Cameras

Twitter?s limitations mean that it might not be a great place to show off a photo gallery, but the site can still be a valuable resource for photographers, both amateur and professional. We?ve scoured Twitter and produced a categorized list of all the accounts that can help photographers improve their picture-taking, and produce and sell their images. This isn?t a list of photographers on Twitter; it?s a list of businesses, organizations and outlets on Twitter that can help photographers. We?ve provided the name, the Twitter username and, in most cases, an edited version of their bio.

Photography Organizations

Wedding and Portrait Photographers International @WPPI_2010

professional photography organization that puts on professional photography trade show and convention every year.

S F Camerawork @sfcamerawork

A non-profit organization that encourages emerging and mid-career artists to explore new directions in photography and related media.

The Lucie Foundation @luciefoundation

Non-profit photography organization aimed at encouraging and exhibiting photographers of all styles.

North American Nature Photography Association @nanpa_news

National Press Photographers Association @nppa

National Press Photographers Association: advancing professional visual journalism through education, information, networking, business resources and advocacy

White House News Photographers Association @whnpa

White House News Photographers Association

NAPP @NAPP_News

National Association of Photoshop Professionals (led by Scott Kelby), resource for Photoshop training.

ASMP @ASMP

ASMP ? American Society of Media Photographers

PPA @OurPPA

Photography association

Photo Labs and Supplies

Apollo Photo@apollophoto

Online, full-service photo lab specializing in digital prints, press-printed photo products, specialty photo items, and studio marketing products and services.

F-11 Photographic @F11Photo

Photographic supplies store and full service lab.

McKenna Pro Lab @McKennaPro

Pro Lab.

PhotoWeek @Photomart

Digital Photographic Supplies

Pictureline @pictureline

professional camera store.

foto care@FotoCare

sales, support and rental of all of the latest gear.

Jennifer Vasile @probackdrops

Professional Backdrops

Elephas Creations @SudhirShivaram

Nature and Wildlife Photography Solutions. Lens Library (lens rental), Photography Workshop, Outdoors, Stock Photography.

Photography News @PhotogNews

News about new cameras, digital photography tips, equipment reviews, and examples

Nikon Pro @NikonPro

Nikon news, Nikon tips, and information about photography and Nikon equipment. Written by Mike Downey @mdowney

DigitalFusion Rental @DFrental

Professional Digital Photography Equipment Capture and Rental

Doug Murdoch @thinkTANKphoto

professional photography equipment manufacturer

Robert Medina @thelightcaddy

Off Camera Flash Photography Equipment Bag

Chris Klapheke @ChrisKlapheke

Online nature photography equipment retailer

Sinar Bron USA @Sinarbron

distributes professional photography equipment in North America

Photography Reviews @photoreviews

Providing reviews of photography equipment, cameras, tripods, lenses, monopods and more

Camera Cart @Cameracart

photography rental equipment

Owen?s Originals @OwensOriginals

Photography Equipment Seller

Intova @Intova

Carl Fischer @nikoncameralens

blog on digital camera lenses.

Peter Wipf @alzodigital

Designer and manufacturer of video and photography equipment

Henry Posner @bandhphoto

B&H: The Professional?s Source since 1973

Lee Filters @leefilters

Cameta Camera @cameta

A Camera Store

LensRentals.com @LensRentals

Internet photo/video rental company, presently carrying 2014 copies of 281 lenses, plus cameras and accessories

Calumet Photo @calumetphoto

Camera retailer selling Nikon, Canon, Hasselblad and more.

Leica Camera AG @leica_camera

Hasselblad USA @hasslebladusa

Stock Agencies

John Lund @stockphotoguy

Stock Photographer, Stock Blog, Photog Interviews, Photoshop stories?

iStockScoop @iStock

iStockScoop: The ultimate (unofficial) resource clearinghouse for all istockers!

istockcharts.de @istockcharts

Shutterstock images @Shutterstock

Subscription Royalty-Free Stock Photography

Tyler Olson / Leaf @microstockgroup

A meeting place for microstock photographers.

iStockphoto @istockhelp

Online Stock Photography Community

Getty Images @GettyImages

Dreamstime @dreamstime

Image Source @ImageSource

royalty free stock photography.

Sodapix Photo Agency @Sodapix

Stock Photography @dynamitestock

Stock Photography site offering low cost economical images for immediate download.

painet @painet

Stock Photo Agency & Photograph Search Engine & photography research. Painet publishes topical websites of images as Twitter Tweets.

Maggie Hunt @StockShop

Exclusive Model Released Stock Photography

Phototake, Inc. @Phototake

Medical Images ? Illustrations-Photography-Microscopy & Custom Work

Stock Photos @Colorado_Image

Stock photography focused on Colorado, licensed for advertising and promotional use? follow for newest photos

Aurora Photos @Aurora_Photos

Stock photography agency based in Portland, ME with offices in NYC, CA and London offering an archive of exotic, visually dynamic, and diverse imagery.

EmageStock @emagestock

The Site of Natural Photography Stock

picNiche @picniche

Automatically reporting stock photography niches found scoring above 400. Follow (@bobbigmac for info )

Matt Brading @OzImages

Stock Photography Co-op. Follow for photographer and library updates.

AVID StockPhoto @AVIDStockPhoto

royalty-free stock photo subscription

Amy J. Boyd @amyjboyd

IPhoto Researcher for a stock photography company, also directing and producing my first independent documentary about a local non-profit cinema arts co.

fotosearch @fotosearch

Stock photography and stock footage website.

NoEquivalent Art @noequivalent

A fine art and stock photography store ; focus on High-end Wall Decor and Unrestricted Exclusive Stock images.

visualsafari @visualsafari

Creative Wildlife, Landscape, Nature & Travel Stock Photography.

colouria Stock Photo @colouria

Edited stock photography collections

Cutcaster @cutcaster

Product Outlets

Zazzle.com, Inc. @zazzle

custom products marketplace

cafepress @cafepress

Etsy! @etsy

handmade marketplace.

blurbinc @blurbinc

Real books. Made by you.

SmugMug @smugmug

Photography Magazines

LayersMagazine @LayersMagazine

The How-To Magazine for Everything Adobe®. 

Jpgmag @jpgmag

Magazine made by you.

Photoshop Creative @PshopCreative

magazine for Adobe Photoshop inspiration and advice

Advanced Photoshop @advancedpshop

The magazine for Adobe Photoshop professionals

ePHOTOzine @ePHOTOzine

photography community.

Lens Culture @lensculture

online magazine celebrating current trends in international contemporary photography, art, media, and world cultures. Edited by Jim Casper

1854 @1854

weekly magazine for professional photographers.

Photography Monthly @Photomonthly

The photographic community. Galleries, camera equipment reviews, tips, techniques and locations.

Amateur Photographer @AP_Magazine

photography magazine

414 Magazine @414Magazine

BCP Magazine@BCPMagazine

Breakfast Club Photography Magazine, a magazine by photographers

1000 Words@1000wordsmag

online magazine dedicated to highlighting the best of contemporary fine art photography in the UK and beyond.

LiveNLoud Magazine @LiveNLoud

Music Photography Magazine

PicturaPixel @picturapixel

Pictura means painting, image. Pixel is the smallest element of an image. PicturaPixel is a multimidia magazine dedicated to photography.

dphotomagazine @dphotomagazine

New Zealand?s Photography Magazine

Light Leaks Magazine @LightLeaksPress

Nature?s Best @naturesbestpics

Displaying the beauty of nature through the art of photography.

Flare @flaremag

German magazine for young photography

Susan A. Zadeh @EyemazingSusan

Photography Director EYEMAZING magazine, International Contemporary Photography magazine

koko magazine @kokomagazine

New Music, New Fashion, New Photography.

WINk magazine @WINkmag

Photography News and Views

Smartphotography.in @SPmagazine

India?s  photography magazine

Santa Art Magazine @santamagazine

A leading Brazilian magazine about visual art and photography.

BlackFlash Magazine @BlackFlashmag

photography and new media in art. art from Canada, USA, Europe and beyond.

L?image Magazine @Limagefashmag

Photoicon Magazine @PHOTOICON

Popular Photography @pophoto

New York Times Photo @nytimesphoto

Photography, Video, and Visual Journalism from The New York Times

Awards & Prizes

Just Add Stock @justaddstock

A new international awards scheme for design that uses stock imagery.

Digital Camera POTY @DCPOTY

photography competition, brought to you by Digital Camera magazine.

Pixelglo @pixelglo

Social monthly photography contests

WorldPhotograhyAward @WorldPhotoAward

Sony World Photography Awards: global competition open to Professional & Amateur photographers. Prizes include being exhibited globally, cameras & cash.

Photoshop

PSD TUTS @PSDTUTS

Tutorial9 @Tutorial9

Photoshop_GU @Photoshop_GU

Roger Ridpath @campphotoshop

David Peters @davidpeters4

garaham Taylor @Photoshopinaday

Photoshop-Pack.com @pspack

Scott Rouse @TheLightroomLab

mcpactions @mcpactions

LeetMindz.com @ LeetMindz

Jim Sichinolfi @EssePhoto

HowtoCapture @HowtoCapture

photoshopcafe @photoshopCAFE

FreakingNews.com @FreakingNews

Freaking News Pictures, Photo Hoaxes, Photo Illusions, Photoshop Satire, Image Manipulations

Rodney Urton @Leica1956

ADD YOURS

If you know of any other useful accounts that we missed, do feel free to add them in the comments!

(And if you want to learn how  to make the most of Twitter to earn some extra revenue, do check out the Twitter Business book from our sister-blog Geekpreneur.)

You?ve got the equipment and you?ve got the skills. What you don?t got is an idea of what you can shoot that will give you cash. Here are 47 money making photography ideas?

1. Corporate Meetings
When a team of executives has flown around the world to close a deal, the players often want a record of the happy moment? before it all breaks down. Stay close to the dealmakers and you could be the last one smiling.

2. Dating Portraits
But before the wedding comes the date. Online dating has created a new demand for eye-catching profile photos ? and a new market for your portrait skills.

3. Cheating Spouses
The cheats won?t pay but the cheated on will cough up handsomely for images of their partners in the act. Expect long lenses and longer waits in bushes but make the divorce easier and you?ll be able to charge like a lawyer.

4. Wannabe Models/Actors
There?s no shortage of young women (and men) keen to break into showbusiness. They all need professional headshots. What they put in their portfolio, you can put in yours.

5. Food
It?s not just recipe books that need images of tasty dishes, foody websites need them and so do some restaurant menus and any diner that markets itself. Snap away, then tuck in.

6. Corporate Executives
It?s not enough for company bosses to do the job, they have to be seen to do the job too. Shooting powerful people is a unique form of portraiture that brings a special challenge? and a special rate too.

7. News
You don?t have to be a staff reporter to get your picture in the press. Many outlets these days use stringers and accept freelance shots. Hit the phones, then hit the streets.

8. Inventory Items For Insurance Companies
Snapping people?s sofas might not be the most thrilling shoots you?ll ever have but it could be among the highest-paying. Talk to an agent.

9. Cars
Showrooms need them and so do auto magazines, workshops and even private dealers. And when the object?s a thing of beauty, taking car photos can be a lot of fun.

10. Annual Reports
Annual reports are one of the biggest markets for photography agencies. The bosses of the companies behind them can be a huge market for you too.

11. Celebrities
There?s always a market for a photo of a star, especially if they?re doing something they shouldn?t. But you can hang around red carpets too. Get a great shot and the papers will buy it.

12. Product Shots
Companies bring out new products all the time. That means they need new pictures all the time. And by a lucky coincidence, photographers need to eat all the time too.

13. Weddings
The bread and butter of any professional photography business. Rates are reasonable, demand is constant and the food makes a nice bonus.

14. High School Photos
Hundreds of people crammed in one space all waiting for you take their pictures? and often paying in advance. It doesn?t get any better than that.

15. Real Estate
When a house is selling for a million-plus, what agent isn?t going to pay a few hundred dollars for pictures that bring in prospects?

16. Bar Mitzvahs
Weddings might be the bread and butter of the photography industry but photographers don?t live on bread alone. There are plenty of other events that photographers can shoot, including bar mitzvahs?

17. Christenings
?christenings, birthdays, anniversaries and lots of other things besides. If an event happens once in a lifetime, people will want it recorded.

18. Children
Children grow up fast so parents want those youthful moments frozen before they?re gone forever. The market is huge and the marketing is easy. Just get your ads around playgrounds and day-care centers.

19. Fashion
Yes, fashion magazines will pay nice sums for runway shots and center spreads, but clothes stores issue catalogs too? and they?re easier to sell to.

20. Exotic Locations
Photography sites are filled with images of beautiful sunsets and golden beaches. What they lack are rainforests and Saharan sandscapes. If you?ve been somewhere strange, your camera could pay for the trip.

21. Exotic Animals
And while you?re there, don?t forget to shoot the wildlife. Finding pictures of sheep and dogs is easy. But good images of elephants, eagles and gorillas in the wild are hard to come by. If you?ve got some, you should be able to get stock sales at the very least.

22. Sports Competitions
There are all sorts of outlets for images of sports meets from the media to the family of the winner. It doesn?t have to be the Superbowl. It just happens to be an event you can attend.

23. Graduations
Completing any course is a big deal, and when they do it, people want their pictures taken. Whether it?s high school, university or beauty school, new graduates will pay you to shoot the start of their new lives.

24. Authors
Ever wondered who shoots the portraits that appear on the back of every book? That?s right? photographers. Get to know publishers and there?s a good chance you?ll get to shoot some writers.

25. Facebook Portraits
We?ve seen that daters and authors need good shots of their faces but Facebook has millions of members, many of whom use the site for business as well as pleasure. Add on LinkedIn, MySpace and everyone else, and you?ve got a huge potential market of people who want to be seen.

26. Money (And Other Stock Images)
There?s no end to the sorts of objects you can sell as stock. Piles of cash is one but just browse the top-sellers at microstock sites for other ideas.

27. Press Conferences
The photojournalist?s standard. Not the most exciting job in the world but an interesting challenge and one that?s often open to anyone who wants in.

28. Theater Performances
Actors need photos for auditions and theaters need images of the performances. Build contacts in the theater world and you should get plenty of encores.

29. Product Prototypes
Not every design gets turned into a product but every prototype needs photos to show potential businesses. Know any engineers?

30. Bands
Musicians have a huge appetite for photos: for album covers, for interviews and for websites, posters and t-shirts. Join up with a group and you might not get the groupies, but you will get plenty of work.

31. Demonstrations
Speech might be free but photography costs money. The media will pay for photos of demonstrations and the organizers often will too.

32. Art Exhibitions
There?s often a photographer at the opening of new art exhibitions, ready to show who was invited and who got to talk to the artist. Make sure you?re the one the artist hired.

33. Pregnancy
Demi Moore broke new ground by putting her extended tummy on a magazine cover. Now almost every pregnant woman wants her time in front of the lens. Any reason it shouldn?t be your lens?

34. New Babies
Do a good job with the pregnancy photos and you should be able to get the new baby photos too.

35. Confirmations
And if you?ve done the pregnancy photos, the new baby photos and the birthday photos, why not the confirmation photos too? Do you see how clients can stay with you for a lifetime?

36. Book Signings
Authors need photographers to put their faces on the back of books; bookstores need photographers to record their authors putting their names inside the books. Talk to the manager.

37. Pets
Pictures of your own pets are always hard to sell, but people will pay handsomely for pictures of their pets. Do work with children and animals!

38. Publicity Events
Grand openings, charity giveaways, competitions and every other kind of publicity event is useless if a photographer isn?t there to record it. Talk to a PR firm.

39. Parades
Bright costumes, big smiles, candy-covered children? there?s plenty for a photographer to shoot when a parade is in town and plenty of people to sell the pictures to, including participants, newspapers and organizers.

40. Festivals
And the same is true of festivals ? except that they tend to stand still, letting you shoot at your leisure and from any vantage point you want. The takers though are exactly the same.

41. Art Collections
Art collectors need their pieces documented for insurance companies but also to show friends, to create their own catalogs and to send for appraisal. And who knows, maybe a happy collector will buy your art too?

42. Auction Catalogs
Big auction companies depend on good catalogs for high bids. They even sell them for high prices. You?ll need good insurance but with sales held regularly, you?ll be a winner every time.

43. eBay Items
Of course, you don?t have to get friendly with Sotheby?s to shoot for auctions. Everyone?s on eBay and many of them lack the pictures that bring the sales. Now, there?s a market for photographers.

44. Halloween Parties
When it?s time for a monster party, people spend hours preparing costumes only to be shot with a cheap flash. Find the big bashes and offer to document the outfits.

45. Award Ceremonies
Sure, it would be nice to be official photographer to the Oscars, but there are plenty of industry awards given each year. They pay too.

46. Conferences
Conferences are as much about networking as listening to speeches. What better way to remember who was there ? and what they look like ? than have a photographer on hand? Make a pitch.

47. Fundraisers
If someone?s paying a lot of money to attend a fundraiser, the organizers should be willing to pay you a little to give the donors a momento. Call a charity and work for a profit.

Microstock might have hit the stock world like a kick to the shins, but it carries one big advantage and one giant disadvantage. The advantage is that anyone can now earn from their photography. Photographers no longer need to be professional full-timers to license their photos and they?re free to upload as many or as few images each month as they wish. The disadvantage is that the pay is terrible. With sales starting at a dollar a download, photographers can receive just cents for an image that may appear on a website with millions of readers ? and then be used by the same buyer on ads, marketing material and anything else for no extra payment.

Traditional stock companies, on the other hand, might return hundreds of dollars ? and often, thousands ? in royalties for image use. Even if you?re uploading and selling enough licenses to bring in a useful additional income, as some microstock photographers are doing, that?s still a high price to pay for open access.

Open Access is not the Same as Free Access

fotoLibra, however, attempts to provide all of the advantages of microstock with none of the disadvantages. The company, which describes itself as a ?picture library,? allows anyone to upload images, has no submission panel and does not demand a large portfolio. In the three years since it launched, fotoLibra?s collection has grown to a quarter of a million images of which only four have been rejected for being inappropriate (although 750 are turned down each day for failing to meet the company?s technical requirements).

?We accept all images because our taste cannot be the same as the buyers?,? Gwyn Headley, the company?s founder and managing director told us. ?Recently I saw one image on the site which I felt must have been uploaded as a mistake because I personally thought it was so bad. I pointed it out to a colleague, who told me it had just been sold to a theatre company for £450. Let the photographers choose what they feel will sell.?

Open access isn?t the same as free access though. fotoLibra charges photographers to store their images with the company and make them available for sale. For £18 (about $33 USD) per quarter, photographers receive 5 GB of storage space; £45 (about $84 USD) per quarter increases that to 100 GB and boosts the royalty rate from 50 percent to 60 percent. A free membership also allows photographers to upload twelve pictures once to try the site out. According to the site?s blurb, at least one free member has uploaded one image and sold it five days later, receiving a royalty of more than £1,000.

If a business model that allows anyone to join, demands payment from photographers but markets images on both a royalty-free and rights-managed basis for traditional rates sounds unusual, it does at least reflect the company?s origins. Gwyn, a book publishing consultant, had run a specialist picture library for about twelve years, offering images of architectural follies shot mostly by himself and about two dozen other part-time photographers. His work in publishing had also brought him into contact with many of the leading players in the picture library world, so he knew the value of images, he says. When a burst water tank wiped out 120 years of family photographs, he developed a plan to allow photographers to store their images on servers and added his photo sales knowledge to allow them to sell their pictures too. Even the monthly subscription price was based on the cost of a roll of Fujia Velvia film in Gwyn?s local camera shop.

Today, the site has more than 19,000 members of whom 71 percent are based in the UK ? fotoLibra works out of a national park in Wales ? and the remainder from some 151 different countries. About a third of the British photographers are professionals, mostly working in the high street and wedding photography business, but contributors also include Linda Wright, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Although photographers can choose whether to offer their images on a rights-managed or royalty-free basis, about 80 percent of the images are rights-managed.

Wanted: Images of Knights Jousting

The images are marketed hard. While many stock companies rely solely on online advertising to bring in buyers, fotoLibra is a regular at book fairs, where it?s able to pitch directly to publishers face-to-face. Members also receive a newsletter that includes picture calls for specific subjects. Topics have ranged from ?knights jousting? and ?Nigerian schoolrooms? to ?American people interacting with each other? and ?San Francisco.? In general though, the demands tend to be very specific.

?The point of the fotoLibra Picture Call is that we ask for clearly defined situations and locations,? explains Gwyn. ?[A] generic shot of the Chicago skyline is great, but every picture library has millions of those. fotoLibra needs and gets specific places like ?Animal Kingdom pet store, 2980 North Milwaukee Avenue.??

Because of the level of specificity, the results of the picture calls tends to vary according to the topic. A call for ?colorful greetings cards,? for example, has brought in 529 images of which most are suitable; ?Nigerian schoolrooms? produced about a dozen submissions. The calls have never drawn a complete blank. Occasionally, a client will also ask fotoLibra to find a photographer for a commission. That?s not a service the company pushes but it has happened four times this year.

Unlike Gwyn?s original photo library, fotoLibra does not specialize. Asked what sort of images the company needs most, Gwyn replied with a blanket ?everything? but then referred specifically to images of people.

?My personal beef is not seeing enough people face-on or close-up ? we always seem to have crowds of people with their backs to the distant camera,? Gwyn says. ?I think scare stories about invasion of privacy and people running to lawyers trouble a lot of photographers and hamper their confidence when it comes to getting in close. It doesn?t seem to trouble the paparazzi. And they manage to sell their pictures.?

Images submitted to fotoLibra do not have to be exclusive but if an image is licensed on a rights-managed basis, it has to be removed from other outlets for the period of the license, an important consideration. The rewards though can more than make up for it. Although fotoLibra has more than 1,000 different prices to offer buyers depending on what they plan to do with the image, the average sale price is £51 ($95 USD). License a few images at those prices and you can give microstock its own kick on the shins.