166 Case Studies
intermediate-level photographer because I feel I still have a lot
to learn.”
Stephen discovered microstock photography when looking for
images as a buyer. His observations are telling: “Three years ago, I
started doing freelance Web design work in my free time. Since my
clients were mostly small companies, they did not have a large budget
for images. I was very aware of the high prices the traditional agencies
were charging and that my clients would never be able to afford them.
I ended up spending hours on Stock Xchange trying to fi nd a workable
free image. I was not aware of the microstock companies back then.
This experience made me in to a true believer in the microstock
model.”
Stephen became a contributing photographer himself after he
noticed the excitement of other contributors on the forums and wanted
a piece of the action. He started out with Shutterstock because that
was the fi rst library with which he became familiar, and he has since
diversifi ed and developed a signifi cant portfolio of work on several
sites.
Stephen likes Shutterstock and says of that site, “It is easy to upload
to, accepts a high percentage of my images, and responds to feedback/
questions/problems in a friendly, timely manner.” He also appreciates
its new extended licenses, which he says work “brilliantly,” and also
their search engine. His fi gures (Figure 10.1) seem to show that he is
enjoying great success there and pretty much everywhere he has tried.
He is quite critical of iStockphoto’s upload system, and he has had
problems with their acceptance of generic model releases. But while
his portfolio at iStockphoto is small, I note that it does have the highest
average earnings per image of all Stephen’s sites. Stephen also praises
Dreamstime, Fotolia, and Stockxpert.
Perhaps not surprisingly, given his Web-designer background,
Stephen has a decent range of powerful software, including
Adobe Photoshop, Daz Xtudio, Bryce 6, Adobe Illustrator, Neat
Image noise reduction, and Apophysis 2.02. His camera kit is
semi-professional Canon gear, and he has just added some Alien
Bees studio lights.
It is obvious that Stephen is a top microstock photographer—so
much so that he has now moved to microstock as his main source of
income after he had a few health problems due to stress in his previ-
ous work. Stephen says, “I gave up on freelance Web design and now
spend most of my free time on photography.... I have never had any
health problems since and credit photography for my new stress-
reduced lifestyle. I truly believe photography has had a very positive
effect on my life.”