I traveled to Indianapolis on a business trip and took advantage to take some stock photos. Steps I took to prepare:

– Made sure my equipment was ready – Camera lens clean, battery and back up batteries charged, lots of space in the memory cards

– Searched for stock photos of Indianapolis – It was clear folks had done a great job of skyline photos, so no need to do those, got some ideas for others.

– Searched online for popular Indianapolis sites – Got some nice ideas, a river walk, monument circle… Added them to my reminder app on my iPhone.

– Searched things to do and events – Googled for events calendars to see if there were any interesting events that might yield some good photos, good to know beforehand.

– Got familiar with the area – Looked through a map of the area near the convention center, where the meeting was, so I could see which locations were nearby and I could catch during lunch breaks, etc., and which would be more of a drive.

I took some notes on some things I think I did right, so todo’s:

– Take photos even in bad weather – Weather wasn’t great the first evening I got there and there were some bad shadows, but I had the time so I scouted some locations, got some just in case photos.  When I had the chance to go back I knew exactly what I was going for.

– Get the basics right first – First thing I did was check my ISO (100 if outside and sunny, down to 400 on really cloudy day, much higher if inside), then my shutter speed (1/250 to help ensure decent focus, else if inside I’d taken my monopod I’d have gone with a slower shutter speed). Took some test shots and checked my histogram to make sure I wasn’t missing some very dark areas or blowing out light areas, and adjusted the exposure as needed.  Exposure of +x moves the histogram to the right, of -x moves it to the left.   (My Nikon D7000’s presets are such that you have to rotate the exposure wheel to the right to decrease it and the left to increase it, which seems counterintuitive to me – I forget how I did it but you can change the preset so rolling right increases exposure and rolling left decreases exposure, so my finger motion matches what I want the histogram to do. Unfortunately I can’t remember how I did that and can’t find it – If you know it, please include in the comment section, thanks!)

– Wait for the right shot – I took many outdoor shots of locations, and I would take a few shots then wait around to see if the scene got better, aiming for more folks in the shots, maybe a bicyclist riding past for additional interest and depth, think more “layers.”

Not something I would do on a family trip, but being by myself I could afford to do so. 

– Check the edges of the photo  – Sometimes I’d think I have a great shot but there was something in the edges of the photos that would have ruined it. Just moving a bit to one side or the other, or kneeling, would remove it.

– Get farther  – When I shot the “perfect” shot I would shoot one more with a little less magnification, for a bit more flexibility when editing/cropping.

– Get closer – I tried to avoid taking the standard tourist shot, still working on that one.

– Think of what photos you haven’t taken – Sometimes I’d think I was done then realize there were other looks, other angles, vertical vs. horizontal, tried to push myself to come up with better views.

– Be open to serendipity – I noticed some donation boxes to feed the homeless, so I shot some photos of it and people walking past it. Also realized that there are rental bikes available in Indianapolis, and my photos of those in Chicago are fairly popular, so I shot some of those too.  Walk around with an open mind.

– Go for the iconic shot – I tried to think of an iconic image, not only the natural tourist shot. Still working on those.

– Take pictures of any descriptive plaques – Often public locations have a plaque describing it. I always grab a quick photo of it, for interesting information I’ll use for the photo description.

What other suggestions would you have for someone taking some stock location photos with limited time? I invite you to share your tips in the comments.

I’m going to edit, crop, and generally clean up the final photos and submit them, wish me luck. Search my Shutterstock site for Indianapolis soon to see how I did…