Ahoj, this is Zdenka.
This single photo I took at home made me till this day $8,000.
The whole shoot took about 10 minutes maximum.
How and why?
In today's video, I've got three tips for beginners
who would like to work on their passive income stream in photography.
Let's talk about the stock because it's the year 2022
and whether you are a photographer, videographer or content creator,
creating multiple income streams is a must.
I haven't talked about selling photos and videos in stock for a while now
on this channel.
Let's fix that.
I took this photo in August 2012.
Not just this photo.
It was a part of many series of roughly about 20 photos
I think. The shoot took roughly 10 minutes.
It was done in natural light in our old house,
which had a sunroom with lights coming from all the sides.
Editing took roughly an hour.
They all sell quite well,
but this one sells the most.
Six different stock agencies are selling this photo.
A lot of people are very skeptical
when it comes to stock because when you make a sale,
you'll make $0.15, $0.25, maybe a dollar, maybe a two.
Well, the photo keeps selling over the years,
because everything about this photo is timeless.
And now when I look at the sales, I can see that by now I've made $8,000
just from this single photo. And the other photos
sell okay too.
Now, that little baby in the photo
grew up and two weeks ago
went with me to Wal-Mart and I told her,
I bet you that today we're going to find one of your photos here somewhere.
She didn't believe me.
She was laughing.
Well, we went through baby section.
Then I took her to pharmacy.
And here's a proof she's holding baby vitamins
with her photo on it.
And I frequently see her on baby blankets, packaging, pillows, online articles.
She was an Irish magazine cover.
So how can you create this side income?
And if you are already submitting your stuff to stock agencies,
but you are not making any sales, what is the problem?
Where is the issue?
If you are taking photos
with a smartphone, do you think that is because it is with a smartphone?
No, I think I've proven enough in my past videos that photos and videos
from smartphones are being accepted to stock agencies.
Tip number one. Let's talk about timeless photos.
When you are a beginner, you're going to be taking photos like this.
Flowers, leaves, plants,
trees, bushes, these objects.
Unfortunately, they are not going to sell at all
as it is already oversaturated and not really a requested topic.
Have you seen many of those photos in magazines, commercials, online articles?
You have to take photos and videos of searched terms
and those photos and videos need to be timeless to ensure
that they will be sold over and over and again in the future.
This photo of a baby is a perfect example of a timeless photo.
She's a typical baby.
She's not wearing anything
so we don't have to worry about fashion, which will no longer be popular
in ten years.
She has a white blanket over her, creating a very clean and airy looking photo.
The blanket has no prints.
There's a lot of room for placing graphics or text over the image.
There is strong expression, good composition, colors and framing.
Timeless photos can be photos of babies
or pets or everyday objects
like hair or food, or very typical person just wearing a white shirt
and jeans, which are classic and won't go out of fashion.
Those have the most potential to be sold over the years.
Trendy photos can make you money now, but then it's eventually going to fade out.
Tip number two. Simplicity.
You don't want to spend a lot of time shooting photos for stock.
Keep it simple. Keep it fast.
Just shoot, edit, upload.
Come up with concepts which don't require too much time to prepare and shoot.
Most of the photos, which sell for me are the very plain photos.
No clutter in the background.
The less, the better. Basic background.
Basic colors.
Just very simple photos.
Not too much crazy editing.
Prepare, shoot and upload.
Tip number three The Shot List.
If you really get stuck and you really don't know what to shoot, don't worry
because majority of the stock agencies offer
helpful guides or guidelines and they will tell you
what is in demand, what will be sold, what will be searched for
right now what's searched for and so on.
Shutterstock, for example, has a shot list.
Just type in Shutterstock shot list in Google.
This page will tell you what you should be shooting and uploading right now
because it takes time to get it approved and also included in database.
So right now, for example, is the end of June and I should be already
uploading these things to have them included and sold in August.
In August, shots of road trips
and first days of school will be in-demand, as well as photos
with shades of orange and the scenes from the doctor's office.
Back to school.
That's a very popular theme every single year.
If you have kids at home, grab them and have some fun shooting.
Right now the school is over and in the summer
when it's going to be rainy outside, they're going to be bored anyways.
So get them to do something, grab a camera, take photos.
Next suggested one is a road trip.
Come on.
How difficult it is to shoot right now when it's summer.
It's the outdoor season.
Let's hit the road.
Users will be looking for images, videos and vectors of people
in their car, traveling, embarking on a road trip.
Another one is shade of orange.
Orange is trending color right now.
It has a lot of saying power and its warmth and positive
energy can translate to a wide range of situation.
And here is again, list of what they are suggesting.
Last one is we need a doctor fast.
If you look in the closet right here, you will see that there is good
selection of doctors, coats and medical outfits, nurses, scrubs.
I also have medical equipment
in prop box.
It's another topic which is timeless, and he can shoot this
all the time, especially in 2022.
I don't think I need to mention why, we all know why.
I'm going to link a playlist of
all stock videos I created in the past below the video and a video description
as well as link to Wirestock Agency.
I basically started uploading with them a year ago.
They are not sponsoring this video or anything like that.
It is just for those who would like to do stock,
but they have no time like me to upload to different stock agencies individually.
So what I do with them, I literally just grab all my photos
and videos, all the B-roll stuff I don't need anymore,
and I drop it to their system and they process it all for me.
They put the keywords there, description and everything.
I don't have to do anything.
After a while, I just collect my portion of income.
Give you the thumbs up
if you found this helpful
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If you have any questions, comments, lead them below and I'll see you
in the next video. Cau... Ahoj...