Interviews

Flickr As A Marketing Tool

By Jim Pickerell | 1152 Words | Posted 3/30/2012 | Comments
Most professional photographers believe Flickr is a site they should avoid because someone might steal their pictures. They think of it as a place where amateurs put the pictures they want to share with family and friends. Todd Klassy is using it very effectively to market his images in his part-time photographic business.

Understanding The Changing Media Landscape

By Jim Pickerell | 890 Words | Posted 11/4/2011 | Comments
At the recent PACA International Conference in New York internationally-known visual journalist Tom Kennedy discussed the “Changing Media Landscape.” Kennedy was Managing Editor for Multimedia at The Washington Post, Director of Photography for the National Geographic Magazine, and Assistant Graphics Director at The Philadelphia Inquirer before taking up his current position as Alexia Chair Professor for Documentary Photography in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Shannon Fagan On Opportunities In China

By Jim Pickerell | 2398 Words | Posted 7/22/2011 | Comments
Shannon Fagan, a very successful former New York stock photographer, has set up shop in China as a consultant and content aggregater. He has spent a cumulative equivalent of 2 years in Shanghai and Beijing since 2006 working with, and doing business development for, China's commercial photo agency sector. He permanently moved to Beijing in December last year. He has interacted with nearly all the key players, support components, and service providers, and developed an “insider’s” knowledge of the opportunities and pitfalls of China’s stock photo industry. This interview provides some insights into the Chinese market.

Stockpiling Trouble

By Jim Pickerell | 329 Words | Posted 6/29/2011 | Comments
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.

Reinvention: Four Photographer Success Stories

By Jim Pickerell | 3684 Words | Posted 3/11/2011 | Comments
At ASMP’s recent Strictly Business 3 education weekend in Philadelphia four photographers explained how they had reinvented their businesses in the current challenging business environment. Here are their stories. There will be more success stories at the last Strictly Business 3 conference in 2011 which takes place in Chicago April 1st through 3rd.

Yuri Arcurs: Leading Microstock Photographer Revisited

By John Martin Lund | 2322 Words | Posted 3/10/2011 | Comments
In January of 2011 Yuri Arcurs was interviewed by John Lund and gave the following account of where his business is today. Yuri is the world’s best selling microstock photographer, has a staff of more than 50 and the overhead for his stock operation exceeds $200,000 a month.

Stock Photo Market In China

By Jim Pickerell | 1761 Words | Posted 2/23/2011 | Comments
Many Western stock photographers are beginning to wonder if it isn’t time to explore the potentials of the Chinese market. I asked Jerome Lacrosniere, CEO of ImagineChina in Shanghai for some information about the state of the Chinese stock photo industry.

Earning A Living In Stock Photography

By Jim Pickerell | 919 Words | Posted 1/13/2011 | Comments
For many photographers seeking to earn some, or all, of their living producing stock images, one of the most important decisions in 2011 will be whether to retire from the stock photo business or get into microstock. Many photographers who are licensing their images at rights-managed or traditional royalty free prices have seen their revenue decline significantly in the last couple of years. They are also skeptical that it is possible to earn any significant money licensing images at microstock prices. As a result quite a few are choosing to get out of the stock photography business.

Microstock No Longer Profitable for Chapple

By Jim Pickerell | 326 Words | Posted 12/21/2010 | Comments
Ron Chapple, one of the first traditional adopters of the micro-priced model into his larger stock business, says that chances of making a sale have decreased by 90% in recent years.

Insights Gleaned from CEPIC

By Shannon Fagan | 1722 Words | Posted 7/19/2010 | Comments
Ed: Shannon Fagan was one of the speakers at the New Media Conference held in conjunction with the June 2010 CEPIC Congress in Dublin, Ireland. Fagan has been in the stock business for a decade, is represented by most major agencies and is the president of the Stock Artists Alliance. He shares his observations about the state of the industry with Selling Stock readers.

How Successful Photographers Do It

By Jim Pickerell | 1112 Words | Posted 7/14/2010 | Comments
Looking for some vacation reading material? Here are some suggestions. If you want to know how successful stock photographers do it, here are links to a series of interviews done over the last couple years. There are lots of different strategies. Some of these photographers are among the world’s most successful. Other’s like Todd Klassy and Holger Mette are relatively new to the business, and have adopted unconventional strategies that may be the wave of the future.

Shannon Fagan: The Future Of Stock Photography

By Jim Pickerell | 1167 Words | Posted 7/8/2010 | Comments
Shannon Fagan is a former President of the Stock Artists Alliance and an Advisory Board member of the Young Photographers Alliance.  In the past 18 months, he has attended every major industry conference to gather information on stock photography and licensing’s current direction.  He has contributed both Rights Managed and Royalty Free images directly to Getty Images, Corbis, Veer, Blend, Image Source, Cultura, Spaces, Tetra and many other brands. He has a deep knowledge of the stock photography industry, both from personal experience, and from his role helping other photographers develop their businesses. The following summarizes a few of his thoughts that were first published on Greg Ceo’s blog.

Miles Gerstein on the Future

By Jerry Kennelly | 631 Words | Posted 6/23/2010 | Comments
At the recent CEPIC Congress in Dublin, Ireland, CEO of UpperCut Images Miles Gerstein offered CEPIC Daily his assessment of the future of the stock photo industry. Gerstein previously owned PunchStock, which he sold to Getty Images in 2006, and Artville, which he sold to The Image Bank in the late 1990s. His years of experience in the industry provide him with an important perspective on where the industry is likely headed.

Yeulet: From BananaStock to Monkey Business Images

By Jim Pickerell | 1117 Words | Posted 6/22/2010 | Comments
Don’t tell Cathy Yeulet that you can’t make money in microstock. She operates Monkey Business Images, one of the most successful microstock production companies. However, unlike many microstockers, she is not new to stock photography. For many years, Yeulet operated a successful rights-managed business in Oxfordshire, U.K. When traditional royalty-free first began to take off, she created the BananaStock brand, which she sold to Jupiterimages in 2005 for approximately $19 million in cash. She started uploading images to iStockphoto in March of 2008.

Klein Optimistic on Getty Growth

By Jerry Kennelly | 2285 Words | Posted 6/15/2010 | Comments
Jonathan Klein is CEO and co-founder, with Mark Getty, of Getty Images and the most influential person in the global stock photo industry. For fifteen years he led an aggressive acquisition campaign which positions Getty as the leading source of still and moving imagery as well as footage and music. He is a passionate believer in the power of the image to create change in editorial as well as creative photography. In this exclusive CEPIC DAILY interview, he gives frank answers to some tough questions posed by Tweak founder Jerry Kennelly. It gives an intriguing insight into Getty as a privately held company and their vision for the future of the industry.

Expanding Your Business With Video

By Gail A Mooney | 1104 Words | Posted 5/20/2010 | Comments
I had already been a still photographer for over 20 years when I started exploring digital video and the motion medium ten years ago. I had built a successful career shooting editorially for magazines like National Geographic Traveler, Smithsonian, Travel & Leisure to name a few, as well as producing annual reports for major corporations.  When digital video hit the scene in the late ‘90’s, I was already starting to feel a slight frustration in trying to tell certain stories with a still camera. I was beginning to think and see in terms of movement and sound.  At the same time, technology was making it possible and affordable with digital video cameras and non-linear editing software for me to use this medium to tell my stories.  The new tools were a means to an end.

The End of Stock Photography as a Career? Interview with Jim Pickerell

By John Martin Lund | 6797 Words | Posted 4/27/2010 | Comments
Jim Pickerell has a long history in stock photography as a stock shooter, an agency owner, and an industry analyst. In this wide-ranging interview he shares his experience and insight on the future of stock photography.

Tips for Getting Good Video Interviews

By Gail A Mooney | 404 Words | Posted 3/21/2010 | Comments
More and more still photographers are getting into video because of the appeal of the hybrid still cameras that also shoot video.  Photographers love the visual coming out of these big chip cameras – what’s not to love?  But they quickly find out that if they aren’t just going to be laying visuals down to a music track, they will need to start thinking about their audio – specifically a narrative track or one driven by sound bites from interviews.  I work in the corporate sector, as well as create documentaries, so I do a lot of interviews.  The interviews, along with a scripted voiceover comprise my audio track and drive the story.  

Interview With Stock Shooter and Agency Owner Tom Grill

By John Martin Lund | 2015 Words | Posted 3/20/2010 | Comments
Tom discusses his strategies for success in stock photography with advice for both new and established stock photographers. He discusses what to shoot, the importance of RPI, selecting agencies and even what gear he uses.

Interview with Blend Images Founder and CEO Rick Becker-Leckrone

By John Martin Lund | 3048 Words | Posted 3/20/2010 | Comments
Rick Becker-Leckrone, CEO of Blend Images, is interviewed about his background, the success of Blend Images, and the state of the stock photo industry.

Who Is Yuri Arcurs?

By Jim Pickerell | 1404 Words | Posted 3/17/2010 | Comments
Anyone who has heard the term microstock has probably heard of Yuri Arcurs. He is recognized as the worlds most successful microstock photographer but is much more than just a photographer: he is a brilliant businessman adept at marketing, self-promotion and managing a large staff.

Does RM Represent 1% of Images Sold?

By Jim Pickerell | 959 Words | Posted 2/25/2010 | Comments
In response to "Stock Photo Lottery," Bill Bachmann said: "I don't know where you get the idea that 1% of images are sold are RM. I think you are pulling that figure out of a hat."

Traveling the World with Microstock - A Lifestyle Design Possibility

By Lee Torrens | 1024 Words | Posted 1/31/2010 | Comments
This is an interview with Holger Mette, an Australian photographer who's been traveling the world for two years earning his living from a small portfolio of photos he distributes in the microstock market. We discuss travel, photography and microstock, with example photos and links to his microstock portfolios.

[Source: Microstock Diaries - used with permission. All photos Copyright Holger Mette]

Interview with Photographer, Art Director and Editor Sarah Golonka On Succeeding In Stock Photography

By John Martin Lund | 3670 Words | Posted 1/25/2010 | Comments
Photographer, Art Director and Editor Sarah Golonka shares with us her knowledge and tips on succeeding in stock photography.

Ron Chapple: New Directions, Embracing Change

By Jim Pickerell | 826 Words | Posted 1/5/2010 | Comments
After great success at producing and selling traditional rights-managed and royalty-free imagery for more than 25 years, Ron Chapple started producing microstock in 2006. By 2008, he went looking for new opportunities, and in 2009 -- the year when many other photographers struggled to survive -- he doubled his income compared to the previous year.