nelimages image resource blog

This is how you want to roll…

2012-01-17T00:38:00.001-08:00

Yuri Arcurs is regarded in stock photography circles as the Ayatolla of Downloadia. PDN awarded him the title as one of the 10 most influential photographers of our age. Not bad for a guy who started out in 2005. /Now we’re talking along with the Leibovitz’s, the Avadon’s…big names. Why?

There is seldom a day in any Westerner’s life (and I’m living in South Africa, and this includes me) that they don’t see Yuri Arcurs’s work. Either in a email, website, article, flyer, poster, menu, social media site…. you name it. He has perfected to a large extent the ultimate style of downloadable images. No, his work is not high art, but making images that just have designers falling over their feet to pay $1-$20 a piece, hundreds of times every couple of hours, all over the world, is an art. And as a commercial photographer I’ll be the first to say you can’t fault his images anyways, if you were to be petty. His stuff is premium quality.

Now, what you want, as a stock photographer, is that every time you upload a bunch of images, that the stock site that you supply to, creates a banner on the home page inviting people to come and see “some Yuri”. That is just brilliant marketing too. How he does it, I’m not sure, but my guess is consistently supplying loads of great images is probably it. Stock sites seem to be judged now by their supply of Yuri Arcurs images. StockFresh’s first scoop was to get Yuri Arcurs on board. 20 000 images down, whammo.

And this guy has not reached the point of passive income yet. Ok, he has, technically, as he earns a couple of million dollars a year, but he doesn’t stop shooting. This is a market that demands NEW NEW NEW NEW. And he delivers. He works hard. He blogs once every six months. That’s probably because he’s too busy making money.

So what to learn here?

Create a market for YOUR images. Don’t be Yuri II. He’s already there and he’ll outshoot you in volume anyways.
Be consistent in quality, and quantity.
Don’t go exclusive (if you’re willing to spend more time on uploads and work generally)
Be a brand.
Styling is important.

Oh, funny thing: his real name is Jakob Whacken. He’s Danish. Not sure where the Yuri Arcurs comes from. He’s also ex- Special Forces, a 100-mile runner and businessman. Funny GQ hasn’t gotten him on the cover yet.

Oh, for what it’s worth: here is my ever-growing portfolio at Depositphotos.com

Crestock upping their game for contributors

2011-11-10T08:57:00.000-08:00

This is taken from a mail sent to contributors by Crestock. I think it spells positive things for this embattled agency.

Increasing Royalty Rates & Revenue Channels for Artists
To Crestock's Contributing Artists:
Since Masterfile Corporation acquired Crestock in July 2010, a lot of changes have taken place. We've added stability to the business and its website, provided you with reliable payments and brought responsive people on board to provide support and answer your questions. But there is still much room for improvement – most importantly in overall sales and the return on investment for you, our contributors. We're working on that too.

We're launching two important initiatives that should benefit all of our contributors as outlined below. These changes have been detailed in the revised Crestock

Artist Image Upload Agreement.

1. WE ARE INCREASING ROYALTY RATES.
The new rates will be calculated on a progressive scale, based on your total number of images sold since joining Crestock, as follows:

• Prior to this change, royalties were capped at 30% and $0.25.• Important: We also changed the calculation of the aggregate download count to include subscription downloads so you can reach royalty thresholds more quickly. Previously, your eligibility for an increase was only calculated based on single image licenses and did not include subscription downloads. 2. WE ARE ADDING THE CRESTOCK COLLECTION TO MASTERFILE.COM
The Crestock collection went live on

Masterfile.com on November 9. This is a trial to see if Crestock images can produce sales growth at Masterfile while increasing royalties for Crestock's contributors. Meanwhile, we're continuing to build and promote Crestock.com. By offering all your images through two licensing platforms, we expect to multiply your sales opportunities as a contributor to Crestock.

Founded in 1981, Masterfile is a well-established licensor of premium royalty-free and rights-managed stock images with offices in Toronto, Düsseldorf, London, Milan & Paris, plus independent distributors in more than 100 countries. The Masterfile website is searchable in 6 languages - English, German, Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese - and it transacts in multiple currencies. Masterfile's business comes principally from direct relationships with advertising agencies, graphic designers, corporate marketing departments and editorial publishers. Masterfile is not a microstock business: it earns most of its revenue through direct contact between clients and sales people using invoicing arrangements rather than on-line credit card transactions. It's a business that involves a high level of personal service. However, there is no denying the popularity of microstock – even with its largest clients – and Masterfile always wants to accommodate all its clients.

During the trial phase, we are offering the Crestock collection on Masterfile.com only in low resolution suitable for websites and mobile applications. Larger file sizes will be supplied to clients by Masterfile upon request.

Every Crestock contributor's images will be included in the Crestock collection on Masterfile. The Crestock collection is searchable on Masterfile.com under a separate tab, called "$10 RF" (or equivalent in other currencies) -

and it looks very good indeed! As of this writing, about 1 million Crestock images have been added to Masterfile.com with the remainder to follow by the beginning of December. From then on, Masterfile.com will be updated with Crestock images about one month after the images appear on the Crestock website. Masterfile does not add images to its website in real time: to optimize the speed of search results and provide powerful features such as SimSearch, Image Upload, Visual Pairing, and Colour Search, the Masterfile site is updated through an offline batch process, with new images normally going live every two weeks. Crestock images will not be offered as part of Masterfile subscriptions at this time.

Please note: for the moment, artists' names do not appear with the enlarged versions of the Crestock images on the Masterfile website. This will be corrected in Masterfile's next content update in about one month.

Your royalty will be calculated on Masterfile's selling price to the client - and Masterfile's rates will generally be higher than those of Crestock. Any revenue sharing between Masterfile, its affiliates, distributors and Crestock will not affect the royalty to Crestock artists.

Example: If you have a 30% royalty rate and:

(a) Masterfile licenses one of your images for US $10.00, then you will be paid US $3.00 by Crestock.

(b) If a Masterfile distributor licenses your image for 7 Euros, then the selling price will be converted to US Dollars and you will be paid 30% of the converted amount by Crestock.

And the best part about these changes: You don't have to do anything extra – the changes are automatic. Just keep uploading images to Crestock and we'll do the rest for you!

Crestock Free Image of the day

2011-10-06T05:41:00.000-07:00

Today, you can download my image from Crestock for free, as part of their free image per day series. That means my image is on their homepage for the whole day!

I'm still holding a very small portfolio with them, but I'm in the process of a mega-upload drive, to see my 118 images grow to 500 by December. I'm currently supplying 12 agencies, plus a traditional stock agency, so I don't have much time!

Anyways, herewith a small little video I took while we did the shoot for the image above.

Remember, my portfolio is also available at http://www.nelimages.com/ for stock, and my commercial portfolios at http://www.danienel.co.za/ .

New shoot and news

2011-09-30T04:14:00.000-07:00

Yay, so finally, after months of procrastination, I have another shoot with a model under to tackle some new topics and to bolster my portfolio of images.

I'm always growing it with food and commercial images, but my model images I have to shoot specifically, and on the average, they definitely earn better. Unfortunately, it does cost a bit of money to make it happen, but that's part of the investment. I look at a year before a shoot breaks even, but my hit rate is getting better so mayber 9 months is the next stop.

My model this time around was Sisha, and although she's not a professional model, she was keen and really gave her all for the 2 hours I had her to my disposal. My tip: get someone who smiles well. It just makes life way easier!!

Currently in my edit pipeline is that shoot, images from a trip to Namibia for macro-stock, images for nelimages.com and a bunch of keyword and metadata images from my commercial archives.

I'm also busy uploading about 1000 new food images across all the platforms. I have since also signed up for Depositphotos and Photokore. I'll let you know how that is working out.

Anyways, till next time.

123RF likes certain images?

2011-08-12T03:08:00.001-07:00

I’m not complaining when images sell. Really, but it is interesting to note that a particular series of images of mine sell more than any other image, by far. Maybe it has to do with the ‘type’ of market or geographical area that 123RF mainly services?

I actually don’t mind, for if it wasn’t for these, I wouldn’t be doing well at 123RF, at all. I’ve noticed that the most varied images are taken from Shutterstock. Food does well at Dreamstime and Bigstock. Finance images does well all over, and so does images of cellphones. Canstock is a strange one, as it seems touristy images does well there. Mmmm. The shotgun approach still rules, then.

Most popular lately

2011-07-19T03:36:00.000-07:00

Lifted from a concept shoot I did about 6 years ago, I thought I'd throw this up on Shutterstock and see what happens. I was surprised to see how quickly the image has become one of my top 10 sellers! And it's not even much. It just goes to show how far concept and generic usage can take you.

Remember to check back at http://nelimages.com/ for what is available directly from me.

Video Sales

2011-06-27T01:54:00.001-07:00

http://footage.shutterstock.com/video.html?id=598441

http://www.canstockphoto.com/table-mountain-3889265.html

Finally, after more than a year of having 3 clips online, I have been able to sell two in one month! I’m working on getting a decent amount of clips online, but the stills are keeping me very busy, and also, bandwidth restrictions are a problem. 1080i footage of only 5 seconds can amount to gigabytes of data. These two sales though, netted US$18. $3 at Shutterstock and $15 at Canstockphoto. If one can sell one of these every now and again, it’s a nice boost to turnover.

Crunching Numbers on My microstock

2011-06-08T03:08:00.001-07:00

Just for interest, I thought I’d quickly post an update of my images on all the portals:

All stats from Jan 2009 when my microstock business began:

Agency	Files online	Total Licenses/Downloads to date – 8 June 2011	Total Earnings – 8 June 2011	Downloads per file – 8 June 2011	Earnings per file – 8 June 2011	Earnings per download
Shutterstock	684	2309	972.83	3.38	1.42	0.42
istock	289	437+569=1006	642.81	3.48	2.22	0.64
Dreamstime	279	164	118.95	0.59	0.43	0.73
Bigstock	281	28	21	0.1	0.07	0.75
Fotolia	311	82	53.75	0.26	0.17	0.66
123RF	236	46	32.19	0.19	0.14	0.7
Veer	24	6	40.25	0.25	1.68	6.7
Canstock	180	5	38.05	0.03	0.21	7.61
Stockfresh	73	4	4.50	0.55	0.06	1.13
StockXpert (now with Thinkstock - closed)	84	99	28.85	1.18	0.34	0.29
Crestock	105	8	50.65	0.08	0.48	6.33
11 Agencies	2549	3757	2003.83	0.91	0.66	0.53

One or two notes be necessary for interpretation:

The agencies use different models: some sell per subscription/bulk, like Shutterstock, and some sell single image licences at higher prices, some hold a couple of videos of mine that sell at much higher returns, and at Crestock for instance, a substantial part of the income is through images used as free image of the day, for which one earns $5.

My total earnings over 27 months: 2003.83 = $74.22 per month.

My ultimate goal would be to get to $500 per month. Now using very basic, and fairly inaccurate mathematics, one can guess that about 17171.92 files will get me there!

I also hold stock in macrostock agencies, with a return of about $50 a month, and my own archive brings in about $100 per month on average.

At this stage it’s hardly worth the effort one might say. I’m intrigued by the long-tail and passive income effect, and that building your portfolio does increase your income. Although this would probably not become my main source of photographic income, it has created an amazing place to get my redundant licenses and excess images in my archive back to work.

Veer

2011-05-10T01:39:00.001-07:00

Now to be honest, Veer as a portal hasn’t rocked my boat. It’s quite intuitive as for keywording etc, but I don’t know, maybe it’s because they don’t pay out to Moneybookers. But I’ve got about 22 images there. Now and again, just for kicks I’ll throw something on there, and completely forget about it.

Well, what a surprise when you check back and a sole image has earned you US$37. Now, well, my interest is peaked! I think I’ll be spending more time there. Veer as a complete concept is quite cool, as it also allows you to display your work and interact. Who knows, this might be the future. I mean, Corbis (READ: Bill Gates) sits behind this, so I’m sure it warrants a second chance!

2011-03-11T04:21:00.000-08:00

© Photographer: Danienel | Agency: Dreamstime.com

My fave image from Dreamstime. Why? It sells at least once a month. If I can have a thousand images like that... Well, no dreaming, that is what I'm aiming for!

So current affairs does influence RF

2011-02-23T00:40:00.000-08:00

2 years ago I went to Libya. I loved it. I was able to shoot about 2000 images. 100 or so are sitting with Gallo. Around 10 others are spread out over my RF portfolio. I've been very lazy about getting them out, because they are often editorial, and it's just a bit more of a schlep to get them up.

See the posts here:

http://danienel.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-libya-trip-so-long.html
http://danienel.blogspot.com/2009/11/libya-azanian-invasion-of-2009-ad.html
http://danienel.blogspot.com/2009/11/libya-day-1-part-ii.html
http://danienel.blogspot.com/2009/12/libya-day-ii-part-1.html
http://danienel.blogspot.com/2010/01/libya-day-ii-part-2.html
http://danienel.blogspot.com/2010/01/libya-day-ii-part-3.html
http://danienel.blogspot.com/2010/02/libya-day-ii-part-4.html
http://danienel.blogspot.com/2010/04/libya-last-day.html

And then, some people organize a Facebook revolution that ends with 2 presidents stepping down in their North African countries, and major political upheaval follows. And Ghadaffi goes ape. I mean, I got the impression when I was in Libya he is a narcassistic loon, but now he's proven he is a dangerous madman to boot. http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Gruesome-footage-of-corpses-in-Libya-20110223

Anyways, I digress. The point is, that even though some of my images are available as editorial, one or two of my Libya images are full commecial license on RF. And yes, you guessed it, it's picked up sales.

Now, strangely enough, these images have sold well prior to the unrest, simply because there isn't a lot available on Libya, but now it's doubled. Normally I would be glad, but in the face of this kind of scenario, it feels kinda sad.

I pray for Libya. I desperately want to go back and show my children the beauty of a country that I enjoyed.

Image 100 at Crestock.com

2011-02-07T05:59:00.000-08:00

http://www.crestock.com/image/3406160-Delicious-fridge-blueberry-cheesecake.aspx

After forever, and Crestock being taken over by Masterfile, getting rebranded and getting their review-process sorted, I have now 100 images up at Crestock!

I nearly did not continue there, but it seems now with a bit of money behind them, things are getting where they need to be and their is a tad more action there than before. It's still not a busy site, but decent quality seems to prevail there, so in time, and with some backing now, I think this can bode well.

Royalty Free Stock Photos: Butter and bubbles

2011-01-21T23:59:00.000-08:00

This is now officially my most successful image on Dreamstime for the last 6 months. Now, interesting: elsewhere I had a hard time getting it accepted. Which seems to reinforce that certain sites attract certain genre-buyers?

Royalty Free Stock Photos: Butter and bubbles

Game is being game

2010-11-10T00:54:00.000-08:00

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup.php?id=9466969

What I have noted at istockphoto is a very strange - but positive - phenomenon. The crowd that buys from there seems to have a need for very specific foods and dishes.

It's common knowledge that ingredients sell well as far as food goes, but gourmet and very specific food dishes normally don't, especially not at Shutterstock, but at istock my best-selling food image is indeed one of game meat, no less, Springbok fillet, a very very South African dish.

Now, I'm very proud of South African culinary achievements and heritage, but let's be honest, South African food is not the first thing you'll think of when you think "gourmet".

Anyways, this image has done very well, despite slightly restrictive cropping. Well, one can argue that I'm probably one of the few photographers posting such specialised food images, and also images of South African food, which has received some more focus since the FIFA World Cup earlier this year.

300 downloads at istock!

2010-11-04T00:58:00.001-07:00

Well, despite all the nay-saying and negativity surrounding istock for non-exclusives, I must say, apart from Shutterstock, they’re still my better earners. File nr 300 got downloaded yesterday.

And to note, this image have performed well enough for me to include it in my B.Tech dissertation as one of my research pics.

I’d like to see what the long-tail on an image like this is, as it doesn’t really age. Also, it is widely usable, very generic and you assign a myriad of concepts to it.

Maybe I should work on getting a couple of other race and genders as well?

Stock photo: Eye see (C) danienel

2010-10-27T01:11:00.000-07:00

Stock photo: Eye see (C) danienel

So Stockfresh has its first sale!! Just as I was starting to wonder if it's at all worth it to bother uploading, here we go!

I’m featured today at ….

2010-10-20T06:58:00.001-07:00

www.microstockposts.com features me as their artist on the homepage as from today.

www.crestock.com has my image as the free image of the day. That’s nice publicity. Hopefully it’ll translate into sales.

I'm also now at StockFresh

2010-10-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

The people behind StockXpert, now represented by istockphoto/thinkstock, which I found to be a neat little site, has come back to the playing field with FreshStock. The big names like Yuri Arcurs are already there.

The upload process is a tad confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, quite fun. Nice clean interface.

Here is my porty - I haven't had a huge amount of time to upload, but I'm working on it!

Announcing The Microstock Photo Power Search Extension for Google Chrome

2010-10-07T00:39:00.001-07:00

Posted: 29 Sep 2010 05:23 AM PDT

Press Release

Announcing The Microstock Photo Power Search Extension for Google Chrome

The Microstock Photo Power Search Google Chrome browser extension makes searching multiple libraries for the best microstock stock photos easier than ever.

Sep 29, 2010 – Announcing the release of The Microstock Photo Power Search Extension. This handy tool makes it easy to find awesome microstock photographs for your website or blog, for your design or print projects, or for any other reason you need great photographs or illustrations for a low price.

The extension popup displays search results for either new images or each agency’s ‘best match’ search for upto 5 microstock image licensing agencies in a neat grid. Clicking any of these thumbnails will open a larger preview (in a cool lightbox format). Click the image if you want to license it and a new tab will open with the agency page, or if you just like it, hit the ‘Like’ button and it will be shared to your facebook friends. Liked images will also be added to the StockPhotoFeeds.com Stock Photo Social Index, so is even a good way for photographers to promote their own microstock portfolio among their friends and social media contact list.

The 5 included agencies are:

§ Fotolia

§ Dreamstime

§ Shutterstock

§ 123 Royalty Free

§ Bigstock

“This is an expansion of a firefox microstock addon which has been live for almost 2 years, so I thought it was finally time to bring it to Chrome” – Bob Davies.

The extension is lightweight and fast, and makes it really easy to search the agencies for royalty free images to license for as little as $1. It’s a great way to quickly, easily, and most importantly legally obtain amazing photos, illustrations, clipart or textures for your site or project.

Learn more about using microstock stock images for your business, website or blog at:
http://www.stockphotofeeds.com/what-is-microstock-photography

or Get The Microstock Photo Power Search Extension now from the Google Chrome Extensions Gallery at:
http://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ehipnpjjaejnoajfkkgonkhpkpiocekl

eral websites covering topics in stock photography, and offers free tools for microstock buyers to help find great images at a low cost, and image contributors software to improve workflow, and a firefox toolbar to find free stock photos.

Image used for CD-cover

2010-09-27T12:17:00.001-07:00

<a href="http://danienel.bandcamp.com/track/dorp">Dorp by Danie Nel</a>

The great thing about being a photographer is that you can use your own images for whatever you like. In this case for my own CD cover for a single I recorded (I’m a amateur muso and songwriter). This image is available from http://nelimages.com .

I have noticed that often times it’s necessary to donate your stock images to worthy causes, like bands and charities, or anyone short of cash and in need of some images. Apart from the marketing aspect I have found just having your images being useful is often all the feel good I need.

I have donated images to www.ctcoc.co.za, HOPE Worldwide SA, done images for dirt cheap for bands like Semisane, The Sunshines, and the like. Even though I’m a commercial photographer, 10 years into the game, it still feels good to get some feel-good use out of images.

It pays to pay models

2010-09-20T07:14:00.001-07:00

Image available at:

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=61153234

http://www.fotolia.com/id/25910589

I just realised all over again, looking at the image above, and also at my best-sellers and top-earner images across my portfolio. It pays to invest properly in each shoot. I honestly cannot afford paying the models a lot of money, but making sure the shoot is fun and rewarding for them is still a prime consideration, as I am dependent on them being available to me at a price which makes a ROI possible.

As it is, through microstock, my most expensive shoot to date has taken a year to reach a 0% profit, but if anything, it seems like the sales from it has only improved, and there is still a couple of images that can be syndicated. From now on all that I earn from there is profit. The other, cheaper images, either never takes off, or doesn’t long tail very well.

So, when looking at my images, I will be spending more time, possibly more money and resources, to create more stunning imagery. That includes make-up artists, stylists, equipment and locations… Yup, it takes money to make money.

My Shutterstock Mini-Gallery

2010-09-14T01:44:00.000-07:00

My latest images for sale at
Shutterstock:

My most popular images for sale at
Shutterstock:

2010-09-09T14:40:00.001-07:00

Stockfresh / Stock photo / Happy South African Man © danienel

Since yesterday I have been uploading to Stockfresh now as well. Thank you to a very helpful help desk for sorting out some php issues they had on the site as I was trying to apply as a contributor. Application then was attended to in 2 hours and I was able to start uploading immediately. Yuri Arcurs and the big names are already there. No wonder, the brains behind this, are the same brains that sat behind StockXpert, to me, a really neat little interface.

Kindle Wireless Reading Device, Wi-Fi, 6" Display, Graphite - Latest Generation

Onion Soup With Grilled Cheese And Wine Royalty Free Photo, Pictures, Images And Stock Photography. Image 5696770.

2010-09-05T22:43:00.000-07:00

Onion Soup With Grilled Cheese And Wine Royalty Free Photo, Pictures, Images And Stock Photography. Image 5696770.

Doing well over all my agencies... it's pretty simple... is it generic? I like the image though. Didn't realize Bistro's where that popular :)

Comp Images Doing Well

2010-08-31T03:18:00.001-07:00

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=59651563

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=59651566

I’ve taken to comping my plain-white-background-images onto other backgrounds I shot to use in stock comps, and it’s done remarkebly well. Moreso than the plain images. Maybe the stock market does not want images that is too generic anymore?

Effervescant Tablet In Water Royalty Free Photo, Pictures, Images And Stock Photography. Image 6764940.

2010-08-23T01:41:00.000-07:00

Effervescant Tablet In Water Royalty Free Photo, Pictures, Images And Stock Photography. Image 6764940.

The rule of the Ninja - your environment is your friend. With other words, use what is there. I really needed an upper that morning, and as I looked at the pretty pattern the fizzy tablet made in the water, I thought, heck, why not, let's shoot it. And it has done well for me since.

New Promo Video for nelimages.com

2010-08-06T04:36:00.001-07:00

American Institute of Graphic Designers in SA.

2010-08-05T01:01:00.001-07:00

AIGA (American Institue of Graphic Designers) setting up in SA. If you're interested in becoming a member please drop me a line to steven.grindlay@gmail.com.

SLEEPING BEAUTY

2010-08-03T13:36:00.001-07:00

What was the thinking behind shooting this?

Generic usages abound. Health, beauty, skin-care, conceptual, mental health, etcetera.
Shooting it on a clear background opens up the possibilities of deep-etching and dropping the image on different backgrounds.
Professional make-up artist used for this shoot. Where possible, I always use pro make-up for stock shoots. The returns are obvious, although it radically increases the outlay of the shoot.
Black South African models are scarce on the net, but in certain cases like this one, the model’s features are also fairly generic, making it relevant not only to South Africa, but to most cosmopolitan areas.
I pay my models well. This way the model release is signed without a fuss, and both parties feel satisfied and fairly treated.

Top seller this month so far

2010-07-30T01:57:00.000-07:00

http://tinyurl.com/2597ovs

Financial shock Stock Photos & Vector Art : Bigstock™ - Royalty Free Stock Photography

2010-07-28T02:02:00.000-07:00

Another favourite in my collection. It sells through most platforms failry regularly for obvious reasons:

It's a very common issue - lots of oppurtunity to use this.
Pretty but real model with a good expression.
Clean and nice lighting.
Generic composition that leaves space for the designer to crop.

Financial shock Stock Photos & Vector Art : Bigstock™ - Royalty Free Stock Photography

French Onion Soup Royalty Free Photo, Pictures, Images And Stock Photography. Image 5696776.

2010-07-28T01:57:00.000-07:00

A sturdy favourite in my portfolio, across most platforms. One can only surmise that the reason for this is that the image is relatively generic, yet still in a distinctive bistro setting. The fact that it's not very obviously brown onion soup, yet sells well has been interesting though.

French Onion Soup Royalty Free Photo, Pictures, Images And Stock Photography. Image 5696776.

Welcome!

2010-07-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

As Danie Nel Photography's stock image arm, and having been as busy with driving the stock portfolio as I have, I decided it was high time I started blogging all that insight and exciting happenings in the stock image arena of nelimages.com and Danie Nel Photography.

At this site there'll be insight for contributing stock photographers as well as designers and users and abusers of stock imagery.

Also, as new images are succeeding in my portfolio, I'll highlight them here, and just discuss all things stock!

My concern is a little less technical photography technique (sorry strobists and the like, but there's enough resource out there), but more trend, usage, thinking and deconstruction of images.

I hope to see you here often. Please follow us using Friend Connect or by subscribing to the RSS feed. Also, don't be shy to comment or critique.

Get your stock fix.