Okay, so maybe I am not Tyra, but I sure can smile with my eyes. (If you don’t know what that is all about, I suggest you watch any season of Americas Next Top Model). While I am not a supermodel, I am looking for folks to model for me. I am not looking for the most amazing and stunning person in the world, I am looking for the average Joe and Jane. I shoot photos for iStock, which is a stock photo agency and am always looking for regular people to photograph to add to my portfolio.
If you would like to be a model for me, please shoot me an email at simon (at) valophotography.com and I will put you into my model database. I always give photos retouched photos to the people who model for me in exchange for their time. I am also always looking for great locations to use: Office Buildings, Spa’s, Gyms, Coffee Shops, etc. so if you know of any of those, please let me know as well. So until then, keep smiling with your eyes.
I’ve been pretty quiet on the blog lately. Part of it is because I have been sick, the other part is because I have been super busy getting the Brewlypse photos edited and uploaded to istock. Anyoldways… I should have a few posts coming your way soon showing some more of the photos taken at the Brewlypse.
Diana was fun to work with. I wish I had a chance to shoot more with her, but I was running around like a crazy man this day. We had a venue lined up, then the venue fell through, then we lined up another venue, then that one fell through (mind you this was all the day before the shoot and the second one fell through at about 10:00 p.m. the night before). We were in a tight spot, but were able to use the Party room in the Rock Bottom right on the river. It is a cool place and if you need a place to have a party, I would recomend it. Great food, cool space, and great atmosphere.
Anyoldways, I was crazy busy that day. Coordinating modles, making sure they knew where we were, and trying to shoot. Diana got her makeup done and I snagged her for a few shots against this sweet red wall. Her hair and the blue shirt she had on really popped out. Also she had a great smile and she worked it.
I got a chance to speak at COPA last night about my experience with micro stock. I have been selling stock exclusively with istock for a little over two years and shooting just a bit more than that. istock has helped me refine my processing and understanding image quality. There is a whole lot more to it than that, but shooting stock has helped me move in the right direction.
A few of the things that I spoke on was how I got started shooting stock, the benefits of micro-stock, and the drawbacks to micro-stock.
I am by no means an expert in micro-stock by any stretch of the imagination. There are plenty of people more qualified to speak on this topic, but here are a few of my observations and thoughts.
Benefits:
Getting Paid: You shoot a lot and have tons of photos sitting around… might as well see if they can make you some money?
Learning to Produce Quality Digital Images: Specifically focused on quality and how to obtain the best quality and present the best image possible. Not so much about framing or the artistic merits of a photo, but more so about the actual tangible quality of the photographic file itself.
Keeps you Shooting: You have a reason to bring your camera to work now. You can shoot any and everything and the more you shoot, the better you become. (Check out Nick Onken’s post on 10,000 hours)
Community and Forums: To create, critique, and be encouraged in whatever you do, you need community and others. I believe that we are all interconnected and that a good community can provide the basis for tools and encouragement that are important in facilitating the development of your skills. I have been a part of a forum/community at istock for a few years and they encourage me and prod me when necessary.
Events & Meeting People: Through istock I have met amazing photographers, great models, and many business owners/operators. Due to me shooting a lot and shooting many different people my business has reached many different places and people that I would normally not meet if I was only shooting Weddings or Seniors.
Drawbacks:
Stifles Creativity: Scott, Chase Jarvis’ post production lead put it very straight forward in his blog post here. If you don’t want to read that large post, it boils down to this: Images for stock are selected based on physical/digital quality and not on impact. An image may make you feel something, but because it has noise or harsh/direct light, it can not be used for stock and would not be accepted by many stock houses.
Getting Paid: I know I listed this in the benefits, but it also applies here. It took me about 5-6 months or more to get my first check from istock. That was how long it took me to make $100 so that I could request money. If you are selling a fine art print, you might get upwards of $500-1000 per sale, but for micro-stock you would get $0.20 for one sale. (Granted if you sell it 4000 times, that adds up quick)
Rejection: If you are scared of being rejected for anything, do not go into micro-stock. Every photo is inspected, accepted, or rejected. If you are new to working with digital images you will probably face lots of rejection on stock sites. Something that people would love on flickr.com would never be accepted on istock because of problems when you zoom in to 100%.
i.e.
Love this image, but it would get smacked down if I uploaded it to istock.
Good Images Do Not = Sales: A good photo, a great photo, doesn’t mean that it will sell. When you submit an image it is like you are pouring a glass of water into the ocean. There are millions of images at sock houses, thousands with the same topic/theme as you, and hundreds of good images, but a handful that sell very well. Just because you are in love with an image, doesn’t mean it will sell much, if at all, as seen with this photo.
Huge Competition: I kinda touched on this in my last point, but it is true. Depending on if you are a person who thrives off of competing or gets defeated when you have to compete, that will show how long you will last in stock and shooting stock… heck, shooting photos in general. There is always someone better than you. They are more talented, have better models, have better equipment. Always. The challenge is to figure out what you are going to do with that competition. Let it fuel you or put you out.
Now that I have rambled about micro-stock for a few hundred words, here is a small clip that my friend Bob Israel took of me speaking last night:
And the embarrasing photo he took:
No, that is not nail polish, it is where the lid of my washing machnie met with my finger nail. Yes, the finger is up the nose.
It has been a while since I have shot a wedding or a senior so most of my work has been stock. I am working on getting my computer and storage cleaned up and ready for wedding season so that means I am going through a lot of older shoots, editing, deleating, and moving them. Here are a few shots from a shoot I did at Decibel/Deep Bar a few months back. My friend Kristin from Fringe Salon stopped by and did make up for the models and another friend, Stef of Star Fire Events helped me set the shoot up. Big thanks to Dustin and Decibel for letting us use his place and run around like nut cases…
I am all over the place… I am super randomly editing stuff. I really should go through it more logically, but I don’t. Oh well…
Fresh is from Chi Town. He came up with a few friends to the shoot for two days. He was lots of fun to work with and up for whatever. When I suggested shooting outside, he was all over it. 15 degrees? Sure. Wife beater and tie? Doesn’t matter… Work the camera? Yup. The funny part about this is that we had tons of space inside a warm building, but me, being the anti-building guy said, “Lets shoot outside, it will be fun.” Not a good idea in WI in the winter. My hands burned when I came in from the cold (cant shoot and wear gloves), and I am sure it didn’t help the cold that I was nursing that whole weekend.
Luckily we were able to pull off some shots that rocked my face off… Check it out… so fresh and so clean…I have more photos coming soon, but for now here is a little somethin somethin…
Before
After
I wish I could display these at full res, there is some crazy retouching and detail going on, but it is harder to see in the smaller version. Oh well… you get the jist.
Model: Page and Michael
Venue: Sunburst Ski Hill
Date: Thursday 1/22/09
Page and Michael were great models. Michael originally didn’t want to model, but Page convinced him to come outside for a bit. How could he say no? I am pretty sure I would be helpless. I have so many more photos, but here are just a few to keep you coming back.
I am pretty sure there are going to be a lot of these posts. Just pulling new photos and putting them on here for you to see what went down this weekend.
Nick was a fun model to work with. He was always ready to do anything, which for stock, is awesome! It is hard to find people who, when you tell them to do something a little outlandish, don’t look at you like you lost your mind. We had a good time this week. I only got to shoot a few shots with him at the gym, but they turned out fantastic.
