MicrostockGroup

Haha, nice try. Asking the competition what to shoot - so you can steal all our downloads. 

Sounds like you packed everything you need. Be sure to check online for good locations.

Try to get in touch with the locals who can show you great spots that are not listed in the travel guides.

Ask Yuri .

With all that in your list I would stop asking and start shooting, shooting and shooooooting!!!  If it moves, shoot.  If you have the slightest idea that it will sell, shoot it.   Lucky you!!! I wish I was that lucky.  Have a nice photographic vacation.

Hey Laflor,

I know we're friends off the interweb, as well. I hope i can still comment here.. Actually, i wrote a long post and then lost it when I for some reason decided to refresh the ´page. doh!

Disclaimer: These are general concepts and personal obsversations. I would not mind if a million owners of highend DSLRs read this, as there are too many factors that affect a shoot to worry about competition from sharing concepts. I shoot one way, laflor shoots his way and so on.. we produce very different images, and ultimately all we can do is our own interpretation of concepts, for better or worse.

1. Business teams/people. Always needed, and props are always changing. New setups, new angles, (new concepts to think about with an economic crisis). Have been thinking that the number of 'Happy smiling business people' in the world is maybe on the way down.. Perhaps its time to reassess what we shoot there. More casual business, more working from home.

2. Diversity, across all subjects (family, business, school, teens). Inside micro, this can definitely be better represented. Even my low-budget shots of African americans are selling.. Definitely room here.

3. Seniors. Maybe a smaller group, next time (inside joke, laflor shot 30-odd senior models in a group on his last shoot)

4. Better youth culture. A lot is lost in translation when adults are shooting this. There is room for a re-look at this..

5. Medical professionals.

I've got lots more, maybe we can talk off the interweb soon!

Good luck with the shooting..

Hi dear advisors 

I'm gonna note the following:

- The concrete themes Pixdeluxe brought up. Especially the part about youth culture. Gotta do more research on that. And also the part with business at home - adapting to status quo.
- Backup, the paranoid way!
- Extensive location scouting including going online plus taking advice from the locals for "location extraordinaire"
- shoooooooot!
- remember to enjoy the "staycation"
- perhaps spend some time at Londolozi ... whereever that is 
- and of course Goldfish, lots of them

The good thing about sharing like this is that everyone benefits. I think there is plenty of room (and money) for all of us; the micro-business is on the rise and there are billions of dollars out there waiting to be spent on all of our images.

Concerning competition and the fear of loosing out by sharing, I have shot several times with photographer friends on the same location, at the same time, shooting the same themes, but getting entirely different type of images. We all have different:

- composition
- balance between exposure on the talent and the background
- aperture preferences
- styling preferences
- prop preferences
- model instruction styles
- shootplanning
- models 
etc. etc.

In my opinion we will undoubtedly end up appealing to different buyers

Another thing is also the subtle fact that we take inspiration differently. What I mean to say is that when reading the same advice we will go away with different interpretations. Take Pixdeluxe's example of the need for updated youth culture images. That statement points me in a direction, gives me inspiration, but we can all agree that we will all come up with entirely different images even though we got inspiration from the same source. The same goes for "business at home" and "medicals.

Thank you very much for sharing. Keep it coming.

Kind regards,
laflor

Hi there

Have fun in South Africa, and don't forget the 2010 football (soccer to the Americans) World cup.

South Africa will be huge in newspaper travel supplements next year, so editorial outlets will need all the locations of world cup stadiums, inside, out, surrounding attractions etc. If you don't already, send some the macro's way.

Plenty of scope for lots of football pics - youths on Capetown beach at dusk, couple of silhouetted goals etc, etc..

My advice, watch out for the buffalos and take a football as a prop! 

Rgds

Oldhand

Surely sharing invites competition. But in addition I think there is also room for all of us. You are very successful Sean, and you have developed your unique style of shooting over the years. And obviously also expanding on that. I would say that if you had someone working for you, whom you personally trained, naturally you would spot big degrees of similarity, and as you point out that would be sort of direct competition. In a way that IS the case with me and Yuri, but I don't think that is what happens if we share a few thoughts in this forum.

Personally I have been trained to produce images the way Yuri likes them, and so now, as an independent contributor, I have that foundation to build upon. Since my employment with Yuri I have been seriously producing and editing like a mad man for roughly 6 months and right now all together I have more than 4.000 edited images to go online on iStock, and as time passes you will see how my personal style has been and hopefully is evolving. My point being that even though I have a certain background you will see me going in very different directions with my specific conceptual concepts, style, lighting, photoshopping etc. Just look at Yuris latest images. He is evolving like anything. To me he is in the process of refining his shooting to produce uberclass traditional "Getty style" images but in an updated and "volumized" micro-style version.

Speaking of evolving I spent the last two days observing and learning from friends, and fashion photographers, Alberto Serejo and Martin Gleit. I can highly recommend that approach - to get totally different inspiration. I think that it is always important to try and learn new ways of understanding light, instructing models, raw-conversion and photoshopping. As you surely know the learning curve is unlimited and there is always room for improvement. I find that by sharing and always having an open mind I tend to grow more both professionally and personally.

By lighting the path of others you brighten your own path too  

Kind regards,
laflor

Really? Does Yuri not mind two of his assistants/trainees producing near-identically styled and themed images to his own?

Having seen how he works in his own studio you guys appear to be just reproducing his stuff as closely as you can __ monkey see, monkey do.

Spot the differences in these searches of 'business team;

http://preview.tinyurl.com/mjzz2s

http://preview.tinyurl.com/lvex8y

http://preview.tinyurl.com/qf9t3p

I appreciate that Yuri's primary skill is not in his originality but in his execution (and also his choice of models) but even so ...

I'm very glad I haven't got 'friends' like you.

ignored, life too short.

Hello again

USA World Cup, 1994 - I was working for a sports agency at the time.

In 1993 we shot all the venues, local tourist attractions, and chased the qualifying teams around the globe for headshots. We had made enough money by the kick off (great day for Irish football) to pay for it all, plus enough to cover costs for three snappers covering the tournament in the USA.

This was before the internet took off, so the possibilities for sales are bigger than ever. Granted, you can take generic shots in your local park, but not with the Cape mountain background. As you are going to South Africa, just keep it in mind. I'd be shooting mostly editorial, but with a bit of thought you could make some good micro money here.

How many people start uploading Christmas images in June? The ones who plan ahead. Swine flu, well done to Mr Locke if he has been shooting it. Get topical with mico. I've sold swine flu concepts with both macro and micro, and I guarantee if you happen to pass by the stadium where the biggest sporting event is taking place next year, you'll sell that as well.

There wil be more spin off sales from this event than any other next year -

Maybe with an Italian in charge of the English team we might get into the quarter finals!

Oldhand

Well put Pixdeluxe and arenacreative,

 Let's all talk soccer instead of just telling people they are wrong or using insulting remarks. It's my favorite past time did anyone see U.S. almost knock Mexico out of the series, so close. This stock business is a very small market even though many don't believe so and the ones that rise to the top have generally been mentors and helpers to others to get them started. All our styles are far to different to worry about sharing secrets. Helping out is cool if that is what you are into and not helping is okay to, but putting people down for no real reason is just a waste of everyones time here and doesn't reflect your own personality in a good light. I imagine that is why most of the aggressive people on this site hide their identity. If you don't want to help don't, but maybe try leaving the people alone that ask for assistance. It will save you typing time and further your own career by freeing up more of your time to shoot. This is suppose to be an informative forum. Thanks.

Best,
Jonathan