How many pictures are in your file? Wait. Let me re-phrase that. How many marketable pictures? You may be selling from an empty wagon.

Fruit vendors know that all the bells, whistles, and solos of "Figaro" won't sell a tomato if everyone on the street already has tomatoes in their backyard gardens. If the vendor just has tomatoes, he has in effect, an empty wagon. Here's a test to see if your wagon is empty.

First, a reality: if photobuyers at an ad agency, pr firm, or publishing house need a "generic" scenic, they go to their favorite on-line stock agency to find it. Why? For the same reasons you go to a supermarket, not to four or five Ma & Pa grocery stores: a large selection to choose from and time-saving one-stop shopping.

Attempting to sell your "standard excellent" shots directly to a photobuyer is discouraging. A photobuyer wants to deal with the comfortable (to her) source of a familiar agency or a handful of photographers she's worked with before. She doesn't want the time-consuming and unpredictable task of dealing with an individual photographer she doesn't know, with the added trouble of processing lots of additional photos.

Photobuyers don't like to 'train' someone, or hold their hand during the process. They want hassle-free photobuying.

Why do some photo illustrator's pictures get published, and not other people's? You might say, "I see so-and-so's pictures published all of the time."

That's true. Those photographers are superstars. If you were to try to break into the field of music, painting, writing, etc. -- you'd face the same uphill battle. Photobuyers figure the cost is the same, so why not go with the 'name' photographer.

There are several routes up that hill for a stock photographer. And not all roads lead to the top. Just knowing how to choose a road can save months, even years, of lost motion.

Here's the test, which points you toward the right road. Is your wagon of pictures filled with sunsets, covered bridges, waterfalls, hot air balloons -- all top quality? It may be no surprise to you that the next guy's wagon is also filled with the same subject matter and high quality. If a photobuyer broadcasts a call for a picture of a hot air balloon, he gets an Oklahoma land rush charge of wagons coming at him. He has learned to go to a stock agency for those standard, scenic pictures.

In a sense, your wagon is empty. It is filled, yes, but with pictures hard to market on your own because they're up against stiff competition in terms of the sheer numbers of similar photos available. In the industry, they're called 'clones.'

Put your own standard scenics in an agency, and begin today to expand your files of pictures in special categories of your own. Examine your interest areas, whether outdoor recreation, education, medicine, gardening, dogs, etc. Photobuyers will come to consider you as a valuable resource for these "working" photos. Develop your markets in the area of your strongest interests -- and begin filling your wagon with these highly saleable images.

Other professions do the same: attorneys, doctors, musicians. They don't try to be all things to all people. They select an area in their field and become an expert in that specific subject area. We all like to go to an expert when the situation is important. That's how photobuyers feel about selecting you as a supplier to them. If you specialize, you'll become a valued resource for when your areas of coverage match their specific needs.

If you specialize, you'll find you'll be moving along the right road in that journey to the top of the hill.

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Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes