And you thought you knew

March 6, 2009 by pmelcher.

Photography is much more powerful than we think it is. It can take pictures of the past. Take this image that you might have seen before, photographed by the Hubble telescope in 2004 :

What you are seeing is the farthest image ever taken. Those tiny faint lights in the back are actually more than 10 billion light years away. That certainly beats your long lens. That is already incredible in of itself. But what is more amazing about this image is that it is a snapshot of the past.

Let me explain. Since light travels at about 300,000 km per second, those far away proto galaxies that are you now looking at looked like that about 17 billion years ago. A few 100,000 million years after the big bang.  As your eyes travel back to closer galaxies, the ones that are bigger and more fully shape, you are actually also traveling to a timenearer to the present. ( leave or take a few billion light years)

A better way to understand this image is through an 3d animation like this:

As you past the  galaxies you are also going back in time, from more recent to extreme past. Thus the image you see above is a snaphot of the past And yes, photography can take pictures of the past. Multiple pasts, actually.Now, with that in mind, lets imagine you are standing on top of mount Everest and you have a lens powerful enough to photograph the city of Paris from where you are. You would actually be able to take a picture of  what happened in Paris a few moments ago. Sure, because of the small distance, it would be only a fraction of seconds and not the Medeval Ages. But still, that is quite a powerful tool you carry with you, don’t you think?

Now, for another thought proving thought. Just imagine yourself on a planet far away from planet earth and taking a similar picture than the Hubble telescope but having planet earth in the frame. At the right distance and right time, with a much better lense, well, you could have taken a picture of the Medival Ages after it had happen . Impressive, no ?

You could have, right now, the biggest library of historical events . What a scoop.

Seriously. We all know that photography is a time tool. It freezes all the elements of in a frame to be seen later across space and time.That is cool enough. Now we know that given the right location and tools, a photographer can actually take a picture of the past.

If you want to learn more on your own, go here.

Posted in lens, Cosmos, technology, focus, multimedia, No sense | Print | No Comments »

2008 Survey of Self-Employed Photographers, Illustrators or Graphic Designers

March 5, 2009 by pmelcher.

How was 2008 compared to 2007? What are industry trends in the production and sale of stock images? Selling-Stock has launched a survey (http://www.jimpickerell.com/surveyshared.aspx) to gather information from photographers, designers and illustrators concerning their 2008 income and cost of doing business.

Go to http://www.jimpickerell.com/articles2/admin-article-view.asp?id=2022 to review our 2007 Income Survey results. The 2008 survey asks the same questions and will provide comparative numbers enabling creators to make informed decisions about trends.

In this rapidly changing and challenging business environment, many image creators are adjusting their business strategies. Some freelance stock photographers are turning to assignments. For others a staff position, possibly even in a non-related field, is their primary source of income and the revenue earned from freelance work is only a secondary income source. Conversely, amateurs with no expectations of ever earning a living from photography are finding that selling stock can be a lucrative and rewarding supplement to their income.

Many freelance photographers sell into multiple segments of the photography industry. To understand the importance of each we ask photographers the percentage of their gross photography revenue that falls into several segments of the industry. This will help us understand the changing relationships between freelance newspaper and magazine assignment work, advertising and corporate work and pure stock sales.

Selling-Stock encourages every photographer, graphic designer and illustrator who licensed rights to images in 2008 - be it for a few hundred dollars or tens of thousands - to respond to the survey’s nine simple questions. The survey will remain open until April 15, 2009. An in-depth analysis of the results will be published in Selling-Stock.

The survey is designed to gather data from individual creators, not agencies or other organizations that represent creator’s work. However, organizations engaged in licensing images are asked to encourage their image suppliers to participate. Image production companies that produce images specifically for licensing as stock are also asked to respond. Those interested can respond to the survey by going to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/surveyshared.aspx. The more data we can collect, the greater the validity of the results.

All individual responses will be held in strictest confidence and no attempt will be made to identify specific individuals.

Posted in commercial stock, license, Midstock, finance, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

Reflecting in the pool

March 3, 2009 by pmelcher.

“Copyright owners tend to focus on the aspect they see of piracy, which is the lost revenue. They therefore think what drives users to do it is the desire to get something for free. But iTunes shows that people will pay for stuff online, if you make it easy. A significant component of piracy is simply that it offers a better user experience.” From Paul Graham_Why TV Lost_

Al thought written more for music and video, the above quote is true for photography. The next big step is figuring how to monetize the huge demand for visuals while avoiding piracy. No numbers officially exists on how many images are “stolen” either by a simple “copy paste”, “save as” or database hacking.  Agencies, as well as independent photographers will never admit publicly on how many of their images are floating around without being properly licensed.

A few solutions are slowly emerging but they offer more a reaction rather than an offer. Piscout, for example, will help you after the fact as well as Tineye.com. Imagespan, Gumgum, Piccapp, and others to come, offer an option, but not a solution. Most  copyrights owners are still hoping that metadata will save them, forgetting so conveniently that it can be so easily stripped away. Finally, organizations like the dying Plus Coalition are trying to  standardize archaic and complicated options in the ultimate hope to freeze in time antiquated models. None are making licensing easier.

Rather, by proliferating in multiple directions, these companies (who do not own any copyright) confuse and distract the marketplace even more. What we need is to encourage consumption, not add more leashes. And, as such, stop making our images so incredibly difficult and complicated to purchase. The microstock sector, taking cues from the traditional RF sector, has succesfully understood how important it is to empower the customer with a simple, smooth process.

That is the next evolution of our industry.

Posted in idee, copyright, Plus, technology, commercial stock, gumgum, license, IPTC, law, Royalty free, transaction, finance, keyword, prosumer, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

The Dark side of Jupiter

March 3, 2009 by pmelcher.

The blog rumor mill is busy these days with the possible lay off of some 400 JupiterImages employees. We had expected that to happen months ago. It makes sense. Getty already has the operation and distribution in place, why would they need to double it ? To make this acquisition successful, they need to get rid of the debt and cost ( read staff ) and absorb the imagery. Since JupiterImage was running about $120 million a year, it will not take long for Getty to pay back the cost of acquisition and post a profit. Especially if they add no cost. Makes perfect sense.

Alan Meckler’s blog is remaining quiet about this, at least for now.

While Getty consolidate its strenght, at least in imagery, on the commercial side, it is starting to hurt on the editorial side. More top talent photographers have left Getty in the last weeks and it seems  it is only the beginning of the defection. This year should see more mistreated photographers throw their contracts in the air and resume having pleasure in photographing  ( is that a verb ?). Not that we haven’t said it before, but the corporate world is really not conducive to creativity. The environmental of “little bosses”, politics, backstabbing and other petty time wasters is really not what a good photographers is looking for in a company. And because mediocrity tends to rise to the top in these big companies, most staff photographers get confronted daily by small-minded-ladder-climbing ambitious middle managers that will do anything to put their careers in front of  inspiring creativity. Most of them probably never look at pictures, as they are too busy running from one meeting to another, in a desperate attempt to destroy any any ideas that is not theirs.

It will be interesting to see if Getty destroys the acquired sub brands of Jupiter Images and let the collections die of a slow death or will instead invest in producing some new images. We all know that traditional RF is suffering badly from microstock and JI is mostly made of traditional RF. However, if Getty is successful in maintaining the brands and growing them, then we will know it was just bad management.

Posted in Jupiter, commercial stock, finance, editorial, Royalty free, getty, Microstock | Print | 1 Comment »

E-Rosebud

March 1, 2009 by pmelcher.

So,  Hearst publishing is going to come out with an e-magazine reader. For those familiar with the Amazon e-book reader Kindle, it will be easy to picture the same with a bigger screen and less bulky. For those who are not, here is a photograph of the Plastic Logic reader:

The Hearst E-reader will probably be very similar. Hearst publishes 18 magazines ( Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, O, Esquire and many more) as well as many newspapers ( including the troubled San Fransisco Chronicle or Seattle PI) . Finally, founder William Randolph Hearst was the character that Orson Wells so well portrayed in “Citizen Kane”.

Late this week, the publishing giant, who recently finished building a giant tower in midtown Manhattan, announced two initiatives: The creation and production of a magazine e-reader and  the start of paying website access.

Let’s start with the e reader : This is a typical move from a giant US corporation. The decision of creating this reader did not spawn from an interest of better serving their readership but from 1) The need to reduce cost 2) The need to continue to control the medium.

Electronic distribution would save millions and millions of dollars to Hearst, by saving in printing, paper and physical distribution cost . It would do nothing to the readership experience. Case and point ? The first models of these E readers will be in black and white, instantly shoving magazine editing back  a good 70 years. Tell me, for example, which woman will want to see Harper’s Bazaar fashion pictures  in black and white ? The first color e-reader might hit the shelves by 2011. By then, the readership will have moved on.

Furthermore, if Hearst builds its own reader, it doesn’t have to make any deals with any third party. Think Apple Ipods and the music industry. The publishing giant is taking what it thinks is a step ahead but trying to cut off the middle man by launching itself into hardware production. Some executives probably also think that if their E-reader is succesful enough,  Hearst will be able to force other publishing companies to use it and thus corner the market. Aaah, the good old days of monopolies…

Why it will fail ? Because for one, the first model will be in B/W. Nothing has been announced about its resolution.  Furthermore, who needs another big thing to carry around ? Already, to me , the Kindle is unappealing as it would mean one more electronic to drag along. Yes it can carry many, many books at the same time in less space, but I, as many people, usually only read one book at the time. Plus the chargers, plugs etc. I would like to see convergence in my electronics, not more stuff.

However, it will primarily fail because Hearst has no intention to adapt to the changing market place . As Rob Haggard from a photo editor blog  so rightly nailed, they will continue to make magazines for advertisers and not readers. Because, while they continue, other forms of attention grabbing media will appear, mostly on the internet and on cell phones, and that is where their readership will go. Because most of their readership from Harper’s , Oprah Magazine and Good Housekeeping  is older and really not tech savvy.  Finally, it will fail because it is not their core business to produce electronics and 99% of the time a company diverts from its core business, it fails.

The publishing giant will also start charging for access to their websites. Hard to comment on this as little details have leaked out for now, besides that the price would be adjust daily. No sure what that implies.

Both initiative will impact photography and photographers a lot. Hearst is not known to be photo friendly. Some past and existing contract are extremely one sided. With the current economy, it is very doubtful that it will suddenly become more friendly, if adjusting at all. It is quite possible that the corporate lawyers will try to claim that there is no change to usage and thus no additional payment should be made for either models. We will see. A new set of battles is to come.

Posted in magazine, technology, newspaper, photojournalism, editorial, finance, news | Print | No Comments »