The experience led me to think more about what I do with my photos and what I could be doing with them. I typically shoot photos, upload them to Flickr and other photo sites, make albums of them for my husband and I, and share them with family and friends. But then I just let them sit. Periodically, people will find some of my Flickr photos through searches they’ve done, but otherwise the photos remain on my computer and hard disks, taking up space.

Of course, I love having these photos, and I certainly wasn’t thinking of deleting them. But I started to wonder if there was anything else I could do with them. I now have more than 4,000 photos in my digital photo library, and many of them are travel photos that feature cities and other destinations—and a few of them even resemble photos I’ve seen in guide books and on websites.

By doing a little research online, I discovered that many professional and amateur photographers authorize their photos to be used as stock photographs. Stock photographs are photos that people have already taken that can be licensed to others for free or for a fee. The fees vary, based on the quality, size and relative popularity of your photos, but it appears that a good amateur photographer can earn a decent amount of extra spending money by making their photographs available. And good photos are in demand, as many guide book publishers, website designers, advertisers and others are choosing to use stock photography rather than hiring photographers to save money.

There are a number of stock photography sites online—Flickr is actually one. If you’re a member of Flickr and interested in allowing others to use your photos for free, you can learn more about it by reading Flickr’s Creative Commons page. If you’re a member of Flickr and interested in allowing others to use your photos for a fee, Flickr has partnered with Getty Images, one of the largest suppliers of stock photography in the world. For more information on that, you can read Flickr’s FAQ on Getty Images.

I found a few other good stock photography site recommendations through an article on Freelance Switch and a podcast by the Digital Marketer. Many stock photography sites are picky about what they will accept from photographers, so I do recommend that you read a site’s instructions to photographers, their terms of service, their payment schemes and their FAQ’s before you join. But once you get through the initial hurdles of setting up your account(s) and uploading your photos, you can sit back and hopefully start making a nice passive income!

As always, thanks for reading my blog, and good luck putting your photos to work for you!

Copyright © 2009, Kathy Keating and TechKathy.com. All rights reserved.

If you’d like to read David Pogue’s article and get all five of his tips for better photographs, just click this link:

www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/technology/personaltech/18pogue-email.html?_r=1

In addition to those Pogue talks about in his article, I’d like to give you a couple more tips of my own that I’ve picked up from experience and by talking to professional photographers. These apply when you’re taking basic portrait style photos:

1. Have your subject pose in front of a wall or background of a different color than what he or she is wearing. For instance, if I want to take a photo of my friend and she’s wearing a white shirt, I would try to find a dark colored wall for her to stand in front of. This technique creates a nice contrast, and it ensures that your subject will stand out in the photo.
2. Have your subject close their eyes for a moment, think a happy thought, and then open their eyes just before you snap the photo. Your subject will look more relaxed and natural (i.e. less posed) when you do this.
3. Have your subject crouch down (or stand on a higher plane than them), if your subject has a bit of a double chin. At this angle, double chins are much less noticeable.

I hope some of these tips will help you take better photos during the holiday season and beyond! And if you have any great tips for taking better photos with your digital camera, please post them in the comments section. I’d love to learn some new strategies and I’m sure other readers would too.

As always, thanks for reading my blog, and I hope you have very happy holidays!

Copyright © 2008, Kathy Keating and TechKathy.com. All rights reserved.