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info@photosource.com
www.photosource.com
November 2003
Week Three
Number 398C
Volume 12
Key words in this issue: Piece by
piece | Markets | Keywords |
Derivative Works |
NEWSWORDS: Wildlife |
Organize | Copyright | Contest |
Fashion | Arctic | Kentucky
ARE YOU BUILDING SOMETHING
FROM NOTHING.
Where does a stock
photography business come from.
Actually, since there’s no textbook or
college course on how to en-
ter and survive in a stock
photography business, it is
your own creation. Like
making a photograph or cre-
ating a painting, it comes
from inside of you. All you
need to keep it going is your
desire and your skills. Un-
less you have purchased
someone else’s business, a
photo marketing business is
something you build piece
by piece.
A good example of some-
thing from nothing is the ra-
dio commercial. (See box.)
A whole industry was built (an-
nouncers, jingles, account execu-
tives, technicians) when the need for
radio commercials blossomed.
Before PhotoSource Interna-
tional pioneered the first photogra-
pher marketletter, the PhotoLetter, in
1976, there was no marketletter noti-
fying photographers of the photo
needs of photo editors, sent (via U.S.
Mail) to photographer sub-
scribers. Today, that
marketletter industry has blos-
somed, improved, and has
catapulted to speedy electronic
delivery. .
It may seem like a daunting
task for you, to start building a
stock photo collection and to
market those photos to
photobuyers who need images
that match your photography
interest areas. Welcome to the
task. Join the ranks of entrepre-
neurs who have built new path-
ways to success in their inter-
est areas. -RE
Before August, 1922, radio listeners never heard
the phrase, “And now a word from our sponsor...”
Direct adver-
tisement was
prohibited by
law. Radio
station
WEAF in
New York
aired the first
commercial
in the history
of radio in
August, 1922.
It was for an
apartment
complex in the suburbs of New York. H.M.
Blackwell, a representative of the apartment com-
plex, Queensboro Corporation, talked for 10 minutes
about the advantages of living in the suburbs.
Blackwell talked about the apartments without
mentioning anything about the rates. He only men-
tioned the Queensboro Corporation once by name.
Help Photobuyers and
Photo Editors
By Bill Hopkins
Whether you subscribe to
listed with other similar providers, spend some time with your keywords and
photo descriptions. The vast majority of image searches on the Internet are
keyword searches, meaning that photo buyers don’t search page after page of
images, but instead type a few highly specific keywords into search engines
(such as search.photosource.com) to locate the required images. Use key-
words that accurately describe your images, of course, but don’t forget to in-
clude words, as applicable, that evoke a mood or emo-
tions or concepts. With difficult-to-spell words, include
popular-use misspellings. If your images are of things
technical or scientific, include those terms also, remem-
bering to include industry slang and/or ‘buzz words” as
appropriate. Even though a computer will be conducting
the search, DON’T USE ALL UPPERCASE JUST
‘CAUSE IT’S TOO HARD TO USE THE SHIFT KEY,
OR THAT’S HOW YOU DID IT BEFORE. (Looks
amateurish, doesn’t it.) When the photo editor lands on
your page, use of all uppercase is difficult to read. Avoid
most punctuation, and if you must use punctuation or
Addendum
:
It’s fast becoming ap-
parent to photo researchers
that the easiest way
to find a particular image is not to look for the image itself,
but to search for a word(s) describing the image. Very often
the searched-for image is an isolated cafe in Chicago, a mu-
seum for model railroad cars in Pittsburgh, or a mountain
wildflower in Wyoming. Major search engines such as
Google, Yahoo, Alta Vista, HotBot, Lycos, Infoseek, etc.,
continually use their webcrawlers to capture such words
(text) that describe images on the Web.
Focus On Key Issues For Editorial Stock Photographers
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PhotoStockNotes from PhotoSource International
“Isn’t marketing a lot of hassle.” you ask. Remem-
ber, you have chosen to photograph in an area that wild
horses can’t pull you away from (vegetable gardening,
hummingbirds, basketball, astronomy, etc.) so all the
inconvenience of getting your pictures to market isn’t
going to bother you.
What
will
bother you will be the discouraging rejec-
tions you receive when you attempt to market your ge-
neric, across-the-board pictures. The Law of Supply
and Demand takes over and dictates the market value of
your prize-winning scenics. There are just too many ex-
cellent “Sunday” pictures available to photobuyers.
Buyers usually turn to their favorite Rolodex photogra-
phers when they need scenics.
FINDING YOUR MARKETS
Finding who your markets are requires only the
simple task of making a visit to your local library. In the
reference section you’ll discover the companies and
magazines whose publishing themes match your inter-
est areas. There are more than three dozen directories
that list the names and addresses of specialized publish-
ing houses and corporations. Your reference librarian
can help you locate them either in-the-library, or
through the Inter-Library Loan Service. By combing
these directories and those you find on the web, you
build a Market List of buyers who are, at this moment,
waiting to see your photos. They will consider you an
important resource. You are now on your way to selling
your photos.
THE MARKETABLE PICTURE
Assuming you have the equipment and the know-
The ABC’s of...
how to make a technically acceptable photo, the only bar-
rier left is to learn what the “marketable picture” is.
A blueprint is available to you by examining the photos
in the magazines and books on your coffee table. If you
eliminate the nature-oriented magazines and books that
generally feature scenics (the competition for photogra-
phers in these areas is fierce), you will notice that most
published photographs contain four basic elements: 1) an
interesting and/or compelling background; 2) people; 3) a
symbol or icon that orients you to the message or subject
matter of the picture; 4) some interaction by the people (or
person) with that symbol.
Of course, all rules are made to be broken, but a major-
ity of the time you’ll discover that most of the pictures that
attract your attention are those that include the above four
elements.
An educational exercise is to study the
National Geo-
graphic Magazine
(they published their first photo in
1911), and discover how the magazine evolved from
primitive postcard-type pictures in its early years to full-
dimensional content pictures by mid-century.*
FOR SALE OR FOR SOUL.
Marketable pictures are those that you take “for sale.”
Your poetical photography, your landscapes, scenics, and
mood shots, are those you take “for soul.” If your “for
soul” pictures are difficult to sell, it’s not because they are
not good pictures, it’s because the competition is strong
and there’s a surfeit of supply. You may win awards and
prizes with them, but at the marketplace, the real judge is
the photobuyer who is searching for content-specific pic-
tures. And who also, by the way, is signing the checks.
* The complete magazine series (since 1888) is avail-
able on CD-ROM.
http://www.nationalgeographic .com
Rohn Engh
is Director of PhotoSource International and Publisher of
PhotoStockNotes.
special characters (such as in foreign
words), include the same word again
without the diacritical marks. Many
search engines won’t know what to do
with them, and will pass the word by.
Also, most people won’t know how to
compose those special characters when
typing into a search box. And lastly, when
doing your keyword/description entry, try
to think like a photobuyer who is at this
moment trying to locate a suitable (and
often highly specialized) image for use in
her magazine catering to experts (or
wannabe experts) in the very special in-
terest area of the magazine or book.
Bill Hopkins
is the Webmaster of
PhotoSourceFolio
regular contributor to
PhotoStockNotes
. Send comments
via e-mail to wh@photosourcefolio.com. Fax: 1 818 831-
0916. For on-line questions, contact Bill on the
Kracker
Barrel
at www.photosource.com/board.
It’s more important than ever that your image(s) posted on the web be
accompanied by a lengthy caption that includes words that would help a
photo researcher, using a search engine, land on your site (rather than some-
one else’s). Even if you don’t have images posted on the web, post your text
description. The search engines will find them and the photobuyers will con-
tact you with more information about their hard-to-locate photo needs.
Photo researchers
who know exactly what they want in the way
of an editorial photo don’t waste time looking at images. Instead, they let a
search engine do their work for them by narrowing down the field of choices.
Once they locate a source(s) of images, then they begin looking at pictures.
Posting descriptive words in the absence of actual photos is the way
many photographers are now beginning to realize more sales. For example.
micro-biologists who are also freelance stock photographers might post sev-
eral hundred descriptive words on their website, knowing, although they
might not have the photo in their files, they can get access to take the photo(s)
in a moment’s notice.
Don’t make the mistake of posting hundreds of images on your website
and expecting a photo editor to look at them. You only have to imagine that
same researcher having to repeat that process dozens of times a day while
searching for images. Eyes get tired, too. Searching by keyword, photo edi-
tors have discovered, narrows their search down to the source of the exact
photo they need. -RE
HASSLE-FREE MARKETING
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PhotoStockNotes from PhotoSource International
GoodStuff
Copyright Registration
Forms Must Be
Completed Accurately
and Honestly
Stephen Filler, Esq.
Although completing the copyright
application forms seems like a mun-
dane clerical task, it is critically impor-
tant that the forms be completed accu-
rately and honestly.
If a court finds that an application
registration is substantially mislead-
ing or contains knowingly false infor-
mation, the registration will not be
validated. And even if you make an
honest mistake in the application, this
may give an infringer grounds to raise
the question of whether you knew
about the mistake, which could lead
to a trial on this issue, substantially
increase the costs of litigation, and
significantly reduce the settlement
value of your case.
One area where photographers can
easily err is where the application
asks if the work is a derivative work
— that is, a work that is based on, or
that incorporates, a pre-existing
work. This might occur, for example,
if you shoot an image of a sculpture, or
other artwork, that is itself subject
to copyright protection. In this
case, the application should ac-
knowledge the preexisting work,
and state what copyrightable mate-
rial you have added.
DERIVATIVE WORKS
In a recent decision by the 9
th
Circuit Court of Appeals, Lamps
Plus v. Seattle Lighting Fixture, Co.
(Oct. 6, 2003), defendant claimed
that plaintiff’s registration was in-
valid because the application did
not disclose the preexisting compo-
nents in the work. The Court ulti-
mately upheld the registration, find-
ing this mistake was inadvertent
and there was no intent to defraud
the Copyright Office. But other
courts have been not so kind when
it appeared the registrant knew that
there was pre-existing material but
did not disclose it.
Copyright © 2003
Stephen Filler
.
Stephen Filler is an attorney
(www.nylawline.com) whose practice focuses
on intellectual property, copyright, trademark,
technology, media, contracts, corporate and
photography law. His office is located at 303
South Broadway, Suite 222, Tarrytown, New
York, 10591, 914-332-4114, sfiller@
nylawline.com. This column is to be used for
informational purposes only and should not be
considered as legal advice. For legal advice,
please consult an attorney.
JOHN SHAW’S BUSINESS OF NATURE PHO-
TOGRAPHY
:
A Professional’s Guide to Marketing
and Managing a Successful Nature Photography
Business
, by John Shaw, Amphoto, 1996, ISBN 0-
8174-4050-X, hardcover, $35, 144 pages. Though
loaded with samples of his stunning photos, Shaw
devotes every inch of text to selling, not shooting.
He covers such nitty-gritty issues as what editors
want, specializing vs. generalizing, captioning and
organizing, choosing which images to submit, find-
ing and contacting clients, pricing and payment,
model releases, taxes, and more. Despite the title,
this book provides detailed information for running
any type of stock photography business, not just na-
ture. –
David Arnold & Gail Rutman
http://www.photosource.com/pbk/081744050X
CREATIVE TECHNIQUES FOR COLOR
PHOTOGRAPHY
, by Bobbi Lane. This book
contains everything you ever wanted to know
about color, from a discussion on the electro-
magnetic spectrum, to the visible spectrum and
prisms, to how humans perceive color. Lane
also covers the effects of time of day, weather,
color temperature, filters, and gels, on the final
color image. ($29.95; 128 page; 250 full-color
photos; ISBN: 1-58428-104-9) Contact:
Amherst Media, 175 Rano St, Ste 200, Buffalo
NY 14207. Phone: 1 800 622-3278. Fax: 1
800 622-3298.
http:/www.photosouce.com/pbk/1584281049
HOW TO PHOTOGRAPHY PETS
, by Nick
Ridley. Capture that lasting portrait of your pet
with the help of a professional who has an in-
depth knowledge of both photography and ani-
mal behavior. This book gives insights into
your pet’s body language; covers the finer
points of composition and lighting; shows how
to choose a suitable background, indoors or out;
catch the animal in motion; try the digital so-
lution, and more. ($24.95; ISBN: 1-86108-
242-8; 168 pages, all color) Contact: Sterling
Publishing Co., Inc. 387 Park Ave S, New York
NY 10016-8810. Phone: 1 800 805-5489.
.
O
Wildlife photography: brain, strategy keys - Learn about the animal before you try to stalk or lure it
Afghan camerawoman turns lens on post-Taliban life - Two years after the fall of the Taliban who outlawed photog-
raphy and films as un-Islamic and barred women from public life, Mehrya and her colleagues still face challenges
in a country burdened with the legacy of the hardline militia.
Adobe Makes It Easier to Organize Digital Photos
Watch for developments in the field of stock photography in PhotoStockNotes
PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS
You’ll be the first to know…
Note: If the URL is long, it may extend to two lines. In that case - clicking on it won’t work. Instead, “copy and
paste” the URL.
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PhotoStockNotes from PhotoSource International
NFL Angers Photographers With Archive Negotiations - The National Football League’s Business Ventures has
asked several stock agencies to bid on the takeover of its historical photo archive. The problem for the NFL is they
don’t own the copyright to the archived photos — freelance photographers do.
Contest offers cameras, internships, for students Tuesday night found Shadi Abdeljabbar, a 17-year-old junior at
Union Hill High School in Union City, taking black-and-white photographs of homeless men and women in New
York’s Union Square with a 35 mm camera on loan from his school.
Western photographer donates talent for FFA Christmas cards A nationally known Western photographer and the
FFA chapter in Joseph have teamed up this year to create Christmas cards that they hope will find a ready market in
Eastern Oregon.
DeSoto to feature photo exhibit DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge is featuring the nature photography of Mark
Romesser Nov. 17 through Dec. 14 at the DeSoto Visitor Center.
Photography centre puts Winterthur in the picture Winterthur’s photography museum has staged 60 exhibitions since
it opened in 1993 and attracts some 30,000 visitors a year.
A line in the sand for fashion photography PARIS The mutant modernism of Man Ray, the troubling eroticism of
Helmut Newton, even the gaudy glamour of David LaChapelle, prove that fashion can be at photography’s cutting
ImageScape Press Event to Provide Kickoff for ‘Flash Forward’ at the 2004 International CES With nearly 35
million digital cameras installed in North America, and around 70 million worldwide, the digital imaging industry is
poised for tremendous growth in 2004. In fact, InfoTrends Research Group expects that digital cameras will outsell
film cameras in units and revenue worldwide in 2004, and the exploding camera phone market adds even more
capture devices.
Portfolio: Gary Knight Photographs North Korea - For ten days in late September and early October, British photo-
journalist Gary Knight got to see what few outsiders are ever exposed to.
Free Downloads of Famous Fonts Time-Savers for Your Graphics Staff
Mysteries of Digital Photography Solved by New Interactive DVD - Not sure which digital camera to buy. Having
trouble getting great results from the camera you already own. A new interactive DVD clears away the mystery and
A weekly newsletter, published by Rohn Engh, Director,
PhotoSource International. Printed by Printing PLUS. Copyright
Rohn Engh. Subscription fee: $5 per month (4 weekly issues) or
$36 per year. Reproducing or copying PhotoStockNotes is not permitted without written consent of the publisher, except for review
purposes where source credit is given. On-Line Editor: Bill Hopkins; Reviews Editor: Mikael Karlsson. Chief Editor: Angela Dober.
ISSN#1073-0710. Publication number: 419-450 Fax: 1 715 248-7394 Phone: 1 715 248-3800. E-mail: info@photosource.com Web:
http://www.photosource.com Address: 1910 35th Rd, Osceola, WI 54020.
PhotoStockNotes
