Acceptance of who you are - a hobbyist perspective
posted on 21st of january, 2011
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The other day I enjoyed reading Visceralimage's blog about accepting who you are photographicaly speaking. This entry is probably more of a continuation of his thoughts, than a reply.
The first thing I have to accept is that I am not a professional photographer. At least not in the sense where photography is my main or only source of income. I earn most of my money elsewhere - and most of my energy also goes into this job. Hence, if others speak about rising income from photography and I am loosing out on it - then that might be the reason. I do not have the time to devote my energy to this area of income. And often, I also do not have the means.
So accept who you are - but also NOT just photographically speaking. And then consider how this could add to your photography.
Accept where your true interest in photography is. And take the time to enjoy photography by simply shooting what you enjoy without thinking too much about if it will generate income for you or not. Photography is about seeing, about being creative. I have a blog and I have been posting images almost daily since Fall last year. I do not only post images relevant to stock, but also images I just enjoyed taking. It has resparked my enthusiasm about photography in general and also in the stock area. So do not limit yourself, go out, enjoy, be creative.
Being a hobbyist in microstock means that you work in a different area for your main job. You probably have an insight view on the issues related to that branch of work. Why not try and illustrate these with images? I for instance work in education and my best selling image clearly stems from that area.
Further, what I am teaching about are often issues that at some point of time are translated into images. My Playful Concepts series has many images containing such social issues.
So hobbyist, accept who you are and that this might give you an advantage in seeing things that are new or unique images. Keep your eyes open - not just to train you to see potential images, but also to see new and different topics that are not yet covered too much. And lastly - enjoy shooting and have fun.
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Tags: acceptance advice creativity hobby stockimages
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Comments (7)
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Thanks for sharing.
- posted by
smartview27
on January 21, 2011 |
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I always try my best and love when it pays off. but thanks.
- posted by
Mellimage
on January 21, 2011 |
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409 images and 933 sales (as I type this) means you're taking the hobby seriously... but still having fun with it. :-) That's the way to go!
- posted by
Wisconsinart
on January 21, 2011 |
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Thank you for your comments, all.
John - Sometimes it isn't easy to understand rejections. But we all are closer to our images and think they should sell like hot cakes. Sometimes we ourselves are wrong - and sometimes the agencies are.
- posted by
Mellimage
on January 21, 2011 |
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Excellent blog and I like the title. Thanks for the credit; always good when someone reads and credits your blog in their blog. I like you points and I agree with them; it is important to take stock (pun intended) in your priorities and your time to commit to this enterprise.
I just got a series of rejections yesterday that trashed my acceptance average; I had to refer to my blog to accept that I am an 80% acceptance shooter, approximately. Once I referred to that again, I calmed a bit (even though I do feel the reviewer is just plain wrong on about a third of the rejections; I think they feel the pressure of 44K images to be reviewed and they are rushing through them).
Nevertheless, enough of my dribble. I like your images. Beat to all!
- posted by
Visceralimage
on January 21, 2011 |
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Hmmm I can see that you're a professional hobbyist :D
- posted by
Elianehaykal
on January 21, 2011 |
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Nice hobbyist portfolio you have ;)
- posted by
Infotrontof
on January 21, 2011 |
Comments (7) |
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Photo credits: Mellimage, Mellimage, Mellimage. |
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Mellimage
confidential info
>I've been with Dreamstime since 2007, love to work on different subjects, though my playful concepts are probably my favorite stock photo subjects. Outside of Stock photography I love to take nature images.
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