Phrases like “it’s not all doom and gloom” pop up often, but those who offer such encouraging analysis are typically in the top tier of the profession. While their experience is certainly real and laudable if not amazing, is it representative enough to be touted as a roadmap to a successful career? Common sense, economics, mathematics and every available source of statistical information says no.
Alamy is celebrating an upcoming milestone with a contest. The company has also joined a growing list of photo distributors to offer iPad apps.
In the fall of 2009, I estimated the size of the worldwide market
for still images and illustrations at about $1.45 billion. In the last
12 months, overall sales have probably remained about the same, with a
few companies seeing sales growth, mostly from taking market share from
those that have gone out of business.
Getty Images has launched a new brand, Archive Photos.
It is the child of Getty’s Hulton Archive, which the company says is
the largest commercial archive on the market, containing more than 80
million images that date back to 1860.
When I published “Top Pros Stop Shooting” in my other newsletter Selling-Stock received an unusual number of comments from industry leaders. Most of those who commented had some disagreement with
the positions I took in the article. Since PhotoLicensingOptions readers will have missed
seeing these comments, I have printed them here along with an editorial response.
“
Top Pros Stop Shooting”
received an unusual number of comments, most of which disagreed with
the opinion presented in the article. Since some of you may have missed
these, here they are—along with an editorial response.
Today, a lot of businesses get marketing and branding mixed up. They
are confused as to what the differences are, what they both mean or they
try promoting their business with one and without the other. Simply
put, marketing is how you reach your target market with advertising,
promotions and public relations. Marketing is showing the world with
what you do. Branding is who you are or what the world thinks you are.
Every time a prospect or a potential customer makes contact with you in
person, print, virally or by other means, they are formulating an
opinion of you as a brand.
The dwindling magazine publishing industry may be in for a new digital
future. A study by Next Issue Media forecasts that digital—mainly iPad
and other tablet-based—versions of periodicals will bring in $3 billion
in subscription revenue by 2014.
Getty Images has announced the publication of
Coming Back: New Orleans Resurgent by Umbrage. The company described the book as “a moving body of work” by Getty photographer Mario Tama, introduced by CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
If you have decided you want to enter the microstock world, you can’t get better advice than is contained in Ellen Boughn’s newly release
Microstock Money Shots. Boughn doesn’t promise that it’s easy or that you’ll get rich quick, but she will save you a lot of the frustration that comes from learning the hard way by trial and error.
Fine art photographs are an expression of the artist’s creative vision, perceptions and emotions more than a realistic rendering of a subject. Peers may admire such work and judges may occasionally award a dollar prize, but in most cases such images are not deemed to have commercial value. Actually profiting from the creative effort is rare for most photographers who produce such images. They produce them because they feel compelled to do so, not for the money. However, John Math is proving that it is possible to profit from selling fine art images if you take a business approach and develop a marketing strategy.
On Linkedin’s Photography Industry Professionals
discussion group, Brooke Fagel recently asked: “What’s it like to be a
freelance photographer?” These select responses provide a comprehensive
picture of what a photographer faces.
Cathy Sachs, longtime director of the American Society of Picture Professionals, is retiring at the end of this year. Publishing and photo industry executive Jain Lemos will assume the position of ASPP executive director as of October, finishing the year alongside Sachs.
On Linkedin’s Photography Industry Professionals
discussion group, Brooke Fagel recently asked: “What’s it like to be a
freelance photographer?” These select responses provide a comprehensive
picture of what a photographer faces.
The stock image industry has recognized that image search does not just
happen at the agency Web site. A number of image sellers have invested
in technologies that take collections to the buyer using Internet
browser software.
Two-year-old Pixmac is banking on its “rapid checkout and download”
without the necessity for customers to engage in a complex registration
process to help the company expand its customer base in North America.
Users of leading blogging platform WordPress can now use GueWolke’s
microstock photo plugin to search, purchase and insert iStockphoto images into their posts or Web pages from inside the WordPress interface.
Many rights-managed and traditional royalty-free production companies
are having trouble finding photographers willing to shoot for them. Many
of the photographers who were rights-managed and traditional
royalty-free stars five to ten years ago have given up shooting stock,
or at the very least dramatically cut the number of images they produce
and the amount they are willing to spend production.
Hamburg-based
Plainpicture
has announced new additions to its London sales and Hamburg creative
departments. It is difficult to say why some independent shops continue
to grow where others shutter, but the German boutique has been spreading
its wings over Europe and appears to be weathering the economic storm.