Stock
I'm excited to announce that reached 100 downloads for one of the photos in my istock portfolio.
This is one of the first important benchmarks, when several more in the future I'm sure! I took this photo at a 4th of July festival down in Provo, UT several years ago. I'm looking forward to colorful summer days like this one coming up and also looking forward to focusing in on stock photography! We'll see where this journey takes us...
Back in 2008, I attended a workshop by Rich Legg, one of Utah's best microstock photographers. I was so excited after listening to him tell about this field, but didn't really have the skills at the time to make it work for me.
So what is it?
I take photos of whatever I want then upload them to a database (I am a contributor with istockphoto.com) Companies that want to use these photos for marketing purposes or people who want to buy them for their blog... someone wants to make calendars with certain themes... there are many options! but these people choose the photo they want and pay istock for the file download. The photographer then gets a cut of that purchase. Over time, the residual income builds up and the photographer can continue to get paid from photos taken years ago as well as the newer photos.
I decided about a year ago to start dabbling. It is HARD WORK. And it was scary diving into something I knew very little about instead of sticking with weddings, where I already know what I'm doing. But at the same time, it's an amazing challenge and has been an adventure for me. I love the journey of figuring everything out. And it's starting to make dollars instead of just cents :)
You'll be seeing several more posts about stock shoots I've done, but let me share a few of my favorites for now.
1. The hot air balloon. I took this photo several years ago at a 4th of July festival in Provo. I love the colors and how it turned out. The fun part - this file is selling really well and for Christmas a friend of mine decided to celebrate that and gave me a coupon for a hot air balloon ride! I have never seen it from that angle before :)
2. Smiling, happy children. Now, I'm not told where the photos are being used, so I'd ask everyone to keep their eyes open and shoot me a message if you see any of my files in print or online. It would be so exciting to see one of these in a marketing campaign or on a billboard somewhere!
3. Then the wedding themed photos... I found a way to include some of my skill sets from my previous work into stock photography also!
4. And lastly, Valentine's day is coming up. We'll see red and hearts everywhere starting January 2nd. I figured I'd beat them to the punch ;)
Check out my iStock Portfolio to see the rest of my photos HERE
My grandfather passed away 2 years ago and it was a time of perspective and learning for me. Each person understands death, and life, so differently. We react and cope differently. Some people reach out and want love and comfort, want to come together and a family and feel the closeness and reassurance of love. Some people prefer to separate themselves from life, to look inside and evaluate emotions and memories for a while, and wait a while before reaching out to people. It's often a time of spirituality in reflection - what does death mean and is there a God? I've only had a couple experiences with people close to me passing away, and it's always been difficult. I don't like the idea of funerals or cemeteries, I find myself feeling bitter, feeling the loss of this person in my life. But I've wanted to learn a new perspective, the perspective of rejoicing in their life even after they are gone.
The most interesting thing to me when my grandfather passed away is how my mom and her siblings used to talk about taking walks through the cemetery when they were growing up. Grandpa would even take a picnic lunch and go with them on a Sunday, it was almost like a park. My described something beautiful that I couldn't begin to understand. Death is painful, I've always wanted to tried places that represent death in my life. But my last day in London, I saw a new perspective.
I love to get lost in a new city. So many people just hop on the tube (the underground train system) when the destination would've been less than a 10 minute walk. I had about an hour, so I opted to walk this time. Turned out I walked in exactly the wrong direction, but I keep telling myself I enjoy being lost, it worked out :)
I stumbled across a beautiful stone archway that led into a picturesque park, flowers and trees and everything was so green. There was an older couple walking arm in arm down a dirt path and I couldn't help but smile. So I said "hey, I'm lost anyway. May as well take my time and walk through the park". Relax, breath, clear my head, and take a few pictures. A few steps in and I saw a tour group , with the tour guide pointing to headstones and crosses and talking about something. I got really confused. If this was a cemetery, why would people other than family members of those buried here come visit? But dozens were just walking around, so I convinced myself to keep going. And it was beautiful. And heartwarming. Walking past the gravestones and the flowers placed by the cross, I felt peace. I felt something about death that wasn't just uncomfortable. And I'm grateful for that. There was something so perfectly beautiful about the way in which these people's lives were honored with this atmosphere that was more like a park. Seemed perfect to me.
I took a few photos for istock as well, you can purchase them here
And I walked away with a new perspective, a new appreciation, and greater understanding. I hope to hold it in my heart forever so I can remember the beauty and the peace, the joy that can be found in celebrating someone's life even after they have passed.
It's hard to find words to describe what a cool experiences this day was. So for now, I'll let the photos do the talking.
You can purchase these files from istockphoto here: http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/12256112
It's true.
The Denver airport. This building is a work of art. It looks like a whole bunch of tents lit up, but apparently it's made of a Teflon-coated fiberglass material that is as thin as a credit card. So unique. Because I drove into Denver, I wasn't reminded of the airport until we went to the parking structure to get photos of Shane in uniform. I had a flood of memories come back from the last time I saw there. It was about five years ago, I was traveling for a weekend of swing dancing, called the Denver Lindy Exchange. There was a group of almost 10 of us flying on that plane because of the incredibly low rates of $30/flight, thank you Southwest Ding fares! An amazing friend of mine came to pick me up and everyone loaded into her van. Here's the funny part, though. She got her wisdom teeth out that morning. So she was... well, a little loopy. And probably a lot less safe than most of us thought she was! But it still makes for a good story and everyone ended up making it home ok.
So this was my second time to the airport, and seeing it right after sunset was absolutely beautiful.
For these shots, we used two speed lights for main and fill, and the car lights as backlight.
These shots were taken in the 10 minutes before pilot Shane actually had to report for his flight. I didn't know if we were allowed to shoot in the airport because of security reasons. I was honestly nervous someone would decide there was a law against it, but we didn't take any of the security screenings and one of the guards told us it was ok! And we had Shane there to look official if anything went wrong. I think people are less likely to ask questions when you're in uniform!
Photos of Garden of the Gods from Colorado Springs on the blog tomorrow!
I am not a morning person. If you catch me in a good mood at 6am, most of of the time it's because I haven't gone to sleep yet. But you should have seen the amount of energy I had the morning of this photo shoot. I barely got 3 hours of sleep, I was so excited! We met up with the other photographer, Brody Hall, around 7am and ate donuts to celebrate his birthday! Now, I definitely have a sweet tooth, but as I finished that Crispy Creme donut, I had flashbacks of motion-sickness - swimming 100m at summer swim team age 10 and throwing up the donut at the end. Uh oh... hope the plane ride wasn't going to be too bumpy! Oh well. :) Happy birthday Brody.
But I got all my nerves out the day before, so this morning, I'm not nervous at all - I'm just bouncing off the walls. Literally running away in middle of a conversation because I see some cool photo on the wall over there... Brody said I "pranced." I did feel a little bit like a little girl, but at least I was having fun!
As the photographers, we had to work really hard with space (or lack thereof), the windows (shooting through them was difficult!) and the angles (trying to tell one pilot to fly higher or lower so we could see them). I had my feet up against one wall and my back up against the other with my elbows on my knees to stabilize the lens - I've never had to shoot from such a fast and bumpy vehicle! As I've been shooting weddings full time for the last year, this was a brand new experience for me and I was very grateful for Brody's suggestions. I even got to shoot with his 300mm f/2.8 lens! That thing was heavy! But looking through the photos afterwards, I'm almost as excited as while I was flying. It was a challenge, so unique, and I got what I wanted!
Say "hi" to Shane!
And the Denver skyline.
I thought these were just adorable! Playing in the water... laughing and having fun. The only thing we're missing is a rubber duckie!
