are offering a common subject then make sure that you submit some original material or it will all go in the bin

Dave

Times they are a changing

In the last few years photographic agencies have changed, Micro stock agencies have entered the market and are selling images at 50 cents looking at the bulk market, Like any business the big boys have had to look at the competition and reevaluate the current market and conditions, The recession hits just about anybody and some agencies work hand in hand with others to help each other out, How does this effect the stock photographer-well it could actually mean more sales as your work is shown on other agencies sites however the downturn is that an image maybe sold through more than one site and by the time every agency takes their 50% the end result on the statement could see many sales but at a small profit, So what to do, Well in the last year i have been shooting more and more stock images-not just wildlife but general photography to try and cover different markets, I wish i had done this years ago when travelling through India,Africa etc when all i had was wildlife on my mind, I missed out on a million scenic and portrait type images, Images that may well sell better than a picture of a Rhino-Now my love is wildlife-always has and always will be but now i will try to see the world through slight more open eyes and take opportunities that i would normally turn away from, One morning i was in the Smokey Mountains shooting White Tailed deer through the early morning mist, The light was very special indeed and i had it coming over my shoulder-perfect, I kept my eye on the deer but also on the scenery about me and when the light look good i would swing around and take some scenics and then go back to the deer which were calm with my presence, On the way back to my accommodation i stopped at a small waterfall and took some shots and then noticed a guy downstream casting a fly so i moved down and took some images of him-trying to get the line in just the right place, Fast frames per second helped here, So a good morning with perfect light and a bag full of different subjects for the agencies, Keep your eyes open and shoot a variety of subjects that are around you, I hope that this approach will make me a more rounded photographer and not a jack of all trades and master of none-time will tell


Dave

Agency work

Its great to have an agent or 2 to help sell some images and get some pennies rolling in, These days it seems everybody has a digital camera and agencies are getting very picky who they sign up, So you have to prove to them that you can keep a good quantity of quality images coming in on a regular basis, This means spending as much time out in the field getting a good collection of stuff that you hope they will accept-this also means that you will be spending many hours stuck behind the PC/Mac, Today i have just finished 650 images that will be sent out as submissions for agencies to pick which they feel will be good sellers or will plug gaps in their portfolios-so here are a few of the fox images that took in Switzerland that have seen the first light of day since i took them a year ago

Of course not all the images in the submission are foxes-they account for around 150 images,But agencies like to have images done in a project fashion so that when some good images of one species come in their salesmen can get the jungle drums going so that books/mags/calenders know that a variety of fresh work is in

Dave