Monday 17 December 2012

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Easter


Christmas is over, I’m afraid. At least, the opportunity to upload Christmas photos is over (you haven’t missed it, don’t worry).

If you’re really serious about selling holiday images (and I recommend you consider it, it can be quite a big earner), then you need to stay well ahead of the game. Most customers will be downloading holiday images months before the actual day, earlier each year, in fact, so the earlier you get your images out there, the more likely they are to sell. You surely must have noticed that Christmas adverts start around September these days… You should take advantage of that.

Come January, I’ll be shooting images for Valentine’s Day and Easter, when I have the time. These are always popular ones for advertisers, so you’ll have a good chance of getting images accepted and sold. It’s not difficult to choose what to photograph either, which is nice. Obvious things like love hearts, chocolates and plenty of red spring to mind, with eggs, rabbits and sunshine being obvious choices for Easter. These have been done to death, there’s no getting around it, so try and be creative with your images as always. You’ll quickly get a taste of what sells well and what doesn’t and hopefully you’ll be able to put your own spin on this; working with different angles and lighting on familiar subjects can often be just as creative as photographing something new.

You never know, you might have a look through the best sellers and spot something that’s missing completely that will go on to sell thousands of times. That’s what I’m hoping for, at least.


If you’re from a region or religion that heavily or uniquely celebrates particular celebrations, it’s worth making the most of this too, even if you think it’s a celebration that isn’t particularly commercial – you’ll always find buyers looking for images from religious festivals or patron saint’s days, shooting what you know is always a wise way to go.

As with a lot of subjects, the list of subjects to shoot is a long one. Naturally, each holiday comes with its own iconic images (Santa, Christmas trees, etc.…), which is a good starting place, but these are by no means the only things to shoot. The food associated is always similarly iconic and is often the most important of some people’s celebrations and the memories that the food triggers can play right into the hand of advertisers. Apart from this, decorations are often a good thing to consider shooting, especially if you can turn these into a background, as these are also potential top-sellers.

If you can get people in your photos too, do it. A smiling face or group of smiling faces can bring a celebration to life, so this is what people will want to see – make sure you get model releases signed though!

Start planning your next holiday images now, it may feel a little strange when you first take pictures of Easter eggs next to your Christmas tree, but it’ll be worth it when your photos are on there for twice as long as others.

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