Christopher's Blog

It consumes me. Ever since I got into photography it seems like all I can think about. Just ask my wife and you'll know that I have a passion for photography. From the beginning I spent endless hours reading books, forums, magazines and whatever I could get my hands on trying to become a better photographer. I've spent many late nights scouring over thousands of pictures critiquing them and trying to learn from them. I am embarrassed to mention how much money I have spent on camera bodies, lens', and lighting equipment even though it has paid for itself and provided a stable household income. The crazy thing is that even after years of doing this and so many thousands of dollars I am still no where near where I want to be. So hear I am late at night scheming on my next move asking myself questions like, "How can I get more value out of each shoot," or "what equipment should I 'invest' in next?"

Working from home also means that I am always at work. In this business I am finding that I always have more to do. Currently I have a few 1 terabyte external hard drives full of images ready to be edited and uploaded. A lot more goes into each image that most people think. The shoot is the easy part. Before each shoot is a planning process involving choosing a theme and finding models. After the shoot each of the 300 to 4600 pictures are reviewed and only the best are selected. Then those are color corrected and adjusted, converted from RAW to JPEG, and meticulously edited in Photoshop. If it is for stock we add keywords, descriptions, and titles to each image and distribute it to multiple agencies. Each agency has a unique way of uploading, attaching releases, and submitting an image that can be a long, boring process when we do the larger uploads. Then on top of that is keeping up with the portraits and wedding pictures which I like to finish within a week to keep from getting bogged down. So if you think, "Wow! He's lucky, he takes pictures for a living," you're right but don't think it is that is all there is to it.

I love my job! But as fun and laid back and free as the life of a self employed photographer is, there are two disadvantages for me: I'm never good enough and I am never finished with my work.

November was my best month yet in total sales and earnings mainly due to Shutterstock. My Shutterstock sales went up over 300% but my iStock sales dropped 48%. At Shutterstock I had one enhanced license which helped a little but I still made far more off the standard licensed images. I also did my first photo shoot that I paid the models for. The pictures have been posted for seven days on Shutterstock and I have made back over 30% of what I paid so I'm pretty confident it will pay off in time.

Comparison Chart

Combined Sales

Still looking for my niche in stock photography. I though I would give religious pictures a try. It is fitting since my major in college is theology. Religious themes including Bibles, Bible studies, and young adults is fun for me to shoot. Below are a few of my first religious themes.

Young adults studying the Bible outside.

A young woman praying while reading the Bible.

A family reading the Bible together for devotions.

The New Testament of the Bible in the original Biblical Greek.

To see more religious pictures click here.

This is the same post as in my iStock blog.
No wonder why my sales at iStockphoto have dropped so much. Look at the chart below, their hits are dropping. I think that a large percentage of iStock's hits are from the exclusives checking out their portfolio and surfing the site not necessarily customers.

I am really glad I joined Shutterstock last month. In just two weeks I made over $50 and sold 216 pictures. At iStock I sold three in the same amount of time and made $1.16.
If you haven't joined Shutterstock yet at least think about it. If you do please click on the referal link below. Even if you join and then decide you don't want to upload pictures after all because you would rather be exlusive somewhere else, at least check it out.

Submit Photos to Shutterstock and make $$$!

Since I enjoy reading other people's blogs about their earnings through different stock photo agencies, I thought I would post mine too. I just started posting at Shutterstock and my first sale was on October 22. In just 10 days I made practically the same amount as I did all month at iStock. Did anyone else have a high first month at Shutterstock before it calmed down? Surprizingly I made more at SnapVillage than Fotolia. As I have time I may join others too.

Did anyone else have a terrible last week in October at iStock? I sold something like three extra small pictures all week.