Stock Photo Costs

Recently I was trying to explain the stock photo business to an investment analyst and making the point that there comes a time when a photographer can no longer afford to produce stock images because his costs are greater than his income. The analyst was under the impression that a “stock photo” was one that had been produced, and paid for, while the photographer was on assignment for someone else. Thus the image was “expense free” to the creator. And, in theory, the only “additional costs” the photographer might have to make the image available for secondary licensing would be the cost of packing it up for shipping it to his stock agency.