Editor’s Note: The following sponsored content is provided to Print by a trusted partner, 123RF.
It should come as no surprise that half of all consumers are using smartphones — and for many, those smartphones are serving as their primary cameras. All you have to do is walk out your front door and you’re bound to see someone holding their phone up and snapping a photograph. This ubiquity of the smartphone-as-camera has allowed ordinary people to use their digital footage in ever-increasingly extraordinary ways, whether it’s to catch a criminal (such as with the Boston Marathon bombing) or, most recently, to create on-the-go income.
“You may not carry a DSLR camera with you at all times but you certainly have your smartphone handy,” says Leon Hudson of the popular royalty-free stock imagery site 123RF.com. The team realized the potential of all those phone pics and decided to launch a mobile app that allows users to monetize those images. “Now, anyone can capture a moment wherever they are and cash in on their amazing shots,” Hudson adds.
123RF On-The-Go is the new microstock photography app from 123RF.com that allows users to, directly from their iPhones, upload and market their stash of digital images to the 123RF.com website as royalty-free photographs. (The app can be downloaded from the Apple App Store for free.)
Once content is uploaded, every shot is reviewed by 123RF.com’s staff so that only the highest-quality images are posted for purchase—which is why more than 20 million unique visitors frequent the site each month to purchase royalty-free content. That makes for plenty of traffic to take your cellphone pics and put them to work for you.
Simon Dayton is a San Francisco-based creative manager who has found the new app valuable for its flexibility and versatility. “The great thing about 123RF On-The-Go is that I don’t have to lug around a huge amount of equipment and a massive production team,” he says. “It’s given me the freedom and flexibility to shoot anything, anywhere, at any time.”That’s the beauty of the smartphone-as-camera: The capacity to capture those fleeting, on-the-go shots with a gadget you’re likely to have with you anyway. You never have to miss out on a moment again, which explains why so many are already taking advantage of their smartphone cameras. And now that you can monetize those images with the download of a simple app? Well, that seems pretty smart, indeed.