YAY Images - 6mp confirmed

I contacted YAY Images to ask if they have a "grandfather" clause for current contributors. They don't - but did say that any images currently for sale that are less than 6 mega-pixels will remain for sale.

Ah, the perils of having only a 4mp camera!  Part of the learning curve, I guess.

I will say that the two times I have contacted YAY Images with questions they have been great to deal with. Still no sales, but if I get a better camera I will keep up the portfolio there.

Update on YAY Images

YAY Images no longer accepts images less than 6 megapixels. The previous requirement was 3mp and it was a great place for a beginner to upload quality images while learning how this all works. 

I was very sorry to see this, as YAY was the first place that accepted photos of mine. Unfortunately, I suspect it will become more difficult to get anything out there with the 4mp camera.

I'll post more soon about working with the point-and-shoot focus. I spent the day yesterday trying for the perfect leaf-shot and found a few tricks that helped get the macro close-up to work more consistently. There are some definite techniques for placing the image so that the camera is able to "see" what you have in mind. After that, I was looking forward to uploading about 10 images to YAY, so the discovery about the new image requirements was rather discouraging. 

4 mega pixel point and shoot low light tips

I thought 6 p.m. wasn't too late. To the human eye, there was still plenty of light. Not so for my little 4 mega pixel point and shoot.

Another seasonal shot of one of the ponds at the Innsbruck Nature Center.

This is may favorite shot of the day. I don't think it's of high enough quality to submit to microstock, but I find it rather cool even if it's not a technically great shot.

This is the most "submit-able" shot of the evening.

Even a little less light means that the ISO on a little point and shoot slows way, way down. The images were a bit overexposed and the ISO was slow enough that even the best shots turned out just a bit out of focus. If I had used a tripod I may have had better results.

YAY Images update

I had seven more images accepted by YAY last week. They took awhile to show up in the portfolio, but now all 13 are available.

I hope to get out and visit some parks again this weekend, and do some additional uploading next week. 

It's Possible - Bigstock accepted a photo!

Bigstock liked my pine cones.

Granted, it's only one photo, and my never get a sale, but I've answered the first question. An amateur with a point and shoot and a decent eye (which I suspect is pretty common) can get photos out there where people can buy them and do this with more than one microstock agency. Even and agency that, from what I've seen, is particular about the photo quality.

 Now the challenge is to make time to add more pics and see if there are photo sales in my future. Even if I don't get one, this is turning into a great hobby.
 

All You Can Stock - Latest Portfolio

All You Can Stock accepted my pine cones and wildflower with deerfly images. I learned they do not send a notification when stock is accepted. In this respect they are similar to YAY Images.

At You Can Stock images are available in the original size, and in a smaller size for less money.  You can see the portfolio of a whopping three images here.

Now that I know at least two places will accept my photos, I'll keep shooting. The weekend was full with activities, but I may be able to get out to a few more parks tomorrow. Until I have a better idea of what I'm doing, I'll stick with nature photos. I can worry about model and property releases later.

Here's another pine cone shot. I decreased brightness, increased saturation and cropped for balance. Of all the pine shots, this one is my favorite.

Pine Cones in Snow

Learning Curve - Attitude, Realism and Hope

 Apparently some people make a good living off of only microstock. My goal right now is to support the hobby, which means Photoshop and a better camera are still out of range for my budget. In fact, I know little about photography at all - which makes this a rather improbable venture. When I first ran into MicrostockMan I was encouraged. From his site I learned:

• It's worth a try regardless of equipment.
• There are a lot of places to submit.
• There's an outstanding blueprint here on how to get started.

As I visited sites to submit images I learned:

• Many sites have image requirements my camera will not meet. 
• The editorial review of photos may depend on only one element in the photo - for instance the Bigstock rejection of the deerfly and flower. The overabundance of purple flowers and butterflies equaled a rejection of a purple flower and a deerfly.

Today as I looked for more information on All You Can Stock, the latest recommendation from MicrostockMan, I wandered various sites I found many disgruntled folks who spend time announcing that no new microstock agency can make it, sales are decreasing and other encouraging statements. (Yes, I'm being snarky here.)

The temptation is to decide it's easy, or to decide it's impossible. Neither are true.

I'm getting hits here from "how to make money" sites - my hope is that you find a realistic perspective and my advice is that if you decide to make money online, do it with something you love and the attempt alone will be worth it. I doubt I would have ever found the baby pine cones in the snow otherwise.

Portfolio - Yes!

Time for a happy dance here. I checked back at YAY Images, and I now have my own portfolio. So far it's winter berries, my cat and a rosary I made - you can see all the images here.

I want to send a huge thanks to Microstock Man for encouraging me to submit to YAY Images. Thanks Tim!

New Site - YAY Images

Based on some advice and searching on the site reviews posted by Microstock Man, I decided to submit a few photos to YAY Images.

The image requirements here are for at least 1000 pixels on each side, so some images I'd submitted to Bigstock won't work here, but I was able to include the original image - the purple flower with the deer fly. I'll post the results once I hear something.

These are the new photos I submitted:

Purple wildfowers and insects

The deerfly image is the one considered "sellworthy" by a trusted friend and thus the image that launched this experiment. 

Apparently the quality on these is better - they were a Bigstock rejection because there are too many purple flowers. I'll take that as encouragement and submit these to other sites.

I went through the Bigstock purple flower inventory, and they do have a lot of them, though I couldn't find another one with a deerfly on the petals.

Snapshot Images

Both of these were considered by Bigstock as snapshots that cannot be used as stock photos. To be honest, the above was an impulse photo, but I'm not sure what's wrong with the deerfly and wildflower. Too much forest floor?  I'd crop it, but then it would be too small to submit.

Bigstock rejection

I started out with Bigstock simply because they would accept the size of photo my camera creates. Many sites require 5mp (five mega pixels) and I can only go up to just under 4mp.
These photos were taken a few years ago with an Olympus Stylus 300.

Above are two rejections due to Artifact Problems. I edited these using Microsoft Picture It! by increased sharpness and saturation levels. I'm new enough to this to not know if they needed editing or not, but one site advised that all photos need work before being submitted. All I've got is PictureIt, so, I messed around with them. It was fun, and I figure if I keep submitting photos, I'll eventually learn.

I think I see the "noise" they are talking about, and I note that the photo properties indicate a flash was used. One of the annoying things about the point-and-shoot is the auto flash. Every time I forget to turn that off before taking photos. I think that may be the problem here. 

Below are the same two photos prior to editing:

How my attempt at Microstock started

I first started my companion blog of photos taken in parks to provide a sort of mini-break for cube dwellers in corporate land and perhaps make a few cents off of adsense ads.

I got some comments about one in particular being "sellworthy" and got a smile from it. Though I'd heard about selling stock photos I figured there had to be some catch to it and didn't pursue anything. My camera had issues, and the blog went dormant.

Enter a new 4 mega pixel camera, an Olympus Stylus 410 that I purchased used off of Craigslist, (for me this was a big step up) and I got started taking photos again. On a whim did a search for how to sell microstock photos. It really is fun to wander through the woods taking photos, and making money from that would be incredible. In spite of the internet marketers claiming it was easy and therefore setting off my alarm systems, I started checking it out. 

Enter a site called MicrostockMan. His site is a guide to how to enter the world of microstock and is my blueprint for how to approach this. Be careful visiting though - he has some awesome images if you go to his portfolios. I set a timer.