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A tale of a popular stock photo...part deux.

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Back in October of 2018, I made a blog post about this stock image that I made and how it was selling like hot cakes.

As of yesterday, this image went past 3,000 individual sales. It has blown me away how popular this image is for stock photography buyers all over the world. I thought the image would eventually get buried under the millions of new stock images that get uploaded every single day and sales would slow down, but it just keeps on chuggin’. Even though the world has basically been shut down for two months, apparently there’s still a big demand for an image of generic musical instruments. Who knew?

End of the year(and decade, eeeek!) wrap up!

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It’s the last day of 2019 and I’m wrapping it up with a final blog post of the decade. This year was a whirlwind and I ended it with a flurry of imaging. Here’s a look at some of the work I was able to sneak in, just before we enter the “roaring twenties”.

Cheers to all of the awesome people I got to work with this year!

Magazine Roundup!

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I recently had a bunch of work go to press. I shot the cover and all of the section openers for Best of Lawrence Magazine again this year. This issue had me photographing a girl in a gold body suit. It was weird, right up my alley.

Also shot the cover for Douglas County Newcomers Guide, an aerial image I made back in the fall. This issue also ran a story about my friend and local outdoor adventuring madman, Jonathan Groene. The story uses a couple of images that I shot of him on his bike, back in the winter. The article is about how Jonathan founded 38North, a group of wacky Kansas adventurers(I’m one of them!). Check out 38Northfest.com if you’d like to learn more about what we do and get involved! Another fun fact about Jonathan, he built my studio!

Rounding out this magazine roundup are images that I made for Lawrence Magazine of local bartenders and the amazing paper artist, Angie Pickman. Check out her super cool work….Rural Pearl!

Cocktail Time!

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For the winter issue of Lawrence Magazine, I photographed three local bartenders making their own specialty cocktails. I taste tested the drinks at the end of each photoshoot and gave all three the “B. Goodman thumbs up”. It was a tough assignment, but I managed. Click an image to see the spread.

Magazine Time!

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I recently had a couple of cover shoots for two local magazines, Lawrence Magazine and Discover Eudora. The shoot for Lawrence Magazine featured three local-ish bartenders who have created their own special cocktails. I visited J. Wilson’s restaurant, Ladybird Diner, and the super cool/funky Myers Hotel in Tonganoxie, KS. Kate from the Myers Hotel is featured on the cover and she made a delicious Smoky Sage Carrot Margarita. She actually smoked the sage in the glass before adding all the fixings(upside down glass with the smoke in the photo below)…and it really put that Marg over the top! Big perk to this assignment was getting to sample all of the drinks…

For Discover Eudora I got to spend some time hanging with the Eudora Fire Department. They just got a brand spankin’ new fire truck and I even got to sit in it. It’s a volunteer fire department and they were super nice and accommodating. Firefighter Genevieve was adorable and I’m glad she made it to the cover.

One more bonus cover was for the Kaw Valley Farm Tour booklet that features a pretty stellar image I shot of one handsome chicken.

Check out the spreads!

A tale of a popular stock photo...

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Stock photography is a touchy subject for commercial photographers these days. The stock business underwent a huge change with the introduction of digital photography. Now that everyone including their Grandmas can shoot and upload stock images, the competition is enormous. A lot of photographers say you can’t make a living selling stock images anymore and I say foowee!(or is it foowy?, fu wee?..eh you get what I’m saying!)

I’ve been in the stock business for over 12 years and in that time I’ve built a portfolio of more than 2,500 images. It’s a fickle business, you shoot something that you think will sell like gang busters and then it never does. Some images just sell better than others, no rhyme or reason. This is a little story about an image of mine that has sort of gone “viral” in the stock photography world.

Earlier this year, I shot a series of images that feature a collection of musical instruments. Basically, I threw a bunch of instruments on the floor of my studio, set up a couple of lights…badda bing badda boom…I made this shot…

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Fast forward to now and this image has sold more than 1,200 times. I don’t know why this image is so popular, but I sell it on average 10 times a day. It is by far the most popular stock image I’ve ever shot and it took me maybe thirty minutes to make. It blows me away to see how this image has been used. It’s been used by a university in Bogota, the Viva Citizenship Institute of Brazil, and even on the Quito Ecuador travel site. I think it’s pretty cool and it really motivates me to keep making stock images. (below are just a few samples showing how this image has been used)