On the starting point
Having graduated from school, I was thinking over major to choose. At first I planned to be an IT-engineer but finally decided to become a designer as I’d studied at art school. So I entered KSU though a year later we were said that we would be school teachers of art.
Then my friends and I opened a box to paint with airbrushes. Since I did not have business skills, this activity was a "hangout". I did not earn money.
My friend Danil went to Moscow, in 2008 he invited me. There I could paint a hood in 3 days for 400 dollars while my Moscow boss could paint 20 bumpers for 200 dollars each for 3 days. Therefore he offered me to work at night. I agreed but not for long as there were no customers. People didn’t like the idea to visit a novice. That was why I came back to Kostanay. I did not know what to do, I did not want to draw or paint at all.
I saved some money to go to Almaty but things went wrong and I bought the Canon 1000 100D called a "plug" on the money collected
On the desire to grow
Photography was developing at that time. Many had a reflex. However, it was a little easier for me since I know the composition, the color theory, the golden section.
100 000 tenge seemed to be a decent amount at that time. But willing to make posh photos, I started asking photographers for some tips to grow. I was suggested to buy a full-frame camera with full matrix costing $2000 and L lens (luxury) which costs from $ 1,000. $3000 seemed unreal for a guy earning 50,000 a month at a pedagogical institute.
I needed a result. In a year I bought all the equipment needed. I switched to 24 105 L, took the loan and gave it away. My friend bought a camera too, that was when we started working at banquets. We started earning, I liked to shoot weddings, but I wanted to deal with something non-trivial.
I quit the university, when my monthly university salary equaled the daily earnings for the photos I took
On wedding photography
I had 2 wedding shoots a week for 100 000 tenge, in total we earned 1 000 000 per month which was amazing for Kostanay. But I was strained by the idea to process the photos till October and being tailor-made. That was when I got interested in photo stocks introduced by my friend from Dubai in 2014.
On photo stocks
When I told people I sell pictures on the Internet, I was called a fool. Many think all the pics can be downloaded for free,but the thing is that any frame is made by someone and this is someone's copyright.
Envato is the site with many templates made and sold by someone. A template costs 59 dollars, it can be sold for about 6,000 times.
Dealing with photo stocks would let me travel and do what I want instead of processing pics. Now I have seven billion clients all over the world.
Now I have seven billion clients all over the world
My pic showing Kostanay girls was used in Pavel Volya’s video called "The country is in crisis, but girls are doing well". In Belarus the pic taken by me was hung on all the Tele2 banners.
On plans
I do not plan, I just do it. Now I'm working on starting a business in Kostanay.
I’m going to run online trainings about photo stocks, as people must know and earn more.
