Change View Options:
Articles from December 2011
For those looking for statistical and trend information related to stock photo industry this story provides links to a series of articles produced over the past year that examine various aspect of the subject.
The Authors Coalition of America, LLC, has identified a number of
American authors who may be due royalty payments from non-U.S. sources. These royalties have been received to compensate authors for the foreign reprographic use of U.S. copyrighted materials.
The National Press Photographers Association has made several
significant announcements about its annual
Best Of Photojournalism contest, including a reorganization of the
competition as visual journalism moves into a new era. Along with a new
and easier way to enter, there's also some category revisions plus some
new categories, and winners will be picked using a mixture of online and
on-site judging.
If you're new to this site, or have missed some of the stories we have published in 2011, check out these links to 52 of this year's most important and thought provoking stories. This summary of information should provide you with a good understanding of the state of the stock photo industry at the end of 2011. If you need more historical perspective check out the “
Top Stories For 2010.”
The concept of a realistic still photograph that provides an accurate
representation of a news event may be an impossible dream. Many people
blame Photoshop for making it so easy to “clean up” and “adjust”
photographs. Photographers lose their jobs if they “overuse” Photoshop.
But that is only a small part of the problem.
The microstock community
Dreamstime has announced that it saw consistent strong growth throughout 2011. Since 2007, Dreamstime’s customer base has grown from 350,000 to the more than 4.2 million customers. With this rapid growth, Dreamstime has positioned itself as a supplier of high quality digital images to the second largest community of registered stock image users. (It is believed that Shutterstock has the largest community of image users.)
The core business of providing pictures for commercial and consumer use
has moved from hiring a professional photographer to shoot an
assignment, to RM stock, to RF and then to
microstock. The next paradigm shift will be iPhoneography. Learn how this may impact you. Check out Jack Hollingsworth's two day workshop on the subject
Design Pics Inc., has acquired of
First Light Associated Photographers Ltd., a Canadian based photo agency. The agency was originally founded in 1984 by Pierre Guevremont, Ron Watts and Brian Milne. First Light has been based in Toronto. Design Pics is located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
In 2011
Pond5’s collection grew to over 900,000 and is expected to reach 1 million by early 2012. Currently this is largest collection of video clips on the web. In addition, the site offers 7.6 million still photos, 677,000 illustrations, and one of the deepest audio collections in the world, with more than 200,000 sound effects and 100,000 music tracks. Pond5 also has a small collection of customizable After Effects templates.
Corbis Images has named Edie Tobias as Senior Vice President of
Commercial Products. Based in Los Angeles, Tobias will be responsible
for leading the Commercial product group and growing the Corbis and Veer
businesses globally.
I’m regularly contacted by photographers, some with excellent
portfolios, wanting to know how they can license rights to their images
in today’s market. Recently, I was contacted by a nature and wildlife
photographer whose work was excellent. This photographer regularly
conducts Photo Workshops where he teaches others how to take great
scenic and wildlife pictures. Here’s what I told him.
Design Pics Inc., headquartered in Edmonton, Canada announces the acquisition of
Pacific Stock, a Hawaii based photo agency. The agency was originally founded in 1987 by Barbara Brundage.
Microstock sites are usually thought of as places to go to find generic commercial images, not editorial coverage. But, recently several microstock sites have started accepting unreleased, editorial images.
Dreamstime has provided links to images related to some of the major events its contributors covered in 2011.
One-hundred-thirty aspiring commercial photographers from all over the
world will descend on Cape Town, South Africa on 3 January 2012 to
participate in the Yuri Arcurs International Commercial Photography
Academy Bootcamp.
Some argue that there will always be plenty of print publications and
demand for images to be used in print. This story provides some statistics on the Magazine industry, Printing Industry, Newspapers and the Internet that provide a depressing picture of where the demand for still photography is headed.
A picture may be worth 1,000 words, but permanently attached
descriptions are worth a lot more as photos travel through the digital
world. A campaign has been launched calling for the embedding of
descriptive and rights information in digital media and retaining it
during the whole life cycle.
It has been pointed out that publishers need to license rights for long terms (25 years and more) because it is so difficult for them to track
down image owners in order to license reuses years after the initial license. This is particularly true as a result of agency consolidations and agencies going out of business. I recognize the problem, but there is a simple solution that would be easier for the book publishers to administer and much fairer for image creators.
A philosophical battle is being waged on the web between
ASMP (American Society of Media Photographers) and
APA (American Photographic Artists) over how to address the issue of the lack of compensation from the
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) for the collective licensing of reprography and digital uses of literary and visual works, and other secondary uses of audiovisual works. Here’s some background.
Image creators need to recognize that the fatal flaw in the stock photography business model is that there is no way to control supply relative to demand. This was not a big problem in the 1990s when demand exceed supply, but that state of affairs will never happen again. As a result Stock Photography is and will continue to be a very risky business.
The sale of
Masterfile to Arius 3D Corp for $21.4 million is still hanging in the balance. The two companies have agreed to extend to January 31, 2012 the closing of the previously announced proposed acquisition by Arius3D of all of the issued and outstanding securities of Masterfile.
U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody denied Pearson Education Inc’s motion
for dismissal of Jon Feingersh Photography Inc’s (JFPI) suit alleging the
textbook publisher used dozens of his copyrighted photos in excess of
the limited-use licensing rights the company had obtained.
What should you do when you discover a unauthorized use of one of your
images? Attorney Carolyn E. Wright (whose also a stock photographer) has
prepared a brief document outlining the steps photographers need to
take once they discover an infringement. The steps you take may limit
your ultimate remedies so be sure to first understand what your options
are.
Recentlty, a photographer asked what to charge for use of photos on a
travel app that is designed to help tourists discover new places to
visit, things to do, places to eat and drink etc.? Here are my thoughts.