Recently a reader sent me links to fabulous photo based websites devoted to bike commuting in Copenhagen, Denmark.

If you like bikes, urban photography, bike commuting you’ll enjoy Mikael Colville-Andersen’s CopenhagenCycleChic.com, Copenhagenize.com and his City of Cyclist’s video.

Thanks, Joel, for the tip!

In the early days of this business our main focus was stock, stock, stock and I shot lots of motion, sports imagery – like the city bike commuter, below.

Stock photography is the niche whereby people shoot imagery without specific buyers in mind, usually letting agencies find the sales. Below is a cross processed photo from our early days. I acted as model and photographer – yep that’s me on the bike:

Stock bike photo - Ottawa

My photo career started with a very narrow goal – to shoot and sell stock:

The stock aspect of my business continues through agencies and my office, but my business is more diverse now than I ever dreamed it would be.

Why? Partly because other photo work intrigued me and became commercially successful. And partly because the stock industry started changing in big ways in the mid to late 90′s:

• Royalty free hit the market, offering “ludicrously low prices” on stock imagery.
• The web had a huge impact and made more imagery more available.
• Crowdsourcing undercut the “ludicrously low prices” of royalty free!

Stock is still one of the most fun parts of my business. I found a blog posting recently from APhotoEditor.com that lists many stock agencies worldwide – mine included – it’s a fun list to cruise.

My favourite stock subject – anything dynamic, fun, different- see swing above.

My biggest sale – fun, dynamic, different shot of a car in rush hour shot from above the driver’s window. Licensed in Columbia through AGEFotostock.com

My image with most sales – bowling pins being blasted by bowling ball – with motion. Licensed by FirstLight.com

Shoot what you enjoy – it’ll make a difference!

Harry

Researching some new ideas for stock was on the agenda recently. My girlfriend bought a scooter last summer and loves it!

We went on an exploratory creative ride with her scooter and my teeny Nikon P50 ‘point and shoot’ to test a few scooter ideas for my stock photo work – likely for my main agency, AGEFotostock. The scooter concept went well.

I was a little frustrated with a couple of limitations of the point and shoot – ie a short & frustrating delay. It IS a consumer based P&S that I do not know well… I was asking a lot – like asking a SMART car to perform like a Porsche 911.

The session gave me enough info to shoot the work properly with an appropriate camera and more attention to the set – clothes, etc.

This is a great part of my work – very fun for Harry!