The Beginner Photography Podcast

How to Start in Stock Photography with Rosemary Watson

• Raymond Hatfield

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#549 Rosemary Watson is a successful photographer who has carved out a unique niche in the world of stock photography. The discussion primarily centers around Rosemary's journey into stock photography and the practical steps she took to build a business that thrives on creativity and market demand. Key themes include overcoming the initial barriers to entry in photography, understanding the nuances of styled stock photography, and leveraging platforms like Creative Market for business growth. Rosemary also emphasizes embracing trial and error as a learning process, encouraging photographers to experiment with different styles and niches to find their passion.

KEY TOPICS COVERED

  1. What is Stock Photography? - Rosemary explains the concept of stock photography, distinguishing between traditional corporate images and styled stock photography that appeals to everyday users and bloggers. Key takeaways include the versatility and utility of stock images for diverse clients.
  2. Transition from Portraits to Stock Photos - The conversation delves into Rosemary’s transition from traditional photography gigs like weddings and portraits to stock photography, highlighting how she recognized a gap in the market and filled it with her unique style. The importance of niche marketing and finding your passion is underscored.
  3. Building a Business with Creativity - Through Rosemary’s experience, listeners learn the strategies for monetizing photography skills through platforms like Etsy and Creative Market. The episode sheds light on customer engagement, market research, and adapting to industry trends.

IMPORTANT DEFINITIONS & CONCEPTS

  • Styled Stock Photography: A specialized form of stock photography that involves the careful styling and arrangement of objects to create visually appealing and purposeful images.
  • Market Research: The process of gathering insights about consumer needs and preferences, crucial for tailoring stock photography offerings to meet market demand.

DISCUSSION & REFLECTION QUESTIONS

  1. How can you apply the concept of storytelling to your photography to make it more compelling and marketable?
  2. What niche in stock photography can you explore that aligns with your interests and has market demand?
  3. How can platforms like Creative Market help photographers without a significant following reach more clients?

RESOURCES:
Follow Rosemary Watson on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/rosemarywatson/
Explore Creative Market for a marketplace of digital products and stock photography - http://creativemarket.com/

Download your free copy of
46 Creative Photo Ideas to Get You Out of a Rut
at https://creativeimageideas.com/

Sign up for your free CloudSpot Account today at www.DeliverPhotos.com

Connect with Raymond!


Thanks for listening & keep shooting!

Rosemary Watson:

Stock photography is just photos that anyone can purchase any number of times. It's not like a portrait of a human being where why would I buy that portrait of you? I would never buy that. Like, why would I need to do that? But stock photography could be of anything, and it's something that multiple people can purchase, and you can make money off of forever, for the rest of your life. If, as long as those photos are valid, and you still like them, and it still serves your audience, you could sell them forever.

Raymond Hatfield:

Hey, welcome to the Beginner of Photography podcast. I'm your host, Raymond Hatfield, and each week I interview one of the world's most interesting photographers to learn what it really takes to capture beautiful images so that you can start to do the same. In today's rewind episode, I'm chatting with stock photographer Rosemary Watson about creating visual stories. But first, the Beginner Photography Podcast is brought to you by Clouds Spot. With Clouds spot. You can sell your photos through prints, products, and of course digitals. You can set up a storefront in minutes and start earning more with every gallery you send. So grab your free forever account over@deliverphotos.com and only upgrade when you are ready. So stock photography isn't one of those genres of photography that I think people, aspire to be when they, you know, quote unquote grow up. But as you get older, and you gain more life experience, you find these little niches of the world and you just kind of fall in love with them. Personally as a kid. You know what? I hated mowing lawns. Today in the spring and summer, I look forward to every single Sunday and Wednesday for when I now mow my lawn. Again, you grow up and you find these little niches of the world to fall in love with. And for today's guest, Rosemary Watson, it's stock photography. So even if you're not a stock photographer, there's a lot in this episode just for you, like how to create visual stories through your photos, how you can experiment with stock photography to try new creative ideas, and how to organize your ever-growing photo library. So, like I said, there's a lot here. And remember, the listeners who get the most out of each episode are the ones who actively listen and find just one thing that resonates with them, and then they take action. Listening to the Begin of Photography podcast should not be a passive experience, So take this time for yourself today, seriously. All right. With that, let's go ahead and get on into today's interview with Rosemary Watson. I want to know, first and foremost, before we even get into you, like, what is stock photography?

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, oh my gosh. Okay, so stock photography has been around for actually a really long time. before I even got into it, it was, I felt like more of a corporate thing. It was definitely more of, like, people taking pictures of, like, I don't know, very corporate situations that big companies would use. So someone like Microsoft needs photos for their website, and it's a lot of things that are very general, right? It's like, kids playing ball in a park or a dog running for whatever it is, a hotel might need something for their website. And so it's again, very general, nothing very specific. and so there were some sites that had it back then, which was, I don't even know, maybe, 10 years ago, let's say it would be very corporate and commercial. And it wasn't until someone, shake a train or shake a crane, whatever, however you say her name. She was the first person I ever saw doing something different and doing something more styled where it felt more, just like lifestyle, more personal, more something that an everyday person would need. And so I was so. I'm a photographer. I started out doing portrait photography. really focused on senior portraits, really focused then on, like glamour portraiture. So taking moms, making them look like models for the day, getting gorgeous photos of them, and then bringing in their families, the whole Sue Bryce methodology of that. I do that. Did that for a really long time and I loved it. but I started realizing that I needed more content. And so as I was writing blog posts and doing these things, I needed photos. And so I was so busy with my own business stuff, like taking portraits of people, but I was like, Oh gosh, like, do I really need to go out there and take more photos for myself for my blog? So I would look online and try to find these photos. And I found shake a crane and I loved her stuff, but it was like. 50 an image, 80 an image. And I was like, awesome, but I can't afford that. I'm sure people can, I'm sure there's people out there that are doing big things and can afford that price point, especially

Raymond Hatfield:

businesses. Yeah.

Rosemary Watson:

For sure. Yeah. Like that's just not me. Like I'm just this startup freelancer photographer. Like I can't, like I'm doing a blog post a week. That's 52 weeks times 50 images. I can't, I can't do that. So a lot of money. So I was like, you know what? I have a camera. I'm just going to set aside a little bit of time to start taking these photos. And so like stock photography is just photos that, anyone can purchase any number of times. It's not like a portrait of a human being where why would I buy that portrait of you? I would never buy that. Like, why would I need to do that? But stock photography could be of anything, and it's something that multiple people can purchase, and you can make money off of forever, for the rest of your life. If, as long as those photos are valid, and you still like them, and it still serves your audience, you could sell them for forever. and so styled stock, I feel like is just a little bit different. It's something that you're actually taking control of and styling the setup and then taking a photo of that. It's not just like going out into the desert and taking a picture of a cactus and then selling that you can do that. Styled stock to me is more like you are controlling the environment. You're styling it to a certain aesthetic. You're taking a photo and it's really like niche down to one specific audience. So that's where I saw it. My need was totally personal. I was like, cool. I took these photos from my blog. They're great. People like me probably need this same thing. So I'm going to just find a platform. Creative Market was there and I started using it to sell my photos that I took for my own blog, but to the public. That's what styled stock is.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Styled stock. Okay, that's a term that, maybe I just didn't dig deep enough, but that's exactly what I was looking for, because I could tell when looking online that there's definitely A

Rosemary Watson:

difference.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, different styles of stock photography. Styled stock. Okay, I'm gonna have to remember that for the rest of these questions. Perfect.

Rosemary Watson:

And I myself have purchased tons of stock photography since 2012. That like I might need for a client, they might need like a landscape of Phoenix. Like I built a website for a realtor. I don't have a drone. Like I'm not going to go do that, you know? So I had to go online and find a stock photo of the Arizona landscape.

Raymond Hatfield:

Cool. Cool. That just brought up an interesting question that we'll have to get to here in a bit. But you talked a little bit. there about, how you were already shooting like, portraits and stuff. Yes. Let's take one step back from that. How did you get your start in, in photography?

Rosemary Watson:

So I started out being, kind of like the brand manager of my mother in law's furniture store and she had purchased a digital camera for, just taking photos of the store. It was like, like one of the earliest rebels, Canon rebel, super not fancy. She gave it to me to take photos of her, products for the store. And then I just took it home and I started taking pictures of my kids, taking pictures of just all the different things that I could find. And my mother asked me, like, can you take senior pictures of, your sisters? Cause my sisters were all starting to graduate. And I said, sure, you know, I'll do that. So I did them. And then I had their friends ask me, so it just kind of snowballed more and more. And I really loved it. And I still, like, I'm still, she's one of my clients, a furniture store. Now that my business has opened up. Kind of morphed into more production like a full production company instead of just photography and I focus on businesses more I still like had a huge start doing the senior portraits. And then of course I did all the things right? I did babies. I did weddings. done birth photography gone in when people were like giving birth, you know, i've done Done all of the things. And so it's just, I feel like for photographers, we're so good at this where we'll do anything and then it really will direct us like the clarity comes from doing the things, right? We find what we love. We find what clicks, we find what's the least stressful. Like I loved weddings, but it was so high stress for me that I was like, I just can't do this anymore. Like, it's. It's just, I'm having a panic attack all day, every day.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh man, that's so interesting to hear. I love that. I always love, that's why I love this podcast because it's so many different, views of how something is because for me, the idea of stock photography is like, is this in the right place? Like, should this be a different camera angle? Like there's so many more variables it seems like. For me, whereas weddings, it's like, well, I know there's going to be a kiss. I know they're going to get ready. I know that there's going to be some dancing. it doesn't seem very high stress to me. But we're kind of the opposite there. Oh gosh. I love that. Yeah.

Rosemary Watson:

So for me, I'm also more of an introvert. And so those days, like being in front of human beings and just having to talk all day and giving direction, it was literally just like draining me dry. And so I just realized like on the days where I was doing Styled Stalk, it was so peaceful. Like I was by myself. I was able to gather whatever the props I needed. So if the theme was like baking for the day, I would just, I would go to target. I would grab all of the measuring cups that were gold. I would grab some flour at Trader Joe's. I would get cookies at a bakery and I would set it all up and I'd have music playing. I was like, this is the life. Like I'm not dealing with clients. I'm not dealing with anyone. And I love my clients and I still am service based. And I have friends, my friend Jenna Twiggy posts. She does not is not a service based business. She's purely product digital product and I can see where it's just so calming like you only have to please yourself and of course like give the people what they want, right? If your audience is requesting more images of something like yes, you want to make sure but it's still like you're the box It's on your terms. You do it when you want. And so to me, I was like, this is awesome. Like, this is so much more chill. I can control the environment so much better.

Raymond Hatfield:

I love that. want to know in your own words, you kind of talked a little bit about this there in the intro, but I want to know more about what is it that stock photographer delivers? What are the photos for? Like you mentioned there, like Microsoft could need photos or whatever. But looking at your photos, there are definitely more, Are you trying to sell photos to bloggers or businesses? Do regular people just need stock photos?

Rosemary Watson:

So I think everyone needs them, but they might not know it. And it's funny because I get stopped all the time. Like I'll be at Trader Joe's and get all these, like tons of flowers, tons of stuff. And they're like, Oh, are you having a party? I'm like, no, this is just for a shoot. And I have to explain what I do. And people are like, that's a job? Like, yes. And then they're like, but who buys? I don't understand. Like you take a picture of your laptop, but like, who's buying them? I'm like everyone, because if you are a human being that creates content, if you are someone who is trying to sell something, and if you're not, if you're just trying to be a storyteller and talk about yourself online, if you use Instagram, if you use Facebook, if you create eBooks, everyone needs photos for all of these things. And they taking selfies of your face every time is not going to really convert that well after a certain amount of time. So, oh gosh, what was the original question? I completely lost as I was talking into this. I was just trying to

Raymond Hatfield:

get an idea of the size of who needs style photography. Oh,

Rosemary Watson:

okay, yes. So for me, when I first started, it definitely was like, I'm just, this is completely self serving. Like, I just need photos for my own blog, and so if people like them, cool. If they don't, Fine. Like that was not my moneymaker at all. So I was like, I'll just throw them on. But it did start making more money and I did start like realizing like, Oh, there's a little bit of a pattern. Like people are buying more of the desktop scenes. And so for me when I would get kind of feedback and kind of do some research on who was buying them, it was definitely business owners. It was online business owners that were purchasing these images because they just wanted to be a business coach. They didn't want to learn how to do photography. So they were just buying all of those. But definitely I can see, Now that I've been doing this for a while, I've had my subscription for three and a half years. it's actually, it was three years in September and then I have had my creative market shop for a little bit longer. So for like four years and there's definitely, I see a place where I could be more niche or niche or however you say that. And you can just serve people a little bit better than being so broad because so many people started doing it and that's great. Like I think there's space for every human in the world to do stock photography because there's so many viewpoints. just like you love weddings and I don't, you could do stock photos for wedding people. Like your whole thing could be like, I'm just going to do bouquets, I'm going to do vendors. I'm going to do whatever sell them online and like a florist could buy those even though they're not her flowers She could use them on her website because it kind of articulates what she does or she could put them on Instagram or she could Put them on Facebook. So I think everyone should do it but I think that now that so many people do it. It's so much harder to kind of stand out in your industry So if you do focus on one thing like I'm gonna be a stock photographer for hair stylists So what am I going to create and what's the shop I'm going to build and what's the audience I'm going to speak to in my content the more focused in you can be I think it's going to be easier for you instead of just trying to get photos of everything and just hoping someone buys them, you know, which is what I did when I started out

Raymond Hatfield:

I think that's probably what I mean you said that that's what you did even in terms of just photography in general when you first started off doing newborns weddings portraits all these things that totally makes sense Yeah, obviously being like very niched down, whenever like I send photos of a bouquet or something to one of the vendors at a wedding, they always are so appreciative because they can create these beautiful bouquets, but having, being able to, to shoot it in a beautiful styled way is a whole nother thing and for them to be able to share that is really helpful. So

Rosemary Watson:

absolutely, I think

Raymond Hatfield:

we hear that like like 99 percent of photographers don't send vendors their photos, which is fine Like that's what they want to do. Yeah, it's it's a lot of people It's a lot of photographers who don't send like wedding vendors. Oh photos, which is a huge missed opportunity huge missed opportunity That's

Rosemary Watson:

insane. Okay. is it okay if I go in a little weird segway So that is actually how I became like my business completely changed into business to business and into a production company. So I started as Rosemary Watson portrait. I was doing all these portraits of beautiful people and then I was doing weddings and I was doing a lot of bridals. So I would do, instead of doing the wedding, I would have the bride come in. We'd do her hair and makeup. She'd have a bouquet, like an extra spare bouquet from her, like florist.

Raymond Hatfield:

She

Rosemary Watson:

would, would almost be like a trial run for her. And then we would do portraits of just her.

Raymond Hatfield:

It

Rosemary Watson:

was amazing like it and it's big here because we have a very LDS population a very large LDS population here And that was something that is like classic and traditional in their religion is they'd have these weddings and it wasn't at it was at their temple and so we would do bridals of just the bride before so I was doing a lot of those and so they'd have These florists and I would send the photos to the floral designers and one in particular was like can you come and just shoot me creating these? Like, can you help me with my website? Because you did your own website. Can you help me next time I do a wedding, do more like behind the scenes shots? And then we started doing more styled photos together with seniors. And it was just a good partnership. And I just was like, I love this. This is so fun. Like helping these other business owners do these things. And like, yeah, of course the models or the brides or the seniors got these portraits and they were awesome. I just was like, I'm making so much more money on the back end of this shoot with this business owner, because people are so much more willing to spend money on a business. Then they are for themselves. I think even mom's spending money on their daughters. Yeah, they'll spend more money. But when you try to get a mom to buy like a huge portrait of herself, it's much harder sell for me than to tell this business owner, Hey, let's get together, let's shoot a bunch of photos. I'll help you put them on your website. I'll show you what to do on Instagram with them. I'll help you put them on your Facebook header and you'll be good to go. They would pay me way more money than this mom or this woman who just taking photos of herself. And so I was like, I think this is something that I want to pursue more and do more of and I just it just kept coming and that's how my whole business transitioned from portraiture to business. It's like completely focused on business photography and then I shifted and just do, I'll do, I do, I have a production company so I produce all kinds of content and a whole bunch of different things for people that own businesses.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. You're totally right. As somebody who, I'm way more willing to spend money on my business than I am in my own personal life. And even before when we were talking about growing a list and having some sort of marketing, it's like that number of how much you're willing to spend. sometimes it's hundreds of dollars a month. It's like, I would never spend do that hundreds of dollars a month. Like I can't think of anything like even TV. No It got to the point to where TV was like 140 a month and we're like, screw that. We're cutting it out. It comes to business. It's like, let's do it. Let me go get the card.

Rosemary Watson:

We're just going to do it again. Yeah, no. 100 percent because they can see the return on investment, right? The only return on investment for like the people is of course memories. And that's huge. Like memories are humongous and it's worth it and it's valuable, but it's valuable to different people, right? Like other different people value that differently. I think everyone that's a business owner can value anything that makes more money in their business. That's it simple That's a simple sell. Yeah, because everyone cares about that. If you own a business you care that it makes money Everybody wants it to be

Raymond Hatfield:

successful.

Rosemary Watson:

Everyone wants it to be successful. There's not some people that are like, well, yeah, I mean I do want more money, but not that much. It's like no. No, they all want money. Like they all want it And so if you can give them something that they can see concretely, like helps them and saves them time, saves them headaches, saves them training. They have to do themselves on their own camera and we'll make them more money in their business because it elevates their brand and they're using it in their marketing. 100 percent it was so easy to sell that.

Raymond Hatfield:

Absolutely. I can totally see that. And so you must have seen like a lot of stock photos either from when you first started. I'm sure that if you look back at some of your photos, like we all do, we kind of cringe inside a little bit. And now when you look at stock photos from other beginners or amateurs, I guess, what's the one thing, or what's the telltale sign of, like, an amateur stock photo?

Rosemary Watson:

Ooh, I think the hardest thing, well, not the hardest thing, but the thing with this is, I, again, I really do believe that every single person should be creating stock photos. So even if all you're doing is getting your iPhone and doing like a picture of maybe you at a certain coffee place that you really love and you love the vibe there and you go there all the time and you just like want to capture that essence and share it online. I feel like you should do that. Like it doesn't matter. I'm way less more about like technique and stuff. I think the telltale sign of something that might not be super successful is something that doesn't tell a story. So if it's something that's going to tell a story, you have to think of the end user when you're doing this, right? Again, I didn't, I was like, I need this for me, but it's still told a story because I needed it for my own content. So I wasn't thinking about someone who was purchasing my photos necessarily, but I definitely was thinking about someone reading my blog. If you're thinking about the people that are going to be looking at this, what is the emotion that you're trying to engage with these people? Because emotions change thoughts and then thoughts change actions. So if it is something that let's say you're trying to tell a story of someone who needs help, you're working with a business coach or you're like, I want to shoot something for business coaches and the people that they're trying to help, they have this problem and they're trying to get to this solution. What can I take photos of that's going to help them convey that message? Yeah. So thinking about the messaging is the one big thing that professionals do. At least I do, and I know other people that I've talked to, they do this. Is they're like, what is the story we can create with our visuals for the people that are buying these things?

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, that's like a game changer right there. That's like when you really think about that frame your photos around that, that can really change everything. That's so great.

Rosemary Watson:

And you can tell that just such a rich story with it, right? So if you were to take, if you were like, I need mockups of iPhones and you lay them down on just like a white table, I have a white table right here. And I just took a picture of only that. That's not telling any sort of story. It's very utilitarian, right? Like people might buy it for sure, but it's not helping anyone really convey their story. But if you were to just do simple things like, okay, what is this person trying to do? Who is this person? Well, it's someone that loves the color pink. It's someone that loves jewelry. It's someone that loves champagne. It's somebody that loves roses. You could easily put those things around it But if you're like i'm shooting for a man a man might need this so i'm maybe it's a male photographer I'm going to put a camera there a digital camera I'm going to put some other things that you might need like a leather notebook. I'm going to put a cup of coffee or there's just so many ways that you could style just this one thing to tell a million different stories And it's just more helpful and rich to the end consumer that buys it

Raymond Hatfield:

Geez, so all these questions that I came up with for our interview today didn't really have a lot to do with like styled shooting like the the styling behind the scenes because I guess right i'm just very ignorant about Stock photography and suddenly I have so many more questions. So i'm telling you right now You're going to come back to the podcast. We're definitely going to do another one of these because this is, this is, I have so many more questions and you're being so helpful. I love this. Oh,

Rosemary Watson:

well, and I'll just talk all day. So you cut me off when I need to be cut off. That's just

Raymond Hatfield:

what a podcast host wants. I love it. I want to talk now a little bit about the business side of things, right? I want to know, how does your business work? Because you talked earlier about uploading some photos to stock photo sites before deciding to change. Can you touch upon the different ways to make money through stock photography and then how you do it?

Rosemary Watson:

Okay, there's so many different ways. And when people start asking me, like, what do I choose? Like, what do I do first? So my journey was, I went to Creative Market. It was very, it was brand new when I had found it. It was actually It's a website. Yeah. Yeah. They sent me an invitation. Actually. I didn't know what they were. And so initially my idea was, Oh, I'll just because Etsy had been around for a while and people had just started using it for digital products and I was like, Oh, I'll just upload my photos there. But then I got an email from creative market saying, Hey, we are this community of creators. It's a marketplace. We're going to put all sorts of digital goods on there. We would love for you to be a part of it. And I was like, awesome. Yeah, this is perfect. So I started a shop and I put all of my stock photos there and I would do. Okay. So when I first started, it would be like one product and I would have the same layout, but maybe three different images of that. So I'd have maybe one flat lay, which would be like a computer keyboard, like some pens and some like an office setting really, but it's like a flat lay, which is just flat on the ground or flat on the table. You take a photo and then I would do that kind of same similar thing but vertically so you could use that same image either in portrait or landscape and then I would do some sort of another like I would take those same props and kind of arrange them a certain way and then take one more photo that could be cropped as a square and that was like one product. So it'd be like 19 and you'd get those three photos. Right. And so I did that for a while and I did more and more of them. And so I would change out color schemes. I would change out things. I would add florals I would do. So I would definitely have specific themes for them, each different product. And so I had that for, I think it was maybe six months and it was going really well. So the first month I made like 75 bucks the first time I just threw some stuff on there and I was like, cool. Back then that was a lot of money. I was like, awesome. I can buy like two more CF cards and you know, I was just so excited and then the net and cause I didn't do anything else. Right? Like I had made these photos for my blog. I had posted it on my blog. It served its purpose, but then I made an extra like 75 bucks there. Like, yes, 100%. We'll do this again. So the next month I did it and I made like 150 and I was like, okay, this might be like a real thing that like takes the place of, you know, what it's paced for my gas. Like this is so awesome. And the next month I made 350 and then I just kept kind of snowballing. And I had a month where I made like 1200 bucks and I was like, okay, this is the real thing. Like this is a real, But this could be a real business. Like I didn't realize that it was such a big deal.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh,

Rosemary Watson:

this was in like 2015, I think. And since then, by the way, there's people on creative market. I've gotten emails that they're like, celebrate this million dollar seller. A woman, Nikki lots made a million dollars on fonts. She just makes fonts, a million dollars in sales. It's amazing. And it's great because it's, I feel like why you would go to a marketplace first is I tell people, if you don't have an audience, you have to find a place that has one. So yes, creative market takes a commission off of my sales. They take 30 percent of the sales. I keep 70. It's great. Whatever. Etsy, same thing. They'll take a vig off of what you sell and then you make the rest of the money. Thank you. And so some people automatically like, well, I'm just going to put them in my own shop. And I've tried that. Like I did that for a while. They did not sell because I didn't have the people. Right. If you have a huge audience, like someone like Janet Kutcher or someone like Jasmine star or some like

Raymond Hatfield:

totally,

Rosemary Watson:

they have a huge audience. They can engage, but if you don't have that, if you have not spent the time to build the people, you have to go where the people are. And so the people are on Etsy. The people are on creative market. They have already gathered human beings there. That are already searching for the things you might have to offer. So I would all, all the time recommend people go to Creative Market first. Like, I love Creative Market over Etsy because Etsy does sell like handmade goods, you know? And so it's kind of like a split divided audience where Creative Market is a focused in audience. They're looking for digital products. They are, and I think like the money that I spend on Creative Market, like I spend with other people because I'm a business owner and I might need what they're selling to sell my stuff. Can you elaborate

Raymond Hatfield:

on that a little bit? Right,

Rosemary Watson:

so if you're a font designer, so Nikki Lotz, when she creates her fonts, she still needs to create promos for them. She still needs to sell them on Instagram. She still needs to put them on Facebook. She still needs to make those promo images for Creative Market. So where is she buying those photos? Probably on Creative Market.

Raymond Hatfield:

Probably, yeah, I see.

Rosemary Watson:

And so same thing with me, when I'm doing these stock photos, if I need to make a promo graphic, and I need a really cool like script font, I'm going to buy Nikki Lotz's. So I feel like there's a lot of, like, business to business happening just within the platform, let alone someone who just discovers Creative Market and is buying the products.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay, so I think it's

Rosemary Watson:

a lot of B2B and not just B2C.

Raymond Hatfield:

Right. No, I, that totally makes sense in my brain. I see that connection. Yeah. So how did it, transform into what it is today? Because today you're not, or are you still selling on Creative Market?

Rosemary Watson:

I have just a couple products in my original shop, but actually I just brought in some interns and we are shifting and we are going to make two different new creative market shop starting in 2019 and they're going to be focused on be hyper hyper niche So one's going to be just for podcasters because one of my I looked at my numbers and my biggest seller In my creative market shop was a podcast collection that I created I had two and those sold very well people that are starting podcasts that need graphics for social media that need their profile photos So it's going to be really focused and tailored to people that are going to be doing podcasting and not just stock photos But it's going to be You Any kind of digital good that they might need. So like Instagram stories and, graphics, all the things that you might need to promote your podcast. So, and that's one. And then the other one's just focused on Instagram. So it's going to be Instagram nine grids, which I sell in my shop now. So it's like nine images that all fit together with graphics, with the color palette, so it's almost like a branded collection of things that you might need for Instagram So those are gonna be the two different shops instead of trying to throw everything in one that I have right now

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay, so, i'm sure there are people listening right now wondering why people would buy photos for their own Instagram. Can you expand a little bit more on that.

Rosemary Watson:

Same thing. So say i'm a floral designer and I sell photos I mean i'm self floral floral design and I have a camera but I don't have a lot of time to do photos because i'm so busy trying to like you meet with these brides and do all the things and go to the events and network and do all that you just don't have a lot of time to sit there and create content all day edit them and then plan and do them on Instagram It's much easier for you then to say like and plus it might not be just things that you have right? You don't want to just put flowers on your Instagram account.

Raymond Hatfield:

If

Rosemary Watson:

you're a floral designer I teach an Instagram course and I do Instagram management for clients. And one of the things I tell them is like, Instagram is your personal magazine. You don't go buy a magazine about weddings and every page is a floral picture. Like that's not how it works. If you open Martha Stewart weddings, there's a rich story there. There's photos of the brides and there's photos of the vendors and there's photos of, you know, a million different things in that magazine, but it's all telling the same story even within that one article, right? Maybe it's one wedding in sonoma and it is at some barn It's still not the same photo over and over but these people that are doing like floral design They're just sharing their bouquets over and over and over and you're like cool, but that's not what instagram's for. Yeah It's an art gallery So they might purchase something that's you know Someone holding a coffee cup standing behind a bunch of bogan vias You And they might talk about something that happened in their business or that they're really excited about this new wedding coming up. It's still fitting in to what they're sharing already, but it's taking that visual to a different place and making it more interesting for somebody that's consuming their content and just telling a richer story.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. Yeah. Bougainvillea. That sounds so cool. That's like something. I want some of those in my backyard. I don't even know what it looks like. They're

Rosemary Watson:

don't ever put those in your backyard. They are the worst. They are the worst ever.

Raymond Hatfield:

I'll take your advice. I'll take your advice. Yeah. But it's kind of interesting because, what I first thought of is that, as a wedding photographer, I try to, like, tag hairstylists on Instagram, like, in some of my photos, and every hairstylist's Instagram is exactly the same. It's just photos of the back of the head, like, just the hair. And I look, and I don't know if it's just because I'm a male and I'm not looking for, like, I don't know what it is that I'm looking at, but I just see, like, a lot of hair and I see no personality in any of these Instagrams. Like, cool, here's a portfolio, but, who are you? What do you stand for? That makes a lot of sense. I love that. So I can suddenly see why they would do that.

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, because I have a client right now that she's a hairstylist and we're like, okay, after this we're doing a whole shoot here at my office because it's like she needs some I'm like your Instagram is literally you your clients hair every time that's

Raymond Hatfield:

fine

Rosemary Watson:

but it's time to make a shift and do something different and you're gonna turn this into a lifestyle because I don't know if you've heard the thing before but Gary Vaynerchuk always talks about how every business is a media company now no matter what you do no matter what you sell you are a content creator people have to learn your story and you have to storytell on a daily basis to end up even getting the chance to sell what you have to sell You You have just lucky as

Raymond Hatfield:

photographers. To have this tool to be able to tell that story, but a lot of other people like hair stylists, they don't have the

Rosemary Watson:

skill. Exactly. And so that's why stock exists, right? Because everyone has to do the storytelling bit, but not everybody has the skills or the time or anything to be able to do that. Take these photos and do this visually. So that's why I have, that's why my business worked is because people just needed these for their businesses.

Raymond Hatfield:

So cool. Oh man, I'm getting so excited about this. I'm getting so excited. You need to

Rosemary Watson:

open one. Like if you don't have one right now, you will by the end of this year. I'm telling

Raymond Hatfield:

you. I hate to say this. I have so much on my plate right now. I love this idea. This is going on my, my brain dump board in Trello, for sure. Uh, I want to know, like, where do you get your ideas for like new photos though? Because like you said, you can shoot everything from, from like an office of like somebody yelling maybe at an office to little puppies playing to just like very closeups of computer with some, like paperclips next to it. Where do you get ideas for, for new stock photos?

Rosemary Watson:

So for me, I've always been very self serving. I'm like cool I have this because I have a bit I have a separate business, right? Like I do love photography and this digital product is helping people and making money But I also have a business of my own where like I still create content on Instagram I'm still writing blog posts like I still need photos

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah

Rosemary Watson:

And so I do a lot of stuff that I need you know that I'm done that I love because I think that when you're a Photographer, why would you not shoot what you love? If you don't love it, it's going to be a pain in the ass, like just do what you love, shoot what you love, shoot what you're into, shoot what makes you happy. But at the end of the day too, someone has to buy these unless you're happy to just make this a hobby. But if someone's going to buy them, I like to look for clues. So it's what is selling for me. The reason why I chose to do a whole collection or a whole shop of podcasting is because my podcast images just sold. I see that that is a growing industry. Like it's starting to have a resurgence resurgence of people that want to start podcasts, there's a need that needs to be met. So, I like, I'm, but I could do it in a way where I do love it. Right. I'm not ever going to shoot podcast photos in a way where it's going to be like draining for me. I'm definitely going to make it my style. I'm going to make it my flair. I'm going to make it fun. I'm going to make it look how I want it to look, but it's filling that need. The second thing is that if I look and see who's buying my images the most, you can see that you can track that in creative market. and you can track that in other ways, too, right? If you're so no matter what you're selling on, like I sell a subscription as well for stock photos, and I can see like who's been with my subscription the longest and I can just go to my best customers and ask them like, Hey, what do you need? What are you looking for? What do you need in your business that I can create for you? And I don't have to do it. But if I'm like, I'm trying to fill a gap like I have these collections plan, but I don't have anything for this month. You want to give a suggestion? And they're happy to throw out suggestions. And that makes sense.

Raymond Hatfield:

That makes sense. Totally. But if somebody's like brand new to stock photography, how would you suggest they do their own form of market research?

Rosemary Watson:

What I would do is I would find 10 people that you really like on Instagram. I would be like, okay, I like their vibe. I love the way what they're sharing already on Instagram. And I, I want to create content that looks like that. And it can be anyone. It doesn't have to be like someone who might buy your stuff. It just might be someone who you're like, I love what they're sharing and I want to do something similar. I would DM them and be like, Hey, I'm starting a stock photography and I really want to create content that looks like and feels like you, like I love your vibe. I love what you're doing. If you were to buy these and you don't have to, I'm going to actually send them for you for free. What would you want? Champagne glasses? Oh, Thanksgiving's coming up. I would love if you took pictures of like cranberries cause I'm doing this cranberry and orange things that you know, whatever like they'll tell you just ask for help But you have to find the people that you really love their vibe already And then you don't have to give them free stuff But I mean people are way more likely to help you if you give them free stuff and then who cares you can throw that Into a shop like hello. Yeah, it's so simple

Raymond Hatfield:

totally. Uh, Don't miss out on that opportunity for sure

Rosemary Watson:

No, and I do this I do this all the time I've been doing this for years and years and years, but there'll be people that I find I give free stuff away constantly all the time because why wouldn't I? You You know, and when I'm asking for people's feedback and help, like, Oh, I love this fiber. Oh my gosh, I found this new Instagram account and I love how she shares cocktails. Let's create a shoot kind of based on that. Like I look for inspiration. And then just recreate it in my own vibe and flair.

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah. I was just thinking, I saw this Instagram and never had my phone near me, obviously when we're doing podcasts. But, this Instagram, the whole thing, what it was, was just like a styled, like styled, anything crayons, like, Uh, beads, all this stuff, but it was like, styled in like geometric shapes. That's all that it was. It was so cool, like I've never seen anything like this before, but obviously this creator, I don't know if it's a photographer, I don't even know what they do, they could just be like a random student who just makes these things on the side, but like, they found a thing that they love to do, and obviously people enjoy it as well, so. And it's

Rosemary Watson:

so niche, right? Like it's something that's so unique, and you've never, you don't see that everywhere, and I think that's the big thing. Thing is like, look where you can pivot, find ideas where you can pivot and find something like that that can give you inspiration and be like, okay, cool. I can do that. Something similar to that, but in this way,

Raymond Hatfield:

you know,

Rosemary Watson:

and that can totally make you stand out.

Raymond Hatfield:

Okay. So let's talk a little bit more about that. I want to dive into that a little bit more because just looking at that person's Instagram. Now I'm not, this is not comparing apples to apples here, but he had some sponsored posts like from Skittles. They sponsored a post from like Chapstick I think. So like this person's making money through, their Instagram. Probably a significant amount of money. I think he had like two million followers or something too. It was like insane. It was insane. And we talked a little bit about like niching down on what it is being super focused. But to somebody who's first starting out, I'm sure that they're, that they don't have this idea of like, you know what? I'm just going to take pictures of colorful geometric shapes in the hopes of getting sponsorships. So do you recommend starting out? People just shoot everything? Or should they start? being, very focused.

Rosemary Watson:

I recommend on shooting everything, but you don't have to share everything. So like shoot a bunch of stuff, see what you like, and it might take you and give yourself like a deadline. So treat it like school, right? Be like, okay, this quarter I'm really going to focus on just shooting anything and everything. I just want to get in the vibe. I'm going to throw everything in a creative market shop because in creative market, there is a, there you can decide what you're going to be, what kind of a shop. And if you are just like stock photos, you can just throw them up for two bucks. And like maybe you don't make that much money on them because who cares? Okay. But then when you're like, after that three months, I really realized that I love taking photos of food. Like food photography is my jam. Cakes in particular. I don't know what it is about cakes, but I'm just into it. And I love it. Start a separate account where you just sell cakes. You know, and then you start a separate Instagram if you want and then you can take the one down like I've done a lot this year of taking things down like I'm ready to clear my plate clear my mind and refocus on other things But I made the money that I made and it was great. Like I made the money I needed I pulled the money I needed out of whatever it is. I had done for a while I don't need to sell those for the rest of my life if I don't want to, and they always exist forever so in nine months you can put them back on. Like, it's great. It's an asset. That

Raymond Hatfield:

brings me to my next question, which is why, why would you take those down? You said that you made your money off of them. Why not just leave them up and let them continue to bring in an income?

Rosemary Watson:

For me, I'm going to streamline my brand this year. I feel like I said yes to so much this year and there's so much going on and it's just one more thing that I'm like, it's just kind of exist there. And I had, honestly, I had somebody three or four months ago that was like, Hey, I just bought this thing from you and I saw it come through my PayPal and I was like, I don't even know what that is. And it was something like ridiculous. It was like 2. It was literally something that was nothing. And I was like, I have no idea what you bought, but let me refund you your money. Cause I don't, I can't even, I don't even know where to find that. Like, like it was some like banner that I had designed like a hundred years ago. And I was like, okay, that right there. I don't want to spend my brainpower on that. Like I want to bring it all down, bring everything, like clear out my plate and just refocus and focus all my energy on these things. And for sure, like when, if it's going, my big strategy is like, Hey, next. Black Friday, maybe I throw all of those things up and put them back on for sale. And so they exist still. I can just offer them at certain times and just test out and see how that works. You know, like

Raymond Hatfield:

bundle or something like that,

Rosemary Watson:

for sure. Like buy my whole shop for a hundred dollars or something, you know, like. So those things, and again, I have them forever. There's nothing wrong with maybe in a year if I'm like, you know, I really kind of miss having those 15 sales every so often, you know, like that come through. I can put my shop back on, like I can put every single photo I've ever created. I still have them on a hard drive. Like I can throw them back all up on another shop and do it again. Like I could do whatever I want with them for the rest of my life.

Raymond Hatfield:

Going back to the whole, we were more willing to spend money on our business than we are in our family. Right. Recently, I found this resource of like, it's like photography tutorials and education and stuff like that. And like, each one is like, it's not that expensive. it's pretty cheap. It's really reasonable. It's like 10 to 15 bucks or whatever, but they have thousands of them. I mean, so many that you just think like, I could never go through all this. But they just I just got an email from them saying that they're selling their whole store like you could buy everything the whole thing and it was listed like 17, 000 and they were selling it for like 499 and I was like, that's a deal For half a second. I really thought about purchasing that when in reality I'm trying to think of anything like in my life right now that I'd spend 400 on that's not like a camera or

Rosemary Watson:

No, nothing. Something that

Raymond Hatfield:

we need around the house. And like, it's nothing. It's nothing.

Rosemary Watson:

You would never do that. Yeah. Like, it makes no sense. Yeah. That's what happens to you when you become a business owner, is you're like, you won't spend money on your personal life. Like, it's just weird. You know? It

Raymond Hatfield:

is weird. It's weird. was watching this documentary a long time ago on Enron and like how they failed or whatever. But the CEO of Enron apparently like, it like, at work, took out like the coffee machines no more free coffee, everybody. It cost us, like, 14 cents to give you coffee, so no more free coffee. We're putting in coffee vending machines. Like, he was, like, that strict on the dollar, right, to make money. But yet, in his own life, he was buying, like, I mean, he had, like, landscaped his entire house. He bought the two houses next to him to create, like, Japanese gardens next door. And it's like, that's kind of the opposite here. That guy is

Rosemary Watson:

just crazy. Yeah, that's somebody who doesn't like love their job. You know, like love what they're building. That's like the whole difference is I feel like photographers Oh

Raymond Hatfield:

wow, I didn't even think about it like that.

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, it's like so hard. There's, we just love it. If we didn't love it, we wouldn't do it. It's hard. And so anyone that's doing this and doing it as a business, it is because they can't not do it.

Raymond Hatfield:

Perfect. They just

Rosemary Watson:

love it.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh my gosh. You know? That's so strange. I thought that I was the weird one for a while. Like, oh, I'm more willing to spend money on my business than, than my personal life.

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, I don't know one photographer that wouldn't do that. Like, I don't know one photographer that goes anywhere, even like, like Disneyland. I went to Disneyland last weekend for a day with my husband and it was great. My husband's like, you don't need your camera. I'm like, I'm sorry. Why do you think I'm here?

Raymond Hatfield:

Yeah, this is a business expense.

Rosemary Watson:

This is for my business. Like I'm taking I'm creating content. What are you talking about? Like I have never go anywhere without my camera nowhere never ever like it's just part of me now, you know

Raymond Hatfield:

So you're obviously taking photos? You even just talked about how you have so many photos that sometimes you have to take them down. I want to know a little bit about the organization. How do you keep everything organized, on your computer so that you know where everything is?

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, I use Dropbox heavy, heavy, heavy. It's like my lifeline. And so I have Dropbox folders. And then of course I back everything up. So I have, like, terabyte, terabytes and terabytes of hard drives. Okay. From, you know, wherever. but I do keep everything really organized in my Dropbox folders, and I do, so like I told you before, I have a stock brand subscription that I've had for a while, and I've transitioned that even from a subscription where it's paid monthly, where it's just a one time lifetime purchase in the library, and actually, those are all being retired as well, because we are bringing something completely different, so again, I might bring that back, like I might next Black Friday be like, Hey, the stock brand library is back. You get, it's literally like almost 2000 images at this point where you get for a, like a one lifetime membership fee. so it makes sense, right? When I do those big bundles, but I keep everything in Dropbox folders. And so it's like the subscriptions and one creative markets in another, and then I put them by either products folders, like my subscription is collected by months. And so it'll be like September, 2015. Here's all the images. October, and it's very organized because I got a lot of things rolling in my life, and so it has to be very, like, My you would die if you saw my Dropbox folder

Raymond Hatfield:

Because it's so organized.

Rosemary Watson:

It's so like there's so many like layers to the folders.

Raymond Hatfield:

Oh, I see. I see. It's

Rosemary Watson:

insane You know, that's how

Raymond Hatfield:

my brain works too. That's that's exactly how my brain works So as you're describing this I was like that makes sense that absolutely makes sense. What about like in Lightroom? Do you keep everything? Do you edit your photos within? I do I

Rosemary Watson:

do edit them in Lightroom. Uh huh. Yep I keep them. I actually janna of Twiggypost. She's the one that showed me this methodologies I had different catalogs for every single like month What are you doing? Don't do that. She's like, put everything in one catalog and then you do collections. And I was like, Oh, okay. Yeah. And so now everything is just in one Lightroom collection or one, one catalog. And then I just do separate collections. So I have one stock brand subscription collection. And then each month when I create content, it's in those folders. So everything is very, like, as tight as I can get them organized. That way I can easily find things.

Raymond Hatfield:

That makes sense. That totally makes sense. Because I can't even imagine. You said that just your one, service has more than 2, 000 photos. Um, and if you're doing them in groups of, like, five or three, that's just It's just so much. Yeah. That's a lot of different collections. A lot of different collections. I want to know now a little bit about the gear, right? Yeah, so with wedding photography With landscape photography everything is different, right? What is some of the gear that you need to get started with stock photography?

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, I love it because it's very very entry level any camera I'm not even kidding you you could shoot on a phone and then It depends on the kind that you want to shoot, but I suggest everyone start with flat lays because it's the easiest to control. I would get just a white, a piece of white foam core board at, Hobby Lobby or a craft store. Yep. And just make it big enough to kind of look like a tabletop. That's it. And find a window. So you find a window, you try to get your light, right? It's going to take a lot of experimenting, depending on, do you shoot warm? Do you shoot cool? You definitely don't want hotspots. You don't want, direct light. So you might need to get some sheers on your windows, just depending on how the, how intense the light is. and where you're shooting. I shot on my back patio for years and years and years. just because the

Raymond Hatfield:

light was the best there.

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, the light was the best and it wasn't fancy. It was the perfect setup for me because it was the kind of covered shade, So like open shade really is what worked for me, but it just depends on how you like your photos. If you're heavy filters and you want it dark and moody, it's going to be different for everybody, but it's very simple setup. Like you can do it with whatever you want. I shoot with a Canon, Mark two, a five D mark two and I've a 50 millimeter. That's I've shot with that for my whole, the whole time I've done stock photos. That's

Raymond Hatfield:

it. That is really, pretty basic, pretty like minimal.

Rosemary Watson:

So basic.

Raymond Hatfield:

So what about now? we talked there, you just said, that, you can just find a good like window and have it lit that way. But do you use any sort of, lighting gear extra? is there like, what's the next step? You just, you shoot everything with open window. I

Rosemary Watson:

only shoot natural light. I do not shoot with lighting. That's all I do. And you can, like, plenty of people, you can do what you want, you know, if you love the lighting system and setup, I was like, no, I just want this to be as low key as I can make it, and I can shoot anywhere. I could do this anywhere. I could go on vacation and have a foam core board there that even folds out, or I could use a tabletop if there's, like, a beautiful table there. Like, I could do anything. I could do it wherever I am.

Raymond Hatfield:

I'm gonna have to find this email and send it to you, but there's a, uh, A well known, I think it's like a printing company who I, I get my prints from, they just sent me an email, that now they make, lay flat, like roll, like you can roll up this like beautiful lay flat thing and it's like, it's made for weddings cause like, you style the jewelry and the shoes and whatever, all in one place and sometimes if it's like gross hotel carpet and that's all that you have, you just bring this, it's in like a roll up thing, it looks really nice and they got a bunch of different varieties, I'll send it to you because that would be perfect, like for vacation, just take it with you. Totally. That's so cool.

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, it's the best.

Raymond Hatfield:

When it comes to, stock photography, I know that a lot of people probably don't aspire when they first, like, pick up that camera. Like, wow, this is great. I want to become a stock photographer. You know what I mean? Mm hmm. And I think that in the beginning it's because they see, like, oh, portraits. Like, I can see my child's face and it's very, very, like, fulfilling creatively. Do you get that same creative fulfillment from stock photography?

Rosemary Watson:

Oh yeah, 100%. I do. And that's just me. Everyone's different for sure. And so if you're like super into people, my whole thing though is storytelling. Like I've always, that's been the driving factor of photography for me for my whole life. No matter who I was shooting, what I was shooting, it was like, how can I tell a story? How can I convey a story in just images through this? And as long as I'm doing that, I'm fulfilled. Like I've definitely been to something where they're like, take photos of my real estate company. And it is the people. And I'm like, this is the worst because it's just, you know, because it's just like very, they're not telling a story. It's just take pictures of us. They don't care. And so I'm like, this was not what I liked doing. You know, it's, instead I would love to find a realtor where we can go in her office and talk about her life. And like, show pictures of her with her kids and like with a client and in front of a house that she just sold where that's storytelling, but just like showing up at a real estate office and people standing there in a row and just taking those pictures is like that's just not what I want to do. You know, so stock I feel like gives you the opportunity to control your environment in a way where you can make it as creative as minimal as intricate as you want you can do whatever you want with it so I for sure get the same like it's definitely my favorite You Former photography by far. It's just so fun. And it takes, for me, it takes the longest. Like I can rock out a portrait shoot so quick, but when I'm do styled stock, it's like, I always see 10 more shots that I could get. And so I'm always like, no, we're going to stay a little bit longer and do this one thing. And, oh, can you run to Trader Joe's and get me these things? Cause I'm missing these oranges that I need. You know, it's just, I get so into it and it's so fun and you can just make it as. long of a story or short of a story as you want.

Raymond Hatfield:

I'm not sure that before this interview I would have thought of stock photography as storytelling because I think, at least, for me every time I've seen stock photography it's always just like one photo and, uh, Totally. guess sometimes like you can tell the story like within that stock photo because sometimes there's like extra emotion, right? Yeah, but the way that the way that you're describing it the way that you have even changed your business just to package photos together to be able to tell a better story is it is wonderful It's really cool to hear because like I said I think you would traditionally think of storytelling as like with people and not like Paperclips, a rose, and a computer keyboard, but clearly, like, you're doing it and you found that. I just want to, tip my hat to you because that is, that's cool that you found this. And that you've made it your own, for sure.

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, it's the best.

Raymond Hatfield:

If you had to do it all over again, like, from the beginning, you had to start today picking up that camera for the first time to get to where you are today, is there anything that you would have done different to get here faster?

Rosemary Watson:

No, I don't know. I feel like it came fast enough, you know, like, I don't know. Like I just, I had so many different things that I was doing so I had, you know, I had the shop and I had some stuff on my website and my own WooCommerce shop and I had my subscription. I just tested stuff like I'm a tester. So I'm going to try it for a while. If it doesn't seem like it's working, let's try something different. Let's make shifts. And I would just encourage people to not to just freaking start. Like I started right away cause I'm just a fast starter and tester, like I said, but not everybody's like that. And so I think that the only reason I am where I am and I got to be to this place is because I tried different things. So the one thing that I might've changed was maybe dedicate more time to customer service. So for me, like I said before, it was very self fulfilling. Fulfilling. Like it was stuff that I needed and I put it on the shop and I was like, if people buy it, people buy it, but I wish I maybe would have taken more time to engage with those customers a little bit more and been like, thank you so much. What else can I create for you? Or even get in touch with them more and be like, Hey, I don't know if you saw this, but I thought because you bought this, this might work better for you. Just maybe starting that client's care a little bit earlier and more intentionally. That's what I would focus on is focus on the humans that are buying your stuff a little bit more. For sure.

Raymond Hatfield:

Do a little bit more of that market research because ultimately they're the people buying your work.

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah. Well, and just treating them like humans, right? Like a lot of us think so much of the numbers. So just our Instagram followers or our number of sales but, and we're like, this is awesome. They're giving us money, but like I, they're human beings at the end of this. Right. And so just treating them like humans and like you would any person that's walking up and buying something you, if it was in your hand, you would engage with them. You would thank them. If you saw them on the street, you would remember them and talk to them. And digitally we lose that. And so I would just like to get to a place where doing the same things, we're showing up similarly as we would in real life.

Raymond Hatfield:

Just when you said that, you gave me a really good idea that I'd love to share with you after we get out of this.

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah.

Raymond Hatfield:

cause I think, I think Anyway, okay. Well, we'll get into that here in just a second. Yeah. I don't want to waste the listeners time with me sharing this. Why don't you tell the listeners, because you've been super, super gracious with your time today. We've gone, once again, like always, I don't know why I keep doing this, we go way over our allotted time. But, um, can you tell the listeners where they can find you online, and if they want to know more about that? You and stock photography where they can find that?

Rosemary Watson:

Yeah, absolutely. You can find me@rosemarywatsonproductions.com. That's my website on Instagram at Rosemary Watson or my Facebook page. it's Rosemary Watson Productions as well. And there's gonna be links to all the things. I do more than just photography. I do all kinds of stuff and it's really intensely complex I feel like, to explain here. And so just find all the links to all my things on those platforms.

Raymond Hatfield:

Perfect. And of course, I'm going to link to each and everything that you talked about today, including the million dollar seller, the show notes of today's podcast. So if you're interested and you're driving, just head over there and find all the links. Rosemary, is there anything that I didn't ask you today that you want to make sure that the listeners know?

Rosemary Watson:

The only thing I would leave with is just, uh, Just start. Just start one. It's never gonna hurt you. You are a photographer. If you're listening to this, you're a photographer. You have photos. I know you have photos. So why not find 10 of your favorites, throw them up somewhere, whether that's Etsy, creative market, your own Facebook page. I don't care where, but just start getting the practice. Doing this imperfectly is going to get you closer to the perfect. So just start.

Raymond Hatfield:

That's so great. That's so great. I was just writing down that like beginners usually, if they're not working with clients, they have time. They have time. And this is the perfect time to not only practice your skills as a photographer, but potentially make a few dollars, on the back end. So.

Rosemary Watson:

And find out what you love. like you don't get the opportunity sometimes to like clients that might be sticky or picky or whatever to do the things that you're really passionate about. If you love cars, if you love cupcakes and cars, that could be a whole thing. Like it could be a whole shop. You know what I'm saying? And maybe some of your clients aren't going to want pictures of cars. So this gives you the opportunity to do what you want to do.

Raymond Hatfield:

don't think that we could have left on a better note than that. So again, Rosemary, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. I'm so looking forward to keeping up with you and checking out the new stock images that you keep coming up with in your store. So again, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

Rosemary Watson:

Thanks so much for having me. Thank you.

Raymond Hatfield:

All right. Huge thank you to Rosemary for coming on the podcast and sharing everything that she did. Here is today's action item from this interview with Rosemary Watson. And it is this, to create a visual story through your photos. All photos can be more than just snapshots if you bring intention to them. So what does that mean? So what I want you to do is to think of a simple story that you want to tell through some photos. Maybe it's your morning routine or maybe you have an afternoon coffee shop ritual. Maybe you're in this phase of life like I am, where your daughter has softball four days a week, whatever it is, I want you to create a series of images that evoke different parts of that story. Focus on the emotion and the mood that you want to convey and ask yourself, okay, what visual elements will I need to achieve that? For me, life feels extremely hectic at times, especially getting everything ready for softball. So one visual element that I might include is a slow shutter speed. Having a slow shutter speed, something like, I don't know, one 15th of a second will ensure that, my daughter's motion is exaggerated, Looking like it's just pure chaos going on and things are moving everywhere. So again, ask yourself what visual elements will you need to achieve to get the emotions or the mood that you want, and then, just take a handful of photos. Simply review those photos and then adjust the images to ensure that they do tell a cohesive story. And then go ahead and share them in the free and amazing beginner photography podcast community, which you can join right now by hitting over to beginner photo pod.com/group. We would love to have you, and we'd love to see your images as well. So that is it for today. Until next time, remember, the more that you shoot today, the better of a photographer you'll be tomorrow. Talk soon.