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The Right Way to Travel
February 2, 2008
Special Dispatch -- Austin, TX
By Bonnie Caton
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A LESSON FROM THE MOST SUCCESSFUL "AMATEUR" I KNOW

"That's like the Cadillac of cameras," Shelly Perry said, when iStock star, Lise Gagne, told us about the camera she shoots with today. But it wasn't always that way. When Lise first started submitting her photos to iStockphoto.com, she was using an old pawn shop camera.

With no formal training, Lise took her used camera and asked her friends and coworkers to pose for photos. In the beginning, they barely sold at all... in her first two months, she only made 40 cents.

But she kept experimenting, trying new things, looking at commercials and in magazines for trends she could capitalize on... and she went from 40 cents a week to $20 a week.

The more she played with composition and subject, color and props, the more her photos sold. In six months, she went from making $20 a week to $200 a week... and today she makes over $200,000 a year doing what she loves, going where she wants, living out her dreams.

Crazy as it may seem, Lise still considers herself an amateur... she just picked up some tricks along the way. And they're all simple things you or I could do, too.

She shared 14 of the most important ones with us today.  I don't have the space to pass all of them along, but I'll let you in on a few that stuck out in my mind -- all techniques you can apply to your photos right away.

** Copy Space

Photos with the subject off to one side, at the top or bottom, with lots of open space, sell well as stock. Art directors, designers, advertisers... they're all looking for a space to put their words. Build that space into your photos, and they'll be more likely to sell.

** The Color Blue

There's something about the color blue. Lise has noticed that photos with a blue background, like a solid blue sky, are good sellers on iStockphoto.com.

** People Interacting

People shots sell well as stock photos. They sell best when they are either interacting with each other, or looking directly into the camera.

** White Background

Photos of people isolated on an all-white background make a designer's job easier -- and, so, they're easier to sell. Lise's images appear all the time in ads, magazines, websites, and more.

As I said, those are just four of fourteen effective tips Lise passed along. The rest of them you'll find on our workshop recordings, along with her account of her personal journey from an unknown woman with a dream to a stock photography legend... photo examples to illustrate her tips... and more.

All of the professional photographers, magazine editors, art directors, and designers we've heard from here have been focused on the practical -- on how you can go from where you are now to taking and selling your photos fast. And you can listen in on all their hard-won advice with our Ultimate Money-Making Photo Workshop-At-Home Package.

It gives you everything we've heard here in Austin, plus speakers' Power Point presentations, and all of their handouts, too.

This online photo workshop package is, without question, the next-best thing to being here in Austin with us. It will bring decades of photo expertise directly to you. And with it, you'll have in hand a systematic approach to learning how to take photos that sell -- a system anyone can follow.

Plus you can rewind whenever you want, listen again... it's all there for you to take in at your convenience.

It's a whole workshop at home for a small fraction of the price of being here. (The folks with us paid as much as $1,697 -- plus the price of airfare, hotel, meals, and more -- to join us at this live event. Yet today you can gather all the same insights they are gaining for just $199.)

The regular price for these recordings, I should say, is $349. But it's going to take us a few days to get them edited and whipped into a format you can use. And so, until then, they're yours for just $199.

To reserve your copy today and save $150 with our special pre-press offer, go here: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/phr/website

Or, you can read more about the workshop-at-home package here:
http://www.thephotographerslife.com/phr/savehere

Sincerely,

Bonnie Caton
Your Live Workshop Correspondent

P.S. This is the time to grab your recordings -- there won't ever be a more affordable way to do it. Save $150 now, and unleash your dream life:       http://www.thephotographerslife.com/phr/website

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