As a ’traditional stock photographer’ I have learned quite a lot about the mircostock business from the point of view of photographers from the Microstock Photographer’s Guide by Rasmus Rasmussen and know that he is very competent to give us advice on how to go into microstock photography. And your advice about how to make the best out of a personal consultation with Rasmus seems to be very useful.

Direct and honest reviews of our work with photography should always be used to bring us further, and the microstock business has many similarities with traditional stock photography business but also some special aspects. For example the microstock customers can easily be ‘common people’ with a website that would never consider to pay $100 for a ‘traditional’ stock shot, but might consider buying a small resolution stock photo for one dollar.

Soren Breiting
(Denmark)

Der Blick durch den Sucher – der Wochenrückblick auf die Fotografie-Szene – für Kalenderwoche 35.

Mein Highlight der Woche: wie Fotografien Menschen verbinden (via Thomas Hawk).
Fototechnik / Fotografen über die Schulter geschaut: Oliver Schaef spi…

Actually, the term conjured mental images of traveling to beautiful places with beautiful models as a standard work-day, which must be part of the appeal. Thanks for confirming my dream.

And good tip on the translated model releases!

-Lee

Good question. I’m in that inquiry myself. What I already know is travel lifestyle is not the same as just travel. Like you, I have a lot of travel images and they’re not among my best selling photos either. I’ll be doing more research, but I imagine travel lifestyle involves photos of people in the context of travel.

As for the value of the consultation, I think of it in terms of how many extra sales I’ll get from all that I learned and how I improved my photography. And doing this early in your microstock career will multiply the benefits as it drastically shortens your learning time and gets your earnings rising faster. For me, it’s the investment that will give you the greatest return, much bigger than a new lens or new camera.

-Lee

I’m interested in what exactly constitutes “travel lifestyle” and wonder if you could possibly expand on it. I love travel photography, too, but from my own limited experience, it’s not the best selling type of photography. At least, I struggle to make many sales, which might not be the same thing! Can you describe what is meant by travel lifestyle? Any illustrations?

Rasmus could be onto something here with his consultations. It would certainly be great to get an unbiased and knowledgeable opinion on my strengths and weaknesses but I wonder how many sales I’d have to make to cover the cost of the consultation. I’m starting to see many aspects of photography in a similar light: how many pics would I have to sell to cover that trip to Amsterdam, that new lens, a new bit of software, etc. I don’t know whether this is a good sign or a bad one.

Cheers,
Bruce