Stock photography; rights managed picture libraries, royalty free and micro stock agencies.

by
Jonathan Eastland

Stock photographers are creative people. Those who survive do so on a mixture of imaginative visual interpretation and business acumen accrued over time. The longer they can stay in the game, the more creative (and or obsessed) they become and the more acumen (business experience) they acquire. Some get rich on it; most toddle along and are intermittently in and out of the game.

It isn't an easy game to stay in and prosper from. The individual hoping to do so will need gallons of stamina, dreams and aspirations beyond normal sensibility, a colossal network of contacts, and the visual and mental ability to be able to turn the ordinary into something special, and, be able to continue to do all of this on a regular basis for decades. It's hard but wonderful work; a privileged position if one can pull it off.

One of the major problems for would-be stock photographers however, is that they often lack the business acumen and or contacts needed to sell their work and today, they lack the knowledge required to build and script internet web sites which would enable them to do so. Hence, the plethora of service sites (e.g. Clickpic, AmazingInternet.) with ready made template driven web pages aligned to e-commerce picture sales and back office admin tools. For a monthly subscription fee, individuals can enter the game, uploading a...

If you are like me, you have already seen too many black and white photos with just one element, usually red, left in the original colour, so you'll have to excuse me while I try to unearth the different tools made available in Lightroom.

Sun Ra and his Arkestra at the North Sea Jazz Festival - Saturday 17 July 1982.

A Sun Ra concert is something you will remember for the rest of your life: it is a mix between a big-band free-jazz concert, a religious ceremony and a trip to outer space. Long before UFO abduction stories had been heard of, Sun Ra (born Herman Poole Blount) had become convinced that his roots lay on the planet Saturn which he visited by spaceship and he developed "cosmic" philosophies and lyrical poetry as he preached "awareness" and peace above all in his music.
No need to point out that the concert of Sun Ra and his Arkestra that I visited on the Roof Garden scene at the North Sea Jazz Festival 1982 was quite the spectacle with the space music, poem recitals and space costumes. Click on this youtube link to get an impression what the concert was like.

Camera: Pentax ME, lens: Sigma 70-150mm F3.5, ISO 1600

I lost some of my most precious negatives and I decided to scan some of the A5 sized photos that I printed at the time. The scanned photos needed quite a lot of restoring and I'm not 100% happy with the results. Have a look for yourself.

Camera: Pentax ME, lens: 150mm F3.9, Film: Kodak 1600 ISO

Somewhere in Soho, London.

Camera: Pentax MZ-S, lens: Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 EX DG MACRO + ILFORD HP5+

Moored boats and mooring positions as seen from the Albert Bridge.

Camera: Pentax MZ-S, lens: Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 EX DG MACRO + ILFORD FP4+

Overview of Wabash Avenue, Chicago.

Camera: Pentax MZ-3, lens: Sigma 28-300mm - 1:3.5-6.3 + ILFORD FP4+

The lonely feeling of a deserted beach on Iceland. Taken on a beautiful day in early summer at the southern-most point of Iceland, nobody was brave enough to try the waters :-)

Camera: Pentax MZ-3, lens: Sigma 28-300mm - 1:3.5-6.3