North America woke up with the news that golden boy photo agency Shutterstock acquired no less than 2 companies in what seems as one swoop. One, in the music category, the other, in the photo licensing world. Obviously it is the latter that interests us here. Shutterstock’s announcement that it has acquired 60 years old … Read More →
Ever so often, the topic of the value of a photograph emerges from the bowels of online conversations. Very quickly, the conversation ends with the undisputed point that a photo should at least cover its cost. In other words, the more it costs to take a picture, the higher its value. Photographers, like any small … Read More →
Popular saying declares that a photo is worth a thousand words. But how is it useful if those words are meaningless? How many times have we’ve read articles or books who bring us little to no information? Words, even a thousand of them, can be deceptively useless. So sure, photos can most of the time describe faster and better than text. But that … Read More →
If a fly lands on your nose, right between your two eyes, it becomes invisible. You might feel it, but you do not see it. The obvious, sometimes, acts like a fly on your nose. Several announcements in the last few weeks has made it clear that the stock licensing industry is due for final … Read More →
Stock photos and stock agencies have a much bigger problem than declining usage fees. They just don’t work anymore. In the advertising web space, there is an expression that defines the fact that people do not click on advertising anymore. It is called “banner blindness”. What it means is that people have become so accustomed … Read More →
At the end of 2007, a company with a chewing name, came out with a product that, at the time, made little noise. They had spent some time looking at the online photo licensing space and thought the system was upside down. Their idea was that, instead of delivering a file against a flat fee … Read More →
If you have been reading this blog, you already know that we strongly believe that next big disruption to the pro licensing scheme is already in your hands. Not so much because everyone has a camera and can potentially shoot ( nothing new here) but rather for its ability to put image buyers and sellers … Read More →
Today, or yesterday, Google made a little change to its image search engine that could have great consequences. Apparently responding to a blog post by Lessing – the leading advocate for a copyright free world- who was complaining that Bing Images search offered better functionality, Google decided to move the license search filter to the … Read More →
Instagram knows more about photography than Getty Images does. Or Corbis. Or Associated press. Or even Shutterstock. In 3 years years, it has aggregated more information about which photograph works better than the combinations of the best photo editors at any photo agency. It is not just Instagram. Flickr does too, although they might not … Read More →
The misconception of the pro photography world is that, without their content, publications, blogs, and other companies cannot be successful. They believe that they are in a position of power in an economy that is rapidly doing without them. True, a decade or plus ago, it was very hard, if not impossible, for a print … Read More →