Valentine's Day will see the launch of a boutique stock collection featuring new work and highlights from over 30 years of photography by Doug Menuez.
We have done a bad job. A terrible job. If picking a photograph is all about its price and not its quality than we, the photo industry, have made a terrible job at selling our work.
Every time an editor, whether from an ad agency or a magazine decides to use an image because it is cheaper than the others, that means we have all failed to advocate for the real value of photography. We have failed, all of us, Photographers, agents, photo agencies to make the new generation of image buyers see the real value in our images. Thus the current situation.
In the near future, the vast majority of professional photographers will be unable to earn enough from producing stock images to offset their cost of production.
Illinois-based Commercial Research Image Archives has launched CriaImages.com, which offers more historical and contemporary images at flat rates on a royalty-free basis. The archive was founded by author and historian Jay Robert Nash and thus has a distinctly editorial feel, featuring notable people, things and events throughout history.
There are two ways to approach shooting for the stock photo market. The first is to take images you love and hope that someone will want to pay you for them. The more businesslike approach is to try to determine what customers want, and one thing that is beneficial is that the subject matter in demand has not changed: what customers wanted five, 10 or 20 years ago is still in demand today.
The people behind ImagesBazaar.com say its 800,000+ inventory makes it the world's largest collection of Indian images. Since India is emerging as a leading market for a growing range of products and services, the company says it has seen a surge in demand for images that show Indian faces in local settings.
AudioMicro continues the trend of microstock sellers offering upmarket products with the launch of a Platinum Collection.
The United Kingdom is engaged in hot debate over the long-awaited legislation that promises to usher in a new and improved digital economy. The British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies has weighed in with objections to extended licensing and orphan-works clauses, which the organization says could have significant detrimental effects on the photo industry.