Lately I’ve been thinking that I’m getting some pretty good results with my flower photos. So I thought, just maybe, I could make a bit of money off of them, selling them as “stock” photography (the types of pics that publications purchase). So I went to iStock.com and began the application process.
I was about halfway done when they gave a list of all the types of photos that they don’t want, because they have too many. Flowers were at the top of the list along with pets. Humph.
Well I went into a bit of a funk. Feeling like what I do with my camera is so ‘common.’ Of course GS’ and Sara’s recent praise of some of my photos made me feel a bit better, but at the same time I was thinking, “what a waste of time.”
Then this morning I went to the garden (sans camera) and thought some more about it. And I came to a few conclusions….
I don’t take flower pictures (or any of my pics, for that matter) because I expect that I have more talent than any of the other billion flower photographers out there. I take them because the process brings me joy. I love the ‘chase’ of merging the good lighting with a unique angle and a gorgeous flower. It’s that moment that’s the fun part. The alchemy that happens when I am with plants (and critters) and I am seeing them in a new way through my lens.
Then I love that I can return to that moment when I upload the pics to flickr and then share them with you.
Like the photo above. I took it as I was absorbing the morning sun on the balcony of a courtyard garden in Beacon Hill. It was a choice moment–thinking about the gardener who planted the fruits and veggies in the urban space, with historical buildings all around (and I was so thrilled to find nasturtiums in Massachusetts–I had no idea that they would grow in such a cold place!). Reveling in the bright new day. Feeling completely at peace. And in awe.
Now I know I didn’t capture all of that in this one photo. But maybe it reflects just a smidge of what I felt then. Or maybe you, when seeing this picture, have you own happy thoughts about spending the morning in a garden. Either way, I feel some success. Knowing that my photo just brought you some of the joy it brought me, that it reached out across the ‘net and touched you. And that makes it all worthwhile.
6 comments
pretty flowers!!!
This morning in my office, after seeing one of your email invites, it dawned on me that “Jana is a party person!” This thought made me giddy–I think it was pure delight that you had changed over the years and discovered a means of bringing joy to yourself and others.
Your flower photography is another new thing, another such discovery. I’m glad that you find it so fulfilling. It brings me hope, too, that you and I will continue to explore and find new ways expressing ourselves over the years.
I’m an occasional visitor to your site mostly to see your beautiful flower pictures. I just wanted to say thank you for them. I’m an American expat living right now in Lagos, Nigeria and each day I see a lot of filth and incredible poverty and not a lot of beauty. It cheers me up to look at the beauty you capture from your garden and elsewhere. I just wanted to let you know that you’re reaching across to Africa with your photos and it’s appreciated!
Yeah, baby, ars gratia artis and all that!
Of course, another thing you could do, if you found the time, is sell prints of your stuff through places like DeviantArt.com, CafePress.com, etc., places where you aren’t responsible for the printing just providing the artwork, and you get paid something every time someone buys one of your images. If you have a good enough printer at your house, you can even print them yourself and sell them on Etsy. There, though, you are responsible for printing, packaging and shipping, and it can turn into substantially more work though you also get to keep much more of the money.
It’s always a little time-consuming to set up, but if you ever do feel the urge again to try to get paid for your beautiful pictures, these are places you could find more rewarding to do that, more rewarding in every way than through a stock agency.
Just keep shooting, okay? :)
Carolee–
Wow, Africa? Amazing! Do tell why you’re in Nigeria–I’m so curious! Also, how did you come to find my little corner of the cybergalaxy?
Sara–
Thanks for the other leads for places to sell my photos! As much as I don’t like to think that I take pics for commercial reasons (and I don’t!), it would be highly gratifying to sell a few and save use some of the $$ for future photographic endeavors. Or at least to indulge my gardening addiction. :)
Jana,
I’m in Nigeria to make my husband’s life easier — he works for an oil company who is a partner in a joint venture hoping to build a liquified natural gas plant here. It’s a worthy venture — Nigeria flares off a lot of its natural gas which is a waste of a resource, as well as very bad for the environment. But the project has a lot of problems due in large part to the security risks in the country. So we don’t know how long we’ll be here. But it is an adventure! So anyway, when we moved here I had much more free time to fill than I had in my previous life and I started exploring the LDS bloggernacle (I am LDS). I’m sure I found your blog from a link at Exponent II or FMH or one of those. Your photos touched and continue to touch my spirit. Thanks!