New Stock Images – American musician couple in Brooklyn

Part two of my New York City  images shot last Fall during a Getty Image event. This one was shot at the same time and venue as Tia’s shoot and featured a real life couple of NYC artists – they’re musicians, actors, dancers, models and are looking great. I had approached them before leaving Montreal and unfortunately they couldn’t make the date I had in mind for an Astoria shoot. So I booked them for the Brooklyn one instead and it worked out great since Lorraine and Juan were with me and we could share.

I had asked them to bring something they would like to be pictured with and they brought a mandolin! Along with their styling there was something really American about this, so I decided to kind of de-contextualize the images by shooting in front of the gorgeous sky and sunset and then in the alleyway. I really liked the softness of the light in these last few shots (A. is an example) and left out my current flashy-composited-color-infused-light-bomb-is-that-Vaseline-on-the-lens-give-me-that-sig+-I’ll-never-make-10k-images-at-this-rate post processing routine to preserve the intimate mood. Sure enough,  only A. and another from that set were selected to be on Getty. Still some of my favorite shots. Oh and I totally submitted D. as an afterthought – the image is totally out of focus and the model’s faces completely washed out by that humongous lens flare, but I thought the dreamy factor played really well with the action and since anonymity has a definite allure in stock, I thought hey, why not? Sure enough it not only made Sig+ but also is pulling ahead as one of the best sellers in the series.

You can view the whole series in this lightbox or this Photoshelter Gallery . Enjoy!

A. © 2015 Nicolas McComber – Available for RF licensing at Istock and Getty Images

B. © 2015 Nicolas McComber – Available for RF licensing at Istock and Getty Images

C. © 2015 Nicolas McComber – Available for RF licensing at Istock and Getty Images

D. © 2015 Nicolas McComber – Available for RF licensing at Istock and Getty Images

E. © 2015 Nicolas McComber – Available for RF licensing at Istock and Getty Images

My 2013 Top Earning Stock Images #14: Elderly couple slow dancing in kitchen

Stock Image: Elderly couple slow dancing in kitchen

Uploaded: June 2012
Collection: Vetta

Love this one! This composition happened by intervention of a Getty art director at the Berlin Istockalypse. I had asked the models to start slow dancing in the kitchen and was shooting versions of this when I was pulled aside by the AD who moved me to this angle. I’m quite thankful.

You can view my images from the Berlin Istockalypse here.

My 2013 Top Earning Stock Images #34: Close-up of a senior woman in conversation, smiling

Stock Image: Close-up of a senior woman in conversation, smiling

Uploaded: September 2012
Collection: Sig+ / E+

Have I said that I loved pros? Well I do… such generosity and openness. This is why I invest in going to Istockalypses, we get to work with people who do this with 20 cameras (or 3 in this case) in front of them. It was fascinating to watch them work, doing this fake conversation and giving a different reaction every 5 seconds according to our direction. Loved it.

You can view all of my photographs of this model in my Berlin Istockalypse lightbox.

My 2013 Top Earning Stock Images #43: Grandmother hugging her granddaughter

Stock Image: Grandmother hugging her granddaughter

Uploaded: September 2012
Collection: Sig+ / E+

Awwww. A sweet one. I really like how the girl looks peacefully into the camera. She feels so right and protected. She was borderline too old for this, but I thought it would play well with the grandmother hanging on to her as if holding on to time itself, to her little girl growing up so fast. There is another version here with the girl’s eyes shut.

You can view all my photos of these models in this lightbox.

My 2013 Top Earning Stock Images #51: Young couple in love using tablet in a park

Stock Image: Young couple in love using tablet in a park

Uploaded: April 2013
Collection: Sig+ / E+

This one just bubbled up with the November Getty sales. Very glad it did, this is one of those that I didn’t really remember from the shoot in Berlin, which was quite hectic, but was surprised and delighted to see it come up in Lightroom as I was doing the last leg of editing for the Lypse in April ’13. I attempted a flare in the upper corner as I was seeing more and more of those everywhere, and part of the job is adapting to the current visual trends. I thought it worked well here and so uploaded it then selected it for Sig+ and, although it laid dormant at IStock, it did get a few good sales on Getty, thus enabling it to reach this list.

You can view my photographs from the berlin Istockalypse in this lightbox.

My 2013 Top Earning Stock Images: Amorous senior couple embracing on couch

Amorous senior couple embracing on couch

Uploaded: September 2012
Collection: Vetta

Here’s one from the 2012 Berlin Istockalypse. That was a very successful event for me, much better on a strictly revenue standpoint than all the others event I’ve attended. This was shot after I had my 20 minutes with the family at the first shoot for full attendees. The two actors on the photograph came to me after we were done and offered to pose some more, so I had them sit on the sofa and talk about wonderful things. This is the wide version of this concept, and there is another closer crop version here. When I was editing the shoot, I hesitated for a second on this one because although the man looks warmly at the camera, the lady is lost in happy thoughts, creating a slightly confusing moment, but maybe that’s what makes it different and real. So I sent it anyways, thinking it looked candid enough, and it was accepted with flying colors, making Vetta, then appearing on Getty,.

Featured Stock Photograph – Elderly couple laughing at a newspaper article

Stock Photograph – Elderly couple laughing at a newspaper article

I’m back at work on post production for the many, many shots I made at the 2012 Istockalypse in Berlin. This one just made Agency so I’m delighted to share it with you all today. Lovely work from the two models. They look so natural and intimate, it’s hard to think they only met each other a few hours prior. I was fortunate enough to work with them way beyond my allotted 20 minutes since strangely enough they were under-utilized after I did my time. Plus they kept hanging around me so I guess they liked my style. I’ll make a special lightbox for Ingrid once that feature returns on IStock.

It’s been 10 days since the big 2012 update introducing the cash sale on Istock. I’ve had a few of those and so it’s probably a good move on their part. Prices appear to be high, but of course it’s meant to show new buyers that they’d be better off buying credits and in doing so to come back to the site for further purchases. It’s all good marketing.

What’s not so good is the way the update was pushed without proper testing and quite a few unexpected bugs showed up. Reporting for contributors is now dodgy with cash sales and a large chunks of “views” not showing up in the latest sales screen and people have reported concern over bugs preventing people from completing sales. Some have also reported wrong commissions made on cash sales under a foreign (non US$) currency.

My top two ego-driven selfish concerns at the moment are these:

Bring back the Zoom function at once! My sales above medium size have decreased a great deal since this was taken away.

Bring back the lightbox option! Maybe they want to lead buyers to enjoy the new cart function… still, it’s not that practical.

Featured Stock Photograph – In Love With Nature

Stock Photograph - In Love With Nature

Here’s to all of you who feel a love of nature, a love that is always there, available, uncomplicated and free. Good vibrations. Especially on this very commercial “let’s try and put a monetary value on how much we love each other” silly Valentine’s day. Go take a walk today and see how beautiful winter is. Feel the love.

Featured Stock Photograph – Isolated Senior couple sightseeing in casual clothes

Stock photo: Isolated Senior couple sightseeing in casual clothes

#13: Isolated Senior couple sightseeing in casual clothes

One of the heavy hitters in that period – not in the top 10 in sales volume, but a top grosser revenue-wise. It just sells in large format: probably because only part of the image is used in composites. I shot this series with the models thinking I would insert them in some of my least interesting photos from my Eastern USA road trip in January 2010. I did try it, but generally the results weren’t up to par with my usual production (example here). I put up the isolated files themselves (most in the Fall of 2010) to much better success. This one was sent early to test the waters and the excellent results pushed me to post produce many of the other images.

Royalty Free License available at Istockphoto.com

Browse through this model’s stock photo gallery at my photoshelter archive web site.

NOTE: Most of the sales on this countdown came from a combination of agencies prior to my becoming exclusive with Istock. Sales over there will not reflect the rankings of this list.

Featured Stock Photograph – Love in the chicken coup

Love in the chicken coup

Every now and then, one of my poultry shots pops up in my catalog activity such as this one did yesterday by selling an extended license on Istock. So, let’s see if we’ll see it in use – I wonder what will be done with it… Product packaging? Cute valentine cards? Pre-packaged prints? Sometimes I wished I saw the end product…

Royalty Free License available at Istockphoto.com

Browse through related photographs in this stock photo gallery at my photoshelter archive web site.