There are some that still combat royalty free in what seems to be an unfounded hope that it will disappear. Others that turn a blind eye towards microstock and its user generated content. If I can’t see it, it doesn’t exist. Then, there are those who strongly believe that thisContinue Reading

Just returned from 3 days of Paca international conference in Sin city. How appropriate to have held the yearly convention in a gambling town full of hard core, die hard risk takers. Our industry, the photo industry is very similar in its model. When we take images for stock, weContinue Reading

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 mustContinue Reading

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.Continue Reading

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. EconomyContinue Reading

I have noticed something interesting. There is a fundamental difference between editorial photographers and commercial stock photographers. Commercial stock photographers are exactly that: commercial. They are the ones that spend the most time blogging and ranting. They have endless discussions on the economics of picture taking, from the cost ofContinue Reading

It is about time… One key part of where photo agencies could save a lot of time, and thus money, is in their transactions. As I wrote earlier, one of microstock’s, and before that, traditional royalty free success’, is the credit card transaction. Since every transaction is made by creditContinue Reading