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Articles from June 2011

Selling Like A Pro

By Jim Pickerell | 208 Words | Posted 6/30/2011 | Comments
PhotoShelter (http://www.photoshelter.com) has released a new e-book entitled The Photographer’s Guide to Selling Like a Pro. The book provides photographers with concrete strategies and firsthand insight on how to grow a photography business through better sales tactics. It provides key business tips direct from veteran sales leaders in the fields of advertising, automotive, travel, insurance, and home shopping industries.

Getty To Shutter Photolibrary Websites

By Jim Pickerell | 414 Words | Posted 6/29/2011 | Comments (1)
Getty Images has notified agencies (Image Partners), whose work is currently being licensed by Photolibrary, of Getty’s intention to “retire” (close down) all the Photolibrary websites during the last quarter of 2011.

Stockpiling Trouble

By Jim Pickerell | 329 Words | Posted 6/29/2011 | Comments (2)
In an article published in the British Journal of Photography (BJP) and entitled “Stockpiling Trouble: How The Stock Industry Ate Itself?” Betsy Reid founding executive director of Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) from 2002 through 2009 lays out some of the reasons that the SAA will be closing its doors at the end of 2011. Many in the industry will want to review this article.

Time Limits On Digital File Use

By Jim Pickerell | 796 Words | Posted 6/28/2011 | Comments (1)
When you rent a movie for an iPad it expires and disappears 30 days after the date of purchase. Once you start watching the move it will automatically disappear in 24 hours even if I have not watched it to the end. If you want to see it after 24 hours you’ve got to rent it again. This got me thinking. Why can’t we install a “kill date” into the JPEG files we license for use?

Google Makes Searching For Image Use Easy

By Jim Pickerell | 1076 Words | Posted 6/24/2011 | Comments (3)
Google has released a new function that allows those who use Chrome or Firefox browsers to search the web for use of specific images. If you go to to http://images.google.com you will see a little camera icon in the search box. Click on that icon and you get a popup that says “Search by Image.” Either paste an image URL or drag an image onto this search box you will get a view and list of the URL’s where that image can be found.

Potential New Markets For Photographers

By Jim Pickerell | 981 Words | Posted 6/22/2011 | Comments
After the recent CEPIC conference in Istanbul my wife and I joined a small group touring Turkey. The trip got me thinking about a potential future markets for still photography. Are you prepared to deal with these markets? Are you willing to sell to these customers?

No More Focus Problems

By Jim Pickerell | 75 Words | Posted 6/22/2011 | Comments
The New York Times reports today on Lytro’s new camera that lets you shoot first and change the focus later. If the focus is off slightly, or you want to change it dramatically from foreground to background or anywhere in between you can change it in the computer once you get back home. Check out this new technology here. Welcome to another reason why there will be little need for professional photographers in the future.

The Winner Is – Tim Harris!

By Jim Pickerell | 547 Words | Posted 6/21/2011 | Comments (1)
On May 23rd I announced a contest. Everyone who provided an answer to the question "Describe a situation where a fee of $10.00, or less, is justified for the COMMERCIAL use of a single image?" would be entered in a drawing to Win $100.00. In addition to announcing the contest to my newsletter subscribers I passed out cards to attendees to the CEPIC Congress in Istanbul. We have conducted a drawing and the winner is Tim Harris of Nature Picture Library and Bluegreen Pictures in the UK.

Do Creatives Need Educational Publishers?

By Jim Pickerell | 1772 Words | Posted 6/20/2011 | Comments (1)
Creatives need to start exploring ways to deliver their products – writing, photographs, illustration, video – to students, instructors and educational institutions without the aid of educational publishers.This article goes into some of the reasons why and how it could be accomplished.

From Books To iPads

By Jim Pickerell | 761 Words | Posted 6/17/2011 | Comments
What happens when the iPad becomes the primary vehicle for delivering educational information? Check out this story for some of the things we think will happen in the education business. Also see how what will happen to in the education business to content providers -- writers as well as photographers -- in the next ten years compares to how microstock has changed the stock photography business in the last decade.

Alamy Hits 24 Million Images

By Jim Pickerell | 167 Words | Posted 6/16/2011 | Comments
Alamy has over 24 million images online after adding over one million celebrity images.  The company represents over 570 of the world’s leading stock and specialist agencies and a vast array of photographers from every corner of the globe.

BtoB or BtoC

By Jim Pickerell | 1691 Words | Posted 6/15/2011 | Comments
Given Internet capabilities, society is rapidly moving away from Business to Business (BtoB) transactions and more toward transaction where small Businesses sell all types of things direct to Consumer (BtoC). Some images will continue to be used in major ad campaigns and there will be other sales of stock photography at traditional prices, but the number of such requests will decline. Meanwhile image use by small businesses and individuals will increase dramatically. Photographers need to start focusing on how they can prepare themselves for the new market.

PhotoShelter Unveils Redesigned Shopping Cart & New E-Commerce Features

By Jim Pickerell | 307 Words | Posted 6/15/2011 | Comments
PhotoShelter (http://www.photoshelter.com) has unveiled a full redesign of its e-commerce checkout process in addition to several new e-commerce features that can help photographers sell more images from their PhotoShelter websites. Over 70,000 photographers use PhotoShelter websites and tools to sell photo prints and products, or license their photography as rights managed, royalty free or personal use downloads.

Correction: Pearson Education To Negotiate Unauthorized Uses

By Jim Pickerell | 57 Words | Posted 6/13/2011 | Comments
On Friday I published a story on a decision in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York regarding Pearson Education and a copyright infringement suit. There was some incorrect information in the original story. The story has now been corrected. If you read the story before, please re-read it now at this link.

Encyclopaedia Britannica Pricing For Picture Access

By Jim Pickerell | 1300 Words | Posted 6/13/2011 | Comments
Last week in a story entitles “Educational Products For Students” I discussed the new educational publisher strategy for making images available to students. In particular I examined the Encyclopaedia Britannica product called Image Quest and made some estimates about pricing and the royalties photographers might receive for the use of their images. Encyclopaedia Britannica has now provided us with more details of their pricing strategy and we need to revise our numbers.

Court Allows Pearson Education To Negotiate With Photographers

By Jim Pickerell | 313 Words | Posted 6/10/2011 | Comments (1)
On Tuesday June 7, 2011 U.S. District Judge James C. Francis IV denied Norbert Wu’s request for a preliminary injunction and sanctions and refused to stop Pearson Education Inc. from communicating with members of a proposed class of photographers. Pearson had been temporarily restrained from negotiating with other photographers and stock agencies with regard to unauthorized use claims until the judge determined whether or not a class action could be certified. Now Pearson is free to move ahead and settle photographer's claims.

Getting Images Seen

By Jim Pickerell | 2038 Words | Posted 6/9/2011 | Comments (4)
Today, the biggest problem for professional photographers is how to get their images seen by potential customers. Most photographers would agree that the way to get the widest possible exposure for their work is to get their images on gettyimages.com. Sources at Getty Images tell me that 96% of the company’s sales come from images customers find on the first three pages of the search returns. Customers have a choice as to how many thumbnails they want to see on any given page -- with a maximum of 100 allowed -- so three pages of images would be a maximum of 300.

Educational Products For Students

By Jim Pickerell | 1693 Words | Posted 6/7/2011 | Comments
The educational market has always been a big segment of the stock photo business. Some agencies and individual photographers earn the majority of there revenue from sales for educational use. Until recently, most of the photographs used for educational purposes were published in textbooks. All that is changing with Britannica Image Quest that gives students and teachers unlimited access to a 2.3 million image file.

ASMP Receives Distribution from Authors Coalition

By Jim Pickerell | 389 Words | Posted 6/7/2011 | Comments
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) has received $170,000 from the Authors Coalition of America (ACA), an organization which distributes money collected for copying non-title-specific works abroad, primarily in Scandinavia and Europe. Non-title-specific works are those that cannot be identified individually or by copyright owner.

Other Microstock Distributors Pick Up Sales as iStock Prices Rise

By Jim Pickerell | 769 Words | Posted 6/2/2011 | Comments (1)
There are strong indications that iStock's introduction of higher priced brands has resulted in the company licensing fewer images. In addition many of its customers seem to be turning away from iStock and goint to other microstock sites to purchase the images they need. One non-exclusive photographer with many best selling recreation images on both iStock and Shutterstock reports that his images on Shutterstock are now outselling those on iStock by 3 to 1 while a year ago the reverse was true. Other photographers confirm this trend.

Pay-As-You-Go Pricing At Bigstock

By Jim Pickerell | 383 Words | Posted 6/2/2011 | Comments
BigStock is introducing a new strategy for licensing microstock images. Their pay-as-you-go system allows customers to pay with a credit card for only those images they want to use immediately and not be forced to purchase packages of credits. There is no minimum purchase.

Corbis Sponsors LOOK3’s Festival Of The Photograph

By Jim Pickerell | 322 Words | Posted 6/2/2011 | Comments
Corbis Images will sponsor the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, VA from June 9-11. The Festival is billed as “three days of peace, love and photography” and will feature exhibits and on-stage appearances by many illustrious photographers, with additional exhibitions, outdoor screenings, and projections.

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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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