Some years ago I started taking photos of things in our local wood for the purpose of identification. Especially things of color or unusual texture: flowers, trees, shrubs, vines, fungi, whatever.... I wanted to learn more about the natural world I was photographing and it always irritated me to be asked "what kind of "x" is that?" and not have the answer. And later, when I started submitting a few images to stock agencies I thought I would include some the better ones despite their limited commercial appeal.So, as boring as they may be, I take them. In fact, I cannot seem to get through a spring season without taking a goodly number of these "woodsy"photos. I usually only hang onto those images that represent new items to my collection or that show an item in a way that I have not managed before.
This spring I happened to get today's image, which I believe does a fair job of representing the Mayapple. All of my previous Mayapple images focused on the flower and gave no sense at all of the unusual shape of the plant. This one at least gives you a clue.
1 comment:
First off: this little guy and his umbrella are wonderful. The composition for a stand alone image is a delight. You have a talent for traffic-cop-like direction of the eye immediately to where you want it.
Second off: if this is an example of what you are submitting, I suspect that your sales at stock agencies are far below what you know your talent should create.
You fail to leave air.
You fill the frame with your creatives. But buyers of stock art want to fill them with theirs. They want images that reinforce their messages.. and that usually means reducing ambiguity to a min.
I buy stock art for my magazines. I buy some that stand alone, but most need to be accompanied by at least a head, and more often I want a scrim of text. That means I want this image with space around it which I can fill with my message.... that space... or air... is a requisite. I also need air for cropping of other images to fit a layout. When the image is too tight... I'm stuck with its shape. But I am not paying to be stuck. Nor is my graphic designer.
OTOH... you may know all of this and send out airy images all of the time. If so.. then this message might be instructive to others who submit images for commercial purchase.
BTW... you will note that I do not "do as I say" with my own images... Because I do images as stand alone photo art on my various websites. The rare times that I use my own work in my work... they are captured with a sense of where the air will be needed as I compose through the lens. Click here to see the one exception to that on my blogsite.
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