Last Fall, I took part in my 4th official Istockalypse after Berlin, London and Hong Kong. This one took place in Istanbul, where I spent two weeks in late October. Upon coming back, amidst the stress of relocating, finding a place to live, move all my stuff and rediscover my inner strength, I pushed over 250 images of this event, more than I ever did on the previous ones. I participated in 2 walkabout shoots organized by Getty Images, 2 pitch shoots also sponsored by Getty Images, and 3 side shoots. I also photographed the city whenever I could, in all its historic grandeur: mosques, markets, commercial streets and skylines of piled up apartment buildings. So, yes, lots of images… And I have tons more to go through.
Here are three galleries I put together today on Photoshelter. As usual, links to buy the images on IStock are provided on each image’s page in bright orange. Go ahead and splurge.
Took me a few years, but I finally achieved the gold canister. I guess I’m doing fine… many people are reporting dropping sales, but mine are relatively stable – and hopefully will start growing again soon. Anyhow, huge thanks to all of you who support and use my work, and to all of my fellow photogs, ADs, my teachers (and students) at Marsan College of photography, everyone who posed and acted for me for one or many shoots, sometimes in the strangest conditions, and to the wonderful people at Istock and Getty Images whom I’ve met all over the world these past few years and who have taught me so much. I feel very lucky to be able to do this line of work which I love, so thanks also to Benoît without whom I would certainly not be where I am today. And here’s to many more years of making better and better photographs (and videos – watch out for this new 2015 line of production!).
Here’s one of the stock images that pushed me over that milestone today. It was shot at the City Beautiful 4 event last year in Orlando, organized by the wonderful Evelyn Peyton, and features the most amazing 6 year old girl I’ve ever worked with. Great talent and a lovely personality. Winning combo!
A reminder of where you can buy / download / license my photographs:
So it’s Thursday, my upkeep day where I work on my Photoshelter site, this blog, creating links, banners and lightboxes on Istock, etc. Oh and sometimes I squeeze in a few uploads as well. So first thing today was completing an update on the construction gallery on Photoshelter. Most of the images there were shot during the construction of what would be my home for barely a year and a half before I relocated as a single man. I used my family as models – and perhaps I should have brought other variants, but it all really happened rather fast so I did what I could at that time. ANd it was probably a good decision as the images have been quite successful so far, both on IStock and Getty Images. One sad thing about this collection though, is that I never shot the finished house and garden… because neither was finished at the time I left, and I kept saying next year… next year… well maybe I’ll go back this Summer and complete this. It is rather bittersweet to see this project, so replete with promises, through these images, and know how it evolved for me. One shot has the dogs looking at me from the construction site… whenever I see that image I am filled with joy. In any case, my friends, enjoy the moment. And then learn to let go and keep an open mind for the next thing.
This year I’m working the soil in my garden so that next year I can grow my own food. In the meantime, going to local markets is an absolute must – I’m an organic guy as much as possible. This image was shot during the Summer of 2012 and is standing at 9 downloads. One more and it hits the big time in the search engine. I’ll be very grateful, if this fills a need in your work or hobby, to get that extra sale ASAP (you can just click on the shot to get to the shot’s Istock page). Many thanks!
Hello readers, first off, thank you all for your support yesterday during 100% royalty to the artists day on Istock, especially the ones that acted from my suggestions on twitter (@mccomberphoto) and transformed the day from blah to exciting. It was the first time that I sent multiple tweets in a day and the response was far better than I expected, so I might just make this a habit.
Anyhow, I’m back from the Hong Kong 2014 Istockalypse event, and what a blast! Everything was well organized and smooth: we had great models and art direction, believable settings and of course an extraordinary destination to discover through our lenses. I spent an amazing 8 days in HK and discovered a rich, vibrant and welcoming megapolis with the kindest strangers I’ve ever met. I mean somebody actually ran after me to warn me that my photo bag was unzipped. No, we’re not in New York.
Since I registered too late to put together pitch shoots, a brilliant new concept for the Lypses, I had ample time to just walk in the city and visit some locations without feeling rushed. I did so with my two friends Lorraine and Adrian whom I met during the Switzerland minilypse in 2012 and since then had the good fortune to meet again and again all over the world at the Istock events. Really fun times.
Unlike London last Fall, I decided to try and get into people’s faces and shoot some editorial images of the daily life of the Hong Kong people. Boy, was I surprised at the reaction. Whereas in many large cities of the Western world being targeted by a camera is seen as an intrusive, borderline aggressive gesture that is often met with a frown and sometimes outright outrage, over in Hong Kong, people kindly posed and walked up to me to discuss what they and I were doing, hand me cards, invite me to participate, etc. It was wonderful. I love this city!
So I came back on the 10th and I started uploading right away. You will find my work in this Istock Lightbox as it arrives. I should work only on this shoot for the remainder of May, so check daily to see the new work. I have no firm plans yet to upload the new work to the Photoshelter site, as it is rather time consuming and brings back weak results. Here’s the banner to the lightbox:
Hong Kong Istockalypse lightbox by Nicolas McComber
And here are 4 early acceptances from the trip:
Stock Image – Hong Kong Commute
Stock Image – Victoria Harbor at night
Editorial Stock Image – Urban Gardening
Editorial Stock Image – Bird Cage artisan
I’m editing in chronological order, so there are lots of nice surprises coming and don’t be disappointed by the more mundane material: I’m putting up anything that I think has a market. Don’t worry, there will be plenty of “wow” shots along the way. Model shots should come later, probably next week, when I get the releases.
And yes, of course, huge thanks and bravos to the team behind this event – Elissa, Rebecca, Simon, Bill and all the others: you made this one of the best Lypses ever and I hope the format survives for many Lypses to come.
Stock Image: Bald man using digital tablet while waiting for subway
Uploaded: July 2012
Collection: Vetta
After a few vertical versions of this concept, I decided to shoot one horizontal, as I like these better personally. I was just coming back from Berlin and I had been told to shoot vertical for magazine covers, so I did more of these than usual on this shoot. But as we see in this countdown, way more often than not, it is horizontal framing that catches the eye of the buyer. So much so, that in London this year the tune had changed. I was advised to shoot mostly horizontal, and to not waste my time on square, vertical or panoramic frames. Well, I’ll keep doing all 4 types… it really depends on the subject. But given the results this year, horizontal wins.
You can view all my work with this model in this lightbox.
This is one where I tried to cram as much information as I could in one frame. I had the model juggle 3 props, placed him in an area with strong background information, a sense of place, story and season. Then I had him do a serious take and this lighthearted version. Well, as is usually the case, the serious one didn’t do very well while this one enjoyed some large sales. I’m still going to shoot both when I think about it, even though downer photos are a harder sell. Personally, I find them more interesting.
You can view all my work with this model in his lightbox.
Boy, am I happy she didn’t fall. That’s a wide angle shot, so yeah I was right underneath a few inches away. So what’s the story behind this one? Wellllll, this was shot during the Berlin Istockalypse in 2012. The last shoot of the day. I had slept barely an hour the night before and I was completely brain dead at this point. So as I walked into the room, I had 5 minutes to come up with something, and after I’d shot the room, I looked around, and all my ideas were pretty lame. So I stole a look at one of the art directors’ wish list and saw the word “safety”, turned around, saw a ladder, boxes high up on shelves, and a real-looking model that didn’t look as if she’d cartwheel her way to a pageant victory. So I put all of it together, had quite an altercation with the assistant who did not believe that this would work out and then shot it anyways. I think it works, don’t you? Perhaps I could have done something more commercial, but I was so out of it by then that I’m just happy I got this.
You can view all my photos from the Berlin Istockalypse in this lightbox.
Probably my favorite image that I shot in Switzerland. When it was my turn, I walked in the hut and was rushed by other photographers pushing me forward, literally. “He’s making cheese! He’s making cheese! Go shoot him!” So I got the pocket wizard on and shot him… with the lights set all wrong. But he wasn’t stopping or slowing down, So I did what I could. Much of the beautiful light on this shot was actually really enhanced or created from scratch in Photoshop. But the whole thing was possible because of the way the steam catches what little light there was. After I was done editing, I felt so proud of the way this came out. I still am. So I submitted it for Vetta, thinking you can’t get more “real people doing real things” than this – and they’re partial to that kind of photos, but… wonk-wonk. It dropped in the regular collection. So I went to the forums, pimped the shot in the non-approved Vetta thread with the short quote “Really?” and, rarity supreme, the decision was reversed and it was promoted to Vetta. Happy days!
You can view all my work from Switzerland in this lightbox.
Stock Image: Senior woman getting emotional support from her daughter
Uploaded: September 2012
Collection: Sig+ / E+
I was so inspired on that day. Maybe it was all the support I was getting from the Getty team around me during this Berlin Istockalypse shoot. I went through so many emotions with my models, and they were so solid, it was just a lot of fun. They just went along with it, giving their all. A moment before, these two were having breakfast, and a moment after they’d won the lottery. It just was next, next, next. Lol. I was told this year in London not to shoot sadness, as these are reportedly harder sales. But I think there is a place for these moments even in stock or advertising. After all they’re a necessary counterpart to happiness…
You can view all of my photos of these models in this lightbox.
McComber Photo 