STOCK BUSINESS UPDATE

A few years after starting my journey into the stock world, I thought I'd put up an update regarding where it's taken me, including providing a few hints to you based on mistakes I've made 'lo these many years.

I had originally gotten into stock around 2011 after taking up photography in 2009. I had heard of folks like Yuri Arcurs making a great living from taking photos that clients would purchase online. I considered this the perfect way to do what I loved while making money at it. Let me say this...getting into the Stock world is NOT a get rich quick proposition! Like any other business, you must pay your dues by honing your skills in that particular field. And unless you've shot for stock before, you'll soon discover it's its own animal that must be tamed so-to-speak.

The best thing about being a Stock Artist is making a continuous income. Although each shot only makes what some would consider a paltry sum, it adds up when sales are coming from all over the world. Plus, the income doesn't end. My photos are selling right now, in fact... As long as you keep current by putting up photos on a regular basis and manage your uploads correctly, you will continued to see steady or increasing sales from across the globe.

Another great thing is the fact that you don't have to pay for advertising, promotion, signage, a store front, or any of those time consuming things associated with a traditional business. My stock sites do all that for me and all I have to do is be a photographer.

Shooting photos are only a small part of being a Stock Artist

One of the most time consuming things will be the post production of your photos. This will include the editing of your works of art and uploading them to the stock site for approval. Also, one of the most important things you can do is to correctly keyword your photos. So now is the time to make yourself a keywording expert! Making the post production streamlined is crucial. Otherwise, you'll find yourself hating that side of things and getting bogged down. It's more than 50% of operating a growing stock business so give it the attention it deserves.

Here are my top five...okay, the first five things that came to mind, but are pretty darn important to remember about being a stock artist list:

1). Don't imitate the style of someone you know is making money as a Stock Artist. Chances are they're better than you, have more client contacts, and have pretty much already cornered the market in their style. Make your own style which will then become your brand that people look for.

2). Set reasonable goals. Start with one money earner like Shutterstock; become a Contributor and start building your empire from the foundation on up. As you move up do your research. Shutterstock has a great program for helping its contributors make sales so take advantage of it.

3). Find a program that will allow you to upload multiple photos to your stock sites as well as being able to add tags. The time it saves is invaluable.

4). Don't be discouraged by rejections. They happen for whatever reason and are not something to give up over, they are something to learn from.

5). Keep building. Research the top earning sites and expand your business (if you want to earn money at stock, consider it a business with growth potential) by becoming a contributor on each of them. You can either import your top earning photos from your first site (a great way to be approved on other sites) or use your expanded knowledge gained and shoot new photos for the new sites. I would suggest keeping as many of the photos in your overall portfolio the same on as many sites as possible. Oddly enough, some sites will accept some photos and reject others so it may become difficult to keep track after you have 500 or more shots up on 15+ sites... Then you can expand into any number of other areas of artistic interest to you including music, illustrations, vector graphics, video and more and even become exclusive with some sites to earn even more.

In my own stock business...

I have a partner who now manages all of the 15+ sites we currently contribute to including keywording of images and uploading them to the various sites. Since our stock presence has continued to grow over the past few years and our shots have sold steadily, we've decided to expand into video (which I will write about in future posts). As such, we have invested in a new camera and lenses (see photo below) which will move us in that direction. It's the new Nikon D610 with a Nikkor AF-S 1:2.8G ED 24-70mm lense that will compliment our current macro and telephoto lenses, making us much more versatile. I'll make sure to write a review on our new investment in a future post. So far...it runs circles around the semi-pro Nikon D80 I've been using since day one 2009!

Remember, DIY is about the process of creation. Being a successful Stock Artist is also a process, so if you really want to make money in Stock, then go for it and keep going with that in mind.

Above all, enjoy what you do.

Thanks for stopping by. See you next time.

dave

PS For anyone interested in seeing our current portfolio on Shutterstock, please click the link on the left-side of the page titled 'Shutterstock'.

ONLINE VOICE PRESENCE IS A MUST

In this internet age especially, it's necessary for a voice-over artist to have a good online presence. One of the many ways I keep myself out there in cyberspace is to put demos up on various sites that all link to each other. Voices.com is a pay site that also offers free registration which allows you to have a demo on their site on your very own webpage.

With free registration you can't be contacted for work through Voices, but none-the-less, it's yet another way for a voice over artist to self-promote. If you sign up for a membership it's around $40 per month or about $300 for the Premium Membership. It's definitely a good one to be signed up for to give yourself that extra online visibility.

If you want to give it a go, do so at your own peril. Professional voice artists with decades of experience and full home-studios are your competition. Even if you do bring your 'A-Game', you may never book. My advice is to use it as a learning experience, not a money making venture. With a home studio, your main goal should be to produce good works and lots of them. If you happen to make money as a sideline to your passion, so much the better. Frequent auditions will give you the much needed studio time, not to mention tons of voice practice!

Here's a link to my Voices.com webpage:

David Stuart Voice-Over Talent | Voices.com

Thanks for stopping by. See you next time. 

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE

COURSERA

Last year I discovered www.Coursera.org. They offer University level courses taught by Professors from around the world on everything from Neuroscience to Computational Photography to Philosophy to Calculus to music and so much more.

I felt I needed a boost, reminder, refresher what-have-you in my sound production skills. So I began taking Introduction to Music Production from Berkley College of Music, which I've now been doing for the past month. I'm four weeks into a six week program. There are obviously skills that I've retained, but when it comes to the technology involved in music production, it's never too late to keep current.

At the same time, I'm 4 weeks into a 10 week class through the University of Virginia called, Know Thyself. It's philosophy! So far I've studied Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Ryle, and Wilson with much more to come. Why? Why not.

In addition, over the next year, I'm signed up for such classes as Music Theory, Guitar, Fundamentals of Audio Engineering, Inspiring Leadership, Intro to Art, Online Games, Modern & Contemporary Poetry, Scandinavian Cinema and more.

All the classes are structured differently. For example, every week in my music production class, I have video lectures (5-10 at no more than ten minutes a piece) with 3-4 quizzes (with 100 tries allowed!) based on the material covered in the lectures. I then have a weekly project that I need to create after picking one of ten possible topics based on the info learned in the weekly video lectures. I then post the project on YouTube for my classmates to review. Once I post my project for review, I also need to review and critique not only my own effort, but five other peer's assignments. The bulk of the grade is on the weekly assignments.

Here's a link to the assignments I've done to date:

http://www.youtube.com/user/FromDavidStuart

There are deadlines for completing the work in the music production class, but in my Philosophy class there aren't. I simply need to read an optional text on the weeks topic, watch a bunch of video lectures and take a quiz. There are no deadlines for the weekly quizzes other than the end of the 10 week class. The catch on this one is you only get one attempt to do the quiz. It's open book and you can save your answers before submitting, but it's definitely not easy.

Some classes are easier than others requiring only a few lectures per week and a 6 question quiz, but the description of the course will let you know if it's over your head. Besides, with 80,000 fellow classmates, I don't think you'll be missed if you decide to un-enroll.

Oh, and one other thing... Did I mention that some of their classes are now accredited so you can use them to get a degree? One more thing... It's FREE!

Check it out. Who knows, maybe we'll be classmates someday.

Cheers,
dave

SOUNDCLOUD

For all you musicians, music producers and more! Here's a great way to showcase your recordings. I've been on SoundCloud for a few months now, and it's really helped to get my stuff heard. There are a few different levels that will allow more functionality for the 'Pros', but as far as I'm concerned, the free level is perfect. Two hours of audio to showcase on the free level is plenty to let the people who might potentially hire you know if you're worth the dough.

It's been very helpful for me in showcasing my latest works. I've not only uploaded music production, but also my personal voice demos and audio generated from my production company.

This site seems to have become the way to showcase original audio works overnight. There's even a direct upload to SoundCloud in the latest version of Ableton Live, an industry standard DAW!

I've put a link to my page below so check it out, get yourself signed up and start showcasing your creativity today... Enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/david-start-5

David Stuart Productions' photostream

David Stuart Productions' photostream on Flickr.

Been enjoying a wonderful connection with the creator of late. So excited to see where it continues to take me! Please feel free to browse my current Flickr Photostream. Many of the photos and designs are also available at http://www.zazzle.com/david_stuart

iCOMPOSITIONS

When I first became interested in making my own music, I had just purchased a Mac computer after being frustrated by PCs for over a decade since home computers were first introduced around 1990. Although I now use both formats with ease, when I first got my Mac I was amazed at how user friendly it was and how many multimedia applications made it possible for anyone to simply sit down and make music.

I had heard about Garageband, but had no idea what a 'loop' was and how to use this free software to piece them together and manipulate them to make it sound like a real song. Once I sat down, opened the program and began tinkering around, I had an overwhelming sense of accomplishment. Like Tom Hanks in 'Castaway', I was like, "I made music!"

For those who don't know what Garageband is, it's an entry level music production program that comes standard with Mac computers. It allows you to take standard, Royalty Free, loops of a particular music track like a 4 beat drum loop in standard 4/4 time, 1, 2, 3, 4... and add, for example, a tambourine to it, then an acoustic guitar etc. For a basic program, Garageband is surprisingly versatile. You can even plug in a mic and record your voice using various presets such as a pop music sound or rock sound. Even though I've used professional audio recording, mixing and mastering software such as Pro Tools, Audition, Soundbooth and more, I still like to use Garageband on occasion. It's fun and it's easy, but beware, it's definitely a gateway to much more!

Once I had a few musical creations under my belt I stumbled across iCOMPOSITIONS. It's a site where independent musicians like you can post your creations from your own page and have your music critiqued, downloaded, collaborate with other musicians etc. Not only can you post your music, but advertise CDs you have for sale linked to sites like CDBaby. I've found iCompositions a helpful place to post music, get feedback and promote my efforts as an independent music artist.

PS

Many traditional professional musicians are displeased with the advent of this technology. Unfortunately this and other automatic music creation software is here to stay. I feel it's similar to when Rap music began making a dent in the traditional forms of musical expression. It was looked at by many as not being a true form of creating music. I'd say just ask multi-billion (with a 'B') dollar recording artist Jay-Z if he thinks rap music has legs. Listen, regardless of what someone wishes to call music, it's what you make of it. Just like an artist splashing a bunch of paint on a canvas and selling it for thousands, who's to say you can't slap a bunch of pre-recorded sounds together and call it music. I could smack one rock against another and call it music for goodness sake. If you want to make music, make music and don't let anyone tell you it's not music. And if someone decides to pay you for what you've created, then call yourself a professional musician. 

A word of caution. If you plan to eventually sell your original creations for hard cash on sites like 'iStock', don't use Garageband. Stock sites do not accept submissions created by generic loops like those found on Garageband and purchased in bundles...unless those loops are made by you. Pick yourself up a 25 key Keyboard and presto! One finger on one key for four seconds and boom, a drum loop is born. It's all about having fun and experimenting to create a sound you can be proud of, then piecing it all together. 

Once you've gone beyond making songs with generic loops to creating your own, it's not far from learning to master those creations to make them sound like gold. I'll talk more later about expanding into the world of stock sounds and getting that crystal clear sound from recording in places like the kitchen or the hallway closet; which is where my first produced CD was recorded and is available for purchase on iCompositions...

Now get out there and enjoy creating something!

MIRRORLESS CAMERAS ARE HERE TO STAY

I've been holding off on getting a new camera until things settle a bit on the new tech front. Many companies have been coming out with mirrorless technology that surely will put a dent in the DSLR sales. Imagine, nano technology will allow us to carry a fraction of the weight we used to lug around.

With technology in products such as the iPhone and other hand-held devices improving and professional camera technology improving as well, pretty soon, most of us will be looking to sell off our antiquated (not to mention heavy) equipment as the two eventually will meet in a much more easily transportable case.

Yes, there are traditionalists who will poo poo the idea of way too many 'Auto' features, but there will still be plenty of 'Manual' functionality to appease the pros. In addition to the ability to have a professional quality point-and-shoot on hand without throwing your back out on a leisurely walk, the quality of the software now available to every experience level, makes turning your snaps into a money making product or artistic expression a painless experience.

Below is a great article I found on an amazing website called, Digital Photography Review that helps to sort the whole thing out. Enjoy!

IS A MIRRORLESS CAMERA IN YOUR FUTURE?

Mirrorless cameras may not have taken-off in all global markets yet, but they're making progress, both in terms of technology and sales. The marketing efforts have reached almost hysterical levels, helping to raise awareness that mirrorless interchangeable lens camera is here. We've had a chance to use all of these cameras extensively (and have reviewed most of them), so now seems like the ideal time to look at all the cameras and help you decide whether a Mirrorless camera is for you and, if so, which models you should consider.

GETTING TO GRIPS WITH SENSOR SIZES

It's difficult to engage with customers about the merits of sensor sizes so, to a great extent, the manufacturers sell these cameras on the strength of them offering interchangeable lenses. The association of interchangeable lenses with 'DSLR quality,' combined with the promise of flexibility that changeable lenses bring help to differentiate Mirrorless cameras from compacts. But it's primarily the increased sensor size that brings the image quality improvement, both in terms of low-light performance and control over depth-of-field.

The other key thing to consider is lens availability. The Micro Four Thirds lens mount, used by Panasonic and Olympus has by far the widest range of lenses, followed by Samsung's NX range, Sony's E-mount, Pentax Q and Nikon's 1 system. However, when considering the lens availability, it's worth being honest with yourself about how many lenses you're planning to buy - if you're only going to buy one additional lens, then it doesn't really matter how extensive a 'system' is, so long as it includes the lenses you might want.

WHAT'S OUT THERE?

 

Being a fairly new market, it's taken a little while for a consensus to develop amongst manufacturers about who might want a Mirrorless camera and what they might want it for. The result is a diverse ecosystem yet to be exposed to the evolutionary pressures that tend to result in homogeneity. In general, we feel it's possible to break down most of the Mirrorless class into three main groups, much as can be done with DSLRs: beginners, intermediate users and enthusiasts. But, beyond this classifications, there are some interesting niche cameras and alternative takes on the concept.

As you'd expect, the more sophisticated the audience, the more external control you get, the more features you can expect a camera to have and the more you can expect it to cost. In some cases this means more external control, or the option to add an external viewfinder, but it also tends to mean higher-resolution sensors and higher-resolution rear screens. The classes aren't precise - you could argue, for instance, that the Panasonic G3 offers more features and functionality than the GX1. But here we're trying to consider the overall intent - a balance of features and price, to split the cameras by the shooting style we believe they're intended for.

In this overview we're restricting our coverage to relatively recently-released cameras that we consider to be 'current generation'. Of course some older models are also still for sale new, often at a bargain prices.

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Beginners' cameras

This is the area in which all the manufacturers think Mirrorless systems offer the most advantages: as small cameras that are as simple to use as point-and-shoot compacts, but with substantially better image quality. Between these and entry-level DSLRs there's been plenty of price competition, and even though we're only really on the second or third generation of these cameras, you can get a pretty mature product for a bargain price.

	Sensor Size	Pixel Count	Movie capability	Screen Size	Touch Screen?	Viewfinder?
Sony NEX-C3	APS-C (23.4 x 15.6 mm)	16.2MP	720p30 MPEG4 9Mbps	3" 920k	No	No
Olympus PEN E-PM1	Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm)	12.3MP	1080i60 AVCHD 17Mbps	3" 460k	No	Optional 1.4m or 920k EVF
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3	Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm)	12.3MP	1080i60 AVCHD 17Mbps	3" 460k	Yes	No

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Intermediate cameras

The intermediate class is directly comparable to the popular 'Rebel' level of DSLRs. These are aimed at people who have perhaps already owned a enthusiast compact or an older DSLR and want a newer, more capable camera, or who are upgrading from a point-and-shoot compact but want to develop as photographers and take more control over their cameras.

The result is more external buttons, improved features and, in many cases, more accessory options.

	Sensor Size	Pixel Count	Movie capability	Screen Size	Touch Screen?	Viewfinder?
Sony NEX-5N	APS-C (23.4 x 15.6 mm)	16.1MP	1080p60 AVCHD 28Mbps	3" 920k	Yes	Optional 2.4m EVF OLED
Olympus PEN E-PL3	Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm)	12.3MP	1080i60 AVCHD 17Mbps	3" 460k	No	Optional 1.4m or 920k EVF
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3	Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm)	15.8MP	1080i60 AVCHD 17Mbps	3" 460k	Yes	1.4m equiv. EVF
Samsung NX200	APS-C (23.4 x 15.6 mm)	20.3MP	1080p30 MPEG4 u/n	3" 610k	No	No

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Enthusiast cameras

These are the cameras aimed at people with extensive shooting experience. Perhaps intended as a second camera, or as a replacement for a similarly high-end camera. These tend to be the models that offer the highest levels of external controls, the strongest specifications and product design that says 'I'm serious about my photography.'

	Sensor Size	Pixel Count	Movie capability	Screen Size	Touch Screen?	Viewfinder?
Sony NEX-7	APS-C (23.4 x 15.6 mm)	24.3MP	1080p60 AVCHD 28Mbps	3" 920k	No	2.4m EVF OLED
Olympus PEN E-P3	Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm)	12.3MP	1080i60 AVCHD 17Mbps	3" 610k OLED	Yes	Optional 1.4m or 920k EVF
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1	Four Thirds (17.3 x 13 mm)	15.8MP	1080i60 AVCHD 17Mbps	3" 460k	Yes	Optional 1.4m equiv. EVF

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Specialist cameras

A couple of niches have sprung up in the Mirrorless camera sector, from the video-focused Panasonic GH2, through to the fun, rather irreverent Pentax Q. We've currently put the point-and-shoot targeted Nikon 1 cameras in this group too, given their conceptual differences from all the other 'Beginner' level cameras (smaller sensors, more flexible autofocus), but you may wish to consider these too.

	Sensor Size	Pixel Count	Movie capability	Screen Size	Touch Screen?	Viewfinder?
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2	Four Thirds (˜19 x 13.5 mm)	16.1MP	1080p30 AVCHD 24Mbps	3" 460k	Yes	1.5m equiv. EVF
Ricoh GXR Mount A12	APS-C (23.6 x 15.7 mm)	12.1MP	720p24 Motion JPEG	3" 920k	No	Optional 1.4m EVF
Nikon 1 J1	CX format (13.2 x 8.8 mm)	10.1MP	1080i60 MPEG4	3" 460k	No	No
Nikon 1 V1	CX format (13.2 x 8.8 mm)	10.1MP	1080i60 MPEG4	3" 920k	No	1.4m EVF
Pentax Q	1/2.3" Type (mm)	12.4MP	1080p24 MPEG4	3" 460k	No	No