May 6, 2008 by pmelcher.

(credit : Creatista / Zymmetrical.com)

It’s like playing with a set of Tarot cards. Or looking down at coffee residue at a bottom of coffee cup. Or better yet, hopping that the big round glass ball will reveal its wonderful secret.

Running a photo agency is  just really a never-ending game of predicting the future. On any given day, one has to figure out what will be the next big story. Picking from a thousand of daily news items, the trick is to pick the ones that will last longer than the time it takes to read them because of national, if not international interest.

And everything is game : a local murder, a politicians comment, a weather system coming through, a celebrity that might get engaged, everything can be the next big story. And, in order for the images to be relevant, it also has to be timely. Too soon, no one cares, too late, it’s over and done. Thus, as much it is important to have the right pool of photographers that will add even more value to an event, it is the constant act of divination that is crucial.

Wire services have minimized the gamble to a minimum by covering everything and having photographers everywhere.  That is what corporations do : minimize and rationalize risk. The little and medium guys cannot afford to keep an international pool of photographers  always on the ready mode. So they have to carefully pick and choose.

Get it right once and it’s luck, get it right often and it is talent. Because there is even more  than just predicting what will everyone will talk about tomorrow. There is also predicting what the media will think is the next big thing. And they have their own vision of the importance of a story. So its not just figuring out what will be hot but what the medias will think will be hot and thus, make hot.

It is certainly not a science and can not really be taught by anything else than experience and an acute sense of human sympathy ( Etymology: Latin sympathia, from Greek sympatheia, from sympathēs having common feelings, sympathetic, from syn- + pathos feelings, emotion, experience). Knowing what people will care about tomorrow, not what is important.

Scarlett Johansson getting engaged is not important but everyone cares. Darfur is important but no one cares anymore. So what is a savvy photo agency to do ? Get images of Scarlett’s new ring, and forget Darfur.

Now, if it had been a really good photo agency, it would have known or smelled it, and would already have the picture, even before the story broke. How ? By brightly anticipating the engagement and having someone follow her for the last week.

This is just not in the celebrity world. It is useless for a small or medium agency to have 2 full time photographers follow Hillary and Obama everywhere in the hopes of getting a picture that will sell. It is, however, very important to read their schedule carefully and smell the right photo op. When and where will it happen ?

Same goes for commercial stock albeit in a different way . Trying to forecast the need of imagery is similar. The parameters are slightly different but the divination game the same. However, it is more a science when it comes to Commercial stock. Companies like Corbis and Getty will hire field engineers, card readers, to investigate the future. Others, who cannot afford to pay expensive fortune tellers will just put up as many images as possible in order to cover all potential needs now and forever. Nether approach usually  reap a lot of success. If it did, Getty would no longer have any competition, would they ?

A really good stock agency could make a fortune with maybe no more than 100 new images a month. A really good editorial agency could do with 10 stories a month. You have the 10 top stories of the month  every month over a year, and you will be making more than Getty Images.

But it is not because you have the divination gift that others do not, which makes it a tad harder. You can also  beat the divination game by having a better photographer, one that will make the better images even if they are not the first, making the event more caring. But that is beyond the point here.

So, while the Getty whale is about to sink deep into silence ( pay attention to Jamd.com and viewimages.com, two great divination tools) in its never ending quest for more revenue, that Jupiterimage will be the first let microstock merge with its traditional offering  ( announced in Russia this week), that traditional Commercial RF and RM are about to reunite in their last yearly bacchanal in Malta, that someone somewhere is about to launch the first model that will pay you to use their images (Picapp ?), and that about anything and everything is fair game these days, one should keep in mind that with no talent there will be no success.

PS: A big thank you to all those who have donated already. If you too want to keep this blog free, do you part here. The recession is coming and its my birthday soon.

Posted in celebrity, magazine, Zymmetrical, commercial stock, Midstock, photojournalism, news, editorial, wire service, getty | Print | No Comments »

May 4, 2008 by pmelcher.

“The big winner in these data are Internet design and development firms, whose purchases dominate the industry. But while these firms consistently hold the highest market share, both in terms of dollars spent and units purchased, their average spending per image was often lower than that for other segments, particularly creatives. These dynamics can have strong implications for producers and marketers of stock imagery.”

TrendWatch Graphic Arts_2005_

That was 3 years ago. The $71.9 million revenue of Istockphoto in 2007 is a clear proof that this study was correct. It actually did not reveal any secret but confirmed what everyone already knew. So, how as the industry reacted in the last 3 years ?

- The conservatives: Most have continued in their all too familiar ways, producing the same images for the same pricing, even when 90% are now being sold at microstock prices. Voluntary ignoring the microstock noise, that has now grown from a chatter to a scream, they believe that it is just a passing fluke that will die down when the party is over. Some even take a stand against this market by claiming loud and clear that they will NEVER surrender to such pricing model. As if high-priced images had any appeal to any image buyers.  They have the same images available on mid and micro sites, yet priced according to antiquated models. They have capture the attention of the medium mediocre pro photographers whose very livelihood is threatened by this sudden price drop. As the protectors of the pricing “status quo” they stand up desperately like little toy store owners in front of K Mart refusing to sell cheap chinese toys while charging 6 times more for the same products.

- The cold feeters : They understand what the market is up too but have a hard time accepting it. They have been in this industry for a long time with reasonable success and hate seeing prices go down. So they adapt. They either create new collections for these markets or “retire” images and price them lower. One foot in the water, one on land, they think they can continue doing what they know best without loosing on new pricing trends. They enter with little careful steps as walking in the waters of a cold lake, trying to organically figure out its temperature and if they will be able to swim. These agencies confuse their photographers tremendously as revenues become unpredictable.

- The passionate: They can’t get enough. They were early-adopters and cannot wait to do more. Some have caught the wave at the right time and are seeing good results, while others waited and jumped both feet at the same time. They are leaving familiar pricing territories and well know clients for hit and run sales. Less tear sheets but more volume. Less marketing intelligence but more sales data. Some have created their own micro/mid platforms and are hoping to catch up on the Istock wave ( Tsunami ?).

What is fascinating is when you see a traditional RM/RF platform asking their contributors for more “regular business images: people at their desk, answering phones..” . It is also laughable when others stand up on their soap box and say: “The answer is easy, my friends, create more high end RM images”.

Huh ?

When I was at Corbis, the term was “cutting edge” and even back then I was hitting my head against the walls trying to figure out what it meant. And more important, how it is made.

A stock image is by nature an image that is made to please a wide variety of clients. Furthermore, it has to be unfinished so that text and logos can be added. Even other images copied and past into it. Even with our world turning into a global village, local sensitivities are at skin edge. It makes it very hard to create images that will please everyone in the world.

So what is high end RM images ? I would like to see. Because, like the Eldorado or Atlantis before, there is a lot of talk about it but not much to see : Behold the savior of photography, the almighty cutting edge, high end photograph. The secret knowledge that will lead to the golden caves of fortune: How to create a high end image. If you possess that wisdom, that elusive stone, the magic wang that transforms a low end / medium end image into that legendary 6 figure image, then why in the hell would you stick it in a photo agency that will take 50% or more of your sales ?

Most commercial stock photo agencies, right now, should give their salespeople a substantial raise. Because the major reason their sales are still stable, if not rising, is because their client stick with them. Mostly because they enjoy the help and friendship with their contacts there . Its not the pricing, nor the images, those can quite frankly be found elsewhere, its that person on the other side of the phone. Yet, most go on a search for the elusive “sharp, cutting edge, high end” imagery soon to be copied by extremely web savvy microstock shooter.

A good salesperson will tell you exactly what images you need because they sell them everyday. Its not going to be a creative research ( shoot RV people !!, especially the ones being pushed because people can’t afford the gas price, says Corbis ) or keyword search analysis. Not even past sales data. It is going to be these guys behind their screens and desks, day in and day out that can tell you what you need. And they also, have no idea what a cutting edge image is, but they sure do know what an image that sell can be.

Posted in Search, Midstock, license, commercial stock, keyword, finance, Royalty free, corbis, transaction, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

May 1, 2008 by pmelcher.

A photo agency does 90 % of a photo editor’s work. Yet, there is always been a love hate relationship between the two. why is that ?

Let’s step back for a minute, would you ? The fundamental role of a photo agency is to already have images that a photo editor needs. Whether it be news, sports, entertainment, lifestyle or anything else, a photo agency should work as a repository of any and all photo editors wish. An never ending land of succulent fruits for the eyes, a garden of Eden of photography where one just needs to reach to get that perfect image.

In the process, Photo agencies weed out the good photographers from the bad. They create a quality filter that guarantees that images come from top notch photographers. Furthermore, they act as the sounding board for the photographers creative ego, shielding photo editors from the relentless waves of complains and curse words.

Photo agencies like to be flexible. For a premium, you can get an image for your publication or campaign only, called an exclusive, or just specify which competitor you would like to blind. In case of a catastrophe, earthquake, terrorism or plane accident, they do all the grunge work of locating the latest images so that photo editors do not have to get their hands dirty and can just wait by their phone.

Most of the time, this works perfectly well. Some magazine, websites and newspapers are entirely illustrated with photographs that fell off the Photo agency trees. In any other profession, where someone would do half your work for you, for free, that woud be well received.

In our world, not at all. It differs by country and culture. But as a photo agency in the USA, try to call a photo editor and tell them you just received this great set of images that could be great for their publication. You will probably be able to avoid insults, a slammed phone, but the reception on the other side will be  colder than the deepest  hole on the north side of the Mars ice cap. You are not welcomed.

It’s funny, because in Europe for example, they cannot wait you to show them your new material. They thrive on it. They will even buy the article along with it. It the US, you might as well jump of a bridge first.

Part of that is people do not like when you pretend to know their jobs better than they do. They take offense to that. But it is mainly due to the fact that in the US, most photo editors are gophers and do not make any editorial decisions. The editor in chief decice what articles will be published and the photo editors are ask to go out an illustrate them. Never the reverse. In Europe, however, they have equivalent powers. If they see a great photo story, they will run it, regardless of where it comes from. They are actually asked to provide stories and sit hand in hand ( figure of speech) with the editor in chief, deciding on the content.

So maybe part of the reason for the unqualified  reception photo agencies received when they pitch a story is due to the fact that each time they do that, in the US, they just push the knife deeper into the photo editors’ wound and make them remember how powerless they are. They only become almighty when they are granted a budget to go out and produce a photo shoot. And for that, theygo throught extra efforts to locate photographers that do not belong to a photo agency or if they do, try to circonvent that relationsship by all means possible.

It’s a convoluted relationships the one between photo editors and photo agencies. One made of trust and mistrust, of need, necessity and resentment. There are a lot of real friendships in this industry between buyers and sellers, as well as some real hate. Neither are photographers but they do battle on them, for the rights of possession. It is a continuous balancing act where neither can afford to be mad at the other while the photo editor still like to keep them at a reasonable distance.

In an editors eyes, and mind, photo agency people are not real photography people. They are like a subset of creepy creatures crawling in your garden. They can help sure, but only if there is no other way. A necessary evil.

Sometimes you wonder why they even credit a photo agency at all. Portfolio, the new Conde Nast business magazine, only puts the photographers name next to the images, adding the photo agency’s credit way back in a remote corner of the magazines’ last pages, as if to show that all the images where assigned. The Economist does not credit at all. Some others, which I find the most offensive, only put the agencies name. As if to clearly show that an image is just an illustration taken from a photo bank.

There should be a middle ground. Photo editors should have more power in the editorial decision process. A la New York Times. They should be granted and given the right to bring in photo stories. However, photo agencies can help. After many, many years of working with a publication, they have a good idea of what could be of interest. And because they work with thousands of eyes and ears worldwide, they have great stories that should be published . It would certainly beat rehashing what is on CNN on a print version, or sticking with what has sold in the past. It would make photographers more creative if they knew that publications would listen to what they have seen. I cannot say how many great photo essays gather dust on lonely hard drives just because there is no ears to listen.

As much as the photo agency business has to re invent itself, as much as photo editors have to shake the cages they are in if they want to keep being making photography quality go up.

Posted in Cnn, technology, magazine, newspaper, editorial, photojournalism, news | Print | 2 Comments »