Shutterstock Photographer Forum :: View topic

miker · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 426 Location: Minnesota USA

I joined because I used to lug around tons of equipment, and people would ask me if i was from the newspaper. I would say no that I was just shooting for my own pleasure. When I joined Shutterstock I had some cover, I could say I was shooting for someone. And to my surprise, people actually download a few of my pictures, and I make a little spending money in the bargain.
I have since stopped carrying all my equipment all the time, and often venture out with only one lenses.

hhltdave5 · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 9:54 am

Are you specifically asking about joining Shutterstock or getting into the stock business?

I got into the stock business first because I was bored after I retired and my cousin Laurin got me into it. I had been a photographer before in the 70s and 80s but not stock related. I wanted to improve my photography as well as make money.

I got into Shutterstock because it was one of the harder ones to get into but it was also one of the most profitable.

miker · Joined: 10 Jul 2006 Posts: 426 Location: Minnesota USA

Dave - I was thinking just about Shutterstock. but I would also be interested in why people start in stock photography in general.

okiepony · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 10:22 am

I had a horse calendar hanging on my wall and one day I was wondering where they got their pics from. I saw the credits under the pics and looked up the stocksites that had been used. SS was the first one I signed in to, and then I started reading the critique forum. After about two months of reading I took the plunge, submitted my first 10 and got accepted.

I did try to make the initial submission to another site earlier that day, but the uploading part of that site was under an upgrade and wasn't functioning.
The next morning I saw where SS had approved my account about an hour after the submission - I didn't see it earlier as I didn't expect to get a response for a few days...

Soooo, basically I was curious to see if my pics would be good enought to get into calendars.... LOL

semmickphoto · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 12:38 pm

Because I wanted to make a bit of extra money by doing what I love. I was checking out websites where to start and a friend of mine referred me to SS. I got rejected first time around so I joined others without the test and the first one to have my photos online was 123.

I was with 5 other agencies before SS accepted my second batch. But I like SS the most.

But I am here at SS because of a referral link.

chbaum · Joined: 19 Sep 2010 Posts: 386 Location: Karlsruhe, Germany

A colleague of mine was here for quite a while, and I liked his photography and approach (but hadn't seen his stock images, just his private web site). I took his advice on upgrading to a DSLR, but my main goal was making movies. Of course, I started taking photos as well and liked it quite a bit. He encouraged me to try SS. So I submitted, got rejected, waited, submitted again and got accepted.

My motivation was not the extra money (at the moment, I just get over the payout limit every three months ;). But from these forums I knew that SS is quite strict concerning quality. So I took the whole submission thing as a workshop to improve my skills, and I learned a LOT about technically good images.

My next step is to improve contents: Compared to my colleague, my images to me always look kind of flat, boring, 2D-ish, shrug-inducing. When I look at his, there's a story or an emotion packed into them somehow. When I shoot giraffe heads in the zoo, he shoots their legs when they stand next to each other. All I get is two giraffe heads. All he gets is a "forest of giraffe legs" which looks funny, cute and interesting. That's where I wanna go, and SS is my technical indicator while the sales are the emotional one.

Best regards,

Christian

ruxpriencdiam · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:20 pm

Q. Why did you join Shutterstock?

A. Why not!

kenny123 · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 4:57 pm

I joined shutterstock in August,2005 after reading about the site on Nick Stubbs's All Things Photography site-Firstly to earn a residual income,and secondly to share photographic knowledge accumulated over the past 50 years as a photographer.

twoellis · Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 1073

I used to get cds from microstock suppliers and marveled at the beautiful pictures. That was long before anyone was on the internet. Later, when I went into freelancing, I found myself buying the photos for ads and packaging. Many times I could not find what I wanted, so having an interest in photography, I just started doing my own.

dmg · Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2012 6:02 pm

I wanted to get into stock photography since I discovered it in 80ies but coud never afford to buy pro camera or even decent films. In 2006 I've won a contest and the prize was 6 Mpix dslr. I've immediately started with microstock. One of my first was SS and I was accepted at my first try.
Unfortunately, for some personal reasons, I can't work hard on it anymore.

algol · Joined: 03 Oct 2007 Posts: 618

I always have a ton of unused artwork from various print projects and other random ideas lying around. One day (while browsing another stock site looking for photos for a client) it occurred to me it could be doing something useful as stock instead of just lying around. Uploaded some images to a handful of stock sites including SS, got accepted and off they went.

PaulCowan · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 4181 Location: Evolving

For the dosh.

svisho · Joined: 17 Jul 2009 Posts: 323

I joined Shutterstock because it's fun, it's exciting to see your pictures published and used by other people. Microstock as a whole helps me improve my photographic skills and also earn some extra cash for new lenses, so I am able to support my hobby, which is gradually becoming my passion.

stevemart · Joined: 30 May 2012 Posts: 170 Location: Netherregions

I joined very recently but had been exclusive with another agency since starting with stockphotography in 2008. I must have learned a lot about with them as I got in here with all 10 in the initial submission. Added another 17 since but have been busy with a commercial job for the last couple of weeks which has caused uploading to grind to a halt.
Init2winit.....for the extra cash to help subsidise my State pension in 3 years time. Intending to do a lot more for stock in the future but commissioned work gets preference cos that's what brings in the dosh at the mo.

turboal1960 · Joined: 11 Dec 2008 Posts: 862 Location: Argentina

I like taking images more than my family and friends like looking at them. Some of my photo group friends told me about stock sites, and I did a bit of research on Internet. SS was the best regarded, so I did my attempt and get a new public.

As I have a 12 hours day job, I only can dedicate my holidays and weekends to photography, so SS is the only site I joined., and most of my portfolio are landscapes and traveling images. By now, I care more about what images I like share than from make money from them.