Hottest Stock Photography Category??

[poker]

I haven't done concrete research in stock photography just yet but I will be picking up a book or two on the subject. I have to admit, I'm dying to make it to the point of selling at a least ONE photo this year. I think it would make nice personal achievement.

Anyway, what do you think are categories in stock photography that can make a buck. What's hot right now and what can sell at any given time of the year (not fad oriented).

Here's funny story. We are working on a website for a retirement home and we were inspired by a website of an existing retirement home. As we were developing our draft, we picked a royalty free photo from our library. When we looked at the inspiration website, we picked the same photo on their watermark!!! How freaky is that???

After reading your opinions and doing more research, I'll be deciding what gear I'll be buying next to accomodate such projects.

Your comments are most appreciated

[poker]

My brother-in-law's former boss spends hours at the Los Angeles Zoo just to take pictures. He has an agent that sells his photos and they've ended up on calendars. I wanted to get more info but his boss refuses to share his process stating that he worked really hard to get where he is now, in other words, "do your own research."

Whoah....to each his own.....

[Tel]

I've heard some of the best selling ones are a bunch of people looking businessy around a computer. You know, stuff that businessmen can throw in a power point presentation.

[MonkeyWrench]

I am not sure if online stock photo outlets are the way to go, but you can at least do some research there. Most if not all will list what is Hot and what is Not. Some will even list how often images have been downloaded for use. Good Luck.

[Medley]

If you're photographing objects, or even portraits, it will improve the chances for sale to put them on a stark white background. As a semi-professional Photoshopper, I can tell you that when I look for elements to include in a work, I judge how easily they can be extracted from the background. White makes for easy extraction in a variety of ways. And in the business of Photoshop (as with most business), time is money.

-Joe U.

[Ronnoco]

I have purchased about 1,000,000 royalty free images and have made extensive use of them. Those that I am most interested in, are without backgrounds that I can use for graphics purposes. Although I have a lot of my own shots too, sometimes you need a very specific shot of an older style phone, phonograph, or something else that would be time consuming to replicate.

Powerpoint Presentations can also be created very quickly and efficiently with a combination of personal photography and royalty free objects.

Graphics work with a combination of personal photography and royalty free images gives me the flexibility to get involved in a broader range of projects and a wider range of profit margins since I don't always need to factor in the cost of finding specific items and shooting them.

Ronnoco