Bonnie is the Creative Director for Great Escape Publishing, a regular contributor to The Right Way to Travel, and creator of the Breakfast Stock Club, which helps folks to get up-and-running selling their photos in online stock photo agencies. She got her first travel articles and photos published after attending the Ultimate Travel Writer's Workshop six summers ago in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Before joining Great Escape Publishing, she taught English in the South of France and vagabonded through South America and South East Asia, dutifully testing all of the local foods and massage techniques.
Favorite travel tip:
Don't book a hotel room when you can rent an apartment! It tends to be cheaper, offers more room, and lets you live like a local, with a kitchen and living area. Recently, some friends and I found a cute apartment right in the middle of Paris with a balcony for half the price we would have paid for a hotel room in the city. I like to use Airbnb.com or Vrbo.com to book.
Check out this video: Fun, right? A mother and daughter playing with bubbles. Well, it’s also one of the best-selling clips on Shutterstock. This type of simple video is something anyone could do. It doesn’t require any special set-up or high tech gear. Yet, buyers love it because it conveys a genuine moment and interaction […]
Bonnie, here, again, with one more fun tip from our Provence Stock Photo Workshop. Shooting inside a 15th-century chateau deep in the French countryside, some of us saw ghosts: Taking a ghost photo is not only COOL, it’s actually pretty easy to do. Here’s how: 1. With a tripod, take a photo of a […]
Bonnie here, again, coming to you with another stock photo tip from our Provence Stock Photo Workshop. After leaving our Mediterranean villas, we drove out to a chateau and vineyard deep in the French countryside. It was nothing short of amazing, and we had the whole run of the place. I’ll show you one “spooky” […]
Lise Gagne got fired from her job because she couldn’t focus. She was too obsessed with this new thing… taking stock photos and selling them online. Her friends and family thought she was crazy… until she started making a living this way. Ten years later, she’s one of the top stock photographers in the world… […]
Last week, I came back from the South of France, where I was with 10 of your fellow readers and iStock legend, Lise Gagne. We spent a week learning how to shoot stock photos in the streets of Saint-Tropez, from our villas above the Mediterranean, and from a chateau deep in the countryside. You guys […]
When it comes to creating stock photos, there’s basically two schools of thought: Trendy vs. Timeless. The first approach is to keep on top of popular trends in the advertising world; to create photos that look modern and current. Shots like these: Photos that feature the newest technology, hottest gadgets, and distinct styles are likely […]
Most stock photos are bought for use in advertising, marketing, and promotion. Which means that the images you’re selling as stock are often used to represent someone’s mission, message, or brand. Because of that, you can’t sell stock photos that include anything copyrighted. No logos, trademarks, brand names, or copyrighted art. This is also the […]
Has this happened to you, yet? Your friends hear you talking about photography… they “like” your photos on Facebook… and suddenly you’re the “friend with a camera.” Which inevitably leads to… “Can you take photos of my wedding/family reunion/house for sale/dog/high school grad?” I like to call it the “Friend with a Camera” phenomenon that […]
Anytime you have a recognizable person in a photo that you want to sell as stock, you need a model release… UNLESS you plan to sell the photo as “editorial use only.” That includes: Crowds of hundreds of people People in foreign countries and who don’t speak English People in old photos Even when you […]
Thanks to everyone who got into our Summer Sprints over the past three months. We got some amazing submissions! Let’s take a look back at some of the fantastic photos we saw from Breakfast Stock Club Premium members this summer… Simplicity, Story, & Fun Simple images are visually powerful because the viewer is instantly drawn […]