I have been messing with stock for 6 months. I enjoy it, but in all honest it doesn't make enough yet. I try to upload 20 pics a week. Is there anyone out there who does stock and only stock and survives?

How long did it take you?

How many pics a week do you upload?

Steve-O
I've just registered and logged on today. Just letting you know there's someone out here in a similar position.

Photography has been our profession since 1987. My wife Carole runs the business, and I do most of the photography. Over the years we have produced volumes of albums and individual works for many of our clients. Each portrait and other images we have made for people took quite a bit of time to refine into it's deliverable form. As we move toward the sunset side of our person to person Business Plan I hoped to give a second life to both older and newer images as well as produce more too.

This is an entirely new method of operation ie., work-flow, I'm seeing here. I've got some learning to do - again. You posed the perfect question and I'll monitor for an answer too.

Rex

For me its a hybrid life: Graphic design by day and stock photography at night you could say. I work freelance either way, but I haven't figured out how to get stock to support me. As soon as my port starts getting big enough I think, sales start slipping as things get "older" and show up later in the searches

One word of advice: Keyword right. I have learned to rack my brain for conceptual ideas that my regular photos can portray. As a designer (by day) I search for specific words and often only find 10-20 photos. Everyone puts "abstract" and "sexy" in there, so I don't ever search for those.

Good luck. I am interested in others responses as well....

Thanks to both of you for helping shed some light on how Stock Photography works and what it's demands are. Funky-Fry, you've made me aware that how I describe our image products can improve search/find results. I also have to learn what amount of creative output it takes to equate to a satisfactory financial return. Thank you two for my first couple of course corrections while navigating this mode of image creation.

Rex

I have been shooting stock seriously for about 6 months. As well as having 850 images at Alamy (where I probably sell around $600-1000 a month, in fact I sold one today), I have on average 500-600 on just 3 micro sites too. They earn around $600-700 a month now in total but I eventually aim to have around 3-5000 on all 20 or so microsites including a few others. I recon that will produce a more than healthy salary.

My advice is to take your camera everywhere and just shoot everything you see, edit them to perfection, weed out the rubbish and just keep uploading your absolute best images. Don?t waste time with trash.

All the best and happy snapping,

Nick
www.all-things-photography.com

I am just about to cross over. I think I will have to live cheaply for a while, but I think its possible. Always remember that it need nourishing. It will fizzle out if you don't keep shooting, being full time just means that you need to be always shooting to keep it up.