Great Escape Publishing

Posted October 6th, 2016 by Bonnie Caton & filed under Travel Photography.

Selling your photos through some kind of “agency” sounds official and unapproachable. Like you have to have an “agent” and a studio and a bunch of models pouting around.

But stock photography is actually almost the opposite of that. What you need is a camera and an imagination… and that’s it.

You don’t even need a background in photography, since the people who accept your photos into the agency don’t even care who you are. They just look at your photos to decide if they want them.

Over the last two days, we’ve talked about stock photo trends that are hot right now, and I want to show you that taking photos for these trends can actually be super simple. In fact, you can start right at home.

Here are a few sample stock photos I took today, right in my kitchen, that follow a few of the themes we talked about in the past two issues:

Authentic: For this theme, I set up my tripod in my kitchen, set the timer in my camera, and took a few shots of myself at the table. Notice that the overhead light is OFF and I’m only using window light. Whenever you shoot indoors, avoid mixing natural and artificial light by shooting near a window and turning off the lights.

Wanderlust: Naturally, you’d think you have to travel to take photos about “wanderlust,” but you can stage all kinds of easy shots in your home. Simple elements that evoke travel, like this paper airplane and the travel magazine on the table can do the trick. Note: The focus is on the airplane and the travel magazine is well blurred-out, as it needs to be because otherwise the photo in it is copyrighted.

Wellness: Adult coloring books are a mental health “thing” right now, so I staged this shot of myself coloring, with pencils strewn around. Note: I can’t use any copyrighted images – like the pages of an actual coloring book – so I searched for “mandalas in the public domain” and found two images to print and color.

If you stop and think for a few minutes, I’m sure you can come up with at least 10 different ideas to shoot for each of the above. Why not try shooting one or two of them tonight and see what you get?

I’ll send you a few more tips for success from stock photographer Shelly Perry tomorrow.

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