Category: Stock Photo Companies
The home page for stock photo industry news, information and resources for stock photography company professionals.
News
Dreamstime Partners with Imagio.cz to reach Czech & Slovakian customers
Dreamstime, a Brentwood Tennessee based micro-payment stock photography business, has announced that it has signed an exclusive distribution agreement with Imagio.cz based in Prague to distribute the dreamstime stock photography in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. “The stock photo market in our region is currently ruled by classic international stock agencies that customarily offer images at elevated prices. The awareness of the various micro stock agencies and photo shopping options is limited among Czech and Slovak internet users,” introduced Martin Maun, Imagio.cz Project Manager.
News
Pacific Stock celebrates 20 years of operation
Pacific Stock, Inc, a stock photo agency specializing in images from Hawaii, the Pacific and Asia, is now celebrating 20 years of operation. From humble beginnings the business was launched by the company’s President, Barbara Brundage in the late 1980’s operated out of the spare bedroom of her small house. Today the business has cultivated an image library of over 150,000 Rights-Managed and Royalty-Free images. “We’ve come a long way since the early days of inviting clients over to my rickety old house to look at transparencies,” says Barbara. “Many of those early clients are still loyal customers to this day,” she said.
News
Digital Railroad partners with Embassy Pro Books to offer discount on photo books
Digital Railroad, a provider of online archiving and marketing services for photographers, has announced a partnership with Embassy Digital to extend a discount to members who are interested in creating custom professional-quality photo books. As part of the discount Digital Railroad’s mebers will receive 50% off their first order with an on-going 10% discount on future purchases. “We are extremely happy that Digital Railroad has chosen to promote our quality products to their members,” said Embassy Digital President Bryan Payne. “As one of the few companies that cater to professional photographers, we believe the relationship with DRR is a perfect fit and will be of great benefit to their members.”
News
stock photography portal Fotosearch celebrates 10th anniversary
Fotosearch launched in Waukesha, Wisconsin 10 years ago with a unique business model as one of the first stock photography portal sites. Fotosearch grew out of Publishing Perfection (founded in 1987) which operated a catalog business offering software, laser printers, and scanners to graphics and multimedia professionals. The company began to offer stock images in the early 1990s and launched the Fotosearch web site in 1998 as a portal where customers could licnese images from multiple stock photography publishers at a single site.
News
Action Images founder David Jacobs acquires London Features picture agency
Press Gazette reporter Rachael Gallagher is reporting that the picture agency London Features has been acquired by Action Images founder and noteworthy sports photographer David Jacobs. LFI is Jacobs’ first major acquisition after selling Action Images to Reuters in 2005. Jacobs’ investment vehicle, Imvest Ltd, acquired the agency after the company went into administration last month following a law suit that was taken out for a potential breach of copyright by one of the contributing photographers.
News
PhotoSpin launches annual Spinner Awards contest
Long Beach, CA based PhotoSpin, a leading royalty free stock subscription company has announced that it will be running it’s annual Advertising contenst dubbed the ‘Spinner Awards’. To participate in the contest designers must create an account in the MySpin Directory and upload their ads. The contest is open to PhotoSpin’s customers and visitors as well as anyone else with a creative flair and a spirit for competition.
News
Masterfile launches forum for creative professionals
Masterfile, a stock photography company based in Toronto with offices in France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, has announced that it has launched a new forum for designers, art buyers, picture editors, researchers and creatives to share ideas support each other in an international online community. This chat room style feature will be accessed through Masterfile’s own ever-evolving virtual metropolis, Masterfile City.
News
Alaska Stock captures imagery of Denali National Park’s new Eielson Visitor Center
Anchorage based Alaska Stock Images has announced that it has been tapped by the The National Park Service to create images of its new Eielson Visitor Center Denali National Park. Alaska Stock sent more than 20 photographer who produced approximately seventy custom stock images of majestic landscapes, wildlife, botanical studies, and park activities. The official grand-opening of the new facility is planned for August 12, 2008.
News
Jupiter Media reports 2nd quarter 2008 financials
Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM) has released the financial results for the 2nd quarter of 2008 completed on June 30, 2008. The company reported slightly higher revenues of $35 million for Q208, compared with $34.6 million last year, but still wound up in the red again with a net loss of $3.286 million. Compared to the previous year Jupiter is down $1.293 million and the previous quarter down $52.000. Shares closed yesterday at $1.30.
News
Photolibrary teams up with TBWA Singapore to launch worlds’ biggest ad collaboration site
Photolibrary has once again teamed up with TBWA Singapore to launch a new campaign to feature royalty-free images as a fun and exciting tool for advertising professionals. In this latest campaign the company has launched a new viral site at theworldsbiggestad.com where the community can contribute to create the world biggest ad. “The concept is based on collaboration, via the Web. We developed a custom-built Flash application that lets you create your piece of the world’s biggest ad, submit it, and then pass on an invitation for others to do the same. We’ve already had over 300 creatives taking part, which is encouraging as it only officially launched last week.” state Graham Kelly, Executive Creative Director of TBWA Singapore.
News
Getty licenses Jolie-Pitt baby pics raising more than $14 million for charity
Seattle based Getty Images has announced that it has negotiated an exclusive deal to license images from an exclusive photo shoot of the newborn twins, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline and the Jolie-Pitt family. The Images were reportedly licensed for $14 million to PEOPLE magazine in the United States and to Hello! Magazine in all other territories. In addition, the Jolie-Pitt family and Getty Images have agreed that all proceeds will be used for charitable purposes. The photos will appear in both publications on Monday, August 4, 2008.
News
PA Photos sending seven photographers to Olympic Games in Beijing
PA Photos, a photo agency operated by The Press Association in the UK, has announced that it will be sending a team of seven photographers to Beijing to cover the 2008 summer Olympic Games. The team will be headed up by the agency’s Chief Photographer John Giles, a veteran who has covered several Olympic Games and also includes Gareth Copley, winner of Sports Specialist Folio at the Press Photographer’s Year awards.
News
Encyclopedia Britannica image archives now available for distribution
The Encyclopedia Britannica have made their visual content archives, including photos, maps, illustrations, natural science drawings, slides and animations, available for distribution and stock licensing. The collection holds approximately 55,000 images of which the company has digitized nearly two thirds.
News
Corbis taps photographer Jason Joyce to create stylized women in sports images
Corbis, one of the world’s largest stock licensing companies, has released a new set of imagery featuring futuristic women in sports just in time for the Summer Olympic games in Beijing. To create these images Corbis Art Director Martin Yates worked with acclaimed photographer Jason Joyce to produce imagery of women fencers, swimmers, archers, weight-lifters, soccer players and others in high concept futuristic settings. The images have been carefully retouched to give the photos a clean, vibrant and surreal look.
News
Idée signs key editorial customers for PixID Image Monitoring Service
Toronto Canada based Idée Inc., a software company focused on image identification and visual search software, has announced that several new key customers have adopted its PixID Image Monitoring Service. The new customers include, The European Pressphoto Agency (EPA), Matrix Photos, Capital Pictures and Feature Flash. Idée launched its PixID image monitoring service I n 2007 and the company states that it monitors thousands of publications for over 25 million of its clients images and performs up to 55 trillion image comparisons each month.
Editorials
Microstocks: the Latest Fossils
Recently, attracted by an internet link to photos of “Living Fossils,” I clicked into a slideshow in Popular Science’s online magazine. The usual suspects were there- platypus, opossum, tuatara- but the usual credit lines weren’t. None of the small niche specialist agencies were represented, nor were any of the giants. Not even a microstock! Instead, the credits included nine photos gotten through Creative Commons (CC) licensing, and one through GNU General Public Licensing. Of the two remaining, one was in the public domain, and one was from NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (presumably acquired free).
News
a21 signs letter of intent giving Applejack Art Partners majority stake in business
a21, Inc. (OTCBB: ATWO) one of the largest stock licensing companies in the world has announced that it has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) with Applejack Art Partners, Inc. of Vermont. Under the terms of the LOI, Applejack would purchase all of a21’s outstanding notes (a principal amount of $18,000,000) and all of the shares of a21 common stock (approximately 41 million shares). a21 would then exchange approximately 110 million newly issued shares of its common stock with Applejack in satisfaction of approximately $13,000,000 of such notes. “We are pleased to make an investment in a21 and believe that our complementary product offerings should result in greater sales opportunities and efficiency for both companies” stated Jack Appelman, Chief Executive Officer of Applejack.
News
PACA back in NYC for 13th annual international conference in October
The Picture Archive Council of America (PACA), a trade organization for stock licensing companies, has announced that it will be hosting its popular annual international conference in New York City’s world-famous Financial District from October 24 - 26, 2008. The timing of the event has been coordinated in order to coincide with the photo industry’s biggest events including PhotoPlus (October 23-25) and Picturehouse (October 29) bringing photographers, stock agency personell, and photo buyers, to NYC from all over the world for an action packed week of networking and industry activity.
News
Dubai Photographers Agency launches Celeb Arabia
The Dubai based, Dubai Photographers Agency, has announced the launch of a new source for celebrity images from the middle east called Celeb Arabia. The company claims that the new site located at CelebArabia.com will be updated daily with entertainment photography including red carpet images, portraiture and assignments featuring A-list celebrities from around the world.
News
Photographer Associations express concerns with Orphan Works bills S2913 and HR5889
For several years now the US Congress has been debating orphan works legislation which would allow publishers to use copyrighted works without a license in the event that it is difficult or impossible to identify and contact the copyright holder. As in recent years, organizations representing artists and copyright holders have made it clear that they cannot support this legislation in its current form. The Advertising Photographers of America (APA), the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA), the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) and Editorial Photographers (EP) on behalf of their members are urging congress to change Orphan Works bills S2913 and HR5889 as they bad for copyright holders and inconsistent with international trade agreements.
