it is good we have people like you, phildate, for the rest of us to try be better than � It gives me ambition to keep at it anyhow.

Thank you - I hope I can be an inspiration to those aspiring stock photographers. I don't do this full-time although microstock has given me the opportunity of quitting the normal day job (I used to teach mathematics) to pursue photography as a career.

what do you do full time then? or do you mean you also do other photography things as well like portraits or such things?

how much time/weekdo you spend on micro work?

That's an interesting question for us all to answer me thinks....

I work for a local council full time (45-50 hours a week) as the 'Information Services Manager' (Nice title, not so flash job).  I do quite a bit of photography as well, for a local paper, and do portraits and commercial work...  I spend maybe 1-2 hours a week on Micro.  In a busy week I'll upload 10 photos.  In fact I spend more time reading the forums here and on SS than I do on all the rest of my micro stock work!

I've also got a second child due next week, so may have even less time for it soon. :-).

Cheers, Me.

Ya, Although not as bad as when I was running my own electronics design/build business as well. :-).

I have a terrible habit of saying 'yes' to often.  As I get older I learn to keep my mouth shut!  I used to be a member of about 8 clubs as well, and secretary for two at one stage...   

I'm one of those people who walks around with a permanent 'kick me' sign on their back....

What are you doing full time?  Or was it you who's doing stock full time?  I vaguely remember reading that somewhere, or I might be mistaken.

how much other photography do you manage to squish in there then?

Well...   (got your long post reading glasses on?)

I do at least two sports events for the paper every week, so that's 3-5 hours a week doing that, depending on the sports.

Over summer it's all sorts (Cycling, swimming, motor sport, cricket, tennis, bowls, waterskiiing once..) so the time can vary wildly.  During winter (now for me) it's always Netball and Rugby, so the time is pretty fixed.  2 hours to cover a whole rugby game, and about 1 hour for a netball game plus travel, which varies between 20minutes and an hour and a half.

I also cover a small number of public events for the paper, like the ANZAC parades last month, Santa parades, Fairs etc, but that's rare over winter.

I've just celebrated (if you can call it that) on year with the paper, and I've got 11932 pictures in my 'sports' folder on the server, and 3256 in the events folder.

For other stuff this year so far I've done one wedding (Yuck) four formal portrait shoots, eight family portrait ("on location") jobs, a couple of architecture jobs, one corporate event and a childrens portrait session as a fundraiser for a club.  The oddest thing I've done this year is a formal portrait shoot for a horse... 

I enter a few local photo competitions, and I'm the secretary of our local camera club.  On a national level I've had honours and 'acceptances' in three competitions in the last year, and I've just achieved my LPSNZ (Licentiate of the Photography Society of New Zealand) and I'm going for an Associateship next year.

On a personal level I'm collecting landscape and building photos of the local area for a coffee table book, which a friend is writing the text for.  That's been an ongoing project for eight years, which I started using a MF film camera.

I'm just starting to advertise, by placing large prints in some local cafe's and posters in sports clubrooms to try and get a bit more paid work, and sell some more prints from events.

I've had my website (cpix.co.nz) up for about a year now for the sports stuff, but until last week it didn't even mention portraits etc..  I've just put a slideshow script on the homepage and I'm going to put some more pages on there with some of my favourite photos, and some 'blow my own whistle' type information which will fit in with the prints I've had done for the cafe's.

Doing the stuff for the paper is a means to an end.  I have expensive taste in lenses, but can't afford them on my salary.  I'm using the income from the paper (less money for gas etc) to pay the finance on my three 'L' Lenses...  I've just about finished that finance off, so next it'll be a 1DIIN to replace my aging 1D (4mp version).

You might say I've got a problem, I prefer to think of it as an active hobby. :-).

yeah i would agree with you that stock photography does have it's nice points..

listening to music
no clients to bother with
no people to try and please
just shooting, setting up shoots, uploading and updating the graphs.  I think a variety is nice as well however, doing commisioned shoots and stock, but stock is a nice breather and nice to have for quite a bit of the time.

ohh you are building a studio in your house??  nice

I know this is a bit of an old thread but it's a very slow day at work and I'm bored.  I am a Programming Support Analyst - Computer Geek for short - for an insurance company in the US.  I'm not a programmer per se but assist the programmers in our IT department with troubleshooting and fixing problems with our in-house insurance claims system. I also do various other computer-geek related work here that's too boring to go into.     Microstock is a new hobby for me but one that is paying off nicely for only doing it for 3 months.  I also design and sell t-shirts and other products for female motorcyclists. (I too am a female biker)  With the combined income I receive through t-shirt sales and microstock I'm hoping to make my first photo equipment purchase soon to reinvest in this photography sickness I have.  I can't decide if I should go for my first L lens or some studio lighting.  Decisions, decisions.