Personal

Who are you? - My name is Elnur Amikishiyev.

Where do you come from? – I’m from Azerbaijan. This is a relativaly small country sandwiched between Iran, Russia, Georgia and the Caspian Sea. We’re most famous for our oil, discovered around 160 years ago around present capital – Baku. Visit my other website www.bakuphotos.com for some of the cityviews.

Is microstock photography your main job? No, my main job is with one of the oil majors (I did say, Azerbaijan is famous for oil !!). I work as Management Information Manager and is responsible for financial reporting and forecasting. I’m also a member of supervisory board of AmrahBank.

Photography

What camera do you use? My current camera is Nikon D300 (12mp). I’m impatiently waiting for Nikon’s upgrade to D700 (whether it is D700x or D800). I still own my first DSLR – Nikon D70.

What lenses do you have? I have quite a few, so I will list them in the sequence of when I got them.

• Nikon 18-70 (came with D70)
• Nikon 70-300 (I used to think 150 bucks for 300mm is great !!!)
• Nikon 50mm (the best value for money !!)
• Nikon 105mm (the best lens I own)
• Nikon 18-200 (came with D300, very versitile lens)
• Sigma 10-20 (the only non-Nikon, but great piece of glass)
• Nikon 80-200 (very rarely used, this is really a caprice rather than a must-have for microstock)
• Nikon 85mm (great lens, but once again, my caprice, very rarely used)
• Nikon 24-70mm (along with 105mm my best lens)

Do you have a studio? Yes, In April 2009, I bought a place (58 sq.m.) which a few months later, was transformed into my own studio. My own studio was a dream,I had for a long time, and realised it sooner than planned (thanks to crisis and decline in property market !!).

What studio equipment do you use? All my strobes are Bowens brand. At the moment, I have:
3x500wt strobes
2x400wt strobes
And lots of accessories: softboxes, stripbox, snoots, bard-doors, umbrellas, gels, honeycombs etc. I also use two Nikon SB-800 flashlights.

Microstocks

What is your experience with microstocks and how did you come to this business? I started with microstocks in July 2006. I’m not sure exactly, but I have a vague recollection that I followed a link from a photo forum, and read about selling your photos online. And then, I few days of reading, reading, reading…. and then there was no more free time for me. August 2006 was my first full month and it earned me 55 dollars !!!

What microstock agencies do you contribute to? I contribute to Shutterstock, Istockphoto, 123rf, Dreamstime, Stockxpert, Bigstockphoto, Canstockphoto, Pixmac, Lori, PressFoto. The last four are relatively new in my list.

What is the size of your portfolio? As of the end of 2009, I had around 13000 images on Shutterstock. That’s more than 10 photos a day since I started 3.5 years ago.

What was the first photo you sold? It was a photo of Cactus (sold by 123rf) which I took in Botanical Gardens in Aberdeen, Scotland(I worked in Aberdeen in 2003-2005). When I took this photo, I didn’t know 2 years later, it would open the door to the world of microstock photography. I don’t think it got more than 3-4 sales in total since.