The schedule for the Digital Media Licensing Association (DMLA) Conference, October 25-30 is now available
here. Online sessions for the week long conference will begin most days at 11:00am EDT and end by 5:00pm EDT. There will be two keynote addresses. On Monday at 11:00am Paolo Malabuyo, Director of UX at YouTube will speak on Embracing Complexity.
With the decline in public sporting events due to Covid-19, and thus the need for photo coverage, many sports photographers have seen a significant decline in demand for their services. But media companies still have time slots and space to fill. Consequently, they are turning more to documentaries and coverage of historical events to fill their gaps. In the UK this is great news for archies like Colorsport whose collection of sporting imagery goes back to the 1880s.
If you are a U.S. photographer hoping to earn at least a portion of your future living expenses from selling or licensing rights to the images you produce,
it is time to seriously reassess your business plan. If photography is a hobby. If the pictures you produce are for personal enjoyment and their earning potential is unimportant. If you have no need to earn revenue from your efforts, by all means continue to take pictures. But recognize that no matter how great your images might be, in all likelihood any future financial compensation you receive will be miniscule compared to the time and effort expended.
The Digital Media Licensing Association (DMLA) Conference will be virtual this year and available to registered attendees for a full week from October 25th through Friday the 30th.? It is expected that there will be nearly 25 sessions, including two keynotes, nine panels and more than a dozen roundtables, all conveniently stretched over the week and available to you from the comfort of your home.
The Google Licensable Badge concept has been discussed for more than
two years and seems to be getting closer to a release. Photographers will need to put a code in the IPTC header of each of their images. When a Google search finds such an image it will display the Licensable Badge with the image indicating that the image needs to be licensed for use. The viewer can then click on the badge and determine where they need to go to negotiate a license for use.
In June German photographer Robert Kneschke did an indepth analysis of the portfolios on the Fotolia website. Adobe displays all the images it represents on both the Adobe Stock and Fotolia websites, but less information is displayed on Adobe. The following information should be an accurate picture of what can be found on Adobe Stock as well as Fotolia.
If you’re a freelance photographer trying to earn a living taking pictures, and finding photo jobs few and far between during this Covid 19 pandemic, you should read
this story. Adam Pratt is one of many freelancers who has seen the demand for his services as a photographer decline. As a result he has re-invented his business. He has been able to use his photography skills and training to turn from taking pictures to organizing personal photos for families.
On Wednesday
Shutterstock announced a public offering of 2,580,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $48.50 per share. Of this total 2,064,000 of the shares are owned by Jon Oringer (Shutterstock's Founder, Executive Chairman of the Board. The other 516,000 shares are owned by the company. Mr. Oringer will net
$100,104,000 from the sale of his shares and the company will earn $25,026,000 from its sale of 516,000 shares bringing the total for the public offering to $125,130,000.
If you would like insight into the kind of images that are in demand and what you should be shooting you might want to take a look at
AdobeStock. Adobe offers some features other major agencies don’t. Exploring the site could help you decide what kind of images might earn the most money for you.
After publishing our article
“Getty’s RF ‘Market Freeze’: Expensive Customer Mess?" I received the following clarifying message from Matthew McKibben, Getty Images, PR Manager in The Americas. He said:
About Michael Masterson
Michael Masterson has a broad range of experience in marketing, business development, strategic planning, contact negotiations and recruiting in the photography, graphic design and publishing industries. In addition to his long experience at the Workbook and Workbookstock, Masterson owned and was creative director of his own graphic design firm for several years.
Masterson has been a speaker or panelist at industry events such as Seybold, PhotoPlus Expo, Visual Connections and the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) national conference. He is currently the national president of the American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP). He also serves on the board of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council in his Los Angeles community. He chaired the marketing committee for the Los Angeles Conservancy, a historic preservation advocacy group, for many years.
He currently heads Masterson Consulting, working on projects ranging from business development for creative companies and sourcing talent for them to promoting and marketing industry events as well as providing resume and professional profile services for job-seekers. He can be reached at zvpunryqznfgrefba@tznvy.pbz.