The "iStockphoto" Story

It was an ordinary day. Finally getting some results from iStockphoto. iStockphoto is the web's original source for user-generated, royalty-free stock photos, illustrations, video, audio and flash. Suppose you are designing a brochure for where you work and need a photograph to illustrate some part of the brochure. Go to iStockphoto and you can buy a photo for your job. Almost anything is available. Photos of people, cars and boats, houses, animals and the list goes on and on. A few years ago I applied for membership to allow me to place photos on their site for sale. I had to take a test to show I knew about composition, lighting, camera operation and a few other items. Passed it and downloaded three sample photos for them to look at from my many photos that I have. All were rejected! One had a product that you could identify and I had no written release for it. One, they didn't like how I lit the photo. And the last was the type of photo that they already had too many of for display. I tried 3 more and was shot down again. OK, enough of this. Time passed and a former student, Jerry Driendl, talked to me about submitting photos to him and he would place them on Getty Images which is a site similar to iStockphoto. The only thing I would need to do is buy a more professional camera. Price to do that wasn't in my budget, so I passed on that. Then I got to thinking, maybe I should try iStockphoto one more time. I pulled the website up, signed on again, and tried three more samples. Viola! Immediately they like 2 of the 3 I submitted. One was taken in Barbados of a fisherman at sunset while another was of a sunset taken in Sint Maarten. The third, a hat made from sea coral, is still under review. Seems I didn't title it correctly so I retitled it and resubmitted it. I have tons of photos that I can submit and will, after my third photo is approved. And, I didn't even have to buy a new camera to do it. Now I have to see if anyone in the world likes what I have done and is willing to pay me for the rights to use it. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.