Why iStock

One day, shortly after I purchased my digital SLR camera, I bumped into my good friend, Andrew Penner, in Willow Park Village in Calgary. I hadn't seen Andrew for a while and we got to talking. Andrew is an amazing guy who doesn't seem to have a "real" job. When I first met Andrew, he was working as a golf pro, teaching lessons and doing some writing on the side. Andrew is incredibly modest and after a while I found out that he works regularly for publications like SCOREGolf Magazine, Inside Golf, Travelgolf.com and others. When we'd get together he'd ask me about work and I'd tell him stories about being vice-principal of a junior high school. I'd ask him about his work and he'd explain that he was going to Scotland on a tourism junket and would be staying in a five-star resort, playing a round or two of golf and writing about his experiences - all expenses included. Was I envious? Not at all. As Andrew's career progressed, he began taking more and more photographs to accompany his writing and over time shifted his energy away from teaching golf and into writing and photography. When I met Andrew that day in Willow Park, we got to talking about photography and I told him that I was getting back into photography. It was then that he suggested that I check out iStockphotography.com.

I was immediately intrigued. I love photography but early on I began to get frustrated that I didn't seem to have a purpose for making photographs. Just taking pictures for the sake of taking pictures was fine, but other than them filling up my hard drive...what was the point? I was also frustrated that there didn't seem to be anywhere that I could get good honest feedback, let alone constructive criticism of my work. The first place I turned to was Flickr.com. I posted images and got a few nebulous comments like, "nice pic" or "you've really captured something" but never anything that would remotely help me to improve as a photographer.

iStock was what I was looking for. After I created a username and password I meticulously read through the photgrapher's training manual and wrote the online quiz. I passed the quiz and was asked to submit three of my best photographs for review. My first three were all rejected, but the feedback that was provided was honest and valuable. Very quickly I learned about "artifacts"and "purple fringing". I was also challenged to improve my lighting and ensure that every image was "tack sharp" and had good composition. I submitted additional images and after a few weeks and overcoming an almost vertical learning curve, I had three images accepted and was certified as an iStock photographer.

In the past year I've been submitting to iStock on a semi-regular basis. I don't get out shooting nearly as often as I'd like since I have a regular full-time job. That being said, I've still managed to get over 120 images added to my portfolio and have sold over 200 images. At an average of $1.00 per sale, I'm not exactly getting rich, but that's not the point. I'm getting better at my photography, I'm getting honest and critical feedback and I know that there are people "out there" who appreciate my work and are willing to pay something for it. I still get a "buzz" when I see that I've made another sale.

Now I know that there are professional photographers who bemoan the death of "real" stock photography and are ticked that microstock has killed the prices that used to be paid for stock images. That being said, the photography business model has changed. If you listen to other professionals like Chase Jarvis, David Hobby and David Nightingale, who have adapted to the new reality, there has never been a better time to be a photographer. Their message is that there is still lots of work for those who are adaptable, willing to work hard and "under promise and over deliver." Watch the video, it's good.

Back to Andrew, at the time of this writing he's got 1897 excellent images in his portfolio and has had 68,045 purchased images. Andrew is not alone in his success, there are many contributors where iStock is their full time job. I have another friend whose father-in-law is a retired school administrator and current iStock contributor. He uses iStock to supplement his retirement income. Who knows what kind of success I will have with iStock, but for now it is keeping me inspired, learning, and working at improving my craft.

My Style

Starting this photo blog has been excellent as it has caused me to reflect on my own practice as a photographer and think about why I do the things that I do. As a school administrator working with teachers, I use a similar process. If I can ask questions that cause a teacher to think and reflect on their practice, they will usually make changes to their practice and get better at what they do.

Over the past few days I've been thinking about my style as a photographer. I've already shared about some of my early work and the influence of my dad, but in retrospect, my oldest brother was also a significant force in my early thinking about photography and capturing the world around me. Older brothers are not always gentle in their feedback and I have clear memories of my brother viewing my prints and sorting them into two piles; acceptable and not. His primary criticism of my work was that the viewer's eye was not drawn to the subject of the photo (see the photo of a wasp's nest above ). Being a good teacher he followed up this constructive criticism by working with me to take better images that have a clear subject (see the "special effects" photo of my brother flying like Superman...notice how your eye is drawn right to the subject, and never mind that it is out of focus!). These lessons began to pay dividends as I began to work at subject placement and ensuring that the subject was clearly identifiable (as is evident in these two photos: on the right are my paternal grandparents in their back yard surrounded by flowers, and below is the farm house of my maternal grandparents ). I'm so thankful that I found my photo album with these images from my childhood, and to my brother for his constructive criticism, tutoring, and support.

One year ago I began to submit my work to iStock photo which is a micro-stock photo agency that acquires images from photographers, sells them at reasonable prices, and pays the contributing photographer a small amount per download. I have no illusions of getting wealthy by submitting to iStock, but it has been incredibly useful as a learning and motivational tool. When I started taking digital photos, I began to wonder what I was going to do with all of the photos that were beginning to clog up my hard drive and I was a little concerned that I would lose interest and my new camera gear would begin to gather dust along with my fly-fishing equipment.

The challenge of first, getting accepted as an iStock contributor, second, getting photos accepted into the iStock collection, and third, actually selling some photos, kept me learning and motivated. Shooting for stock has also shaped my style as a photographer. When I am shooting for stock I try to ensure that the subject is "tack sharp" that it is visually interesting and that the exposure is perfect. Often when I am shooting I hear my brother's voice saying, "What is the subject?".