Hey all,
I’m fortunate that I have some friends visiting from the UK for the weekend. I suggested we go up to Lake Como, which is only 1-hour train ride from Milan.
These mini-trips, including bike trips in Italy, serve me a great opportunity to combine some relaxing leisure time with shooting for stock & fine art. In this post I’ll explain why I shot what I shot and where I’ll submit them to ensure that they hopefully will be downloaded regularly.
Arriving in Como
Leaving behind the humid and hot city of Milan, arriving in Como was a delight as the air was clear and crisp as it rained overnight…the best conditions for photography! It was only my second time in Como so still a bit of an adventure and lot’s of new places to experience.
Next, headed along the promenade to take in the scenery.
A blonde bombshell photobombs my scene!
Right when I was taking some images of the centre of Como with a telescope in the foreground, a blonde bombshell decides to lie down and relax close to me! Whether she did so purposely or not so I could take some shots of her I don’t know but I managed to anyway (keeping in mind that her boyfriend/husband may be nearby).
I managed to get some nice shots of her from the side and behind and maybe maybe maybe [UPDATE: they were all accepted] these will be accepted as commercial images as her face isn’t visible. I previously wrote an article on taking pictures of people and how to still get them accepted as commercial – check it out here with this link.
House-hunting for my retirement
I found a perfect house which I’ll make an offer in a few decades when the world has gone to shit and I just wanna chill out next to the lake, with hopefully a good internet connection.
Chillin’ in Bellagio
The real and authentic Bellagio is located a 30-minute boat’s ride away from the city of Como. It’s a cute touristy town and since I was there on a Friday afternoon it wasn’t so busy and managed to capture the following postcard scene without many people.
Next, we went to the tip of the Bellagio peninsula. I love panos and I did one capturing 5 shots with the intention of stitching them together later in Lightroom – here’s the result:
On the way back to the centre of town, I saw someone with their feet up on the terrace. Not too sure what to make of this image and whether it has stock potential but I took it anyway and I’ll think about it!
Golden Hour!
By the time we were going to catch another ferry across the lake to Varenna, the sun was setting and producing some spectacular effects. I was happy to snap away while my friends enjoyed a drink at a terrace.
Taking the boat across the lake
While taking the boat across I didn’t bother so much with shots of the colourful architecture of Bellagio as the ones I shot on my last trip didn’t sell at all as there’s probably too much competition as it’s such a popular tourist destination.
Therefore, I was looking for something special and unique to make it stand out.
Images of the town of Varenna across the lake are also extremely popular, but I managed to include a small airplane within the frame, thus making it more unique than the competition. I’ll still submit at to micros as it’s generic and should get some repeat downloads!
At Varenna
Arriving at Varenna, the light was just perfect! Along another promenade, I managed to fine some nice spots:
I found some beautiful frames to shoot into for my fine art collections
Sunset
I didn’t have my tripod with me but managed to learn my camera against a railing for a long-ish exposure of the sunset setting with some boats on the foreground.
That’s it folks – what a perfect day at Lake Como. Hope I brought some positive energies to your day and looking forward to some comments!
Alex
Alexandre Rotenberg's Brutally Honest Guide to Stock Photography & Footage 
Interesting post. I’d be interested to see if Robert Harding accepts some of the shots though. I’m not sure the terrace shot is very interesting and I think the boat rail across all the tourist faces definitely spoils that shot. You could crop it for a great photo of the mountains! The one with the tunnel of love is very nice though! I’m not convinced that waiting for the occasional “big” sale is worthwhile though – time will tell of course, but I’m less sure it is a good strategy.
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I’m at a bit of a conundrum in regards to Robert Harding and RM at alamy. Even though I haven’t got any sales with RH (which would def have occurred at micros), it’s too early at a stage for me to give up on the strategy. I have the figure of 500 images in mind over one year. If nothing substantial comes out of it then I’ll adop the RF everywhere strategy which is safer and guarantees returns. Perhaps I’m being stubborn but I need to stick with it!
As for arcangel images, I’m already at 500 images and it’s been more than a year so I need to start considering other options!
I do love the tunnel of love, RH Will take it for sure!
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What about that blonde!?Haha
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Did she acknowledge at all that you were photographing her?
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As per your advice, please check out my “God’s rays over Lake Como” fine art print, do you like it?
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Hi Alex, I really like the cropped version of the sun’s rays coming over the mountain.
You’re doing lots of great work lately. Looking forward to seeing more of it.
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Thanks! Let me know when you’re back in Milan and we’ll go out shooting! :))
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RH has just accepted the tunnel of love one as RM…let’s see how it does…
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It looks like a beautiful area and you captured some great images for stock – both micro and mid range – and fine art.
Would that editorial image of the train really sell? It doesn’t seem well lit but I don’t know how much that matters for editorial photos.
I think your last sunset photo would be a great fine art photo.
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Nope, she ignored me but there were a lot of clicking sounds so she must have sensed something going on haha, but was weird that she went purposely into the frame. Anyway, happy that SS has accepted them and they’re pending with Fotolia.
“Would that editorial image of the train really sell?”
It’s not the greatest of shots as deep shadows, although if I put in the search engine “como, train, station”, there aren’t many of those similar images around, which for a lack of choice buyers may just go for my image. I may rework it a bit and brighten it up as it does look a bit too dark. I do like the passengers there on the platform leaving the train, makes it more interesting than just the train and station.
My post popular train pic is this one:
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-april-7-2016-inside-409457578?src=blkrhVxjxeLMPnV-fbKm8A-3-14
It’s been downloaded 18 times and has earned me about $10.
“I think your last sunset photo would be a great fine art photo.”
I agree! Sunsets are really tricky in stock as there’s just too many of them.
Alex
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Ooops I think the link I put earlier was internal…try now…
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