I went to PictureHouse NY this year, not as an exhibitor, but as an image buyer. It was a very rewarding experience. The first, and probably foremost experience was the terribly empty and deserted video footage room. With at most 5 distributors, but none of the big players, they must have stared at each other … Read More →
“Digital Disciples make up the second-largest group (35%) and consider themselves serious amateur photographers“. According to The Kodak Photo Futures Report, the same Disciples are “the most likely to explore photo editing software and have ambitions to make money from their hobby”. Who knew? First who knew that Kodak was still in the photo … Read More →
A group of us were invited to discuss the alternate source of imagery as well as the future of stock photography on a panel organized by the American Society of Picture Professionals this past Monday. I have skipped the product presentation that you can see here, if you would like, to go directly to discussion … Read More →
The next big thing in the web 2.0/prosumer/crowdsourcing will be the user generated photo agency. It has become quite easy to purchase software, of the shelf, that will anyone with little programming skills and a lot of patience to create a mini photo agency. Obviously, the first market to be targeted will be Royalty free … Read More →
It is such an interesting time to be around the business of photography. A once very established , entrenched community of image sellers ruled the landscape of the licensing world by applying rules and regulations on term and pricing. They were doing so in their egg shell and tottally oblivious to the rest of the … Read More →
Jeff Kravitz (no, that is NOT him on the picture above), President and Founder of Filmmagic, bought by Getty Images in the $200 million Mediavast deal, has officially resigned. Citing impossible working conditions within the Mega image distributor, antiquated distribution system, one of the most succesful, and influential, red carpet photographer is slamming the door … Read More →
Getty and $49: How many association of photographers does it take to bring down Getty? Apparently 6 is not enough. After sending an e-mail to Jonathan Klein, they are answered by a posting from Nick Evans Lombs. Personally, I would have been insulted. But that is just me, I guess. The giant was grateful enough … Read More →
Getty images is not a newcomer in trading prices versus quantity. Quite the opposite. When a company wants to gain market share in an industry already heavily populated with suppliers, it reduces its cost of doing business to a minimum and slashes prices to force the competition into bankruptcy. Economy of scale, it is called. … Read More →
I don’t understand. I really do not understand the relation some people make between file sharing photo sites, like Fotolog or Photobucket and the professional photo industry. I do not even understand how professionals from the photo industry can declare that anyone can take a great picture. A great photo of a cow is worth … Read More →
There are many things we seem to forget while we all go about our daily business of licensing images. Some are good, some are bad, some are in between. In order to clear up the horizon, I made a little list. The Good ( or positive) : – Microstock : Introduced millions to licensing images. … Read More →