Taking Stock of Stock Photography
[by Jenna Close]
I wasn’t involved in this industry during the glory days of stock photography, but from what I hear it was a time of plenty. Plenty of money, plenty of freedom, plenty of fun. It seems to me that royalty free images, market saturation and perhaps even the digital age have closed that chapter in history. That said, I don’t think one should write off stock as a means of income. With due diligence and a little research, stock is a great way to squeeze more money out of your images. For me, the successful route has been finding a smaller, rights-managed boutique agency that specializes in a certain type of imagery (in my case, images relating to the environment). That way, many of the images I shoot for clients can be re-used as stock. While my stock sales wouldn’t pay the bills on their own, it’s a nice source of secondary income without much added work.
Jenna Close, along with partner Jon Held, run P2 Photography. They specialize in imagery for the alternative energy market. You can find Jenna at www.p2photography.net.
One Response to 'Taking Stock of Stock Photography'
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Hi Jenna,
I agreed with you at 100%. I have a secondary income from stock photography. I am using my own website (www.ottawastockphotos.com) but also Alamy.com. Both have differents usages and both add more money on the table at the end of the month.
I just sold an image on Alamy for almost $600 and this image was uploaded in 2005.
Frederic