How do I go about the business-end of stock photography re: models, etc.

[laura2]

<p>I've actually got a bunch of questions in regards to stock photography.<br>

I did some work for a friend of mine shooting her rare breeds of cats. Her friends, which are also enthusiasts, want to buy gallery wraps of my work. I'm going to give her a contracted cut on any print sales of the photos.</p>

<p>This leads me to think it may be lucrative to do some stock photography work. Now, if I wanted to work with people or their pets, how would that work? Do people usually trade photo shoots for photo rights? Do people pay to have their photos taken, and then sign over their rights for stock use? Is it good karma or an outright necessity to pay a royalty to the individual in the photo? I have no idea where to begin -- even a book that would help me on this topic would be a great suggestion.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>Start here, he tells a lot about it, without having to buy his books<br>

http://www.danheller.com/</p>

<p><Chas></p>

[tonybynum]

as for pet photography specifically, google, "nature wildlife and pet photography" the forum has a great

community of business pet photographers . . .

[mikael_karlsson]

<p>Laura:<br /><br />Portraits, pets or no pets, in general might not be the best selling stock images. Think content and concept. It's good if something happens in the image, it's good if the image contains content not readily available, etc. Look around at various agencies (Corbis, Getty, Alamy etc) to see if they have any of the type of images you plan to make. If not, that might be a good indicator of how marketable, or not, this type of images are.</p>

[fingersandfeet]

<p>http://www.agefotostock.com/phroad/ingles/phroad00.asp</p>