Stock Photography – Is it Right for You?

My Journey in Stock Photography

I started my journey in stock photography in February 2015 and it has been one of my favorite ways to make money from home!

I highly recommend it. Do you like that awesome photo of me taking some stock photos? That’s thanks to my good friend Sharolyn who has helped me on my photography journey.

What is stock photography?

Stock photography is a way to sell your photos with a variety of licenses for companies to use. The photos you see on websites (like this one!), books, magazines, etc. are almost always stock photos. Back before the wonderful world of the internet, magazines, newspapers, travel agencies, etc. would pay photographers to take photos for them and they would pay a lot. This is considered macrostock photography, also known as traditional stock photography. This isn’t what I do or am recommending here, I don’t have the connections or equipment to make that possible. I am encouraging you to try microstock photography. Microstock photography really took off in the early 2000s. High-resolution camera were now affordable for amateur photographers and istock, dreamstime, shutterstock, and many more websites began to pop up. These sites offered a place for photographers to sell their photos to the masses and offered a place where businesses could purchase the images for cheap. There are many traditional and high-end photographers who hate these microstock agencies. They claim the microstock agencies are underpaying their photographers, the photos are bland and unoriginal, and it is ruining their industry. My experience has been quite the opposite.

 

My First Sale

I uploaded my first photo to a stock agency in February of 2015. I researched the best stock photo sites and decided on bigstockphoto, dreamstime, fotolia, istock, shutterstock, and 123rf. That’s a mouthful to type or say, and it was pretty tedious to submit photos to all of them too! Since then I have narrowed my focus to three sites: shutterstock, istock, and bigstock. I’ll go into the details of why I prefer these three sites in another post. I got rejected from almost all of them at least once. Your photos will probably get rejected too, but don’t get discouraged. My early submissions deserved to get rejected. I wasn’t that great of a photographer, I didn’t properly edit my images, and I really didn’t know what I was doing. I was just testing the water and trying to see if it would work. After my rejections I did some research to improve my photography and I ended up getting accepted to all six sites. Then I got my first sale. On February 15, 2015 I sold this rose for $0.25.

That’s not a typo. It was seriously 25 cents and I was thrilled! I had eight photos that were accepted to Shutterstock on February 14th, and the next day I sold one.

 

Why I Love Stock Photography

1. Passive Income – need I say more? Anything that will keep earning you money without you doing additional work is the most awesome thing ever! This photo is not my best seller. Since I’m all about honesty on this site, let me tell you that as of April 2016, it has only sold once and it was that first day I mentioned. However, I have many photos that sell almost every day. My best selling photos have earned me $40 – $60 each and will continue to earn more and more without me doing a thing. During December 2015 I didn’t upload a single image to any stock site, but I earned over $150. Is that money life changing? No, but is it better than nothing? Definitely yes. Right now I’m passively earning $150 – $200 per month without any additional work.
   
2. Time – if you don’t have a lot of time, you can make this work for you. If you have a lot of time then it will pay off even more, but it isn’t a necessity. As of today I have 232 photos on Shutterstock and I’ve been a contributor there for 421 days. That turns out to be adding one image every other day. Typically I go through phases and will add a bunch of photos one day and then nothing for a week or two. I work when I have time. Between kindergarten, gymnastics, basketball, breakfast, laundry, and everything a mom has to do in a day I usually only have about 45 free minutes at most! Occasionally I use that time to upload or edit photos. It really doesn’t take me long. I can get 5-10 images submitted in a little over an hour now that I know what I’m doing. So let’s do the math, I have made $1,007.50 from Shutterstock and I estimate I spent 25 – 35 hours to get those 232 photos up there, so I’ve made $29 – $40/hr. Remember, that’s with just one stock site. You can upload your same images to other sites. I’m just using Shutterstock as one example and to give myself a conservative estimate. And every month my earnings go up without me doing anything, so my $/hr will also increase over time.
   
3. Improving My Photography – since I started I have become a much better photographer and I hope I plan on learning and improving even more. My photos are sharper, cleaner, better white balanced, and more creatively composed. This has paid off in other ways because I now feel confident taking my own family photos and decorating my house with my own photography. Even though my goal is to make money with stock photography, the knowledge I’ve gained through the process is invaluable! I have never called myself a “photographer” or been paid to do a photoshoot, but now I’ve gained the confidence and ability that if I wanted to go that route I believe I could.
   
4. Minimal Cost – don’t start out by renting a studio and paying models. If you have a decent DSLR camera and editing software then you can get started now. My camera is a Canon Rebel. That’s the basic, bottom of the line DSLR for amateurs. Would I love a new camera with more professional capabilities? Absolutely, but it isn’t a necessity. Here’s links to the equipment that I use and love.

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Canon Rebel Camera and Equipment

This is an all encompassing set with lots of additional pieces for a great price. If you’re only looking to get the basic camera, go here. You’ll definitely want a tripod to get your images perfectly sharp. I have this one.

Photo Tent

Since most of my photography is macro (or of little household objects), I bought this tent to help filter the light and get rid of harsh glares and it’s worked great.

Adobe Photoshop

Just FYI, I have an old version of photoshop that doesn’t require a monthly subscription like it does now.

If you’re looking for another program that’s free and has the tools that you’ll need to get started, I recommend GIMP. That’s what I would use if I was just getting started today.

Is stock photography right for you?

If you enjoy photography, have a bit of free time, and want to make passive income then I’d say to do it! You’ll never know if it will work out unless you give it a try.

Some links in this post are affiliate links. That means if you purchase the item through my link then I’ll get a small commission at no additional cost to you. This does not affect my opinion of the products I recommend, it just helps keep this site going, so thank you!!

Please share and comment below. I’d love to hear if you’re a stock photographer, traditional photographer, or have any questions.