Not the Pulp

It's a big world out there. And strangely I think there might be enough room for all of us.

Strange as it may sound. There are many niches for photographers to snuggle into and make a penny. I mean, look at all the stock photo sites out there. I have no experience in stock photography, but I hear that it's changed a great deal lately. There's a great post about it at Strobist. We are in demand, but there's always a catch.

Some of the basic stuff you can do from your own home (most photo can be done from home) isn't too tough. A flash or two, a good background and some tricks.

Macro studio product shots

This stuff is pretty simple. I just shot this about 10 minutes ago with two flashes. No umbrellas, no reflectors, no fancy backgrounds. Just knowledge of shutter speed, aperture, and my manual flashes.

This isn't really stock photography until you start taking pictures of things that don't have any sort of orientation to a company. This picture obviously contains an item that is copy written/trademarked by movie peoples. It's the lighting and the cleanliness that matters for this example. There are a million ways to light a little thing and make it look like it could be in an ad.

This is the same kind of shot in many ways as the helmet above. Still has that silly Motorola and probably Verizon title in there that'd get me in trouble if I tried to sell the picture.

But if I ever need to sell this phone on eBay... Oh, man! But I digest.

Getting yourself to learn small subject photography can net you some small amounts of money if you play your cards right.

Check out this to get an idea of things that don't have any preordained association. This is also a great example of a journalist taking pictures that could probably pretty easily be used as stock photos instead. The cake still has the same lighting fundamentals.

Portraits of all kinds

I frequently ask friends' bands if I can photograph them while they play. Then, if they want the pictures I offer them an extremely low price for said images. Usually I'm losing out on this deal because I'm making no money, but taking pictures in which you have real subjects doing real things is always nice.

These are more candid portraits, but they're still worthy of making a profit if a band sees your images somewhere and needs some album art. Hell, at the least you get to meet some bands! Be warned, this sounds better than it does. Band photography is a pretty sought after job and I'm pretty sure there are a lot of people out there taking great shots and making nothing from it.

Personal portraits. Plain and simple really. People hire you to take pictures of them and their loved ones and you collect money for performing said photography. A lot of portraits can be taken on location, but if you've got a nice house with a clean well lit living room, you've got yourself a nice location (not everyone wants to have their picture taken in front of a fake backdrop.

So where does this all come into the photojournalism student/beginner? Well I can tell you from experience that to the layman, a photographer is a photographer no matter what their career. I've been asked to take portraits of people's kids even though I have no real experience in photographing children (they're fussy as I found out). And it's not illegal to maintain a small stock photography career on the side. Although it can eat up a lot of your time.

What I'm getting at is that a photographer is a photographer. You know a piece of machinery pretty darn well and you can use it in a lot of conditions. It's up to you how you want to use your knowledge. Practice like crazy and you'll find your favorite things.

Breaking the Ice

It's prom night. You're the quiet nerdy kid standing with the other wallflowers away from the fun at the dance. You see the girl/boy that you've been pining after for the whole year. Sadly you don't gather the courage up to try to persuade them to talk to you let alone dance with you.

Fast forward to the present. You've still got that terrible spine chilling, gut rotting fear hiding deep inside the depths of your heart.

One of the worst things I went through that I can't believe I fell prey to during my really early parts in journalism would have to be getting the courage up to get in there and do what's required. Things like gathering caption information, asking serious questions to "important" people, and saddest of all... getting close enough to shoot.

I know my profs will be happy to hear me quote Robert Capa... "If your images aren't good enough, you're not close enough."

You have to get over that fear. It's killing your ability to become a great journalist. I too often see high school aged students shooting sports (saw this last night actually) with a medium range lens, standing back from the sidelines. I definitely fell into this same mentality early on. You can't be afraid to get in there. You're job is to get right up on the events and record them. That just can't be done from the back wall with the other D&D fans. No offense to D&D fans.

The same goes for caption info. Get in there. Many of my professors really instilled in me that your captions are extremely important to the power of your images. One went as far as to say that if you have amazing images, but weak captions it can affect the chance of you being hired. You have to really fill the gaps that the photo doesn't tell. It's great to even go as far as getting a quote to give your caption some life. So don't be afraid to gather that info. You're a reporter with camera knowledge and don't forget that.