One of the models I shot this weekend is an art director with a cosmetics company. During the shoot she and the makeup artist were talking about all the people they’d shot with and I knew none of them. Then we were all talking about models and modeling agencies. In the course of this discussion I started seeing there was a whole other photography community than the one I’m part of.

After the shoot she and I were talking about shooting stock and it came home to me even more. Do I want to be a portrait and wedding photographer? Or do I want to do the other kind of photography?

There is the world of commercial photography. Which has much fewer photographers in it. But these guys are good and they compete for the big money shoots. So if I want to do that I need to take my photography to the next level. And can you break into that world part time?

Stock might be a way to do that. Randi was telling me how they use stock all the time. Even the covers of their monthly magazine are stock. So here’s away to go commercial without having to sell to the companies.

One of the things I also learned was I need to learn all kinds of photography. Not just shooting pretty girls. I need environmental portraits. I need architecture and I need still life.