Artist Spotlight: Oksana Pali
Oksana Pali’s artistic focus feels unique to the 21st century. Starting in portraiture, then transitioning to food photography, Oksana creates high-key and vibrant images based around products and people. With this in mind, her business has centered around crafting an image and mood for her customers and their brand.
“My style draws a specific client. Ethereal and feminie. Confident women that are building their business.”
As with many businesses in the digital age, there is a specific image each company needs to fit into a website or digital advertisement. These images tend to require lots of negative space for copy, or simply need to fit a theme. While the traditional B2C model works, Oksana has made sure to diversify. While many photographers spend time taking test images to practice a lighting setup or style, Oksana has started using these images for her stock photography page.
“I started uploading my work on Shutterstock. I had so many extra images on my hard drive, and then they started selling. But as you know the photographers don’t get much back from those sites, so I found the images that were selling and put them on my own website. What sells the most are images with lots of negative space with room for text.”
As the digital landscape becomes more important for companies and businesses, having a repository of high quality images allows Oksana to cater to their needs season by season. With a new, personal platform for stock photography, Oksana has decided to push up against Shutterstock. Going for a niche market is smart, especially with a strong audience on social media who knows her style and what to expect from images.
“I have my own customers, my base, on Instagram and Pinterest. Word of mouth is a lot of it and has been good to me. If you have a following, if you have a niche, they will go to your site too. The other places have lowered their standard over the years. They will accept images they didn’t accept years ago. I feel like it’s overwhelming. I’m trying to make it easier for an entrepreneur, my site could be a place for them.”
Creating images for any type of customer takes practice, and knowing just how to make any food, product, or person look great takes time. Oksana will frequently utilize farmers markets, Whole Foods, and other places with fresh produce to procure fresh and good food to photograph.
“I do a lot of tests. Say I want to use Para 133 for food photography, just to give it a little punch, so that will go up as stock. I also really love Octabox 150. I don’t work with models, I work with real people. It’s more forgiving. I do more environmental portraits, so it’s a bit of a bigger set than just a beauty shot.”
Continuing with her multifaceted business, Oksana has carved out a style that fits her clients’ needs. Understanding the customer is extremely important when taking their picture, and having the ability to get many looks from her modifiers and portability from her lights helps cater to any need.
Be sure to see more at oksanapali.com and on Instagram @oksana.pali.
