Selling your photos- Is stock photography worth it?

I'm sure most of you have heard of stock photography, but what are your first thoughts about it?

Women smiling whilst eating salads?
We've all seen (and laughed) at those cheesy stock photos that get shared around such as these....

https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/unexplainable-stock-photos?utm_term=.yovK6Yql3#.oaqExwmJa

(Side note: i actually know the photographer from number 9, i actually stayed at his house last year, and we shot together last month in Tokyo, aside from that particular photo he's actually a good photographer.)

Before i got into stock photography i was working as a photographer/ videographer for clients all around the world and i was finding myself becoming increasingly more frustrated with the clients expectations and the lowering of budgets. A friend of mine recommended stock photos to me, but my first thought was of images similar to the above link.

But apart from these bad, cheesy photos aside, is stock photography worth it? Can you make money from it?

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: Yes. I've only been doing stock seriously since February 2016, I'm working exclusively with iStock/ Getty images, but in that time i've seen my income grow consistently and it's also given me the opportunity to travel and get paid whilst doing it.

So as i said i started seriously in Feb 2016 (I'd had a Getty account before this but i hadn't really uploaded any images). In May 2016 i went to my first iStock event in Kyoto, Japan where i met photographers and videographers from around the world who'd flown in specifically for the event, after talking to them i felt encouraged to try and shoot more for stock.

I spent 10 days in Kyoto, and the photos i shot during that time still sell well today. It took me 2 months to pay off that trip and everything i made since has been profit. After the success of Kyoto i decided that i was going to start trying to pursue stock as a full time job.

(Some shots from Kyoto)

In October 2016 i took the plunge and went to America for one month to shoot stock, i timed my trip to coincide with two stock events, one in LA and one in Texas. I went to both events, and in between i drove to and from Texas with a friend shooting stock along the way.

It was in LA that i shot my top selling shot of 2016/17

This one photo paid for my whole month stay in America, and paid for all my models and costs included, plus made a profit. This doesn't include the other 1000+ images that i shot and uploaded form that trip.

I was also lucky enough to travel to Okinawa/ Bangkok in April...

And to return to LA/ Utah in July...

So going back to the original question. Can you make money from Stock photography?
I definitely think you can, but here's what i've learnt over the past 18 months that i think is very important.

1. It may sound obvious, but you have to treat it like a job and not a hobby. I know a lot of people who shoot stock as a second income, and for most of them photography is a hobby (and there is nothing wrong with that) but if you want to make some good money from it you have to think about it slightly differently. This includes doing research on sales trends, looking at other stock images (not copying them), networking etc.

2. As a follow on from this you have to shoot what the clients want. Maybe you love shooting flowers, but is there a high demand from this type of photography from clients. Honestly, no. Well what do they want, iStock/ Getty are great in that they give you briefs and examples of what clients are looking for, generally this revolves around images with people in them. (and as you can see from my examples that's generally what i try and shoot, and it's definitely been worth the effort of finding models and locations)

3. Do you always have to find expensive locations/ model? Definitely not, a photographer i met in Texas makes nearly $70,000 a year and his portfolio consists mainly of selfies and photos of his kids. When i first got started i was shooting photos of my wife and daughter, but as i got more comfortable i started using models.

(One of the first photos i submitted featuring my daughter)

1. Choosing the right agency for you. There are numerous stock agencies available. Shutterstock, adobe, istock/ Getty, pixta, pond5 etc.
   There are several different types of contracts available, a lot of people submit to multiple agencies, but by doing this it reduces the cost you receive per image. Personally if i wasn't exclusive then i wouldn't be doing stock, there is no way i could earn what i do now by being non exclusive and selling on multiple agencies.

The reasons i like istock- as an exclusive contributor my files appear on both Getty and iStock which means that the sales price of the image can be a lot higher. For example a non exclusive sale may only bring in $0.02 but an exclusive sale can bring in $150. To me thats a no brainer, do i want 0.02 or a potential 150. (not all sales are 150, there are still a lot of smaller sales, but they all add up and you generally do get a lot of the higher sales per month)
Another reason i like iStock is their inspection team- now a lot of other photographers i meet who shoot for shutterstock etc complain about how strict the iStock team are. (For example in iStock you would have to remove the buttons on a photo including an iphone) But i'm actually really grateful for this, what a lot of those photographers who complain don't realise is that if a company i.e apple decide to sue over the use of that image with companies like shutterstock, it's you the contributor who gets stuck with the law suit. Whereas with iStock their rules are to protect you and mitigate any possible claims against you.
As mentioned above iStock also provide you with yearly trends, regional briefs and custom briefs for specific clients for content they are looking for. Again it might sound simple, but shoot what they ask you for and you will make sales. Don't forget they know what the clients are asking them for.
Events. Also as mentioned above, every year there are numerous events and meet ups all around the world. It's a great community and you can meet up with photographers from all around the globe and shoot some amazing content together.

Ok, i'll leave it at that for now. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. I'm happy to be open and transparent with any questions that you have. You can check out my website or instagram to see more examples of my stock work,

www.shotandcapturedby.com
www.instagram.com/jgalione

and below i'll leave some more of my top selling images for 2017.

Thanks for reading,
Jon