Throughout the year I am passively looking for models for my stock portfolio. This is something I enjoy doing to keep me in practice and on my toes. Can I make a living at it? Nope. Do I do it anyway? Absolutely. 

First - what is Stock Photography? Per Wikipedia: Stock photography is the supply of photographs, which are often licensed for specific uses. 

I work for 3 micro-stock agencies; Adobe, Shutterstock & Dreamstime. Each of these agencies literally have millions of photos out there for people and businesses to purchase in lieu of having to hire a photographer to do a shoot to get one picture of a cupcake to use on a blog. It's more cost effective to use a stock agency and buy a picture for a buck, than hire a team to get that picture for what could be upward of 1000s of dollars. Upside for them - cost. Downside - they get what is available. Upside for me - I have something to help me hone my craft and every so often it pays to have my camera's cleaned. Downside - it's a lot of work for me to make 50 cents. Every photo must be perfect or it will be declined by the agency. No fuzz, bad lighting, out of focus eyeballs and must have some kind of commercial value. 

I really do it for the love of the art, the challenge of making a sale and since I can sometimes have the attention span of a gnat, it pushes me to get my camera out even when I don't want to. It's laughable how excited I get when I get an email that I made a 75 cent sale this week. It's not the money its the challenge. 

Photo Release forms are legally required for photos containing people or identifiable property (such as your house or the Washington Monument.) They are not required for anything that DOES NOT contain a logo, animals, unidentifiable people and objects. By signing a release you understand that you may see yourself in a blog, book or advertisement - but you will not be identified. 

So this is where you could come in. Do you have an interesting business or hobby? Is your kid/dog/porcupine so cute you can hardly stand it? Do you want to play model for an hour or two? Contact me and let me know what you've got or tell me about the idea you have. If I am interested, you are willing to sign a model release (understanding you could end up on the side of a bus) and have the time - we'll work something out. As I stated before - this is a labor of love - I do not make a living doing stock photography. However, I will offer you a photo shoot for no charge, an online album for 6 months and a discount on prints should you want them. 

I am looking for people in Central Indiana - possibly the Chicagoland area every so often when I am up that way. 

This could be you:

Interested in becoming a stock photographer yourself!? Use me as your referral!

Shutterstock

Dreamstime

If you get the book: Top 10: Defenders (Wild Wicked Wonderful) Paperback – August 1, 2016 by Virginia Loh-Hagan Edd  - Open to chapter 1 - the very first picture is mine! This is the first time I have found one of my photos in a real published book! I have been in newspapers, magazines & online web pages, but this is my first book!

Now as some of you may know, I am originally from Chicago. Before I bought my little farm here in Indiana I had a year and a half detour to northern Alabama - just for fun. You know the song Sweet Home Alabama? The line "Muscle Shoals has the Swampers?" Yep, that's where I was. There was not a ton for me to do there unless it was outside exploring, as I knew very few people. I spent a massive amount of time just exploring all over the place with my camera.

One beautiful February morning I decided to get on the Natchez Trace in Florence, Alabama and go south through Mississippi. The road is AMAZING! If you like road trips and ever have the opportunity...DRIVE THE TRACE! Anyway, I was a ways into Mississippi I saw this little armadillo eating bugs out in the grass. I hoped out of the truck, camera in hand, and got lucky enough for him to just hang out and let me take a few pictures of him. About the time I got this shot and he stood up to look at me, I thought, I am in the middle of nowhere - on my belly - 20 feet from a wild armadillo - do they bite? Fortunately for me, he was only interested in his bugs.