“Martin, I didn’t know that you shot stock photos?”
Well, truth be told, it’s something I’ve done for a few years, but it’s the kind of photography that was always put on the back burner when I was busy with other commissions. So my approach to it was admittedly a bit haphazard. The arrival of a global pandemic and weeks of not being able to go out to work changed that, however. I drew up lists of thoughts and ideas, and started to work through them. I shot both in the studio and out on location, depending on the topic. I’ll be honest, it was a great way to remain creative during the early days of the first lockdown, and seeing the number of shots stack up was a great incentive to keep adding more.
During the first half of this year I shot getting on for 1000 stock photos, some of which are uploaded to Getty stock library (search for Martin Hambleton and you’ll see them), and some of which I sell directly. They cover a range of categories, themes and concepts. I’ve included a handful of food and ingredient shots to illustrate this post because …. well, who doesn’t like good food! But there are also business concepts, unusual angles of objects, and so on.
I’ve also been approached by people who are looking for new stock images to accompany blogs or social media posts, and I’ve been able to provide fresh images for them from the archive. So, if you’re in that situation (and let’s be honest, right now you should be posting regularly on behalf of your business, to keep yourself in everyone’s mind and let them know that you’re still working) and would like to talk about the kinds of areas you cover, please get in touch and I’ll see if I have something that might be suitable for you.
And, if you have a suggestion for a category or theme, feel free to let me know about it. I’m always looking for new ideas to add to the long list of stock shots.
