As a professional or novice web video producer or photographer, your opportunities for fall color captures is wearing thin. Get out there and shoot, shoot, shoot.

At Shutterstock, 30 seconds of HD “leaves falling”, or a printable photo of the same genre’ gets the owner $50, with the lowest price payable to get that at the $250 tier. The buyer has to buy at least $250 worth of product to get fall photo or video.

Just when do you think a buyer needs that footage? Think about it. If you are looking at an ad in a glossy magazine right now that features a color or B&W photo of fall leaves, that photo was not shot this year. The editing and production staff of the print world was working on the 2010 October issue of Shocking But True in Hollywood magazine in March of 2010. There aren’t any fall color leaves in March in this hemisphere. As a matter of fact, there aren’t any fall leaves any where on this planet in March.

Photo and video archiving is all about opportunity. The paparazzi rush around from Hollywood train wreck to Hollywood train wreck because they only make money if they capture the event. It’s all about the opportunity. Lady Gaga’s streaked hair and other-worldly shades being seen in front of some mundane location like a 7-11 while she and her denim and leather bedecked entourage’ buy 99 cent slurpies is, unfortunately for this generation, an Event. Someone who shoots that and is the first to submit it to Shocking But True in Hollywood magazine close to deadline gets the lion’s share of $500 if they are lucky and good.

Since orange, red, plumb, yellow and rust colored leaves falling is a sellable commodity, and there is a bunch of those things falling right now, now is the time to shoot them. You most likely won’t sell any footage right now because everybody can shoot them right now, just like you. But, you might enter an autumn color contest right away and win a great award. The best selling goes on long after the last leaf has landed gracefully on your local library’s front lawn.

Remember your CP filter for great color in sky, grass and of course the star of your show, leaves.

For video, shoot a variety of shots. One can never guess for what exactly the art director is looking. It is most likely that they have a specific layout in mind and are looking for the closest capture that fits their idea. If you think that your shot will best serve YOU as income by being the perfect shot around which art directors all over the buying world will design an entire campaign, just keep wishing on that star and gathering moonbeams in a jar, Bunky. Art Directors who make the big bucks do most by coming up with really killer ideas, gathering footage that fits into their layout and then pitching it to The Board.

So, shoot slow pans zoomed all the way out. Put on a fisheye lens and just let the camera roll while the leaves fall. Come up with unique shots as well as standard shots standard shots. Think like an art director. Where will the text go? Will this be used as a green screen fill? If so, where will the talking head go? Or where in the shot will the logo and catch phrase slide in? And, don’t forget sound. Video is only half of the video. Your video capture can be worth a lot more if you shoot with natural sound being captured as well. This takes even more planning and work, and usually a lot of patience, but the geese taking flight through the upper center third of your shot in the distance is not a distraction, it’s a Godsend. By the way, most of your sound should be clean, not filled with openly bumped air movement, “shshshshshshshshshshshshshshsh”. This is not what makes you extra dough. The sound needs to be interestingly natural.

For stills, it’s much the same, only easier because there’s no movement. The movement is implied in still photos, not real. It’s a theater of the mind much like radio. What I mean is, you must capture shots that spark emotion. A tree full of fall color setting in the midst of a green field is very pretty and a very sellable commodity; go shoot it. But while you’re out there, also look for the same tree next to a river or lake. “Water always does the work for you” I often tell my students. Water shots can emote sensuality, action, and passion of all sorts. The Lincoln Memorial Mall in Washington DC is one of the most photographed scenes in the world. The reflecting pool that multiplies the fall color leaves with the alabaster architecture in the background is unique, grandiose, fiery, patriotic and certainly passionate.

Look for opportunities everywhere you go. The background you choose is one of your most unique opportunities to grab attention to your work. The fall color sugar maple doesn’t only exist in a purely natural setting. Modern man has adopted the sugar maple into his environment. So a very common scene for video would be cars passing in front of your off centered shot of a row of sugar maples marching away into infinity with an American flag waving in the distance. Kill the flag and insert a busy city scene of corporate America at work with its reflecting glass canyons. Kill the glass canyon and go for the city park with pedestrians, bicyclists, skate boarders and vendors obliviously enjoying the scene in which they are a major player. Don’t forget to capture a few country and farm scenes to help round out your fall archive for 2010. Ooh, and the county fair. I just can’t stop. The possibilities are endless.

And, you’ve only just begun. Rockwellian Americana is only the beginning. The human factor transcends nationalism. Go for pure human texture. The different ethnic children at play. The couple “spooning” under a maple with the checkered picnic tablecloth nearby. A boy and his dog, or a girl and her duck, or a man and his vending cart or a lady and her giant wicker basket of wheat on her head.

And, you need to display your work or all of that hard labor was of no use, right? So, post everything to a forum that gives you complete control of the viewer’s moment in front of your work. Nobody else’s ads, videos or photos to distract, and no way to steal and use without permission. And whether you need a Flash web player or not, EZWebPlayer is the best I’ve seen yet for serving up images to literally any viewing audience in any web forum. Email link, web served, or downloadable flash video; makes no difference.

So, to summarize,

• Get out there and shoot NOW for next year’s autumn color imagery market.
• Be versatile and diversify. Shoot a broad spectrum for multiple uses.
• Shoot both still and video.
• Expose your work in a forum that you control. Make sure to make use of your own website video player on your own site (if you have one) or simply send out an email link and let EZWebPlayer do the heavy lifting; hosting directly from their servers.

 And, if it is too late for you and the fall color scheme for this year, start setting up for your winter scene captures. I wonder if there are any geese left in the north when the snow starts falling.

By Stu Marks: Chicago Area Media Designer & video consultant.