Assignments, Stock Photography, and a Rich Life

Getting out of your normal environment can stimulate ideas. This shot from my working vacation can be a travel photograph, or a concept stock photo about skill, balance and small business. But the most important benefit from this trip was recharging my batteries (internal...not camera)!


Shooting Assignments And Stock Photo Production
In a way, a photographer who shoots only stock and no assignments is putting themselves at a disadvantage when in comes to stock photography production. When shooting assignments you end up in places, and with access to people, that you probably would never even think of, let alone be subsidized to shoot.  So I have often asked myself if it wouldn’t help my stock photography career to shoot assignments. Ah, but then I think of all the wasted time associated with assignments. 

Estimates, Prep and Post
There are the estimates, that to do a good job, can take a least a day and sometimes several days to complete.  And if you do get the job there are the days of prep and of post, and the endless little changes the clients always seem to want, and the last minute additions that they don’t want to pay for…and the hassles to get paid.

Introducing Fresh Ideas
OK, I say to myself, I won’t return to doing assignments just yet.  But how can I introduce new and fresh ideas into my work that are comparable to those that would come in via assignments?

Expose Yourself To Something New
Well, I have come up with a couple of thoughts around that. First, I get out of my ordinary environment and expose myself to something completely new and different.  One way in which I have done that very successfully is by doing what I refer to as adventure travel. I have a friend and colleague who leads photo trips to some pretty cool places.  Places like India, Jordan, Myanmar and China. Every time I have taken one of these trips I have come back not only refreshed and with a whole notebook of new ideas, but also with photography from the trips themselves that have invariably paid back the cost of the trip and have each become their own little profit center.

Travel, Time, and a New Paradigm
Occasionally I have undertaken such travel by myself, but it is a lot more fun for me to be with like-minded people and to have the logistics handled by someone else.  In a way these trips are far more efficient for me as well. I avoid spending all that time in researching places and putting together the trip.  Instead, I just step out of my business world and into a whole new paradigm, and then, recharged, step back into my “real world” existence.

An African Safari, A Photography Blog And Great White Sharks
The other method I have for injecting some unusual ideas into my work comes as kind of a corollary to the travel. I keep a list of 100 things I want to do before I die (OK, I have never actually gotten more than about 60 things written down). Things like go on an African safari (haven’t done that one yet…but think of the cool stock photos that could come out of that…and I don’t mean photos of wild animals, but of camp life and so forth…), shoot photography for a world humanitarian organization, dive with great white sharks, start a photography blog (oh yeah, I did that one), Visit Rio de Janeiro during Carnival, anyway, you get the picture.

Dream Assignments and Stock Photography
Make a list of things you want to do before you die. Go crazy with it! Then look at that list with an eye for how you can accomplish those things and make them pay off for you through stock photography.  It is kind of like giving yourself your own dream assignments…and using stock photography to enhance your life in more ways than just monetarily. In the end, it is a full and rich life that I want more than a full and rich estate!

Generosity, Attitude And Possibility

A little over a week ago somebody parked their trailer in the parking spaces alongside my studio. They are public spaces, but I still felt a little put upon. I really didn’t want someone’s trailer being stored there. Apparently I wasn’t the only one as the property manager dropped in on me and asked if I knew anything about the trailer. I told her I didn’t, and was about to add my own complaints about the trailer, but decided that, as the trailer really wasn't hurting anything, I would just keep my complaint to myself. I just decided to let it go.

The next day as I walked out of the studio and glanced over at the trailer I thought to myself “what a good looking little trailer”. Then it hit me what a great stock photo I could create around it. The trailer is one of those small shiny aluminum Airstream numbers, in essence, a giant mirror. Where it was parked wouldn’t work for my photography. I decided to keep an eye out for the owners.

The next morning I saw someone was working on the trailer. I introduced myself, complimented them on their trailer, and asked what they were doing. They were very enthusiastic in telling me about how they were preparing it for their upcoming trip to Burning Man. I asked if I could shoot the trailer for a stock photo, and they assured me it would be no problem. When it came time for them to move the trailer I had them pull it out and line it up for me so that it matched the lighting for the background that I wanted to put it into.

The Airstream trailer has a cool factor that would make it key for my image. I could put the trailer into a vast empty plain to illustrate a concept like “solitude”, I could put it in front of a tropical beach to illustrate “getting away from it all”, or I could place the trailer in an urban environment to illustrate concepts such as “ideas” or “bizarre”.

Eventually I will end up using this trailer photograph in a myriad of ways. I couldn’t have asked for an easier set-up. I only had to step out of my office door a few feet to get the shot, spent no time scouting for the trailer, and didn’t have to spend any money. The important point in this story is really about generosity, attitude and possibilities. I started off with a sort of antagonistic attitude that really benefited no one. When I changed my attitude, when I became a bit more generous in that attitude, then the doors opened up for my ideas and creativity.