Travel represents one of the most popular content submission areas for the PhotoShelter Collection, and as such, we are becoming increasingly more selective about the types of images that we accept. The following guidelines are prescriptive for travel photography, although some concepts will extend into the general realm of stock photography.

The guidelines are the same guidelines presented to our photo editors dealing with travel photography. The editors are accorded the latitude to make subjective calls, and therefore, these guidelines are structured so you understand situations where the probability of rejection is higher. We believe this is a more sensible methodology rather than having a blanket enforcement of a rule which is probably not applicable to all images. For example, if you submit a low contrast photo with a blown-out sky of the Afghan Buddhas before they were destroyed by the Taliban, we are very likely to accept it. However, if the structures were still standing, we have a higher probability of rejecting the image. Context, historical importance, and even quality of the caption affect the probability of acceptance.



Travel imagery probably has a rejection rate somewhere in the 40-50% range. This is a reflection of 1) the large amounts of travel photography, 2) the fact that many non-pros shoot and submit travel content, 3) self-editing of travel imagery isn't as stringent as it is in other categories (i.e. a photographer submits many images of the same subject from multiple angles).

What does salable travel imagery look like?
We suggest checking out the following magazines to acquaint you with the style and technical level of photography that is being used commercially today:

-    Travel + Leisure
-    Conde Nast Traveler
-    National Geographic Traveler

Whitney Lawson from Travel + Leisure told us, "We are looking for a filmy look with natural light - nothing that looks [overly] digital, or like PR [press relations material]..."

Remember to shoot a variety of vantage points. No one wants to see just a picture of an entire building. Get some detail. Get some mid-range images. Get some interiors. Create an overall sense of a place. Most importantly, take the time to see what images are being published, and then use a critical eye against your own work. The devil is often in the details, and developing your skills to scrutinize an image will make you a better photographer.

Content Saturation
Certain locations and landmarks are more heavily photographed than others. One way to tell whether an area is saturated or not, is to search the PSC yourself. If an area is saturated, we are more likely to apply a higher level of scrutiny to the image before allowing it. For example, we have many images of London, but not many of Mauna Kea, therefore, we are more likely to accept "average" images of the latter, while being highly selective of London images.



Point of View/Focus
A travel photo must convey enough information to the viewer to give them context of where they are and what they are looking at. If you shoot Big Ben, make sure Big Ben is in focus/exposed, and not the sculpture you're shooting through. Similarly, there are cliché shots (e.g. a narrow street, cars on the street) in travel that are submitted in large numbers to the PSC. Make sure these types of shots have no technical defects whatsoever in order to avoid a higher probability of rejection.

The subject of your photo should also be clear in focus and exposed. We've seen some photos where the the subject is out-of-focus and a foreground element is more prominent. Similarly, framing a photo with a tree or other fauna is ok if the tree isn't obscuring the subject, and you don't have a bright distracting object (e.g. a flower) in the foreground. These types of gaffes will increase the probability of rejection.




Rejected photos often have many characteristics that push it over the threshold of rejection. Creating a great photo requires a lot of thought, planning, and practice!



"Evergreen" areas
Some destinations never seem to grow old, and picture buyers are constantly seeking images of these destinations. These areas include:

• Caribbean
• Hawaii
• Europe
• Italy
• France
• Germany (Berlin is hot now)
• Mexico (specifically the Mayan Riviera)
• American cities (particularly in light of the weak dollar - Boston, New York, Washington, DC, Dallas, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle)
• "Driving Story" destinations (e.g. Napa Valley, National Parks)

Still, even with these areas, the goal should still be to make an iconic picture; one that both is beautiful, but also contains enough contextual elements to avoid being perceived as "this could be anywhere."

Vintage  Images
Images of places shot long ago (e.g. pre-digital) are of interest because of their relative scarcity, and if they convey a sense of a specific time and place, they have a higher probability of being accepted even if there are some technical defects. This does not mean you should start scanning all your old slides. Please still apply scrutiny to your own edit.

Wassup, Andy! Andy's work can be found in the PhotoShelter Collection and on his website.

You like photography? I like it too. I like it so much, I helped start a company that has "photo" in its name. I like "shelter" too, but that is neither here nor there.

Today we're talking about photography, and specifically, a few pointers for making your photography better. If you're one of those fancy pants guys who already makes thousands of dollars every year from photography, then this post is not for you. This is for the person who believes there are still a few things to learn, and want to become a better photographer.

And just to prove my point, I'm illustrating all the "wrong" things with my photos that suck. You have a few photos that suck too. Don't nod your head like that. I saw them! But hey, no need to be defensive. We're using the power of positive thought to not suck because no one gets paid to suck unless you're on reality TV. Remember, just like Tony Little told us, YOU CAN DO IT!

Lest you think I'm just spouting off like I usually do, let me clear the air. In order to get educated on what to write, I spent a week with our editors. And not just a few minutes here or there. I literally sat with them and reviewed over six thousand images to get a sense of the variety of images we were seeing, and a few trends started to become readily apparent. And when I say "trends" I really mean "things that we don't want to be trends." So let's get started with my first installment of The Final Edit.

The Rule of Thirds & Composition
Never heard of the rule of thirds, huh? Neither has my grandmother. She's so old, she thought Polaroid was new.




The rule of thirds is a compositional theory used in photography and other arts, and it basically helps you create points of interest. There's no rule of halves. No rule of ones. There's a golden rule, but I'm relatively certain that it has nothing to do with photography.

I talked to my buddy Vincent Laforet, about this whole composition thing, and I asked him, "Vince, what do you think makes you such a good photographer?" because he has one of them Pulitzer Prize thingies. He told me it's because his parents made him take drawing classes as a kid. It should be no surprise that artistic principles are important in photography.

So listen Mozart, remember that composition is important.


Clean up your backgrounds
You have a great shot of a soccer player with his leg over his head with the ball right on the tip of his toe and a pained expression on his face, and in the background is some fat guy in a little coat eating a hot dog on the sidelines. And he is also in perfect focus.



The beauty of photography is that you can use a combination of aperture and focal length to selectively focus on the subject of the image. If you have an image that is so unique like Chris Farley on the sidelines the day of his death, we wouldn't reject it. But if you have an average image with a messy background, we'll drop it like it's hot.

The world is not really that saturated
Who can't resist pumping up the saturation a little bit? Sky looks a little bluer, flowers look a little more vibrant. And I remember Fuji Velvia like the next guy, but you are not Timothy Leary, so put the LSD filter down, and back off the saturation control, bro.

The PhotoShelter Collection has what we refer to as "edited diversity." Although we allow almost any image to be uploaded, each image is reviewed by our team of photo editors with the goal of removing the stuff we don't think commercial photo buyers will be interested in. The process is a subjective one, we admit, but on the other hand, all of our editors have degrees in photography, and all of them have worked as photo editors prior to landing at PhotoShelter.

But the point of this post isn't too talk about the subjective. It's to talk business.

We often hear from photographers who are upset about an image(s) getting rejected and the fact that we don't include a reason for rejection. So first let me explain how the old stock agencies work. It used to be that in order to even be considered by an agency, you had to submit a body of work of several hundred images. Several hundred really good images to even be considered. If you've never had a portfolio review before, you might not really understand what editors consider to be good because in most cases it simply isn't what you consider to be good.

Then once you've submitted the images, it goes into some blackhole where some staff members review it, and a few months later (no kidding), you get back (some) of your stuff. The agency takes the stuff it likes, and returns the stuff they don't like. There's no note, there's no rejection reason, and that's how it is.

So why is this the case?

We've received a ton of positive feedback about our redesign, and we're thrilled. But we have also received some comments about the weight of the type face, the shelter logo, the colors, etc, so I wanted to clear up some misconceptions about the purpose and intent of the redesign.

First the design isn't about the logo. The logo is only a component of the redesign, and while it is the most obvious piece, it by no means represents the total goal. When we started this process with Cinco Design, the first thing they did was sit down and talk to a bunch of different people within our organization to understand what we thought of ourselves and how we are different. They synthesized all of this into a brand position piece. This is vitally important. I like to use Apple as the prototype of the successful brand. Apple isn't a computer company (proof is that they dropped "Computers" from their legal name), but much more. "Clean," "progressive," "cool" are some words that I conjure up thinking about that brand. So the fact that their logo is an apple is irrelevant to the brand. Their industrial design, their ad campaigns, the mystery surrounding new product launches all contribute to defining their brand, and making you want to do business with them.

Cinco then surveyed all of our competitors and looked at how they were positioned and what their brands meant. We believe we're different from everyone else, so we can't have a brand and an identity that looks like a competitor.

So the design of the logo and the design of the site are reflective of their research and our feedback.

Let's talk about the site. Some people said "I like the old site and logo better. It looked more professional." Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but our goal wasn't to just change the look and feel, it was to change the way a user interacts with the site. Specifically, we want to call attention to image buyers and have them do activity that would lead them to buy an image.

We tracked clicks on the homepage using what's known as a "heat map." Here's the old site:

People were searching, clicking on some of the "most recently searched," and clicking some large images. But there were also large swaths of area that weren't being clicked, which means it's a waste of space. We also felt that our most important commodity is our community of photographers, and we wanted to showcase the individuals more visibly on the homepage. Lastly, we also wanted photo buyers to interact with us even on days that they weren't buying, which is one reason we launched our new blog.

Here's the new heat map with one day of data:

Today is a really cool day.

As you might have noticed, we had a little identity change. No, we aren't in witness protection services. We just thought that we could align the logo and our look-and-feel more closely with our brand values – namely, vibrant, open, and thriving. We were fortunate to work with Kirk James and his awesome team at Cinco Design in Portland, OR. Cinco has done a bunch of work with some companies you might have heard of (Nike, Microsoft, Xbox to name a few). You'll be hearing more about this in the next few weeks...

Creating a platform for photographers to organize and license their photographs is the obvious manifestation of PhotoShelter, but we also believe a lot in mobilizing the community and becoming a focal point for discussions about commercial photography. So we also went out and found ourselves a blogger named Rachel Hulin and started a new blog. Rachel will be writing daily about photographers, photo editors, photo buyers, art directors, pros, amateurs, and stuff going on in the industry in a way that we don’t really think exists. She’s going to have some cool guest bloggers as well, and we think it’s a wonderful opportunity to showcase people just like you, and all the interesting things you do.

The Personal Archive just got a whole new slew of features, including a bunch of cool modifications to the e-commerce cart like custom crop capabilities, which make selling your products a lot easier. And our customizable templates now support larger images (all the way to 1000 pixels) and larger thumbnails (up to 200 pixels). It’s a really great way to add some killer functionality to your personal website and enable searching and commerce.

In case you missed it, we made a number of buyer-side feature enhancements to the PhotoShelter Collection on Leap Day (Feb 29 for those of you who have eaten too much sushi with high mercury levels like moi) including batch add capability to the cart, a display preference to increase the # of images per page, caption rollover display, sequencing of lightbox images, and batching functions in the lightbox.

We recently launched a student competition called “Elevation 2008” over at the PhotoShelter Collection because I believe the children are our future. No, seriously, we assembled a kick-ass panel of judges from Nylon, Spin, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek and The Fader to review submissions coming into the PSC, and students can win some cool prizes to kick-start their career, while also creating a potential source of revenue for themselves.

Our very cool widget got a facelift to go along with the new logo. If you already have the widget somewhere, it’ll update itself automatically. Otherwise you can always grab it here to let everyone know that you’re all about PhotoShelter.

Speaking of which, for those of you that really want to fly the colors, you can buy a new PhotoShelter T-shirt from our merchandise page. Our friends over at Vuvox let us play around with their beta Collage product to make a very cool flash presentation showing the PhotoShelter Team wearing their gear around our offices at Union Square in New York. And for those of you with websites or blogs, you can insert some of our new "badges." Pick one that matches your mood or your personality. We'll make more.

Our direct sales force just added a few more people from a well-known agency that rhymes with "Betty", and they are busy pounding the phones and the email to attract new buyers to PhotoShelter. Our sales and marketing efforts are really coming together, and we think there is a great sense of momentum about PhotoShelter right now that we’re very excited about.

Of course, your big question is probably about the fate of this blog. And you’re probably pondering the sadness you’re feeling in your heavy heart. But have no fear, my corporate blog will continue. It’s just that I wasn’t the most regular of writers, and each entry usually generated an email from my sister about my grammar or my spelling. But I remain undaunted.

Today’s changes are only the tip of the iceberg for our 2008 plans. We are so excited that you’ve joined us for the ride.

Big ups to the gang over at Humble Arts for a fantastic opening for their "31 Under 31" show at the 3rd Ward in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. If you're not familiar with Humble Arts, they're a homegrown organization dedicated to advance the careers of emerging fine arts photographers. This particular show showcased the work of women photographers.

Andrew and I got there a little early for the press briefing, and by the time the show really opened, there was a line around the block despite the freezing temperatures, and the line was still there when I left at 10:30! Reports from other PhotoSheltarians indicate that things were still rockin at 2am. Go Brooklyn.

PSC photographers like Noah Kalina, Will Steacy, Elizabeth Weinberg, Joel Barhamand, and Dan Stein were all in attendance.

My iPhone doesn't quite have the same low light performance as my Nikon D3, so these camera phone pics will have to suffice. Also, the pizza from L'asso is outstanding!