Final Tennis Shot

Here is the final product of the tennis shoot. I decided to keep the ball larger in the foreground. It seems to help with the depth of the photo.

Microstock?

So I have been doing microstock for almost two years now. Its rewards have gradually been increasing as I slowly upload more images but nothing to live off rather a nice bonus at the end of the year. Wonder how much the top microstock photographers are making? Would it be possible to become a full-time microstock photographer and just travel around figuring out new concepts to photograph? Sounds nice, huh?


It almost seems possible because I dedicate very little time to microstock and it has been generous for that time. But what does it take to become a full-time microstock photographer and where is microstock photography going in the future. I can tell you that in my two years it has gotten much harder to get an image accepted. No more uploading random images that are wasting your hard drive space. It is getting saturated with photographers, and good ones because they are realizing there is money in microstock. So it forces you to up the level of your images that you sell for a couple bucks. And then you have the copy cats who research the top selling images and then take a similar image making your once popular image not popular.


But no matter where it goes, it's going, and you should jump in too.
It has improved my photography because every image that was rejected, I would open it up and see what they were talking about. Most of the time they were right and it made me look much deeper into my images to improve them. Interest, composition, sharpness, noise, dust, color fringing, black point, white point, mid-tones, color temp, the list goes on. Once you have the technical stuff dialed in the fun really begins. Thinking of creative shot ideas that have not been shot by thousand other photographers. And most importantly, branding your style as a photographer. I love the action in any sport and this is what I find myself photographing and selling the most.


This image is one of my best sellers

Which microstock agencies are the most profitable and which are a waste of time? Below is a sales chart of the world's top microstock photographer, Yuri Acurs. I have found it to be an accurate chart for my sales too. It should be a good list of microstock agencies so you know which ones to contribute your photos to.



The microstock superstars are making an average of $3-4 RPI/month (return per image). So if you are not a superstar you could still receive $1-2 RPI. So get a 1000 images uploaded and you got a nice chunk of change to buy some toys with.

Overall, microstock is happening. Another rapid change in photography and just trying to keep up with it. Just look at the reluctant photographers who bitched about digital. We can fight it or embrace it. The best part of it is that it gives you an accuse to go out and do something you love.


Below are links to get started with the microstock agencies starting with the top sellers.





Submit Photos to Shutterstock and make $$$!

Eastern Sierra Adventure

Finally a free moment to share this awesome photo trip. Last weekend, two friends and me met up in the Alabama Hills (the gateway to Mt. Whitney and a very popular place for Hollywood movie makers). Vern Wiley a wedding photographer in the Lake Tahoe area and a long time climbing partner/friend. And Mario Covic a talented San Diego photographer who specializes in surf and babe photography and a surf/climbing buddy.
We all decided to go camp out and get some stock imagery in a few amazing places. We started in the Alabama Hills with some amazing rock climbing images.





We all took turns climbing, belaying and photographing this arete, The Sharks Fin, pretty ironic for a surfer and climber. It was perfect with Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous US, in the background.

After the climb I noticed this dirt road leading into the mountains and popped off a couple cool shots of Mario running.





There is a famous arch in the Alabama Hills where you can line Mt. Whitney up in the arch. That has been done before so we thought we would try something different.






Later that night after sipping some good scotch and throwing back a couple brews we decided to get, "ILL"! This is Vern and myself Kung Fu fighting, notice the cool retro Rasta Tube socks:)




This is the actually how we lit the above shot

Then off to the Ancient Bristle Cone Forest where on the first evening we took sunset photos on an exposed ridge at about 10 degrees. Bristle Cone Trees grow in the harshest most exposed environments. The grove we went to is at 11,000ft elevation. The oldest single living organisms known are Bristlecone Pines one found to be 4844 years old. Then that evening we got snowed on and drove out of there on icy roads. It was beautiful up there but we could not tolerate the weather.






The three of us freezing!

We decided to go to the Eureka Sand Dunes which is actually the most northern part of Death Valley National Park. They are the tallest sand dunes in North America at 700 ft tall. It was a gorgeous drive out there through snow and as we descended the road we found a good stretch of dry pavement to skateboard.


I added a little drama to this image for experimental purposes but I thought it came out pretty cool.


Mario gave me this hat before the trip and it came in handy.

Once we arrived to the sand dunes we had about 40 mph wind gusts which felt like a sand blaster. Despite the wind and sand we managed to get a few images and lots of sand in our equipment.




My rig in the front of the dunes.

All these places we visited are some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. They are all within a couple hours of each other. I would highly recommend visiting these places. If you are interested in doing this trip and need some help feel free to contact me via email. It is amazing! It is good for the soul...

You can visit Vern's website at:


www.wileyphoto.com

Mario's at:

www.sandiegosurfpics.com

Many of the images seen here are available through the link below:

My latest images for sale at
Shutterstock:

My most popular images for sale at
Shutterstock:

Tennis Shoot

Well, it was a chilly Monday evening and my Heroes was not on till 9pm. With the time change it was dark by 4:45 and I had a couple hours to burn. I'd been talking with a friend of mine about this tennis shot I wanted to do so I called him up and we were at the courts in no time. A quick set up of lights and here are a few potential shots to play around with later.



This is a 5 min mock up and it may have some potential. The shadowing is going to be tricky.

The website is up!

This has been a year long project for me and it is finished. Sweet! I am even going to attempt to keep this blog updated. This year has been very good for me. I met my girlfriend Jacqueline and we have had so much fun this summer. Someone who loves nature as much as me and is patient while I photograph it and once in a while will even model for me!


Then the photography has been amazing. I have some amazing friends who do amazing things in amazing areas that are a blast to photograph. Also, I shot a lot more commercial jobs this year for Avia, AND1, NSS, and X Games which are some of the bigger ones.
One of my favorite shoots was a lifestyle shoot of Reid Priddy, an Olympic volleyball gold medalist.

The photography can be viewed at http://www.reidpriddy.com/ Another exciting shoot was for Oggi's Pizza and Brewery where I photographed Ladainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers for an advertising piece. You may even see some of the photographs on the side of San Diego public buses.


Most of my summer though has been consumed with wedding photography. I work with True Photography as a photographer. True Photography is based out of Solana Beach and is a elite group of southern California wedding photographers. You can view my wedding photography at www.truephotography.com/michael/ It has been a lot of fun. Earlier this month I got my first helicopter ride into Paradise Point in Mission Bay with the bride and her dad. Nice grand entrance, huh? We took off at San Diego Airport and flew up to La Jolla and back down on the coast. It was so cool to see some of my surf spots from above.
Well I am going to do my best job to keep this updated. So far, so good.