Interviews
Lance and Laura Longwell made it their life mission to travel. Despite both working 9 to 5s they found time to explore the world and in doing so set up
TravelAddicts.net, an amazing site full of their adventures and stunning images from all corners of the globe. However, they soon had issues with image theft as their images were being used without permission. The Travel Addicts turned to
Copytrack, the online compensation recovery portal, for help.
Joe Sohm, the creator of
Visions of America has been crisscrossing the U.S. for more that 30 years documenting the country as he sees it in all its beauty and uniqueness. From Presidential Campaigns of both parties to Landscapes & Cityscapes, Sohm is one of the most prolific Americana photographers. He has approximately 33,000 images in his collection. The collection is represented by the three major agencies – Getty Images, AdobeStock and Shutterstock – as well as a host of other agencies around the world.
In a story by Rick Boost published in Campaign Asia-Pacific, a publication providing insights and intelligence into the ideas, work and personalities shaping Asia’s marketing-communications industry, Kumi Shimamoto, Asia vice-president for Getty Images, says that one of the reasons for the company’s position as the largest image supplier in the world is its audience research methods.
If in the last 30 years you’ve seen an image taken in India there is a good chance it was supplied by Dinodia Photo Library. For years Dinodia images have been represented by many other image distributors around the world and those images have found their way into countless books, newspaper and magazine articles.
David Seevers, Chief Marketing Officer of
Footage.net and owner of
Thriving Archives recently asked me for my thoughts on the future of the footage industry. As owner of Thriving Archives Seevers was also the principle author of all three
ACSIL Global Surveys and has produced other industry specific research reports.
Paul Melcher disagrees with much of my pessimism about the future of the stock photo industry. I have the greatest respect for Paul and his opinions. He is founding director of
Melcher Systems and has been working in the stock photo space for more than 20 years. He has a thorough understanding of our industry. He has done much more in depth research of the tech side of the industry than I have, and has much better contacts and networking in that space. For these reasons, it is important for my readers to carefully consider what he has to say.
One of the most useful seminars at
PhotoPlus Expo this year was the “Your Roadmap To Success” presentation by Judy Hermann. Judy is a past president of the
American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), served as an Olympus Visionary for 10 years and was awarded the United Nations International Photographic Council’s Leadership Award for her work as an educator and industry advocate.
After a long quiet period as a blogger, Yuri Arcurs has decided that it is time to
comment on Adobe Stock. Yuri is generally considered the most successful microstock photographer. For many years he was a strong advocate of non-exclusive representation, and placed his images with virtually every microstock distributor.
The interests of the multi-billion dollar social media sites and photographers may finally be coming together thanks to DMCA and
imagewiki. The safe harbor provision of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) says, “
Online Service Providers (OSPs) cannot receive any financial benefit directly attributable to infringing activity.” Thus OSPs cannot place ads on user generated content unless they can identify the image’s owner and use policy.
Adobe has hired Scott Braut, formerly VP of Content at Shutterstock. He has been named Head of Content and will drive the company’s overall content strategy and operations for
Creative Cloud. Adobe says content is a strategic area of growth and focus as it builds a growing, strategic creative marketplace. Scott has over 20 years of experience in content licensing, product development, eCommerce, and digital media.
Several of my readers have differing opinions with regard to the meaning of the term “no exchange of equity” as it appeared in Masterfile’s
May press release. I thought it meant that no money changed hands. I asked Steve Pigeon, CEO of Masterfile, for clarification.
Want to know more about the people who are producing images that are licensed at microstock and subscription prices?
Shutterstock Panorama is worth a look.
Recently, I asked Geoff Tompkinson to share a little about his 35-year career in stock photography and where he thinks the business is headed. Before reading his story I suggest you take a look at Geoff’s amazing work –
still photography,
timelapse and
hyperlapse -- and then begin reading.
Be sure to read Getty Images CEO,
Jonathan Klein’s comments in James Estrin’s interview that appeared in the New York Times August 27th. Among the key takeaways are:
Robert Henson has provided an important perspective on the Decline of Image Licensing on
Paul Melcher’s blog. He succinctly outlines some of the key changes in the imaging business that will undoubtedly lead to a further price declines. There are also indications that fewer professional produced images will be needed as more and more customers find other ways to acquire the images they need. This is a must read for anyone looking for a future as a stock image producer.
Over the weekend I reported that there were
71 live briefs on
ImageBrief worth a combined total of over $150,000.
Allyson Scott, who has been responding to briefs and submitting images for more than six months, points out that actually making a sale is not as easy as I might have made it sound. Here’s what she had to say.
It’s time to take another look at
PeopleImages.com that Yuri Arcurs Productions launched 17 months ago. Yuri has long been the world’s most successful microstock photographer, and until June 2013 his work was represented on virtually all the world’s microstock distributors.
Alamy is soliciting questions for the next installment of it’s popular “Ask James" feature. Between now and September 23rd contributors can pose questions to James West, CEO of Alamy. He will answer as many as possible in one or more 10 minute video sessions.
At Visa pour l'Image in France earlier this month Olivier Laurent of the British Journal of Photography interviewed Jonathan Klein, CEO and co-founder of Getty Images. Among the issues discussed were falling prices, the future of the industry, the need for new economic models and the role of smartphones in a market in flux. The entire article can be found
here.
With Stocksy (
http://www.stocksy.com/) Bruce Livingstone has set out to produce a collection of “authentic” stock images unlike anything customers will be able to find anywhere else. When he uses the work authentic he means a photograph that doesn’t look staged, pretend, forced or unrealistic. Images can be processed, but the processing must match the content. It’s not Instagram. Bruce took time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions for us.
There was a time when one of the keys to being a successful stock photographer was to develop a strong working relationship with a top photo editor at one of the major stock agencies. That period has passed. Rolf Sjogren who managed a high-level team of art directors, photo editors, producers and retouchers for Getty Images from 2001 through 2008 explains what happened and gives us a picture editor's perspective on how the stock photo industry has changed in the last 20 or so years.
The CEPIC Congress in Barcelona June 10 – 14, 2013 attracts stock agents from around the world. Pricing will be one of the key issues discussed – specifically falling prices and the impact they are having on stock agencies and professional photographers. I posed a series of questions to a few industry leaders. This story is a response from Alfonso Gutierrez, CEO of
age fotostock.
As a specialist in model released military photography (
http://www.photoshelter.com/c/militarystockphoto) for more than 30 years Hans Halberstadt has always actively pursued infringements of his work. Over the years he has recovered in excess of $200,000, often a few thousand dollars at a time, for various unauthorized uses.
In her presentations “The Fixer” at Photo Shelter’s Luminance event in September, retoucher and illustrator Amy Dresser beautifully demonstrated that there is no reality in photography any more. You'll be amazed at what she can do with Photoshop and Illustrator.
John Lund is one of the world’s most successful stock photographers. His images have a clean, graphic, conceptual style and generally illustrate business concepts. His images are often humorous. Using photoshop and digital tools he creates images that put people and animals in impossible situations, but they are done so skillfully that viewers often ask, “Did that really happen?” The following are five tips for succeeding in stock photography.