Photographing for stock with the end user in mind
When I plan a stock photo shoot, I always think about how designers/advertisers/editors can use the images I create in their work. Chances are, if I can't think of multiple uses for an image then it won't end up selling very well. This is sometimes hard to come to grips with. Early on in my stock shooting, I had some pretty artsy shots that I really liked and thought would be big sellers. To my surprise and disappointment, many of these images ended up not selling at all.
Today's image is an example of shooting with the end use in mind. Since the passing and implementation of California's new cellphone usage law on July 1st (link), I figured that there would be a need for fresh images portraying cellphone use while driving. With this in mind, I took one of my models to an empty parking lot earlier this month and photographed several scenes of her using a cellphone while driving.
In this case it worked. This morning I awoke to find one of my preset Google Alerts had located multiple uses of my image of a driver texting. The Christian Science Monitor provides content for television station websites throughout the country and for their story on texting-while-driving they purchased this image from my iStockphoto portfolio.
As John "Hannibal" Smith said, "I love it when a plan comes together".
4 Comments:
How do you setup Google Alerts to give you results on just your photos?
And that my friend is why you are successful at stock :)
As a designer I am often baffled at the amount of stock I cannot find useful. It does all come down to usability, not how impressive the photo is. Same for the kind of web design I do, for online offers and sales. It's not about how cool the site looks, it's whether the site converts to sales. Often it is not the prettiest site that does the job.
Nicely done and I love the A-Team reference. You so dated yourself with it-as did I by knowing where it came from...
Great minds think alike! I recently did a distracted driving series too (talking on phone while driving, texting while driving, drowsy driving, etc.). I agree that not all art is usable or pertinent (as mentioned by Jeremy). As a heavy user of stock photography over the last 12-13 years in the graphic design and advertising industry, hopefully I've come to know what kind of images designers want (although I could probably be even more successful as a stock photographer by shooting super useful stock themes like you do instead of just the themes that interest me the most).
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