I’ve been a bit lazy with my stock contributions recently and took the opportunity of a pleasant evening in London recently to grab some shots of the impressive waterscape around Westminster Bridge and the London Eye.
Having jumped through a series of hoops which were randomly put in front of me, I’ve always seen it as something of a minor achievement in getting accepted as a contributor to one of the biggest international stock photography outfits and was quietly pleased with myself when I finally submitted enough images of an acceptable standard to ‘join the club’. I now find myself in esteemed company and am continually wowed by some of the images that have been contributed by my fellow ‘Stockers’.
Putting your best images forward and having them put under the microscope by a professional agency can be quite a traumatic experience, after all we’re all a bit precious about our images aren’t we? I’ve previously had images rejected for ‘uneven lighting’, ‘overall composition of lighting’, ‘artifacting’ ‘no clear centre focal point’ (rule of thirds anyone?) and that old favourite, ‘copyrighted material’. So having not uploaded anything for quite some time I took the plunge recently and hit the upload button. A few days passed, no news. I would check my account and see that my babies were still waiting patiently in the queue. A week later they were still there, perhaps I was being ignored, after all I couldn’t claim to be a regular contributor. Then almost two weeks later the first submission comes back…. Have a look yourself and see what you think.
I quite liked this shot of the Shell building on London’s South Bank. I was careful to make sure there weren’t any ‘Shell’ emblems, or any other copyrighted material on or around the building, or at least I thought I was...
Not for the first time, I fell foul of the copyrighted material thing, this little bus and its logo being the problem. Oh well, nothing a little bit of cloning won’t put right.
Having files rejected for reasons like the one above makes it all the more satisfying when you actually get some approved, its quite reassuring to see just how hard your submissions get looked at. So overall my limited stock shooting experience has been, at times frustrating, but ultimately rewarding (not necessarily financially) and has improved the technical aspects of my photography. I would advise anyone to give it a go; it’s nice when you get a file accepted and even better when you get a sale or two. I won’t be giving up the day job just yet, but must try harder to spot those London buses in future!
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