CalevPhoto

Announcing my print and gallery site

As promised in my previous post, I have started my site where visitors are able to purchase prints of my top photos.  The location of the site is http://jcalev.smugmug.com and, as already mentioned, 60% of the profits from this site will go to charity – evenly divided between Doctors Without Borders, the World Wildlife Fund, and Sherwood Forest Elementary.

Besides a place to purchase prints, this is also the site where I show off my top pictures.  Actually, I learned quite a bit of humility putting together this collection as I came to realize how much further I need to go.  Clearly my work is not on par with many other photographers out there, but the process of collecting them made me realize that I need to do a better job when taking pictures today.

So far I have collected 32 pictures on there that I believe are a good representation.  I will likely add new pictures slowly over time, though my criteria are very tough and I do not intend for this site to contain all of my pictures – just the ones that I feel are the best.

Anyway, I hope you find the site interesting.  Feel free to look around and comment.  Also please feel free to comment on the image selection on the site and on the prices.  This is my first attempt at doing this so I suspect I have a lot to learn.

Introduction to Microstock Photography – Some Last Examples

This is the last post of the Introduction to Microstock Photography series.  I hope that this series has been helpful.  In this post, I will go through the final set of examples.

This is a panorama of the Jerusalem city walls at night.  The taking of the shot has an interesting story itself.  I took this with my Sigma 80-400 4-5.6 OS at 400mm and 5.6.  When I first submitted the shot, it was rejected due to softness.  I was quite surprised at this because I used a tripod, mirror lock, and a remote shutter release.  The tripod itself was on sturdy concrete.  How could it be soft?

To my surprise, when I examined the shot at 100%, it was soft.  The simple fact was, the Sigma was too soft at 400mm and 5.6.  As a result of further investigation, I sold this lens because I could no longer depend on it.  Eventually I will buy a new telephoto, but right now I rarely need one and I’m waiting for Canon to improve on their 100-400mm lens.

The next step I did was shrinking the size of the picture down.  This often works when the shot is a bit out of focus.  Shutterstock accepted the picture and it is a good seller.  IStockPhoto rejected the shot – and it is an interesting point why.

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Introduction to Microstock Photography Part I

This is the first part of a multipart series on microstock photography.  For a bit over two years, I have slowly become more involved in this strategy for selling pictures.  There are quite a few guides out there on the Internet about this subject, but I suspect that my philosophy on it will be a bit different from the others.

Before I get started, I want to let you know whom this series is intended for.  People that meet the following criteria are most likely to benefit from this series.

1) You are already familiar with the basics of photography.  You are very familiar with terms such as shutterspeed, aperture, depth of field, noise, etc.  You know about the rule of thirds and what makes a good picture vs a poor one.

2) You have a stable job that is paying you enough that you are not worried about paying the bills every month.  You certainly wouldn’t mind earning some extra money, but you are not dependent on it.  The money you make from selling photographs is intended to pay for more photo equipment, not change your standard of living.

3) You already take pictures often and have a good idea what types of pictures you enjoy taking and what types of pictures you don’t.

4) You are not a photographer by profession.  During the day you do something else.

If you meet these criteria and are not already participating in microstock photography (or are just beginning) then I hope the info in this post and the ones that follow will be of use.

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Changing how I approach the business of photography

As many of you know, though I currently do not make much money with photography what I do make is split between real estate photography and stock photography.  For quite some time I have been deliberating what the next step I want to take is – and I have finally come to a conclusion.  In short, I think it is time to stop monkeying around and become a real photographer.

As far as this blog is concerned, nothing much will change.  If anything, I hope that you’ll notice over the next year that the quality of my pictures increases.  You may also notice that many posts will contain fewer pictures – but of a higher quality.

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Microstock Report for February

I had thought due to the fact that February is shorter, I would have a more difficult time getting good numbers.  This turned out to be far from the truth, as a I had a new best month ever.  My previous goal was to make $250 this month, and I wound up with $321, breaking the $300 barrier for the first time.  I have decided, however, to not set my goal in March to $350, but instead to set it at repeating $300.  The following is how each microstock site did for me.

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