I’ve just come back from a wonderful few days under the Tuscan sun. Florence was my hub and went on short day-trips to Pisa, Lucca and Siena.

The weather was kind and the tourist crowds manageable. For those thinking about visiting Italy, late Oct is a great time.

How many images did I capture?

In total, I shot 450 images which will be going on various image banks depending on the type of image.  I’ll follow the same concept as my trip to Provence in submitting my images EXCEPT I’m strengthening my Stocksy application, which is currently at 65 images out of a maximum of 100.

I’m also taking my time more by carefully keywording, thanks to advice provided by Clemency Wright Consulting.

Premium images

Again, what I consider to be premium images will be going to strengthen my Stocksy application. In case my application is rejected (which I feel is more likely than not), these premium images will be going to Robert Harding, ideally as Rights-Managed (I let them decide). If they reject them, then Alamy as Rights-Managed. Last and certainly least go my more generic images to Microstock.

So here are what I consider to be my top 4 “Premium commercial images”:

Editorials

These will be mainly going to Alamy as either Rights-Managed or Royalty-Free depending on how rare I feel they are.

Capturing editorials on this trip was an interesting experience. Instead of capturing touristic landmarks, I was much more interested in capturing peoples’ exaggerated reactions to capturing such landmarks. We’re living in social media oversharing overdrive.

I’ll show you a few examples of what I mean:

At Pisa, this was most evident with dozens of people trying to emulate the famous and ridiculous “holding up the Tower of Pisa” gesture. Even doing back flips!

While watching tourists do silly things, I spotted an airplane flying overhead. It was a Ryanair plane taking off from the nearby airport. Here’s the image:

Difficult to see, so here’s the zoom at high-resolution:

I’ve duly contacted Ryanair about licensing this image and haven’t received a response. I believe they would be interested and may be used to advertise Pisa as a worthwhile location. Here’s the email:

Next came more serious editorials, such as following a gypsy lady around near Florence’s stunning Duomo cathedral. Keep your wallet/purse close…

Next are some images of the entrance to the oldest bank in the world, Monte Dei Pasqui di Siena. It also happens to be bankrupt with the Italian government having bailed out the bank in July. The ongoing debacle makes these images possess high editorial-potential.

Siena, Italy – October 28th, 2017: Headquarters in Siena, Italy of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest surviving bank in the world and going through financial troubles

Siena, Italy – October 28th, 2017: Headquarters in Siena, Italy of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, the oldest surviving bank in the world and going through financial troubles

Arty stuff

As usual, I love capturing artsy stuff that will be submitted to my growing Fine Art America portfolio, of which I’ve written about recently. I’ll also be submitting these to Arcangel Images where my portfolio on there has broken the 500-image mark, although no sales yet

I still have a bunch to go through, but here’s 3 of my favs:

Micros

Last and certainly least, are my images which will be going on Micros. These are by all means high-quality but more generic in nature. Here’s 5 of them:

Conclusion

Hope you enjoyed some of my adventure and I’ll be back with you in a few months to tell you how these have done.

In another news, a shortlist will be announced NEXT WEEK To determine if I’ll be going through the next stage to become the Travel Photographer of the Year. Also pending with Stocksy and Master of Photography. So good things are coming…fingers crossed!

Until next time!

Alex