If you license rights to your photos for textbook use then here are a few articles you should read.
Emily Chow, a photojournalism student at Northwestern University's Medill School, posted a story on Black Star Rising (
see here) which basically takes the position that photography students should ignore what experienced professional photographers are telling them and forge ahead with determination to launch careers in photography. I had to respond. Be sure to read her story first.
Newspaper publishers, almost universally, believe the iPad and other
tablet devices are possible saviors of the journalism business since
they are a much more cost effective news delivery system than print and
more than 50 million devices are expected to be in use before the end of
2011. However, given the way payment for content is structured European
publishers are very concerned about loss of control of their
businesses.
For over 30 years Tom Grill has been teaching photographers how to take
marketable stock shots. In mid-November last year he decided to take at
least one stock photo a day for a year and post them to
this blog.
These are not images from his normal, planned stock shoots. Rather they
are grab shots from things he is exposed to daily. Some will be taken
while he is on one of his normal shoots, but all the shots will only be
happenstance, not anything planned in advance as part of his regular
shoots. He is also supplying information about the techniques used to
create some of the images.
Hawaii photographer Douglas Peebles is exploring a new market for his
images – iPhone Apps. During his more than 30 years of photographing the
Hawaiian Islands he has produced
18 books
and a number of pocket guides to the various islands. He currently has
seven iPhone apps which give him another way to reach consumers.
Photographers who license rights to their images based on how the images
will be used tend to be adamantly opposed to microstock. The principle
reason for such opposition is that microstock images are licensed for
use at very low prices. With microstock there are a few price variations
depending on how the images will be used, but they are minimal compared
to those used by rights-managed sellers. All other aspects of the
microstock business tend to get ignored. I want to examine some
of these other aspects of microstock licensing and point out how
traditional agency photographers might benefit if their agencies would
adopt some of them.
Most newspaper and magazine publishers have recognized for some time
that the handwriting is on the wall and the old business model where 80%
of the cost of producing a newspaper or magazine was covered by
advertising and 20% by subscriptions is no longer viable.
iStockphoto today announced that it has hired digital media industry
veteran, Nick King, as vice president, international. King will
spearhead the company’s international development and will focus his
efforts on reaching new customers and markets around the globe.
The New York Image Expo will take place on Thursday, October 20th, with
setup on Wednesday 19th. The PACA Annual International Conference
follows immediately afterwards, on October 21st to 23rd, which should
help minimize travel costs and time out of the office.
AudioMicro, which offers the world’s largest collection of
user-generated royalty free music and sound effects, announced today
that it has received an equity investment from Fotolia, Europe’s leading
micro stock photo site. Existing investor DFJ Frontier, a West Coast
seed and early-stage investor, also participated in the financing, which
totaled $750,000. In connection with the financing, Oleg Tscheltzoff,
co-founder and chief executive officer of Fotolia, has joined
AudioMicro’s board of directors.