The Stock Chronicles Chapter 1 : Intro

“They killed Microstock, Microstock is alive”

Please attention!!! I started about one year ago to write these articles but, then I had to stop. Now I have the time to resume and re-edit my precious manuscripts…
This article was originally published in December 2020

This is the first article of a series I will write about my activity as a contributor and the world of microstock. I do not pretend to present myself as an expert guide, rather I'll start by telling my experience and my mistakes to dispense useful advice to all those who are entering this activity, or who may already be a contributor like me and probably have had very different experiences.

Many years ago I used to play for hours on photography social networks like Flickr and 500px. It was a good way, in my opinion, to compare myself with other photographers and their beautiful images. The highest aspiration was to reach as many likes as possible or to enter the golden sections of worldwide visibility, until one day I came across the "Buy on Getty Image" button on a photographer's profile on Flicker.
At that time there was an agreement between Flickr and Getty Image and selected accounts had a direct link to the famous photo agency. 500px and other agencies, including italian ones, were also launching their own marketplace.
I had discovered, by pure chance, the existence of a digital photography marketplace, a virtual place where you could upload and sell your photos...It was 2016 and stock agencies had already existed for more than 15 years.
I remember how I was fascinated by the possibility that from anywhere in the world, any photographer could upload his photos and, from anywhere in the world, any customer could buy those photos...

My first thoughts were:
1 - That I had gygabites of abandoned photos in my hard drives that I could sell;
2 - The game of social likes had made me tired and unmotivated and could have been replaced by a more profitable activity, where appreciations could be monetized.

I started researching on the web, and based on the first notions I found, I started bulimically uploading and building portfolios for every agency I found online, from the most famous to those just born. And this is the worst way to start!

Entering the wide world of any business requires a very important skill: Setting a proper strategy.
Now, try to search for information about microstock: we find dozens of sites, blogs, facebook groups and online courses. Unfortunately it's all very chaotic and confusing, for reasons that only now I realize are obvious. I completely lost my compass at the beginning and got almost everything wrong.

First fact to keep in mind: we have had a real artistic/technological/industrial revolution in photography in just 20 years.
The passage from analog to digital, with the consequent diffusion of digital dslr reflex, has favored the increase of the category of professional, amateur and occasional photographers. The disappearance of film has allowed the storage of an impressive number of photos.
Second fact: the web has become both a resource and a maze. Anyone with an internet connection can become a source of information, but it's up to the user to figure out whether that information is more or less valid.

The first photographers who in 2003 tried their hand at this business quickly saw their perspectives and their work change, those who arrived later had a totally different experience and even now this world is evolving.
We can see all this through the stories of the users themselves: everyone tells about their own paradise or hell through their own experience.
And starting from my personal one, this blog has born. My determination, my curiosity and also a dose of ambition, made me meet a number of people who helped me to change the cards in the deck in my favor. Nothing happened by chance, and in a strange and dystopian period like the year 2020, I made new friends, scattered all over Italy and Europe.
To these people I will be eternally grateful for the concrete help they gave me and for the funny experiences I lived with them!!!

Returning to our topic, let's make it clear: microstock today is still a good business that really allows you to make a career and develop an important income, it requires a lot of effort, commitment and development of skills in photography, marketing and even social culture. Despite the fact that we find many testimonies that on the contrary tell the failure of the contributor's activity and the death of this market.
"There is too much competition, the agencies accept everyone, the catalogs are filled with junk, and you don't sell because of the saturation of competition"
"It's not true that kittens don't sell, I sold one yesterday after 5 years"
"he sells because he has a beautiful girlfriend that he uses as a model, he doesn't have to pay her, it's too easy"
"I refuse to pay models, do I spend 300 euros and then do I earn 0.10 cents?”

Don't let it get you down, don't be discouraged, I can tell you that the Microstock business is alive and well. There is irrefutable evidence.
In the next posts I will better analyze the issue.

Photographic vintage, it's my uncle's, I'm trying to convince him to give it to me....

…while I requested directly to Santa the latest mirrorless model!!!

You are welcome

Welcome!

Finally my new website has been completed, and it was fun to have it born...

Probably if you're here it's because you already know me, through the web or social networks, maybe we already had the chance to meet in person. Now, take your time to visit the contents of these pages and do not hesitate to contact you if you are interested in my services.

This article is also an introduction to an idea, a project.

I always thought that knowledge has value only if it is shared and sooner or later the time would come when I would give shape to my thoughts, to my skills also in the field of photography. I am also insatiably curious, I have a desire to change and find out what this experience can bring me.

I want to tell my experiences in an ironic way, after all I have always loved to write but even more I have always loved not to take myself too seriously.

Well, let's stay in touch because the next articles is on the road so let’s start a new journey!!!

Long Wind Road

Marche, Italy, 2015