Pickerell, Jim

Articles by Jim Pickerell

Unintended Consequences

By Jim Pickerell | 907 Words | Posted 4/12/2011 | Comments (2)

Every photographer detests copyright infringers. When one of their images is used without compensation they want to be paid not only their normal fee for the use but a reasonable amount for chasing down the infringer and enough penalty to insure that the infringer won’t do it again. The goal is to give everyone incentive to be honest. But is going after infringers really accomplishing that goal and is it generating more business for the future?

CEPIC In Istanbul

By Jim Pickerell | 280 Words | Posted 4/12/2011 | Comments

The annual CEPIC Congress, to be held this year in Istanbul, is scheduled for May 18 through 21, 2011, just a little more than a month away. Image distributors from all over the world will be in attendance. The CEPIC Congress will be the best opportunity in 2011 for image distributors to meet some of the leading people in the visual communications world – thought leaders, early adopters, owner managers, entrepreneurs - and establish distributor relationships for your work.

Microstock Sales Volumes

By Jim Pickerell | 310 Words | Posted 4/8/2011 | Comments

I was recently asked by a RM photographer, “Can you provide some insights into the kinds of volumes that are generated when images are licensed at microstock prices?” This story provides some information and links as to how to learn more about microstock volumes.

Missing Numbers: Costs To Create Images

By Jim Pickerell | 1161 Words | Posted 4/8/2011 | Comments (1)

Many photographers licensing images at RM and traditional RF prices believe that it is impossible to have as profitable business licensing images at Microstock prices. They argue that despite the fact that some microstock photographers earn significant revenue due to sales volume their expenses must be so high that there is very little profit for their time invested. This story explores the validity of that theory.

10 Fastest Dying Industries

By Jim Pickerell | 650 Words | Posted 4/6/2011 | Comments (1)

In an IBISWorld market research report author Toon Van Beeck has identified the 10 Fasted Dying Industries in the United States. While every industry has a lifecycle – growth, maturity and decline – the fastest dying “standouts” include: Photofinishing, #4 on the list, Newspaper Publishing ,#7 and Video Postproduction, #10. IBIS has a database of 700 industries and studied 200 that were in decline to determine which were in the worst shape.

Licensing In The Digital Age

By Jim Pickerell | 526 Words | Posted 4/6/2011 | Comments

Prior to 1976 a commissioning client owned the copyright to images created by photographers. At that time the vast majority of images that appeared in publications and advertising were created on assignment. The 1976 copyright law changed all that and gave photographers control of their work and the ability to license narrow and specific rights. Now, the business world is pushing photographers back into a model that looks very much like pre-1976. The promise of a continual income stream from our creations often seems distant and unobtainable.

Press Association Joins The Image Works

By Jim Pickerell | 148 Words | Posted 4/6/2011 | Comments

The Image Works stock photography agency (http://www.theimageworks.com) has announced the addition of the Press Association collection to its archive. Press Association has one of the most extensive collections of UK news, sports and entertainment images in the world, dating back to 1860.

Microstock Demand For Travel Photos

By Jim Pickerell | 696 Words | Posted 4/5/2011 | Comments (4)

A rights-managed photographer recently told me that travel photographers must continue to market their work as rights-managed because there is not enough customer demand on microstock sites for travel images to enable photographers to cover their costs and make a profit. He acknowledged that people who shoot model released business and lifestyle photographs might be able to earn enough to profit from licensing their images as microstock, but argued that it won't work for the travel photographer. I decided to search iStockphoto for some popular locations and see how many times the top ten images from each of these locations had been downloaded.

Getty Images Contributor Agreement Reviewed

By Jim Pickerell | 2505 Words | Posted 4/1/2011 | Comments (1)

The new Getty Images Contributor Agreement is now available. It raises a number of issues for Getty photographers. Photographers must sign the new contract before the end or April in order to continue to submit new images. If they choose not to sign Getty will continue to license their images until their current contract expires. At that point their images will be removed from the database.

Promotional Videos For iPad

By Jim Pickerell | 81 Words | Posted 3/31/2011 | Comments

In the past two years Corey Rich has directed and shot more than 15 video profiles for Apple. The stories have generally centered around small business and enterprise companies that have integrated iPhone and iPad for greater efficiency and, in many cases, a positive effect on their bottom line. His two minute iPad in Business profile of Eric Jackson and Jackson Kayaks may give you an idea of new business opportunities that are opening up for still photographers turned videographers and producers.

About Jim Pickerell

Jim began his career in 1963 as a freelance photojournalist in the Far East. His first major sale, a Life Magazine cover, was a stock photo of the overthrow of the Ngo Dinh Diem government in Saigon, Vietnam.

He spent the next ten to fifteen years focusing on assignment work, first as an editorial photographer, and later in the corporate area. He regularly filed his outtakes with several stock agencies around the world.

As the stock side of his income grew, Jim studied the needs of the stock photo market, and began to devote more of his shooting time producing stock images. At about this time the 1976 change in the copyright law went into effect, and the industry began to see rapidly growing demand by commercial and advertising users for stock images.

In the early 80's he helped establish the Mid-Atlantic chapter of American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and served as Vice President, President and Program Chairman over a period of six years. He served on the national board of ASMP for two years, was on the committee that produced the ASMP Stock Handbook in 1983, and was active in the fight to reverse the IRS rules that required capitalization of all expenses of stock photo production.

In 1989 he published the first edition of Negotiating Stock Photo Prices, a guide to pricing hundreds of stock photo uses. The fifth edition was published in 2001. In 1990, he began publishing Selling-Stock, a bi-monthly newsletter dealing with issues of interest to stock photographers and stock photo sellers, with particular focus on issues related to marketing stock images. Selling-Stock is recognized worldwide as the leading source of in-depth analysis of the stock photo industry. As a result of his many years in the industry and his work with Selling-Stock, Jim has an expert understanding of the stock photo industry, its standard practices and developing trends. He frequently provides consulting services on stock industry issues to photographers, stock agents and individuals in the investment community.

In 1993, his daughter, Cheryl, joined him in the business. Together they established Stock Connection, an agency designed to provide photographers with greater control over the promotion and marketing of their work than most other stock agencies were offering. The company currently represents selected images from more than 400 photographers.

At age 76, Jim continues to follow stock photo industry developments on a day to day basis and expects to continue to do so far into the future.