digitalbristles.com

digital bristles is a Symbiostock site by photographer and illustrator Jo Ann Snover.

I’ve been selling a variety of travel and lifestyle stock images and illustrations through microstock agencies since 2004. I started with iStock and then added Shutterstock (I’m contributor 249 there!) and others as this way of selling took off. See one of my blog posts about the shift from selling through agencies, who take up to 85% of what the customer pays, to the fair trade model of Symbiostock.

I have some studio shots – of invoices, books, water bottles and other objects – and even model as a representative of the baby boomer generation. I also have travel images from the Caribbean, Hawaii, England and around the US. My teenage son’s messy bedroom and my messy home office also model for me (in both cases looking suitable as a messy stock image only after extensive cleanup!). Many of the Christmas images are using our family Christmas decorations and the jack-o-lanterns are ones designed by my son and carved by me. There should be an authentic feel to the images of home and family because they are captured from our daily life.

I love water – the ocean and lakes. I have beaches in many parts of the world in my stock collection – rocky, sandy, stormy or sunny, I never turn down a chance to go and smell the sea air. Having grown up in England, and gone swimming in cool-ish (that’s being kind) water, I do have a soft spot for the white sands and turquoise waters of the Caribbean!

My work is typically colorful and bright – life as nature made it, or sometimes as it should have been. I like to be able to enhance the scene – either via subtle HDR work or compositing – so it becomes a very personal view. I’m not shy about pulling weeds or adding to the flower bed in Photoshop!

Selling direct but as part of the Symbiostock network of independent artists allows customers to interact directly with the people producing their imagery if that’s needed, but still get a great deal on license purchases. The broader selection of images available via a network of sites – growing all the time – makes it easier for buyers to find what they’re looking for, even if it isn’t on my site.

Making things work smoothly for buyers is what we all want after all