Cruise ship sinking in Antarctic waters a lucky wind-fall for new agency
The misfortune of the passengers and crew aboard the cruise ship Explorer became a piece of good luck for a relatively new stock agency specializing in marine biology. A vessel carrying a photographer with the agency Splashdown Direct happened to be just fifty-five kilometers away and was one of the first to arrive on the scene to assist in the rescue effort when the Explorer sent out distress signals on November 22nd. Photographer Michael Nolan’s images of the rescue and sinking ship were seen in newspapers and on TV and internet news outlets around the globe.
According to Splashdown Direct founder, Tom Walmsley, Nolan’s images generated revenue of over £6K from the UK broadsheets (daily newspapers) alone. “We had the once in a life time experience of having exclusive photos over a week-end when no other news broke around the world. We have only been running two years and we specialize in aquatic world but got lucky.” Walmsley added he’s thankful all were rescued successfully and no one was killed or injured in the accident.
Walmsley, a marine biology photographer himself, founded Splashdown in 2005 to satisfy a need he recognized among many of his aquatic photographer colleagues for a specialist library that was good at communicating with the photographers. “We have survived the initial stages, I believe, because we realized that video was going to be important so we have matched the content in both stills and video all the way through keeping a multimedia feel within our specialty,” Walmsley says, adding “We have also focused our promotions on photo stories which the media is hungry for these days. I also took on a library manager from Greenpeace, Julie-anne Wilce, and she helped Splashdown develop a relationship with them and we have become the first agency to represent Greenpeace International's archive.”
Web-site: Splashdowndirect.com - Click here to view featured image above.
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