Moving from Stock to Fine Art Photography
With the launch of this site, my focus as a photographer has now officially changed. I’ve spent the last 20 years roaming the planet with the mindset of a stock photographer. Sure, on occasion I would be in the right place at the right time to capture a stunning photograph. But up until now, I have never had a platform to be able to work with my top photos properly. Let me explain the difference.
An example of stock photography of a stucco wall with copy space
Stock photography is generally used for “what is left” of a photographer’s photoshoot. That would be what the client rejected and the photographer could not sell be any other means. It is the last place that a professional photographer would take their photos to at least get a few dollars out of them. When using a stock agency like Shutterstock, Getty Images, or my favorite, Adobe Stock, you will get paid anywhere from 8 cents to $50 per sale. You should expect 95% of your sales to be under $1.00. I often would take a lot of texture photos or something with empty space that a graphic artist could then leverage. I did this because it was easy with my limited time.
The down side to this, as I discovered, is that I developed a lot photos that would never sell in any other market. The upside is that I had a lot of practice with lightroom, which only helps in the area of fine art photography.
Sunset on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands.
Fine art photography is rare. You just don’t point and shoot a camera. You have to take time to research locations and compose your photo. Paying attention to the foreground, midground, and background. Waiting for the times when both the light, and the weather is perfect. With stock photography, I would develop maybe 1 of every 25 photos. With fine art, I may develop 1 of every 250 photos. But that does not mean that I will put all of those up for sale. Fine art is something special that you just cannot walk out the door and take. You may go days or longer without finding just the right moment. Just the right subject. Just the right light. A few minutes to early or to late may make you miss the perfect light that only last for a minute.
Over the years, I have published many videos about stock photography on my YouTube channel. My original intent was to have a channel about my travels and the photos that I capture along the way. I noticed that viewers like to know how much I was making from stock photography so I went in that direction. It helped to grow my channel, but it is not what I wanted. I wanted to board a plane and experience the world.
Snow covered mountains in Idaho.
Because of all of the videos with the word “stock” in it that I have posted, I discovered that YouTube may have mis-identified my channel as a financial channel. Because of this, YouTube is not properly recommending my channel to those who would be interested. So, I am in the middle of a re-branding. I have stopped the monthly stock photography income reports. I will do a quarterly one for a while. I am focusing on videos that are very specific about photography and the adventure of capturing those photos.
Moving forward these are my goals.
· Continue to build the audience on my YouTube channel.
· Continue to enhance my storytelling and value to my audience.
· Switch completely to fine art photography.
· Continue to have fun.
I may also do fan meet ups as the channel grow and potentially photography workshops.
With that said, welcome to the new site for Explore With Jason. I hope you continue to enjoy my channel and this site.