A few days ago, someone asked about where to get inspiration. To me, there are a lot of places. I've been a DT buyer for 4 years...I haven't bought a lot -- about 120 images, mostly of which are used in a medical-type newsletter. I've used these 2 recently:

Now that I'm trying to sell some of my stuff, I still need to think like a buyer. When I'm looking for images, I'm reading my articles and thinking: how can I best illustrate (blank). When you shoot, you need to think that way too: If I take a picture of this beautiful fountain, what would it be used for? A postcard? maybe... A calendar? Maybe...but how many of those could I really sell?

What I've found (and this is stricly my opinion) is that there are 2 types of images that really sell well... really simple ones and really complex, photoshopped-up ones. By simple, I mean...search the word, "paperclip" and you'll see that there are a lot of people that are buying pics of paper clips. I tried to figure out why and I've found a buyer that uses paperclips constantly...it's a great magazine, allyou (www.allyou.com). They actually put their photo credits along the side of the page. Unfortunately they don't buy from DT, but I've seen the kinds of things they buy -- simple stuff...milk cartons, paperclips, a fork with spaghetti on it. It's eveyday stuff. So, for inspiration, look around you...look to stuff you use every day. Somewhere, somebody is writing a blog or an article about pasta, or cooking, or cleaning, or car washing, or gardening, or throwing a party....life is your inspiration. At least it is for me....I just wish I had time to capture all that inspires me!