Hello everyone. I have joined this amazing forum about a week ago ( right when I decided to start selling my photos ). it's been kinda strange decision for me since I am in a more than full time job being in cardiac surgery based in UK and a father of two young boys but I have been doing photography for a while as a hobby and I used to post my photos on social media and i love how some of my photos made good impression to some people. that said, my main reason is really to feel that someone actually liked a photo I have taken to the extent that he wants to buy/use it. I know from the very rich discussions here that stock photography may not be the right place to make good money especially for someone who is taking photos as a hobby and doing mostly travel/landscape/amateur astrophotography, but I am really interested to do this interesting experiment to see if any of my photos can be appealing to other people. my work flow included LR, stocksubmitter software and I already started uploading to some agencies including Adobe stock, 123rf, fotolia, shutterstock and bigstock. just uploaded about 150 of my library so far, planning to reach about 500 soon, started making a small studio for indoors photography ( gonna use it maybe for an hour aweek). AS for sales, got 2 sales for AS and SS since I started uploading ( 3 days ). I am not very sure where this is going but at least I got to know a nice group like this one and hopefully make some new friends who share that same love for photography even at the " doing it for fun" level. I just wanted to say hi and I wish all of you the best luck .

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Welcome to the forum. Nice post, it is great to get some insight into the lives and motivations of forum members new or old.
Wish you all the best.

Thank you so much, i also believe, from what i have read here so far, that my photography knowledge/skill will definitely grow.

Ahoy there sailor!

Ahoy there sailor!

Thanks Mate 

Quote

my work flow included LR, stocksubmitter software and I already started uploading to some agencies including Adobe stock, 123rf, fotolia, shutterstock and bigstock. just uploaded about 150 of my library so far, planning to reach about 500 soon, started making a small studio for indoors photography ( gonna use it maybe for an hour aweek). AS for sales, got 2 sales for AS and SS since I started uploading ( 3 days ). I am not very sure where this is going but at least I got to know a nice group like this one and hopefully make some new friends who share that same love for photography even at the " doing it for fun" level. I just wanted to say hi and I wish all of you the best luck .

I like your attitude. "Doing it for fun" means that you have less pressure to make money and can pretty much shoot what you want and when you want. If it sells, great if not no big deal.

Feel free to ask anything and post images which you're not sure whether they will do well and we'll be happy to comment.

Good luck

Alex

p.s if you can get photos with anything to do with your cardiac surgery practice, these can be premium. Of course there's all sorts of hurdles (conflict of interest, obtaining model releases, etc.) But something to think about.

definitely thought about the medical photography especially with cardiac surgery, but as you mentioned it's not so easy, not only the releases and all that but also and mor3 critically the confidentiality, taking photos inside hospital even with the least details is a big issue, but I will look into that possibility, thanks for your supportive reply Alex, I really appreciate it

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Welcome aboard.
If you just want to do this for fun, just do what you want.

Obviously you don't want to stop in the middle of surgery to snap a few for your microstock port.
but you've got a big leg into the system that I would never be able to get.
One model and property released shot of heart surgery would be worth 1000 shots of your local beach and your cat.

You could start with some staged stuff in your office with some medical equipment and no real patients which would be much easier.

Anyway best of luck and if your doing it for fun keep it fun.

Mind you theres more of that stuff than you might think!

Welcome aboard.
If you just want to do this for fun, just do what you want.

Obviously you don't want to stop in the middle of surgery to snap a few for your microstock port.
but you've got a big leg into the system that I would never be able to get.
One model and property released shot of heart surgery would be worth 1000 shots of your local beach and your cat.

You could start with some staged stuff in your office with some medical equipment and no real patients which would be much easier.

Anyway best of luck and if your doing it for fun keep it fun.

thanks qwerty, I am now putting a plan regarding what I will be able to shoot, hopefully I will get some decent shots of things like interior, staff and some instruments and machines. I said I am doing it for fun but i know I will fall into the addiction soon, have experienced that before many times with other things 😂😂

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Quote from: qwerty on August 27, 2017, 01:56

Welcome aboard.
If you just want to do this for fun, just do what you want.

Obviously you don't want to stop in the middle of surgery to snap a few for your microstock port.
but you've got a big leg into the system that I would never be able to get.
One model and property released shot of heart surgery would be worth 1000 shots of your local beach and your cat.

You could start with some staged stuff in your office with some medical equipment and no real patients which would be much easier.

Anyway best of luck and if your doing it for fun keep it fun.

thanks qwerty, I am now putting a plan regarding what I will be able to shoot, hopefully I will get some decent shots of things like interior, staff and some instruments and machines. I said I am doing it for fun but i know I will fall into the addiction soon, have experienced that before many times with other things 😂😂

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I'd strongly advise not using real staff if they are at all recogniseable. There are many ways that the image could be used, legitimately or illegitmately which would not be good for real medical staff. Research this and make sure that anyone you photograph is absolutely OK with any possible uses or misuses.

Im in Bev Hills, and 74 been seeing many doctors at ceders for 30 Years.. Also had open heart surgery recently. I love Doctors who take Pictures, All Mine do and all are My students who come to every workshop I do and Bought every Book I wrote. For some reason Doctors Love Photography. I just wish they were better Photographers. I tell them all the time you come to see me with a $45,000 Phaseone Camera and you Haven't learned DOF yet, Or exposure or WB or.....Composition.  ......Why Is that?? and why for gods sake do you want to do penny stock??? Torture? Need 25 Cents or less? Can you do Unique Images and thousands of them.

My advice is enjoy your Hobby. My docs do.My surgeon was Dr Trento.

Have fun.

thanks for the advice, it's a hobby basically, but i am just trying to master the hobby in order to be satisfied ( at least technically) with the photos i may be able to take. as for stock, well, i find it interesting to have one of my photos appreciated and can be used for the benefit of someone else ( a bit more real than having so many likes for a photo on social media for example ) or at least this is how i see it, for now.

I'm doing photography full time and I would like to do some heart surgery at a side. I'm not so interested in the money but I love the comments I do get from my kids and their friends after I successfully band-aided them. I can imagine people are even more thankfully after a successful heart surgery so any tips to get into the business and to offer my free surgery service would be very much appreciated.

Best post I've read in ages

Stock is the right place for you if you don't care for the money- or lack thereof.

One thing I've never seen mentioned is the sense of validation that comes from having other people think that your images are useful and usable.  If hobby photography means taking photos to gloat over in a lonely room, or to inflict on long-suffering friends or relatives then it becomes a pretty sterile activity.  After all, how much wall space do any of us have to hang our 25,000 photos on? If someone is willing to pay a dollar for an image then it shows unsolicited appreciation that says the hobbyist's effort was worthwhile and the sum involved is very much secondary.
So I wouldn't sneer at someone who is simply seeking approval of his work and not trying to make a living from it. The transfer of cash from pros to hobbyists may be galling but it's part of the job. And it's ironic to see the same hostility directed at new microstockers by old-timers, as was directed at us by the old-time pros a decade or so ago.