########################################

Key words in this issue: Photobuyer Worth | PhotoAIM Notice | Blind Photography | Going Digital | Stock Photo

NEWSWORDS: Self-Repair | Poetic Photography | Kodak Buyout | Wright Brothers | Food Photos | Iraq Coverage Honored | Polaroid Announcement | Photographer Sued | Digital Education | Star Photography | Dog Art |

########################################

## PhotoAIM weekly newsletter for 07/26/03 ## 394d

########################################

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.

########################################

WHAT IS A NEW PHOTOBUYER WORTH TO YOU?

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

If you were selling apples, which scenario would you enjoy most?

A. You start your morning with a leisurely breakfast at 9:00 a.m., load three dozen apples into your cart and deliver them to one customer at 11:00 a.m., and then spend the afternoon at the beach.

B. You are awakened by the alarm at 5:00 a.m., you rush through breakfast so that you can start knocking on doors in order to sell your 36 apples by the end of the day.

No contest, right? Yet most stock photographers resort to the second, or even a third: they wait by the phone and hope someone will call them.

In the early days of the California Gold Rush, the '49ers who proved most successful were those that panned the creeks first to locate the gold, but then took one more important step. They followed the gold back to the source and then spent their time in the mine.

Too often, stock photographers will sell a photo to a buyer and consider the sale and relationship done. The photographer goes on to look for "gold" elsewhere.

FUTURE WORTH

Successful stock photographers, on the other hand, learn how to "mine their lode." That is, they calculate the future net worth of each photobuyer (and the market he/she represents) and put the buyer into their marketing program, which includes systematic promotion. A buyer soon forgets a photo and a photographer unless you remind the buyer regularly of your work.

These photographers cultivate long-term working relationships with photobuyers at markets whose photo needs match the photographer's strong coverage areas.

Determining the future net worth of an editor or photobuyer is not difficult to do. Based on photobuyers at other, similar, markets, be it a book or magazine publisher, a corporation, etc., the photographer estimates the jobs, sales, and other revenue that can be obtained from the photobuyer over two to three years, and then projects what potential revenues will come in. Past experience shows that each buyer represents certain predictable variables: per-picture rate of pay, average number of pictures bought per transaction, frequency of purchase per year, spin-off to other photobuyers in the same publishing house/ad agency/ corporation. From this, it's possible for the stock photographer to determine a fairly accurate future net worth of their new photobuyer.

The future net worth over a ten year period of a typical low-budget buyer would be approximately $5,000. A mid-range buyer would be approximately $25,000, and a high range would be about $75,000. By the way, we have found ten years is an average length of time you can expect to remain with a buyer in the publishing industry.

PROMOTION

The critical factor is promotion.

If the stock photographer does not set up a regular and consistent plan of promotion, the new photobuyer could very easily be lost.

What does it cost to promote? If your costs to promote were just 10% of the expected gross revenue, it's easy to see that promotion costs are irrelevant. The critical factor is to know who you should spend your promotional dollars on.

Which brings us to how to get good leads worth your promotion dollars (panning for gold along the creek). Obviously, the leads in your marketletter (PhotoDaily, PhotoLetter, or PhotoStockNotes/Plus) are the most cost-effective for you. If you spend $350 per year on a marketletter service, and obtain 10 excellent mid-range leads during that one year, you have a gold mine: 10 x $25,000 = $250,000 future net worth--at a cost of only $350, plus 10% to promote to them over a ten-year period. There are not many businesses that can realize that kind of cost-effective marketing strategy.

Begin today. Follow up with the photobuyers you've cultivated in the past. Start mining this hidden asset of yours.

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes.

########################################

This week's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio: Gary Laug:

########################################

WATCH FOR IT.

````````````````````````

In October, your PhotoAIM will be delivered weekly in a choice of three formats: HTML, PDF, and regular text. As we move through the summer months we'll keep you posted on progress.

NATURE

`````````````

Vision through a Blind

In your average portrait studio a photographer usually has the time to set things up. The perfect lighting and backgrounds may take hours to create. Posing and shooting a subject in a thousand different ways is a normal way of studio life. The studio photographer is limited only to the imposed deadline and/or the hourly fee of a Super-Model.

A wildlife photographer, on the other hand, will spend most of his or her time getting to the shot location, and can only hope that nature will cooperate. Will the lighting be strong enough, and will the animal models arrange themselves in prize winning fashion? Mother Nature has a way of playing little jokes on photographers. She will offer up a beautiful day or perfect backgrounds but tells the critters to stay clear, or visa-versa.

Don’t you wish there was a way to create a studio in the middle of the wilderness, where Mother Nature works with you and not against you? Well, there is, and it’s easier that you may think. Many photographers will use some sort of blind to hide in as they take their pictures. It's 'out of sight and out of mind' for the animals, and they will go about their daily business sometimes just feet away from the camera lens. If the photographer plans ahead, a blind is a perfect setup for taking wildlife photographs.

Blind Site!

A photography blind is nothing more than something which will hide you and which will not be frightening or objectionable to wild animals. There are several types of photographic blinds, and all can help out the nature photographer. Photographic and hunting supply shops sell several ready-made models you can choose from. Some even fold up in a pocket-sized pouch when not in use. The car you drive is also a great photography blind. Birds have become accustomed to the large metal vehicles, and photographers can sit inside and shoot from the open windows. I have used camouflage- colored bed sheets to hid under, with only my lens showing, to take pictures. A good way to shoot water birds is to place the sheet over you in a rubber raft or small boat and drift along the banks of ponds and small lakes. Some parks and wildlife areas have built permanent structures with lens holes, near locations of wildlife gatherings. No matter how you look at it, a blind is a great way to get in close.

How to use a Blind

Sometimes a bag blind, or camouflage sheet, is used to creep up on unsuspecting animals. Other times the blind is in a stationary location set up for days or more at a time. Once you find the location you want, say a tree where a flicker is building a nest, wait until it flies off to feed, then set up the blind. Make as little noise as possible and then stay put. You will need a little, if not a lot, of patience to stay quiet until the flicker returns, but the payoff will be worth it when the pictures are printed. Once you get the shots you want, wait again until the bird flies off so you don’t disturb the nest-making. Many birds will abandon a nest under stress.

There is a lot of work involved when first learning to use a photographic blind. Whole chapters can be filled with the details, but common sense and experience can be the fastest teachers. The primary idea behind the blind is to keep the animal’s stress level down, so the critter isn't frightened or disturbed, and acts normal, which also allows the best pictures to be taken. And Great photographs are what nature photography is all about.

Scott Alan Johnson is an award winning nature photographer and three-time Emmy nominated journalist for Fox Television News in Cleveland, Ohio. Some of his photographs can be seen at the "fstopnature.com" photography web site.

ONLINE

````````````

Going Digital

There must be a lot of you going digital. Well, maybe not all the pros and advanced amateurs, but certainly a whole bunch of other people are. And I can prove it. How? Kodak, the king of film, and who has seen their cash cow shrink, has picked up the assets of Applied Science Fiction, Inc. One of ASF's prime technologies is a process that converts film (without the usual lengthy development process) into digital images within minutes. Kodak is installing this technology, called Digital PIC, in their 18,000 US kiosks. This will permit the film user to go from unprocessed film to digital photos on a CD in seven minutes. The hope is to keep film sales going strong, at least for a little longer. You may already have Digital PIC in your town now. But beware, the original film negative is destroyed in the process. To counteract this, ASF calls the DigiPix CD a "digital negative." Each photo is digitized into three files: 1,600-by-2,496, 1,268-by-1,978 and 512-by-768. In other words, the top resolution is roughly equivalent to that of a 4-megapixel digital camera file, while the lowest is Web-and e-mail-ready. The CD automatically displays a thumbnail index when inserted into a computer and includes a slide show utility.

Gee, Ollie, It's Really Bad Out There!

At a recent conference in D.C. to discuss the issue of unwanted commercial e-mail (spam), the Federal Trade Commission's Eileen Harrington said of the situation, "Things are worse than we imagined." Imagine that, spam is really bad. According to one anti-spam company, 45 percent of the e-mail sent in March was spam. Some have gone as far as proposing a (US) National Anti-Spam Registry, similar to the federal tele-marketing do-not-call list. Since spam is readily sent from anywhere to anywhere in the world, such a national list would do little good. As with the real burglers, a bigger lock just attracts a bigger hammer. But on the bright side, spam may be helping with the national trade deficient. Motohiro Tsuchiya, a communications professor at the International University of Japan, joked about the 80 percent of spam (mostly in English) coming into Japan, "We are now importing more spam from the United States."

And While We're On The Anti-Spam Hay Wagon

The Center for Democracy & Technology conducted a spam research program in the summer of 2002. Their major findings are that e-mail addresses posted on websites attract the most spam, and that USENET newsgroups were a fertile ground for harvesting e-mail addresses. The Center also offers several tips on how to reduce the likelihood of your getting included in a spammer's address book. Read the full and informative report at: http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml.

ADS WE’VE READ

```````````````````````````

IMAGE ftp TRANSFER. Submit your digital files and orders over the Internet. It’s as easy as entering a user name and password. Call for details. Contact American Color Imaging at 1 800 728-2722.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

``````````````````````````````

"A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done."

– Dwight D. Eisenhower

FREE THIS WEEK

````````````````````````

FREE - 50 free minutes of calling. This company offers a rate of 2.9 cents per minute. If you sign up now, you receive 250 FREE minutes and 1 Week FREE per Month. Sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? If you sign-up, let us know if it works.

THIS WEEK'S WEB FEATURE

`````````````````````````````````````````

If you haven't ALREADY... be sure to put your stock list on the PhotoSourceBank (715) 248 1512

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

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS

``````````````````````````````````````````

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.

Do It Yourself Photographic Lens Repair Shop

A poet's camera Salahuddin's photographs bridging the gap

Kodak to Buy Maker of Dental Radiology Equipment - The acquisition would complement Kodak's high-growth imaging equipment product line and further the company's diversification beyond its traditional camera and photographic film business.

Orville and Wilbur: The Wright Brothers' Legacy"

Books by celebrity chefs currently on the decline - But the writing isn't everything -- luscious photographs play a big part in selling the book. "In terms of marketing, photography is hugely important," says Spry. "It's another way of saying what you want to say.

Photographers Honored for Iraq Coverage - Seven photojournalists and a newspaper editor were honored Thursday for their work in covering the Iraq War.

Polaroid Announces International Photo Awards

Another Photog Sued By Hollywood Celeb - John Rutter is the latest photographer to run afoul of a Hollywood A-lister.

From Preschool Through College, Education Goes Digital

Backyard Paparazzi to the Stars - Inexpensive digital cameras, consumer camcorders and even webcams are helping amateurs take pictures of the cosmos that only professional astronomers could have achieved a few years ago.

Canine photography raised to high art - Deborah Samuel, freelance states when you're working with dogs, "It just takes time. It may feel repetitious to someone on the outside, but I'm not seeing the same thing in every shot." Boy, does it ever take time.

HP photography studio to expand, add 10 jobs - Albion Associates, a photography and graphics studio, is adding 30,000 square feet and 10 employees as it continues to diversify its business.

Coldplay Singer Attacks Photographer - Coldplay singer Chris Martin allegedly attacked a photographer in Australia, according to several British newspapers.

French photographer seriously wounded in fighting - Patrick Robert, was seriously wounded in the chest and arm during clashes on 19 July between government and rebel forces on the outskirts of Monrovia.

Former Barrie photographer now works his magic in Creemore – Photographer Bryan Davies, of Creemore, takes you to interesting locations and shows you how to capture creative images.

UPDATE 3-Kodak to cut up to 6,000 jobs, profit tumbles - Eastman Kodak Co said it would cut up to 6,000 jobs this year reflecting the need to cut costs at its flagging photographic film business, amid a 60 percent drop in second-quarter profits.

New Mexico trip inspires photography students - Sometimes an image in the mind can be just as permanent as one in a photograph. Some Odessa College photography students said they found the cultural experience of a class trip to northern New Mexico just as memorable as the scenes they photographed.

Jessops goes broadband Internet-enabled digital photo kiosks allow customers to download pictures - Europe's biggest photographic retailer is linking its UK shops via broadband to let customers send digital photographs for professional printing.

Armed with a camera and a calling, a young photographer captures a timeless focus

WOLFGANG TILMANS @ TATE

"Annee Olofsson: Photographs and Videos"

Photographs by Dmitri Baltermants - The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945, A View of World War II from a Soviet Perspective"

Alexander Liberman was a victim of his own impeccable taste. His European sophistication and flair for the visual helped propel him to the top of the magazine world as the editorial director of Condé Nast, which he ruled for 34 years before his death in 1999.

########################################

Get a head start on selling your stock photos! Our Specialized Lists of photobuyers will give your business a jump-start.

Feel free to forward this issue of PhotoAIM to your photographer friends.

########################################

Have questions about marketing your editorial stock photography? Put your questions on our Kracker Barrel and find the answers.

########################################

As a subscriber, you can search back issues of PhotoAIM. On your Web browser go to:

and type in your keyword. (Your password is listed on the final entry of your current newsletter)

To cancel your subscription, send email to:

with "PhotoAIM UNSUBSCRIBE" as the subject line.

########################################

PhotoAIM weekly newsletter is a product of PhotoSource International, Rohn Engh, Director, who is solely responsible for its contents. Stock Photo

To sign up for our newsletter:

For information about PhotoSource International:

########################################

PhotoAIM Archives: http://www.photoaim.com/list/

User name: photosource

Password: coat

########################################

394d

Next Week: The Hidden Value