In a previous post I suggested the new 18 megapixel camera would change the value of stock photography and offered a way for a newcomer to get into the stock photography business.  I am pleased that I was able to purchase one of the first of these and will be taking it on a trip to photograph Arizona Wildflowers.  Today I built 18MegaPixels.com as a blog where I can talk about my experiences with the Rebel T2i and using it to build up my royalty free stock photography business.

I will also building out many of the photography related domains names I have accumulated and advertising them as 18 megapixel stock photography sites.  I will publish links to them here as soon as I have a few pictures published on all of them.

The Canon T2i will also make videos.  I have never worked with video but the more I think about it the more I see places where video would add to my websites.  I like to tie my pictures into the natural history of their locations.  With video I can show the panoramic view of an area and then emphasize specific features with still photos.  Together it will make a great teaching tool as well as a way to display the photographs I have for sale.

Stock photographs are now a product of the computer and they will rapidly loose value as a result.

Moore's Law refers to the graph Gordon Moore from Intel published years ago, which shows the power of computer chips has been doubling ever eighteen months for many years.  The conclusion is you can buy twice the power for the same money or the same power for half the cost, every eighteen months.

What does that have to do with stock photography?

As I write this, Canon has announced they will begin selling a new 18 megapixel digital SLR camera at the end of March, 2010.  They suggest you will be able to store about 40 images per gigabit.  In other words cameras are really computers and thinking of them in that way reveals future trends.  What does this mean to stock photography?

Every eighteen months to two years the image size for consumer level cameras is going to double.  I currently have an eight migapixel Canon which has been fine for most things.  However, we occasionally do have situation where I would like to crop a small area and print it larger.  Various Photoshop plugins will help with this, but a larger original would be better.

It seems to me the lower resolution contents of stock photography archives will have less an less value.  Every 18 months many of the photos in a stock photography collection will become worth less.  Certainly not everyone needs an eighteen megapixel image, but starting with one certainly improves your opportunities to crop the image into exactly what you want while still retaining enough pixel density to maintain quality.

I went to set up their system for buying pictures on Walking Rain Gallery and discovered the minimum price for a 4" x 6" print is $2.75!  Since I can buy them at Costco for $0.13 that isn't going to fly.

I understand they handle fulfillment and assorted other services but at those rates I don't think my idea for selling inexpensive, royalty free downloads will work financially.  I will have to find a different way.

PayPal is one option.  They have a "simple" shopping cart system that is fairly easy to add.  However, I have learned that no shopping cart is really easy.

SmugMug also offers a shopping cart for their pro level subscribers and the cost of products is much more reasonable.  Their system is very configurable and can be used to make really pretty sites.  The learning curve for someone like me whose technical skills are weak is steep.  I will have to see.

Walking Rain Gallery is named after the rain cloud patterns in the great American Southwest. The clouds have flat bottoms, and the rain often evaporates before it hits the ground.

Walking Rain Gallery is built to make it easy for visitors to find our royalty free stock photo websites.

Each of the  links on the left will take you to a page that describes that specific category in more detail and provides some examples of exactly what we are discussing.