01 Sep, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes




The Model Release Myth






The myth I’m about to write about has caused hundreds, even thousands, of potentially excellent, award-winning photos, never to have been taken. Why? Because we let it happen. No area of editorial stock photography has been more misunderstood than the model release issue. Here’s some clarification:

Photo columnists, unaware of their First Amendment Rights, have been fanning the fires of this issue for decades. A wall of mythology has built up around the subject, and I'll make the first move to break it down for you. To start off with: No, editorial stock photographers: you do NOT need model releases.
You may now get up off the floor and take a seat. I'll ask you to be open to a re-programming process. First, a couple questions: Have you ever seen a newspaper photographer ask for a model release? Did the video photographer in the Los Angeles Rodney King case ask the policemen or Mr. King for a model release?

If your photo is informing or educating the public, you do not need a model release.

And this is where the confusion comes in. About two million dollars a day are spent in the publishing of editorial stock photography, whose essential use is to INFORM and to EDUCATE. Photobuyers in this arena rarely require a model release, unless the photo is so sensitive that it might compromise a person in some way. Short of highly sensitive areas such as drug abuse, sex education, mental retardation, you won't find your buyers asking you for a model release. Here at PhotoSource, where we deal primarily in the “inform and educate” arena, buyers rarely ever ask for a model release.

You ask, “How and why was I under the impression that model releases are always required?"

Part of the reason is that most teaching and training in the USA for working photographers, is slanted to COMMERCIAL photography, where you always need a model release. As stock photography has grown and become more prevalent, commercial photographers expanded into media photography, and brought along with them the rules for commercial photography: i.e. you need a model release. Since most classic stock photography is used for commercial purposes, these photographers are right, you do need a model release if you are photographing in the commercial sector, where stock photo usage centers on promotion, advertising, and endorsement.

Some photographers, editorial stock photographers, that is, would have it no other way. They always get a model release. As my friend, Jim Cook, author of THE METAMACHINE, says, “My accountant loves me for getting model releases; so does my wife.” That way any editorial photo can be used for advertising purposes.

Some photographers can wear two hats, commercial and editorial. Try it. You might be built for it. Personally, I’m not. I stick to just the editorial side of selling stock.

You, as an editorial stock photographer who is informing, educating, and entertaining the public, operating a business in a free enterprise society – you have a powerful ally on your side, namely the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The First Amendment in effect says you can freely photograph in public (no model releases needed) as long as you are not breaking any local laws, such as trespassing.

Large publishing houses, which spend $50,000 to $150,000 per month for photography, are vigilant about protecting their First Amendment Rights, and in so doing, they protect your First Amendment Rights. If Pearson, Harcourt Brace, etc. were to require model releases for all the pictures they use, they would soon go out of business, because editorial photographers would not put up with the chore of getting model releases for slews of editorial, “non-posed” pictures.

Most of the horror stories that you read about concerning model releases have had to do with commercial photography (advertising, concerning sales and products for purchase), where YES, you do need a model release. Not so in the book and magazine illustration field.

The million-dollar-a-day book and magazine and on-line publishing houses fill swivel chairs at long oak tables with legal advisors, who remain steadfast in protecting their clients' side of the First Amendment, which is, that when you are informing and educating - - a model release is not necessary. The only exceptions would be those aforementioned rare cases involving highly sensitive subjects such as sex education, drug abuse, certain medical issues, and religion. A good rule of thumb would be to ask yourself, “Would a newspaper photographer ask for a model release in this situation?” whatever the case, take the picture anyway; the photo editor will let you know if the picture can be used.

So then, this opens the window and lets in some fresh air on this issue. If you've been relinquishing your First Amendment rights up to this point, I hope this article helps you regain them. Go out and photograph freely in public, you’ll be in the good company of Margaret Bourke-White, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, and others.

It would be a bureaucrat's dream for officials to be able to say, "You can't photograph in my school, my police precinct, my park." In reality, these people (school principals, policemen, etc.) work for you. They are your civil servants. Your taxes pay for their buildings, equipment, and salaries. As long as you are not interrupting their normal course of duties you can photograph them.

There have been rare lawsuits, yes. But if you examine each case (we’re talking editorial stock, not commercial), the plaintiff always goes after the publisher with deep pockets, not the photographer. We're back to the long oak table with swivel chairs filled with experts. And the plaintiff rarely wins.

The bottom line is that you should break through the wall of mythology that for years has surrounded this model release question, and go out and photograph freely in public. The world will be a better, more informed, educated, or entertained place as a result of your efforts.



Rohn Engh, veteran stock photographer and best-selling author of “Sell & ReSell Your Photos” and “sellphotos.com,” has helped scores of photographers launch their careers to sell photos. For access to great information on making money from pictures you like to take, and to receive this free report: “8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer,” visit http://www.sellphotos.com


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25 Aug, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes





How to Have

Your Small Legal Gripes

In Small Claims Court




You can avoid a court case, especially if the judgment you’ve requested is under $2,500. But your personal monetary outlay might exceed your settlement reward.


Should you take a photobuyer to court? If you don’t mind traveling to the buyer’s business location, it should be an educational experience for you.

Personal or business claims can be filed. You can get your money back for a botched car repair or collect a small ($10 to $1,000) debt from someone who owes you money.

Satisfaction guaranteed: Although monetarily it's often not worth it to bring a case to Small Claims Court – the maximum claim in most states is $3,000 to $5,000 -- most cases are brought on principle – nobody likes to be cheated.
If you think you are entitled to damages greater than the money limits $3,000 to $5,000) but still wish to sue in Small Claims, you give up your right to recover damages over the money limits. The additional money can't be claimed later in a separate lawsuit.
Since each state is different, be sure to check with your local county clerk for details (they're in the phone book or on the web.)

BENEFITS OF SMALL CLAIMS COURT


No lawyers needed. About 90% of such cases can be handled without counsel.
Quick resolution. The hearing is usually held a few weeks after a complaint is filed. The case is heard and settled the same day.
Opponents get a chance to communicate. Many cases involve people who are so angry with each other that they can't talk it out. The court setting encourages rational thinking as well as communication.
Inexpensive. In New Jersey, for instance, filing a case in Small Claims Court costs just $15 for one defendant, $ 2 for each additional defendant.

HOW THE PROCESS WORKS


[] Filing your claim. The forms can be picked up at your courthouse. Or call and have them mailed to you. They are very easy to fill out. After you file, your only other obligation is to show up at the courthouse for the hearing.
[] Before the hearing. The judge will warn you that although you're entitled to your day in court, it's often better to settle without a hearing. Reason: You may get less than you think you deserve...but you may get more than the judge will award you if you win.
The judge will insist that you attempt to settle, whether you wish to or not, and you will be assigned a clerk, who will immediately hold a settlement conference at the courthouse. With the clerk present, each side tells his/her story...the clerk explains the law...and the two parties try to reach an agreement. About 60%-70% of all cases end here. The rest go on to a hearing.
[] The hearing. The judge now conducts a bench trial – there is no witness stand, no jury and, usually, no lawyers.
Each side has the opportunity to present his/her story and to ask questions or make comments on his/her opponent's story. Either party may bring witnesses, whom the judge will hear if they have new information to add to what has been presented. After all the pertinent evidence is heard, the judge renders his decision.
Total hearing time: 10 to 15 minutes. (If the judge expects the case to take longer, the case is usually rescheduled for when there is more time, to prevent a back-up in the court's schedule.)
If the defendant in your case doesn't show for the hearing, you receive a default judgment...and an award in the amount you requested when you filed.
[] Obtaining your money. If the judgment or settlement is in your favor and the defendant doesn't pay, you can take one of three steps:
Docket the judgment. This registers the judgment in a higher court. A lien is placed on the person's personal and real property, so that if he ever sells any property, he must pay off the judgment.
Issue execution. A court officer is sent to the defendant's house with a writ to levy on his property. This writ authorizes the officer to sell enough of the defendant's property to raise money to pay the debt. Other possibility: If you know where the person banks, a court officer can go to that bank with the writ to obtain your money.
Nothing. Sometimes it’s better to not make the effort to pursue the offender. You may win the settlement, but the cost of pursuing the defendant could far outweigh the financial reward. This is especially true of “start-up” ad agencies or stock photo agencies that are here today, gone tomorrow.



Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. Telephone: 1 800 624 0266 Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com/shop




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18 Aug, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes



Do You Make The Match ?


Producing quality images is just the first step in selling your pictures to the book and magazine industry. Will you sell your photos because of your talent?

The world doesn't work that way. Does every deserving painter receive recognition? Does every fine author get published, every talented musician get recorded?

In your creative field, talent abounds and so does tough competition. So how do you get to the head of the line and see your pictures in print? The key is "MATCHING."

Matching yourself --is the bridge you create to cross over from being unpublished to having your images make consistent sales. If you make the right match (with photobuyers) you make life easier for you as a stock photographer.

Many stock photographers make the mistake of considering EVERY publication a target for their photography. This is a recipe for disaster. Do successful writers consider every publication a potential market? Do professional musicians aim for mastery of every style of music?

Successful professionals sell their work regularly because they have: 1.) analyzed what specialized aspect of their professional field they enjoy most, and 2.) analyzed which markets are the natural targets for their specialties.

You'll move to the head of the line quickly if you step out of the great general photography marathon, and begin a race of your own, to markets that match your own special interest areas.

If your database is bulging with excellent shots of hot air balloons, covered bridges, waterfalls, and sea gulls silhouetted against a setting sun, you can be sure that you are eligible for membership in the "Marathon" club.



When a photobuyer reviews such poetic pictures, he'll say, "Are your pictures for sale, or are they for soul?”

"You've proved to me that you know how to take a good picture. But I've seen a truckload of those today. Now show me if you can produce a picture that fits our focus, that I need for my layout, that adds, expands, clarifies, gives insight, into the interest area we target for our readers."

That's your invitation to see your credit line in national circulation.

You have two choices: 1.) continue to battle the fierce competition in the general field, or, 2.) analyze what a specific editor's readers like to see, and determine if it matches one of your personal interest areas (sailing, backpacking, education, labor and industry, health care, etc.).

When you make a series of the right matches, you'll be on your way to making a MATCH of yourself as a valuable resource for a significant segment of photo editors in the publishing world.


ROHN ENGH published a book back in 1982 called, "Sell & ReSell Your Photos.” (Writer's Digest Books.) It's now in its fifth printing and has become a bible for photographers just entering the field of stock photography. Rohn also publishes photo needs of national publications in three market letters ranging from a monthly to a daily. He answers the question, “how do I sell my photos?” For more information and to receive a free eReport: “8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer,” http://www.photosource.com/8steps.php He can be reached at Pine Lake Farm, PhotoSource International, 1910 35th RD, Osceola WI 54020. (715) 248-3800. info[at]photosource[dot]com

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11 Aug, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes




Inspiration or Perspiration...?


For 35 years I’ve been observing photographers who ask, “How do I sell my photos?”. Many survive. But many more fail. Of those who fail, the most common flaw is their refusal to pay attention to the business aspect of their photography.

In other words – they went out of business not because they were not good photographers, but because they were not good business people.

Being a good photographer cannot be learned – either you have it or you don’t. (And if you have it, you still have to develop it!)

But, being a good businessperson can be learned.
“But I don’t like all that drudgery associated with business,” you might say.
Yes, it’s true, meticulous record keeping and routine tasks are involved. Record keeping. Statistics to keep. Correspondence to keep up with. Forms to fill out. “Ugh!” you say – and you are correct.
But look at it this way: Are you in love with your photography? If you are, then the inconveniences associated with publishing your photography should pale against your rewards.

THE BEST YEARS


History shows that most anyone in business can succeed if they’re willing to put up with the inconveniences (and “the lean years”) associated with their endeavor. Actors often talk, write, and sing about their years of struggle. While it was happening, they say, it wasn’t pleasant. But if they survived, and went on to fame – they often will comment that those years –were the best years. Can you draw a parallel to your own efforts? If it’s any consolation, you might be passing through “the best years” right now. Enjoy every moment!

The inventor Thomas Edison didn’t “discover” the electric light bulb. He simply put up with the drudgery of testing more than 7,000 different ways to make it work. He was in love with what he was doing. When someone asked him, “Isn’t it boring – going through all those tests?” he replied, “On the contrary, it’s exhilarating. Now I know 7,000 ways it cannot be done.”

INSPIRATION VS. PERSPIRATION


Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/inspiration.html


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04 Aug, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes



Clean Up Your Act


Even if you are just breaking into the world of stock photography, you can operate like a “pro” if you follow a few common sense rules. These are an important part of the answer to “How do I sell my Photos?”

If you're not getting the sales you feel you ought to be getting, maybe there's something here that'll be food for thought, and eventually turn your sales picture spiraling upwards.

The following questions reflect three basic reasons photographs are rejected. If you qualify in any of them --you should reassess your marketing methods. Learn more --not only about 'taking pictures' --but about 'marketing' them:
1. ] TECHNICAL QUALITY. This means not only as applied to the content of your pictures, but also as to the scanning quality of your images. Are you sending photobuyers scanned images that are scratched, have dust spots, etc.? And are you sending images in the format required by that particular buyer? Always do your homework and comply with what each buyer prefers.

2. ] ON-THE-MARK. Are the photos you've submitted to the editor TARGETED? That is, do they respond exactly to the request of the photo editor? Do your pictures hit the mark? Or has the editor asked for pictures of waterfalls, and you've submitted pictures of brooks and streams -"just in case" the editor might want to see them?
Editors are busy people. Their time is valuable. Sending off-target images is not a wise move.
3. ] CONSISTENCY. Are you working on establishing a “brand” for your stock photography? Are your pictures cohesive in STYLE? Do your pictures themselves have a consistent professional-looking style to them? That is, do they all look like they came from the same photographer? Will photobuyers recognize your “brand?” A good way to test the cohesiveness of your pictures --and their professionality-- is to gather tear sheets of published pictures from the magazines and periodicals you read, lay them on the living room floor (about twenty of them) and place selections of your pictures beside them. Do your groups of pictures fit in? If so, you are on target. If not, re-take the same pictures and consciously develop a consistency in style. This doesn’t mean make everything the same; more the idea of developing your own flair, your own approach, your own voice, with your images. This is a powerful way to have “your brand” selling your photos for you.
Keep these three points in mind to avoid temporary failure and gain quick success.



ROHN ENGH published a book back in 1982 called, "Sell & ReSell Your Photos.” (Writer's Digest Books.) It's now in its fifth printing and has become a bible for photographers just entering the field of stock photography. Rohn also publishes photo needs of national publications in three market letters ranging from a monthly to a daily. He answers the question, “how do I sell my photos?” For more information and to receive a free eReport: “8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer,” http://www.photosource.com/8steps.php He can be reached at Pine Lake Farm, PhotoSource International, 1910 35th RD, Osceola WI 54020. (715) 248-3800. info[at]photosource[dot]com
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27 Jul, 2010 | Posted by: psn





Keeping Up




Technology these days has wings -- sometimes rocket fuel. Both stock photobuyers and photo suppliers have learned that by paying attention they can keep up -- and by keeping up with the changes - they can survive. The good news is that the standard rules for success in our stock photo industry haven’t changed.

The photography budget for a medium-size publishing house is between $20,000 and $40,000 monthly. For a major publisher, it's twice that amount. Stock photographers who have said, “ I want to sell my photos,” have learned to identify certain markets that match their own areas of interest. Once they become a "regular" at a specific publishing house, they receive a steady stream of photo requests and assignments.

One way to succeed in our new digital era is to avoid failure. Here are some marketing mistakes you want to avoid:


CREATE FIRST THEN FIND A MARKET

This number one is probably the most oft-repeated marketing mistake. Creative people tend to produce their product first and then attempt to find a market for it. This is a recipe for disaster. The Boulevard of Broken Dreams is strewn with bodies of creative people who never learned: "Find the market first, and then create for that market."
This doesn’t mean just “take whatever sells.” It means identify markets that want photos in the subject areas you like to photograph.

SPREAD TOO THIN

When you try to be all things to all people in the publishing world, with a huge variety of offerings, the photobuyer's reaction is: "No one can be that good!" Discover your photographic strength areas, and go for them. Many entry-level stock photographers try to go after the whole pie rather than a piece of the pie.
Become a specialist. Don't photograph everything you see. You'll burn out. Stay within a "segment" and become an expert in your area(s) of interest. This way you’ll earn recognition for your “brand.” Learn to speak the language of your interest areas. Become an expert in the area, or a select few areas, you like to focus on. You'll become a valuable resource to a specific group of photobuyers out there. If wild horses can't pull you away from your goals, you'll succeed. You'll fail or get bored if you aim for only those markets that “pay well.”

FOR SOUL NOT FOR SALE

Writers rarely can get their poetry published, and even rarer is getting paid for it. Similarly, in the stock photography field, don't expect your 'artsy' pictures to be frequent sellers. Consider them your poetry. Ask yourself next time you're taking (making) a picture, "Is this for sale or is it for soul?" Spend Sundays to take pictures that feed your soul, take nuts and bolts marketable pictures during the week to feed your family.

PASSING THROUGH
Give the appearance that you are a 'permanent' resident. Creative people as a group tend to change their address once every five or six years. Photobuyers shy away from the vagabonds, the wanderers, no matter how talented they might be. Buying photos is a business and photobuyers want you to be where they expect you be and to be businesslike in your dealings with them, and that means being 'reachable' five days before deadline. Your e-mail address will keep you reachable, wherever you are or move to. Stick with it, don’t change it.

LOOKING LIKE A BEGINNER

If you appear to be ' just starting out,’ photobuyers will pass you on by. They don't have the time to hold your hand or "train" you. They'd rather spend their time with someone who is "hassle-free". You should give the appearance of looking like a pro. Build a simple but quality website. Correspond on quality stationery, labels, and envelopes. Aim to get on the photobuyer’s “white list.”
If your photo specialty matches the photobuyer’s publishing theme (gardening, car care, environment, etc.) he/she will put you on their contact list.

TECHNICAL FAILINGS

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/frontjump.html

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21 Jul, 2010 | Posted by: psnotes




Use Email to Brand Yourself




Everyone uses email these days. This means it’s a perfect method for you to capitalize on to build your “brand” in a stock photography. Each time you send an email you can make an impact for your brand.

Most of your business communication is done these days through email. Take advantage of it. If you design your email messages effectively, your branding impact will always be part of every communication you send.


Why branding? Because that helps photobuyers find you and know they want to do business with you. For photobuyers, researchers, and editors, the stock photo industry is no longer a massive world of unrelated photos floating around in cyberspace on scores of stock photo sites. Photobuyers today, thanks to the transformation the Internet has created in the stock photo industry, expect to go directly to a specific service that can deliver the precise photo they need.

Do you know how to make yourself known to buyers who need photos that you specialize in? Are you prepared to lead them to your web site? You will position yourself “to be found” if you “brand” yourself and your stock photography.

EMAIL DOES THE JOB

The impression your potential clients receive from you starts with your emails. Sure, your clients will be interested in seeing your stock photos (if you’ve chosen your target market correctly) – but they want to know more about you. You leave an impact with them each time you’re in correspondence with them. Your recipient will get to know your business and understand your mission if you pay attention to branding yourself. It will distinguish your business from the competition and make your mark with your chosen audience.

But be careful — branding is a “Have and to Hold” situation. The most successful kind of branding is the kind that is permanent. When you establish your business, choose your brand early and stick with it. Changing brands later on in your business career is an invitation for confusion.

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/emailbrand.html

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14 Jul, 2010 | Posted by: psn







Web Video
…catch the momentum




Many cell phones, iPods, iPads, and just about every size and shape of digital camera that is sold today includes the capability to take motion pictures. Depending on the size and quality of the device, you can record both audio and video, from a four-minute video segment to up to fifteen to twenty minutes (and more!).

Web video is here to stay, and broadband internet access is the vehicle that is fueling the boom.
Are you enjoying the leap? Web video in the last few years has taken a tremendous leap forward on the Internet. The statistics show the rise of this innovation.
As a stock photographer, you can create new ways to use this technology, to get yourself and your work more exposure, resulting in more opportunities for sales.


And just how would you put video segments to work for yourself?


Create short video segments to advertise your work…on your own website, on a portal, on YouTube, Skidoo, FaceBook, and the many more internet spin-offs that are sure to come along.

LIKE A FLICK


And not only can you offer slideshows of selections of your images, but you can put together themed segments on your website, such as, “Images from my recent trip to Oaxaca, Mexico.”

Utilize videos to also advertise yourself. Exercise self-promotion. Include a video of yourself, your surroundings. Tell about your passion for photography; talk about your observations and opinions about facets of the stock photo industry that would interest your photobuyers. YouTube stands ready to air them.
And why is this important?

Everyone loves a parade.

Parades come in morsels. We enjoy watching sound bytes of a parade. Each morsel lasts only a few minutes, and then another section of the parade comes along. It’s compatible with human nature to be engrossed for a few minutes in people-watching.

If that person is you on a web video, you’ve discovered a new form of public relations with your client list. Put the two together and you have helped cement a photobuyer-photographer relationship.

To give you an example of how this works, you can see a clip of how I placed a short (4 minute) clip on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DevxX-e57j8

Web video's rapid growth will continue. In our stock photo industry, video has all the signs of becoming the most important medium for us on the Internet.

You probably can recall earlier attempts of web video technology. Regular phone lines, computers and software that didn’t talk to each other, many times made videos impossible to view. They were filled with static, fuzzy film, and glitches. Now the DSL technology is much better and has relegated most of these hang-ups to past history.
Thanks partly to the popularity of such TV programs as “America’s Funniest Videos,” and “Candid Camera” – no one expects Hollywood-style lighting and precision with your web videos. If the message is clear, technical perfection can take a back seat.

To read more:
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/webvideo.html

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30 Jun, 2010 | Posted by: Alec




Branding is Big




If you’re in the business to sell your editorial stock photography on-line, today’s Internet world requires you to be prepared to show the world your "brand.”

Why? Without brand recognition, you’re just another picture-taker.

The Internet has established new methods of picture search and delivery – today photobuyers expect to work with specialists whom they can depend on to have wide coverage in the subject area that the buyer needs.

So how do you get recognized by the people you want to attract to be your customers and buy (‘rent’) your pictures?

ONE STEP AT A TIME


The trouble with branding, we all know—is you have to have a track record before people will begin recognizing “your brand” (your specialty). It doesn’t happen overnight.

But you can accelerate the process.

The first step in branding (i.e. establishing your own brand, your own specialty) is to recognize a theme in your photography .If you haven’t yet established a primary subject area in your stock photography, if you have no consistent subject matter, theme, or style to your photos, your first step is research.

Self-research. Yes.

But don’t despair, most stock photographers tend to shoot at everything –‘across the board’ – when they are starting out.

To develop or discover your “theme”.. Ask yourself several questions” (self research). It’s an easy process.

What pleases you most in photography?

Please don’t say “everything.” If you do, you’re in the wrong camp. We’re talking about selling your photos – and selling anything “creative” takes work: research, imagination, insight and a lot of persistence and patience.

If you’re still with me, then get ready for the first stage of this self-research.

You’re mission is to establish yourself as an expert. Most people are experts in something, whether it be a hobby, occupation, commercial enterprise, or passionate side interest.
The nice thing about deciding upon your area of expertise is that just by the notion that you can recognize it, then others will recognize it, too, and be interested in gaining more knowledge from you on the subject, which means:

You can supply that knowledge in the form of photography.

And what’s really important, there’s a market for your photos in that subject area at magazines, books, textbooks, manuals, websites, and advertisements.



Your first challenge then is to recognize what you’re good at, what you really love to photograph, and then capitalize on it. That’s your “brand.”

The buyers are waiting!

--Rohn

Note: Keep following this series of articles published from time to time in PhotoStockNOTES. We'll show you how to brand your specialized stock photos.
NEXT: Getting Seen


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23 Jun, 2010 | Posted by: psn





Freelance Stock Photography

...on the Rise ?



The Recession is here. This one could be the biggest boon to your independent stock photo services that you have ever experienced. Here’s why:

FACT: Companies that employ staff photographers to produce the many images they constantly need, are starting to cut employees. They attempt to reduce costs where they can. In the case of their photography department, they cut the in-house staff (the pros), and delegate picture-taking to the remaining staff member who has a point ‘n’ shoot and is known as a good “picture-taker.”

FACT: The company limps along for awhile with inadequate images, missed deadlines, embarrassing situations (like a copyright suit), improper captions on images, even wrong images, and not least of all, when the picture-taker soon loses his/her job they have to recruit another in-house volunteer.

FACT: Photography seems to the layman such an easy task to perform that volunteers are always happy to offer to help. Even the boss’s wife. Reality: If you’ve ever worked with volunteers, you know their staying power is usually in inverse proportion to their enthusiasm.

FACT: In the absence of a staff photographer, a knowledgeable photo editor will turn to a professional stock agency. Two problems here: 1.) the fees of a major stock agency don’t fit the budget of the company. 2.) A general stock agency does well in supplying ‘exquisite-cliché’ images, but many times falls far short when targeted, specific-content pictures and knowledge about the content area are needed.

FACT: During a downturn in the economy – a smart picture editor looks for images from an independent stock photographer, or specialty stock agency, that focuses on the subject area that the editor’s company deals in. Only a decade ago, this kind of accelerated research into outsource services would not have been possible. Today, thanks to Google and other search engines, the smart editor/photo researcher knows where to look.

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/freelance.html



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16 Jun, 2010 | Posted by: psn




Photojournalism Will Endure



If you have ventured into that division of editorial photography known as photojournalism, you know that it is a noble adventure. Not only do you enjoy travel and get paid for it, but you are permitted a passport into the lives of others, not only in your own country, but throughout the world.

What profession could be more exciting and rewarding?

But there are roadblocks. Because you represent an investigative factor, you are not always welcomed – especially by political, social, military, and governmental elements that would rather not expose their own shortcomings.

So, you find yourself in a battle between your passion to tell the story and get it right, and the deterrents that would prevent you from "trespassing" into their domain.

DETOURS


There are also detours. If you are good at your profession, you'll be offered incentives that entice you to give up your initial interest in photojournalism and turn your talents to more lucrative areas of photography, for greater income and social status – areas like public relations, advertising photography, fashion, corporate assignments, etc.

You are not alone. A talented musician can be tempted to turn to producing elevator music; a talented music composer to TV show tunes; a talented writer to Hollywood screenplays; an established actor to performing in TV commercials.

The difference in pay scale can be tempting. In photojournalism, unless you are a well-known photographer with many credits, remuneration for your work is not much higher than for basic labor jobs (sometimes lower!).

Add to the financial challenges the fact that like any business, the publishing world is always trying to reduce expense. Often their first target is freelancers and staff photographers. I once heard an attempt was being made in Germany (Frankfurt) to reduce the employee classification of a photojournalist in a publishing house from editorial worker to clerical worker, to justify a decrease in pay.
It would seem that organizing into a union of members would be the answer for photographers. It isn't. Freelancers by their very nature are independent people and are resistant to 'organizing.' Creativity can't be organized. As an observer of freelancers over the years, I've seen attempts to unionize freelancers come along, sputter, and disappear.

For photographers, a contemporary approach to organizing freelancers into a union is to hook up with an existing union as an affiliate. For example, affiliating with the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and through them with the AFL-CIO. If we were to classify freelancers as craftsmen, or clerical workers, I would agree this might be the answer. But could you imagine a poet or painter (artist) joining a union?

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/endure.html

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09 Jun, 2010 | Posted by: psn




Keeping Up

Technology these days has wings -- sometimes rocket fuel. Both stock photo buyers and suppliers have learned that by paying attention they can keep up -- and by keeping up with the changes - they can survive. The good news is that the standard rules for success in our stock photo industry haven’t changed.

The photography budget for a medium-size publishing house is between $20,000 and $40,000 monthly. For a major publisher, it's twice that amount. Stock photographers who are consistent at selling their photos have learned to identify certain markets that match their own areas of interest. Once they become a "regular" at a specific publishing house, they receive a steady stream of photo requests and assignments.

One way to succeed in our new digital era is to avoid failure. Here are some marketing mistakes you want to avoid:

CREATE FIRST THEN FIND A MARKET
Number one is probably the most oft-repeated marketing mistake. Creative people tend to produce their product first and then attempt to find a market for it. This is a recipe for disaster. The Boulevard of Broken Dreams is strewn with bodies of creative people who never learned: "Find the market first, and then create for that market."
This doesn’t mean just “take whatever sells.” It means identify markets that want photos in the subject areas you like to photograph.

SPREAD TOO THIN
When you try to be all things to all people in the publishing world, with a huge variety of offerings, the photobuyer's reaction is: "No one can be that good!" Discover your photographic strength areas, and go for them. Many entry-level stock photographers try to go after the whole pie rather than a piece of the pie.
Become a specialist. Don't photograph everything you see. You'll burn out. Stay within a "segment" and become an expert in your area(s) of interest. This way you’ll earn recognition for your “brand.” Learn to speak the language of your interest areas. Become an expert in the area or a select few areas you like to focus on. You'll become a valuable resource to a specific group of photobuyers out there. If wild horses can't pull you away from your goals, you'll succeed. You'll fail or get bored if you aim for only those markets that “pay well.”

FOR SOUL NOT FOR SALE
Writers rarely can get their poetry published, and even rarer is getting paid for it. Similarly, in the stock photography field, don't expect your 'artsy' pictures to be frequent sellers. Consider them your poetry. Ask yourself next time you're taking (making) a picture, "Is this for sale or is it for soul?"
Spend Sundays to take pictures that feed your soul, take nuts and bolts marketable pictures during the week to feed your family.

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/keeping.html


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02 Jun, 2010 | Posted by: psn







Create a Trademark

& Identify Your Brand




Your photography is your trademark, once you get established.

But before you become established, a 'trademark' may very well be an important element to your success. A distinctive logo or design to your letterhead can help you start looking familiar to photobuyers -- and help your name to be remembered. As your photography enterprise progresses, you will build equity in your trademark.

When you design your symbol, or logo (as a trademark is often called), be aware of a common error: the temptation to use the obvious -- a camera, tripod, an aperture symbol, etc. You will, of course, want to choose from 'things photographic,' but try for a combination or a particular adaptation that's all your own.
Make it simple, and easy to remember. Recruit friends who are good at designing, drawing, and critiquing your work. Let them help in the decisions, based on the pointers mentioned above. Flip through the web or the Yellow Pages to see how others have tackled the question of a logo. Don't be 'cute' in your design, it will soon wear off, and could even be offensive to clients. Don't be obscure, either.

Some hints: If you are a nature photographer, choose a design that reflects your specialty. Children photographer? Choose a classic shot of yours that lends itself well to a simplified sketch or drawing. But be careful not to "date" the hairstyle or clothing.

One caution: Unless you are decidedly a specialist in only ONE category, you may not want to be too specific with your trademark design.
Example: you only photograph crocodiles. You may want to design a logo that reflects reptiles in case you expand your category somewhat.
You are building a foundation. Choose well. Your branding logo could remain with you a lifetime. Each day means you are establishing your brand of stock photography. If you change your field in the future, you will have lost the previous exposure you worked hard to build up for your original logo (trademark).

A trademark can also consist of the particular name that you give to your photography service, e.g. Johnson & Johnson.
Can another person copy (steal!) your trademark? Yes, a person can, but you have the advantage of common-law right to your name or design (or a combination of them), providing you were the first to use it.

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/trademark.html



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26 May, 2010 | Posted by: psn







Branding, … THE NEW WAY



The stock photo industry has finally come around to recognizing a previously largely neglected major marketing principle. To wit: there's a vast market of photobuyers who are not interested in high-fee, RM ("rights-managed") photos. These buyers simply want an image they can temporarily use, one-time, in one of their low-circulation, limited-readership, publications.

Let me backtrack: A century ago, magazines featured mostly text. Graphics were secondary. Today, it's reversed. If you include advertisements, our periodicals today feature more graphics than text. The new "automated" stock photo services (with royalty-free photos at lower prices), are providing quality generic images to publishers who previously couldn't afford photography as an option. As a result, new markets are now opening up for photographers who produce specialized “brand” images.


In the 1950's, there were few stock photo agencies. When I returned from a trip through Africa in 1958, I sought out an agency from the very few (3) listed in the Manhattan telephone directory. My photos landed at Photo Researchers, then a two-person, hole-in-the-wall in New York City on 42nd Street. Photo Researchers is still alive today. It has provided me with many checks in the past half-century.

Brand ManagementA dozen or so "managed-rights" photo agencies began appearing over the next several years. In the late 80's and early 90’s this "rights-managed" (RM) stock industry was at its peak. Today – the industry has taken on a different flavor. The major impetus is the emergence of the massive corporate digital agency (Corbis, Getty, etc.). The smaller stock photo RM agencies are folding or being absorbed in mergers, or have resorted to specializing. A new flavor has emerged: the microstock agency that features quality low-priced images ($1 to $5), that allows small publishers and self-publishers wide opportunities to illustrate their products.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


WHAT IS STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY BRANDING?



You know what photography is, and you know what stock photography is -- yes?
Take a new look. During the past couple of decades, an aspect of photography has been growing to where it is now planted firmly on the scene as a photographic division in its own right: stock photography branding.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/branding.html


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19 May, 2010 | Posted by: psn




YOUR BULLS EYE PHOTOS

Become known for “your Brand” and sales will soar...

A photobuyer is searching for a photo of an American sycamore tree (Platanus occidentalis; common name: buttonwood tree). The photo should be in summer or early fall. People should be in the picture, adult men only.
Get used to it.
The old adage, "once you've seen a tree, you've seen 'em all,” doesn't work anymore. Photobuyers are no longer satisfied with catalog shots of trees. For this research project, for example, your image will have to complement the message of the text. In this case the picture is for a textbook about the New York Stock Exchange, which is said to have been formed by a group of brokers who held their founding meeting under a “buttonwood tree” (sycamore) in lower Manhattan on Wall Street in 1792 .

NOT HARD-TO-PLEASE


Photobuyers in the 80's and 90's weren't picky-picky. They were usually satisfied with "something nearly on-target," because readers didn't expect on-target illustrations. They were hard to come byl. Besides, a decade ago the methods available to try to locate a highly-specific picture were labor-intensive and costly. Today, photobuyers are more selective. They know they can tap easily into highly specialized collections of photos, thanks to the Internet. If you don't have the exact picture they need, the Internet will quickly find someone for them who does.

This photobuyer looking for a picture of Platanus occidentalis, may need such a picture just once. If you have this picture and the photobuyer can find you, as a tree specialist, on the Internet, you've made the sale!
HARD-TO-PLEASE


Since the Internet offers access to thousands of picture suppliers, with files totaling millions of images, you might surmise that to stand a chance to compete your marketing approach should be to take pictures of everything in sight, and enter them onto a website of your own. Big mistake.


Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/bulls.html




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12 May, 2010 | Posted by: psn






Who Are You Known As?

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO BECOME A “BRAND”




You’ve always thought you could be a 'published photographer' , now you know it.

Here’s how it happened: You bought your first digital camera and you struggled through the inconvenience of having to learn a completely (almost) new way of taking pictures, a new way of processing them, sending them off to friends and family – and potential buyers.
It worked! Except for dealing with the potential buyers at publishing houses who were also trying to learn this new process. However, now that the dust has settled and photobuyers have learned to welcome digital submissions, you are ready to start running down the road that takes you to buyers who can use (and pay for) your pictures.

The automatic controls on cameras today make the technical side of photography much easier than a generation ago. As a result, the person with a sensitive eye finds that she or he is amassing a healthy collection of "quite good" images.

"How can I get my pictures published?" is usually the next question. And rightly so, because you've seen pictures published that were not even as good as yours.

Award-winning pictures in exhibitions and contests may earn you blue ribbons, but if you're interested in seeing your credit line in national circulation and receiving checks in the mail, here are some tips on how to shift your emphasis. It’s called “branding.”

For the purposes of marketing, the real judges of what makes a good photo are the editors at magazine or book publishing houses, who buy photos not because they like them, but because they need them.

I've been in many an editor's office where stunning calendar-type pictures are on the wall, but the editor is signing a check for a work-a-day nuts-and-bolts picture he or she needs for their current project. Like, for example, a basketball coach helping youngsters in a special learning-disabled class in suburbia, or a toddler with his father at a model railroad show. (Millions of this category of pictures are published daily –worldwide.)

A BASIC PRINCIPLE


If you're interested in making money from your photographic talent, you will want to follow a basic business concept: positioning. If your collection of photos is strong in, say, education, position yourself so that you become a valuable resource to editors who are in continual need of education photos. Or your specialty might be roses. Yes, the flower. Roses in each stage of growth, planting, pruning, diseases, indoor care and cultivation, and so on.

I know photographers who have positioned themselves so well in their specialty area that they get put on an “available photographer’s list” of photographers who “speak the language” of the special interest area of the readers and advertisers in the magazines they’re targeting as their buyers. These photographers can phone photo editors ‘collect’ to let them know they are in France, or Italy, to inform the photo editor that they have discovered a new aspect of their special subject matter. When you’re at that stage, you are in effect, taking a free vacation by paying for it with the sale of your photos.
Nowadays, you don’t have to be a full-time “pro” to do this. The technology of cameras and the Internet will allow you to do this, and still keep your ‘day-job.’

THEME PUBLISHERS


Wh en you position yourself to focus on a specific subject area, you lock yourself into publishing houses that produce visual materials relating to that one theme. They have so-to-speak, stuck to the same “brand.” To be a successful part-time stock photographer today, you can do the same: brand yourself, the same as theme publishers do. Thin of a photography brand the same as you think of an artist’s “style”. For example when you think of VanGough, Matisse, Modrian, Rockwell, or Picasso you think of a certain style that identifies them. Your specialization in the same manner will be your “brand.”

Your theme photos may be of auto racing, gardening, hang-gliding, medicine, and so on. When you submit your first selection of photos to such a “theme” publishing house, you will spark the photobuyer to say, "This photographer speaks my language." And then the photobuyer will say, “Where have you been all my life???”

Once you sell your first photo to a theme publisher, you will find it much easier to make subsequent sales. I have found that once a photographer establishes him/herself with a theme publisher, he can expect to stay with that publisher for an average of ten years, minimum. The individual photo editors or graphic artists at such a publishing house may come and go, but the theme of the publishing house remains the same. This translates to $20,000 to $50,000 in sales over the ten-year period. And of course the business relationship may go on even longer.

And that is the beauty of marketing your own photos. You can choose to stay with only one or two theme publishers, or go big time and deal with dozens who focus on that theme, and, of course, you can repeat the process with two or three additional themes, if you position-and brand-yourself.



Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of the weekly PhotoStockNotes/PLUS, a weekly marketing newsletter for photographers just breaking into stock photography. You receive new leads each week of photobuyers currently looking for specific stock photos. These are not $1 sales. The buyers pay from $25 to $75 per image. Email: info[at]photosource[dot]com Fax: 1 715 248 3800. Web site: www.photosource.com/resources
800 624 0266.





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05 May, 2010 | Posted by: psn



Are You Branding Your Photography?




Rohn Engh, veteran stock photographer and best-selling author of “Sell & ReSell Your Photos” and “sellphotos.com,” has helped scores of photographers launch their careers. He is the author of the new ecourse on selling photos, https://www.photosource.com/cart/marketyourphotos.php . For access to great information on making money from pictures you like to take, http://www.photosource.com/ecourse


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28 Apr, 2010 | Posted by: psn





The Exploding Picture Sites

WILL YOU HAVE A CHANCE ?


On-line photo-display portals are proliferating on the Internet. Not only the sites themselves are increasing, but the huge numbers of images available are staggering and continue to grow. “Something’s gotta give.”

The popularity of casinos across the land provides us with a parallel to what’s happening for on-line stock photographers. There are some big winners at the casinos. We always hear about them just as we hear about the big winners on the microstock portals. We seldom hear about the losers. Few artists or photographers like to brag about their lack of sales.
The other parallel to casinos is related to how they seem to multiply across the country, not only in numbers but also in size. If you’ve ever re-visited a casino, you are usually surprised to see how the facility has been increased in size.
On-line microstock sites have mushroomed in the same way on the Internet. Not only the sites themselves are increasing , but the huge numbers of images available are staggering and continue to grow. Some sites boast that they receive 1,000 new pictures a day. My arithmetic tells me that’s 30,000 pictures a month, or nearly 11 million a year.

SOMETHING’s GOTTA GIVE


Of course not all on-line microstock sites receive 1,000 new pictures a day, but let’s say they receive about 100 pictures a day. That 's 3,000 per month, or 36,000 per year. And, let’s not forget all of those personal websites that provide mini-on-line services to photobuyers.

Now if there were only 350 on-line microstock portals (there are many more), contributing 36,000 images per year to “DigitalCasinos,” plus all those personal sites, we would have a total picture count of … well, my pocket calculator can’t calculate that high.

Can the storage world of present-day servers handle these monumental numbers of images? If they can’t today, we know that so Moore’s Law, somehow, will figure out a way tomorrow to meet the expanding nature of Digital Photo Casinos.

And why do I say Digital Photo Casinos? Because for a qualified stock photographer, it’s a big gamble to put talent and labor into an endeavor where the law of probability is not on your side.

---------------------------------------------------------
“The on-line proliferation of images is making
the Internet a big gambling casino.”
---------------------------------------------------------


O.K. Digital cameras and upscale scanners are driving the number of available images upwards. Anyone with a quality digital camera and sensitive eye for imagery and a desire to figure out the technicalities of uploading images to an on-line website(s), can climb aboard, and they are doing so in droves. With this on-line proliferation of images, the Internet has become a big digital gambling casino.
Why a gamble? Like with any lottery, your chances are diminished by the expanding number of entries. It always makes big headlines when a person wins a lottery. The rest of us dig into our pockets for the next try. Should this be discouraging to you?

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/chance.html

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21 Apr, 2010 | Posted by: psn






The Spotlight

Is On You

THANKS TO NEW GENERATION MEDIA



New Generation Media is a phrase coming into its own. Stock photographers are hearing it more and more frequently. Where'd it come from? It's a response to the increasing ways you can transmit information, including visual and audio information, in today's hi-tech world.

The good news: these evolving forms of image creation and image delivery have created new digital markets for you. As a successful stock photographer you need o stay on top of not only what’s happening in the traditional print media: magazines, books, textbooks, videos and catalogs, but also the exploding electronic media -- the communication companies utilizing HD television, video processing, CDs, cell phone videos, iPods, iBooks, iPads, desktop image delivery, screen-touch educational tools, and on-demand picture retrieval.

Some of the latter are being tested to see which ones emerge as the favorite tools for both photo editors and photographers using the marketing advantages of the Internet.


Classic commercial stock photography (the familiar scenics and generalized "situation" shots) as we've known it over the past decades will continue to be in demand, but the overwhelming supply of these generalized stock shots, available now on CDs, micro-sites and other discount sources on-line, will diminish their value -- and price tag, based on their usage by the photobuyers, or the value the photobuyer sees it bringing to their company or project.

The New Generation Media market is so vast that it utilizes what has come to be known as "micromarketing," the ability to isolate specialized markets and respond to them efficiently.
Micromarkets are specialized (niche) markets. If you narrow your stock shooting to a niche area and can supply a deep selection of photos in this specialized category, you are well on your way to being an authority in your specialized category.

In the retail marketing area they call this branding. If you are known for your “brand” you have won half the battle of acquiring new customers in this new generation of Internet marketing – the search engines will fill in the other half.

To survive in the New Generation Media, it’s even more necessary now for stock photographers to become specialists. The rules for photography excellence haven't changed, only the target. The demand by photobuyers for content-specific images will spur new generation media photographers to focus on specific subject areas they enjoy, and then to service markets whose needs match those areas. The provincial generalist (the classic commercial Rights-Managed stock photographer) will fade.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/spotlight.html


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14 Apr, 2010 | Posted by: psn





Has StockShlock Run

Its Course?



What attracted you to photography? Was it taking “staged” pictures of commercial models? Or was it taking real-life pictures of the world around you? If it’s the latter, then examine the direction you’re going with your photography.

History shows us that all aspects of creative expression goes through phases, as styles and public preferences change. Sure, fads and crazes, not to forget approaches in art, come and go. And as the ability to gain new information speeds up, thanks to the Internet, we’re seeing preferences change even more rapidly, whether it’s in women’s fashions, men’s hairstyles, or photography.

Here at Photosource International, our editorial customers require photos that reflect (in a real-life way) the world around us. We aren’t photojournalists whose customers are usually news outlets, TV, and websites that pay high fees for disaster pictures (the kind we see nightly on the news hour); nor are we paparazzi who get paid well for photos of celebrities and their doings.

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"Maybe we’ve run our course in “StockShlock.” Real-life people won’t qualify anymore, and like Hollywood, we stock photographers will have to resort to avatar figures."

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And especially we are not commercial stock photographers who specialize in wishful imagery (the world according to Getty, iStock, or Corbis). The Internet is now drowning in this kind of imagery. Check out any of the on-line portals. They’re all there, the generic lovely blonde with green sunglasses; an executive throwing documents in the breeze; day-glow chartreuse tennis balls; a close-up of a wind-swept fashion model; and of course, the ipod guy.

Ho-hum, yawn. Is this the kind of subject matter that attracts an emerging photographer to photography? In the majority of instances, people decide on a photographic career because of their love of capturing something meaningful or poetic with their camera. They win a prize, they take a photography course, and then they search for ways to make money with their talent, to provide for themselves and their family.
They encounter a fork in the road. They learn about Royalty-Free, microstock and Rights-Managed images. They embark on a career of supplying generic images, copying the style and content of the major stock houses.

Are these generic stock images the easiest pictures to take for emerging commercial stock photographers? Next to snapshots, they are, if the photographer takes the copycat approach. Most commercial stock shooters have found that the effortless way to produce a bunch of commercially acceptable stock images is to capitalize on the ideas of the leading stock houses that have done the market research and know the trends.

This has always been the formula for the fashion industry, the commercial music industry, and most other industries where taste and trends guide production. The recipe in the commercial stock photo industry is to keep the successful concept the same, and add favored locations, clothing, hairstyles, and currently preferred color and tints.

Want to read more?
http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/stockshlock.html




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07 Apr, 2010 | Posted by: psn







Direct Mail and Snail Mail

It Ain’t Gonna Go Away




When TV became the popular medium, most advertisers thought radio was doomed. It didn’t happen. Radio is still healthy. And what of advertising and promotion by direct mail? Has the Internet taken its place? No. It looks like direct mail is here to stay.

An effective method to keep your name and photography in front of clients is to contact your photobuyers periodically with your own direct mail campaign. Postcards, sell sheets, calendars, and posters all can be used to advantage.
Direct Mail
In planning your direct mail marketing to photobuyers, you might want to consider what we've learned at the PhotoSource International website. These tips can make your direct marketing more effective:
[] By using U.S. Postal Mail (as opposed to email) to contact your photobuyer prospects, you can include a Business Response Card (BRC), to give you feed-back information, gauge effectiveness, make sales, and transform prospects into future sales leads.
[] Your post card, sell sheet, calendar or poster should feature a photo chosen for its sales potential. Very often, your direct mail campaign will pay for itself through multiple sales of this featured photo.
[] Making a mailing list of contacts that are targeted to your specialty area (rather than broad-siding), improves response quality and reduces the unit cost. In doing this, you are establishing your “brand” (specialization). Don’t be tempted to mail outside your specialization. Instead, build your brand.
[] Tailor your message and photo illustrations to your specialty audience.
[] Repeat mailings every four to six months to the same list will increase response dramatically.
[] Follow-up telemarketing to your photo client(s) will increase market awareness for you and portfolio requests from them.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/directmail.html


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31 Mar, 2010 | Posted by: psn


A trend for the Future…?

Free Photos





The grocery store gets you to shop there by providing a coupon that makes you an offer you can’t refuse.
Commercial stock photo sites have taken to using this strategy and are catching on. What could be better than free photos? Stock photography sites are drawing photobuyers into their websites with the alluring come-on of free photos.

Should editorial stock photographers employ this kind of marketing tactic? No, they don’t need to, because their photos have long-term value as time moves on. Unlike commercial stock photos, which have to be marketed quickly, because in most cases they are more closely tied to trends or conform to current design dictates, and consequently fall out of date quickly.


Here’s how this works for microstock photographers (the websites that offer photos for low or extremely low fees). Giving away photos. Free is looking like the wave of the future for micro stock.
Several royalty-free companies have announced that they will give away photos each month.
What’s the catch? Dreamstime was the first on-line image portal to announce that it’s got extra, time-sensitive baggage it would like to get rid of. And, in so doing, it launched a marketing technique that has started to be followed by other in the $1-a-picture on-line business. (However, Dreamstime also features some pricey pictures.)
Dreamstime is following a new Internet trend that has been used for years by brick-‘n’-mortar people: overstock. When a product’s shelf life has expired (it’s not selling) they usher the items off to a second tier of businesses that are willing to take on the non-perishible product and sell it (cheap!). (“dollar stores” or similar enterprises), Everyone benefits, including the customer.

This same system can work in the stock industry equally well because extra baggage in the commercial stock arena means extra time, extra disk space, and extra keywords, not to mention disappointment on the part of buyers. Depending on the category –teens, office workers, industry, etc. – commercial microstock pictures have a shelf life of between two to five years. After that, they are usually relegated to the trash bin.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
“It’s not unlike the supermarket that offers
an introductory coupon…”
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But how does a photobuyer benefit? Well, everyone likes something for free, whether it turns out to be useful or not.

Dreamstime says that this technique opens the door to many new and potential customers. Some may never have heard of Dreamstime (you just heard about them), some are former customers who forgot about them, and some of them are window shoppers. Once they have visited the website, they might go on to become long-term customers.
cut out coupon
The technique is similar to the supermarket that offers an introductory coupon. (“$2 off this product”). It’s called a loss-leader. In this case there’s little loss to Dreamstime. Customers will come in and look around and perhaps move beyond this the initial bargain section, into the front of the store.

It works. Many similar microstock companies will follow suit.

Limited shelf life in the microstock industry is a fact of life. Styles, trends, and buzz-pix become popular, then become stale, and then die. (Remember those earlier pictures of a suit-with-a-briefcase-in-hand, rushing down the street ? Do suits still carry brief cases, or has the style moved on to shoulder slung satchels?).
Now that microstock has been around for a few years, the $1-a-picture industry has come to the realization that their exquisite clichés have a limited life span. The pictures Dreamstime plans to choose for giving away, will be only images that have been online for at least one year, that have had no sales.

THE EDITORIAL DIFFERENCE


In our field of editorial stock photography, however, we see an opposite effect. Unlike commercial stock photos that have a short ‘shelf life’, editorial stock photos gain in their marketability. The editorial stock photographs you are capturing today can easily experience an increase in their marketability as the years move on.
A commercial stock photograph taken in 2005 may have already lost its marketability, but an editorial stock photograph of an aborigine listening to a transistor radio in the 80’s will increase in its salability and become even more useable in this century.
Whether your interest area is the environment, politics, education, etc. your present pictures will be marketable not only today but also in the future. You’ll even be able to pass your collection on to your heirs as an annuity.
Is this a new phenomenon? It has existed to a degree all along, but now it’s becoming even more recognizable, now that the publishing industry, which includes not only the physical markets (books, trade books, magazines, newspapers, etc.), but also “air-space” on TV, the Internet, has realized that nostalgia, history, and memorabilia sells. (Who would’ve thought just a few years ago that there would be a popular history channel on TV?)

If you are following a stock photo career of taking pictures in a category you love to work in, you will become a contributor to history.

Unlike the Dreamstime people who have to contend with pictures that become throw-aways, dead-weight and un-saleable, your pictures are becoming more valuable as time moves on.



Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. Telephone: 1 800 624 0266 Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com/products for an example of how your editorial photos of past years can increase in value: www.photosource.com/resources.


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23 Mar, 2010 | Posted by: psn


My How Time Flies!

Two Dozen


Years Ago




Date: September 1986


Here’s how we were talking in our newsletter back in September 1986,
- - - - - - - - - -


Whatever happened to carbon paper? Once a mainstay in the company office, it has disappeared along with the ink well. Soon the telex machine will be retired and the emerging electronic mail via desk-top computers will take over.

What parallels loom in the photography/publishing industry? Just around the corner is a big revolution. Film-based pictures will be out and digital pictures in. While it won't happen tomorrow, all signs indicate you'll miss the boat unless you prepare for your cameras and your pictures to become antiques.

Film, as we know it today, will be going the way of tin and glass plates. The homework is in process, and the race is on in business and industry. The military, for example, already uses digital video cameras in its reconnaissance planes. The resolution (5,000 pixels) so far doesn't compare to film-based resolution (3 million pixels). But that's the kind of thing they were saying about home computers only a decade ago.

The impact promises to be monumental. According to most reports, Americans shoot 11 billion pictures a year and spend some $8 billion on cameras, film, photofinishing, and other film-related process and costs. Photofinishers get the largest chunk: $2.5 billion. Film makers get the next largest share: $2 billion. Both processes will be obsolete when digital pictures take over.

Not only will the digital picture meet the needs of the amateur photography industry, but once the digital process is perfected to produce high-resolution pictures, the transmittal of these pictures via phone lines, FM sub-carrier radio, or other data transmission process, will revolutionize the professional photo acquisition industry. Photo editors will be able to access and select pictures in minutes, rather than the cumbersome hours and days that today's processing requires, dealing with film-based pictures.

Digital pictures will be stored in central video disk banks. The notion of a stock agency holding original pictures will be an anachronism. Stock agencies are already beginning to adjust to the future portents, and all of us need to be studying the situation along with them.

One of the biggest hold-ups in this area is the tendency of olde-tyme craftsmen and decision-makers who have "always done it this way", to resist technological change. It took a generation for editors accustomed to the 4x5 camera to give in to photographers who touted the 35mm camera. Here at PhotoSource International we're drawing blueprints for a marketing network that will serve both the photo illustrator*and the photobuyer, to incorporate the technological advances as they get in place. –RE
September 26, 1986

*We were then calling stock photos, “photo illustrations.”



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17 Mar, 2010 | Posted by: psn




While you have them on the phone…

Something From Nothing


Wrong number? Sometimes a misdirected phone call can turn into a positive conversation that turns into a sale.

After my Dad retired, he and my Mom would come out from Maryland to visit us here at the farm in Wisconsin.

Pop, as I called him when he was alive, was intrigued with our rural neighbors. Being a former insurance agent, he never lost his curiosity for people and his self-imposed mission to help them out.

One time we were visiting Frank, a farmer down our road who had a 19th-century barn on his property that was in a near-collapse condition. Frank remarked that the barn was a drawback but he didn’t have the cash to have a demolition team come in and tear it down.

“That’s a goldmine,” Pop said to Frank.
“How in the world is it a goldmine?” said Frank.
“First of all,” said Pop, “you’re right that a barn in that condition is an eyesore if you ever wanted to sell your property. Then there’s the insurance angle. Insurance companies always raise the premium on your insurance if you have an unsafe building on your property. You’ll get a lower insurance rate once it’s gone.”
“But the goldmine?” Frank asked.
“The weather-worn boards and the beams on that barn are a valuable commodity. You could sell them to a lumberyard that would dismantle the barn for you for nothing. Or if you dismantle it yourself, you could sell the boards over in Minneapolis to an interior-decorating firm. Or, if you look in the Yellow Pages (Google wasn’t around at the time of discussion) you could find a company that will pay you to let them clear away the barn and even plant grass where it once stood, in return for the lumber.”

Frank took Pop up on his idea and now has a vegetable garden where the barn once stood.
Another time we were down at the Horse Creek Store, and I introduced Pop to another neighbor who has a cabin on a nearby lake (a lot of people from the Twin Cities have summer homes in our area of Wisconsin.)

Hank is his name, and in conversation he mentioned, “I’ve answered at least 500 phone calls this week and 450 were the wrong number!Thank God it’s Friday."

“Some guy placed an ad in the St. Paul newspaper about a vintage car for sale and he transposed the phone number and gave my 800 number instead. That cost me a bundle in misused energy, took up my time, and raised my blood pressure!” (Hank’s face started turning red as he described his past week’s reaction to the wrong numbers.)

“What business are you in?” Pop said.
“I’m a porch and lawn furniture salesman.”
“There’s a chance to turn a lemon into lemonade,” Pop said. “You probably spend a lot of your time on the phone following up on leads of people who are looking to get an update their outdoor furniture. This mistaken phone number could save you time. I bet a couple dozen of those people who called would like to learn about your deals on lawn furniture, and another dozen would consider a looking into your products. While you have their attention, and they called you, you didn’t call them, you have some ready-made prospects without spending any time or money to get them.”

THE STOCK PHOTO SALES ANGLE


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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/phone.html


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10 Mar, 2010 | Posted by: psn




Copyright:

What’s it all about?




There have been many changes to the U.S. copyright law since 1790, when Congress first enacted the United States Copyright Law. At that time, the law gave writers exclusive rights to publish and sell maps, charts and books for a period of fourteen years. They could renew the copyright for another fourteen years.
In the 19th century, copyrights became available for pictures, photographs, paintings, articles, essays, and drawings. In 1909, the copyright law covered rolls for player pianos. Since 1976, copyright law has expanded to include cable digital photography, TV, computer software, tapes, CDs, MP3s, MP4s, and DVDs...

The length of copyright term has also gradually increased. Up until 1998, copyrights lasted for the life of the author plus an additional fifty years, before copyright they reverted to public domain (anyone could then use the material without charge). But in 1998, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act extended the duration of copyrights by twenty years. The act was supported by a group of large corporations, led by Disney. Most of Disney's famous characters, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and all the rest, were scheduled to enter the public domain between 2000 and 2004. But now other artists and companies can't use them in their books and movies and songs until at least 2019, which means that Disney has another nine years of making money off Disney corporation creations.

Whether the Copyright Law is in your favor depends on which side of the copyright table you’re sitting at (publisher or supplier). Hint: Lately, the copyright pendulum has been swinging toward the publishers.
The most recent issue to cause questions has been "copyright orphans." These are works for which publishers cannot find the author (or photographer), to be able to either get permission to use the work, or determine whether it can be considered "fair-use," and used without permission or payment.

Here is ASMP’s comment in reference to the “Orphan Works”.

What are “Orphan Works”?
As described in a 2005 report that the Copyright Office prepared for Congress, an "orphan work" is a work (such as an image) that is protected by copyright but whose copyright owner cannot be identified and located. It is clear that such a situation harms both creators and users. However, the remedy that was proposed to the 2006 Congress was needlessly unfair to creators, leading ASMP and many other groups to seek changes when the bill was introduced.
Victor Perlman, ASMP



Rohn Engh is the best-selling author of “Sell & ReSell Your Photos” and “sellphotos.com.” He has produced a new eBook, “How to Make the Marketable Photo.” For more information and to receive a free eReport: “8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer,” http://www.photosource.com/8steps.php


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03 Mar, 2010 | Posted by: psn




The Power of

Keywords





In the field of editorial photography, photo researchers no longer search for pictures by looking at scores and scores of images (real tough on the eyes after awhile!). Instead they search, first, by using descriptive words. Rarely do they use a one-word search, like “bird,” or “sports” (they’d receive thousands of hits). They usually use a three- or four-word search, and sometimes five or six words – describing the content they need in the photo.

When you attach keywords (tags) to each of your images (metadata), keep this in mind. Try to anticipate what keywords a photobuyer using Google or another popular search engine might use in his/her search.
Since text description takes up very little space* in a database, be generous in your use of words to describe each image. Also, remember to include colloquial descriptions: In California it’s a “carpet,” in Wisconsin, it’s a “rug.” In Alabama the word is “flying;” in New Jersey it’s “aviation.”

HINT: Stay away from trite descriptions and keyphrases that are too general. The phrase “Infant child and mother” may bring 2,000 hits. A better description would be, “Infant soiled diapers distraught mother” ** (in other words, more precisely describe the scene).
* The phrase, “ Four score and seven years ago, our fathers…” takes up 32 bytes. A normal 8 meg image takes up 8,000,000 bytes.
** No need to include prepositions.
GOOD:
mother supports toddler standing position
Victorian photo locket circa 1865
Spain Andalusia Seville Giralda Tower mother daughter under bell
poor Cuban family seated on sidewalk Havana Cuba
mother daughter Biscarrossek Beach France
men with fishung net Sete, France
crazy worm ride Edinburgh funfair people
family mountain biking France Aquitaine Landes Forest
France Aquitaine Landes Forest
boy mountain biking France Aquitaine Landes Forest
teenagers looking bored music symphony
teenagers looking bored rock concert
little girl mother walking carefully on snowy dirt road
kid and man repairing mountain bike rain
elder boy scout welcoming little sister railway station
four children contemplating sunset Frioul Islands
France Corsica island Bastia man son Jet Ski
heart-shaped biscuits white plate, valentines
male writes graffiti Hebrew
three little boys looking at world globe

NOT GOOD:

The following keyphrases are too generic. The photobuyer would get hundreds of inquiries. The following need one or two additional modifiers to make the description more specific. Typical modifiers would be: where they are doing the activity (name the city, park, resort, etc.). If it’s at a school, business, industry, church, synagogue, mosque, add this also. GET SPECIFIC. That’s what the researcher does when he or she makes a Google search !

mother and baby playing
family riding bicycle together
children riding carousel
mom with newborn baby
mother kissing child
newborn baby feet
crying baby
baby on bed
newborn baby boy
mother holding baby
tired mother and baby
crying baby
mother holding baby in arms
mother and child
smiling mother with newborn baby
mother holding newborn baby
infant newborn baby boy
infant child and mother
mother and child
crying baby on mother’s lap
christ mas turkey
mom and daughter opening present
mom and son opening christmas presents
young boy and girl and dog
young girl and her parents
young girl and her mother
young girl and her father
woman taking photos of children walking in the country
brother and sister playing with sand
grandmother and her granddaughter
baby foot grasping father’s finger
mother and daughter kissing
girls hugging
children at beach
grandmother snuggling with baby
a loving family, father with his little boy


Rohn Engh is the best-selling author of “Sell & ReSell Your Photos” and “sellphotos.com.” He has produced a new eBook, “How to Make the Marketable Photo.” For more information and to receive a free eReport:

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24 Feb, 2010 | Posted by: psn




TODAY’S PHOTOGRAPHY PARAPHERNALIA . . .


HERE TODAY….


GONE TOMORROW


If you’ve decided to put your photographic talent into the stock photo industry, remember this solid principle: No one will ever invent a substitute for pictures.

Because photography is like so many products in our gadgetry world, it’s always going to undergo improvement. Think of the first computer games.

Today’s amazing technological device is tomorrow’s souvenir. It wasn’t that the product was based on a faulty concept; it was just that an industrial society moves on and the constant element is c h a n g e.

The one element you can count on is that someone, somewhere right at this moment, is inventing a new way to take photos, a new way to deliver them, a new way to sell them, a new way to preserve them for posterity.
- - - - - - - - - -
Take cameras themselves. Soon that clumsy clunkiness of mirrors and shutters in SLRs will be gone and a new camera design that’s on the horizon that is lighter in weight and quiet in sound will replace today’s cameras, both amateur and professional.
- - - - - - - - - -

new camera
In the marketing field, I stumbled on an email in January (last month) that led to a website where a photobuyer, full figure on plain background, was announcing that her publishing company was embarking on a publishing venture of three new book topics in April: wildflowers, children’s pets, and surfing. The deadline to submit was February 15th. She promised that payment for pictures was far above the usual microstock payment and in line with standard rates.

This new approach to finding photos puts the burden on someone else and saves her time and, of course, money. The selection of photos will be probably by an editorial committee through in-house light boxes. Look for other small house publishers to improve the system.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/heretoday.html


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17 Feb, 2010 | Posted by: psn

---------





FOR THE BEGINNING STOCK PHOTOGRAPHER

TIME IS GOLD


Do you enjoy making money? If you answer no to that question then the rest of this article would be a waste of your time. But if your answer is yes, then consider this:
Time, to the creative person, is more important than money. It’s something money can’t buy – any time you find yourself squandering your time, you’re tossing away your potential profits, much like the lemonade stand proprietor who, without disciplining himself, drinks his profits.
Creative people are famous for “wasting time” by spending it trying to make money to support their creative habit. They spend time moonlighting at a fast-food restaurant, or a construction job, to gain the money to buy tripods, cameras, software, lenses. Because they take time away from their picture-taking and picture-marketing, they find themselves running in place financially and professionally, never moving ahead.

THE SQUANDERERS

Others squander their time outside their day job on activities that have little to do with their mission of marketing their pictures. If you are a home gardener, did you ever figure out how much time you spend in your garden? One hour a day for 6 months is 180 hours. What kind of solid Market List could you build if you devoted 180 hours to researching and adding to your Market List this spring and summer? Once you discover which editors are out there with $10,000 to $20,000-a-month photography budgets waiting for your specialized photographs, those golden homegrown carrots won’t be so liable to distract you from operating your own real gold-making machinery.

"I’ve heard all the alibis: gardeners, golfers, dog trainers, hikers, and tennis players have when I ask them why they are pursuing these hobbies rather than building a solid Market List. I have a three-word reply for them: “Excuses, excuses, excuses.”

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/gold.html




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10 Feb, 2010 | Posted by: psn





CONSIDER THE LONG TERM VALUE


Lifetime


Customers



I'll call him Frank. He dropped his subscription to our daily marketletter. "There aren't enough aviation requests in your newsletter," he said.

"Let's talk about that," I said, "keeping in mind that the PhotoDaily is a marketletter, not a newsletter. The distinction is important, and has bearing on your concern about the number of aviation requests."

"How so?" he said, "What's the distinction?"

"A marketletter provides markets for you - not only the current day's specific photo requests from buyers, but new markets themselves, to add to your own Market List. The marketletter does all your research for you and not only finds new photobuyers, but also provides you with information on the kinds of photos they buy and the prices they pay. You can take this information, and whether or not you have the specific photo requested in that one listing, if over the long haul that buyer uses photos in one of your specialties, you have made a valuable contact to pursue on your own."
"But I just told you, your marketletter lists too few aviation buyers."

I asked him to think of "Marketing" as a long-term annuity. "Here's the big picture," I said. "We list photo needs every day, five days a week. In a year's time, we list about 3,000 photo needs. Let's say 1% of those are aviation needs."
"That's not many," he said. "That's only 30 needs! And only 10% of those will actually buy anything from you. That's only 3 buyers a year!"
"That's a lot," I said. "It's a gold mine!"
"What do you mean?"

"A publishing house that buys aviation pictures, is a buyer you, as an aviation photographer, can be hooked up with for a long time. You can establish a working relationship and work independently with them, making many more sales to them each year, beyond that first sale from the original listing in the marketletter. Individual photo editors at that company may come and go, but you'll continue to be an important resource for that publishing company. We've seen that most editorial stock photographers enjoy a working relationship with any one company for an average of ten years, and even longer.

If you 'net' $5000 annually from each buyer you acquire, over a ten-year period, you are talking $50,000 (10 X $5,000) from each buyer. If in one year, you acquire 3 steady buyers you are actually acquiring about $150,000 worth of business ($50,000 X 3). And that's from the number of buyer contacts made in just one year from the marketletter information."

"I never looked at it that way," he said.

"Think of the future net worth of the photobuyers you acquire. Each one has a specialized need. In this case, aviation. And you take aviation pictures. There couldn't be a better match."




Rohn Engh is the best-selling author of “Sell & ReSell Your Photos” and “sellphotos.com.” He has produced a new eBook, “How to Make the Marketable Photo.” For more information and to receive a free eReport: “8 Steps"


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03 Feb, 2010 | Posted by: psn




Get Ready for

Tax Time



Coming up in April is tax time. It's time to talk about how you can save by being aware of what tax-savings are available to you.
Tax Time Arithmetic in grammar school and algebra in high school never appealed to me. But when I discovered later on in life that I could save hundreds of dollars every year, I soon became fascinated by mathematics.
No one likes to talk about taxes. But before you close the doors and slam the windows on the subject, let me make two points: 1) You are missing an opportunity to save anywhere from $10 to $1,000 a year (or more) on your taxes, if you are a salaried person and attempting to get your part-time business of your stock photography operation off the ground; and 2) what I'm going to say has nothing to do with evading taxes -- that's illegal. You will avoid taxes -- that's your legal right.
The IRS encourages you to avoid taxes. Sound odd? It's correct.

The reason the IRS doesn't want you to pay so much in taxes is that our free enterprise system recognizes that it takes courage to start up a business - thus, they want to encourage you. They know that if you succeed, you could very well help stimulate the economy by hiring more workers, who in turn will pay more taxes.
You probably thought "write-offs" were only for the big boys, and that it costs big dollars to ask questions about tax advantages. Not so. The IRS provides you with all the information I'm about to reveal to you in their free and informative, "Taxpayer's Business Kit.” So, you verify this with the IRS. (Phone them at 1 800 829 1040) But if you're like most of us, you'll take one look at that two pounds of information and put it away in a drawer for "later."
A costly mistake. Here's what you'll discover when you sift out the information as it applies to you, the stock photographer. The government will give you five years to stop calling your operation a hobby and start calling it a business. Within those five years, you should show a profit ($1 is a profit) in at least two of those years. That means you could go three years without even selling a picture or showing a profit and still reap the tax benefits (more later). (If your stock photography business is your only business, your primacy livelihood, you can actually show a loss every year.)

- - - - - - - - - -
The IRS encourages you to avoid taxes. Sound odd? It's correct.
- - - - - - - - - -


You don't have to "get a license" (unless your local city or township requires it). You only have to show intent to be a business, rather than a hobby.
Intent translates into "putting up a shingle." In other words, get some stationery printed (google is a good source for best prices), and open a separate bank (business) account. At income tax time, fill out Schedule C, a form that lets the IRS know whether you made a profit or a loss on your stock photography operation.
Now here's where your savings come in. Much of your business-related expenses (computer expense, travel, home office, vehicle, darkroom) are no longer your personal expenses, they are business expenses, and therefore become "deductions" in other words, expenses to your business. Even though you don't make a profit, you are still entitled to this write-off.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/taxtime.html

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27 Jan, 2010 | Posted by: psn




Don't Take Photos. ..


–MAKE THEM




Editorial stock photography opens up a vast field of interpretive art. But many photographers first should break away from their early conditioning, where they were trained to "take" photographs, following the lead of the photojournalist or documentary photographer community.

The prevailing approach to photography was to capture images,(and still is) somewhat like a mirror does. Editorial stock photography, however, gives the photographer opportunity to make photographs.

Historians will look back on the turn of the 21st century as a time when photographers became more creative with their medium.
John Reed Demonstrating Photo Blaine Eckberg
The editorial stock photographer can often create a situation as it could be, or as it should be. His or her photograph can become a springboard for the viewer to see through and beyond what is being photographed.

In effect, the photo allows the viewer to become a collaborator in the photo, and extract his or her own meaning from the image. To limit photography simply to mirror-like documentation would be to limit knowledge and understanding and expression of ideas.

NO LIMITATIONS


Creating fresh insights and deeper understanding is not limited to photography. Painters, for example, as we all know, rarely paint their landscapes "true to nature." To limit their illustrations to an exact duplication of nature would be to limit and confine the expression of the painter and the enjoyment of his/her viewers. Artists rearrange the elements [even the lighting] of their paintings, to give wholeness and meaning to a composition that otherwise did not exist. Jazz musicians, for another example, improvise in the melody and rhythm of a basic theme not because they wish to be cute or "different," but because they wish to discover for themselves and their listeners, new meanings inherent in the music.
All of this, of course, does not apply to news photography or photojournalism. It would be dishonest to juggle anything in a news photograph or documentation photo, to misrepresent or lead to misunderstanding of a scene or subject.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/makethem.html


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20 Jan, 2010 | Posted by: psn






TO SPEED UP YOUR PHOTO SALES

SLIM DOWN




Here at PhotoSource International we often get the question: "How can I become successful at publishing my pictures especially during these somber economic times?"

Oddly enough, the answer is quite simple -- but it's not an answer most photographers expect. And that might be one reason why the answer is so elusive to many people. We might expect the answer to be: "Be born with TALENT." or, "Work hard!"

Yes, talent and working hard of course, are important, but we all know photographers with a lot of talent who are going nowhere. We also know a lot of "hard workers," who are going the same place. But to get to the point -- the prime answer is simply this: if your desire to become a published photographer is so strong that your personal constitution will allow you to "put up with and do without," then success is just around the corner for you.

Put up with? Do without? Sounds simplistic. And it is. Whenever we follow up photographers who have come to us in the past with dreams, goals, and aspirations of publishing their pictures -- we find that years later, the ones who have met with success are the ones who have persisted and persisted, and endured.
man on phone
First of all these photographers have "put up with" the inherent drudgery jobs, the rejections from art directors, the unpleasant tasks, the necessary non-glamorous chores one faces daily in this business.

As they face their day, they don't avoid the tedious chores. They have True Grit. They know that if they neglect the irksome task it won't go away, but will grow into a larger problem the next day, and by the end of the month, could create a complicated, time-consuming, catch-up mess or even an insurmountable barrier.

And what are these unpleasantries? As a stock photographer you face many daily tasks: refining e-mails or queries to prospective photobuyers; photoshopping; Googling for prospects; making phone calls for everything from research to clarifying assignments; texting a prospect or supplyer; cataloging, cross-referencing, applying metadata to your images; researching for keywords; sending off light boxes to prospects; and answering emails and twitter responses.

If you are new to the field of stock photography, you'll nevertheless recognize these drudgery jobs as parallel to those in operating your household… every uncleaned paint brush or tool unreturned to its shelf, every unanswered letter in that pile of important letters, or that unbalanced check book are examples of the 'things we don't like to do,' that pile up until it becomes a habit with us not to get them done. Once this procrastination becomes habit, it becomes our "style" -- or, us. "Wishing away" those drudgery jobs never works.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/slimdown.html


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13 Jan, 2010 | Posted by: psn




WHEN IT COMES TO THE INTERNET -

We’ve Come

A Short Way


For the last decade or so, photo researchers and editors as well as individual stock photographers have been experiencing the improved picture- search and purchase capabilities of the Internet. Electronic photo buying has almost totally replaced traditional transaction methods.

I didn't always feel the Internet was a viable delivery method for researchers and stock photographers. At first, the Internet wasn’t ready. In fact I spent almost four years, starting in 1992, sending out warning signals to readers of my newsletters and columns, about the dangers of the Internet for editorial photographers.

In the beginning, those who didn't heed my advice found themselves saddled with expensive, inoperable equipment, inappropriate software, and a weak bank balance.

I advised our readers not to jump onto the Internet bandwagon. The wagon had wobbly wheels and the band was playing off-tune. The road was dusty and had no service stations. Internet travelers were in effect expected to volunteer as pioneers and test the road out, at their own expense.
And, thank you, --they did that.

But isn’t that always the way with those who break new ground? They stick their head out, cross their fingers, and go by their gut feeling. We should all be grateful to those who forged ahead, both photobuyers and photographers.

This being said, I have always had a warm place in my heart for the concept of the Internet, even before the advance of blogs and websites. I put our own marketletters on-line back in 1984. However, over those years, we saw “electronic inertia” on the part of photobuyers at editorial markets. And we saw software and hardware suppliers fail, trying to figure out where the market would go. Ruefully, I dubbed the Internet the "Imposternet."

Eventually, we all knew, somewhere along this grand scheme, the Internet would survive its birth pangs and mature.
Testing out the alt tags
NOW THERE'S A BRIGHT ROAD AHEAD


You’re familiar now with Google, Yahoo!, Bing , and perhaps a dozen other search engines that have been around for a few years, but recently they’ve been refined to where they have become real tools for the stock photo industry. If you don’t have DSL, they don't solve the speed problems for picture review, but they facilitate speedy access to picture description (text) and retrieval. Search engines are now a bright light at the end of the mountain tunnel for stock photographers and photobuyers.

- - - - - - - - - - -

A PRIMER ON SEARCH ENGINES


- - - - - - - - - - -

In essence, search engines locate specific information for you on the Web. You can find out how many trail bikes are manufactured monthly in South Korea, or the hometown zip code of a long lost cousin, or former boyfriend.

Because search engines inquire by text (ciphers made up of zeros and ones), it's easy for them to locate specific subject matter on someone's Web page in a matter of seconds.

And how do these search engines get this information? Two ways: Anyone can fill out the information form that all search engines provide, for inclusion in the search engine's evolving database. Also, search engines scan (webcrawl) millions of websites daily, and collect information from these blogs and websites into their massive databases.

r
- - - - - - - - - - -

WHERE THE ROAD LEADS


Just how do the improved search engines affect the stock photography business?

During my three decades of providing market information for editorial stock photographers, I’ve seen first-hand the consistency of the work methods of editorial photobuyers. These buyers want content-specific pictures, not generic cliches, and to find these pictures, photo editors and researchers first search by entering text key words,.They don’t view images themselves. Once they find a source for their target images through a text search, then they begin looking at actual pictures.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/shortway.html


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06 Jan, 2010 | Posted by: psn





HOW MUCH IS A WORD WORTH?


IT'S WORTH A

THOUSAND PICTURES



Photo researchers are discovering that computers are emerging from their teen-age years. They are leaving behind their shortcomings of the last decade, and are redefining themselves and emerging as mature adults.

Photo researchers everywhere are learning that computers have shed their pesky ways, have become fast, responsible and friendly machines. The new Internet technology is convincing photo researchers that a computer can be an important.

At the same time, photo researchers are discovering that they, too, must shed some archaic working ways in order to capitalize on the new electronic researching systems that have become available to us all.

I could outline numerous methods of research that are now available utilizing the new technology. You may be familiar with some of them, but I'll leave that to your own discovery, and jump ahead to methods of research coming in the near future that you'll want to become aware of and be prepared to capitalize on.
The Internet offers two basic ways of searching for a specialized image: by text or image review. Most researchers who have a track record in the field of researching have opted to use the method they are most familiar with: the image review method. They type in a generic subject word in an online gallery and then it's business as usual. They look at dozens, even hundreds, of images from a number of sources, and eventually select a small number of images for their client to consider.

But this kind of "image search" can be exhausting, and time-consuming, especially when the researcher is attempting to highlight a story with that just-right photo.

THE NEW APPROACH


The "image review search" method would seem acceptable if it were not for a new approach that is beginning to make itself known: Text.

Researchers need no longer be satisfied with "good enuf" pictures. Much deeper selections and more targeted images are now becoming more available for the asking, thanks to the simplified and speedier capabilities of searching for images through electronic text search.

As the viewing public has become more sophisticated in their viewing habits, it is becoming ever more demanding. We have only to look at a textbook or magazine article from fifty years ago to discern the shallow nature of the photos that were deemed acceptable for publication in those days.

I believe the "text-centric" system will win over the "image-review" system in electronic photo research of the future. Currently, both electronic systems are admittedly in their early stages.
We have seen that when TV, movie, and other media want to do a story on a particular subject, they do extensive searching for details. In the past, these facts were hidden in places that were not readily available to the average researcher. The general public accepted whatever thesis the producer came up with -- because it was good enough, based on the research resources available at the time, combined with the deadline the producer was facing.

Research involves a series of levels. We usually give credibility to an erudite report from a college professor or in a textbook, a little less credibility to a newspaper article, and much less to a TV show or radio interview.

The constraints of a time deadline are an influencing factor.

This is beginning to change. We have experienced, for example, the results of the extensive research don e by Ken Burns in his PBS TV productions. Professionals working in other media now have equal access to the research methods and materials that were formerly the province of college lecturers and authors, who weren't constricted by the tight deadlines of newspaper and magazine writers.

And how is that material accessed?

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/thousand.html


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23 Dec, 2009 | Posted by: psn




PHOTOGRAPH WHAT MOVES YOU, THE DOLLARS WILL COME

Get On The Ball


I have a friend who loves photography, She also loves to play ping-pong, or as she calls it, table tennis.
It's a joy to watch her matches. She destroys her opponents (usually men) with an entertaining combination of ferocity and grace.
When she's not playing at her sport, she's photographing. The results are usually beautiful landscapes and rural scenics.

I once asked her if she ever sold her work.
"I've tried, but no dice. If I could just make a few sales, I could pay for my photography habit," she grumbled.

"But you can make sales, many sales," I said. “ Your roadblock is that you are putting your energy in the wrong direction."

"You mean I should stop my table tennis and concentrate more on my photography?"

"No, you should concentrate more on what you love doing most, - your table tennis. There are few photographers who understand the particulars of table tennis. You are one of them. At this moment, there are photobuyers looking for authentic pictures of table tennis."
"How do I find these buyers?" She asked.

"Photo editors look for table tennis pictures two ways: sometimes and always," I said. "The ‘sometime’ buyer is producing a textbook, brochure, DVD, video training, encyclopedia, etc. They might need a table tennis picture only once a year, or once a lifetime.
“The 'always' buyer is the photo editor who works for a special interest magazine, pr agency, or corporate publication that has table tennis as its focus."

"I know several of those," she said. "I never thought of supplying them with pictures."

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16 Dec, 2009 | Posted by: psn




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Thursday, December 17th 2009

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Thanks for your support !











No More Telephone

Collection Calls





Have you ever received a harassing telephone call from a bill collector? Assuming you are a struggling editorial stock photographer, attempting to keep the wolves from the door by paying your debts and credit card bills on time…

… and assuming you are making your best effort to keep your credit rating intact, here’s some information that might relieve you. After all, as editorial stock photographers, we want to put our energies to taking and marketing pictures, not battling the bill collectors.

I vividly remember the early days of my photography career when the “Incoming” box on my desk was filled, not with income, but with bills. If you’re now experiencing the same, take heart, the darkest hour is always the one just before sunrise.

Along with the exciting gratification of producing your photos, you have the demanding challenge of learning the marketing ropes. Also, it helps to consider the task of keeping ahead of the bill collectors, an equally adventurous aspect of your business.

You’re not alone. In times past, many a noted composer, writer, artist, or musician has been known to work feverishly on a composition or work of art in order to meet pressing debts. Dostoevsky, for example in 1879-80, wrote monthly installments of his now famous novel, “The Brothers Karamazov,” to appease the bill collectors. Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol” to be able to pay for his mother’s funeral.

It is not only unethical, but in many cases illegal,
for bill collectors or their representatives to
harass you with phone calls. Most bill collectors
are ethical, and it’s the exceptional, overzealous
representative from the bill collection profession
that puts a bad light on the rest of them. Some
of their techniques are in violation of both criminal
statutes as well as telephone company
applicable tariffs. Be alert.


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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/phone.html

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09 Dec, 2009 | Posted by: psn






That First Published Photo




Can you remember your first published photo? I would guess it’s still vivid in your unfaded memory, if not even hanging on your den wall.

If you know a pro stock photographer, ask him or her what they received as payment for that first “sale”. A surprising number will say they received nothing.

Others will say they received a low payment they could not accept today, and they discourage beginners from accepting a token ‘credit line’ in payment for free use of a photo.
It's ironic that many photographers got their start with no pay or low pay. Yet they work to create roadblocks in the marketplace to prevent beginners from accepting opportunities to get their start in the same way.

It's somewhat like Hollywood actors who get their start in independent films or "B" movies, but when they reach stardom, try to repress the vehicles that gave them the chance to start out.

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"We know that beginning photographers when starting out,
don't have a track record yet, either in technical expertise or
in dealing professionally with photobuyers that would enable
them to jump right in with the rest of the pros, even though
their talent can match that of the pros."

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Or guitar pickers in Nashville. If a CD producer shouted out a studio window that he wanted someone to fill in, for free, -- two dozen guitarists will rush down the street to respond – and among them would be talent that could compete with the best in the world.

By the way, Luciano Pavarotti, the famous opera star who died recently, got his start by singing in a local. contest.


Until digital photography came along, much good photography was tucked away in shoe boxes and closets. The photographers were unknowns.

HIGH FEES

Why do ad agencies pay high fees (top dollar) to photographers and stock agencies? We know it's not benevolence, or out of the goodness of their heart.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/published.html



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02 Dec, 2009 | Posted by: psn






The Great Library of Alexandria Lives On...


The Dawn of

Digital Pictures

In 1989 I heard about a lumbering digital Goliath, mysteriously gobbling up individual collections of transparencies, photo libraries, manuscripts, woodcuts, and illustrations. That was in '89.


CONTINUUM Productions Corporation (once called IHS (Interactive Home Systems) and later, in ‘94, CORBIS*, was the inspiration of Microsoft's founder, Bill Gates.

Early in 1994 I traveled out to Bellevue, Washington to their original HQ, a two-story building, to see what it was all about. CONTINUUM was still the banner name at that point.


CONTINUUM was on a roll and about to fly as a one-stop digital archive company that would encompass a wide range of subject areas.


Fine arts, culture, history, technology, science, and so on, would all be included. In the continuing process of expanding the archive, CONTINUUM was creating wide-ranging relationships with photographers, museums, private institutions, and government sources.

CONTINUUM actually was to be two organizations. The Content Licensing operation (IHS) was primarily a business-to-business digital stock photography service that launched in the fall of ’89. "Many people in the professional photography industry are thinking of us as a massive stock agency," said Charles Mauzy, Acquisitions Manager at that time.

"CONTINUUM is not limiting itself to the business of the stereotype agency with traditional content, markets, business, and administrative processes. The company's licensing business will develop and reach many new as well as traditional markets in the commercial and editorial marketplaces," Mauzy said.

The aim of the publishing side of CONTINUUM was to fulfill the company's original goal: to acquire visuals, audio, and text to produce multimedia products for traditional as well as the upcoming new age media: CD-ROM, (DVD’s hadn’t been invented yet), on-line searching, video clips, sound bites, etc.). Educational markets and home consumers were included in their target markets.

“Can it be done?” we were all asking then.


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25 Nov, 2009 | Posted by: psn





Will A Blog

Work For You ?
.
On the Internet, one of the effective ways to get the attention of photobuyers is the BLOG.


This Internet tool has been around for a decade or so. Only now has it arrived in the mainstream of editorial stock photography. Will it be useful to you?

Yes, if you use a blog, along with your website, you achieve a two-prong push to gain attention to your photography. A Blog is a dynamic website (web+log = blog). Websites are what might be called “static.”

New blog software has come along, so use Google to find a blog format that fits your style and specialization(s). What’s available? Blogger and WordPress have always been the past favorites. With the new blog software out now, it’s difficult to tell whether the results are a blog or a website.


How it works:
Each time you publish an entry on your blog, you are doing electronically what is called a ‘ping’ to the various updating services. In other words, you automatically notify your photobuyer list and any other people that are following you and your services, that there is new content on your blog, so your prospects will “come in and take a look at my newest photos!”

This gives the search engines occasion to come and visit your site to index it. So, another benefit is that blogs tend to be “crawled” (indexed) more frequently than traditional static websites. Also, it’s said that blogs show up 10 times more often in searches than regular websites do.

Blogs are sort of do-it-yourself utilities, in contrast to static websites where you have to open up your “editor,” produce the article/photos, and update the page properties, before uploading the page(s) to your website using FTP software. A lot of work. Once you’ve done all of that, you have to wait until the search engines visit your website to get it re-indexed (sometimes two or three weeks).


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18 Nov, 2009 | Posted by: psn




There’s No Substitute



In this new century, soon to be
ten years old, - we have experienced
the power of pictures. In this
communication-lively world we live
in, the language of photos has
become paramount.

No one has invented a substitute for photos.


You’ve probably thought a lot about what I’m about to say about the downturn in the economy. Nevertheless, I want to put it all in terms of our industry: picture research and picture sales.
Here’s some food for thought.

Dismal forecasting: the problem with most economic downturn forecasting is that the writers and broadcasters often make references to the 1930’s Great Depression for their statistics. But let’s look at the facts.


IT’S ABOUT STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY


I’m not giving a pep talk here at halftime. I’m talking only about the reality of the business you are in, - stock photography.

And that business is going to succeed even if we are in a
global economic downturn.
Here’s why.


Number 1: Communication. We, as business people, have at our fingertips today a worldwide communications system, that can be both good and bad –almost simultaneously. The Internet. I’ve been communicating on the Internet since 1982 (which was a recession year, by the way) and began our initial on-line PhotoLetter in 1984. I’ve witnessed the ups and downs for almost a quarter of a century. During the ‘82 and ’91 recessions, we rode through them smoothly. The popularity of stock photos did not decrease.

Number 2 Quick Answers. On the Internet, you can find out quickly –what works, and what doesn’t work. No more struggles like in the 1930’s when Roosevelt was trying to figure out what America needed for a recovery. It took almost a decade.

HISTORY DOESN’T ALWAYS REPEAT ITSELF


On a larger scale in this century, the law of probability accelerates chances of finding work much faster. The same holds true for the potential for a fairly quick turnaround in the entire economy.

So those of you who are flipping through history books to predict the future, forget it. Those actuaries don’t count. History doesn’t always repeat itself. The recovery in the arena of editorial stock photography is going to come fast. Just like the present overall downturn came fast.

Number 3. A good product. You are in a good position. Stock photography will always be a commodity to barter, trade, rent, or sell. And the Internet accelerates the whole process, in good economic times or bad. We notice it here at Photosource International. The photo need requests by photobuyers continue to come in via phone, fax or Internet. All during this downturn in the economy we’ve signed up photobuyers that we never heard from in the past.
Yes, some photobuyers have been laid off, but we’ve discovered many of them have turned their knowledge into positioning themselves as independents and they now contact us directly.

Textbooks are in a lull these days, not because of a shortage of photos or the money to produce them, but because educators have discovered it’s easier to produce them, as well as revise them, online, making lower prices for students to retrieve the information, with an Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, with iPod mobility, or many more devices to come along. Th ey can achieve this in the classroom or at home.



In the same spirit of Internet knowledge acceleration, textbook producers are using more photos not less. Because of the ease of publication in this new digital environment, publishers will begin publishing sub-specialties on the same subject that might have been cost-ineffective in the past. Also, alternative publishers will produce “for further reading” derivative materials, that will require even more photos.

If you are a stock agency, and you specialize in coverage of a certain topic, you’ve found that today’s Internet has been a boon for you if you have applied the principles of “branding.” Researchers, using specific keywords, can now cut through massive selections of online microsites to target the exact picture they are looking for. If you haven’t specialized yet, you’ve found that only a few buyers are stumbling onto your site. It’s time to re-think your focus.

The buyers, now using the magic of search engines such as Google, prefer now to go to the heart of a specialized collection first. Their web search selects an independent photographer or specialized photo agency to locate the exact picture they need to complete their assignment swiftly.

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http://www.photosource.com/psn-article/substitute.html



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