Not having a lot of time for shooting this week I borrowed a needle & threat and snapped off a quick couple of macro shots just to have something new to submit for stock.

The shot was picked up at once. It just doesn’t seem fair that something that takes just a couple of minutes can so easily get accepted over the nature-type shots that I can spend hours hiking around getting.

Shot with a NIKON D200. (90mm, 22 Seconds @ ƒ/51) © Stock Photographer Blog

Fotolia doesn’t have a requirement that a certain number be accepted, and I have several photos accepted and available online now. Yay!

I thought it would be valuable to take a look at a few of the photos to see what was accepted and – perhaps more importantly – what was rejected and why. Let’s see what we can learn here:

Strawberry – Accepted

White background, food, sharp focus (if in a limited area), bright saturated colors. Approved. In addition the shot of the apples lined up was approved, which was similar in concept to this – white background, sharp focus, food. Hmm…. 2 data points is not enough to make a pattern, but it’s something I’m keeping my eye on and trying more of!

BumbeBee – Rejected

Both Shutterstock and Fotolia rejected this on the basis of poor focus. This baffled me a bit at first and I thought perhaps they just wanted the depth of field to be deeper. But then when I really zoomed into the picture I saw that the wing is in perfect focus, but the hairs on the back and the head of the bee are in fact not in perfect focus. Click on the picture to enlarge it and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

 You really have to zoom in close to really see the focus problem - which I think tells us something about how these photos are reviewed. So we know to make sure we do that before submitting – and focus is vital!

Canoe – Rejected

This was rejected for poor focus and overabundance of photo type. Of course I knew that this didn’t have tack sharp focus. I felt that it helped with the mood of the photo – but again we’re learning that perfect focus is an absolute necessity.

Leaves in Creek – Rejected and Approved

This was approved through Shutterstock and rejected from Fotolia. Fotolia’s reason – and one that I quickly got used to seeing – was Overabundance of Images of This Type. In fact, anything remotely nature related got axed by Fotolia and most of them from Shutterstock as being the kind of photo that they just have way too many of.

The Plan

Even though the sample size is small, I think a couple of things are clear. Focus must be tack sharp – no exceptions allowed. More importantly (for me) all these gigs of nature-type photography are not useful for stock. Certainly the gems I’ll go ahead and try submitting once I’m in — but they will not be a part of any initial submission!

For now I’m going to stop submitting to new stock agencies and instead shoot some new photos over the next week or so. Specifically I think I’m going to shoot some food on a white background. It’s incredibly easy and seems to be a logical route in. Now again, I firmly believe that an inital submission to a stock agency should show a variety of shot types, and on my to-do list is to get some shots of people (with model releases).

But for now it’s to the grocery store!

I went with my philosophy that you want a variety of photos, and at least one needs to be of a person. Here’s what I submitted:

Sioux

My people shot. Interesting, stylish, and with good space for ad copy. Also tattoo is a surprisingly highly searched keyword, which I’m hoping will score bonus points. The downside is this photo isn’t really tack sharp. In the end I decided that the photo was striking enough to compensate (I hope).

 Bumble Bee

I do a lot of nature photography, and decided that this would be my nature-type photography submission, because it’s more stock worthy than your typical pretty landscape. Also tack sharp and, I’m hoping, the kind of photo that’s not easy to get and thus there aren’t a lot like it out there. This bee attacked me shortly after taking this photo.

 Apple Lineup

I went with this for a couple of reasons. It’s a classic studio shot with white background, and I wanted something that showed I could do that too. It’s also a “concept shot,” which is something marketing types love. Is it about being unique? Being hungry? I dunno. Also, of course, tack sharp!

So there they are. It can take months to hear back from a stock agency, so wish me luck!