Advance Notes: If the National and state parks are destinations for your stock photography, remember the marketing rule: Don't come back from your trip with award-winning images and then ask, "Where can I sell these?" Instead find markets before you go and shoot, generally, for those markets."
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In your travels this summer, you'll no doubt venture into some of our National and State Parks. Here are two points of advice.
First, request a brochure(s) from the park you will be visiting. Also, check out the local gift shop at the park for postcards when you arrive. These views will give you an idea of the best locations to shoot, the lighting, and compositions. (Don't forget to include photogenic people in your photos to enhance the marketability.) A red shirt or jacket always helps. Keep one in the trunk of your car.
Second, appearance: If you look like a commercial photographer, you'll attract the attention of the Park Ranger(s) who have the authority to charge commercial photographers a license. Be sure to dress like a tourist (straw hat, Hawiian shirt) so as not to attract attention. Avoid using wires, reflectors, and professional models - if the situation allows.
The laws change from park to park and from state to state. Here are some sources of information.
National Park Service, 12795 West Alameda Pkwy, Denver CO 25287.
Looking for info about a certain park?
http://www.nps.gov/findapark/index.htm
History of the Park Service
http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel
A horror story about Park Rangers:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/ cont/node/3020
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. For access to great information on making money from pictures you like to take, and learn how to sell pictures, and to receive this free report: "8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer," visit his website, PhotoSource International or call 800 624-0266
Welcome
to PhotoAim.com. Here's where you'll find information
about stock photography, editorial stock photography,
specialized photography, stock agencies, mini-stock
agencies, selling pictures, and social photography.
Microstock - A new way to earn less
By Dale O'Dell
Just when you thought royalty-free was just about the dumbest way to earn as little as possible from your stock photography along comes microstock. In the past seven years microstock websites have sprung up like weeds in the already wild backyard that is the internet, and for only a few dollars you can download a royalty-free image for commercial use. This is great for no-budget, low-budget and cheap clients as they can obtain "content" nearly for free, but needless to say microstock is not an effective marketing tool for photographers. The microstock model is profoundly bad for photographers, and thus, I predict, it will flourish.
Photographers long ago gave away any control of the stock industry and have instead acquiesced to bad idea (RF) after bad idea (microstock) while rationalizing and hoping that working harder and getting paid less will somehow benefit them in the long run.
Let's do the micro-math:
According to my research, the average price paid per download of microstock imagery is $1.63 per image. Assuming a fifty percent split with the microstock "agency," a photographer earns $.82 per image sold. Let's also assume the micro-photographer has monthly overhead/expenses of $3000. (This figure does not include overhead for a studio, as many microstock contributing photographers are amateurs and hobbyists.) At $.82 per image it would take 3659 microstock sales per month to cover expenses with no profit. Now for some even easier math: A 1 gigabyte compact flash card costs about $15. With sales of $.82 per image it would take 19 microstock sales to buy a single card.
One could probably earn more money collecting bottles for recycling!
No rational businessperson worth their MBA would go for a deal like this, but then most businesspeople are motivated by money while most photographers are motivated by ego.
Too many times I've heard amateur photographers say, "I don't care about money, I just want to see my pictures published." This is the sort of dumb, ego-driven rationalization that microstock suppliers count on. They know the marketplace has a voracious appetite for cheap imagery and there are plenty of big-ego photographers who will keep them supplied with cheap new crap to sell. Let's not blame the money-motivated micro-marketers for profiting from photographers' egos. The blame and cause for the downward pressure on image pricing lies solely with photographers who participate in these schemes.
You're probably thinking that with multiple sales and multiple income streams, microstock might be a nice income supplement. While I agree that a 21st century photographer requires multiple income streams from a combination of assignments, stock and fine-art, etc., microstock is a costly and time consuming source of insignificant funds.
As a professional photographer I agree with most criticisms of the microstock scheme; it devalues the photograph, and the industry of professional photography in general, and it drives prices downward. If only one percent of traditional stock clients switched to buying microstock images, the net loss to the stock photo industry would be over 21 million dollars! That is irrefutable downward pricing pressure that only causes us all to work harder for less.
While almost every commodity in the world is going up in price, photographers are seeing their prices drop. This is not good for the industry or for individual photographers. But the ship has sailed, the horses have left the gate, and microstock is here to stay. But if you cheapen and sell your work through microstock you probably won't be here to stay.
Dale O'Dell is a regular contributor to PhotoStockNotes. He produces cyber-generated stock photography from his studio in Prescott, Arizona. Email: dale@cybertrails.com;VF Phone: 1 928 541-0944; Fax: 1 928 541-0957; Web: http://www.dalephoto.com
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Want To Invite Google to Index Your Web Page?
Popular search engines, such as Google, add and update new sites to their index each time they “crawl” the web. For example, Google invites you to submit your Web page’s URL. They don’t add all submitted URLs to their index, and they cannot make any predictions or guarantees about when your website will be indexed. But it’s worth giving it a try. To add your website to Google: http://www.google.com /addurl/?continue=/addurl.
Want to add your URL to other search engines for free? Go to: http://www.submitexpress.com /submit.html.
Also (for free) submit your site to the Open Directory: http://dmoz.org/add.html.
Note: Here at PhotoSource we have added our PhotoSourceBANK to all of the major search engines. Depending which search engine is your favorite, if you are a PhotoSourceBANK member, type in a keyword or key phrase in the search bar of your favorite search engine, a space, then the word Photosource. If your page reference does not come up, try another search engine. There are many besides Google: Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, MSN, Yahoo! etc. –RE
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
by David Arnold & Gail Rutman
Does your DSLR produce adequate-sized images for your photobuyers? If you’re selling stock only direct to photobuyers (via PhotoSource International’s PhotoDaily or PhotoLetter market letters, through some other market list, or through your own efforts), the answer is probably yes. But deal with a stock agency or online portal and you may come up short.
Most stock agencies and libraries require at least a 48 megabyte file (although some accept 24MB for certain editorial subjects). You could make the 24 mark with an 8 megapixel camera (since it takes three bytes to make up one RGB pixel), but the only DSLR that will give you a 48 MB file is the $8,000, 16.7 megapixel, Canon 1Ds Mk II.
UPSIZING
Can’t swing $8,000? There’s an alternative: generate new pixels from the existing ones. This is commonly called “uprezing” (since it increases the resolution), interpolation (since it involves inserting new pixel values between the existing ones), or simply upsizing. There are a number of products you can use for this. We tested five of them: Photoshop CS2, Adobe Camera Raw (built into Photoshop), Genuine Fractals (www.ononesoftware.com, $159.95), Resize Pro (www.fredmiranda.com/software, $29.90), and the interpolateTHIS.com action (www.interpolatethis.com /actions.html, free).
We took an 18MB TIFF file from a Canon 10D (6.3 megapixels) and uprezed it four times with each of the five products. First we enlarged it to 165% of its original size to meet the 48MB requirement. Then, going back to the original, we uprezed it 200%, doubling the original width and height and quadrupling the file size to 72 MB. Then, again starting with the original file, we uprezed it 400 percent, creating a 288MB file (enough for a 27 x 41 inch print). That’s certainly enough, isn’t it? Not necessarily. What if you want to crop the original image, using only, say, one-quarter of it (4.5MB or 1.5 megapixels), and then enlarge it to that same 27 x 41 inch/288 MB size—an 800 percent enlargement? We gave it a try. The result was softer than the other files, but for many buyers it would still be acceptable.
AND THE WINNER IS…
In evaluating the results we looked primarily at sharpness, but also at color rendition, degree of noise and other artifacts, and other quality considerations that could influence a photobuyer’s decision. Miranda’s ResizePro stood out as yielding the sharpest, cleanest image. The remaining four were tightly grouped behind ResizePro, with their relative ranking varying from test to test. Keep in mind, however, that the brand and model of the camera you’re using could influence your results.
In addition to image quality, we considered each program’s ease of use and flexibility. Adobe Camera Raw only lets you uprez to three preset sizes, making it the least flexible. Easiest to use are Photoshop CS2 and Miranda’s Resize Pro, closely followed by Genuine Fractals.
Our recommendations: ResizePro consistently turned in the best results for us. But if you want to see which one best suits your style and equipment, download the free 30-day trial versions available for all but Resize Pro, and perform your own tests. You might want to skip the free one, however: it ranked near or at the bottom in all our tests, and was clumsy to use.
David Arnold and Gail Rutman are Oregon-based stock photographers and photojournalists who have been writing about photography and computers since 1980. You can contact them at www.arnoldrutman.com.
Of
Interest
The Police Force
GET NO RESPECT? News photographers in Wisconsin have been attacked, threatened, arrested, and had their cameras and film confiscated. They have been barred from meetings that were open to other members of the public. The hand held up to the camera is unfortunately a familiar image.
TAKEAWAY. This happening not only in Wisconsin. But hold it! Are they earning this disrespect?
http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=23532
DIGITAL TO THE RESCUE. From Papyrus to the Web: Photographs of Dead Sea Scrolls to Go Online.
Scientists and scholars in Jerusalem have begun a programme to take the first high-resolution digital photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls so that they can be shown on the internet.
The Israel Antiquities Authority ends a pilot project this week which prepares the way for a much larger operation to photograph the 15,000-20,000 fragments that make up the 900 scrolls. The scrolls, first photographed in the 1950s after their discovery by shepherds in caves near the Dead Sea, have been kept in monitored conditions in a vault. Only four specially trained curators are allowed to handle them.
In a project that could take five years and cost millions of dollars, the fragments will be photographed first by a 39-megapixel digital camera then by another digital camera in infra-red light. Finally, some will be photographed using a sophisticated multi-spectral imaging camera.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/219099.html
TAKEAWAY: Digital capture may find us more than we want to know.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/219099.html
BUCKLE THE BELT Six Tips to Help Your Photography Business Survive in a Struggling Economy - With the financial markets and economy in turmoil, small businesses --
including photography businesses -- may be facing a rocky road ahead. Here's some advice for keeping your business in the black.
TAKEAWAY: Be a winner. Here’s some good advice.
http://rising.blackstar.com/six-tips-to-help-your-photography-business-survive-in-a-struggling-ec.html
BIG COLLECTION OF IMAGES New Site Offers Access to Millions of Iconic Photographs From Getty Images' and LIFE's Combined Photo Collections.
Time Inc. and Getty Images will jointly launch LIFE.com, the companies announced at the Interactive Advertising Bureau's MIXX Conference in New York City. LIFE.com will be jointly owned and operated by Time Inc. and Getty Images, and will provide access to the most comprehensive iconic and professional photography collections available anywhere online. Andy Blau, president of LIFE and SVP of Time Inc. Interactive, and Catherine Gluckstein, vice president of iStockphoto and Consumer Markets at Getty Images, will serve as CEO and CFO, respectively.
"LIFE.com brings together the two most-recognized brands in photography, making the defining images of our times even more accessible to people everywhere," said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images. "We are thrilled to partner with Time Inc. on the launch of this exciting new venture."
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/time-inc-getty-images-jointly/story.aspx?guid={1838B7CE-E567-45B4-BF9E-8C9BDA66B750}&dist=hppr
PHOTOS SHOW INFRACTIONS Local schools may soon view digital photos posted online as evidence of violation of student athletic codes of conduct. Certain photos online could mean trouble for school athletes. -
Since the explosion in popularity of Internet social networking Web sites, such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com, some students have posted photos of themselves or other students breaking the law and/or school rules, prompting the school districts in the Glove Cities to take action.
"The gist of it is we would consider using [those digital photos] posted on MySpace as well as someone seeing them or reporting them [to initiate disciplinary action]," Semione said.
http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2008/sep/27/0927_athletescode/
GOODBYE MY FRIEND Nice, bright colors may soon be a memory - "It's a low-volume product; all volumes [of color film] are down," says spokesman Chris Veronda. For
decades, Kodachrome was the standard choice for professional color photography and avant-garde filmmaking now die-hard fan Alex Webb is convinced the digital age soon will take his Kodachrome away.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/nation/29203989.html
