News from PhotoSource International


PhotoAimLite		The monthly newsletter for stock photographers February ## 425



	PhotoAimLite, the monthly newsletter from PhotoSource International. http://www.photosource.com ISSN 1530-0511 If you no longer wish to receive PhotoAimLite, see the instructions at the end of this newsletter.

Does Creative Freedom Exist ?

If you have ventured into that division of editorial photography known as photojournalism, you know that it is a nobel adventure. Not only do you enjoy travel and get paid for it, but you are permitted a passport into the lives of others, not only in your own country, but around the world.
What profession could be more exciting and rewarding?
But there are roadblocks. Because you represent an investigative factor, you are not always welcomed - especially by political, social, military, and governmental elements that would rather not expose their own shortcomings.
So, you find yourself in a battle between your passion to tell the story and get it right, and the deterrents that would prevent you from "trespassing" into their domain.
There are also detours. If you are good at your profession, you'll be offered incentives that entice you to give up your initial interest in photojournalism and turn your talents to more commercial areas for greater income and social status, areas like public relations, advertising photography, corporate assignments, etc.
You are not alone. A talented musician can be tempted to turn to producing elevator music; a talented composer to TV show themes; a talented writer to Hollywood screenplays; an established actor to performing in TV commercials.
The difference in pay scale can be tempting. In photojournalism, unless you are a well-known photographer with many credits, remuneration for your work is not much higher than for basic labor positions (sometimes lower!).

PAY REDUCTION

Add to the financial challenges the fact that like any business, the publishing world is always trying to reduce expense. Often their first target is freelancers and staff photographers. A current attempt is being made in Germany (Frankfurt) to reduce the employee classification of a photojournalist from editorial worker to clerical worker. If they are successful, the pay scale of photographers would be lowered to be on a par with clerical workers, not editorial employees.
It would seem that organizing into a union of members would be the answer for the photographers. It isn't. Freelancers by their very nature are independent people and are resistant to 'organizing.' Creativity can't be organized. As an observer of freelancers over the years, I've seen attempts to unionize freelancers come along, sputter, and disappear.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/gen604.html

When It’s Not Copyright
Infringement Is it Fair Use?
by Joel Hecker, Esq.

In yet another case involving the fair use defense to claims of infringement of a copyrighted photograph, a recent decision in the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York, in Andrea Blanch v. Jeff Koons, found against the photographer and dismissed the claims on the grounds that the use was transformative.
The court made the following factual determinations:
The plaintiff's photograph, entitled Silk Sandals by Gucci, shows the lower part of a woman's bare legs (below the knee) crossed at the ankles, resting on the knee of a man apparently seated in an airplane cabin. She is wearing Gucci sandals with an ornately jeweled strap. One of the sandals dangles saucily from her toes. As a whole, the photo conveyed a sense of sleek elegance, with faintly erotic undertones, and was designed to illustrate the metal-flecked polish on the model's toenails. It was published in Allure Magazine as part of a six-page article about metallic makeup.
Koons copied only the model's legs, feet and Gucci sandals as one component of his painting entitled Niagara, which was one of seven works commissioned by defendant Deutsche Bank and exhibited by defendant Guggenheim Foundation. Koons did not copy the background or any of its details. The legs are hanging vertically with three other pairs of legs and feet, roughly parallel to each other.

THE REAL WORLD

Koons explained his selection of the legs in the photo (rather than just painting different legs) as an "iconic representation as presented to the public in ubiquitous media". His paintings, he said, are not about objects or images he might invent, but about how we relate to the things that we actually experience. Therefore, he had to use images from the real world, real things that are actually in our mass consciousness.
The court accepted this rationale as to intent and purpose. It also found that the painting's use of the copied elements - the crossed legs, feet and sandals - was different from their use in the photograph; and therefore did not "supercede" or duplicate the objective of the original. Rather, it was raw material in a novel context to create new information, aesthetics and insight. This type of use - whether successful or not - is a transformative use under the copyright law.
In particular, the court eliminated copying of the sandals since the photographer had no copyright on them, leaving only a woman's legs, crossed at the ankle. However, said the court, this was not sufficiently original to deserve much copyright protection.

NOT A SUBSTITUTE

Finally, the Court found that the painting was not a substitute for the photograph and was in no way competitive with it, since the market for the painting was one the photograph had no chance to capture.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/legal130.html

The New Age of Editorial Photography . . . .
Images Are Getting Real, Again

In 1987, I can remember talking with a California stock photo agency director who waved his hand toward his office files with the exclamation, “Editorial photos? We have plenty of those!” The pictures he referred to, of course, were clean-cut models in a work situation, smiling at a computer screen, or a housewife pleasantly choring away with her modern vacuum cleaner. The viewing public in those days, it was assumed, preferred fairytale “editorial” pictures.
Catalogs of historical B&W photos from the postwar era also reflect the aspirations of the public (or at least that’s what the art directors figured) to depict a wonderland society, peaches and cream, that, however, few people would ever experience.
Times have changed. Maybe it was the shock of 9/11 or the turmoil in the Middle East; or it may be the influence of TV that can portray reality as it really is. The public is growing up and getting real. Publishers are wakening up also. We are seeing a growing willingness of publishers to tackle controversial subjects with natural lighting and hand-held camerawork. Even major Hollywood films today reflect a cultural acceptance of the “real.”
Yes, the squeaky-clean advertising pictures we continue to see today have their place – in advertising. But, book and magazine publishers are showing a growing willingness to tackle controversial subject matter. They have shifted to a sense of realism in the images they choose for production. They perceive that their readership wants the “straight story.”

THE OSCARS

The nominations for “The Oscars” this year also reflect this willingness to tackle gritty, topical issues head on. The top nominations range from race relations (“Crash”) to the death penalty (“Capote”). In fact all four major nominees deal with realism and the personal cost of making life decisions based on whether to conform to social norms or not.
If you are an editorial stock photographer, you can translate this present trend towards “realness” –as a marketing challenge. It means less or more sales (licensing) of your images based on your preferences.
Will the pendulum eventually swing back to the fairytale type of photos of the last decade? Probably so. I’ve watched this phenomenon over the last 40 years, and my bet is that it will continue in the pattern of shifting back and forth every ten to fifteen years or so.

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA E-mail: info@photosource.comFax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com

Back to Basis…
Because they Need Them

It's the year 2006. A photobuyer is searching for a photo of a jack oak (Quercus ellipsoidalis), taken in late fall or early winter, before the leaves have fallen. People should be in the picture, including teenagers (13-19 years old), animated and enjoying the outdoors.
Get used to it.
The old adage, "once you've seen a tree, you've seen 'em all," doesn't work anymore. Photobuyers are no longer satisfied with catalog shots of trees. For their project in progress, your image will have to complement the message of the text. If you haven't traveled through Minnesota, Wisconsin, or the upper peninsula of Michigan, you're not going to have this image in your file. Get used to it.

PICKY-PICKY PICS

Photobuyers in the 80's and 90's weren't picky-picky. They were usually satisfied with "something nearly on-target," because readers didn't expect on-target illustrations. Besides, a decade ago the methods available to try to locate a highly-specific picture were labor-intensive and costly. Today, photobuyers are more selective. They know they can tap easily into highly specialized collections of photos, thanks to the Internet. If you don't have the exact picture they need, they'll quickly find someone who does.
The photobuyer looking for a picture of Quercus ellipsoidalis, may need such a picture just once. But if the photobuyer can find you, as a tree specialist, on the Internet, and you have the picture, you've captured that sale.

YOUR MARKETING APPROACH

Since the Internet offers access to thousands of picture suppliers, with files totaling millions of images, you might surmise your marketing approach should be to take pictures of everything in sight, and enter them onto a website of your own. Big mistake.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/gen113.html

ON-LINE
by Bill Hopkins

A New Year!
Time to reflect on what worked in 2005, what didn't, and what changes you should make in your marketing to enhance your prospects in 2006. Are you availing yourself of the many Internet services that can help boost your photography business? PhotoSourceGROUP, for instance, is a new offering from PhotoSource International that allows you to quickly and easily create an on-line ordering system for your images. PhotoSourceGROUP is a unique image?display site that locates the source of hard?to?find photos in seconds for the buying public, commercial clients, photobuyers at magazine and book publishers, and private parties. By using PhotoSourceBANK (where you can list up to 3,000 words describing your photo collection) to conduct highly-specific keyword searches, photobuyers find photographers having those images they seek. We handle all transactions, billing and image delivery. Photographers receive 75% of sales. To check it out and sign up, visit www.photosourcegroup.com. To conduct your own test searches, go to http://search.photosource.com. You can also search the BANK by using Google and other search engines by adding the word "photosource" to your queries.

European Unification, Web-Style
To promote the European Union in cyberspace, a new domain name has been launched, the ".eu" extension. Companies with a registered trademark or subsidiary in one of the 25 EU countries can apply for domain names ending with .eu (the traditional country code extensions, such as .de for Germany or .uk for the United Kingdom), will remain in use and available. There will be a phased introduction of the .eu extension starting Feb. 6 open to trademark holders and public bodies in Europe. Two months later, family names and companies without registered trademarks can apply, and on April 7, registration will open up to individuals. If you are eligible and choose to get one, do let us know.

What's a Wikipedia?
It is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. And therein lies the paradox. Recently, false and scandalous entries were posted about a prominent journalist, John Seigenthaler. The posting was soon discovered to be made in jest. But it brought into question the viability of such an endeavor. Now the rules for editing the Wikipedia have been changed so that only registered users may post or revise information. Not that that will help much, but it's a start. Search the encyclopedia at http://wikipedia.org/ and select your preferred language, or go to http://en.wikipedia.org/ for the English-language version.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/onlin156.html

TRAVELERS ABROAD

Photographers: We broadcast your foreign destinations along with contact
information, departure date, length of stay, etc. Contact PhotoStockNotes
(1 715 248-3800) at least two months in advance.

Henry Westheim
December 1 – January 30, 2006
Taiwan

John Beebe
December 1 – July 1, 2006
Sri Lanka

Bethnay Ebling
December 23 – December 31, 2005
Thailand, Japan

Ryan O’Mara
January 16 – January 23, 2006
Zagreb, Croatia and Benja Luca, Bosnia

Jon Hill
January 28 – February 4, 2006
Cebu, Philippines
July 2 – August 12, 2006
Alaska

Keeping up with the times...
Is It Still Called Stock Photography ?

A century ago, magazines featured mostly text. Graphics were secondary. Today, it's reversed. If you include advertisements, our periodicals today feature more graphics than text. The new “automated” stock photo services (with Royalty-free photos that offer lower prices for photos), are providing quality generic images to publishers who previously couldn't afford photography as an option. As a result, new markets are now opening up for photographers who produce generic images.

The stock photo industry has finally come around to recognizing a previously largely neglected major marketing principle (one that we actually have been espousing here at PhotoSource International since our beginning). To wit: there's a vast market of photobuyers who are not interested in high-fee, RM ("rights-managed") photos. They simply want an image they can temporarily use, one-time, in one of their low-circulation, limited-readership, publications.
Let me backtrack.
In the 1950's, there were few stock photo agencies. When I returned from a trip through Africa in 1958, I sought out an agency from the few listed in the Manhattan telephone directory. My photos landed at Photo Researchers, then a two-person, New York City hole-in-the-wall on 42nd Street. Photo Researchers is still there today.
The dozen or so "managed-rights" photo agencies of the '60's have increased to several hundred agencies today. In the late 80's this "managed-rights" stock industry was at its peak. Today it's still thriving, with a major impetus being the emergence of the massive corporate digital agency (Corbis, Getty, Jupiter Media, Index Stock Imagery, SuperStock, etc.). The smaller stock photo agencies are folding or being absorbed in mergers, or have resorted to specializing.

THE TRANSFORMATION

The Digital Era has transformed other major industries: communications, transportation, banking, plus the military and government. It was bound to transform our stock photo industry, and it has.

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/gen602.html

“Back To The Basics”
Keeping your photobuyers happy....
Repeat Business
by Rohn Engh

Your photobuyers, sometimes still want to receive slides after they have viewed your light box or on-line thumbnails.
As you know, there's a right way and a wrong way to do pretty much everything, and this, of course, also holds true when it comes to submitting your images to a photobuyer. If you do it right, you might win a client that'll stay with you for 20 years. If you do it wrong, you might miss out on sales that could result in thousands of dollars lost over a period of several years.
Here at PhotoSource International, we always stress -- sometimes to the point of harping -- that the cosmetics are very important when it comes to putting together a photo submission. After all, this is a visual industry and that makes "looks" even more important.
Does your package submission arrive clean, crisp, inviting and interesting? If it doesn't, chances are it'll end up in the 'to-do-pile' for whenever, or ignored completely.
The outer packaging (a stiff, substantial cardboard mailer) should be white and it should be clean. Use a professionally printed label with your return address and a space where you can enter the photobuyer's name and address. A good place to find high quality mailers is < www.mailersco.com >.
Why not a manila or brown envelope? Most materials sent in that color of envelope tend to be regarded as "parcel post," or "third class." Stick with the white envelopes.
Do your homework before mailing. Find the name of a specific photobuyer at your target publishing company and send your package to that person's attention. Double check with the receptionist at the publishing house for the correct spelling of your contact's name and title. (If at all possible, avoid addressing your submission to simply a title, e.g. "designer," "researcher," "photo editor," etc. This signals the photobuyer that you are an amateur at marketing.)

Want to read more of this article? Go to: http://www.photoaim.com/sbar8.html

PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS

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.

Can a slick generic image ever be interpreted as a “real” editorial image? If you can get through this description without weeping, Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
http://www.mactribe.com/articlenews.asp?ArticleId=78

GETTY Buys iStockphoto
http://www.macobserver.com/article/2006/02/13.2.shtml

Lyra’s Forecast 360 Predicts Global PHOTO-PRINTING Revenue Will Near $20 Billion in 2009: Steady Growth Expected in Consumer Digital Photo Print. http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20060213/
bs_prweb/prweb345782_1

NVIDIA Unveils Mobile GPU-ndustry’s first handheld GPU to enable true, fluid digital TV, high-fidelity surround sound, rapid MULTI-SHOT photography, http://www.linuxelectrons.com/article.php/20060213045921406

Timothy L. Woods, was ARRESTED Thursday after neighbors spotted a camera coming from his home. As a result, officers searched Woods’ home and seized his camera and computer equipment.
http://www.chillicothegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20060213/NEWS01/60213003

Bob Richardson, who brought drama and sexuality to fashion photography in the 1960s only to end up homeless and battling schizophrenia decades later, died Dec. 5 in Manhattan. He was 77.
http://pdnonline.com/pdn/newswire/article_display.jsp
?vnu_content_id=1001804479&imw=Y

DIGITAL CANVAS Award Winners Announced - The National Association of Photoshop Professionals Announces Winners of First Annual Worldwide Adobe® Photoshop® Competition http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/23927.html

FolioLink's Photography Websites: to Flash or Not to Flash - FolioLink's newest photography and artist websites now support FLASH and HTML viewing modes. Until now, photographers and artists looking for a service to build their websites had to choose between HTML and Flash only solutions.
http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/23930.html

Do Better Pictures Mean a Better Brand? - OnRequest Images, today shared results from the industry's first ever Corporate Brand Imagery survey to shed light on how brand marketers are rethinking the way they PURCHASE AND USE photography to build and market their brands. http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/23918.html

What A DOLLAR Can Buy In Stock Photography - To supplement his income from advertising assignments, photographer Tad Denson of Mobile, Ala., posts stock images on several bargain-basement royalty-free sites that pay him as little as 20 cents on each license. Many photo pros who see cheap stock as bad business that threatens to undervalue photography.
http://pdnonline.com/pdn/search/article_display.jsp
?vnu_content_id=1001806311&imw=Y

Kodak again is No. 1 in DIGITAL CAMERA SALES - Kodak shipped 7.05 million digital cameras to U.S. retailers last year, 43 percent more than in 2004.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060212/1069749.asp

CANADIAN PHOTOGRAPHER wins top World Press Photo prize - Reuters photographer Finbarr O'Reilly was named the World Press Photo of the Year 2005. Nearly 4,500 professional photographers from 122 countries submitted more than 83,000 images for consideration in this year's event.
http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/02/10/
photo-worldpress-05.html?ref=rss

Fujifilm Envisage Photography Award - The Fujifilm Envisage Photography Awards will act primarily as a SALES TOOL for members and will have monthly Merit Award judgings throughout the year. Up to 10 Merits will be awarded each month - offering valuable PR opportunities for the winners.
http://www.letsgodigital.org/en/news/articles/story_6198.html

International photographic award for Sydney photography couple - Sydney photography couple Jenny and Mark Evans have won a prestigious international award for a PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY featuring the Australian racing industry.
http://www.thoroughbrednews.co.nz/australia/?id=22254

Tana Hoban; Reshaped CHILDREN'S BOOKS - Ms. Hoban illustrated her books with starkly beautiful photographs of objects from everyday life that appeal to children and adults alike She died January 27 at aged 88.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/02/09/AR2006020902232.html

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Check out www.photosourcegroup.com
Improve your bottom line.
Each day your images are
not on-line is a missed opportunity for sales.

White Mailers
Sending a disk or slides? Look like a pro.
Stiff white cardboard mailers are available at:
MAILERS, 575 Bennett Rd, Elk Grove Village,
IL 60007, Attn: Pat Pulver; http://www.mailersco.com
Phone: 1 800 872-6670. Fax: 1 847 731-2603.

SHOOTERS

Art Shay, the street fighter…
From a recent letter:

Your "Camera as a weapon” piece last month had the further effect of reminding me of a day in 1970 when I was testing, for Canon/Bell&Howell. (Canon's then new massive .095 50mm lens number 007 as I recall, on a new Canon 7.) As I emerged from a camera store on Clark Street in Chicago, two 20 year-olds with knives in their belts stopped me.
"Gimme that camera!" one commanded as the other fondled his knife. I made a nervous display of taking the camera strap over my head, got a good grip on the strap, then, racquetball champ that I was at the time, swung with all my might at my potential attacker. The heavy lens and camera at the end of the leather straps worked as a sling.
The guy went down, bleeding profusely from the forehead. The
other crook had to help him up and half-carry him away.
The cop across the street who saw the action said " I ain't gonna go after 'em -- If I caught up with them and you filed charges, they'd probably sue you for injury -- and they'd have your name and you'd start getting crank calls...."
The sturdy Canon had made its point, and wasn't even
dented, just a little bloody, but unbowed...
-Art Shay
Ed. Note: Art Shay’s one-man photography retrospective 2007 at the Chicago Historical Society will have one five-foot panel showing 1000 of Art’s magazine covers. Also, B&W Magazine recently published 14 pages on his gallery pictures- more than they ever accorded any of the 350 photographers they've spotlighted.

BUILD YOUR LIST of editorial photobuyers –
subscribe to the weekly PhotoStockNotes
newsletter ($14.99 per year for 52 issues). In the
third week of each month you receive
photobuyer updates, new buyer addresses, and
editor changes. Sign-up at www.photostocknotes.com
to receive this letter every Wednesday evening.

LOOK LIKE A PRO when mailing your next print, ad, or disk: The "Way Less"
envelope stiffener will not only create a high-tech look to your project but save you more than fifty
cents in postage on an average mailing. (They pay for themselves!)
Made of extruded sheets of stiff corrugated polypropylene, the "Way Less" envelope stiffeners
are lint and dust free, and unlike cardboard areimpervious to moisture. Available in all popular
envelope sizes. To learn more, to order, or request a free sample, visit: http://www.envelopesstiffener.com .

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 it “crawls” 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

"Photography is a lonely sport. It's nice to have the much needed PhotoStockNotes with its sense
of association (mood?) to fill an empty chasm. "
-Howard Critchell, Howard Critchell Photography, Claremont, CA

GOODSTUFF

2006 PHOTOGRAPHER’S MARKET, 29th Annual Edition.
http://www.photosourcefolio.com/
bookstoreone.htm#1582973954 . If you want to sell your photos or digital images, this is the reference book you need. This new edition includes: complete, up-to-date contact information for more than 1,600 photography markets; inspirational interviews with working photographers; articles and information on the business of photography, business tips and practices as well as new markets to explore. (ISBN: 1-58297-395-4; $24.99) Contact: Contact: Writer’s Digest Books, an imprint of F & W Publications, Inc., 4700 E Galbraith Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45236. Phone: 1 513 531-2690. E-mail: photomarket@fwpubs.com.

Profitable Photography In The Digital Age: Strategies For Success (Paperback)
by Dan Heller. This book explores an extensive range of business models to help the reader determine the best approach for selling his or her own photography. Whether working with film or the latest digital equipment, photographers will find real-world insights to crucial topics such as: setting business expectations; applying business sense; marketing photography successfully; setting prices; selling prints; running a Web-based photography business; working with stock photography agencies; legally protecting images; and much more. Profitable Photography in the Digital Age includes special tips for photographers selling images for posters, postcards, and calendars, as well as a photography equipment list. Any photographer wanting to think smartly and analytically about his or her business will need this book. ($24.95; ISBN: 1-58115-412-7) Allworth Press, 10 E 23rd St, Ste 510, New York NY 10010. E-mail: PUB@allworth.com.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S GUIDE TO NEGOTIATING, by Richard Weisgrau. A new resource to help photographers find their voice in business dealings. In this book, photographer and industry leader Richard Weisgrau provides the tools for all photographers to become skilled negotiators. ($19.95; ISBN: 1-58115-414-3) Allworth Press, 10 E 23rd St, Ste 510, New York NY 10010. E-mail: PUB@allworth.com.

Are you using a LightBOX to respond to photo requests?
If not, as a subscriber to one of our marketletters or
PhotoSourceBook, you have Free access to our
PhotoSource LightBOX. A tutorial can be found at
http://www.photosource.com/
account/lightbox/tutorial/

This week's featured photographer on PhotoSourceFolio: Alison Appelbe
(http://folio.photosource.com/2605)

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PhotoAimLite is a collection of excerpts from our weekly newsletter, PhotoStockNotes, available through the web anywhere in the world $14.99 per year. http://www.photosource.com
/psnintro.html

Feel free to forward this issue of PhotoAimLite to your photographer friends.
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PhotoAimLite weekly newsletter is a product of PhotoSource International, Rohn Engh, Director, who is solely responsible for its contents.

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Next Month: Designing Your Website

email: info@photosource.com web: http://www.photosource.com