NEW TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY AGENCY

I have collaborated with a number of other photographers to form a web site called Circle Stock Images. "Circle" alludes to the fact that we're from all around the globe, and hence circle it. Here is our recent press release:

Stock Travel Photography Agency Launched by International Photographers

Circle Stock Images is proud to announce the launch of its stock photography web site, circlestockimages.com, featuring stunning travel-centric images from around the globe.

The site was created by a small team of photographers to provide photo buyers with better access to the photographers and their images. On large stock photography web sites, photo buyers are often overwhelmed by inappropriate results from online keyword searches when seeking a specific travel image. Circle Stock Images’ tightly-edited collection, however, means searches are quicker and more relevant.

The photographer-managed agency differs from traditional photo agencies by offering commission-free competitive pricing and the ability to contact and negotiate with member photographers individually. All the features found on other stock photography sites, including themed galleries, lightboxes and keyword searching are provided. Low resolution watermarked comps are also provided at no charge.

Through the site’s e-commerce facility, buyers can instantly download high resolution files and pay using PayPal™ or major credit card. Other payment methods and terms may be negotiated with individual member photographers as appropriate. This flexibility is one benefit of the photographer-managed agency versus more traditional ones.

Member photographers are located in Estonia, Germany, England, Thailand, Canada and the United States. Between them, they have captured over 45,000 beautiful images of the people, culture, scenery, food and environment of every continent.
The collection is constantly growing as members continue to travel to new locations. Upcoming destinations are China, South America, Australia, Hong Kong and Europe, as well as specific U.S. and Canadian regions. Contact Circle Stock Images to determine approximate dates and times.

About Circle Stock Images:
Circle Stock Images is a web-based collaboration between photographers from various countries, offering competitively-priced stock photography for travel and related markets. The web site, circlestockimages.com, features individual galleries submitted by member photographers. Keyword search capability is provided on the home page and accesses all galleries. Pricing is set by each photographer, but a common pricing model is used as a guideline. Contact information for members is also available on the site.

GETTING THE IMAGE

It seems to me that there are two types of stock photographers. There are those who shoot prepared themes under controlled lighting conditions using models. Others get outdoors and photograph whatever they feel like shooting.

I guess I’m one of the latter. The problem with this modus operandi is that I’m either in a perfect situation with perfect lighting but forgot to bring my camera (or with no time to stop), or I scout a place and return to it again and again, never to see that perfect light again.

Like most outdoor stock shooters, I’m constantly seeing potential pictures while driving. The trouble is, these scenes are often from a freeway where only emergency stopping is allowed, or they’re far from home with little chance that you’ll return.

That’s why vacations are often the best time for me to plan some consolidated shooting time. While we can’t control the weather, we can at least take the time to explore, see something new, and return to locations again and again until the light’s right.

Every now and then, a little serendipity happens. Not to say that this is the best photo I’ve ever taken, but the photo of the cottage on the lake under a full moon is one of those. (This and other Ontario images can be viewed at my Ontario Travel Gallery). It was sheer luck that I happened to look out of the window after dinner and see the moon rising. I grabbed my tripod, camera and cable release and sprinted down to the beach.

After firing off a few frames, it was apparent that the difficulty in shooting under these conditions was that the camera’s metering system always tries to average the scene to an 18% grey. On the one hand, the majority of the scene is dark, so the camera attempts to make it unrealistically light. Opposing that is the moon, which reflects enough light from the sun to be as bright as daylight (albeit, in a relatively small part of the scene). My solution was to apply negative exposure compensation so that the foreground appeared realistically dark. Since the LCD screen on an SLR is not to be trusted, the histogram was referenced to ensure that this was happening without losing shadow detail.

Of course, with such wide latitude in the scene, something had to suffer. Since the moon was so bright, its surface detail was clipped. Luckily, I had previously shot a slide of the full moon at dawn, in which the brightness of the moon more closely matched the brightness of the sky and surroundings. This provided perfect surface detail. By setting the resolution and size to match the cottage shot, I was able to clip the detailed moon out of its background and drop it in as another layer in Photoshop. Adjusting the transparency gave it a very subtle, realistic look (although hard to see in the small image here).

Photo ops are everywhere, but fleeting. As outdoor stock photographers, we have to be patient and make the best of our environment. Over time, we will be rewarded with a diverse collection that eventually will attract the attention of photo buyers who like what we’re into.