Depositphotos Blog

We’re starting a blog post series called High Five, in which our contributors will share their visions about the stock photo industry. We want to give you various points of view in order to:1)give our newcomers insight into how the industry works, and 2) give our stock “dinosaurs” a chance to get to know their fellow stockers. Please note: We might not always share the opinions of our authors :) Today our contributor Alexandr Aleabiev speaks about five things one needs to become a great illustrator. You only need to take a look at Alexandr’s portfolio to see that he knows what he’s talking about. 1. Skills and imagination, and an ability to put them into action. Many of those who start their careers in the stock photo industry believe that they will be able to earn their first million without any effort, diligence, or imagination. Producing a lot of work isn’t the same as becoming successful. Stock images have to be interesting, colorful and bright, and reflect a certain style and taste. Plus, an artist must try to look at his own works from the point of view of his customers, yet at the same time keep some detachment as an artist. Monsters seamless | Stock Vector © Depositphotos | Sasha Aleabiev

We’re starting a blog post series called High Five, in which our contributors will share their visions about the stock photo industry. We want to give you various points of view in order to:1)give our newcomers insight into how the industry works, and 2) give our stock “dinosaurs” a chance to get to know their fellow stockers. Please note: We might not always share the opinions of our authors :) Today our contributor Alexandr Aleabiev speaks about five things one needs to become a great illustrator. You only need to take a look at Alexandr’s portfolio to see that he knows what he’s talking about. 1. Skills and imagination, and an ability to put them into action. Many of those who start their careers in the stock photo industry believe that they will be able to earn their first million without any effort, diligence, or imagination. Producing a lot of work isn’t the same as becoming successful. Stock images have to be interesting, colorful and bright, and reflect a certain style and taste. Plus, an artist must try to look at his own works from the point of view of his customers, yet at the same time keep some detachment as an artist. Monsters seamless | Stock Vector © Depositphotos | Sasha Aleabiev

The world is a very strange place. As children, we’d thought of the world as huge and almost endless; that we were very small creatures in a gigantic space. However, the rapid development of modern technology and social media have changed that impression. We can easily meet people who live in distant countries; we conduct conference calls via Skype; and we can view faraway lands at any photography website. Even when we travel to other countries, we are never totally separated from the people we care about back home, thanks to all the messages, pictures and life events we can share on Facebook, in email, or via video chats. Distances are rapidly becoming shorter. The feeling that the world is really tiny gets stronger every day; with today’s media, our planet is spread out right before our eyes. It’s getting so small and so familiar that we start wondering: Is it all real? Is it still the world of dangers, adventures and the unknown, or it is just a toy story captured by tilt-shift lenses?.. 

Kotor old town, Montenegro | Stock Photo © Depositphotos | Oleksandr Prykhodko

Sean Prior, CEO of the Irish-owned company Wavebreak Media, well-known to Depositphotos buyers as a Platinum contributor, has kindly agreed to give us a short interview. Crazy shoots and challenges, team and equipment, competitors and stock industry trends – these and other topics coming straight from the source. Please read below. Depositphotos: Sean, tell us about your team. What background do your employees have? Sean Prior: All our employees are highly creative and dedicated to producing top-class video and images. They very much share the same vision and work ethic. We have a good mix on our team but the common characteristic is that everyone has real passion for what we do. Depositphotos: How many people are usually involved in a shoot? Sean Prior: We could have as many as 40 people on set for a big shoot. This involves lighting, hair and makeup, styling, models, assistants, runners, production management and so on. It might sound a bit over the top, but think of a small Hollywood film and you might not be that far off. Depositphotos: What was the best and the most exciting project you've implemented? Sean Prior: There have been so many. We have done many crazy and bizarre things, but the most recent was when we rented an entire hospital for a week and spent about 70 hours shooting 40 models. We were allowed to turn on all the machines and even build a pharmacy in the hospital. It was just us and a large hospital with just one caretaker who we gave a bottle of whiskey to on the first day and he was happy to let us run around like kids. There is a very short behind-the-scenes on our blog. You can also see our director of photography in a cage with a cheetah, with just a man with a shovel to protect him. We also have one or two really crazy ones planned in slow motion – so watch this space.