Category: Stock Photography 101
Features
Mr. Stock Smarty Pants speaks of too many photographers, too many pictures
Mr. Stock Smarty Pants is pleased to report to you that he has been deluged with questions about the stock picture industry since his bi-weekly column of wit and wisdom debuted in About the Image a fortnight ago. And in this, my post-Thanksgiving attempt to educate the unwashed masses, I have deigned to take on an array of questions from a rather confused fellow named Jonty (but what kind of name is “Jonty,” anyway???):
“Dear Mr. Stock Smarty Pants: Why has the internet and the digital age blown the market for stock images into a million tiny pieces. If the market has grown why have prices come down? Are there too many photographers? Too many pictures? Too many distributors? How and when will it change?”
Features
Mr. Stock Smarty Pants speaks about Google Images
First of all, Mr. Stock Smarty Pants (or, as I’m sometime known, MSSP) wants to acknowledge the editors and management of About The Image (ATI) for their obvious brilliance and eminent good taste in bringing me on board. It’s not as if I need a job, but I thought this might be good for a few laughs and the boys who run ATI seem pretty desperate for some high-quality content. And to you, the readers of About The Image, I just want to say that the vast treasure trove of opinions and information about the stock industry which resides in my brain is now at your disposal, or at least until such time as ATI bounces one of their checks to me. Send me your questions…and don’t worry, NO question is too difficult for me to answer.
Features
Mr. Stock Smarty Pants offering free advice for stock photographers
Send us your questions - You know abouttheimage as a classy, above-the-board, shining example of contemporary journalism. All that is about to change. Commencing next week, and at no small expense, abouttheimage will feature a bi-weekly question-and answer column featuring the wit, wisdom and occasional political diatribes of that international man of mystery from the stock picture industry, Mr. Stock Smarty Pants. Some of you may have already heard of this shadowy figure…others not.
Features
Video: The making of a stock photography production
German stock photographer Robert Kneschke has put together a nice behind-the-scenes presentation of a stock photography shoot. Click here to view the final pictures in the presentation.
News
Dreamstime contest offers “Shoot with Ron Chapple” prize
The micro-stock company, Dreamstime, has announced an innovative contest which is sure to create a “buzz” on the site and among micro-stock photographers. The winner will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Maui, Hawaii to participate in a shoot with veteran stock shooter and businessman, Ron Chapple, an established leader among stock photographers. Dreamstime will choose the winner from among entrants who participate in three “assignments” posted on their site. The company holds periodic assignment contests in which participants must submit portrayals of a specific subject or concept.
News
News Brief: Getty Images’ 2007 grants winners announced
Getty images announced the three winners of its 2007 grants for editorial photography at the Visa pour L’Image conference in Perpignan, France. Entrants presented proposed social and cultural projects for the opportunity to win $20,000 each and collaborative support from Getty. The three winning photographers and their projects follow:
News
PACA releases free PowerPoint on copyright education
The Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) has placed on its web-site, a valuable resource to any creator or user of photography – a PowerPoint presentation that provides a thorough review of copyright law in the United States and how it applies to the use of imagery in advertising, the news media and fine art. The presentation includes real-world cases with images and detailed explanations of how the parties viewed the claimed infringements and how the courts assessed them.
Editorials
Special Mention: workshop for shooters who like good food
We thought our readers might like to know about a special photographic workshop organized by our friend, George Munday of Copper Coast Workshops. Rather than in his native Ireland, this workshop will take place in the Languedoc region of southeastern France in October, 2007.
Features
Photography for photography’s sake at FILE Magazine
I have listened with no small amount of envy to tales from the CEPIC Conference in Florence from colleagues who attended. By all accounts, the organization put on another excellent event with over 900 people in attendance. Most of my friends reported on the usual “speed-dating” meeting frenzy, which has left their heads spinning and their minds and bodies needing to unwind. For those true fans of beautiful, thought-provoking photography, I have just the antidote to photo-business overload; a web-site dedicated to unique, unexpected and inspiring still imagery whose creators share the works of art they have discovered simply for the sake of sharing them: FILE magazine.
Features
Ableimages prefers to keep it small, keep it lean, and keep it keen
Stock industry veteran David Harrigan is running a stock production company called ableimages with a slightly different approach. Rather than focus on producing thousands of images to suit the needs of the many, ableimages is focusing on productions to serve the specialized needs of the few. “I did not want ableimages to be a factory churning out images based solely on ‘needs’ but a company that would work with its partners so as to create a body of carefully considered images that would perfectly suit their requirements” stated Harrigan. The small production company has been working with such partners as Getty, Corbis, Masterfile, and Uppercut Images to create images on a wholly owned basis. In addition Harrigan has stated plans to begin marketing its own images through Corbis and other channels over the course of the next few months.
News
Getty releases ‘MAP report’ a visual trend forecasting publication
Getty’s Creative Research team has made its first so-called “MAP” (Make A Picture) report available for purchase online. The report provides Getty’s take on cultural trends and how they will shape visual language in the future. The writers of the report researched over 2,500 advertising tear-sheets from around the world and surveyed 500 advertising,, design and marketing professionals. In addition, they evaluated image searches by 1.4 million customers on gettyimages.com, as well as 50,000 picture research requests and 120 re-branding exercises facilitated over a 12-month period. The first issue tackles women in the work-place (see photo.)
Features
Online archiving and marketing solutions for photographers
Over the last several years, a number of companies opened business offering products and services to help stock photographers and small agencies archive and market their images on-line. We at abouttheimage thought a comprehensive overview of those businesses might assist photographers seeking such services to decide which might serve their purposes best.
Features
Meditations on keywording
Many photographers long for the good old days when they shot on film. Once they had done their real work and the shoot was over, all they had to do was put a short caption on a sticker on the slide mount for submission to their agency. Some clients long for those days, too, when they could call a stock agency and rely on the researcher’s in-depth knowledge of the agency’s files to find just the right image. The world of digital stock photography exemplifies how technology designed to make life simpler has, in some ways, made it much more complicated. The “on-line” stock photo industry has pushed much of the responsibility for keywording onto the photographers. It has also pushed much of the responsibility for image research onto the clients.
