I’ve wanted to earn more money for a while now, but not at a second job I didn’t really want. My motto is “I’d rather be poor and happy then rich and miserable.” So I haven’t made a move to find a new job. And then a job fell in my lap!
I’m a photographer, not a good one but apparently good enough. I like to take pictures of our cat, of our 100 year old house and of the skiers in the mountains nearby. If I’m at the zoo, I like to take pictures of the animals. I hang the pictures in our house and give them to friends who ask for them. I don’t know how to use Photoshop or any other enhancing device, so the pictures look raw and natural.
A friend told me about online stock image companies. These are sites that advertise your images and charge a fee once an image sells. I didn’t think a site would be interested in my pictures of a lion taken at our local zoo. You can see the bars on the lion cage and the sad dirty conditions it lives in. However, what I realized, is that my picture told a story. And that’s what stock image sites are looking for, a picture that tells a story.
Once I realized I might be able to make money by selling my pictures online I checked out the top 50 most downloaded lion stock images on one site. By reviewing the photographs I learned that there were few pictures of female lions; baby lions and male lions were much more popular. Surprisingly, the baby lions were all yawning; apparently, people think that those make cool stock images! So I made a weekly pilgrimage to the zoo. Since I don’t know how to enhance a picture by using the computer I wanted to get just the right natural lighting. It took a few weeks but I finally figured out when the lions were most lively and most photogenic. I was quite happy with a bunch of pictures I took but I wasn’t sure they would be acceptable to the online site. I submitted the pictures and they were accepted!
Now I make a small passive income every month!
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