Thursday, November 5, 2009

iStockPhoto

OK, I know I have been MIA for a WEEK (thanks Jaime, for pointing that out...haha)

I guess I have just been busy busy busy...with what, I don't know. But, since work has decided we have to restrict internet time to our lunch breaks, I haven't been on as much.

I have a little bit of my lunch break left and so, instead of emailing this to my friend, Jaime, as I was just about to do, I will post it here, for everyone to read and be excited about! (O:

As you know, I am working on getting into photography- learning from Jason, playing around with his camera and practicing on anyone who will sit still (or as she rolls, in the case of Emilia). Well, he is part of a website called iStockphoto. Basically, one uploads photos for approval and upon approval, they are available to the world for purchase. Mostly they are used for advertisements or in books or on the web. With each download of a certain photo, the photographer makes a little money.

There are a lot of people out there doing this as a full time job and making good money doing so. J only does it as a hobby, in his spare time. But he has made enough in the past few years to purchased the flat screen 42'' TV he wanted, both an HD and BluRay DVD player, new camera pieces, etc. So, he is doing pretty good for something he only does in his free time.

Well, I decided one step towards my own photography hobby should be to make myself a member of this website and see if I could be accepted to upload photos. I don't think I had high expectations of actually succeeding in this (don't we all love self-doubt...) but I tried.

Here's the deal- you have to look over some info about lighting, model releases, focus, etc. and take a quick quiz. Once you pass that, you then upload 3 images as part of the application process. These won't actually be uploaded to your page for purchase, this is just to be approved to do so. When I did my first application uploads, I only had Emilia's 6-month pictures to work with, so I uploaded 3 of them and said a prayer.

It takes a couple weeks to hear back, and when I did, it wasn't great news. It said something about my photos were too similar (which I knew would be the case). So, I figured all 3 had been rejected. Well! I just got back on today to look around (I keep researching what others are doing to try and better myself and to know what to do) and thought I'd look at my application again. ONE of my three pictures was actually approved!! They just sent back the other 2 because they were too similar to the first. But, one made it through!

This might not seem like any sort of big deal, but I'm excited. It means that what I shot was GOOD. Good enough for iStock! It gave me a renewed energy and excitement. So, I browsed through all the pictures I took at our Halloween party last weekend and put up two different pictures of two different people. (See below). So, in a couple weeks we will see what they think about these. If not, I'll keep trying.

(Oh, and side note- Jaime~~ your hard wood floors look great as the background on Avery's picture...I might be using them again soon!) (O:

(also note, while these may seem somewhat bland, that is kind of the point. You want to have pictures that also have room for the advertiser to fill up with words. At least, that's what J tells me, haha.)


*Special thanks to Elise (@elise is...content) and Avery for being so beautiful! (O:

Oh, and here's the picture that was accepted. (O:

2 comments:

Jaime G. said...

awesome!
i'm not sure what you did, but you did make my floors look nice. (i'm not a fan of the color, but restaining is too messy). and, the "bone white" (that's the paint color) wall looks mighty nice behind elise, too!
so cool!

and that is totally sucky about internet at work.
*my way around it is i write my post in word, and either paste it in an email and send it to my blog or sign in a post it quickly. (there's always a way around the system)

elise said...

you goober!! that picture doesn't need to be seen by anybody else! and certainly not purchased! LOL:O) i'm just kidding. but seriously. it's ridiculous.
congrats, though! i'd love to do that, but we don't have a good enough camera:O(