This image was taken at the Vultures Restaurant in the Drakensburg at Giants Castle. I was shooting with a Nikon D300s and a Nikon 500 F4, suspended from a Benro B2 hanging upside down which was supported by a Super Clamp. The image is of a Bearded Vulture and was one of the avian species that we photographed over the four days that we spent in the...
We where on top of the escarpment at Giants Castle and it was snowing intermittently. We where the to photograph vultures and other birds of prey. The weather cleared and while I was taking a break outside the hide, noticed the dark clouds starting to lift. Grabbing my Nikon D200 and putting a Nikon 18-200 lens on the body, proceeded to hike up the nearly hill to get a better advantage point to take a series of images of this magnificent scene. Always be...
The image was shot at this years Carnival 400 off road rally. Having arrived early at the event we drove the route from one spectator point to the next looking for the right one to get the best images. This low level bridge next to a train line was the second stop of the day. There was a bit of water that was flowing over this dip in the road and enough to give us some spectacular action. The lighting was perfect and so was the action. I was shooting with...
Boxing at Emperors Palace is always exciting and exhilarating. The event was Thunderbolt, and this image was taken off one of the under card fights. I was shooting with a Nikon D3s and a Nikon 70-200 F2.8 VR. This is an unusual crop for an image shot with such a lens, especially as it is considered “long” for this sport. The standard lens would be a Nikon 24-70 F2.8 lens, but I have been getting great results from this lens body combination...
About two months ago I decided to focus my attention to all the money making opportunities surrounding photography that I had running around my head each day. Having done a lot of reading and research my game plan was crystallized and an action plan drawn up. Typical of a corporate dude. While I may not have the daytime advantage to commit time to this process and can only focus on this in evenings and over weekends, the fact that I have exposure to business in terms of setting up brands, marketing strategies, sales tactics and the ability to identify opportunities,network and exploit them, hopefully makes up for this deficiency. Its all about sweating this digital asset that I have lying on various hard drives and generating residual income, which works while I sleep and work.
One of the ways to make your images actively work for you and provide a passive income is to have your images up on stock libraries which span across the world. While you may not make a mint in the beginning, as it is a volume game, you are still getting some form of income for images that otherwise would not be doing anything. Top stock photographers in the world make millions and that’s dollar millions not South African rands millions. It all sounds a bit easier than that, which I learned the hard way. Having selected www.istockphoto.com as the start of where I wanted join, soon realized that I had a huge amount of information to process before having to write a test, which I only passed on my second attempt.
Next is to submit a panel of three images to them and then wait for the email to come back and give you the results, I must admit that this round took quite a few days to receive notification form them. The news what not good, I had to wait a few more days before being able to resubmit a panel as some of the images in the panel where too similar in topic not content and they are looking for how diverse a photographer you are. Lesson number one, pick images from different aspects of photography. Having complied the second panel went in and a few more days passed.
Bam, only one image accepted, the rest where rejected for either artifacting or the “appearance” of a filter or manipulation of some sort. Lesson number two, do not enter an image that you have cropped more than normal, as when viewed at full size, as they do, then artifacting becomes apparent. Lesson three, was to not enter images that could be construed as having being manipulated as they will be rejected as well.
So the next two images where presented and accepted. What a glorious day for me and achievement. I have not been schooled in stock photography and attempted this process with standard images that I have taken over the past few years. This process nearly took me two months.
Once accepted you can enter a limited amount of images over a certain time frame and I though this allocation I have is small, how wrong was I. None of my images are key worded. So after some intense Googling, I found a way to get the top keywords for the type of images that I had and the proceeded to copy, past and synchronize with the rest of the gallery. So upload time again, when the image is uploaded, you have to go through all your key words and clarify them to ensure that they conform to the image as well as a clarification process to ensure that that words are also specific.
Lesson number four, get the key wording process correct, the next mail I got was to reject some images because some of the key words where not suitable for the image presented. You need to get this one so right as this is the key to directing a potential customer to your image so don’t take it too lightly.
Additional sources of revenue from all of this is their referral program, where you can earn either credits, commission or cash from referrals which you point to the site and they register and purchase on the account. Why not, while you are out there doing your bit for promoting your images either via your blog, website, email, Twitter,Linked In or Facebook, why not catch these additional sales.
The commission structure starts off sort of low and build based on volume, yet you could also be an exclusive contributor in order to earn out at a higher rate, but the pro’s and cons of that is for another article. i have decided to register with a handful as each agency serves a different market in different geographical areas, while being global, certain markets and countries have their favorites.
I hope this article helps you if you are considering getting involved in stock photography.
With a star studded fight card and world titles on the line, this was the first boxing weigh in that I have been to and what an experience. International Boxing Hall of Fame, Brian Mitchell, was the master of ceremonies and took us through the fight card and the contenders as well as having interviews from the fighters as well as their trainers. The card was to feature six bruising fights at Emperors Palace.
The highlight of the evenings bill was southpaw Chris Van Heerden’s 12-round meeting with Kaizer Mabuza for the vacant IBO welterweight title. Peter Smith, Chris Van Heerden’s trainer came out of the blocks with fighting talk, revealing blood stained T shirts from Chris’ sparring partners, from their recent training camp held at a high altitude venue. There was no love lost between these to fine athletes, both extremely hungry for the vacant title.
The highlight of the under card was Hekkie Budler with his fight against Filipino Michael Landero for the IBO straw weight title. “The Hexecutioner” is among SA’s most popular boxers, notwithstanding his diminutive size. He’s a fine defensive strategist who enjoys mixing it up, with only six knock outs out of his eighteen fights, with one loss.
A huge fight on the under card, puts two big punchers in the ring, unbeaten SA cruiserweight champion Thabiso Mchunu against Zack Mwekassa, these guys are so evenly matched and in great physical condition. Harold Volbrecht’s Bongo Lipembo was matched against Samuel Malinga, while Flo Simba meets Danie Venter in a six-round heavyweight encounter. Joey Stiglingh’s eight-rounder against Jasper Seroka starts the evening off.
I must admit that taking photo’s of the boxers was an eye opener. Armed with my Nikon D300s and Nikon 18-200 lens with a Nikon SB900 flash, I soon realized that I was not the only one hungry for a pictures of the boxers facing off and presenting themselves to the media. As soon as the fighters went to the scale, I found myself surrounded by jostling photographers, flashes shooting everywhere, heads, caps and other body parts in my frame. Note to self, next time I should be more prepared for what is to come and stand on the chair, don’t worry about whether others will complain or not, all that counts is getting the shot no matter what.
Learn MoreHave camera, will travel. This is often my motto, but how many times do we wish we had our camera’s with us when we are traveling. I have even considered having a concealed safe fitted in my car to keep my camera safe. To all the car thieves out there, I have not done it, so leave my car alone! But I digress. Having spent a wonderful afternoon shooting off road rally cars and bakkies, James from Punch Photo where on our way home, when from the highway we saw huge black plumes of smoke smothering the skyline from an industrial area. The black smoke looked like the type you would get from a chemical or rubber fire. After a brief discussion we decided that while we where out shooting and had all our gear with us we would go and have a look. Turning off from the highway and heading in the general direction we picked up our first fire engine and followed in hot pursuit.
Parking down the road we approached the main gate of where we thought the fire was and spoke to the fire chief to allow us in to capture the boys in action. What met us was totally unexpected. A factory that manufactures croc type shoes and slops had had an explosion earlier in the day and the guys had been battling the flames for the last four hours and only managed to contain the fire to the original factory, not allowing it to spread.
The heat was unbearable, and the action was all around us. What settings to use. After a lot of trial and error we settled on program mode and ISO 200 and started shooting. Getting the exposure correct was difficult as the amount of contrast in the images confused the sensors to the degree that each shot gave a different result.
As the guys worked tirelessly to contain the fire, the images just presented themselves, and what a pleasure and privilege it was to be there to document the event. Often one hears of the saying “F8 and be there”, and the latter could not have been any more relevant at that moment. I have seen many images that fellow photographers have taken when the these fire fighters are in training, but to experience it in person in a real live situation was amazing.
Having had our fill of images, we went and thanked the fire chief for his help, to which he informed us that the real action was on the other side of the building, where there was around fifteen fire engines fighting the source of the fire. This was our cue to get in the car and shoot around the block, only to be met by a sea of red fire engines and a labyrinth of fire hoses crisscrossing over the road.
We worked our way through to where we were allowed to stand. Settings where changed to aperture priority as we had the golden glow of the late afternoon sun at our backs making the shooting conditions perfect. Getting the shots where quite challenging as all the passers by stopped in front of us disregarding instruction and took images and video with their cell phones.
We had all the action, excitement, and drama unfold in front of us. We had awesome lighting conditions and we had somehow left the photographers curse at home for the day. The smoke was amazing as it seeped out of containers in front of us, the firefighters cutting through the steel to try and extinguish fires that where raging in the containers, which had been burned to a deep dark red wine colour. What more could you ask for.
I have to say that often emergency services are taken for granted, but I they sure as hell earned my respect on the day, and I have to admire their dedication and bravery. They are the people that protect our hard earned assets in times of adversity. Well done and I look forward to capturing then in action again.
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