LIST YOUR "ACCESS" PHOTOS, TOO
by Rohn Engh

Want to see a 7-minute video that photobuyers use to learn how to locate hard-to-find photos using the PhotoSourceBANK?

Click here.

1.) As I say on page 51 of Sell & ReSell Your Photos, "What specialized subjects do you have ready access to? For example, if your neighbor is a bridge builder or a ballerina, or a relative is a sky diver, or your friend is an oil-rig worker," you can list these subject areas. With a digital camera, you can easily photograph these subjects and send an e-mail attachment of lightbox to the photobuyer within a few hours. LESSON: in your PhotoSourceBANK keywords and keyphrases, list any and all scenes and situations that you have immediate access to.

2.) Also, don’t leave out your favorite armchair interests. For example, if one of your passionate interests is solar energy, astronomy, railroads, or gardening, list descriptions in this area, too, since they’d be photos you can get easily. You’d be a valuable resource to photobuyers in such subject areas because if it’s one of your abiding interests, you’re very knowledgeable in the field, and understand the nuances of the subject matter. A photobuyer can't be familiar with all aspects of the subject matter they are gathering pictures for. That makes you top dog in this case. You’d make points because you can probably supply pictures that the photobuyer wouldn’t have thought of.

3.) What is your nearest city of more than 500,000? You may never have thought of yourself as an expert in your geographical locale, but a visit to the postcard rack at the shopping mall will give you an idea of the location(s) you should be shooting from, if a buyer needs a picture of a certain landmark at sundown. It’s reasonable to think that a buyer will come along in the future and need the picture – why? Because photobuyers often search the PhotoSourceBANK by zip code, needing photos in specific locations. They'll come back to your psBANK site again. Especially if you list a lot of landmarks in your geographic area -- ones that you could get to in a half day's drive. You can get the picture quickly, and you can deliver it quickly. The rest of us can't because we live too far away.

The PhotoSourceBANK is the perfect place to list your highly specific access areas. In cases where you don’t have a particular photo requested by a buyer, the buyer usually will be grateful to you if you shoot the picture on speculation. (Some photographers in this situation take along a digital camera [the $300 variety] and get a low-resolution digital picture along with the analog film picture. They can easily transmit the digital photo to give the buyer a preview of the shot that’s available.) You’ll not only have a chance for a $150 to $300 sale, but you will have established a new contact for future sales. Plus you can add the picture to your stock file.

MULTIPLE KEYWORDS: Here's another tip. Keep your descriptive captions in the PhotoSourceBANK short, say, three or four words, and for certain pictures don’t hesitate to list them several different ways. Remember that a photobuyer might search for a photo with one of several different words. Example: You might call it aviation, she might call it flying. You might call it a carpet, she might call it a rug. List a photo also by its synonyms.

SIMILARS: Use the thesaurus in your word processor or your favorite synonym dictionary (found on the Web).

For help in this situation, ask a friend or family member to help you think up captions for your photos. This way you can easily expand your listings from photo descriptions using 200 words to 2,000 words or more. Only your imagination is your limitation. While you're at it, don't forget to misspell. Does anyone know how to spell Muhammed Ali? I can think of five ways. You can too. If you have a photo of Ali, put all five spellings down. The photobuyer will try only one of them.

For a look at a typical page layout that illustrates the correct directory page format: www.photosourcebook.com/. Click on #7.

The Comma Factor
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Computers are smart, but they are also dumb. For example, a comma will tell the computer software that another word or phrase is coming up. If a comma appears before the word “and”, the computer thinks you have entered something called “and,” and will place it in the Yellow Pages directory. So, if you list “tiny yellow dogs, and fuzzy kittens,” the software for the Yellow Pages will list this selection of words under the categories of “tiny” and “and.” (the first word after the comma). Instead, list these words this way: dog yellow tiny, kitten fuzzy. In addition, you can list them as: yellow tiny dogs and fuzzy kittens. In all cases leave out the word “and”.
Some other words to leave out: all, at, any, other, around, many.

The RULE is this: whatever you think the photo editor will look for, put that word first, - right after the previous comma. Remember, you have 3,000 words that you can use, so use them all effectively to make it easy for the photobuyer to find your specific photos, and you .