Isolated wheat spike series

You can buy the entire series at iStockPhoto. If you are not an iStockphoto member, then I have made a small selection from the collection for my other agencies that you can select from on the bottom of this page.

I took the shot of my most successful photo series in last july. These photos are shot with several different techniques. Starting from the basic ones when the spikes are lieing on a white sheet, or with using a white wall while holding a boquet. Finally this series also holds a more creative shot where I have achieved isolation of the boquet by stabbing the spikes through the white sheet, so I can take a shot from above without having to think about how to hold the spikes standing during the shot.

The series presents the wheat spikes in various situations. First we can see several spikes in parallel and crossing positions, then we can see the spikes in boquets from different views points. There are some boquets that are isolated on white without any further decoration, however I have made several shots with our blue vases and spring decorations. Earlier, I have found out the scattered particles around the theme of the photo can be more attractive to the buyers. Therefore I have made some wheat spike shots that are laid among scattered wheat seeds, and with no surprise these are my most successful wheat spike shots.

My selection from Shutterstock:

• Wheat spike with seeds
• Bunch of wheat spikes
• Three wheat spikes with seeds
  

My selection from Dreamstime:

• Wheat spike with seeds
• Bunch of wheat spikes
• Three wheat spikes
  

My selection from Fotolia:

• Overhead view of wheat spike boquet
• Five diagonal wheat spikes
• Bunch of wheat spikes in a laid blue vase
  

Puszedli series

You can buy the entire series at iStockPhoto. If you are not an iStockphoto member, then I have made a small selection from the collection for my other agencies that you can select from on the bottom of this page.

Mezes puszedli is one of my favourite desserts, so it was obvious that I was useing this kind of cookies in my first real photo series. Since I did not found any meaningful translation for the name of the cookie I have come up with the name honey biscuit. This series were shot in my early days, I have tried to make shots of as many cookies I could stand not to eat while shooting. The biggest amount had gone to my favourite puszedli pyramid shots - unfortunately my buyers don't like it that much.

The series features the mezes puszedli in several situations all isolated on white. First it offers single cookies on white background. I have two color variations of the cookies: one with honey only and the other one with cocoa flavouring. These color variations offered my to play with different layouts and patterns, so the next kind of shots are offering nine multi colored cookies shot from above. Then I have moved towards the pyramid structure. The shoot includes side, diagonal and top views on the cookie pyramid. Each setup have alternate versions because I shot them with different coloring. Finally I have put the cookies in use and shot several photos about their everyday use on tea time or just as you would bite them.


My selection from Shutterstock:

• Single honey biscuit
• Single cocoa honey biscuit
• Honey biscuit with poppy seed

My selection from Dreamstime:

• Honey biscuits and mug with spoon
• Honey biscuit pyramid side view
• Honey biscuits and a jar

My selection from Fotolia:

• Honey biscuit pyramid side view
• Two piled honey biscuits with chocolate cover
• Three honey biscuits
  

Lightboxes on iStockphoto

After two months of data collection I have finally got to the point to publish my lightboxes and some of their data. On the course of these two months I have created 14 lightboxes. When I create a lightbox I also create a reference link in each photo that is added to the lightbox. The reference link shows my favourite or best selling image from the series among whith some simple text that I hope directs the buyers inside my portfolio. Some of the series are specific to a single shoot however some of them are general so it is possible that a single photo belons to multiple series therefore it could have multiple reference links.

Here is the current list of my lightboxes:

Series name	link to iStockphoto	Views	Icon
Honey biscuits	Link	9
Wheat spikes	Link	7
Isolated desserts	Link	5
Kiwi peeling	Link	3
City of Pécs, Hungary	Link	2
Chocolate cube assortments	Link	2
City of Miskolc, Hungary	Link	2
Aqua desserts	Link	1
Coco biscuits	Link	1
Half cut coconut	Link	1
Easter eggs and decoration	Link	1
Christmas	Link	0
Cocorod desserts	Link	0
Bathroom decoration	Link	0

As you can see I did not receive so many views on the lightboxes, however I have observed some sales that occured around the times the number of views increased on the lightbox including the sold image. Thus I think it is very useful to publish private lightboxes with your content. My other observation is related to the generic lightboxes. My most generic lightbox currently deals with isolated desserts, however it seems like the lightbox has much less impact than the specific lightboxes. It is also interesting to see that I have barely received views on the series (called coco biscuits) that holds my most frequently sold photo at Shutterstock. I am not worried the christmas lightbox, because I think it will become more popular in the christmas season. However my other series without any views might show the lack of interest on their topics. Alternatively they might not be clicked because the images I have added as their cover images are not suitable for advertising the series.
Finally I plan to discuss all of my lightboxes in a separate blog entry, so the first column will become more active as it would lead you to the blog entry I wrote about the specific series.