Selling stock photography selling out?

January 17th, 2010 § 0

This week I Tweeted by submission of some work for review by Alamy and istock and was instantly met with the Tweet “sell out”.

Now why exactly am I selling out?

Scouting forums and blogs it seems photographers hold stock photography in contempt and joy in equal measure. These schizophrenic opinions range from espousing it as ideal way to make a photographic living, to the financial rack and ruin of photographers and photography.

In the alcove | Anasazi Granary, Cedar Mesa

In the alcove | Anasazi Granary, Cedar Mesa

The plan

Let’s be clear I’m not planning to give over my entire photography collection over to a stock library — Alamy, istock, Dreamstime et al — for a dollar a shot. That would (at least for me) be underselling my photography.

For portfolio (or fine art pieces of pride) pricing control will always remain with me when (if?) a gallery comes calling.

It’s more a question of what to do with the rest of my photography collection that I don’t view as being exceptional, but worth something.

Making money from chaff

My hard-drive is clogged with many images that I feel are quality, they just don’t have that certain something that makes me want to put them in my portfolio.

Or they are alternates (perspectives and framing) of shots that made the cut.

So why not sell some of these? Rather than have them sitting ‘dormant’ on my HD forever? If they make a few bob as stock photography over the course of a year, that’s a few more pounds and cents toward feeding my photographic habit I would not otherwise have made.

Having worked for marketing agencies, and having bought stock photography I’m not new to the bias in slice of the pie going to the stock agent, and nor do I expect to make my living primarily this way, but every penny counts.

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Featured photographer #1

December 31st, 2009 § 0

So this is the first in what I hope will be a bi-weekly series, sharing featured inspiring photographers and inspiring images I’ve trawled from the web, blogs, Twitter and Flickr.

< – - – - – - – - >

It was hard to decide on the opener, but I went with Adam Clutterbuck, whose Flickr stream I’ve long surfed.

The most fascinating aspect of Adam’s photography, is his mastery of the 4th dimension of photography – time – combined with an uncanny ability to create minimalist compositions.

Maer rocks by Adam Clutterbuck (used with permission)

Maer rocks by Adam Clutterbuck (used with permission)

In Adam’s super long-exposures, solid objects all along the English West Coast, both natural and man made, are contrasted beautifully with the sea rendered smooth, often mercurial like from exposure times that must clock in at several minutes.

Simplicity is also a defining mark of Adam’s compositions, there is often no more than a solitary element, a group of rotting groynes or rocky outcrop, isolated against a frame dominated by ethereal milky water.

Often with landscape photography so much forethought and work is required to break down a vista into what to include and exclude from the frame, however, Adam seems to handle this with ease placing rarely more than 1 or 2 objects in any frame.

Adam’s images remind me of the work of Michael Levin who also seems to be able to effortlessly deconstruct reality, simplifying it into opposing textured elements which only render their characteristics after an extended exposure – classic examples of previsualisation.

You can check out more of Adam’s work on Flickr, where he’s known by his handle of g r e e n g a g e – and I thought f29 was odd – or here at his online portfolio.

Enjoy

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Thanks to the excellent design blog Abduzeedo, which posts weekly inspiration — typography, web or print design — for giving me the idea.

Learnings from 2009

December 29th, 2009 § 0

As a year of photography draws to a close, and I spent some time thinking of my learnings over 2009.

For me this year has been far less focused on camera technique (the physicality of handling my equipment) and more the mental processes behind making images — which has a lot to do with having read David Ward.

Shoot less, get more

“Well, less is more, Lucrezia” – Robert Browning

Often time is always against us, I get 1 – 2 weeks annual leave for a photography vacation or a smattering of weekends each year. Add that to shooting in those precious times of day (sunrise or sunset) equates to some preciously short windows to capture something truly worthy (and shareable).

This can lead to cramming mode. Trying to fit several different locations in each day, with a new location each day.

But on shoots where I’ve planned 1 – 2 images across several days at a single location or area, the ability to return the next day to improve previous images or sample varying weather conditions has meant I’ve often achieved better images.

In the words of Alain Briot “to try and photograph everything is to end up photographing nothing well”.

Breaking convention

“Etonnez moi!” (Astonish Me!) – Alexei Brodovitch

Read most photography magazines, and they constantly teach (or regurgitate) the same photography mantra; the rule of thirds; framing; odd numbers; repeating patterns and deviations.

To rely solely on these rules is to create something contrived.

If everyone follows the same rules then only order and repitition reigns.

Only by breaking them (or bending) can we hope to create something unique — and commonly unseen.

Stop don’t shoot

“The camera doesn’t make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But, you have to SEE” - Ernst Haas

There’s an adage that you must travel everywhere with your camera. I’m not so sure.

Visiting a location without a camera offer a certain freedom of seeing without the confusion of trying to find images that comes with having a camera in your backpack.

You can step back and think (or rather see) with a clear head and a new perspective. There is more to see and discover than your first (distracted) visit with a camera will allow.

Breaking Conditioning

If only I could tear out my brain and use only my eyes – Pablo Picasso

Evolution has taught us to see in one way, to break down and understand the world fast.

The eyes are our first camera, the brain the director. But trying not too look without our eyes, but with the brain is the (hard) trick, as that means running your thinking effectively counter to evolution.

It’s like thinking yourself a movie Director, it’s he (or she) who determines how to frame a scene or compose a movie scene in their heads or paper first. The eyes and camera are merely the means to execute that thinking.

What are the lessons you’ll be taking from 2009 into 2010?

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A photography workflow, an experiment in information design

December 12th, 2009 § 1

When not behind the lens I work in the world of the web.

And at our agency we create lot of information design to convey complex web builds, systems, processes and information in a simple intuitive graphical form. Some of it (although not mine!) is practically art.

None of it has a place photography blog — until now! Whilst having a hour to kill and itching to experiment with some information design in my own time, I cobbled together a visual representation of my own photography workflow.

Here she is – click here to see a larger version.

An experiment with my photography workflow & information design

An experiment with my photography workflow & information design.All rights reserved. Copyright Paul Marsden. Use only with permission. Contact paul@f29.co.uk

It details:

  • Each sequential stage from cradle to grave
  • Editing unique to each stage
  • Color profile usage through the lifetime of an image
  • Applications used
  • exporting and archiving workflows

I subscribe to a lot of information design blogs, and haven’t seen any photography based information design yet, although this probably has no practical use what so ever I’m interested to see what others think of the photography workflow itself.

But I imagine it is fairly standard practice.

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Horseshoe Bend overlook

December 8th, 2009 § 2

As a photography location Horseshoe bend is re-known for the wide angle vista of the Colorado River gooseneck, viewable from a precipitous lookout a 1000ft above the meander.

A quick search on Flickr will trawl up hundreds of near identical (or classic) landscape compositions of the Colorado’s U bend.

Half the horseshoe | Horseshoe Bend, Page

Half a horseshoe | Horseshoe Bend, Page

Determined to make a composition that was original I scouted around the cliff edge for a while till I found this crack in the rocks, plunging down to the river a thousand feet below. The crevasse led right into one half of the gooseneck visible at Horseshoe Bend taking the eye along one half of the U to the edge of the frame.

Even though it’s a small detail relative to the total view from the overlook, I think my brains consumed so many wide-angle photographs from this location, the scene is still instantly recognisable as Horseshoe bend.

A big part of 2010 for me is developing an individual style, and this was one experiment along that road. I think a massive part of that starts with finding new ways to shoot old classics, whose images we’ve consumed countless times. Stepping back from those and finding new compositions is (at least I find) supremely difficult.

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