Backed by Yuri Arcurs,
Scoopshot is launching a new service for crowdsourcing photography on-demand in minutes after the customer makes a request. Scoopshot gives photo buyers the ability to instantaneously place assignments in front of the company’s global network of 280,000+ mobile photographers.
Over the weekend, Seeking Alpha (SA) published an article aimed at the investment community entitled, “
Shutterstock Valuation Makes Me Shudder.” The points made in this article are well worth considering, not only for investors, but for anyone interested in earning a living in the business of stock photography.
Since early in 2009 I have been
tracking downloads of 192 of iStockphoto’s most productive contributors. All of them have more than 48,000 downloads and 130 of them have more than 100,000. There are others with high numbers of downloads that I have not tracked for as long a period, and I’m sure there are a few I have not identified. Nevertheless, I believe this group is very representative.
An increasing number of mobile phone photographers in Europe are contributing images to
Scoopshot. The company recently released the total number of images uploaded to the five tasks that photographers have found most interesting. Amazingly, 27,788 images were submitted to a request from WAZ Media Group in Germany for pictures of interesting coffee cups.
PhotoShelter has launched
Beam, a new web platform that makes it easy for photographers to create exciting portfolio sites with a contemporary look. Initially, they have provided four innovative templates, but more variations are expected in the near future.
The UK’s
Copyright Hub has launched its pilot phase. It is designed to be a gateway to information about copyright in the UK and point those interested in the right direction to get permission to use a copyrighted work.
James West (Alamy CEO) and Mike Fischer (Alamy Chairman) have invested in a smartphone video start up called
Manything, an innovative new video recording service that uses smartphones and tablets as remote video cameras.
Shutterstock’s
Offset brand that was announced in April is moving forward. Currently the site has more than 27,000 images with more images and artists added every day. Customers are already licensing images, but Offset is currently in an invite-only beta. If you would like to take a look at what’s on the site go to
http://www.offset.com/ and request access.
PACA has changed its name to
PACA, The Digital Media Licensing Association. While the name Picture Archive Council of America has served the organization well, it has become apparent that it no longer accurately reflects today’s photography licensing business, or the membership of the organization.
Alamy has launched an initiative called “Ask James” where contributors pose questions on Facebook, Flickr or the Alamy blog about Alamy operations or the stock photo business in general. Once the questions are in CEO James West sits down infront of a webcam and records as many answers as he has time for in 10 minutes segments.