Great Escape Publishing

Posted July 22nd, 2012 by The Photographer's Life & filed under Travel Photography.

Katrina Elena is a member of our Breakfast Stock Club. We told our members a few months ago that photo buyers often have a hard time finding pictures of pets with their collars on.

Pictures of pets are easy to find. But pictures of pets with their collars aren’t so readily available. Katrina took that advice, bought a collar, snapped a few pictures of her cat, and uploaded the photos to an online stock site. Her picture below sold for $332…

MY PLANS FOR RETIREMENT WITH MICROSTOCK PHOTOGRAPHY
By Katrina Elena in Boynton Beach, FL

My interest in photography started in the 1980s. I learned about stock photography in 2001 when I worked as an art director at a New York City firm and would search the stock sites looking for photos to support my advertising concepts. In 2005, I decided to make a career transition from art director to freelance photographer and applied to become a contributor with Alamy.

Later, I started contributing to Shutterstock, iStockPhoto, and Fotolia. I keep up with continuing education to improve my photography and my stock sales. AWAI’s Breakfast Stock Club is a great resource. The publishers give good advice, but more importantly, they help motivate me to continue to submit new images. In one of their newsletters, they advised of the need for photographs of pets wearing their collars and tags. So, I bought my cat a collar, attached his tags, and shot a few frames. This photo just sold for $332 through Alamy…

I recommend getting involved in stock photography to other photographers, but most never do. It baffles me why. They have hundreds of saleable images in their hard drives that could easily be generating residual income for not only their lifetime but also for their heirs.

Stock photography does require time and commitment, but persistence pays off. It’s a wonderful investment for the future. I can’t stress enough that now is the time to start.

[Editor’s Note: Learn more about how you can fund your travels and make an extra income with photography, travel writing, blogging, and more in our free online newsletter The Right Way to Travel. Sign up here today and we’ll send you a new report, Five Fun Ways To Get Paid To Travel: A Quick-Start Guide, completely FREE.]