I've just had my 80th image accepted, which doubled my portfolio this month. I'm amazed. My acceptance ratio went also well above 60%, which means that I didn't simply submit anything. I'm amazed a second time.
Given the tough period at work, this exceedes my expectations by a long shoot.
Now, I'd like to analyze the reasons behind this result from the point of vew of someone just starting with photography, hoping that this could help other people in my situation:
- I'm a better judge of my own work, having received tons of criticism across the board, which helped enormously. Dreamstime is also helping a lot on this, because I tend to ask the reasons behind some rejections in order to understand where I'm doing wrong. Thanks inspectors.
- I get a better understanding of what is stock and what isn't and, more, what is needed by Dreamstime. This simply comes with time.
- I'm getting better technically, which, again, simply comes from going out and shoot. Even better, I'm finally getting into the habit of not simply snap photos, but think a bit before "the act". It helps!
- Better equipement: new lens, helps a lot on getting better quality in camera to reduce rejections. I'm also learning how to use my 50mm prime.
- Learning new things: I'm trying to learn how to get isolated objects right in the camera. I got my first isolated submission accepted and I didn't even have to touch Photoshop. Fun!
Where now? It's fun, relaxing, a very good way of breaking from work routine: after ten hours in the office and with an evening still to work ahead of me, I just go out and shoot for half an hour in the park to hone skills. More, some of what I learnt in Photography will be applied to my work later this year and hopefully presented somewhere in the world as a novel idea; more on this in a later blog for all technical geek minds out there interested in this kind of stuff.
The road to be decent at this is very long, but every download is a thrill!
