As a commercial photographer who lives on a hilltop surrounded by neighbors who grow syrah and zinfandel, I have the good fortune to photograph the wine world frequently – the growing of wine, the making of wine, the promotion of wine, the consumption of wine… Like any type pf photography, it’s hard work when I’m in the midst of a shoot. Afterwards, of course, there are special benefits.

I wasn’t always a wine photographer. For years, I shot color-critical work for horticulture catalogs (yes, much less fun than shooting wine). I’d probably still be shooting hort if the baby boomers had not given up gardening for other pursuits – like drinking wine and traveling. When the horticulture industry began to fall on hard times several years ago, I began to diversify my shooting. Eventually, my wine photography grew to a point where I now market myself as a specialist in the field. (Click here to check out my work as a wine photographer.)

The lesson learned – if you are a commercial shooter who has been displaced by the economy, take a serious look at your neighborhood for opportunities. You may find that there are specialties there that are waiting to be developed and marketed.

Our world needs creatives and the new ideas they create. Creatives live well beyond the realms of art, music and design. I’m convinced that the greatest thoughts in science, medicine, economics and so on are sparked by bursts of creativity. Many discoveries are made through accidents. For me, the creative part is when someone recognizes the value of the unexpected result. 

So, this year I give thanks for creativity. Whether experienced as small flashes in an otherwise mundane job or lived as a lifestyle, the products of creativity are essential for our future.

Witness The Birth Of A New PixSylated Tradition… The Monthly Best Web Video

A month ago, I wrote about how my spirits were lifted from the abyss of the October meltdown by a web video of a guy named Matt who danced his jig with people from around the world. If you’ve not seen it yet, definitely click here.

For Thanksgiving, I’m offering this video up as a testament to the power of thinking beyond the boundaries of the normal. As a photographer, I have never seen anything like this. It’s live-action, graffiti animation. The images were not created in post-production. They were painted and photographed frame by frame. No powerful message. Just raw creativity. Enjoy!

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

You can learn more about the artist and find links to download hi-res versions of MUTO on BluBlu.org. If you really dig it, click on his link to make a donation. Hey, just go there. It’s an incredibly creative website.

Thanks to Ed Z, who commented on my article about RadioPoppers, I came upon the video in Ed’s blog – which is worth checking out.

SEO for photographers is critical to the success of a portfolio website. For almost a year, I’ve listened to what Rob Haggart at A Photo Editor says. He’s brutally honest, highly opinionated and knows a hell of a lot more about the editorial photo biz than I ever will. Rob recently launched A Photo Folio so that photographers can have websites that photo editors won’t hate. If I were looking to launch an online portfolio today, A Photo Folio would be the place I’d start.

For several years, however, I’ve been a relatively happy client of SiteWelder. So, when Rob did this blog post about how his Photo Folio site is tweaked to keep photo editors happy, I compared it to what I had going on my site.

Here’s how I hacked two of Rob’s great ideas into my SiteWelder site. The common theme to all of this is “Photo editors work at warp speed in an environment that constantly distracts them from your portfolio. A PE will give your site a handful of seconds. Don’t waste it.“

Turn Off The Flash

Yes, Flash is cool. But, there are two big reasons not to use it for web galleries (beyond your homepage). First, if your dream photo editor gets interrupted while looking at your flash portfolio, she might miss THE one shot that gets you the phone call. Turn off the flash and force her to click through the thumbnails. This way your best shot will still be waiting when she gets off the phone. The second reason to trash the Flash is that PEs are pros and can digest pix a heck of a lot faster than us mere mortals. If your Flash gallery is moving too slow, your dream editor will move on to another site.

To kill the Flash in your SiteWelder galleries, go to the Galleries editor and click on “Slide Show Active” for each gallery. Then click on “Slide Show Disabled” or “HTML Pages With Slide Show Link”.

Make It Easy For Photo Editors To Get In Touch

Of course every good site has an “About” or “Contact” page somewhere. Why risk losing the PE’s focus over an extra click or two? As Rob brilliantly advocates, the best place for your contact info is under every photo in your galleries.

So, rather than use the photo caption for something lame like “Syl Arena California Magazine Photographer”, I now have my phone number, a live email link and ©.

I‘m not much of a coder. So, I always have to go back to this great online resource for HTML code every time I do things like this. The code for my contact info is:

Tel: 805 / 226-2794 * <a href=”mailto:studio@sylarenaphoto.com”>Studio@SylArenaPhoto.com</a> * © 2001-2008 Syl Arena

I stuffed it into each and every caption box on my site. My first strategy – putting this code into my global copyright notice box – failed as it screwed up the thumbnails in my now-not-flash galleries.

If you’ve made it this far and have not stopped to check out the links to Rob’s sites, do it now because I’m covering just two of the ten points that Rob raises. Here they are again: A Photo Editor, A Photo Folio, and the great post that inspired my hacking.

A Final Tip For SiteWelder Clients: Tweaking The Homepage Text

SiteWelder Users check out the text on my home page. Be sure to keep an eye on your vertical scroll bar while you are checking it out. Every bit of the text below the Flash gallery was hand coded. It’s there to give prospective clients several sources of info about me and to help bolster my presence on relevant Google searches. I wrote the code in Smultron (a free text editor for Mac OS) and pasted it into the “Copyright information” box on the Home Page control panel. To make this work smoothly, you have to go to the “Account Info” control panel and turn off the option to show contact info on pages. Otherwise the contact info tragically appears at a random point in the middle of my long, rambling home page text.

Vincent Laforet, the energetic New York photographer who recently published an insightful treatise on the state of editorial photography (‘The Cloud Is Falling’ covered here), has launched a blog. Vincent is just about to head to China to cover the Olympics for Newsweek and promises daily posts. Be sure the peruse the left column of Vincent’s blog. It’s a virtual treasure-trove of other great blogs and photographer’s sites. I’m certain that Vincent will prove himself to be as good a blogger as he is a shooter… which means that we are all in for great insights and commentary on a regular basis.

This post last updated: August 3, 2008.

Back in the middle of photography’s dark ages, during the formative years of my youth (circa 1968), listening to shortwave radio was a keen fascination. When I visited my cousin’s house, at night, we would tune in to stations from around the world on his shortwave set. We laughed as the path opened for us to discover exotic languages and music. Other than scrounging up an old receiver and some wire for an antenna, there was no cost to riding the airwaves.

Today, I think the blogosphere is at a similar state of evolution. For only the cost of access to the Internet, I can tune in to the thoughts of photographers (and other colorful thinkers) far and wide. Likewise, the cost of starting and running a blog can be minimal. Consider that WordPress, the most widely-used blog software, is a free download and that thousands of blogs, including some of the most highly-visited sites (like Strobist), are hosted for free on Blogger.

Eventually the standard means of delivering our thoughts and ramblings will morph from the “modern” blog into streams of hi-def video. (I promise, when that happens, I’ll stay behind the little green curtain when I post.) For now, the web is still a fertile field for sowing the written word.

I spend invest a lot of time wandering around the blogosphere. Most of the time, it’s the main way that I stay current with developments and innovations in the world of photography. I admit, occasionally, it’s also a way to hone my skills as a procrastinator.

My photographic horizons and interests are vast. Even though I’m a commercial shooter, I’m equally interested in the realms of fine art photography and creativity. And, keeping Dante’s journey in mind, I also want insight on the thoughts of photo editors, art buyers, media consultants, etc. [More about Dante's journey here.]

How I Surf The Blogosphere

Surf Quickly, Surf Safely – Use A Web Reader. For a long while, I would just bookmark the blogs and websites that I wanted to follow and periodically click through my bookmarks to see if any had a new post. Give me an “A” for inefficiency. Most blogs and many websites publish an RSS feed that web readers will detect. Even if you only follow a couple of blogs or sites, get a web reader. Eventually, your favorites list will grow to the point where you’ll really appreciate it.

Look for the RSS logo (shown above) to subscribe – subscriptions are free. In many browsers, if a site has an RSS feed, the RSS icon will appear at the right side of the address bar. Double-click on that and you’re on your way to subscribing. I use Google Reader to manage my subscriptions. Another widely-used reader is Bloglines.

In addition to offering an RSS feed, many blogs also offer a subscription by email. When the site publishes a new post, you’ll receive it in your mailbox. I have a specific email account set up to receive blog posts and e-newletters so that they don’t get lost in my regular mailstorm (yes, it does rhyme with “hailstorm”).

Get organized before you get crazy. I’m a self-confessed blogoholic (“No really, I can control it. I just choose not to sleep.”). But, I’m an organized blogoholic. I have my Google Reader account bookmarked on my Firefox toolbar as “GRdr”. Two clicks and I’m looking at my long lists of blog subscriptions.

My reader is divided into three folders: 1-Must Reads, 2-Other Photography, 3-Everything Else. (The numbers are in the names to sequence the folders automatically.) When I subscribe to a blog’s RSS feed in Google Reader, I create the subscription in the appropriate folder.

Then, almost every morning, I click open my reader and see if there’s anything new in the 1-Must Reads. Once a week (or more often if I want to push the needle on the Procrasto-meter deep into the red zone), I browse the 2-Other Photography and 3-Everything Else categories.

My Must-Read List of Blogs and Websites About Photography

Here’s my list of 1-Must Reads. I’ve listed them alphabetically (which is an interesting exercise to remember the next time you have to come up with a name for a new site). If there’s new content on one of these sites, I want to check it out asap.

A Photo Editor – Rob Haggart, a former photo editor for ‘Men’s Journal’ and ‘Outside’, entertains and educates with a number of posts each week (sometimes with several in a single day). Rob’s not a shooter. He’s the guy who is paid to find the perfect photo / photographer amidst the gillions of mediocre pix / photographers swimming around. It’s a totally different take on the world of commercial photography. Many photographers, myself included, need the regular slap in the face that Rob delivers. ‘A Photo Editor’ would be right at the top of my must-read list even in it didn’t start with “A”. [Post frequency = more than frequent]

Death To Film – The blog of Image Mechanics. IM is the gang of superheros based in Santa Monica that’s led by Michael Britt (the fellow who wrote the original Lightroom user’s guide for Adobe.) As digital capture specialists, these guys have to manage as many captures in a day as most non-pro shooters will create in a lifetime. They don’t post often. When they do, it’s usually something I wish I’d known months ago. [Post frequency = infrequent]

Inside Lightroom – Hosted by O’Reilly, the publisher of many great titles on photography and digital technology. Great tips and techniques on the program that’s revolutionizing digital workflow. Posts from a broad group of photographers, including: Michael Clark, Jon Canfield, Mikkel Aaland, and many others.  [Post frequency = frequent]

Joe McNally’s Blog -  I’ve written a good bit about my friend and swami, Joe McNally (here, here, and here). Joe is the master of enslaving a battalion of Nikon speedlights to do his bidding. His blog is part adventure travelogue, part online workshop. When Joe’s busy, the posts get intermittent. But there’s always a good tale and several great pix when he gets back online. [Post frequency = intermittent to frequent]

John Nack On Adobe – John is Adobe’s Senior Product Manager for Photoshop. Put another way, he’s ground zero for loads of great insights into life at Adobe-ville. A prolific blogger, John frequently provides peeks at the future of the Photoshop family. He’s also a great source for leads to other great content on the web.

John Paul Caponigro’s Blog – John Paul Caponigro is the son of Paul Caponigro, one of the photographers who most influenced my career in art school. I’m happy to say that thanks to JP, the Caponigro-spell on my vision continues to this day. JP is a prolific and gifted artist, teacher and writer. Along with Mac Holbert, he teaches The Fine Art of Digital Printing workshop (my quick review of FADP is here). His blog provides steady insights into his workshops, techniques and gear. Consider it as the gateway to one of the best sites for information on creating modern, photographic art. [Post frequency = frequent]

Lightroom Journal – This is blog of the Lightroom development team – led by Tom Hogarty at Adobe. Although the posts are infrequent, I always want to know when new material is online. [Post frequency = infrequent]

Lightroom News – Another great source for information on breaking news and techniques for using Lightroom. Led by members of the Pixel Genius braintrust. [Post frequency = intermittent to frequent]

Photo-Resources.org – The sister-site to PixSylated in which I post (relatively) concise reviews of events and resources for photographers. I always subscribe to my own blogs in both RSS and email to see what everyone else is receiving. [Post frequency = frequent]

Photoshop Insider – The popular blog of Scott Kelby (who needs a billboard-sized business card to hold his various titles and achievements: most widely published author on digital technology, president of NAPP, inventor of the Photoshop-education industry, editor/publisher of Photoshop User magazine, same for Layers magazine…)  Scott shares his personal photos, new techniques, industry insights, gear reviews and travel tales in his energetic, humorous voice. [Post frequency = daily M-F, with guest bloggers on Wed.]

Photoshop News – Regular installments about developments in Adobe-land, Photoshop techniques and pixelated humor. Also hosts an extensive list of resources on Photoshop, color management, digital printing and beyond. [Post frequency = frequent]

Rob Galbraith DPI – An amalgamation of news from around the world of digital photography. Typically delves deep into the performance of new cameras and software (along with the bugs that haunt them). Consistently one of the first to post breaking news. Extensive list of links for software and camera firmware updates. [Post frequency = frequent]

Strobist – David Hobby’s Strobist is the blog that started the small flash phenomenon. Now legions of Strobist enthusiasts frequently meet around the country for shoots and camaraderie. From the hosting of the site (free via Blogger) to the equipment and techniques that the site advocates, Strobist is proof that one need not spend a lot of money to be a success in today’s photo world. Strobist is the place to start if you want to learn about flash photography. [Post frequency = frequent]

The Luminous Landscape – Michael Reichmann is known to many as the sage of modern, fine art photography. The Luminous Landscape has long been a source for cutting edge information of camera gear, digital workflow, fine art printing and landscape photography. There is so much information that The Luminous Landscape can be a challenge to navigate. Subscribe to the RSS feed and you’ll get every new installment hot off the press. [Post frequency = frequent]

Vincent Laforet’s Blog [added 8/02/08] – Vincent Laforet is a gifted shooter, Pulitzer winner, Canon Explorer of Light and now a blogger. His article ‘The Clouds Are Falling’ on Sportsshooter has inspired an open dialog about the state of editorial photography. Check out his sidebar for a long list of other great photography blogs and sites. [Post frequency = frequent]

Blogs & Websites About Photography That I Read Frequently (but not every day)

Here’s the laundry list of other photo sites that I read frequently. When I’m busy, I will wait until I have the time to browse my reader for updates to these sites. Or, if I have a really big something that I’m trying to avoid, I’ll jump right on this list with impunity.

Acme Educational – News and insights from Vincent Versace, plus info on Acme’s upcoming DVD releases that provide “industrial-strength knowledge for the creative mind”.

Chase Jarvis’ Blog – The adventure blog of the globe-trotting Chase Jarvis. You’ll also find a list of links to all of Chase’s cool video podcasts.

Exposures – Regular installments on the world of photography published by the Aperture Foundation.

Focus On Singh-Ray – The experiences of field photographers with Singh-Ray filters.

Heather Morton / Art Buyer – Insights and interviews for commercial shooter. Hosted by Heather Morton, a freelance art buyer based in Toronto, along with input from friends and colleagues around the world.

Imaging Insider – If you want to scan virtually every press release related to photography, check out Imaging Insider. Also great way to find out about new blogs on photography and valuable posts.

John Nack On Adobe – Thoughts and rumor-busters straight from Adobe’s Senior Product Manager for Photoshop.

Inside Digital Photo – Podcasts (both audio and video) on digital photography, image makers and industry trends. Great interviews.

LensCulture – A great site to tour with a large cup of tea in hand. Self-described as “an online magazine celebrating international contemporary photography, art, media and world cultures.” Visually and intellectually stimulating.

Marketing Photos – Mary Virginia Swanson, the doyenne of info on the world of fine art photography, shares her experiences and points the way for those looking to break into the photo art world.

MediaStorm – Brian Storm is the pioneer in advocating that still photographers create multimedia projects through the addition of sound and video recordings. The MediaStorm blog will keep you updated on this important movement and happenings is the greater world of photojournalism.

PDN Pulse – Almost-daily posts on news, issues and resources for professional photographers by the editors of Photo District News.

Photo Attorney – The blog of intellectual property attorney Carolyn Wright. Legal issues for photographers may not be the most scintillating read, but a working knowledge of IP law is essential to every successful photographer.

Photo Business News & Forum – The blog of John Harrington, an editorial photographer and author based in metro-Washington DC. John wrote the book, “Best Business Practices For Photographers” – which I recommend highly.

Photopreneur - Ideas and resources for making money with your camera. Oriented towards enthusiasts and emerging pros. Interesting nevertheless.

Photoshop Cafe – The blog of author, teacher and shooter Colin Smith. Loads of tutorials on Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

PhotoshopUser TV – The weekly video feed from NAPP, hosted by Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross and that other guy (Scott Kelby). Always features a list of sites mentioned on the show (including PixSylated – Episode #141 – July 7, 2008!)

Picture Stories – The blog of National Geographic photographer Stephen Alvarez. All the beautiful pix and colorful stories that you’d expect from a longtime NGS shooter.

School Of Stock – PhotoShelter’s insights and lessons on the world of stock photography

Sean Kernan’s Journal – Last January, I met Sean Kernan at ASMP’s Strictly Business 2 in L.A. I wish I had come to know Sean and his photography years earlier. Creative. Mystical. Intense. Random. Beautiful.

State Of The Art – A collective blog by the editors of American Photo magazine. The blog, like the mag, is an enjoyable, random walk through all aspects of the photo universe.

Studio Days – Bill Simone is a commercial shooter who is known for his unique lighting and post-processing. Fortunately for those inspired by Bill’s style, he often reveals the precise details behind landmark shots in his blog.

Super Premium Blog -  Frequent insights on marketing and business management for commercial photographers and other creatives from Leslie Burns-Dell’Acqua.

The Digital Journalist – Dirck Halstead and company provide monthly insights into the world of photojournalism.

The Imaging Buffet – Digital photo tips, imaging news, gear reviews, interviews and more from Andrew Darlow.

What The Duck – The mother lode of Photoshop humor, dished out almost daily. Congratulations to Aaron Johnson on the (hopefully ever-expanding) national syndication of his strip. Look for the renamed “W.T. Duck” in a newspaper near you starting September 8th.

Where Is Ben? – Ben Willmore is the kind of guy who can make the most challenging Photoshop concepts seem obvious to the thickest of students (I’m right at the top of that list). I catch his workshops and seminars as often as I can. He tours the country in his vintage RV. Keep an eye on Ben through his blog.

Zack Arias’ Blog – Zack is the energetic Atlanta photographer behind the OneLight Workshops. Zack’s blog ranges from coverage of his new DVD and workshops to his music and editorial shoots.

How To Find Other Cool Blogs & Sites

Like so many things… one good blog often leads to another. When you find a blog that you really like, look for the host’s “Blogroll” or “Links” list. Then check out every blog on the list. Subscribe to the ones that you think you’ll like. Stick with ‘em for a month or so. If you find that you’re not interested again and again, then unsubscribe.

Why Your Favorite Blog Is Not On My List

If you are wondering why your favorite blog or site is not listed, it’s due to one of three reasons:

1. I don’t know about your favorite site. The blogoshpere is huge and getting bigger every day. I’m continually amazed by the great sites that I find through other blogs.
2. Your favorite site only parrots the content of other sites. Unless a site is overtly an aggregation of industry news feeds, if it mainly posts about the content on other sites, I’ll pass.
3. Your favorite site does not have an RSS-feed or email subscription. The reality of the web these days is that without an RSS-feed or email update, I probably won’t discover new material on a website. I may bookmark the site when I first find it, but without a reminder, I’m not likely to return on a regular basis. My motto… “No feed, no traffic.” I have enough difficulty staying up with the feeds and emails to which I’ve subscribed.

So, if your favorite blog or site is not listed and you think it should be, feel free to call me out by adding it as a comment.

If Joe McNally were a cartoon character, I think he’d be the Tasmanian Devil (although I’m sure that some days ol’ Joe feels like he’s Wile E. Coyote). Why the Tasmanian Devil? He never slows down. Between shooting, blogging and teaching, Joe’s the photographic equivalent of a whirling dervish. Fortunately for the legions that follow in his dust trail, Joe has also been carving out time to write his next book The Hot Shoe Diaries – Creative Applications of Small Flashes.

Good news. You can pre-order it now on Amazon. For those who waited to order Joe’s first book, The Moment It Clicks, and could not get it until the second printing, you know that you’ll want to pre-order your copy of The Hot Shoe Diaries. So, do it now. We’ll wait for you to come back. If all goes as planned in the McNally household and at New Riders Press, you’ll have it in hand by Christmas.

And for the four of you who have been reading PixSylated for a while, the answer to your other question is “Yes”. I’ll pimp The Hot Shoe Diaries just like its big brother. Click here if you’d like to get a close look at Joe’s first book and read my original post on ‘Pimping Your McNally’.

For frequent McNally installments and more details on The Hot Shoe Diaries, keep an eye on Joe’s blog.

[And thanks to The Man himself for giving this cub reporter the go ahead to run with the story before he made the big announcement.]

New York-based, Pulitzer-winning, editorial shooter Vincent Laforet has written an epic piece on the state of editorial photography. Find it here on SportsShooter.com. I say “epic” both in terms of content and length. Anyone who earns a living with a camera (or wants to) should spend time reading Laforet’s observations and predictions.

[TIP: At 7,000+ words, I found it easier to print the article so that I could read it in a comfy chair with a cup of coffee nearby. When printed, Laforet's words spanned 12 pages.]

At 33, many shooters (myself included) think of Laforet as a young guy. Others, including most emerging photographers, see him as middle-aged in a digital world. Both camps have much to learn from his experiences as a pro photographer.

Laforet’s model of the current state of editorial photography (and the larger world of commercial photography) is insightful. Here’s a taste.

“One could legitimately ask: is the sky falling? Short answer: I don’t think so – but I do think the cloud is falling. What do I mean by the “cloud?” I’m talking about that cushy comfort zone and business model we have all become accustomed to…

“And the reason that I’m using the analogy of the “cloud” – is to point out that as frightening as some of these prospects are, clouds always obscure the blue sky above – our industry is not dying – it’s evolving – and there’s no reason to run around in a panic… many of us will survive…and many of us will be forced to work in an entirely different field.“

More about Vincent Laforet

Laforet’s innovative aerial-based photography has been celebrated worldwide. After many years as a staff photographer at The New York Times, he left the perceived security of this coveted job to work as a freelancer. Read more about Laforet over on the Canon Digital Learning Center. View a wide range of his work at his PhotoShelter archive. Laforet’s main site is here.

Like many photographers, I am a voyeur. That’s why I love to read Death To Film – the blog of Image Mechanics.

IM is the gang of superheros based in Santa Monica that’s lead by Michael Britt (the fellow who wrote the original Lightroom user’s guide for Adobe.) As digital capture specialists, these guys have to manage as many captures in a day as most non-pro shooters will create in a lifetime.

The greatest thing about the Image Mechanics crew and their blog is that they share virtually all of their secrets. Check out the latest post about their off-line archiving system. Then just start scrolling through their archives. You’ll find tale after tale about being in the trenches of high-volume digital capture. Need more? Then jump over to the IM site for another long session of good reading.

It’s great when a pro shooter will let you peak into his camera bag. It’s even better when he’ll unpack the dang thing and explain all the contents… on the web.

John Harrington is an energetic, editorial shooter based in Washington DC. I’ve read and highly recommend his book, Best Business Practices for Photographers. I heard him speak at Photoshop World in Vegas last fall and at ASMP Strictly Business 2 in Los Angeles this winter. If you get a chance to meet or listen to John, consider it a must-do.

To get a sense of the diverse environments in which John must shoot, spend some time on his portfolio site. Then think about all the gear you’d have to have to face so many different challenges.

Now click over to John’s Assignment Construct. Of particular interest are the 30+ short videos in which he unpacks and discusses the various gear kits that he takes on assignments. There’s so much to watch. Perhaps the best place to start is with John’s intro to the videos.

A personal favorite is his Light Modifier Kit which includes a large collection of Plume and Chimera $oftboxes. John also demonstrates the very handy Mathews Road Rags.

Of course, if you’re into modifying light, you need stands. Take a peak at John’s Stand Case. It has just about every large and small stand known to man.

John is a Hensel shooter. If you’re interested in Hensel, you’ll find videos on the Vela, Porty, Porty Ringlight, and Tria 1500 / 3000.

There’s plenty of other really neat toys essential equipment as well. John does a nice demonstration of the California Sunbounce. Curious about the Kenyon Gyro, click here. Heard of a sound blimp, but don’t know how it flies – here’s the answer.

All of this is way more fun than reading the online specs from the NY superstores. John shows vignettes of nearly every item in use. He has also posted transcripts with each video in case you get impatient while the video stream is loading.

You will also want to check out John’s blog: Photo Business News & Forum. And remember, you should consider John’s book, Best Business Practices for Photographers, to be a must-read if you’re ever going to earn a penny with a camera.

For a photographer, the “stock market” does not refer to Wall Street. Rather, it’s the place that photo editors, graphic designers and kids working on term papers go for images – either because they have no budget to hire a photographer or because they have no time. In the golden era, which began to crumble six or so years ago, many pro photographers made very nice incomes through stock photography. Today, the rise of the internet and microstock has eroded the foundations upon which the stock titans, like Getty and Corbis, were built. As their margins get thinner, the amount paid through to the photographer continues to evaporate. Still, for the agile and the astute, there are many opportunities in today’s stock market. So where to start learning about stock photography?

PhotoShelter’s School of Stock is a great place. Originally conceived as an online archive for photographers, PhotoShelter continues to evolve with the stock market. Last year PhotoShelter launched the Collection as an online market for photo buyers. With School of Stock, PhotoShelter continues to gain momentum as an equitable meeting point between photographers and buyers. Check out their free tutorials – especially the Buyer Survey 2008. School of Stock is a blog – so use your favorite reader to subscribe to the frequently produced updates.

Another great resource for learning how stock photography works is the Stock Artists Alliance. SAA is the only trade association dedicated exclusively to the business of stock photography. There are many free resources on SAA’s site. Issue #1 of SAA’s [Key]Words contains over 50 pages of terms, experiences and business practices of stock photographers. Click here to get it for free.

One final thought: your photography has value… so don’t give it away.