Coming from Dnipropetrovsk, one of the Ukraine’s key industrial centers, Galyna Andrushko is one of Adobe Stock’s most prominent suppliers of nature and landscape photography. We were lucky enough to get the chance to talk to Galyna to get some insight into her methods, her progress, and her success. In addition, she identified her muse—always with her, both offline and on.
Galyna’s interest in photography began when she was a student, and participating in mountaineering and climbing activities. She said, “the beauty of unspoiled nature amazed me” and she realized she could use photography to “convey its [nature’s] magic to family and friends.” Moving from student life into working life, Galyna found that she didn’t have the time to keep up her passion for photography and consequently quit her job and discovered the microstock industry in 2006.
Passionate about photography, Galyna was very happy when she discovered she “could share images with the whole world.” She also added that she was happier still when she realized she could make some money.
Galyna’s self-described style is “natural reportage,” so we were curious about the inspiration driving her work. She claims that no matter the subject, she’s driven by the same goal: to give the subject, whether “a fragile dewdrop on a dandelion” or “a leopard in the African bush,” a “second life in the form of a beautiful picture for everyone to see.” It was interesting to discover how Galyna acted upon this inspiration—she certainly has some original methods.
Galyna likes to get on an almost telepathic level with some of her animal photography. She told us that her “mood is transferred” to the “wild models” and that she tells them in a whisper “how beautiful they are.” This technique apparently bears fruit and she often finds her animal subjects posing for photos at the perfect angles.
Landscape photography comprises a significant portion of her work; Galyna puts the success of her landscape photography down to determination to go the extra mile. Undeterred, by a lack of hotels and restaurants, Galyna will drive further, and go deeper until she can find the perfect spot with “no fences, wires, or sightseers.”
Thanks to the “wandering” style of her photographic sessions, Galyna’s set-up is fairly modest. She claims an important element of her success is being ready, “whatever the circumstances, rain or frost,” to pull out any one of her Canon products and capture the moment.
Following trends surrounding the four seasons, and generally nature, Galyna has had marked success selling to travel agencies, outdoor equipment businesses, and other companies. When taking photos for the Adobe Stock website, she always has this target audience in mind—and it’s arguably one of the reasons for her commercial success.
Further advice Galyna would give to budding microstock photographers includes constant self-analyzing of your portfolio. This way, she says you are able to identify the aesthetic properties of your best selling photos—as a result, you can recreate these characteristics in future photography. In addition, she suggests, “mixing current trends with your own style,” and “taking ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of your pictures.”
If she had to choose her favorite images from her collection, Galyna would choose Desert, which inspired her love of the desert as a subject and, of course, Cat and Boot, a portrait of her muse (both online and off).
A pleasure to talk to and to do business with, Galyna sets a strong example of how to make commercially successful, and intrinsically appealing nature and landscape images. See more of her work in her Adobe Stock portfolio.