Jan 23
Stock pictures
Not sure if I’ve mentioned that I have pictures at a stock agency. I’ve mentioned it on the front page of my homepage but here in the blog I’ve kept quiet about it… mostly because there’s nothing to say. I average about one sale per year, it’s a numbers game and I only have a few hundred pictures at the agency. I’d need a few thousand to get any income out of it! The funny thing about the stock pictures is that they accept pictures that I wouldn’t have thought were up to scratch, while they reject pictures which are my favourites. So what makes a good stock picture? I still don’t know, so I send them a wild assortment and let them figure out what works and what doesn’t.
So these few pictures that have been sold through the agency, I never find out how they have been used. The information I get is only which picture it was, who bought it, and for what purpose. For example, the latest picture sold through the agency was bought by Nordstedts and it was used for an advertisement. It could be published anywhere, I would never find out. It’s a winter landscape picture from the mountains, lonely ski tracks heading towards the tundra. Nothing special in my eyes so I had completely forgotten that I had ever taken such a picture.
Yesterday at the library I noticed that they had a freebie magazine out for grabs. “Fjällsäker” (Safety in the mountains) is an annual publication intended for tourists to educate them on how to dress warmly, watch out for the changes in the weather, avoid avalanche prone areas etc. Since I read everything about the mountains I can get my hands on, of course I grabbed a copy of this. Page 17 is dedicated for maps, and in the lower right corner there’s an ad for Fjällkartan (mountain map). Click here for the PDF, and go to page 17. I thought the picture looked very familiar. Hmm.. a winter landscape from the mountains with ski tracks… it’s an ad from Norstedts… could it… yes it is! That’s my picture!!
Talk about a coincidence! I have most of the mountain maps on my shelf (two copies of some of them), so having one of my pictures used for advertising Fjällkartan makes me very proud!
And what’s more of a coincidence is that this happens hot on the heels of the book. At the rate of which I normally have my work published, I’ve already exceeded my annual average and it’s only January. I don’t need a crystal ball to predict that I can now look forward to 11 very lean months… So don’t worry, the gloating will stop here!
2 comments
It’s certainly nice to have pictures published, nothing to be ashamed of there
But why on earth did they pic this pic? And was it manipulated in any way?
Keywording is the key.
They must’ve searched for a winter picture from the mountains with some signs of activity… and for whatever reason, found that this one will be the best for the purpose. And why not, it’s just that it’s not a very good picture… 
There is no manipulation at all, the picture I’ve posted here has only had some levels etc adjustment, and in the ad it seems to be cropped from top but nothing else was done to it. 