A week or so ago I wrote an article on coming up with ideas for stock, How to Generate Effective Ideas for Stock Photos, something I think about a lot. I am always feeling like I have used up all my good ideas when suddenly I come up with a new one, or several new ones. Then I have a brief period where I am confident that I will always be able to come up with more ideas…followed again by more doubt.

With all the amazing images out there how can there be any ideas left to do? Well, maybe there aren’t any really new ideas, but somehow there are always ideas that are new to me and will be fresh with my execution of them, something I know in my heart even when I am feeling my most doubtful.

In that article I mentioned a couple of exercises for coming up with ideas, and I had a new “idea exercise” occur to me this morning. Yesterday I was feeling stressed by the economy and by the fact I hadn’t made an image in a while (making images is like therapy for me…or maybe more like an addiction!). I was at my computer using Bridge to browse through my archive of uncompleted images. One image caught me eye: A business man with a stressed out expression as he sat at his cluttered cubicle.

I had created the image with the intention of putting a dog cone, the kind that is used to prevent dogs from chewing on themselves, around his neck. I had never finished it because I had never gotten around to finding one of those cones. But I was feeling really in-tune with his expression. Was there something else I could use besides a dog cone (I don’t know the technical term for that apparatus).

I look around my studio a bit. I found a blue funnel for pouring liquids into a container. That would do! I quickly shot it with available light and used Photoshop to turn it grey and strip it into the shot. It took about an hour of touch-up work, adding shadows and so forth, but the image was done. And my stress was greatly relieved!

That experience came into my head this morning and I have used it to come up with an exercise for stock ideas. The exercise is as follows: Grab a pen and paper. Sit quietly, close your eyes, and get in touch with how you are feeling. For example, this morning I am up early and everyone else in the house is asleep. I awoke this morning from an unpleasant dream. The cumulative result is that I am feeling a little lonely.

The next step in the exercise is to run through some mental pictures of what that feeling looks like until a image comes up that feels like it might work for stock. For me, I fairly quickly pictured an aerial view looking down on a man standing alone on an empty street.

Now quickly write down that visual. Now go back to your “mental movie”. When you come up with another intriguing visual, write that one down too. If you don’t write your ideas down they will disappear as quickly as they came!

After coming up with one or more visuals you can choose to play with it a little to see if any of them really do work as an image ideas for you. For me, the man standing alone in the street morphed into a person standing on a street corner at an intersection; a solitary person with a decision to make. I no longer have time to be lonely this morning because I am excited about creating this image.

I already have thought of a location and am busy working out the details. This image might convey loneliness, the way forward, decisions, or even possibilities. It is a great stock idea because with the addition of a headline the image can convey many different concepts.

No matter what you are feeling, there are millions of others feeling the same way. If you can capture that feeling in an image you will have a successful stock photo, and hopefully, a feeling of accomplishment and success!

Stock photos and funny pictures: man relaxing in woods

Stock Photos and Images: Mixed Race businessman in woods

Funny Pictures and Stock Photos: businessman in woods

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/digital-photography-articles/a-stock-photo-idea-generation-exercise-1570252.html

The amazing features of Digital SLR Camera lie in its extensible of system and its prefect picture quality. There are some comparisons and tips between digital SLR camera and small digital camera for beginner to use it.

1. Quality of image depends on the size of Image Sensor. Compared to digital camera, the most differences is that the square to receive the lights and image. Generally, Digital SLR adopts Advance Photo System-C Image Sensor which is around 13 times more than small digital camera. Due to its large image sensor and able to change lens, it can control the Blur Filters of the background image.

2. Sorts of Lens bring endless probability. Because digital single lens Reflex Camera originates in Film SLR, it can satisfy the needs through changing lens when photographing. Therefore, if you want to photo a lager or whole sense picture, just display the right one. This feature may be its best advantage.

3. Reaction fast, catch the transient dynamic image. Different from LCD monitor to observe image using small Digital Camera which exists time lag, Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera applies Optical Viewfinder totally. It means that there is no time lag so that more photos will take and probability to get good photographs is high.

4. Tips of using batteries. It suggested that clean the contacts of batteries frequently. Besides, its capability changes with the temperature? and low temperature will decrease its total capability. Take spare batteries in winter. What is more, choose the special ones; otherwise, it will destroy the camera.

These are some basic advantages of Digital SLR Cameras for beginner, so if you want to know more professional knowledge why not buy a cheap and quality one to practice skills.
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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/digital-photography-articles/basic-tips-of-digital-slr-camera-1562109.html

I just read on the net that a study showed the most dependable way to earn money is to win a novelty half-time contest at a basketball game that requires sinking a basket from the half-court line. Apparently mathematical calculation also took into consideration that the consolation prize often includes a food item from the concession stand.

Yesterday, for just a few moments, I overhead a radio show in which the topic was recession-proof jobs. I heard the radio announcer say that the most recession-proof job was high school portrait photographer. He pointed out that no matter how bad things get parents will always want high school portraits of their children, especially high school graduation pictures.

My stock photo income

That got me to thinking. Right now my stock photography income is down about 18%. Now that is a lot, but I personally know four people who have lost their jobs in the last three months. Having my income dip by twenty percent isn’t nearly as devastating as losing my job. Even down by twenty percent stock photography is a cash cow for me!

Job security, a misconception

That brings up what I believe is an interesting misconception. Many people I have spoken to over the years cite security as the reason they wouldn’t want to be self-employed. Let me give you a couple of examples of “employment security”. My sister-in-law was working for Bank of America as a writer. Within a week of winning an award and being cited for her work by her supervisor, the entire department was let go. Surprise! A friend of mine was a senior art director for a greeting card company for many years. A venture capital firm bought the company and then proceeded to sell off the assets until there was nothing left. So much for that job security! Self-employed people have far more security. We can measure what we earn from our efforts. Nobody else takes the blame; nobody else can claim the rewards. Our futures are in nobody’s hands except for our own.

As a stock photographer I feel exceptionally lucky in these difficult economic times. Sure, there are lots of those who are predicting the demise of the whole industry do to Micro stock, a glut of images and large agencies that don’t care about the interests of individual photographers. OK, so maybe I have to work a little smarter and a little harder. I can do that, and since I love what I do I don’t mind it.

The stock picture industry has become more interesting

In fact, the whole industry has become more interesting to me now that I have to really think about what I am doing. I am optimizing my site to increase sales both through traditional channels and directly to industry players and to the public. I am thinking more strategically in what I shoot and how I shoot it. I am paying attention to my sales and I am not forgetting that creativity is paramount. The changes in the industry and the economic climate have pushed me to collaborate more and I love it. I am growing more than I ever have.

The ultimate security

Further, as a stock photographer I can see my income rise or fall and take appropriate action. I don’t wake up one day and find that I am out of a job and have no income! Being self-employed as a photographer offers me far more security than any staff position. I am responsible for my self and my success or failure. I am under no (OK, few) illusions. That is the ultimate security!

Stock photos and funny pictures: Hispanic male conductor in empty theater

Stock Photos for every need: conductor conducting in empty theater

Unique and Interesting Stock Photos: conductor in front of empty chairs

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/digital-photography-articles/the-most-dependable-income-1562828.html

Nikon is one of the most popular camera manufacturers who are continuously enhancing the designs and features of their products. Cameras are used for taking pictures and saving old memories for you to remember in the future. Cameras are usually used by photographers in taking photos with passion as their profession. Photographers are really choosy in choosing their cameras. It is because when they purchase camera they think of the camera as a part of their life. Taking the best photos for their own quality and for someone’s ease is what their job is all about. That is why many professional photographers and even those non pro persons choose Nikon as their camera provider because they have good quality cameras that can produce only the best photos.

One of the latest products that Nikon has been enhancing is Nikon D80. Nikon D80 is one of the latest from the Nikon D series. Nikon has been improving some uses and features as well as the quality of the resulting photographs. It has a 2.5 inch of LCD monitor for viewing play backs and taken pictures in a greater and better way. Also it has a 170 degree of viewing angle and a removable protective cover to ensure the safety of the lens and the camera as a whole. This camera is also compact and has a light weight compared to the other D series, making the user more comfortable in handling it and making it easy for them to take photos and images anywhere they may be.

One of its enhanced features is its mega pixels. This new Nikon D80 DSLR camera has a 10.2 mega pixel for greater resolution and a greater quality. Each mega pixel is equal to 1 million pixels. That means that the greater the mega pixel the larger the picture can go with out decreasing its sharpness; contrast in short doesn’t touch its quality. The shutter speed is not that fast than the other design for it only has a 30 to 1/4000 sec shutter speed, but even though that is the case, it still can produce great quality of photographs. Aside from the mega pixel and shutter speed it also has an active D-light system. This system helps the camera to improve the photos to be the best as possible. It improves the shadow and highlights of the photos making its quality more enhance. These cameras also have a red-eye reduction system. Red-eye appears when your eye is near in the lenses and a sudden flash appear. Letting the camera have a sensor to timing the flash for the pupils reaction reduce the red-eye effects. It also has an auto white balance setting and also has some presets. Incandescent, Fluorescent, Direct sunlight, Flash, Cloudy and Shade is the presets of its white balance. It also has an image parameters for enhancing the photo more better and enhance.

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Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/digital-photography-articles/nikon-d80-dslr-camera-and-d80-lenses-1557336.html

A woman and a barrel

About a month ago I submitted a stock photo of a woman wearing nothing but a barrel, a modern take-off of an old image for having lost everything, to Getty Images.
They turned it down because they didn’t think it would sell. OK, I next sent the image to Corbis. They turned it down because it was “an old idea”. A few minutes ago I was in the grocery store and there, on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine, was a shot of several movie stars wearing nothing but barrels.

Photographer’s Choice…an option at a price

Whether or not my image will sell will be eventually answered because when Corbis turned the shot down I re-submitted it to Getty as a “Photographer’s Choice” submission. Getty, in response to numerous complaints over a protracted period of time by their photographers, came up with Photographer’s Choice brand. It is a program in which an image can only be rejected for technical reasons (though “sisters” are not allowed either). Of course, the photographer then has to pay a fee to have the image put into the system.

What is the value of an editor or art director?

This all brings up a couple of questions. First, what is the value of an editor or art director, and what recourse do we have if we believe an editor to be mistaken? I know that in my own case it does seem to be a conundrum. I have certainly have had the experience of having an art director offer criticism and art direction that has enhanced my images, sometimes by a huge margin. Editors have given me some awesome ideas as well. I have also had them make changes that I believe were actually to the detriment of a given image. Then there are the editing choices. I am sure that any photographer who actively submits images to stock agencies has had the experience of bewilderment in reaction to photos that editors have rejected.

Among my favorites: An image turned down by Getty was then used as a catalog cover for The Stock Market and the first sale was for $17,000.00. Another image turned down by Getty was used by The Stock Market to represent the agency in trade shows. An image turned down by Corbis has generated $2,000.00+ in the six months it has been for sale on the Getty site! An image of a young girl dressed as an astronaut, turned down by both Getty and Corbis, and then put into Getty’s Photographer’s Choice program, is my fifth best selling stock photo for 2008! I could go on and on with examples of images being rejected by one agent and taken by another; and examples of rejected images that eventually get placed and subsequently earn excellent revenue.

Now I no longer have an editor at Getty. Instead I submit via their portal and I never know which individual will be doing the editing. I love their portal, I don’t miss the art direction, and I occasionally wish there was someone I could turn to at Getty to bounce ideas off of, get feedback from, and help me decide wither an image belongs in RM or RF. I also know that their choices sometimes make me crazy! At least Getty has that Photographer’s Choice mechanism to provide some remedy for the stock images that I believe strongly about. BTW, virtually every photographer I know who participates in Photographer’s Choice tells me that they earn more per image with PC than with the regular brands. I don’t know if everyone is being truthful, but that is what I am hearing!

Optimization for distribution and licensing

Now in Micro stock, if you are not “exclusive”, you can always submit the images to another agency. For me though, since I do not participate in Micro, I now have a new option, adding rejected images that I believe in to my own web site. It is yet another way in which having a web site can pay off. I recently read that over half of all art directors are willing to search individual photographer’s sites for stock images. I’ll bet that percentage just keeps going up as Art Directors get more and more tired of the same old images and photographers get smarter and smarter about optimizing their sites for distribution and licensing over the net.

Getting back to art directors and editors. There is no doubt that they provide a valuable service; and equally in doubt is that due to the subjective and arbitrary nature of photography, they are not always right. In those cases where you can actually correspond with an editor, fight for the images you believe in. I find that in those cases I usually prevail about half the time. In those cases where you don’t have that opportunity to correspond, send that image to another outlet or put it up on your own site. If you believe in your image someone else well too; you just have to get that image in front of those other believers!

Stock Photos and Images – from lifestyle to concept and funny pictures: Orchestra fighting on stage

High quality Stock Photos: African man carrying traditional drum

Ethnic, People, Situations, Concepts Lifestyle and other stock photography: Asian businessman smiling

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/digital-photography-articles/art-directors-editors-and-stock-photography-1552333.html

I was able to visit my 78 year old mother recently and asked her why she keeps buying throwaway film cameras and not buy a nice digital camera. Her answer wasn’t a great surprise, with all the advances in cameras and all the features, megapixel this, optical zoom with image stabilization that that it was hard to find out what the best digital camera for seniors was.

I was able to help my mother do research on cameras and in the process I came up with different features to take in to account while picking out the best camera for seniors. I was surprised to find out what isn’t the key feature when finding the best digital camera for seniors.

The key features aren’t the number of mega pixels, not the amount of zoom or even the camera size. The key feature in the best camera for seniors is how easy it is to read the dials on the camera. Next time you are at the store and want to pick out the best digital camera for seniors you’ll notice how pretty and shiny most of them are. With all of this shine comes glare and glare makes it hard to see the dials (even for my 40 year old eyes). So a real shiny camera isn’t the best camera for seniors. Look for black matte dials and controls when doing a comparison for the best camera for seniors.

Besides not having a shiny surface the best camera for seniors needs to be easy to use and understand. The best digital camera for seniors should have menus on it that explain what the settings are for, the icons need to be easy to read and interpret. A major plus for the best digital camera for seniors is if it comes with bundled software that makes it easy to download the pictures to a computer and easily make adjustments to the photos.

In the ideal world the best camera for seniors will also come with software that will make it easy to upload the photos to the internet so they can be shared with friends and family worldwide. Since I’m going to dream, I’ll dream big and look for the best digital camera for seniors to also be related to easy to use printers and photo frames so the photographer (did you notice that by getting the best digital camera for seniors the user is transformed into a photographer, not just a senior?) can have one big easy to use system.

So when looking for the the best digital camera for seniors look for a non shiny, easy to read and understand camera that is just one part of an integrated digital photography system. When I did my hunt for the best digital camera for seniors I was able to find a fully loaded, 10x optical zoom camera with image stabilization. What this means is just because the key features doesn’t need to be a low quality, featureless camera.

I enjoy photography, woodworking and gardening. I’ve been able to combine by gardening with my woodworking by building various structure for the garden.

Learn more about me and why I’m SnottyScotty by visiting me on my http://snottyscottysjourney.blogspot.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/digital-photography-articles/buying-the-best-digital-camera-for-seniors-1545539.html