Cultivate your eye for stock

For more information on shooting/selling stock footage check out my other posts:
GETTING STARTED
KEYWORDING
WHAT SELLS?

After shooting stock footage for a few years you start to see the world a little bit differently when you go out on a shoot. Often times you go out to a specific location, or looking for a specific shot and the most valuable shots that you come back with have nothing to do with your original subject. Be opportunistic, and tune your eye to look for unique shots that you would never think to shoot. Go out to shoot your Sunset Timelapse shot, but while you are waiting for the right time to start, look for other opportunities to get good shots. Maybe you turn around and there's a grungy golf ball rolling down a gutter. Or a mouse peaking out of a sewer. Quality is very important, and you should plan subjects and shots. But if you go out to shoot 5 specific shots, you should be getting 10-15 opportunistic shots to really maximise your shoot. More often than not, one of the shots you didn't plan ends up making you more money than most of the shots you do plan.

Here's a tip to help cultivate your eye. With the smart phone revolution upon us, most of you have a high quality phone camera on you at all times. Use this camera everywhere you go! Practice shooting things that interest you, weird angles, things that don't make any sense at all, get creative. Just SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT! You won't be able to use it as stock, but the more you push that button and analyze the result, the deeper your bag of tricks will be when it comes time to shoot some quality stock footage. Practicing with your iPhone or droid will train your eye to shoot more unique, opportunistic, PROFITABLE shots on your next shoot.

To make it more fun, take advantage of some of the fantastic iPhone/Droid photo Apps. Hipstamatic, Instagram, iTimeLapse, and 8mm are some of my favorite Apps on my iPhone and they have really kept things fresh and fun.

Here are some of the things I shoot for fun.

www.flickr.com

Happy Shooting!
HDCineman