Category: Stock Art Buyers
The home page for stock photo information and resources for the art-buyer and graphic design community.
Features
Free Admission to Six Flags with Pentax Camera
I don't own a Pentax camera anymore (my first camera was a Pentax k1000) but if you happen to own one Pentax is running a cool promotion to play hooky next thursday with free admission to any Six Flags themepark.
To take adavantage of this promotion you need to register by clicking on the link below.
http://www.pentaximaging.com/sixflags
News
Free Stock Photo’s
Just received this press release from a reader. If you sign up for a newsletter from Turbo Photo they will reward you with some free stock Photos. It may not be what you need but (why not) they are free.
Here is the Press Release (as usual I have highlighted what is important and edited out the BS.)
Download $500 of Free Stock Photos Now from the New Turbo Photo Newsletter
(Press Release)
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Graphic Designers will be generously rewarded with Turbo Photo's new 'Free Stock Photos' newsletter. New subscribers are warmly welcomed with instant download access to 50 hi-res royalty-free stock photos- free for the taking. Designers may subscribe by visiting the Turbo Photo website (http://www.turbophoto.com/ ), then clicking on the 'Free Photos' button.
After the initial 50 free photos, subscribers will continue to be rewarded each week with subsequent newsletters, which contain links to more free stock photos, photo CD specials, and occasional Photoshop tricks. A designer who accumulates all the newsletters could attain thousands of dollars of free stock photos.
Resolution of the free JPEG photo files range from 2560x1920 (14MB) to 3264x2448 (23MB)- ideal for small to medium size marketing materials. Designers are free to use these royalty-free images for virtually any printed project, while agreeing to the simple Terms of Use listed on the download page.
For more information, please contact Turbo Photo (http://www.turbophoto.com ).
Features
Big Mac Attack (Conference for the Geeks)
A friend (thanks Mike!) just e-mailed me about Mac Expo in
Boston
from July 11 – 14. Apparently there are a number of workshops related to working on Digital images using a Mac. If you are in the area it might be worthwhile to check it out.
Here is a link to a couple of workshops for professionals
working with Photoshop.
Features
Wondering who is using your images?
Ever wonder if somebody is using your images without your permission? PicScout uses search technology to find your images on the internet allowing
you to verify that the image was licensed correctly. Many times they find
images where the original license is expired but the image is still being used
and should be renewed. Sometimes PicScout finds blatant infringements of the
image which can lead to significant fees.
PicScout offers solutions for photographers as well as stock agencies. The company’s solutions are based on proprietary image recognition technology and advanced Internet crawling capabilities.
for more information go to www.picscout.com
News
More cool stuff from Veer
As I have said before Veer understands creative customers better than anybody else offering Stock images for licensing. Veer has today released a new lightbox that makes their lightbox more useable than any I have seen and i'm sure will make life a lot easier for designers to store and share images, fonts, and ideas for their current projects. I'd encourage you to check it out and i'm sure it wont be long before others emulate it.
Veer Shuttleboard
http://www.veer.com/shuttleboard/
Press Release http://www.veer.com/about/pressroom/releases/veer_pr_shuttleboard_050613.aspx
Reaction posted by Cameron Moll
http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/000335.html
Features
Rumble in the Bronx (Small Business Vs. Big Business)
Today's all-star match is the battle between a large flower delivery service
(1800flowers.com - Westbury, NY)
and a local Flower Shop (On The Square Flower Shop - Bronx, NY).
Place your bets now on who will come out victorious in the battle to provide
the best service and win customer loyalty and (uhhh, errr...) hundreds of
dollars in cash and flower orders.
Round 1 - Valentines Day - Feb 05 (ding, ding)
Last Valentines Day I ordered flowers from 1800flowers.com two weeks before
the big day. I went with 1800flowers.com for the following reasons.
- A promotion where I received air miles
- I assumed that 1800flowers.com would be able to offer a great product at a reasonable
price and that delivery would be reliable.
I selected a nice bouquet with tulips that I knew would appeal to my wife.
The cost was approximately $75 (a bargain for any married man to make his wife
happy on V-day). However when Valentines day arrived, I never heard from my
wife (typically she would call to say thank-you). Towards the end of the day I
tried to call 1800flowers.com to see when the flowers would be delivered and
was told by a recording that the hold time would be a minimum of 3 hours (I did
not wait to see if someone would actually pick up). The next day - still no
flowers. Three days later I called 1800flowers.com again and this time I waited
35 minutes to speak with a representative. The representative started sparring
with me by informing me that the package was not delivered to my wife because
FedEx cannot deliver to the address provided (not true). I confirmed that the
address provided was correct and I pointed out that I have sent FedEx packages
to my wife at that address before. The representative admitted that she has no
idea why the package was not delivered. After more dancing in the ring I finally
convinced 1800flowers.com to refund my card and cancel the order.
Round 2 - Wedding Anniversary - June 05
(ding, ding)
For this round I did a little research to find a reputable local flower shop (a contender) that was located in the Bronx (where my wife works). However this time around I had been traveling the week before our anniversary and had neglected to call-in an order until the day before (I know - a rookie mistake). In addition to procrastinating I had the glorious idea that it would be great to see if I could find a florist who can make an arrangement to look similar to my wife's bridal bouquet with Yellow Roses and Blue Cornflowers (I found out later that Blue Cornflowers are not very common).
I called a few local flower shops who all agreed that it was a lovely romantic idea but that I was crazy to try this with only 24 hours notice. Finally I called a little shop called "On The Square Flower Shop" and spoke with a gentleman name John (the owner). John told me he wasn’t sure if he could do it but would be glad to look into it with his supplier and call me back. Here is where John outshined my expectations - He actually called back! John said that he could make it happen and would be glad to make the arrangement based on a picture of my wife’s wedding bouquet that I would e-mail to him. John then came out with a 1-2 combo where he asked me how much I wanted to spend. I suggested $75.00 for the flowers and John confirmed that he could make a reasonable arrangement for that price. The next day, John came through on his promise and delivered a beautiful arrangement which pleased my wife and made me look like Cassa-Nova. (See the picture attached for the knock-out punch in this battle of David Vs. Goliath.)
Ladies and gentleman the winner with a knock-out punch and your new heavyweight champion…… On The Square Flower Shop - Bronx, NY!
News
Open Letter to the Art Directors Club
A few Trade Organizations have sent an open Letter to The Art Directors Club to protest sponsorship by OnRequest Images. I have been following OnRequest for some time and have always felt that OnRequest Images has treated its photographers very fairly. OnRequest is lead by David Norris who is himself a professional photographer and a very nice man. OnRequest has done many artist-friendly things to distinguish themselves including, offering use of studio space and equipment to its artist for use free of charge, and producing complex shoots for potential stock requests and sharing all revenue from these shoots 50/50. Don't forget that these same Photographer's organizations have a history of protesting new business models and many of them preached against the evils of Royalty-Free licensing a few years back. Today some of the most successful Photographer's I know (Ron Chapple, Jack Hollingsworth, Etc...) are those that embraced the royalty-Free business model early on. These photographer's understood that Royalty-Free licensing served the needs of customers in a way that Rights-Managed images simply could not. I think we will see that the Custom Stock Business model (although frightening at first) will prove to be a good thing for both photographers and photo-buyers.
To read the letter for yourself click on the following link.
http://asmp.org/news/spec2005/adc.php
Features
A Picture Is Worth 1000 Keywords
In the past few years I have noticed a trend among many
photographers and smaller stock agencies to outsource keywording. This brings
us to the fundamental question - How important is keywording? My experience is
that proper keywording is perhaps one of the most important things that can
affect the revenue potential of an image. This is because the primary way for a
potential buyer to see your images is through an online service which typically
uses keywords to determine which images appear in a search. That means that it
is very important that keywording is done by a competent professional with an
understanding of what keywords should be applied to an image. If you don’t know
for sure how to do this you may consider using one of the following outsourced
solutions.
News
Jupiter Buys Goodshoot
Recently Jupiter Media announced the purchase of their
latest stock photo collection GoodShoot, an image producer from
France.
Stories like this are no longer news as pretty much everybody I have talked to
in the industry who owns a significant collection of images has been approached
by Jupiter Media. I’m sure we will see many more press releases like this in
the future.
EditorialsFeatures
iStockPhoto
iStockPhoto is changing how photographer's market images by providing a forum for any artist to submit new and interesting work to test the market.
The scary part for most photographers is that downloads cost as low as $1.00. However, that low download price helps to gain exposure for the artist and the most successful images can show the artist where to focus their future efforts to create some very sale-able (hmmm... is sale-able a word?) images. iStockPhoto site traffic has grown to huge numbers (their Alexa rank of
978 is above Corbis' ranking of 2,288 and not that much under Getty's
586).
I would definitely recommend istockphoto to any artist who is looking for valuable feedback on their RF images.
Features
Looking For A Local Coffee Shop?
Simply enter your zip-code in the Delocater to find a non-corporate cafe in your area. Know a great coffee shop in your neighbohood? Submit to the Delocator in order to help local small business owners compete with the chains.
Features
Montage-a-google
I created this montage of Leica images using a very cool montage tool created by designer Grant Robinson. This tool searches Google for images that fit any keyword and creates a montage of 20 images.
Check it out!
http://grant.robinson.name/projects/montage%2Da%2Dgoogle/
Features
Like Father Like Son
While browsing my favorite t-shirt site I came across this incredible image that I just had to post. This image was created by Les Sharp from Sydney Australia. To see more designs like this check out www.threadless.com. The site allows designers to upload designs and users can vote on them. The best designs are made into t-shirts that everyone can buy. They also have a great t-shirt of the month club for those interested in giving a unique gift.
This t-shirt is available at http://www.threadless.com
Features
Fun with Ron and Joe.
What could be better than a website where you can purchase stock images, fonts, Art Parts as well as a Rubber Chicken and leopard print fez. This site is perhaps the most fun stock photo site to browse that I have seen. You can even find recipe's from Ron's Mom.
Go, Browse, enjoy!
http://www.ronandjoe.com
Features
SPL Image Of The Week
For some time now I have been subscribed to receive an image of the week from Science Photo Library. This is one of the few stock photo e-mails that I actually look forward to opening because there is usually a very interesting image to look at.
To subscribe to the image of the week register on the site and check the appropriate box to receive a beautiful new image in your in-box every week. http://www.sciencephoto.com/registration/registerFull.html
Caption: These are templates used to model new limbs on. Photographed at the limb
rehabiltation unit at the Eastern General Hospital, Edinburgh.
Caption:
Damselfly (order Odonata) resting on a leaf. Damselflies
are predators of other insects, often catching prey mid-flight. They spend much
of their life as aquatic larvae, where they feed off other small invertebrates.
Caption:
Assorted bacteria, coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM).
Features
Sign Here Please.
Ever wonder if somebody actually looks at your signature when you sign a Credit Card receipt. Check out this funny experiment to see how far you can push the envelope. Believe it or not, I once tried to sign the name "John Doe" at a Post Office in Springfield, MA. The overzealous Postal worker ended up going Postal on me and refused to give me the package. Apparently I don't take shipping and receiving packages as seriously as I should.
www.zug.com/pranks/credit_card/
EditorialsFeatures
Does Kodak have what it takes?
As many people know Kodak has
had some hard times in the past few years and is struggling to find a way to
survive the digital revolution. It seems the past 7-10 years everybody has been
asking “what is going to happen to Kodak? “ Can they find a way to offer
products that appeal to consumers as they abandon film and start using digital cameras?
Today Kodak took a step in the right direction by announcing a successor to its
current CEO Dan Carp. The new CEO Antonio Perez will officially take the reins
in June. Mr. Perez has his feet firmly
planted in the digital age having worked for Hewlett and various other Hi-tech
companies and is likely to lead Kodak in the direction of offering digital
products to consumers including cameras, printings, an online photo sharing. It’s an uphill battle but many on Wall Street
seem to think that Antonio Perez is up to the task and will be well suited to leverage
the 111 year old Kodak brand.
As a longtime fan of Kodak innovations and a collector of old Brownie cameras I look forward to watching the transformation and hope Kodak can find a way to survive the years ahead.
EditorialsFeatures
Getty And Wal-Mart Are Soul-Mates!
I recently caught wind of a practice that (if it is true) paints a very bad picture for anyone looking to submit images to Getty images. Many people in the industry know that Getty has been courting new agency contributors for some time now and it makes sense that Getty would have a preference to work with an agency that could supply images by the thousands rather than an individual photographer who struggles to submit hundreds of images per year. What we didn’t all know is that Getty has been encouraging these contributors to submit thousands of images in order to build up revenue for the contributor and then after the contributor is hooked, Getty has been forcing the contributor to convert to a more lucrative deal (for Getty) or else risk jeopardizing the relationship with Getty and all future sales. This is something that Wal-Mart has also been accused of doing and is one of the many gripes put forth by suppliers and activists alike.
I suppose it shouldn’t be a shock that Getty is pushing its contributors to work harder for less money, but there is also a claim that Getty is pushing contributors to sign exclusive deals that won’t allow contributors to work with its two biggest threats, Corbis and Jupiter Media. This type of deal is typically for Rights Managed (RM) images and not Royalty Free (RF) images but it makes me wonder how long it will be before Getty pushes it’s RF agents to sign a similar deal. If that happens, artist’s who wish to contribute photos and illustrations for stock will basically have to choose between working with Getty or, everybody else.
The sad thing is that unless the small to mid-sized agencies begin to work together and accept both RM and RF images non-exclusively so photographers can offer the same images through everyone who isn’t Getty, most photographer’s will have no choice but to bend over and take a deal on Getty’s terms. The simple fact is that an exclusive deal with Getty will generate 100 times the revenue of an exclusive deal with anybody else. It’s time for the smaller kids in the school-yard to band together and stand-up to the Bully who pushes the little guy simply because he can.
It may be too late to stop Wal-Mart but perhaps Getty can be pushed into doing the right thing.
EditorialsFeatures
It’s all about the image!
It's all about the image! That's what one of my college professor's would say over and over again. I thought of course that he meant that if you could make good (cool) images then the rest would fall into place. Later on I learned a new definition of what "It's all about the image" could mean. After working as a Commercial Photographer for several years and working in the stock photo industry I found out the hard way that it is not enough to be a photographer capable of amazing feats of imagery. It's about looking at the image as a product and marketing that image using much of the same business practices required to make a living from any product. As with other products you need to start with a good quality product to sell. You need to find a way to consistently produce your product at a manageable cost. You need to find a buyer for that product and/or set-up a distribution network willing to stock (no pun intended) your product and find new customers. You need to sell that product to your customers and distributors as if you were selling tires or some hot new electronic gizmo. You need to step back as an artist and from time to time stop looking at your images like a jealous artist and start looking at these images as your most valuable resource to be exploited in order to make a living.
I have known many many great artists who have spent years developing their creative skills only to find themselves barely making ends meet. It is the marriage between the artist and the businessperson in all of us that is the key to finding success as a professional artist. The saying is true - It is all about the image, but as a professional artist, it's also about making a living with that image.
