Next weekend I will be going on assignment to Eastern Europe. On the side, I am planning on doing some stock photography, weather and time permitting. If you follow the various newsgroups, and some of the blogs related to stock photography, you will notice a huge amount of people complaining about their photos being rejected by the various stock agencies.

Photoshelter with their school of stock photography has published a couple of great article on why they accept and more importantly examples of photo they have rejected including the why of their rejection:

1. How to Sell Your Travel Photos: Visual Examples
2. Travel Photography for Stock - A Primer

Travel imagery is supposed to be inspirational, not documentary, so it should be positive.

• Tilted horizons
• Not giving enough information about the location
• Photos that don't make the viewer want to visit the place
• If the photo does not identify a specific place, it must be outstanding (i.e. the iconic beach shot)
• Panoramas including hotel balcony
• Problematic colour balance
• Tourists looking at street vendors display
• Images with local people shouldn't depict them as destitute or sickly
• Improper caption such as: “An old car in Havana” instead of “A 1956 Chevy outside café in Downtown Havana” or “Yosemite National Park” instead of “Half-Dome in Yosemite National Park, CA”
• Already too many images in file on that topic, unless yours is so much outstandingly better than everything else in file
• and many others…

Photoshelter and the other stock agencies are not documentary outlets, they are just market places for buyers and sellers.