So it's official! After quite a lengthy process, I have finally been accepted as a contributing member of the iStock team. I first applied almost 2 years ago. I was told flat out no, come back when you have more experience. Last year I decided to re-apply. After a few weeks I got a reply saying they had looked at the three images I submitted and would like to see more examples of my work. After thinking of what to submit for another few weeks, I submitted three new images. I then got a message back saying two of the images in the set were too close in subject matter and to please find three new images and re-apply again in a few weeks time. Sigh. So I went through it all over again... had to think of three new things, totally unrelated, to photograph. I think at this point, I took a couple of months off. Finally, I came back and got my three images uploaded and submitted. Later that week I got an email saying only two had successfully uploaded and I would need to submit three new images! At this point, you can image it was enough to just give up. But I've been wanting to do this for a long time and there was NO way I was giving up when I felt SO close to succeeding! I waited the mandatory waiting period and submitted three new photos. A week later... Success!! Finally!
So I uploaded my first set of images for actual submission. The hard part was over, right? Wrong. Only one image out of the 5 or so that I submitted was approved. This time, however, they provided each rejected image with a reason for not being accepted. Something at least I can use to work on. So I took a long hard look at the images that had come back and there were the mistakes, plain as any eye could see... how could I have missed all of that?!? I learned a lesson last week. It doesn't matter how many images I take (or submit) if the quality isn't good. I think I've been getting a bit lazy. I knew I could do so much better! I re-edited the images and re-submitted them, as well as some new images I took while on a little exploration trip up the highway here along the Columbia River Gorge. I was pleasantly surprised this week when I checked my inbox and found it full of acceptance emails for all my images!
It takes a couple of days for everything to show up all pretty and organized in my portfolio once the images have been accepted, but here is the link to my iStock Portfolio I have gobs of ideas to start shooting now that I've been approved. I've even had one of the images downloaded already... earned me a whopping 22 cents! LOL. Yeah, not going to be retiring on my iStock income any time soon, but it just gave me this big boost I've been needing emotionally, and I can't wait to really start doing some cute, quality images!
