In an article published in the British Journal of Photography (BJP) and entitled “
Stockpiling Trouble: How The Stock Industry Ate Itself?” Betsy Reid founding executive director of Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) from 2002 through 2009 lays out some of the reasons that the SAA will be closing its doors at the end of 2011. Many in the industry will want to review this article.
When you rent a movie for an iPad it expires and disappears 30 days after the date of purchase. Once you start watching the move it will automatically disappear in 24 hours even if I have not watched it to the end. If you want to see it after 24 hours you’ve got to rent it again. This got me thinking. Why can’t we install a “kill date” into the JPEG files we license for use?
Google has released a new function that allows those who use Chrome or Firefox browsers to search the web for use of specific images.
If you go to to
http://images.google.com you will see a little camera icon in the search box. Click on that icon and you get a popup that says “Search by Image.” Either paste an image URL or drag an image onto this search box you will get a view and list of the URL’s where that image can be found.
After the recent CEPIC conference in Istanbul my wife and I joined a
small group touring Turkey. The trip got me thinking about a potential
future markets for still photography. Are you prepared to deal with these markets? Are you willing to sell to these customers?
The New York Times reports today on
Lytro’s new camera that lets you shoot first and change the focus later. If the focus is off slightly, or you want to change it dramatically from foreground to background or anywhere in between you can change it in the computer once you get back home. Check out this new technology
here. Welcome to another reason why there will be little need for professional photographers in the future.
On May 23rd I announced a
contest. Everyone who provided an answer to the question "Describe a situation where a fee of $10.00, or less, is justified for the COMMERCIAL use of a single image?" would be entered in a drawing to Win $100.00. In addition to announcing the contest to my newsletter subscribers I passed out cards to attendees to the CEPIC Congress in Istanbul. We have conducted a drawing and the winner is Tim Harris of Nature Picture Library and Bluegreen Pictures in the UK.
Creatives need to start exploring ways to deliver their products –
writing, photographs, illustration, video – to students, instructors and
educational institutions without the aid of educational publishers.This article goes into some of the reasons why and how it could be accomplished.
What happens when the iPad becomes the primary vehicle for delivering
educational information? Check out this story for some of the things we think will happen in the education business. Also see how what will happen to in the education business to content providers -- writers as well as photographers -- in the next ten years compares to how microstock has changed the stock photography business in the last decade.
Alamy has over 24 million images online after adding over one million
celebrity images. The company represents over 570 of the world’s
leading stock and specialist agencies and a vast array of photographers
from every corner of the globe.
Given Internet capabilities, society is rapidly moving away from
Business to Business (BtoB) transactions and more toward transaction
where small Businesses sell all types of things direct to Consumer
(BtoC). Some images will continue to be used in major ad campaigns and
there will be other sales of stock photography at traditional prices,
but the number of such requests will decline. Meanwhile image use by small businesses and individuals will increase dramatically. Photographers need to start focusing on how they can prepare themselves for the new market.