We got another request just last week: a buyer in the healthcare industry was looking for images of the same model in different aspects of her day. To quote their request:

"What are looking for is to show one women throughout her day. So eating breakfast / drinking coffee, leaving for work, exercising, visiting with family or friends. Its really important that its the same women in each activity. She should be 35-45 yrs."

When I was at Getty Images, and here at Digital Railroad as well, I've been seeing ever-increasing numbers of requests like this -- what we generalize as "day-in-the-life", but really include any group or series of images with the same model or models in different aspects of their lives: their home, family, work, hobbies, fun, etc.

Thank the web, other electronic media, and even decreased costs of running images in print for the fact that many advertisers are now using groups of images to tell stories about their ideal customers -- but they're still having a hard time finding those images.

Which spells opportunity. In the past photographers often tried to avoid using the same model(s) for multiple shoots, but now if you have a great model it pays to use him or her over the course of a number of shoots to build up a library of that person's "life". And since those are harder to find, the photographer who has those series of images has a great advantage over those who don't.

© Blend Images/Andersen Ross/drr.net

So then the question becomes, once you've got these images, how do you make sure they're found?

Of course, it comes down to metadata. "Day in the Life" can work as a keyword, and/or part of the caption. The word "series" can also be useful, especially if paired with something more specific like a code designating a particular set of images -- which is good because that can be added to over time. Also if a group or series is uploaded to Marketplace together they will stay together if a user arranges search results by Date Added. And if they are shot on or around the same day(s), having the date fields for the images completed also becomes a way to find the group.