New Ventures: Stock Photography

Hard to believe that a few weeks have gone by since I've posted anything.  I have to be better about posting quick, little things.  Lots of new and exciting things happening but one that I want to share now is about becoming a photo contributor for a company that I now work for - Shutterstock.

Stock photography is an industry that's relatively new and its setup to allow for customers (people like ad agencies, designers or other creatives) to use "stock" content for their advertising.  Because there's both photo and video, this could be for something like a print ad or possibly a television commercial.  What the stock house (e.g., Shutterstock) does is license the use of the media (photo or video) to the buyer.  There are a few competitors in the space and probably the best known is Getty Images.

So, shortly after I started here I attempted to create an account and become a contributor but....I was rejected.  10 out of 10.  Not even one got through.  Hmm.  Okay, plan B.  I met and became friendly with the content manager and asked him to sit down to take a look at some of what I consider to be my good work and it turns out I was just submitting the wrong stuff.  He helped with what to submit and after I obtained a few model releases to grant permission from the subject of the image to sell them, I resubmitted new content and was APPROVED!  Yay!  When you get a chance, check out my images for sale on Shutterstock.