Passionate about photography, I wish for a decent DSLR camera

Note: English is not my first language so, please, be kind with my mistakes. Feel free to point my mistakes in this matter.

So, let us begin…

I’m a 33 years old, simple person from Romania that loves to spend time in nature, to travel, go fishing, standing in the green grass with a book in the hand, falling asleep in the warm, kind, sunshine take photos of different things, macros, textures, landscapes ( I love taking pictures of roads… don’t know, don’t judge). I also enjoy watching YouTube videos, tinkering, taking apart everything and after rebuilding them ( not always successful but, hey, look at the bright side- I get a lot of spear parts).

But enough about me for now…

The project Shutterstockjourney.com

Not long ago, in November 2018, I got in the recommended section of YouTube a video about photography, how to become a better photographer, light, about stock photos, how to get your work, your passion into the world so I said “hey, why not” and that’s how I stumbled upon the Shutterstock.com website after a simple Google search; I clicked and I was amazed of how many awesome photos are being taken, uploaded, the quality and that was the seed that started to grow in me.

I had to be apart of this

Iniatially I created a buyer account and I couldn’t find anywhere a link to how to become a member, a contributor account- portfolio( I found out this is how we are called after a few searches) and applied with 40 or so images that I considered where my best ones and I waited for them to approve/disapprove my photos. I remember that was a very exciting period, with many thoughts whether they will like them, if I’m good enough to do this, somehow I wanted so much to be inside, to learn and why not to get something out of this. The answer came faster then I thought and it was a success, I was finally in YEY! I started uploading photos, doing all the keywords manually (I later found the keyword suggestion tool), titles, descriptions etc.. I remember it took me 9 hours for my first 70 photos ( English was my first stone to carry in this process). I had in total around 100 photos and I had big dreams about this, I started to read about the website, if they had a forum, if I can interact with other users; some of my questions remained to this day unanswered but baby steps, right?

The website shutterstockjourney.com and my first sold picture

Time passed and nothing happened, I continued to take photos, to go out when I had the chance to but somehow I had a bitter taste about this dream, I couldn’t find the way to interact with other contributors (not yet), and all the learning process from the pro’s resumed to the YouTube creators. Then it happened! My first sale on 11/30/2018 was a piece of perforated copper plated PCB board (I told you I like to tinker), my first $0.25! After that other two sales came, to numbers (7 and 9) created from Tic Tac mints and then it stopped; nothing happened anymore ( I continued to upload), a lot of my photos where rejected with reasons that I couldn’t understand why. Anyways, today 1/27/2019, I had a idea, how would be like to create a website/blog where I can write about this journey, about my feelings, photos, moments around them, interact with people that share my story. I went online and the first word that came into my mind was : shutterstockjourney.com and surprise it was available, I payed and so it began…

About this funding campaign

I noticed that no matter what I struggle to do, to edit my photos, I still have a problem with the gear I use, the low quality camera. Even if I get good ideas and I'm in the right place and time for those photos, the camera just doesn't fit the requirements, it's giving it's best. So I started looking for a good, decent, DSLR camera and my mind blown away, they are out of my budget, I could afford this in maybe 1 year of savings and that's why I stumbled upon this website and created the campaign. I wish to have a good camera so my passion, photography, make my life better, I really enjoy this. If you feel like helping (maybe see my portfolio to get a idea about my passion), please enroll in this campaign. I can offer in exchange free photos to use in your projects. Thank you!