Pickerell, Jim

Articles by Jim Pickerell

Polylooks Closing

By Jim Pickerell | 190 Words | Posted 10/4/2010 | Comments

Polylooks, a photo service launched in June 2009 by Deutsche Telekom, Germany’s leading provider of communications services, has announced that it will close operations on December 31, 2010.

Alert: iSyndica Refunds

By Jim Pickerell | 64 Words | Posted 10/4/2010 | Comments

All photographers working with iSyndica must contact them before October 17, 2010 to get a refund. According to iSyndica this is required, “because we do not have your billing details and cannot refund orders after a certain point. Without your information, we cannot refund you. Do fill in the form before October 17, 2010 at the latest.”

Individual Property Ownership And The Future Of Creativity

By Jim Pickerell | 2686 Words | Posted 10/4/2010 | Comments (3)

In his biography, The Age of Turbulence, Alan Greenspan said, “The presumption of individual property ownership and the legality of its transfer must be deeply embedded in the culture of a society (emphasis mine) for free market economies to function effectively. In the West, the moral validity of property rights is accepted, or at least acquiesced in, by virtually the whole of the population.” I was struck by how this relates to the photography business today. The concept of individual property ownership is no longer deeply embedded in the culture of our society. A large segment of the population believes that certain property should be free to all and that the creators have no rights once the property is shown to anyone. Using the creative works of others without permission or compensation is becoming the morally accepted standard.

Locating Copyright Holders

By Jim Pickerell | 263 Words | Posted 10/1/2010 | Comments

ASPP has published a very informative guide for picture editors and researchers on locating copyright holders of imagery when the name and contact information is not readily attached to an image. The guide, and a link to a downloadable PDF, are available free or charge.

PhotoAlto Upgrades Website

By Jim Pickerell | 134 Words | Posted 9/30/2010 | Comments

PhotoAlto has announced that it has just completed a year long project in which the company re-designed and rebuilt is website incorporating only the latest search and web technology. Visitors will immediately note streamlined stylistic and design changes, and will be presented with an enhanced choice of search features, quicker browsing speeds, a simplified thumbnail display, and an all around increased ease of use and intuitiveness to the website.

Scammers Prey On Unsuspecting Photographers

By Jim Pickerell | 973 Words | Posted 9/29/2010 | Comments (1)

Photographers marketing their images through online web sites should be alert to common art scams that seem to be growing in frequency. This is particularly true for those trying to sell physical works of art (fine art prints).

Going Pro: Rise Of The Amateur

By Jim Pickerell | 1044 Words | Posted 9/28/2010 | Comments (2)

Many professional photographers are disturbed by the changes taking place in their careers. Photographers who dream of earning their living taking pictures will, at the very least, find that goal much harder to achieve than it was for their predecessors. Amateurs have taken over an increasing share of the business. And their share will continue to grow. The shift from professional control of the market to significant amateur involvement is irreversible and will accelerate. That doesn’t mean that no one will be able to earn a living as a still photographer. But many fewer will do it successfully than was the case in the past. There is no way to predict the amount of the market amateurs will finally control, but it will be significant.

iSyndica Closes Its Doors

By Jim Pickerell | 160 Words | Posted 9/28/2010 | Comments

iSyndica, the automation service that allows photo and video producers to batch-upload content to multiple stock-selling and photo-sharing Web sites, has announced that it will be closing its doors as of October 10, 2010. Effective immediately, contributors will no longer be able to place orders for credits or storage, or change their subscriptions.

New Group Proposes iPad Photo Use Fees to Publishers

By Jim Pickerell | 757 Words | Posted 9/27/2010 | Comments

As we move forward in the digital publication age, a group of celebrity photo agencies has untied into the Editorial Photo Agency Guild, which is leading the way in attempting to establish some pricing principles for the use of photos in iPad applications. The need for a unified approach in bargaining became apparent when People magazine announced its plans to launch an iPad application and provide it free to print subscribers.

Going Pro: Video

By Jim Pickerell | 2071 Words | Posted 9/24/2010 | Comments

In theory, there should be major growth in demand for video in the near future. However, people have been making that prediction for more than a decade, and it still doesn’t seem to be happening. In fact, videographers who were among leading sellers of video clips a decade ago are now reporting that their sales are down 50% from what they were just three or four years ago. It is unclear whether this decline only applies to a select few or if revenues are down across the board. At the same time, it is apparent that video as an industry is growing, offering still photographers an opportunity to transition or at least diversify.

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.