Taking Stock: Make money in microstock creating photos that sell

2. What Is Stock Photography?

Originally born of outtakes from photographic assignments, the word stock referred to images that were part of a photographer’s archive (think stock on store shelves as opposed to the stock market). These existing photos could be licensed to interested parties for specific uses, and in return, could provide the photographers with an additional income stream beyond the original assignment. Over time, as photography, media consumption, and technology evolved, the production of stock imagery came into being as an end unto itself. Now there are millions upon millions of stock images sitting on virtual shelves across the Internet being searched, downloaded, and used by people with a variety of needs and uses in mind. ...