Dear Reader,

New stock photography successes are coming in on the BSC Facebook page and in my in-box. Here’s a good one, with a great keywording tip...

“I have photos on four stock websites under the name joyfnp. The sites are Dreamstime, BigStock, CanStock, and Shutterpoint.

“My favorite site so far is CanStock. I have 22 photos on that site. I always submit there first because of their keyword suggestion tool. It's much easier than having to come up with keywords all by myself. You just type in a phrase that describes your picture, say three words, and the suggestion tool will generate about 30 keywords which you can cut and paste into the keyword text box on other stock sites as well.”

-- Joy C.

Congratulations, Joy!

But among the successes, I’m also hearing a few laments.

     “What am I doing wrong?” one Breakfast Stock Clubber writes.

     “I’m trying not to get discouraged,” another tells me.

     “My big challenge is believing in myself and my pictures,” yet another admits.

When you start to get discouraged, just remember:

Lise Gagne, who makes six figures at stock, was working a dead-end job with a pawn shop camera earning 20 cents a month when she started.

Jani Bryson, who has photos on iStock that sell over 1,000 times each, dabbled for years before she got serious and made it a priority to master her equipment and upload photos on a regular basis.

Shelly Perry was a social worker who never thought she could make a living doing this, and now she's successful and loves her job.

Shelly also likes to point out that almost everyone gets rejected on their first try. She did. So did I -- three times! Just look at it as a rite of passage. You get rejected. You laugh about it with your friends. And you try again.

Here are three things you can do if you get rejected on your first try:

1. Submit something else. Read the reasons for rejection, fix the issues or choose different photos, and submit again.
2. Try someWHERE else. There are dozens of stock photo agencies out there. Do a Google search for “stock photo agency,” or get a list of the top 20 agencies and directions on how to submit to each in the Quick and Dirty Guide to Stock Photography.
3. Start fresh. Maybe you’re spending more time trying to submit your old photos than you would taking new ones. Go to stock agencies and look at the photos that sell -- observe the lighting, color, composition -- then pick up your camera and shoot something new.

And don’t forget that we’re in this for the enjoyment of it. Experiment, learn, improve, and have fun.

Last weekend I had fun just shooting photos of fortune cookies isolated on white. Sure, they’re just fortune cookies, but I took over 100 photos, experimenting and trying new things.

My first few shots from the session were pretty pathetic:



Not only are these way over- and under-exposed -- and you can actually see the shutter closing on that third one (oops) -- but they’re, well, pretty boring.

So I kept playing and experimenting, and eventually came up with the ones I’ll submit this weekend. Here are a few:



These photos aren’t perfect, but I’m learning, playing, and having fun. And I’m confident that if you and I keep at it, we’ll start making money... just as Lise Gagne, Jani Bryson, Shelly Perry, and so many others did.

Here’s to our success!

-- Bonnie

Bonnie Caton
AWAI Travel Division
Breakfast Stock Club

P.S. Lise accepted my offer to host a Breakfast Stock Club Exclusive workshop in her studio in Quebec, Canada. But she’s a little worried that it’ll be too small a space for a whole group to shoot together.

I assured her that we’ll strictly limit attendance to eight or nine Stock Club members only.

She’s going to get back to me on Monday.

In the meantime, mark your calendar August 20-22 if you want to join us. Once I get the OK from her and can confirm the workshop is a go, I’ll let you know.