Where Do Buyers Go To Get Stock?

By Jim Pickerell | 286 Words | Posted 11/23/2011 | Comments (1)
PhotoShelter has published a new Free guide to Selling Stock Photography that can be found and downloaded here. The guide includes results of a survey of 500 buyers of stock that shows which collections they search most frequently.

Masterfile Launches New $10 Collection

By Jim Pickerell | 197 Words | Posted 11/22/2011 | Comments
Masterfile has added 1.5 million budget-friendly photos and illustrations to its website at www.masterfile.com, complementing its large collection of premium rights-managed and royalty-free images. Customers can easily toggle between the RM/RF collection and the $10 collection, but images from both collections are not shown at the same time.

Shutterstock Launches iPad App

By Jim Pickerell | 377 Words | Posted 11/22/2011 | Comments
Shutterstock Images LLC has  released its Shutterstock for iPad app, available for free download now in the Apple App Store.

Image Collect Doubles Size In 3 Months: Over 3 Million Images

By Jim Pickerell | 274 Words | Posted 11/18/2011 | Comments
Just 8 months after launch ImageCollect.com, a celebrity picture library offering images at microstock prices, has doubled in size in 3 months and now has more than three million images available for download.  The library contains archival imagery and current content supplied by top entertainment photographers. The company expects to have more than 5 million images by early 2012.

Granger Collection Adds 35,000+ Images From Ullstein Bild

By Jim Pickerell | 247 Words | Posted 11/18/2011 | Comments
More than 35,000 images highlighting European politics, the arts, entertainment, and lifestyle from ullstein bild, Germany’s oldest picture archive, are now available at The Granger Collection’s website, www.granger.com.  Based in Berlin, ullstein bild holds one of the most significant collections of historical imagery in Europe, covering the ancient past to current events.

Aurora Photos Launches myPhone Collection

By Jim Pickerell | 484 Words | Posted 11/16/2011 | Comments
Aurora Photos is excited to announce the launch of the myPhone Collection of stock photography, a collection of images taken with iPhones and other mobile devices by some of the world’s top photographers and iPhoneographers, and now made available to pictures buyers for both editorial and commercial licensing. To coincide with the launch of the myPhone Collection, Aurora is also introducing a new modified Rights Managed licensing model called Easy Rights Managed. The model offers simple, quick, broad, and managed rights at reasonable prices.

Easy Rights Managed Licensing

By Jim Pickerell | 1251 Words | Posted 11/16/2011 | Comments (1)
With its launch of its myPhone Collection Aurora Photos has also introduced a new simplified Rights Managed pricing model they call Easy Rights Managed. “The model offers simple, quick, broad, and managed rights at reasonable prices.” The model is similar in some ways to the Rights-Ready model launched by Getty Images in 2006. Getty later abandoned this experiment.

2011 Market Size: Additional Information

By Jim Pickerell | 1724 Words | Posted 11/14/2011 | Comments (1)
After reading Stock Photo Market Size In 2011 Tom Zimberoff asked several question that need a more detailed response. This story explains why growing microstock revenue does not mean that a growing number of microstock images are being used.

Dreamstime Launches “Give Thanks, Give Back” Campaign

By Jim Pickerell | 196 Words | Posted 11/14/2011 | Comments
While Thanksgiving is a joyous event for many, for those less fortunate it can be a difficult time. With this in mind, Dreamstime, is launching its “Give Thanks, Give Back” campaign to help share the blessings of this year’s Thanksgiving with those less fortunate.

Occupy Book Publishers

By Jim Pickerell | 1307 Words | Posted 11/11/2011 | Comments
The Occupy Wall Street movement’s “we are the 99 percent” campaign is basically about a fairer distribution of wealth. Photographers and those who handle the distribution of images to end users need to launch an Occupy Book Publishers movement.

What Are Photos Worth?

By Jim Pickerell | 122 Words | Posted 11/11/2011 | Comments (1)
Andreas Gursky’s photograph called “Rhein II” has just been sold for $4.3 million at Christies making it the most expensive photograph in the world. However, Gursky won’t see a penny of the money since the transaction was between two collectors.

Alamy Expanding Sales Operations In Middle East and Australia

By Jim Pickerell | 262 Words | Posted 11/10/2011 | Comments
Alamy is expanding its direct sales operations with senior business development and sales staff in Australia and the Middle East.  Sascha Weis, former Senior Sales Manager for North America at Corbis, is relocating to Beirut and Megan Bulmer, a former employee of Alamy UK has recently relocated to Australia.

Educational Publishing Debate

By Jim Pickerell | 4852 Words | Posted 11/9/2011 | Comments (1)
After I published “Moving Forward In Educational Licensing” a reader suggested on the Yahoo Stockphoto group that I had “some interesting ideas” about how stock photographers might deal with educational publishers. Without reading what I had to say, Carl May, owner of Biological Photo Service & Terraphotographics responded with, “I hope Pickerell isn't really falling for the line that educational publishers don't know how images will be used in the future and therefore need new pricing procedures.” Carl is an experienced photographer/agent who also spent over a decade working on the college publisher side of the business.This article is a colloquy between Carl and myself on the subject. Apologies for the article length.

Corbis Launches ‘OnDemand: Royalty-Free’ Subscriptions

By Jim Pickerell | 404 Words | Posted 11/8/2011 | Comments
In an effort to give volume customers a better deal and compete with Getty’s Premium Access and Thinkstock programs Corbis Images has launched a new Royalty-Free (RF) subscription service that offers customers easy access to more than one million RF images at greatly discounted prices. The service, called ‘OnDemand: Royalty-Free’ is available to all customers to help solve their creative storytelling needs.

Ingram Releases “Ultimate Trade & Objects” Disc

By Jim Pickerell | 215 Words | Posted 11/8/2011 | Comments
Ingram Image has created a new DVD collection ‘Ultimate Trades & Objects’ - a comprehensive library of over 1300 white background photos and layered EPS vectors. The 2-volume set was conceived as an alternative to the dated ‘occupations’ images currently available.

Stock Photo Market Size In 2011

By Jim Pickerell | 814 Words | Posted 11/7/2011 | Comments (2)
Since Getty Images went went private at the end of 2007 and Alamy stopped providing quarterly figures at the end of 2009 it has become very difficult to estimate the size of the stock photo market worldwide. This article is an update of my previous articles and provides an overview of the amount of revenue being generated in each segment of the business today.

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.

Reflections On The Stock Industry

By Jim Pickerell | 774 Words | Posted 11/2/2011 | Comments (4)
For those in the stock photo industry October is always a time for intense networking and education in New York with Visual Connections, the PACA International Conference and PhotoPlus Expo. Now that these events are over its time to reflect things learned. Here are a few of my take-aways.

Update on Arius3D's Agreement to Acquire Masterfile

By Jim Pickerell | 363 Words | Posted 11/1/2011 | Comments
Arius3D Corp. and Masterfile Corporation have agreed to extend to November 30, 2011 the closing of the previously announced proposed acquisition by Arius3D of all of the issued and outstanding securities of Masterfile.

Footage.net Expands Extreme Weather Footage with StormStock

By Jim Pickerell | 301 Words | Posted 11/1/2011 | Comments
Footage.net, a source of stock, archival and news footage, now also offers preview clips from StormStock, the world leader in extreme weather content.

ASMP Receives Distribution From Authors Coalition

By Jim Pickerell | 501 Words | Posted 10/26/2011 | Comments
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) has received $307,700 from the Authors Coalition of America (ACA). The funds are part of a distribution from a European Collecting Society that is authorized to collect payments for the copying of non-title-specific copyrighted works. In order to facilitate photocopying the law allows it to take place in some instances without requiring that the copyright holder’s name be recorded or that he, she or the corporation holding the copyright be directly compensated for the use.

Amazing Opportunity To Train As A Commercial Photographer

By Jim Pickerell | 433 Words | Posted 10/26/2011 | Comments (1)
Early next year 10 to 15 aspiring commercial photographers will be offered an amazing three year FREE education in the technical and business aspects of commercial photography as part of the Yuri Arcurs International Commercial Photography Academy. Yuri is the most successful microstock photographer in the world.

Distribution Figures No Longer Protected As Trade Secrets

By Jim Pickerell | 809 Words | Posted 10/25/2011 | Comments
In the case of DRK Photo vs John Wiley & Sons Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona Judge Frederick J. Martone denied the defendant’s motion to seal circulation information for 40 titles that were part of the complaint.

Whatever Happened To Jeff Burke?

By Jim Pickerell | 168 Words | Posted 10/25/2011 | Comments
Some in the stock photography business will wonder, “whatever happened to Jeff Burke?”  Jeff was the creator of the FoodPix, Brand X and Botanica brands and sold his company (PictureArts which also owned Nonstock at the time) to JupiterImages in 2005. (Jupiter was later acquired by Getty Images.)

Dealing With Getty: Things For Flickr Photographers To Consider

By Jim Pickerell | 1082 Words | Posted 10/25/2011 | Comments
Some Flickr photographers are given the opportunity to place some of their images on gettyimages.com. One photographer who was recently approached by Getty asked if he should have any concerns about dealing with Getty or if there are things he should be aware of before agreeing. Here are some of my thoughts.