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Key words in this issue: Selling | Changes | Medium Format | Saving Time | Magazines | Travel Bureau | Photography Guide | Sell Photos |

NEWSWORDS: Digi-tech | Editing to Inspire | Police Measures | Comstock | Living Dream | Digital Leap | Space Student | Old Process | Journalism |

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## PhotoAIM weekly newsletter for 11/22/02 ## 386c

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PhotoAIM, the weekly newsletter from PhotoSource

ISSN 1530-0511

If you no longer wish to receive PhotoAIM, see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.

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THE ART OF SELLING IMAGES

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Producing quality images is just the first step in selling your pictures to the book and magazine industry. Will your pictures get into print because of your talent?

The world doesn't work that way.

Does every deserving painter receive recognition? Does every 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 "positioning."

Positioning yourself is the bridge you create to cross over from being unpublished to having your images make consistent sales.

Many stock photographers consider each and every publication a target for sales. This is a recipe for disaster.

Successful professionals sell their work regularly because they have: 1) analyzed what specialized subject areas they enjoy photographing most, and 2) analyzed which markets are the natural targets for these interest areas.

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 files are 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.

FOR SOUL OR SALE

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 expect 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 POSITIONING yourself as a valuable resource for a significant segment of editors in the publishing world. --RE

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This week's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio: !!! **** **** !!!! :

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As a special service to our PhotoAIM subscribers, we provide you with a fresh, up-to-date list of photobuyers every month. Look for this list every third week of the month, to update or add contacts to your personal Market List.

CHANGES

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SCHWING MAGAZINE (PO Box 884570, San Francisco, CA 94188-4570) former company name: SCHWING MAGAZINE; current company name: HIGH SPEED PRODUCTIONS.

COMPLETE WOMAN (875 N Michigan Ave Ste 3434, Chicago, IL 60611) former contact: Gail Mitchell, Art Director; current contact: Mary Munro, Art Director.

PIXEL PALACE

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MEDIUM FORMAT IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Medium format wither art thou? I just got back from Photokina ‘02, the self-styled "World's Fair of Photography," in Koln, Germany. Some of the new products introduced there may affect the future of medium format as a popular system for quality-oriented image makers. As more and more portrait, wedding, and other professional photographers are moving to digital SLRs that use 35mm lenses, it’s no secret that lots of new and pre-owned medium format gear is sitting on dealer’s shelves unsold.

Both Eastman Kodak and Hasselblad introduced new products at the show that demonstrate the problem facing new camera buyers and those considering upgrading. Hasselblad’s new H1 system is built around a sleek, beautiful handling 645 format camera that doesn’t use Zeiss lenses and has lots of components from Japanese sources. You can add a 16 megapixel Kodak Pro digital back designed specifically for the camera that was announced at the show, and you’ve got an impressive package for about $19,500, close to the price of a 2003 Toyota Camry.

Or, thrifty shoppers could simply buy a new Hyundai and with the money saved get Kodak’s new 14 megapixel DCS Pro 14n digital SLR that has a full-frame 24x36mm CMOS chip and uses Nikon-mount AF lenses. At $4,000 this camera is going to make more heads spin off their shoulders than The Exorcist.

Canon’s new full-frame CMOS-based 11 megapixel camera was announced at $7,500, but I’ll bet it’s lower by the time you read this. Until somebody comes out—and I mean fast—with an inexpensive medium format digital camera back, this format will become a less viable way of image capture for professional photographers.

BUSINESS NOTEPAD

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NEW AVENUES open up to stock photographers during times of recession. Some of the benefits of a stagnant economy: 1.) CUTTING COSTS. We are forced to examine and eliminate extra baggage without sacrificing product quality. 2.) PROMOTION. We find less expensive ways of contacting our clients. 3.) SAVING TIME. We search out new software, marketing methods and strategies that will make the administration of our business operation run much smoother. 4.) CUSTOMER SERVICE. We reintroduce ourselves to our loyal customers and develop new customers, and prove to them the economic benefits of dealing directly with individual stock photographers. We get to know our clients better, empathize with their concerns, and form an even stronger partnership with them. This allows us to survive in the hard times and thrive in the good times. 5.) ONWARD. Rather than choose to coast and wait for better times, we see a downturn as an open door -- one in which we have the time to look back at what we were doing right, and where we can take steps to move forward cost-effectively. By doing the above, we strengthen our own operation and the editorial stock photo industry as a whole. -RE

TREND NOTES

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Black and white and read all over:

Magazines ARE Being Read

During a flat economy many marketing areas become stagnant, ask any ad agency art director. Business is down.

But magazines are holding their own. At least more people are reading them. More in the sense of "page views," as we say in Web parlance.

Why is this? Circulation for many magazines is down. The likely explanation for the rise is increased bulk distribution of magazines to high-traffic venues such as airport terminals, hotels, and doctors' waiting rooms, says MediaMark Research Inc., a marketing firm that measures magazine readership annually. According to them, the average number of readers per copy, or pass-along, has risen.

Consumer magazines may be fighting against television and other media for scarce advertising dollars, but their readership has been strong over the past year, according to the latest data on U.S. magazine audiences from MediaMark.

Readership of 171 continuously published magazines increased 5.3 percent among adults from 1998 to 2002. That's greater than the 4.4 percent growth of the U.S. adult population during the same period, according to MRI, which based its report on an analysis of more than 26,000 at-home interviews.

In 1998 these magazines had an average readership of 7.7 million adults, and average coverage of 3.9 percent of the adult population. By 2002, average readership had increased to 8.1 million, while average coverage rose 4 percent.

This report from MRI, plus the well-known reality that people have a tendency to do less outside-the-home entertaining and more at-home book and magazine reading during a recession, come as good news to editorial stock photographers. Photobuyers are tightening their belts, yes, but this can be a benefit to individual stock photographers in the editorial field. Publishers gravitate to individual stock photo suppliers.

KRACKER BARREL

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Selling to a Travel Bureau

Need the answer to a stock photography question? At our website >www.photosource.com/board< you'll find our Bulletin Board, called "The Kracker Barrel." Check it out. Our staff answers marketing questions; fellow photographers offer their input and experience. The following is a typical exchange.

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A reader of our Kracker Barrel <www.photosource.com/board>writes:

Q. I'm currently working on a project for a local Convention & Visitors Bureau. They want lifestyle images with people as the focus. Do I need to get model releases for a Travel/Tourism Brochure? Would a city guide be considered Advertising? Would images of children require releases?

A. The whole reason to get model releases from people used as models in a photo used for advertising or promoting a product or service or location is that the people pictured can be interpreted to be endorsing the service or product or place. By signing a model release the model is agreeing to being seen as endorsing the service, product, or location, and permitting their photo to be used for commercial purposes. This frees the copyright owner of the photo to sell the photo for any use covered by the release. It really doesn't matter if the service or product is owned by a private entity, a non-profit organization or state or federal unit.

I would venture to guess, however, that more than half the photos that feature people in them, in a city or state Bureau of Tourism brochure, are not model-released. It's not that the resulting images don't require releases, it's that people usually feel honored to appear in a state-sponsored brochure or advertisement. They don't object to the use of the photo. Or, they don't know what to do about it if they did. It's a wonder there are not more legal actions taken against city and state offices when they use unreleased photos for advertising purposes. (Although some states are exempt from such lawsuits.)

A problem that arises when in dealing with your local Bureau of Economic Development or Tourist Bureau, is that once you sell the photo rights to such an agency, you actually turn over your copyright privileges to them (unlike when you deal with a private organization). Your photo, in effect, becomes public domain. You'll find that your pictures, if it's popular, will find its way into a lot of public (and sometimes) private periodicals and advertisements.

All of the above, of course, deals with commercially-used photos. If the photos are used editorially, say in a magazine, or textbook, then no model release is required unless the photo is sensitive and would have a tendency to compromise or embarrass the person pictured. So to answer your question, since the use of the pictures will be for a brochure (advertising), it would be best to ask friends and neighbors to be your models, and get them to sign releases, especially for the children involved, since yes, they require a "parent's release" if they are under 18 yrs. old. –RE

GOOD STUFF

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

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"Nothing you can't spell will ever work."

–Will Rogers

FREE THIS WEEK

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FREE SCREENSAVER AND ANIMATED WALLPAPER. Freeware "desktop enhancer" that transforms your static Windows background into animated, swirling patterns that resemble a hurricane or tornado. You can also run it as a unique, eye-catching screen saver.

THIS WEEK'S WEB FEATURE

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Watch for developments in the field of stock photography in PhotoAIM's

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS

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You'll be the first to know…

Note: If the URL is long, it may extend to two lines. In that case - clicking on it won't work. Instead, "copy and paste" the URL.

Digital camera technology is now mature and robust," said Vince Naselli, Director, TrendWatch Graphic Arts. "Creative professionals have recognized this and are using it for many high-end applications, whether for selling digital stock photography (as photographers are likely to do) or capturing digital photographs for their print and online catalogs (as catalog publishers are doing).

Students Invent Robot Photographer

Indian Web Founder Aims to Inspire. They get editing and guidance in reporting and photography from

McAuliffe and Keith Graham, head of the journalism school's photography

department

No longer do the police strip the film from your camera, only ask you to erase certain pictures. In China recently, an Associated Press photographer who took pictures of the event was detained by police and released one hour later, after police forced him to erase the pictures from his digital camera.

Comstock Images Designated ``Top 50 Product'' by Technically Sophisticated Graphic Designers

Famous lensman at home Wildlife photographer living his dream - It took Arthur Morris 37 years to find the dream he is now living.

Edward Engel has considered himself an advanced photographer since he was 13. He thought he had seen all the photography industry had to offer, until last month when he made the leap into the digital world.

Student photography research aboard Space Station resumes

Photographer revives old process - When Michael Orona takes pictures of landscapes, he doesn't whip out his 35 mm automatic camera. He uses equipment that goes back to the earliest days of photography. His images are printed not on photographic paper but on rag paper used by artists. His pictures are called platinum/palladium prints.

David Drebin Revs Up Mitsubishi Ads "It's hard to reinvent the look of a company through photography," says Deutsch-LA creative director Ross Patrick, who then goes on to credit lifestyle shooter David Drebin with doing just that for Mitsubishi.

Many students from Indian country "don't think of journalism as a career," because newspapers have little presence on so many reservations. Reznet's 20 Indian reporters and photographers are students reporting from all over Indian country, representing 13 tribes from 12 states and 17 colleges.

The Big Picture An American Saga In Black and White

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386c

Next Week: Commercial Stock Photography vs. Editorial Stock

"I enjoy reading your PhotoAIM. Keep up the good work."

–Ed Meyers, Photographer, Middle Village NY