Shooting stock photos – England

The first week in August I took my sons to England, had a good time, had fun taking photos. Unfortunately as I mentioned in my end of July update I had set the photos to too small for Shutterstock during another trip and didn’t notice it until halfway through the England trip, so only one day of photos has a shot at Shutterstock… Luckily for me lots of the fun is in the taking…

Didn’t have dedicated stock photo days since I was with family and for many reasons couldn’t go out on my own much, but did the best with the time I had. Managed a shot of Stonehenge with not too many people around:

Then spent some time in Stratford, where we visited Shakespeare’s grave:

On to Windsor castle:

These will all be too small for Shutterstock, oh well…

Luckily I did figure this out the next to last day. The last day we took the double-decker tour bus of London, which was going incredibly slowly because the horrendous traffic caused by an Underground strike. Silver lining for me ’cause I was able to take lots of photos that should work out very well since the bus wasn’t moving much… Lots of logo shots will be coming from that one…

One favorites from the day is this one of Tower Bridge, taken during an accompanying boat trip down the Thames:

Haven’t made time to process them and submit the larger ones to Shutterstock yet, I’ll update the blog with a link to the accepted photos when I do.

Let’s dispense with what I would do differently, that of course would be to not budge the photo size and always keep it on large… What I did right:

Took lots of photos, wasn’t shy about pulling out the camera.
Looked for the little details. Although this one will be too small for Shutterstock, I was pleased with this “mind the gap” one I took at a train station:

Asked for some patience from my kids as I tried to get “the shot” in some places I would never get back to, like Shakespeare’s burial place. I try hard not to have the trip become “mama takes photos and the boys tag along,” but at the same time every once in a while…

Best wishes on your photography adventures,

Susan

October 24 update – Finally submitted some of the photos last week. You can see the ones Shutterstock accepted here.

Milestone – Ann Arbor Women Artists membership

So I’d been thinking about it and finally did it this month. I became a member of the Ann Arbor Women Artists group. I had seen their name around many of the coffeehouses in town that have art exhibits and had set it as a goal this summer to become a member. Looks like in addition to the exhibits they have a number of talks, workshops, etc. that should be useful. Not quite sure how involved I’ll be able to be with the school year starting, but I am glad to at least be a part of the group and a bigger artistic community. Maybe I can see about exhibiting those framed car photos…

Monthly Reflections – July 2015

And now we’re into August, hope your summers are going well!

Just returned from a family trip to England, took a few photos, though also realized in trying to submit photos of the Underground strike quickly due to their timeliness that somewhere toward the end of the Iceland trip I set my photo size to 4 MP vs. the usual 16 MP, so lots of photos I took since then (4th of July, a few in Toronto, half of the ones in England) won’t be large enough for Shutterstock, bummer. I had switched to small photos for that one photo ’cause it was for my sister and not for stock and I didn’t want to have to resize it… and after the end of taking that one photo I got distracted and didn’t set it back and since I haven’t submitted any photos to Shutterstock lately I didn’t notice it – thank goodness I don’t depend on stock for my livelihood… I had a bit of negative “and you call yourself a photographer…” thinking, but only for a few minutes, I know now to have a little cry and move on, spending any more time on that is just a waste of energy… So focus on lesson learned: From now all all large photos all the time, not taking a chance on that again…

I did submit a handful photos to Shutterstock, so I’m up to 1320 images. I made some progress on the Iceland photos, selected over 100 of them for stock- about 80 of which are large enough for Shutterstock, whew! Now to find the time to finish getting them ready and submitting them…

So here are the most recent photos on Shutterstock, with the few extra logos:

And the most popular photos as of this month, as always the logos dominate. With Planned Parenthood in the news I got lots of downloads of that one, and I see a few from the Holland photo shoot as well, great!

So planning on lots of uploading in August… In the meantime, best wishes on your photography adventures.

Susan

Monthly Reflections – June 2015

Yikes, July is just whooshing on by and I haven’t written up my end of June posting yet, oopsies…

Had a great time in Iceland, will be processing those photos and the 4th of July photos too, just so many things I want to do this summer… I did catch up on processing the logo photos so I’m up to 1314 images on Shutterstock! My goal is still 1,500 by the end of summer…

Here are my most recent photos on Shutterstock, with the ones from the trip to Toledo leading the way:

and the most popular below. Logos and store fronts still making it big, as well as Detroit photos, and some of the yellow stickers, have to come up with more of those sometime…

Have been enjoying Lynford Morton’s Shutterbug Life podcasts, always learn something from them…

OK back to the garden, catch you again soon. In the meantime, best wishes to you on your photography adventures.

Susan

Shooting Stock Photos – Toledo solo photo day

Had a vacation week last week, took one day and went to Toledo for the day. I had chatted with friends from Toledo and done some research so I had some idea of what I wanted to catch – It’s really like a fun scavenger hunt! Caught some store logos on the way down, just can’t help myself:

Started with an iconic photo at the University of Toledo:

then headed for downtown. Unfortunately some of the angles I wanted to take ended up being in the shade. I know I’m supposed to go on a more cloudy day, I thought it was going to be partly cloudy on this day but it ended up being sunny, which posed many challenges. I’ll be going back to catch those I couldn’t quite get.

Got to the Imagination Station (think science museum) when there were bunches of kids being unloaded off buses, so I waited for them to be done. I walked around and tried different angles, some focusing on the building, some more on the sign, ended up happy with these two after much trying around, takes longer than you’d think, so plan to be patient, it’s worth the wait. You can’t be in a rush, or you’ll just get frustrated and your photos will suffer for it…

As I was driving around I noticed an Ohio Turnpike sign, and figured that was fairly iconic, maybe that would be worth a shot, and as we were in a bit of slow traffic I took a chance and got a sign photo that was accepted too:

Some of the photos I took in the morning were in the shade, so I went back again in the afternoon to try them again, but the sun was just too bright and didn’t make for good photos. Have to learn my lesson soon that shady really is best for some of these, but can’t help loving a sunny day when the angle is just right, luckily Toledo is just an hour away, so I’ll just keep the list with me for the next time I go past…

After taking a photo and cleaning it up, I added an editorial caption following Shutterstock’s preferred format, which you eventually get down to a science. You can see all the Toledo photos Shutterstock accepted here.

Monthly Reflections – May 2015

Finally in May we got some photography action, yey! The day job had more loose ends to tie up than I remembered, but I did have/made some time for photography.

I went to Holland, MI to take photos at the Tulip Time festival. I started to process some of the logo photos but was quite disappointed when all 15 photos in the first set I submitted were turned down. After a few days of feeling bad that I must have lost my touch, or standards must have gotten stricter, what was the point, what was I thinking thinking I was a good photographer, etc. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and gave it another shot, and got a whole slew of photos accepted, whew! Finally broke past the 1091 photos I’ve had on Shutterstock for the past 8 months with 82 new photos approved…

Here are the most recent ones:

and the most popular ones:

June seems promising. I have a week off from my day job this coming week, when I’ll be celebrating the first year anniversary of this blog, as well as taking photos and processing lots of logo photos I took Fall and Christmas break. Mid-June I have that work trip to Iceland, so I plan to get lots of good shots there too, I can’t wait…

Best wishes on YOUR photography adventures,

Susan

Shooting stock photos – Tulip Time Festival in Holland, MI

I have always wanted to go to the Tulip Time Festival in Holland, MI, where those with Dutch ancestry are kind enough to share their heritage with the public, and what better excuse than taking stock photos for going this year? Also great to finally have some more time to devote to stock photos…

I checked out their website and figured out that the mother-daughter dance would make for good photos, so I based my schedule on that. Many stock photo websites want names of any children in even editorial photos so I planned to skip that one. I got to Holland and found out that it was graduation day at Hope College, so I hung around and got some good photos of people taking post graduation shots:

Then some photos of the Art Fair, thinking of shots that might be of demand by people writing about the event in future years, so wanted to make sure I got the logo in there. I hung out there for 15-20 minutes taking shots of people walking in and out of the fair until I got this shot of some photogenic people:

The funny thing is that Michiganders are a generally considerate people, so many of them on seeing that I’m taking photos stop to not get in the shot, when I’m trying to get photos with people IN the shot… Fun..

I got a good seat in front of a church so I’d have a nice background, and waited half an hour for the mother-daughter dance. Wish I’d had the ISO a bit lower than the 1000 I had it set at, but the photos were acceptable to Shutterstock much to my delight:

Afterwards some of the dancers were posing for photos. I was feeling a little shy at first, but then, inspired by Ron Scubadiver, one of the photographers I follow, I asked them to pose and they were so nice about it:

Then I went to Windmill Island hoping for a great shot of the windmill with tulips in front of it, but the tulips weren’t quite cooperating, poo… So, decided to try for another tourist shot and hung out for quite a while until I got a cute couple taking a selfie with the windmill, to add a personal element to the photos:

Had to wait quite a while to makes sure I had a cute couple, and no unflattering views of other people in the background bending over or anything, so another 15-20 minutes here too. You can see all the photos Shutterstock accepted here.

It’s great to be back to taking stock photos, and having time to process them – tons of logo photos to get to this week…

Best wishes to you on your photography adventures…

Susan

From DPS – The 4 Ps – Tips for Improving Your Wildlife Photography

Digital Photography School had a great entry with suggestions on improving your wildlife photography.

1. Preparation – learn about your subject, and your camera, check the weather.

2. Practice – With great “keep in mind” suggestions specific to wildlife photography

3. Perseverance – Take your time and stay quiet

4. Passion – Appreciate and care for your subjects

You can see many more details of each topic and some great wildlife photography to inspire you here.

Monthly Reflections – April 2015

Not much to say for April, day job took much of my energy, so not done much photography beyond some summer planning, though I did make some progress on learning Icelandic some (The uTalk app is great for vocabulary practice!) , and made plans for some other travel days around here. Also mastered not stressing out over not blogging much during the school year, it is what it is…

Looking at the Shutterstock portfolio and comparing it to past months things seem pretty static overall, can’t wait to see what changes come up this summer when new photos go in.

Summer is officially here as of today, though, so I can focus more on photography (and blogging) vs. my students… More soon…

Best wishes in your May photography adventures,

Susan

Monthly reflections – March 2015

March brought some excitement – I sold my first framed photograph! As for the stock photo website, logos are still selling very well, as well as Detroit and Indianapolis photographs – That Detroit photo day really paid off, as well as the extra time taking some photos while I was in Indianapolis for work:

I bought that 50 mm lens, but I haven’t had a chance to play with it, the day job is just too crazy busy. I followed up a bit on that proposal to the coffeehouse for the photo exhibit, but no luck yet, I’ll have to work on that later… The great thing with stock photography is that the money keeps coming even when you don’t work.

Looking ahead, I’ll be going to Iceland for an energy program in June, and staying a few extra days for travel, so looking forward to getting some great stock photos then, now trying to learn some Icelandic… góðan daginn…

Best wishes in your April photography adventures,

Susan

Milestone – Sold my first framed photograph!

Very excited, last week I sold my first framed photograph! One of my colleagues had seen the photo at the Car Details exhibit and loved it, and he and his wife asked about it at a departmental event we were all at. I happened to still have the photos in my van from the exhibit…

Yes, I’ve been carrying them in the back of my van all this time, not sure where to put them at home, but hey, it was all for the best, because they bought it that night. for their vacation condo. I’m thrilled, my first sale of a framed photograph! I was all sorts of giggly when I deposited the money to my Susan Montgomery Photos account at the Credit Union… Exciting to think that it will be on someone’s wall…

If you’re curious, this is the photo that sold:

… as always, best wishes to you on your photography adventures…

Susan

From Picture Correct – 9 Essential Compositions Rules for New Photographers

So I’m remembering why I don’t do much photography done during the school year, I always forget how long the weeks are!

BUT… I got this great link to some composition ideas – some of the usual ones but also some new ones that I know I’ll want to remember:

1. Rule of thirds

2. Leading lines

3. Diagonals

4. Framing

5. Figure to ground

6. Fill the frame

7. Center the dominant eye

8. Patterns & repetition

9. Symmetry

Intrigued? Check it out here, and take the time to view the video, MANY more examples beyond the one shown in the article – lovely photographs!

Monthly reflections – February 2015

So… February….

The good news – A record month for both Shutterstock and iStockphotos and a by far record month for stock photo sales overall, yey!

Too busy with regular work and life happenings (tailbone owies take a lot longer to heal when you’re almost 50, and RIP Aten the cat…) to process photos but I did submit a proposal to a local coffeehouse to see if they might be interested in exhibiting the car details photos – cross your fingers…

It occurred to me it might be interesting to take a screenshot of my Shutterstock page each month to see how the most popular photos change over time. At the end of February 2015 I’m at 1091 images, and the most popular photos include many Detroit photographs as well as those store logos that have really paid off! Some of the post-it note themed images did well too, hmmm…

Shutterstock February 2015

Looking ahead to March, every reason to think I can finally process those logo photos I took over the holidays, let’s see…

I wish you the best in your March photography adventures,

Susan

From Lynford Morton – Nine ways to find more time to take photos

This is one I need to heed myself, as I’ve been having a hard time fitting photography in with the other things going on in my life this month…

Lynford Morton writes in Shutterbug Life with some suggestions to find more time to take photos:

1. Schedule smaller chunks of time

2. Build it into existing hobbies

3. Make it a daily/personal project

4. Make it a part of your family time

5. Make it a social activity

6. Use it with your work or calling

7. Take a camera everywhere – this is the easiest one that all of us could heed…

8. Make it mobile

9. Permit yourself to take bad pictures

He ends with this quote ” If you really want to do it, you’ll make time. If you don’t want to do it, you’ll make excuses.” A reminder that time management is really priority management… Read the article and listen to the podcast for more details.

From DPS – 10 Ways to Improve Your Travel Photography

Gavin Hardcastle has some great travel photography suggestions in this DPS article Suggestions include:

1. Focus on faces

2. Shoot fast

3. Learn the lingo

4. Hire a translator

5. Smile and make friends

6. Ask for permission

7. Choose the right lenses

8. Carry two cameras

9. Step out of your comfort zone

10. Take responsibility for your own safety

You can see more of his terrific photographs in his Fototripper blog.

From DPS – 7 Tips and Etiquette for Taking Portraits in Public

Mujahid Urrehman gives some great suggestions in 7 Tips and Etiquette for Taking Portraits in Public. Interesting comments enrich the conversation. The tips include:

1. Show your presence

2. Engage

3. Ask permission

4. Remember people

5. Show the results and make people feel good about themselves

6. Respect their possessions

7. Say goodbye and inform them of the use of their photo (legal)

Interesting comments add to the discussion. I have been surprised by how many times I am asked to take someone’s photo when I’m on a photo shoot, often they are just happy to pose and then walk away. If circumstances seem appropriate I offer to email them the photograph – I’ve done that a few times and they seemed to really appreciate getting them.

From DPS – Digital Photography Tips for Beginners

Digital Photography School has a great set of tips for beginners along the categories of:

Basics of exposure

Learning to Use Digital Camera Settings and Features

Handling and Caring for a Digital Camera

Other Beginner Photography Tutorials and Tips

Common Digital Photography Problems and Questions Answered

I have found their short tips to be very useful, I encourage you to take a look – here

Monthly reflections – January 2015

So January was mostly about recovering the files in my hard drive. Carbonite took about 20 minutes per Photoshop file, and I have thousands of them, yikes… Maybe should have just left them on the cloud….

I did have this fun three-day project over school break in early January when I took over 400 photos of logos and storefronts on Ford Rd in Canton nearby, this strip of bunches of national stores – my kind of fun, and now have plenty of photos to clean up and submit in this slow winter season…

Since then work got busy, I caught a bad cold/sore throat etc that wiped me out, then I literally wiped out on Monday, slipping on ice and falling flat on my back on ice/snow earlier this week, owie owie owie…

Glad to leave January behind, that’s all I can say. A few more days and I should be back, with a healthy hard drive and healthy body and ready to spend evenings cleaning up photos…

I wish you the best in your February photography adventures,

Susan

From Digital Camera World – 7 Ways to Make Precise Selections in Photoshop

I recently read this great article in Digital Camera World titled 7 ways to make precise selections in Photoshop. It goes into detail into these 7 techniques:

01 Quick Selection

02 Refine Edge

03 Channel selections

04 Color Range

05 Handy shortcuts

06 Marquee tool tips

07 Select Focus Area

Click here to access the article – definitely a keeper for me!

Best wishes in your photography adventures,

Susan

So…. How do you back up your photos?

So I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been dealing with recovery after my hard drive died a few weeks ago… Yes, my whole business, all thousands of photographs, gone…

Which would be very sad if it were not for my back-ups! :)

I had used Time Machine in the past to back-up my computer to an external hard drive, but I realized that I didn’t back things up as often as I should. At work I use time machine and just automatically plug in my external drive and have it do it’s thing while at my desk, but when I’m home it’s just not so convenient as I sit on my sofa on my home laptop, and I could easily go weeks without backing up.

So I got a subscription to Carbonite, which continually backed up all my files to the cloud through my wireless connection, no matter where I was, and I didn’t have to think about it at all. Much more like it, though it didn’t back up applications, just files.

So after I got my new hard drive I was able to recreate the overall structure from my most current Time Machine, and my jpegs are all downloaded, working on the psd files now. I think I’m going to have some issues with some of my applications, have to dig up some old installation CDs to find serial numbers, etc. (note to self – next time be more organized about that…) but at least all my thousands of photos are saved, whew…

I wonder whether I should just have my files in the cloud in some Google drive or something, will have to ponder that for a while… … so this made me wonder, how do YOU back up your photos? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments section as I reconsider what to do for the future…

Susan

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: