Stock photographers in the New York metropolitan area still have time to attend the
PhotoPlus Expo that has run from October 26th through tomorrow October 28th.
PhotoPlus used to be the once-a-year event where stock photographers from all over the country could meet and interact with peers and attend a host of educational seminars on how to grow their businesses. A few years ago there were seminars on various aspects of the stock photo business in every time slot over the full three days of the event.
As an indication of how rapidly professional photographers have lost interest in producing and marketing stock images, this year there was not a single seminar directly related to the business of stock photography.
In the exhibit hall Adobe Stock and Alamy are the only two stock photo companies with booths. On Thursday, at least, there didn’t seem to be many people stopping by these booths to ask questions. At one point there was a huge line in-front of the Adobe booth, but it turned out that all the people were interested in getting free t-shirts from the
QNAP booth next door, not Adobe.
Still Worth Attending
Nevertheless, the event is still worth attending in order to figure out how one might transition their photographic business into other more lucrative photographic endeavors.
There seems to be a huge shift toward video and away from still images. There are 43 booths on the trade show floor showing either the latest in video cameras, or equipment and accessories related to video production. There are also two seminars this afternoon and one tomorrow related to video production.
Another hot trend is drones. There are 10 booths showing various sizes and types of drones.
There is an increasing use of drone images for both editorial and commercial purposes. While there are a host of amateur photographers with smart phones and still cameras producing still images, there are a relative few who have gone to the trouble to purchase drone equipment and then learned how to really use it to produce exciting and never before seen images. This may be a new market opportunity for some photographers.
One of the things that always impresses me are the new ideas in lighting equipment. There are 32 companies on the trade show floor that offer a variety of solutions for lighting your subjects and sets. Despite the current trends in demand for more naturally lit images there is still a regular need to augment the existing light in ways that look “natural.”
Spending some time at PhotoPlus Expo is still worth the trouble for stock photographers.