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Mr. Stock Smarty Pants, what sort of stock photography should I be producing?

By Paul Henning February 11, 2009

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I’d be the first to admit that melancholy, sentimentality and jingoistic patriotism are emotions that Mr. Stock Smarty Pants rarely indulges in.  However, the inauguration of Barrack Obama in Washington, D.C. a few weeks actually did get MSSP all choked up, mainly because he realized that he had missed out on a terrific opportunity to flog his patented “I Saw The Barrack Star!” T-shirts to a throng of several million potential customers scattered in and around the city many locals like to think of as Murder USA.  Damn: another blown opportunity! So, in an act of unselfish generosity, as he wallows in the throes of self-loathing over the pile of cash he failed to rake in from the tchotchke-seekers, MSSP has selected this e-mail from an almost equally forlorn photographer who, like Mr. Stock Smarty Pants, just wants a chance to succeed in life.

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Dear Mr. Stock Smarty Pants:

I’ve been sitting on the sidelines for quite a while but now think I’m ready to plunge into stock.  I’m located in sort of a smallish-sized city, so I’ve had to be a photographic generalist, doing portraits, advertising, school sports, etc.  Since I haven’t really delved heavily into one specific type of professional photography, but have scattered myself around, what sort of stock shots do you think I should be producing? Is there still a place for a generalist in the photography world, or do I have to specialize? Thanks for your input.

Sincerely yours,

Erik in Burlington VT

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Dear Erik:

I understand your confusion.  After all, you live in Burlington, Vermont, where you’re inundated with a baffling array of questions on a daily basis: should I order the granola or the tofu omelet for breakfast? Do I buy the Subaru or the Prius? Is rock climbing less environmentally damaging than riding my mountain bike? Should I wear my Birkenstocks or just go barefoot? And, what would Ché do? I don’t want to say that Burlington is the Berkley of the East Coast, but…how many other cities in America do you know with a “Karl Marx Boulevard” and where Howard Dean was generally considered too far to the right???

I’m afraid I can’t help you out with all of those existential questions, but at least I can shed some light on your query regarding stock photography.

Let’s start with your last question, and work backwards: “Is there still a place for a generalist in the photography world, or do I have to specialize?”

In commercial assignment work (the type of work you’re apparently doing now), the answers are YES and MAYBE.  In stock, the answers are NO and YES.

Many commercial photographers in small- and even medium-sized markets have to be versatile if they’re going to survive.  There simply isn’t enough business in those sorts of markets to support photographers who have too narrow a focus to their work.  In larger U.S. markets, however – and by that I’m referring to, say, the top 15 - 20 population urban centers, starting with New York and L.A. and working downward – there is so much work and of such variety that you can, in fact, specialize in areas such as studio tabletops, or car photography, or fashion.  As you know, if you tried that strategy in Burlington it could be a very long wait between assignments (important note to Erik and other Vermont photographers: do not specialize in fashion photography in a place that still considers tie-dye wardrobe to be hip and trendy).

So, you’ve been a generalist out of necessity, and the good news is that it makes you both versatile and flexible.  You can’t afford to turn down too many jobs, so you’ve probably learned how to work well with people, and how to light a studio shot, and how to coax a great expression out of little kids, as well as how to solve perspective problems in an architectural image.  All of those skills can be put to use in stock production.

The bad news is that you may not have mastered any one specific sector of photography, which may kill your stock career before it even gets started.  There is such a glut of stock photography already in the marketplace, and so many specialized picture libraries and photographers supplying those images, that you really have to concentrate on a few subject sectors and then set the goal of doing them better than anybody else if you’re going to be successful.  Otherwise, you’re simply going to be one more sheep in the herd; “good enough” isn’t good enough these days…quality matters, and picture buyers have so many choices that they don’t have to settle for “just OK” when “pretty darned good” is out there somewhere.

OK, so now you know your mission: take the skills you’ve already mastered and apply them to a few select types of stock.  But, which ones? If you go just by what sells (which isn’t necessarily a bad idea!) then the answers are fairly easy.  People and lifestyles have been, are and will continue to be stock’s biggest sellers.  Business subjects are sold by the ton, as are recreational, fitness and sports images.  Travel is another biggie, as is anything having to do with technology.  Medical and healthcare subjects are in constant demand, and studio tabletops can do quite well for you, too.  And, of course, let’s not forget the always popular nature and scenics, as well as wildlife.

But, you’re not going to select what to specialize in based solely on market results, are you? That might work just fine for Harvard MBAs figuring out what new flavor of soup to sell in which retail markets, but it’s a less-than-intelligent way to go about shooting stock (and, with the number of brainiacs walking around Burlington, Erik, I’m guessing that the chances are pretty good that you’re of above-average intelligence).  What I’m getting at is this: you already know what you should be shooting! That’ s right, even without the unquestioned brilliance of Mr. Stock Smarty Pants to lead you to the Holy Grail of stock, somewhere inside yourself you know what floats your boat in photography.  You got into this business for a reason…what was it?

(Historical note: in MSSP’s case, attending a screening of the movie “Blow Up” sealed the deal for getting into photography as he experienced the following epiphany: photographers, during the course of their professional endeavors, have a far better chance of getting girls to take their clothes off than, say, aluminum siding installers or Yellow Pages sales reps.  Of course, those were back in MSSP’s younger and more superficial days). 

Bringing it back to you, Erik: what sorts of pictures do you want to create for stock? What subjects get your mojo working? It’s like any other pursuit in life: you’ll always do best at the subjects that you feel a special passion for.  The best of all worlds, of course, is when you can marry art and commerce by shooting what you really enjoy AND make a gazillion bucks doing it! And, even if the second half of that equation eventually eludes you, so what? The opportunity to photograph a subject for stock that truly excites you, even on just a part-time basis, can restore some of the creative fulfillment to your psyche that may be missing from your day-to-day assignment work, as well as result in a nice little revenue stream. 

But, Erik, if you find yourself still wresting with this one - if you’re all caught up in the angst of “What should I shoot?” - then I suggest that you go on one of those meditation retreats that they probably have in Burlington, or maybe attend one of those events where a bunch of guys sit around a fire beating on drums, and go back to square one by asking yourself the eternal existential question: what DO I want to photograph? Get in touch with your inner stock photographer, Erik, and I’m confident that all will become clear.

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