One of the Great Lies that they used to tell us photographers is how easy it is to make virtually unlimited money selling your photos to stock photography houses.  And, the one I heard most frequently offered up as an example was iStockPhoto.  But, you know what?  It’s not that easy.  This week, they may not need anything you’ve shot.  They may have too much of whatever your favorite subject is.  Or, you may just not like something about their pricing structure or license agreement.  So, what should you do, just give up?

Never!
iStockPhoto is not the only stock photography shop on the internet!  Some time ago, Search Engine Journal listed 7 alternatives to iStockphoto.  They listed them as sources for buying stock photography for use on a website, but I present them to you as potential markets for your work.  I’m not saying you should try to sell your work, but, if you want to, it’s better to have more markets and more opportunity to sell than less.  Just remember, don’t submit the same work to more than one place at the same time.  And, unless they specifically allow it, don’t submit work that’s been accepted at one market to a second market.  Those kinds of goofs will probably get you dropped from both sites.

So, what are you waiting for?  Get to it!

Longtime readers of this blog may have noticed that it looks just a little different.  That’s because I’ve changed how I make the fancy titles on my posts.  Instead of using an older plugin which relied on TrueType fonts and good, old PHP programming to generate titles on the fly, I’ve moved to a much newer plugin that relies on FontBurner fonts, which are Flash-based.  There are a…
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Today, for reasons that are mostly attributable to the evil machinations of greeting card companies, we are expected to engage in a conspicuous display of romantic passion.  People mistakenly call it “love”, but, in my experience, love often has little to do with what we celebrate on this strange, little holiday.  We put so much pressure on each other, and ourselves, to be in the right kind of loving, romantic, passionate relationship that, frankly, it’s almost…
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Most of us will never see a 404 page.  In fact, if things are going well on your website, 404 pages shouldn’t normally come up.  (For those of you not familiar a 404 page is the error page you get on a website when the page you’re looking for is missing or can’t be found.)  In the old days, 404 pages were pretty much blank, outside of the error message itself.  They were meant…
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I hang out with a couple of photographers, and I talk to a whole lot more various places online, and since we all shoot direct to digital, almost none of us regularly print our photos.  I think there are a couple of reasons for this.  For one thing, there’s the whole volume issue.  I mean, disk space is cheap, so I take hundreds of photos every time I go out shooting.  I may winnow that down to a few dozen really good shots that are worth sharing, but, still, it takes time to sort through all those shots and find ones that I think are worth printing and displaying.
Then, of course, there’s the question of framing and display.  What kind of frame do you put these shots in to display them in your home?  What do you do if you want to make a custom size print and can’t find a frame?  And, what about matting those shots before framing?  So many decisions!
And, that’s all before you actually get to the print itself!  I mean, who has a really great color printer at home that makes archival quality prints?  Yeah, right, almost none of us.  Those printers are expensive!  And, how long will prints like that last?  Who knows?!  Photographic and print preservation is a full-time job and a pretty specialized field.

So, what to do?
Well, why not get some help from the professionals, on-line?  Some time ago, Apartment Therapy listed some on-line sources for printing and framing your photographs. These folks will do all, or almost all, of the work for you, outside of taking the actual photograph.  It’s all they do.  All you have to do is take the shots, choose the ones you like best, and then send them to one of these folks.

Do yourself a favor and pick out a shot or two and go get them printed and framed.
Remind yourself why it is you got all the pricey camera gear and spend all your free-time behind the camera.
Share your work with those around you, too.  The rewards will be worth it.  Honest.

Besides, most of those store-bought energy bars aren’t even really all that healthy for you!  I love them for a lot of reasons.  They’re quick, easy, portable and can easily be thrown in a bag when I head out on an adventure.  But, like I already mentioned, there are downsides.  The store-bought ones generally aren’t cheap, or all that good for you.  So, what to do?
Well, naturally, make your own!

Let’s start…
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If you’re like me, you spend virtually all your spare money on photography gear.  Or art supplies.  Or whatever it is that you need to churn out your particular flavor of creative “stuff”.  For me, and many of my friends, that’s photography.  But, you still want more good books on photography.  Either to keep your education going and your skills sharp or to give you some inspiration.  So, what’s a starving neo-artist to do?  Well, here’s a link to a page of links to Ten Free EBooks for Digital Photographers.

They may not all be your particular “cup of tea”, but they’re all free, so why not check a few out and see if you get some inspiration?

Okay, maybe it’s just me, but when I see programmers cranking out code on a TV series or a movie, I always wonder how they’re typing so much so fast.  And, I’ll be honest, I wonder how accurate their code really is.  So, I’m sure most people don’t really care about all that, but just assume all computer people bang away on the keyboard to churn out code.  Hey,…
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Yes, you still have some.  I know, from the way people talk about the harassment they get as an amateur photographer in public, you may not think you have any rights left, but you do.  Not sure what they are?  Head over to the ACLU’s website and see their fantastic article Know Your Rights : Photographers.
In a nutshell, you can photograph pretty much anything you can see from a public space as long as you’re not breaking any other laws or interfering with a police officer in their official duties.  The only exceptions may be military bases.  But, from everyone I’ve talked to, military police and security are actually quite polite and friendly and reasonable.  And, to be honest, most of the police officers I’ve dealt with are, too.  I’ve generally had more issues with private security guards than anyone else.  Video with an audio component gets a little trickier.
Also, an important point to note, police officers cannot legally force you to show them your photos or force you to delete any photos without a search warrant or a court order.
Of course, on private property, whoever owns the property makes the rules about this stuff.

And, I think it’s important to note that, while you may be in the legal right, you may also be harassed anyway.  And, if things escalate, you may find yourself going to jail and being booked, not to mention seeing a judge, before your rights are recognized.  There are sometimes prices to be paid for exercising your freedom, which you may or may not be willing to do on any given day.
Or, as your Uncle Jim always says: “Safety first, kids!”

I love sci-fi in pretty much all its forms, but I have to admit, I especially like science-fiction television and movies.  And, these days, as Hollywood produces more and more of the same stuff over and over, unwilling to take risks, I find myself loving sci-fi television more.
Now, with cameras and equipment as reasonably priced as they are, it’s possible for small, independent film-makers to roll their own media, in both film and television.  Combine that kind of…
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