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Articles from December 2015

Panoramastock Goes Public In China

By Jim Pickerell | 96 Words | Posted 12/24/2015 | Comments
Panoramastock has recently been listed on a small cap tech stock exchange called the NEEQ (National Equities Exchange and Quotations). The exchange is also called the New Third Board Stock. The company’s stock code is 834877.

Videoblocks To Market Discovery Channel Clips

By Jim Pickerell | 360 Words | Posted 12/23/2015 | Comments
In early January Videblocks will begin making clips from Discovery Channel’s, Discovery Access library available through Videoblocks Marketplace. Videoblocks launched Marketplace in April 2015, had 374,000 clips by August and now has over 880,000. The Discovery material will quickly push them over one million clips.

What Is Reality?

By Jim Pickerell | 881 Words | Posted 12/23/2015 | Comments
The newsmedia struggles with the concept of reality and unbiased reporting, but what is reality? Is reality what can be recorded on film? Is it a JPEG rather than a RAW file? Is it only what is recorded in a video regardless of what might have been happening moments before the video started recording? If a digital file has been adjusted, or manipulated, can it still be an accurate representation of the truth of a situation?

Comp Use Images And Search Algorithms

By Jim Pickerell | 515 Words | Posted 12/22/2015 | Comments
For agencies that offer subscriptions, Image-on-Demand and Enterprise options, how do “Comp Use” images affect search algorithms? There is an increasing trend driven by Adobe Stock and Shutterstock Enterprise to allow customers to download a lot of images for comp purposes and only pay for the ones they actually use in a final deliverable project.

Turning RM Into Microstock

By Jim Pickerell | 948 Words | Posted 12/18/2015 | Comments (2)
Ever since Getty Images invented Premium Access (PA) licensing image creators have been upset that their images were being licensed to some users for ridiculously low prices. Often images licensed in this manner are ones that have been extremely costly to produce. For at least one contributor Rights Managed PA sales now represent 66% of total sales at an average price of $12.00 and over half the sales are for $4.35 or less.

Depositphotos Raises $5 Million

By Jim Pickerell | 300 Words | Posted 12/17/2015 | Comments
Depositphotos, a New York-based stock photo platform with Ukranian origins, has announces a $5 million funding round led by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) via the EBRD Venture Capital Investment Program. Previously TMT Investments had invested $3 million in Depositphotos in 201. In this round EBRD contributed $4 million and TMT $1million. The transaction should be completed before the end of the year.

Drone Operators Must Register With FAA

By Jim Pickerell | 515 Words | Posted 12/15/2015 | Comments
All drone operators must register their unmanned aircraft with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) by Feb. 19, 2016. Registration begins on December 21, 2015 and is free for the first 30 days. While the registration fee is only $5.00 the government is encouraging as many owners as possible to register quickly.

Bill Introduced To Give Copyright Office More Autonomy

By Jim Pickerell | 442 Words | Posted 12/15/2015 | Comments
Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-27), Congressman Tom Marino (PA-10) and Congresswoman Barbara Comstock (VA-10) have introduced H.R. 4241 – the Copyright Office for the Digital Economy Act or the CODE Act. This comes after months of discussion with various stakeholders, including several joint Member roundtables.

Visual China May Acquire Corbis

By Jim Pickerell | 416 Words | Posted 12/11/2015 | Comments
Sources tell me that Corbis representatives will be meeting with Visual China Group (VCG) next week in Beijing to discuss the Visual China’s possible acquisition of all, or part, of Corbis.

Shutterstock Lays Off REX Employees

By Jim Pickerell | 194 Words | Posted 12/10/2015 | Comments
Six REX employees were laid off by Shutterstock earlier this week. One had been with the company for 34 years. I asked Shutterstock for an explanation.

PhotoPlus Expo Statistics

By Jim Pickerell | 403 Words | Posted 12/10/2015 | Comments
PhotoPlus 2015 International Conference + Expo welcomed more than 21,000 attendees from 67 countries and all 50 U.S. States.  This year’s show also recorded the largest number of exhibitors in the past five years with 250, including 75 participating for the first time. 

Shutterstock Launches Editing Tool

By Jim Pickerell | 138 Words | Posted 12/10/2015 | Comments
Shutterstock has launched a new editing tool in open beta. Shutterstock Editor is a simple, fast and free way to edit photos.

Next From Adobe

By Jim Pickerell | 1940 Words | Posted 12/9/2015 | Comments
What should we expect next from Adobe? The following is pure speculation. I have no inside information that the following is part of Adobe’s plan, but it seems logical to me that they will move in this direction in the near future. If they do it could benefit many image creators and possibly negatively affect some.

Shutterstock Makes Getting Accepted Easier

By Jim Pickerell | 836 Words | Posted 12/8/2015 | Comments
In its race to grow its image collection, Shutterstock has made it easier for new contributor to get accepted. New contributors used to have to submit 10 images for quality review. Seven of those 10 had to be accepted before the contributor was allowed to submit more images. Now, if only one is deemed acceptable the contributor can begin submitting more images. Here’s the way Shutterstock explains the change.

Shutterstock Enterprise Pricing Examined

By Jim Pickerell | 942 Words | Posted 12/3/2015 | Comments
Shutterstock has provided investors with some very interesting information about their Enterprise pricing strategy and how it differs from their normal E-commerce pricing. You can find the “E-commerce vs. Enterprise Case Study” by going go to this link (http://investor.shutterstock.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=251362&p=irol-presentations). Then open the pdf under “Investor Presentation” that was uploaded on 11/18/15. The chart explaining the Case Study is on page 25 of this 37 page pdf.

Video Added To Adobe Stock Offering

By Jim Pickerell | 327 Words | Posted 12/2/2015 | Comments
Adobe has announced that it has added over 1 million HD video files from the Fotolia collection to the Adobe Stock offering. These can be searched, downloaded and licensed directly on an a la carte basis within Adobe Premiere Pro CC and After Effects CC or from stock.adobe.com for use with any CC desktop app. The video clips are also available to enterprise customers on a subscription basis.

Shutterstock Tab For Chrome Users

By Jim Pickerell | 483 Words | Posted 12/2/2015 | Comments
If you love Shutterstock, are a Google Chrome user and want Shutterstock to know everywhere you go and everything you do on the Internet, you may want to install the new Shutterstock Tab just launched today.  You can get the tab free of charge by going to the Chrome webstore.

Want A Photography Career: Do Your Due Diligence

By Jim Pickerell | 1112 Words | Posted 12/1/2015 | Comments
So you want a career in photography. You like taking pictures. It’s fun. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get paid to do it? You’re a high school student about to graduate. Everyone says you need more education to have a chance at a good job. You’ve no idea how much you’ll have to earn to feed, clothe and house yourself, and maybe some day a spouse and family. But, it seems you should get more education in the career path you want to follow.

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This stock photography news site focuses on the business side of photography with a special emphasis on stock photography. Our goal is to help photographers maximize their earnings based on the quality of their work and the commitment they are prepared to make to the trade. The information provided will be applicable to part-timers as well as full time professional photographers. We’ll leave it to others to teach photographers how to take better pictures.

Jim Pickerell launched his career as a photographer in 1963. In 1990 he began publishing a regular newsletter on stock photography. In 1995 the information was made available online as well as in print and was gradually expanded to a daily service. Click here for Pickerell's full biography.

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