Another year, another million – I wish

Heating my hands. - Is this a good photo for stock sales? Who would be interested in buying it? It’s probably somewhere in the conceptual department... And do I really need that big copyright mark?

© Morten Svenningsen

New year is approaching and it’s cold here in Kathmandu. Nice in the daytime, but when the sun sets, the temperature drops 15 degrees in 15 minutes or so. Too quick for my body to adjust So I’m always shaking cold for an hour between 5 and 6. After that, no problem. We do have a little heater here, but it’s only good for warming the hands. Can’t heat up all the rooms which aren’t really isolated. So I’m generally dressing like I was stationed in an Arctic research station.

Anyway, the year is nearly over and it’s time for some re-evaluation, looking back and ahead. Think I’ll keep this one on the topic of my photo business. So excuse me for thinking out loud here, bit of rambling. But maybe some of you will actually find some answers to your own speculations. And as always, comments are welcome!

It’s pretty clear to me what I’m doing as a photojournalist, how I’m working, where my focus is and so on. As a stock shooter, hmm...

I haven’t had a single sale yet, so do I need to change anything?

Don’t think so. I’ve only had stock photos online for 3-4 months, about 3-400 of them. And only with one agency, Alamy. That amount, on average, would only make one or two sales in a year, as I read the numbers. So it’s not time to worry quite yet. But it’s always good to think about if there’s something that can be improved. But first I need to figure out, what’s my focus area? ‘Cause it’s good to know the market you’re in, what the customers need and so on.

And the answer: Nepal photos.

But that’s not really specific, is it? In my attempt to narrow it down, I came up with this list of possibilities:

• Travel, tourism, adventure, sightseeing, backpacking, luxury travel etc.
• Architecture, temples, statues, interiors, landmarks, monuments etc.
• Culture, festivals, artifacts, symbols etc.
• Religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, co-existence etc.
• Nature, landscapes, mountains etc.
• Animals, wildlife, insects, birds, butterflies, pets etc.
• People, children, teenagers, seniors, studio portraits, famous people, pretty people etc.
• Fashion, lifestyle, haircuts, costumes, ornaments etc.
• Food, dishes, fruits, vegetables, eating etc.
• Health, yoga, meditation etc.
• Business, small shops, global trading, hard labour etc.
• Product photos, cut-outs etc.
• Conceptuals, moods, emotions etc.
• “Traditional micro stock photos” (*), family/social/business situations, face expression with a very simple set-up and composition and on a white background, tra-la-la...

(*) Disclaimer: I don’t do micro-stock or royalty free photos, but I can still do some of their traditional motifs, can’t I?

That’s still a pretty long list. There’s other categories as well, but this is the ones I consider relevant to my photography work here in Nepal. Plus all the documentary stuff, of course. I can see some of the topics are more interesting than others, also from a business perspective. But honestly, I haven’t been able to pick one or two topics out. So I think I’ll just continue to be a generalist in the stock arena for now.

Even though I know, now is not a good time to be (or enter as) a stock photographer. The market is over-saturated with amateurs, some of them really good, by the way. The problem is that they are happy to give their photos away for next to nothing – hell, sometimes even less than that – since they don’t have to make a living of it. And that makes it really difficult for us who just want to get a fair price. But so far I’m having fun doing it – not all the time, but once in a while. Nice break from the serious documentary stuff. And I hope that in the new year, the market will work it out so that prices will better reflect the cost of doing photography.

Some of the other little things I’ve realized this year, when it comes to stock photos: Gotta get 100 variations. Commercial tend to pay higher per image, but requires model releases. Editorial probably makes up for it in numbers. Travel might be popular, but the ordinary stuff have already been done a thousand times over. Always be creative. Happy pics of beautiful people seem to do about a billion times better than sad ones. And it’s a lot of work. If you wanna be serious about it, it’s a full time job. You have to get up early, go out on location, shoot, walk, shoot, meet people, shoot, make arrangements and shoot some more. Then there’s all the post-processing. Very time-consuming. Editing, cropping, resizing, checking and cleaning up the details, captioning, keywording, archiving, submitting and managing all the photos. A full time job.

My conclusion: Honestly, it’s hardly worth it as a pro photographer. Customers must be laughing all the way to the bank, thinking about how much work+talent+gear they get access to for a few hundred dollars. But I’ll keep it up between assignments and my other documentary work. With time, it could still turn more profitable. And I still enjoy the hunt for that perfect shot. I just have to avoid thinking of it as pure work for now. ‘cause if I do the math and calculate the hourly rate, it becomes ridiculous.