The above title is lyrics from one of my favorite Boston songs, it also sums up my blog. It seems like I never get time to blog. Well, tonight; I am making the time. A few weeks ago I was approached by a friend and asked if I have ever heard of I-stock photo. As an avid photographer I had, I had even considered trying to submit my photos to some of the stock agencies to see if I could sell some for extra cash. I just never seem to make the time to do it. When my friend told me that her daughter in law is selling her photos and making about $500.00 a month, I got a little more interested. Her daughter in law isn't even a photographer but she takes pictures and submits them to I-stock and is making about $500.00 a month. Decent income for just uploading your images to the web for someone else to sell. After talking to her, I thought; o.k. maybe I should submit some of my images. It sounds easy enough, wow was I wrong. I have submitted about 20 images and they have reviewed about 12 of them and declined 12 of them. The images were rejected for different reasons but the most prevalent reason is "artifacting". It's a technical term that most photographers will understand. I don't get it though, the things that cause artifacting in an image, I am sure that I am not doing. I came across an article today on the web that may explain part of what I am doing wrong. I may be over sharpening the images, but if that is the case I don't know what to do other than not sharpen them at all. I do very little sharpening to an image as it is. I also read that the stock agencies are so picky that they won't take an image unless it is tack sharp, white balance is spot on, key worded perfectly, as well as some other things. Most importantly, they have to see an image that they don't already have. Another article explained that they are so over saturated with images that it is hard to get them to take anything that they see unless they know who you are. I-stock has been around a while and has gotten so big that they are starting t0 get very critical of the images that they will accept. It is all very frustrating but I have not given up hope. If anything it is forcing me to think about the images that I create. I have to really consider what it is that I am doing to make sure that my image is going to fit the strict criteria that I-stock judges the images by. Another article I read eluded to the fact that if you want to make a living at stock photography it will be a full time job. You pretty much have to be shooting all day every day just to create the images that the agencies will accept, if you want to make it your sole income. I unfortunately cannot do that at this time, so I will have to take it slow, just build a small portfolio as I go. Maybe when I retire I will be able to make enough from my stock images that I can live comfortably. I will post one of my stock images once one has been accepted. It may be a while, considering that I can only upload 15 images a week and it takes them about 2 weeks to look at them. For now, I am going to start my eBay store up again, so that I can start making some extra money in the mean time.
Photoman
