All of these great events and holidays are coming. As stock photographers we must be ready!

So, do some research, and start taking some great photos for these upcoming events, or illustrating some wonderful drawings.

The time to get them online is now!

Also, don't forget about the baby factor. Spring is the busiest baby season, for humans and animals. So get your baby pics online too!

And remember, have fun! This is the best time of the year!

I have just mailed out flyers and am ready to begin shooting holiday portraits for the first time. I have got three bookings so far and hope to get enough to pay for all the holiday props, backdrops and new lighting I just bought. It is a little scary to start doing full time work. Not knowing how much you will make, or if people are going to like the portraits you take of them. I have been using my kids as models to make sure I have the lighting and set up right. It is a whole lot easier taking pictures of your family than it is strangers. Anyway, if anyone has any tips for me on how to run a portrait studio, I would love to hear them.

If you buy backgrounds or props from this company, you can take pics using their items and submit them for a photo contest. If you win, they will give you a $50.00 gift certificate from them. It's a good way to earn your new studio equipment.

BackdropOutlet.com

I have 42 uploads so far, and I can't wait to reach 50. The assignments look so fun, I would love to participate in them. I was also thinking of becoming an exclusive photographer. Is this a good thing? I would love to hear from some exclusive photographers here, and see how it is going for them. Here are a couple of my newest uploads.

I don't know about you, but I love taking pictures of the sky and clouds. It is a powerful and pretty part of nature. I haven't taken a bunch, but I have seen some very, very nice ones here on dreamstime. Anyway, clouds and skies make great backdrops for other subjects, whether taken with the actual sky behind the subject, or edited in photoshop. Here are a few of my sky and cloud pics.

I was looking through the different pictures here on dreamstime the other day, and got to thinking... I like taking pics of sunsets, but mine that are online just are not selling. So I decided to look at some that are. I put sunset in the search box and checked only the levels 3, 4, and 5 boxes. That ended with the pics of sunsets that have been selling the most. WOW!!!! Now I can see why mine are not. Those are some beautiful pics! Anyway, now I have some ideas for my next sunset shots. By using these pics as a reference to what my pics should look like, hopefully I will get better at sunset pics. So, I am just telling all of you, if you have something that you like taking pics of, look at what is selling best in that area first, and then strive to make yours better than the ones online, and ...

I think tonygers is an excellent photographer! I bought one of his pictures tonight. I would like to share it, and two of my other favorites with you...

This is the one I bought. I like it because it has so many uses. It could be used as a background for Easter cards, or a backdrop for portraits, etc...

I also like these two pictures very much!

Thank you for helping me out, tonygers. I hope we can all help each other in our times of need.

You can also change a picture from color to a black and white image, or even sepia color. This often makes some pictures more dramatic, than the color versions, and might be more sellable.

Here is another example of how I used photoshop to change the color of a picture to make it more interesting.

I took a picture of the mini blinds hanging in my office the other day. They were a very plain ivory color and it didn't really look like a picture that would sell. So, I went into photoshop and changed the color of them several times. The blue one has sold 2 copies so far. I figure maybe someone might like the picture, but want a color besides blue, so I uploaded two more colors. Hopefully, they will sell too. So, there is an idea for all you photographers out there. If you have a really good abstract picture or background picture that is just not selling, try a few different colors. It worked for me!