Tag: editorial

Shooting stock photos – Columbus, OH 2017

Drove to Columbus, OH for my day job, and had fun shooting stock photos while I was out of town, here are some reflections on the trip…  What I did right:

  • Planned ahead by checking out popular locations and marking them on Googlemaps, which helped tremendously with planning – Once I was at one location I could quickly scan the map and find other nearby locations, so I could see those that were near each other and prepare my photo taking.
  • Looked up headquarters of companies that might be nearby, to get some idea of what was there.
  • Took my time getting there, so I could pull out as I desired, like a stop at Bowling Green State University. I’d often wanted to check out the campus:

Bowling Green State University Jerome Library

and having my camera on me at all times so when I’m moved to take a photo I can catch it before the opportunity disappears:

long sunny road

  • Went around Ohio Stadium to get a wide variety of shots:
COLUMBUS, OH – JUNE 25: Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio is shown on June 25, 2017. It is the home of the Ohio State University Buckeyes.
COLUMBUS, OH – JUNE 25: The sign for Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio is shown on June 25, 2017. It is the home of the Ohio State University Buckeyes.
COLUMBUS, OH – JUNE 25: Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio is shown on June 25, 2017. It is the home of the Ohio State University Buckeyes.
COLUMBUS, OH – JUNE 25: Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio is shown on June 25, 2017. It is the home of the Ohio State University Buckeyes.
  • Took my time downtown, and waiting for enough people to walk into the shot to make for a more interesting photograph:

Scioto Mile, in downtown Columbus, OH

  • Looked for those random opportunities that present themselves:
COLUMBUS, OH – JUNE 27: A sign for the Stonewall Columbus Pride Festival in Columbus, Ohio is shown on June 27, 2017. It is the second largest LGBTQ Pride festival in the Midwes.
COLUMBUS, OH – JUNE 27: An electrician works on an electrical pole near the Convention Center on June 27, 2017.
  • Enjoyed photography for its sake, not thinking only of stock photography
  • Let a little kid take a photograph with my camera, sharing the joy of photography with others.
  • Processed the photos fairly quickly, just finished just two weeks after the trip.

What I would do differently:

  • Print out a map with the popular locations, so I didn’t have to refer to the phone every time. I hadn’t realized that the saved locations don’t show when in directions mode…

You can see the photos Shutterstock accepted from Columbus here. Hope these reflections help you, and best wishes on YOUR photography adventures!

Susan

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Shooting stock photos – Store logos

I had noticed that many articles on websites and newspapers about companies include shots of company logos, so I decided to hunt up some company logos for stock photo shots. I went early on a Sunday morning with no bright sun to one of our streets with lots of stores and went up and down the different strip malls and took shots of close-ups of logos:

ATT

and store fronts:

BBB

I then cropped and aligned them, and composed an editorial caption by looking up some news about them, and following Shutterstock’s captioning instructions , so for example:

ANN ARBOR, MI – AUGUST 24: Chili’s, whose east Ann Arbor store logo is shown on August 24, 2014, has announced it will create a line of frozen foods.

I also have to remember that when I submit them to iStockphoto I have to change the capital letters at the start to lower case to match their caption style…

What I did right:

– Went on a Sunday so parking lots were empty and I could move around easily and not so many folks thinking me creepy for taking photos. Some of the shots were taken from the van.
– Made sure my van was not showing in the reflection of the glass..
– No bright sunshine, so no harsh shadows
– Looked up news about each company, or if I couldn’t find any news looked up their website and wrote up how many stores they have in the US or some such.

What I would do differently:

– In some cases I got just the logo and not the store, later realized I should get one of each, so going back to reshoot some of them.
– Weather was a bit too cloudy at times, so some shots were not as good as I’d like, have to back for some of those too.

Some might think of this as too much like work, but I am a collector at heart, so this is more like a scavenger hunt for me, really enjoy it for some weird reason… To see all such photos in my Shutterstock collection click here.

Dec 6 addendum – You can see by looking at my complete Shutterstock collection by popularity just what a huge hit the logos have been – sharp increase in my Shutterstock income!

From Shutterstock – Things to keep in mind when shooting stock

Shutterstock’s blog has a great infographic of things to keep in mind when shooting photography for commercial purposes. They address copyright, trademark, editorial, releases, and credentials, and end with a checklist, and an option to download a guide to protecting your content.

Check it out here