Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/02/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Francesco, You ask about stock, especially travel stock. My feelings: Only nature is a tougher market, especially for stock--UNLESS--you have tremendous files and relentless marketing. Just putting your images on a web site will get you little return. UNLESS you have tremendous depth, let's says tens of thousands of images on one country, and you spread the knowledge of that all over the world. If you approach an agency, expect to take from 1 to 2 years to see a check. That is the pace. And given that nature and travel are traditionally "mature" files (meaning they have lots and lots) in most agencies, showing travel only, especially with limited numbers of images, would unlikely get you an offer of representation. As for the 50% commission, it is worth every penny, for the access to markets you'll never even dream of, and usually getting higher fees that you would think to ask for. Your best bet, with such small files, is to market stories to newspapers and magazines. But these have to be "Stories," not just random snapshots, along with text. I mean to be discouraging. Of course, if you are passionate and determined, you'll find a way. But to only dabble, you are asking for disappointment. Just look in all those travel magazines, look at all the tours (especially in nature photo magazines) and contemplate all the wealthy amateurs getting herded all over the world, shown wonderful places, and who are wielding expensive cameras systems (the ones who can afford Leicas!) and they will all love to have pix published for little or nothing. That's much of your competition. There it is, friend. But that said, I am continuing to build my travel files donal - -- Donal Philby San Diego http://www.donalphilby.com