Sunday, May 12, 2019

New Angles - Get a Selfie Stick

Lately, my life took some turns which prevented me from writing unfortunately. So, a lot was going on photography wise, which I did not (yet) document.

First of all, I have decided, early December 2018 actually, to quit my day job. So, my professional activities will certainly get a new angle. I will focus of photography and arts in general. However, this is not what this post is about.

In preparation to my new business, I began to look into stock photography. Some of my pictures already sold, so I am confident that I am on the right path here. Remarkably, about half my sales are pictures shot the my Huawei P9 phone, no kidding!
In stock photography, one needs to find a way to distinguish from millions of other photographers. And smartphone photographer are a real competition out there.

Today, I got a brain fart and solved the problem of being a little different than other smartphone stock photographers. I got myself a selfie-stick with a shutter release button for not even €4. With my arm upright the phone can take photos about 3+ meters from the ground, giving a very different angle, in particular in street scenes.
Here is an example: https://www.eyeem.com/p/141273640

I have to admit, figuring out the timing of such a shot, not seeing the screen of the phone and not knowing what the auto-focus will do and when the shot will be fired, is a bit of a gamble all together. However, this €4 accessory allows me to get photographs that look as they were taken with a €1k photo-drone. Even better, using a selfie-stick is legal, while the photo-drone would already be illegal for such a scene over here in The Netherlands.

In the light of that, I will certainly investigate into more sturdy and sophisticated selfie-sticks.