Shooting long exposure photography

 

Passive income from photography

I primarily sell on 3 microstock agencies that are actually worth the time.  They include:

• Shutterstock
• Pond5
• Storyblocks

Granted, I sell more photos than I do footage but when I sell footage, it makes me a lot more money. If you asked me 4 or 5 years ago if I would ever do footage, I'd tell you you're crazy.  I remember being at my favorite location to photograph animals.  I had taken the day off from work.  The light was just amazing.  At that time I was using a Canon EOS 6D and a Sigma f5-6.3 150-500MM lens.  I shot the video just to see if I could and see if it would actually sell.

I got home.  Dumped all my files onto my computer.  Edited and uploaded everything to Shutterstock and luckily it got accepted.  I believe it was a few weeks later that it actually sold.  And it has been my best selling video since.  You can view it here.

So now I only upload to the above mentioned sites and it's been great ever since.  You too can sell photos and videos as well.  Shutterstock is by far my best website where I sell my photos and videos.  You can sign up here and start today.

Favourite duck

I go to Mud Lake often to shoot nature and wildlife photography and wildlife videos.  Mud Lake is located in Ottawa.  It's a lake surrounded by a lush green forest and is near a water filtration plant.  It's a peaceful refuge if you just want to get away.  It's got several nature trails and is really convenient as it's located within city limits.

You get a lot of turtles and various water fowl.  A lot of herons and a lot of various types of ducks such as the above Male Wood duck.  It's my favourite kind of duck.  It's not as friendly as the regular mallard duck as they don't seem to like going near humans.  But that's ok for us photographers with our lenses and large sensors.  We can crop our photographs to still get a nice image.

Shutterstock continues to impress

Now I know photography wouldn't make me rich.  It's a hobby for me that I make some money from. I'm more of a semi-professional as I make some money from selling my photos and videos on stock photography sites.  I sell on about 7 sites from 123RF to Videoblocks.  But my best site is Shutterstock.  In the last 8 months, my acceptance rate at Shutterstock has been incredibly high as I've added over a thousand images and videos to my portfolio.  Sales have been steady with my last month being my worst since October of 2015.  

Fotolia continues to be my second best site as far as acceptance and sales.  They unfortunately do not accept editorial shots or footage so they're losing out on a great number of photographs and stock footage.  

Shutterstock and Fotolia continue to impress me both.  I think they're the top of the top of micro stock sites.

My Shutterstock and Fotolia portfolios are available to view here by just following the previous links.  My own website is here if you are interested in any of my photography.

If you're interested in selling with either Shutterstock or Fotolia, just click on the respective links.