June 15, 2009 by pmelcher.

Your stock photography at work :

For those who have never been, this is a CEPIC congress. Rows and rows of tables and chairs. Every hour, on the hour, people move from one table to the other, looking at another computer screen while listening to a used pitch.

Really, it is a bunch of suplliers looking for new content to propose to they customers back home. Like a big fish market. There not much talk about photography here, instead its more about volume (size of a collection), percentages and distribution. They then break for lunch where they all eat bad food. And then they start again. If that is not enough, they have the option to go in stuffy break rooms where bored people listen to panels about the business of photography for hours on.

Once they are finished, they all get together for a cocktail party where they try and enjoy themselves while eating some more bad food. All this for three days. Non stop.

If  a real photographer would walk in this room, they would cry ( they are not allowed in) . It is like walking in a warehouse full of accountants. And this is being going for decades. The same companies, the same people, doing the same thing. None try to grow and none never did. If they are lucky, they will sell for few millions to one of the big ones and forever retire. If not, maybe their kids will take over. Maybe not.

Every year they all sit down and look at those screens hoping not to be left behind, in this incessant race to survive.  Microstock is eating them alive, and they all talk about jumping in, maybe. Or hope it will disappear. Video footage? yes ? no ? maybe ?.It’s too much, too fast, too soon. None, however, feel that they are a dying breed. They hang on.

This is no different than any other distribution trade. You have a shop, you go and fetch products to please you customers. By the pound (sorry, the thousands of images). People come from all over the world, China, Korea, India, Pakistan etc to make these exchanges. I will represent your stuff, you will represent mine. Hours on of these repetitive discussion and deal making. An hour at a time. Every hour, for three days. A mini marathon of meetings that leave you drained and exhausted. And empty.

No one really leaves happy because there is no reason to. It’s just another season and summer vacations are not so far .  No giant leaps, no creative destruction, no innovation, no waves. The goal here is to stay alive, to survive another year, another term. Certainly not to take any risks.

All return home their pockets full of notes, business cards and their ears full of comments and opinions. Mostly reassuring, because that is what they were seeking. The deals made will be executed and some secrets will be passed on.

But none, not one, will ever come home a say : ” Man, I saw this incredible picture when I was at Cepic”

Posted in commercial stock, Midstock, CEPIC, Royalty free, Microstock | Print | No Comments »

June 15, 2009 by pmelcher.

There is only one certitude in the photography business : If you don’t spend money, you will not make money. Everything else is educated guess that some confuse with a lottery game.

As much as we never know for sure if an image will sell, and how many times, as well as for how much, one thing is certain : if you do not shoot it, it will never sell.

Even before the downturn of the world economy, photographers and photo agencies alike, seeing prices falling and competition eating at their market shares, took the approach of saving money. Cut any excessive spending. The first to go ? financing photo shoots.

We see it in both the editorial and commercial world. The attempt to try and keep status, market share, branding, while saving on the cost of shooting.

If a photograph doesn’t exist, it will never, ever be published.   On the commercial side, seeing the crowd succeeding in making fortunes on a tight budget has pushed many pro stockers to beleive they shouldn’t spend in production so much anymore. They are now copying the copiers would initially copied them.

On the editorial side, while not affected so much by the same crowd, it has been the rising cost of travel that has been the main factor. But if you do not send a photographer to shoot an event, there will be no images . And as we have seen, crowdsourcing just doesn’t work in that space. So, a lot of revenue is being lost. Even so much more, as everyone seem to focus on events that are easy and cheap to cover, increasing the coverage and the offer. The result is also affecting pricing.

The smart agency or photographer should be spending more today. Taking some risks  that could offer returns even the wall street stock market can not match. This is  the perfect time to separate oneself from the pack of the scared and conservatives. This is the time to create unbelievable images at whatever the cost. This is the time to shoot more of the unseen and reach for the deserted air of original creativity.

Those who ignore this will be soon swallowed quickly by the crowd tsunami that is well on its way.

Posted in Midstock, license, commercial stock, photojournalism, finance, Royalty free, editorial, transaction, Microstock | Print | No Comments »