If you use a search program like Google, you already know the benefits. Why spend time in a reference library searching hours for information that you can find in seconds on the Internet? If you need hardcopy, well, then you can visit the local library. Or, you can buy the book through Amazon.com. But it doesn't end there. Rumor has it that Amazon.com is now developing a process to upload all of the world's literature and have it available for research. And, naturally, Amazon will have the hardcopy available for sale.
Does this give you a clue on how your stock photo collection of the future should be handled?
Photobuyers have two available methods of locating pictures. If they need a picture that illustrates a concept, they visit an on-line picture library and choose a trendy image. If they need a specific "needle-in-a-haystack," they choose a text-based system to swiftly narrow down their search.
Are you an editorial stock photographer? Take advantage of this fact that editorial photo researchers are choosing to use text ("keywords") to locate specific images that they need. If you include keywords (what we used to call "captions") along with your images that you list or display on the Web, your chances to make sales have vastly improved.
BUILDING BLOCKS
The future of your stock photo collection will be tied to the attention you put into providing thorough text descriptors for each of your images. Web crawlers such as Google periodically go through the world's websites to gather information about images. If you have definitive descriptions of each of your pictures, photo researchers will be able to locate images on your personal website and negotiate sales with you.
A quicker way to succeed through this method of research that is now coming of age, is to place your collection of text descriptions in a service such as the PhotoSourceBANK here at PhotoSource International. You are provided with your own Web page, on which you can enter your specialties and 3,000 words or phrases describing specific photos available in your files. Each day hundreds of photobuyers check in to the PhotoSourceBANK to look for the photos they need.
It's more important than ever to look at keywords as "building blocks" for the future of your photo collection. Each time you come back from a trip, vacation, self-assignment, or assignment, add keywords to your Internet presence. Over the long term you'll see your efforts result in increased sales.
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. E-mail: info@photosource.com . Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com.
Photobuyers Are Looking For You
It’s nice to be wanted. The good news: If your collection of stock photos matches a particular photobuyer’s photo needs, you become an important resource for that photobuyer.
I’ve just described what “marketing” is all about. “Selling” is producing top-quality umbrellas and trying to sell them in Egypt and Nevada. “Marketing” is producing “pretty good” umbrellas and easily selling them in London and Seattle.
Most entry-level stock photographers produce quality images of grapes, oranges and apples and try to sell them to photobuyers who buy images of pineapples, lemons and pears.
LESSON: Determine what your interest area is and focus on taking pictures in that area, where you have or will develop expertise. You’ll not only speak the language of the photobuyers that need pictures in that special interest area, but you will be the person they contact for assignment when they need someone.
Your photobuyers need pictures that go beyond the general stock pictures (sometimes called “stockshlock”). They want photos that allow the viewer to “read into the image.” That is, you present images that allow the viewer to be a collaborator, and you bring your own meanings and dimension to the seeing of the image.
Photobuyers will recognize your talent to “illustrate” as well as your knowledge and passion for the subject area. Your photos will augment and bring a completeness to an article that a standard stock photo cannot do.
HOW TO FIND THEM
But how do you find the photobuyers who are, at this moment, waiting to see your specialized photos? You may have two or three interest areas where you feel you have expertise (or are eager to develop it). Let’s take one example, since this system to search out your buyers will work for most subject areas.
Children’s Health. You don’t need a degree in nursing or medicine to be qualified as a stock photographer in this area. Nor do you need to be a parent. All you need is the passion to express your interest and share it with your viewers.
Most photobuyers are not interested in purchasing documentary or general pictures in this area. Such images are readily available as free stock images from pharmaceutical companies, staff photographers at hospitals, and insurance agencies. Buyers want the intimate, personalized, and current images offered by independent photographers familiar with their field of interest.
The Internet has become the research tool of choice for stock photographers. List several subjects involved in your area of specialization. In the case of children’s health, ones to use would include: parent, child, school, nurse, medical, allergy, pediatric neurology, asthma, nutrition. Using the query tab of a search engine such as Google, type in the word magazine, plus the word child and the word health. For example, the results of this combination: “magazine child health school,” retrieved 22 possible magazine contacts. In fifteen minutes of searching, you can easily find one hundred potential outlets for your specific photography. Hint: when entering your choice of words, put the most important words (in this case, magazine, child, and health) early in your description.
In additional searches, in place the word magazine, insert “ book publisher,” “association,” “organization,” or “products.” You’ll find a few hundred more outlets.
An added help in this process is Alexa.com, a toolbar that you can install (free) on your computer (www.alexa.com). When you retrieve one site, Alexa will also suggest four or five “similar” sites on the same subject area.
Once you have selected several dozen magazines, prioritize them according to how well they match with your primary interests. For example, a magazine concerning dyslexic children might go last; a magazine concerning children with asthma might go first.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Next, ask the magazines for their submission guidelines. These can also be found by using the search tool on the magazine’s website. Frequently the magazine will include the photographers’ guidelines within the “Writers’ Guidelines” section.
You’ll be instructed on how to submit your images: CD, e-mails, or a LightBOX*. Rarely will the photobuyer ask to see actual slides.
If you are a beginner at submitting digital images, this report is useful: www.photosource.com/products, click on “Digital Marketing Guide.”
How many photos should you submit once you have found a target market? A sampling of six photos is enough for the photobuyer to get an idea of your work. If you are e-mailing: put your best shot as the first of your six jpegs. Hint: check out the web samples or newsstand samples of the magazine to see the style of photo they prefer. Adapt your submission to reflect their preferences.
Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. E-mail: info@photosource.com . Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com.
Business
Notepad
PHOTOBUYERS are looking for you.
Not every buyer looks for a pretty sunset
or a placid lake scene. In fact they seldom do. They know exactly where they can
find one. What they DO look for are those hard-to-locate pictures that
their authors write about. It just may be in your database. But how do you know
they’re looking for one of your pictures? If you are just starting out in stock
photography, you may ... Full
Story
Specialization
PHOTOBUYERS at large publishing houses will often use certain photosupplier agencies instead of you, an individual photographer -- not because your work is not good, but because of the "arrangements" the Operations Manager has made with a photosupplying company whose secret is to give deep discounts on high volume purchases (sort of a Wal-Mart type of deal). Photobuyers and researchers are instructed by their companies to make their selections with that particular photo agency when at all possible. Whether the month's total image: purchases are Royalty-Free or Rights-Protected, the discount is made on volume. There's nothing illegal about this. It's business as usual. However, one thing these massive photosupplying agencies can't do is supply the highly specialized and specific photos that only individual editorial photographers can supply. SOLUTION: Place your scenics, landscapes, etc. with a large stock house that deals in volume with its buyers. Market your specialized, content specific photos yourself to a Market List of buyers you've built up (through research) who you know are always in need of specialized pictures in subject areas that you like to work with.
Rohn Engh is the best-selling author of "Sell & ReSell Your Photos" and "sellphotos.com." He has produced a new eBook, "How to Make the Marketable Photo." For more information and to learn how to sell photos and to receive his free eReport: "8 Steps to Becoming a Published Photographer," visit his website, PhotoSource International or call 800 624-0266.
They Said It:
"The work will teach you how to do it." -Estonian Proverb
Of
Interest
Re-publication Permits Privacy Suit to Proceed
Although the language of each state statute may vary, the use of a
person’s name, portrait or picture in a photograph cannot be used for
advertising, commercial or trade purposes, without the person’s written
consent.
This is called the Right to Privacy. The time to bring a lawsuit for
invasion of the Right to Privacy is one year from the first publication
in New York and most other states, but is subject to what is called the
single publication rule. Under this rule, the statute of limitations
begins to run on the date the material at issue is first published or
used. Accordingly, subsequent distributions or uses of the images does
not constitute a separate publication or continuing wrong which would
extend to the date the initial claim accrued.
The purpose of this rule is to avoid an endless tolling of the
limitations statute. For example, a distribution of a work to a library
would be the initial date for statute of limitations purposes, and that
initial date would not be extended each time the ... Full
Story
Researching Your Markets
Are your promotional efforts right on target or do they miss the mark? In the world of direct marketing, relevant marketing is a term that defines what your target market prefers and how to get the right promotion to that market. In the case of photobuyers (your target market) it basically means that the more you know about the buyer you are sending your marketing materials to, the better off you are.
The concept is simple. Do your homework. Research what the photobuyer's purchasing preferences are and apply that information to your marketing strategies. Examples of relevant information you can seek out to build effective marketing efforts, are: 1) what computer system does the photobuyer use? Do they accept digital preview scans? If so, what format do they prefer? Is their computer format Windows, or another? 2) Do they welcome update postcards, sell-sheets, periodic e-mails, travel itineraries, personal phone calls or faxed reminders?
In all marketing efforts, detail knowledge can mean the difference between success and failure. Targeted marketing (rifling) is much more efficient and produces better results than broad marketing (shotgunning); this is a well-known fact in the direct marketing industry. Another well-known fact is that marketing tailored to specific prospects and their preferences is even more efficient.
DOING YOUR HOMEWORK
How do you discover this vital information about your prospects? Most often, you can find out this 'relevant information' by establishing yourself as an important resource to the photobuyer (if your specialized expertise matches their specialized interest areas, you are an important resource to them).
Then send an e-mail inquiry to the photobuyers you work with and simply ask them to supply the information you need. This can be in the form of a small survey, or some straight-out questions with multiple choice answers.
If you explain that you need the information to be able to serve them better, chances are that they will be very willing to respond. Many times you'll find that they have already prepared a Q&A sheet for photo suppliers. This is in their best interest as well as yours.
Let me share a real-life example of my own, from my position as an independent photographer. A while ago I personally made a CD catalog as a service to my clients. The catalog was made as a PDF document with some 350 images. The reason I went with PDF is the great versatility of that particular format, since it can be accessed on both PC and MAC.
I included with the CD a brief questionnaire asking which method the photobuyer prefers for receiving a photo supplier's catalog. Out of the some 300 photobuyers I sent the CD's to, about half (150) preferred a specialized CD catalog they can use whenever they choose. Approximately 80 photobuyers contacted me and asked for a printed version, which I later sent.
In the future, it's likely that more and more photobuyers will be set up for and willing to handle digital promo pieces, but I learned through my questionnaire that there will always be those photobuyers who prefer more traditional promotion delivery methods.
Which methods do each of your photobuyers prefer?
Photojournalist Mikael Karlsson has 14 years' experience of working for magazines and newspapers in more than 30 countries. He moved to the United States in 1998 from his native Sweden. He lives in Nebraska and is currently US correspondent for 18 Swedish magazines and a regular contributor to a wide variety of U.S. publications. Reach him at mike@photosource.com.
You feel fine when your photo database is in order…not cluttered. How ‘bout your work area, or your home? FEEL GOOD!
CAMERA CATCHES NURSING HOME WRONGDOING. Deb Hamilton suspected her grandmother Armeda Thomas was being mistreated at the facility, so she set up a hidden camera that captured some disturbing evidence, such as an aide walking in with a meal then eating the food herself as Thomas laid in bed.
http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=9466418&nav=EQlp
WATERMARKS, er uh, FINGERPRINTS. - The PhotoshopDisasters blog has a collection of actual ads made from images that are overlayed with the iStockphoto watermark.
TAKEAWAY: Who knows, in the future, maybe watermarks will become designer symbols like an NIKE check mark or “AS SEEN ON CNN.”.
http://www.pdnpulse.com/2008/12/are-people-scoffing-at-your-watermark.html
Jerry Kennelly, who sold his Stockbyte imaging business to US-based Getty Images two years ago for $135m (USA) at the time), is preparing to launch a major new online venture backed by a multimillion euro investment.
TAKEAWAY. The Microstock model was good to Kennelly. Let’s see what he comes up with in 2009.
http://www.ukpreneur.co.uk/1442/a-light-shines-brightly-for-kerry-entrepreneur/
WHO IS THE WINNER ? Win a Trip For Two to Maui - By just entering this contest Popular Photography takes exclusive license of your photo. Read the contest rules, "exclusive" license means 'you' can't use your photo.
http://www.photoattorney.com/
QUICK READ. Google Is Scanning Magazines Into Their Database - From Google: "Today, we're announcing an initiative to help bring more magazine archives and current magazines online, partnering with publishers to begin digitizing millions of articles from titles as diverse as New York Magazine, Popular Mechanics, and Ebony."
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2008/12/10/google-is-scanning-magazines-into-their-database/
