Photograph, schmotograph

Just recently looked into submitting photos to some stock photo sites. The submissions standards for one site in particular go beyond my own standards up to this point. It will be a good way to really focus on shooting and submitting shots of a specific quality.

I say, "specific quality", because this particular site seems geared to "realistic" photographic images - no obvious post processing, no noise, etc.. I will submit what I have (not much) that meets their specs, and will keep those specs in mind for the next month or two as I shoot new photos. I've already set the image quality to RAW on my Nikon. Now I'll keep my eye out for - or set up - shots that are marketable as stock photography.

At the same time, my photographs to this point have been strong on composition, and weak on quality of the image - i.e., noise is evident in lots of shots, and the resolution low. I also don't care about lots of post-processing - whatever makes the shot look interesting and beautiful. So, though I AM interested in learning what it takes to produce stock photography, and perhaps make some money at it, I have my reservations about the standards.

Namely, it invokes my perfectionism. Until recently, I thought perfectionism was what people had who produced really great work - perfect work. Not necessarily. My perfectionism manifests as self-loathing: unless I can produce a perfect musical composition, photograph, poem, office memo, then I'll berate myself (it's not as good as so-and-so), and very often abort the project because I can't make the thing perfect.

Ergo: lots of unfinished projects.