Apologies for my slackin in my bloggin lately. I’ve been busy all Summer with stock and contractual work and rebuilding my photoshelter site and getting used to the latest changes at Istock. At the end of the day, looking at some of Google’s tools, I find out that this blog gives top visibility to some of the shots I’ve featured here over the years, which in turn tend to sell better at IS. So I’m back and I have a lot of good stuff to show you. The end of 2012 and 2013 will be remembered as the lost year at IS, no doubt, with new files under performing all year long. There’s a bunch of reasons for that, and they don’t seem to be in a hurry to fix any of it. This has created a climate of uncertainty in regards to uploading, offset only by the ability for the first half of the year to send images to Getty Images and Thinkstock through their E+ and partner programs. This has been taken away from us in June and now that we’re confined to the stunted growth environment of Istock, well, I guess I need this blog to feature some of the new images that are unlikely to be found and sell by themselves over there. So if you land here and see something useful for you, feel free to go download it right away – that really helps. If you don’t want to commit with credits, just click “View Pay as You Go Pricing” at the top right of the image page. You can pay through credits cards and Paypal.
To see my ongoing new images, here’s the link to my New This Month Gallery on photoshelter. Click on the image to see it in a bigger format and then on the orange link to buy it on IStock. Many thanks.
If you see any images of mine that you would like featured here with a little paragraph explaining how it was done or a little story about the shoot or my inspiration, feel free to send me a message through Photoshelter (use contact on the top navigation bar) or a comment here and I’ll be happy to indulge. In the meantime, since sales for new material are so rare these days, I’ll post something about anything new (uploaded from November 2012 onwards) that actually manages to sell.
McComber Photo 
You’ve got some really great images. I myself am thinking about getting into selling my photos but have no idea where to start. Do you have any suggestions for a newcomer?
You can go through agencies, or try to be discovered through Flickr or sell on your own from a website. Do not expect high revenues until you have built a sizeable portfolio of many hundreds useful photographs. Do a lot of research, and try to think like a buyer instead of a photographer. Before submitting a shot, ask yourself who would buy this and why? If you can’t answer right away, skip the shot and move on. The bar is set really high these days. Clarity of concept is prime. As far as agencies go, I’ve been with Istock as an exclusive for a few years now and I’ve lost touch with the others. So I can’t help you there. And as far as IS is concerned, it’s not a good time to start out as new photos are buried very quickly in the search engine making sales of new material the hardest it’s ever been. It will take a long time and a great deal of determination to get to the point where you can go exclusive and start making better money. Good luck!