Category — Stock Photography

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. [Read more →]