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Articles from August 2011

Alamy Opens West Coast Data Center

By Jim Pickerell | 194 Words | Posted 8/31/2011 | Comments (2)
Alamy has extended its server infrastructure to NYI’s data center in Los Angeles, to serve the company's growing West Coast customer base. Searching for images on the West Coast will now be as fast as on the East Coast.  NYI successfully oversaw Alamy’s upgrade for North America, and now the company will manage the West Coast activity.

GDUSA Reader Survey: Stock Imagery Use Among Designers

By Jim Pickerell | 667 Words | Posted 8/25/2011 | Comments (1)
Graphic Design USA (GDUSA) has released some of the results from its 25th annual survey of graphic designers to determine their use of stock imagery. A total of 1,008 readers responded to the survey with 96 percent saying they use stock imagery in their work and 60 percent using it at least 20 times a year. Both represent new highs for the survey.

Fotolia Launches Major Redesign

By Jim Pickerell | 467 Words | Posted 8/24/2011 | Comments
Fotolia has released a major update to their website which offers improved navigation and usability. This story explains some of the changes.

Corbis Images Invests in Demotix

By Jim Pickerell | 377 Words | Posted 8/24/2011 | Comments
Corbis Images has made an undisclosed investment in Demotix following the media distribution partnership between the two companies announced in March

Corbis And AP Sign Cross-Distribution Agreement

By Jim Pickerell | 304 Words | Posted 8/23/2011 | Comments
The Associated Press and Corbis Images have announced a comprehensive cross-distribution partnership that provides customers access to more than 10 million images covering an unparalleled range of breaking news, sports and entertainment, archival and creative images.

Masterfile Introduced Timesaving Image Search Tools

By Jim Pickerell | 176 Words | Posted 8/23/2011 | Comments
Masterfile has upgraded its website with a suite of timesaving tools for creative professionals. "The new Masterfile.com is a game changer. It makes the task of sifting through millions of images an enjoyable, rewarding and ultimately creative experience," says Steve Pigeon, President.

Masterfile Sold For $21.4 Million

By Jim Pickerell | 1313 Words | Posted 8/22/2011 | Comments (1)
Arius3D Corp plans to buy Masterfile Corp. for $21.4 million, in a bid to expand into the traditional 2D market. Under the deal's terms, full consideration will be paid in cash, unless Masterfile opts to receive $12 million of the purchase price in stock. The Masterfile portion of the business will continue to operate under its current brand name and under the direction of Steve Pigeon, founder and president.

Pricing Extended Educational Uses In Today’s Market

By Jim Pickerell | 1172 Words | Posted 8/17/2011 | Comments (1)
Recently a photographer asked how to price extended educational use of an image that was first licensed by the publisher for textbook use two years earlier.  Initially the image was printed full page, inside. Now the publisher wants virtually all rights for 20 years. This story explains how I would approach the problem.

Join The PLUS Registry

By Jim Pickerell | 140 Words | Posted 8/17/2011 | Comments
Every professional photographer in the world should add his or her name to the PLUS Registry. It’s FREE. It will take a couple minutes at most. And it may help someone who wants to pay you money to find you.

Visa pour l’Image panel to discuss Photographer, Picture Agency Relationships

By Jim Pickerell | 340 Words | Posted 8/17/2011 | Comments
Within the framework of Visa pour l'Image, CEPIC is organizing a roundtable with photographers, picture agencies and photographers cooperatives exploring the "Relationship between Agencies and Photographers: Art + Commerce or Photographers and Agencies - Making this Symbiotic Relationship Work"

ImageCollect.com: 1,500,000 Celebrity Images

By Jim Pickerell | 429 Words | Posted 8/16/2011 | Comments
AudioMicro, Inc., which operates a network of digital content licensing marketplaces, has announced that ImageCollect.com, its celebrity picture marketplace launched just five months ago has more than 1,500,000 mostly “red carpet” images available for download. The company expects to have more than 4 million images on its site before the end of the year. The collection includes archival imagery from companies like Globe Photos and current content being supplied by top entertainment photographers.

Visual Steam: Sales Resource for Content Licensing

By Jim Pickerell | 278 Words | Posted 8/16/2011 | Comments
Equidyne Holdings LLC, innovating in the field of digital and visual media, has announced the launch of a new subsidiary, Visual Steam. Visual Steam is a new kind of sales services organization supporting the content licensing and creative services industries. The company’s goal is to generate revenue for clients. Visual Steam offers contract sales services to handle all or part of a client's sales efforts, customized training programs, workshops and complimentary marketing services.
 

Image Search At picturemaxx

By Jim Pickerell | 1662 Words | Posted 8/12/2011 | Comments
The picturemaxx image search engine is unique in its approach to providing an image search experience that benefits customers – particularly editorial - as well as agencies trying to license images. The company is headquartered in Munich with offices in New York, London, Berlin and Vienna. Virtually all German speaking media customers (97%) use picturemaxx as their primary source for finding content. This story explores the advantages and disadvantages of this system for both the customer and the image creator.

Microstock Diaries: Microstock Expo & Conference

By Jim Pickerell | 138 Words | Posted 8/12/2011 | Comments
Lee Torrens and Amos Struck, leading microstock industry analysts, have organized the first ever, Microstock Expo and Conference that will be held in Berlin, Germany. The event is scheduled for 5-6 November 2011 at the andel’s Hotel Berlin and is likely to be the forerunner of regular annual events.

Back To School

By Jim Pickerell | 718 Words | Posted 8/9/2011 | Comments (2)
The 2011-12 school year is about to begin. The use of printed books is declining. Many school systems will expand their use of computer and iPads this school year. Beginning in kindergarten children will be taught using digital devices.

Management Changes At iStockphoto

By Jim Pickerell | 309 Words | Posted 8/5/2011 | Comments
iStockphoto COO Kelly Thompson will be moving from Calgary to Manhattan in September to become Senior Vice President, Product Development for Getty Images. He will lead a team of Getty Images and iStock Product Managers as they evolve the packaging and positioning of iStockphoto.com, Thinkstock.com, Photos.com and Clipart.com.

James West - Alamy Premium Accounts

By Jim Pickerell | 1030 Words | Posted 8/4/2011 | Comments (1)
Editor's Note: James West, CEO of Alamy, provided a detailed explanation of the company's Alamy Permium Account strategy on the Alamy blog. For more information about this read our story published last week and  contributor comments on the Alamy blog.

Use Pricing: What The Industry Needs

By Jim Pickerell | 1401 Words | Posted 8/4/2011 | Comments (5)
It’s time to institute a new pricing model. In the ‘80s the only pricing model was Rights Managed (RM), but the term itself wasn’t even invented until the ‘90s. Back then every price was based on usage and there was no other option. In the early ‘90s Royalty Free (RF) was introduced. In the early 2000s microstock came into existence. Now, it is time to introduce a fourth model which I will call Use Pricing (UP). The following would be some of the characteristics of Use Pricing.

Professional vs. Amateur

By Jim Pickerell | 965 Words | Posted 8/3/2011 | Comments (4)
In May Peter Phun published an article on BlackStar Rising entitled “It’s Time for Pro Photographers and Hobbyists to Call a Truce.” The article has received a lot of comments. I would like to weigh in with my thoughts on the difference between professionals and non-professionals.

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This stock photography news site focuses on the business side of photography with a special emphasis on stock photography. Our goal is to help photographers maximize their earnings based on the quality of their work and the commitment they are prepared to make to the trade. The information provided will be applicable to part-timers as well as full time professional photographers. We’ll leave it to others to teach photographers how to take better pictures.

Jim Pickerell launched his career as a photographer in 1963. In 1990 he began publishing a regular newsletter on stock photography. In 1995 the information was made available online as well as in print and was gradually expanded to a daily service. Click here for Pickerell's full biography.

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