I’m pretty new to stock photography. I had a nice collection waiting on my hard drive, unused. I then applied to be an Alamy contributor. But their minimal requirement, a 50mb uncompressed image, is so high that just a couple of my photos could fit in – the one I shot in RAW mode.
Then, maybe 2 weeks ago, I applied to be a Canadian press contributor. This time, pretty much all of my photo could fit. I went back to my archive, key worded and captioned pretty much everything that I though could be usable, and started to FTP them.
I was really wondering how much I could make out of this. After all, most stock photographers say that you need 1000 images for 1 or 2 sales a year. 1000 images was more or less what I had.
Fast forward to today. I open Maclean’s (The English Actualité, for my Quebec friends) and what do I see, right there on page 12? One of my photos to goes with an article on separatism, with “Francis Vachon/ CP” as the byline. Sweet!
As a photographer embedded with the Canadians, I was hit by the blast and then enveloped by a cloud of dust and smoke as we scrambled for cover behind a mud wall shielding us from Taliban positions on the opposite side of a grape field.
Canadian and Afghan troops quickly returned fire and I focussed on taking pictures of an Afghan army soldier shooting a heavy mounted machine gun from a nearby ditch.
(…)
People often ask whether it’s worth the risk taking combat pictures. It’s only worth it if you don’t get hurt or worse. The second something bad happens, the gamble is lost.
The last picture, featuring O’Reilly himself, made my day.
Rouyn-Norenda Huskies’ Pierre-Luc Champagne and Quebec Remparts’ Darick Ste-Marie battle for the puck in QMJHL action at Le Colisée Pepsi in Quebec City Friday October 26, 2007. Quebec The Remparts won 4 to 1.
Rouyn-Norenda Huskies’ Guillaume Lepine and Quebec Remparts’ Darick Joey Ryan get physical in QMJHL action at Le Colisée Pepsi in Quebec City Friday October 26, 2007. Quebec The Remparts won 4 to 1
New IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute waves to the crowd as he is presented before the game.
I’m more or less done packing my stuff. Tomorrow morning, I leave for Toronto. Friday and Sunday is the Great White North Workshop. Then, I’m coming back but on my way to Quebec City, I’ll stop in Montreal. Sunday and Monday, I have an assignment for two Swiss newspapers, the Lausane 24 Heures and La Tribune de Genève. More on that as soon as the pictures are published.
