Professional stock photographer Lise Gagne did this with us today to show how far she's come in just a few short years. 

If you look at some of her earlier work, you'll quickly see that she's no different than you.  She started with a point-and-shoot camera she bought at a local pawn shop and an interest in taking pictures she could sell for a second income.

You can see some of Lise’s “then” and “now” pictures here:

"Then":

"Now":

These days, it's hard to get into a microstock agency with a point-and-shoot. But the good news is that you'll pay just a few  hundred dollars today for a camera that would have cost you several thousand dollars a few years ago.

In addition, with sites like eBay and craigslist, you can often find slightly used equipment for even cheaper.

Here are a few more pictures attendees got this weekend here in Portland:


Jaqueline Harvey


Tinker Lucas


Wendy Swanson

When they get home, they'll also get step-by-step videos that explain how to set up a shoot, how to set their camera, and how to get the best shot.

You can get these videos, too.  There's still a discount on the entire workshop-at-home package until midnight tomorrow.

I hope you'll take advantage of it and get your stock portfolio up and working toward your first check before the holidays.

Take care,

Lori

P.S. On our first day here in Portland, professional photographer Shelly Perry told us that horizontal photos sell better than verticals.  She also said that objects on white sell better than objects on black. Find out what else is selling today, so you can get a headstart with photos that will sell better than others.

Someone told me once that it takes six months to make a Rolls Royce but only  two hours to make a Toyota.

I'm sitting in the back of the room at the Ultimate Stock Photographers’ Workshop, and attendees are asking about editing photos on their computer and how much processing you need to do to make your photos salable.

Last night we saw a few of professional stock photographer Lise Gagne's photos, and she talked about what she goes through to create a successful photo-shoot. 

She talked about hiring makeup artists and stylists... drawing sketches to help visualize the idea she hopes to capture in her shoot... and eventually how much editing she does to make her images perfect for stock. (The “Rolls Royce” approach, in other words.)

You can see some of them here: 

Meanwhile, just a presentation or two before that, Bonnie Caton put up a few photos from her portfolio. With a piece of white poster board on her back deck, Bonnie created photos that fill her portfolio (Toyota style).

She's no Lise Gagne as you can see.  But maybe some day she will be. And until she gets to that point, she's doing just fine selling simple images from her travels and from her back deck.

You can see a few of Bonnie’s photos here:

And some of the photos attendees are getting here at the workshop, here...


Duane Anderson


Jacqueline Harvey


Wendy Swanson


Mary Margaret Baker


Penny Russell


Ron Murchie

When you're just starting out, remember that it's a lot easier -- and a lot less time-consuming -- to build a Toyota than it is a Rolls Royce.

Start with simple images, and build your portfolio from there.

Most of all, remember to have fun.  The more fun you have shooting photos of the things you like best -- your family, friends, travels, favorite foods -- the more likely you'll be to stick with it.  And the more photos you take, the better your photography will get.

Tomorrow is our last day here, and we’ll talk more specifically about preparing images for sale. Stay tuned.

-- Lori

Lori Allen
Director, AWAI’s Travel Division

P.S. You can listen in on Lise’s and Bonnie’s (as well as all of our other speakers’) presentations from the comfort of your own home when you grab a copy of our Ultimate Stock Photo Workshop-At-Home Package, on sale for nearly 50% off while our event is still taking place.  To read more about everything it includes and save big before we’re back in the office on Monday, October 3.

What photos are selling now?

According to professional photographer Shelly Perry, it's horizontal photos that are selling best.

I'm here at the Ultimate Stock Photography Workshop in Portland, OR where we’re learning from some of the best photographers in the business how to sell vacation photos, family and friend photos, photos from our backyard or kitchen sink, etc., to online stock photo agencies.

Stock photography is fun, they all say.  And it’s something you can start doing this weekend with minimal equipment. 

All you need is a camera and something to photograph, with a little know-how about what it is that’s selling right now in the stock world...and some photo-editing techniques to get your photo up to par.

Today I'm in the back of the room listening to professional stock photographers Shelly Perry, Andrea Gingerich, Danny Warren, and Lise Gagne.

Professional photographer Shelly Perry showed us a list of the top 15 photos that have been the best sellers at iStock in the last three months.

They're all squares and horizontals, Shelly pointed out.  And when she looked back through her own portfolio, she found that to be true for her, as well -- her square and horizontal images outsell her verticals.

So what does that mean if you're interested in selling your photos to online stock photo agencies?

Does it mean you should only take horizontal photos?

Of course not.  AS Shelly said, if it's worth taking a photo once, it's worth taking it twice, once as a horizontal and once as a vertical.  You have no idea how a photo buyer will use your image.

After all, magazine covers are all vertical, lots of picture frames are vertical, and websites often use vertical images to illustrate their needs, too.

Here are some of Shelly Perry’s best-selling images, both horizontal and vertical..

Stay tuned tomorrow for a few pictures our attendees are getting here in Portland at the event.  And go here for recordings of everything they’re learning.

Lori

P.S.  What else is selling right now in online stock photo agencies? 

Shelly says white sells better than black.  Objects isolate on white often outsell items isolated on black.  Tomorrow were going to set up over 15 different photo stations for attendees to practice photographing on black, white, and other backgrounds.

I'll send you those pictures tomorrow.  In the meantime, you can get recordings of everything we’re learning here, from how to get started selling your photos to online agencies… to how to set up small areas in your house where you can take pictures that sell for extra income.  You'll find the details (and a big discount when you order this weekend while the conference is taking place here in Portland).

Last month’s Photo Challenge theme was: The Barefoot Writer.  We asked that people submit photographs that were representative of the attitude and life of “The Barefoot Writer” – a new magazine for writers who want to work when they like and however much they want.  (A sign-up link is below if you’d like to receive the magazine.)

Because the cover shot needed to be a vertical shot, and most of the entries the editors liked were horizontal or square, the editors of the magazine could not commit to using the winning photo on the cover. They are, however, still paying the winner $100. (As I remind you often, it’s vital to pay full attention to editors’ guidelines.)

Scroll down to see the winning photos…

Lori Allen
Director, AWAI's Travel Division

P.S. We’re heading off to Portland to begin our Ultimate Stock Photography Workshop. If you couldn’t join us this weekend to learn from our team of stock pros, you can still hear all of their presentations and advice in our Workshop-at-Home package on sale this week only for the deepest discount of the year.

P.P.S.  The Barefoot Writer is a magazine for writers who want to work when and how often they want - from home or anywhere in the world they wish to travel. Thanks to the lucrative freelance writing opportunities in the magazine, they’ll have the freedom to do just that. It’ll be published monthly and delivered online.  More details, here.

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The Right Way to Travel
September 28, 2011
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THE BAREFOOT WRITER -- WINNING ENTRIES

Last month’s photo challenge theme was “The Barefoot Writer.”

Our guest judge this month was Jason, the editor of The Barefoot Writer. See his pick for first place below, along with his picks for second- and third-place.

** First Place goes to melynnique for “Barefoot Writer”

** Second Place goes to catharinecooper for “Kicking”

** Third Place goes to frenchisle for “Mayan  Mystic”

FIRST PLACE – BAREFOOT WRITER

Great light. And the photo is very “clean” without distractions from the main subject of the photo.

SECOND PLACE -- KICKING

Interesting perspective. A great illustration of the Barefoot Lifestyle.

THIRD PLACE – MAYAN MYSTIC

What a great location. Love the contrast between the blue sky and rich green grass and jungle.

Congratulations to each of our winners!

The first-place winner will get a $100, and all winners will be entered into the Hall of Fame to compete for the $2,000 Grand Prize in October.

Don’t forget to stay tuned for tomorrow when we make an exciting announcement about our October Photo Challenge!
 
[Ed. Note:  If you’d like to live the writer’s life, make money from what you love, set your own hours, live wherever you please, and travel on a whim, check out the Barefoot Writer Magazine.]

For fine art, he said, anything goes.  If you like the photo, hopefully someone else will, too.

The definition of fine art photography is really any kind of photograph someone will hang on a wall.  And the best way to sell these kinds of photos, he said, is to start locally.  Venice pictures might sell well in an Italian restaurant and/or coffee shop (he taught us how to get into that and print and price our work).  But local photos, within 30 miles of where you live, will likely sell a little better.

For magazines, Rich said, the key is telling a story.  If you’re submitting only one photo, it should either illustrate a specific travel article idea you have (a photo of a restaurant you’ve written about, a gondola ride you took, a mask-maker you’re featuring, etc) or it should be quintessential Venice (a photo of Venice’s many bridges, waterways, gondoliers, sunsets, etc).

For stock, it’s about advertising something.  You have to think about why someone might buy that photo and what they might use it for.  It can’t have any identifiable people in it without a model release. And, in most cases, it should include copy space so a buyer can turn it into a banner on his website or a brochure for his Venetian masks.

I’m home in Virginia now and I can’t stop looking at my photos from this trip.

I sent you a few of my favorites along with some pictures attendees took.  But take a look at these shots of attendees out enjoying themselves, photographing the streets of Venice with a professional photographer by their side to help them get the best pictures…

Our next trip is to Thailand and we have just seven seats left.

This Thailand expedition includes not one but two cities – Bangkok and Chaing Mai -- and it was one of our attendee favorites from last year.  

Your tour includes an elephant ride, temple tours, and a local Thai cooking class – yum!

Click here to find details, prices, and a schedule.

I hope you’ll join us on a trip soon.

- Lori

Lori Allen
Director, AWAI Travel Division

P.S. December is a great month to visit Thailand.  Not only is the weather nice, the shopping is outstanding and you can stock up on gifts before the holiday that will save you a bundle.  Here you’ll find more details and a special $300 discount.

Nancy Trapp, Artist and Photographer

Ruth Thompson, University Administrator

Ruth Thompson, University Administrator

Susan Frenchman, Retired Pharmacist

And here are some other attendee shots from the workshop:

Dave Harrington, Standards Manager

 
Elizabeth Coughlan, Retired Math and IT Teacher

Elizabeth Coughlan, Retired Math and IT Teacher

Nancy Trapp, Artist and Photographer

Attendees here come from all different backgrounds. We have a helicopter pilot, a retired math and IT teacher, a CPA, a retired postal worker, an artist, a standards manager, a woman who does fundraising work for her local emergency network, a university administrator, a blogger, and a retired pharmacist.

And they’ll all tell you that taking pictures is fun. If there’s ever anything that takes practice, photography has to be one of the most fun things to get better at. And what better location than Venice, Italy to practice?

-- Lori

P.S. If you like taking pictures, let us show you how to make some money from them. We have just ONE seat left at our LAST State-side event where you’ll learn to sell your photos to online stock photo agencies.

And we have just TWO seats left in our travel photography expedition in Bali.

And FIVE seats left in Thailand.

“Why are you standing on one leg when you take a picture?” I asked professional photographer Rich Wagner.

It’s our first day here in Venice, Italy on our AWAI photography expedition and I spotted Rich Wagner standing in Piazza San Marco standing on one leg.

“I’m imitating you,” he said.

“But I’m not standing on one leg,” I replied.

“You might as well be,” he said. “You’re tilting your camera toward the sky so much to get in all that building, the perspective distortion in your photos is going to take quite a bit of processing work to fix.”

“Try taking it on a diagonal,” he said. “Then it won’t be so noticeable.”

Here are the two photos -- one taken straight on with my camera tilted up to get the whole building in and another on a diagonal so that my tilt isn’t so noticeable.





Notice how in the first photo, my building (the bell tower of St. Mark’s Basilica) looks like it’s falling over backwards.

These problems are fixable, of course. But here’s what Rich told me to do today to make sure I don’t spend hours in front of the computer when I get home just to make my images saleable...

** 1. Try to hold your camera as parallel as possible to the ground. Tilting up or down distorts buildings and landmarks unless you have a lens that’s specifically made for tilting.

** 2. If you must tilt, and you’re taking a picture of a building or something flat where the distortion is noticeable, try shooting it on a diagonal like in the picture above.

** 3. Take lots of pictures. It’s inevitable that you’ll find yourself tilting up or down to get the shot you want at least a few times, so take plenty. The distortion will be obvious in some and not so obvious in others.

** 4. Focus on the details. Sometimes, as we try to get everything into our photo, we tend to back up and tilt our camera up. That’s fine because, again, sometimes your photos will be obviously distorted and other times they won’t. But if you get in close and focus on just one thing, you can often be more conscious about how much you’re tilting your camera.

** 5. When you do take a photo that requires you to point your camera to the sky instead of being parallel to the ground, allow extra room on the sides for clipping in Photoshop, Lightroom, or another processing program.

Tomorrow, I’ll send you a video on how to fix the distortion problem in Lightroom if you allow enough room on the side of your subject for cropping. In the meantime, here are a few more pictures from today’s shoot.

-- Lori

Lori Allen
Director, AWAI Travel Division

P.S. Just 4 seats left in Portland and 2 in Bali. Don’t wait till next year to start a second income that could help fund your holiday travel or gift-giving list. You’ll find more details about each event, along with stories from previous attendees, here...

Portland

Bali

Last month’s Photo Challenge theme was: Beat the Heat. Shelly Perry and last month’s winner, Sarah, have chosen the August winners. See below to check out the top photos!

Don’t forget to enter this month’s challenge: The Barefoot Writer. Click here to submit your photo.

Lori Allen
Director, AWAI's Travel Division

P.S. Learn how to sell articles and photos to magazines -- directly from the editors. Save $150 on our Ultimate Travel Writing Workshop At-Home Package if you order before Saturday. Find details, here. 

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The Right Way to Travel
September 8, 2011
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BEAT THE HEAT -- WINNING ENTRIES
By Shelly Perry in Portland, OR

Last month’s photo challenge theme was “Beat the Heat,” and we received a wide variety of shots with lots of people and animals enjoying the summer and staying cool.

Our guest judge this month was July’s winner, Sarah. See her pick for first place below, along with my picks for second- and third-place and honorable mention.

** First Place goes to Treva for “Dog days of summer”

** Second Place goes to sol for “The Unexpected Guest”

** Third Place goes to bscpremium for “Splash”

** Honorable Mention goes to LAGuzda for “Kayaks-PL”

FIRST PLACE -- DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

Sarah writes…

The photo that I like the best is the "Dog days of summer." It tells me that there is no better way to "beat the heat" than sitting in a lawn-chair in the lake, after taking a cooling dip in the calm water. I think black and white in this particular photo makes the image itself look cooler in temperature.  It doesn’t have the sun beating off the water or the dogs, but the lighting is still good. It is so crisp and clear.  Not to mention what it would take to get two dogs to sit still like that for a shot. Excellent job!

SECOND PLACE -- THE UNEXPECTED GUEST  

This frog shot just jumped out at me. It leaves no doubt as to the subject: the photographer filled the frame entirely with nothing but the water and got in nice and close to the frog, leaving no distractions. I really like the ripple reflections on the water, which break up the color and give the shot a great sense of depth and texture, as does the frog’s head breaking the surface. And, the frog is moving into the frame, which is excellent composition.

THIRD PLACE – SPLASH

 
A definite “beat the heat” shot -- you can almost hear the girls giggling and the sound of the water splashing as they kick it into a frothy frenzy. The strong backlighting from the sun really provides us with the sense of summer heat. The photographer did an excellent job exposing for the girls, rather than all the bright direct sun in the shot, as well as stopping the action of the water splashing all around. And lastly, the expressions on the girls are charming ... this shot has action and story, and it epitomizes summer.

HONORABLE MENTION -- KAYAKS-PL

 
The colors here are tremendous -- I love how the whole scene is a wash of soft pastel. The photographer’s perspective on this shot is key ... getting down close to the front kayak so the water drops really stand out and let us know that these boats were just used. The angles and lines work really well here, too. The boats point us to the far left of the shot where our eyes are picked up by the s-curve shape reflection in the water, which leads us to the shoreline and back across the top of the photo. That is a perfect example of how to use composition (in this case rule of thirds, leading lines, s-curves)  to keep the viewer’s eyes in the photo.

Congratulations to each of our winners!

The first-place winner will get a $30 gift certificate to the AWAI E-Bookstore, and all winners will be entered into the Hall of Fame to compete for the $2,000 Grand Prize in October.

Remember, this month is "The Barefoot Writer." Submit your photo by 8:00 a.m. EST, Monday, Sept. 26.

Photos need to be between 30 and 50 KB in size, or between 300 and 500 pixels in width/height.  In Lightroom, you can plug in these size requirements when you export your photo.  If you’re using a photo-editing software other than Lightroom, simply go to Google.com and type in “how to resize a photo in <fill in the name of your program>” for details.

Click here to see our full list of contest guidelines.

If you're a first-time user, you'll need to register first on the "register" link on the right sidebar. Once you have a username and password, click "Enter to Win" to upload your photo. Only one photo per challenge.

[ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shelly Perry from Portland, Oregon, specializes in people photography, what she calls documentary or lifestyle portraits. She is known especially for her imaging of children. Shelly’s concern for people is reflected both in her sense of purpose and the images she produces.  Her images have been seen all over the globe on music CD covers, books, magazines, catalogues, websites, ad campaigns and even on TV. Her work has also appeared in several local exhibits and gallery shows.]

AWAI needs a cover photo for the first issue of its new magazine, The Barefoot Writer. They’re offering $100 for the cover shot, plus a photo credit in the magazine.

So, to pass this opportunity to you, this month’s Photo Challenge theme is: The Barefoot Writer.

Just like our normal Photo Challenges, this month’s winner will get a $30 gift certificate to the AWAI e-bookstore. And the first-, second-, and third-place winners will all be entered in the running for the $1,000 Grand Prize in October.

But this month, the winner will ALSO get a check for $100 and a photo on the cover of a magazine.

The Barefoot Writer is a magazine for writers who want to work when they like and however much they want - from home or anywhere in the world they wish to travel. Thanks to the lucrative freelance writing opportunities in the magazine, they’ll have the freedom to do just that. It’ll be published monthly and delivered online.

The cover shot should portray the lifestyle of someone who loves what they do, gets to set their own hours, live wherever they please, and travel on a whim. In other words, they are living “the dream.”

You can set up a shot that literally shows someone barefoot in paradise, scribbling in a notebook... or you can show your own interpretation on the theme.

However you do it, keep in mind that this is a COVER photo. It’s got to be good. So, before you submit a photo, make sure that it:

** Fits the theme of the magazine
** Is beautifully composed
** Is properly exposed
** Is vertical, rather than horizontal
** Is clean, optimistic, and dreamy (avoid photos of just feet or “funny” interpretations)
+ Copy space is a plus

Here are some photos that fit the theme, for inspiration: 

For more tips on how to take a great cover shot, here’s an article in our archives from professional photographer Efrain Padro.

Submissions for September’s Challenge are due by 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday, October 3. You can submit your photos by clicking on the "Enter to Win" tab on our website.

The editor of The Barefoot Writer will choose the winner this month.

Click here for the full contest guidelines.

[Ed note: Learn how to pitch photos and articles to magazine editors and make an income traveling, writing, and doing what you love with The Ultimate Travel Writer’s Workshop-At-Home Package. ]