Boiling for Stock

Stop me if you've heard this one.
I am here to spew my frustration at some of the stock companies that I have recently joined who have repeatedly rejected my images in the past few days- they are making me NUTS!!
Grant it, it is a bit early for me to be losing my mind at having my images so frequently rejected by these companies but, I tell you, they are quickly driving me crazy- to the point where my happy place is getting a lot more visits from me than it's used to...

Having said that, I completely understand why they had to refused my images from their pool, especially where iStockPhoto is concerned. They give you so much information before you sign up with then and after, when they have to reject you photos- they actually tell you why they can't accept your images, a practice I greatly appreciate!- that they leave no room for any ambiguity.
The same can not be said about some of the other stock sites. Some of them give you a variety of reasons as to why your images didn't get pass their inspectors, leaving you to choose one to your liking!
This is confusing to me.
If my images didn't pass muster then let me know why so I can correct the mistake and resubmit them at a later date!
Incidentally, the images in question are from a set of photos I took on a day of shooting with a friend of mine in the older part of the city.
They are a throwback to the early part of my photographic career when I first fell in love with these subjects, and to this day nature, architecture, architectural details are still one of my favorite subjects.

It would be easy for me to crack wise and cry lack of courtesy on the part of the companies but, the truth of the matter may be that they just don't have the time to extend such a gesture to their contributors. These sites, after all, get thousands upon thousands of pictures a day coming through their system and to stop and itemize each and every error for each and every photo could slow them down enough to put a halt to their business- instantly!

So, in the meantime, I resolve to not give up and to continue to shoot and try to get a handle on exactly what it is that they want from me- and then give it to them.
Beyond that... I've got more of the same.

With gnashing of teeth...

This is quickly becoming a frustrating process.
Not only has the Dreamstime photo stock company have yet to approve my account, but yesterday Fotolia, the other photo stock company I joined, rejected one of my images from being displayed onto their site. Of course, they didn't give me any one reason as to why they were turning down my, in my humble opinion, very well shot image, instead they chose to gave me a whole slew of possible reasons as to why it was being rejected!
Some of those reasons were: blurry or out of focus, over or underexposed, noise or pixelation, and framing and contrast problems.
I'm not one to bite the hand that feeds, or potentially feeds in this case, but I would have loved to have known specifically why my image was being rejected so that I could have fixed the problem and resubmitted it at a later date.

A great many of these sites are extremely strict where the guidelines are concerned. So much so that it has come to my attention that it's the technical aspect of photography where I need to put more of my effort. Aesthetically, I'm good, I may not be the best but I am good. It's the technical aspect of my work that continues to trip me up.
Like some photographers I get all caught up in the look and the feel of an image that I forget to pay attention to the technical parameters of the image I'm shooting. When it comes o photography I lead with my heart and not with my head.
But that has to change. In order for me to get even a few of my images accepted to these sites I need to make nice with the other half of my brain.
Even I know you can't have one without the other.
Wish me luck..

Roadblocks

Recently, I got accepted to iStockPhoto, a photo stock company to sell my work. I figured that this would be a great way for me to, both, have my freedom to shoot anything that I wanted and still get paid for it.
Well, yesterday I tried to shoot my very first set of photos for my iStock file and found that it proved to be much harder than I thought.
For one thing, I hadn't counted on the weather- I know, a truly stupid statement considering the planet we live on, the massive climate anomalies that we've had to suffer through since last winter, and the shear fact that the weathermen hardly ever gets it right! All this should have been common knowledge to me! It should not have been news to me to find what had started out as a normally sunny day had grossly devolved into a hideous, thunderous, nightmare, which completely absconded with my light in the process!
But... there I was... surprised. Even more embarrassingly, I actually wondered what went wrong? Even saying to myself 'but.., the weatherman said..."
Shameful.
The other thing I hadn't counted on was having trouble finding my focus in the, now, low lighting of my living room. Despite using a tripod, the inside of a notebook as a reflector, long shutter speeds, (as well as forgetting that my floor shakes, ever so slightly.. ) a great many of my images were a tad on the blurry side.. (Normally, I would say 'selective focus' but this time there is no hiding...)

After some tweaking, this example is one of the better ones that I could find at the bottom of my pile. I worry that it may be too much of a close up, though. Maybe I should pull back a little more next time...
Clearly, this stock photography thing is going to take a lot more work on my part. I realize now that I may have to rent equipment, like lights, lenses, cameras, I may even have to rent a model here or there...
I think I'm starting to see the up side to this...

It's Wonderful!!!

Last Tuesday I was part of something that was a once in a lifetime event.
Not only was it the 30th of June it was also the opening night of the 30th anniversary of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and Stevie Wonder was giving a concert- for free.
The drama of the crowds not withstanding- I could have done without all the pushing and the shoving, the smell of weed in the open air, the spattering of petty fights- the rest of the evening was absolutely wonderful- parden the pun.
Of course, per usual, as of late, the weather was not cooperating. Throughout the evening storm clouds as heavy as wet grain sacks, continuously threatened to douse the ever expanding crowd below. And with such speed.
To look at the sky above was to see the Devil virtually giving chase to the clouds.
And when the sky did open up and let go her bounty of swollen droplets it was with sweet revenge that we all opened up our many colorful umbrellas -a veritable canopy- to deflect her punishing blows.

It was this view that came into my mind when I found myself standing amidst the throng of pushers, and tokers. What must the view have been like from up there? What would a canopy of 100,000 plus umbrellas look like?
Well, I need wonder no more!
A friend of mine has graciously donated their pictures of that night to me for the sole purpose of me publishing them here, onto my blog.
To that friend, I say thank you!