Success Stories - PhotoSource International

Success Stories

Learn about fellow stock photographers. How they work. How they succeed.

Cliff Hollenbeck and his wife Nancy have been selling their photography for more than thirty years. When I walked into their spacious 5-room office in a former warehouse in Seattle, I felt I was on a movie set. Color, sound, movement everywhere. "When you've got 300,000 photos in these files (Cliff and Nancy wave down a long corridor of file drawers), you have to be organized. We like to think of administration as an art, also." The Hollenbecks are most known for their travel photography. Cliff has been named "Photographer of the Year" on several occasions by the prestigious Society of American Travel Writers (SATW). Cliff's book, BIG BUCKS Selling Your Photography (HOT SHOT Productions, Box 4247, Seattle WA 98104), is the first one recommended by seasoned travel writers and photographers.

Cliff and Nancy Hollenbeck
2223 2nd Ave
Seattle WA 98121

(206) 443 1333
Fax: (206) 441 0743

Advance Notes: Digital photography has brought a new tool to the area of nature photography. Tim Fleming is a proponent of this new technology. Although he spends his working hours in the field of analog photography (he is a manager of a photo-processing lab in Sonoma County, California), he prefers to make his finished artwork using digitized images. PhotoStockNotes asked him a few questions about his working methods.

PSN: What's the advantage of digital over analog?

Fleming: For me, it’s having total control over the image. Film has so many quirks and idiosyncrasies that cannot be effectively controlled at the moment of exposure. For example, the bluish cast that appears in subjects in the shade. You could shoot with a warming filter , but then you’ve altered all the colors of the scene. With a digital image, I can selectively edit only the blue cast, leaving the rest of the colors intact. I can also adjust hue, saturation, and contrast to bring out or de-emphasize certain areas of the image.

Tim Fleming
Fleming Photographics
Petaluma CA 94954-5430
1 707 765-4632
Email: fleming@astro.umd.edu
Want to read more of this interview? Go to: http://www.photosource.com/channel/psn/eng/mainjun01e.html

Carl May is a biologist. He began his stock photography career while officially a college biology editor on the east coast back in the 60's. After moving to the west coast, he struck out on his own by establishing a stock photo agency, one that deals only with life, earth, and environmental sciences. "That meant that my photographers should have a college degree and know how to caption biology and geology-oriented images," says Carl, who is not a photographer himself. "When other stock agents ask me how I can exist as a one-person agency, it's a signal to me that they are dealing across the board with their pictures rather than in one vertical market. Technology today allows agents and photographers to specialize. Buyers know they can get highly specific pictures when they come to us." Carl plans on setting up a web site eventually. "Not a gallery of images, they're tedious; besides our buyers already know what they're looking for. We'll feature searchable text; it's speedy." Carl has a couple dozen very active photographers, and a total of 65 or so under contract. Fine grain film is important to him because his buyers will often use only a portion of a 35mm transparency. He prefers KODACHROME 25, VELVIA, and LUMIERE 100, and to a lesser degree EKTACHROME 100 and PROVIA 100. Carl's advice to stock photographers: "Decide what you love shooting best, and then find out if there's a niche agency that handles your market. If not, become one."

Carl May
BIOLOGICAL PHOTO SERVICE
PO Box 490
Moss Beach CA 94038

"I used to do mostly assignments but now I do mostly stock," says Dale O'Dell, who has moved to the small village of Dewey, near Prescott, AZ. Dale recognized the link between computers, art and photography as early as 1982, and began producing computer graphics on machines that can now be found only in museums. "However, I soon recognized that when art directors made their decisions, they leaned toward standard film-based photography. That's where I began putting my emphasis." He has placed his photos in three agencies and also sells directly. The Internet? "Initially, I spent a lot of my time there -unproductively. It's great Infotainment, but I've got more important things to do. Once they get the problem of transferring credit cards solved, I might get interested." Except for digital imaging which can't handle big image files, he runs everything off his laptop: accounting, database, and word processing.

Dale O'Dell
1225 B Tapadero
Dewey AZ 86327
(602) 772 7268
Fax: (602) 772-9034

"The best pictures you take in your career are the things you love," says Chris Sorensen, who has had a love of airplanes since childhood. Today, it's his specialty, especially civil aircraft. He has assignments at aerospace trade shows worldwide; often producing photos published at the shows. He speaks the language of aviation trade magazine editors and produces the aircraft and new product pictures that they need. "We check the PHOTODAILY everyday at 3:00 pm when it comes in, and if any of the listings have anything to do with flying, we get material off to the new contact immediately. It's like an up-to-date mailing list I get every day." Chris just returned from Singapore. His next jaunt: Berlin.

CHRIS SORENSEN PHOTOGRAPHY
717 Grand Avenue
Sheboygan WI 53083
Phone (414) 457 6866.
Fax: (920) 457 0865

David Brownell was working for the Aspen Ski Corp. back in 1975 when he discovered he could turn his photography hobby into a profitable business. When ski magazines started buying his photos (and one of his shots on a cover) he knew he could compete with the pros. The magazine work led to assignments (one company sent him to Kilimanjaro). Eventually he migrated to the East coast where his western style of ski shooting was in great demand. The move was a challenge: no more spectacular mountains, crisp blue skies, and mild, dry weather of the Rockies. "The East is wet, windy and COLD. I keep my EOS1N batteries always charged. My socks and boots are always dry -never wet. And for dexterity, I wear Thermax Gloves with fingerless bunting gloves (available in hunting and fishing supply stores) over top. Never use wool gloves; they have a tendency to get strands wound up into your film cartridges."

DAVID BROWNELL PHOTOGRAPHY
PO Box 60
Andover NH 03216
Phone: (603) 735-6440
Fax: (603) 735-6450

In the 1950's when I was breaking into photography, I went to "school" by devouring the pages of POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY, MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY, U.S. CAMERA, etc. One of my favorite authors was Roy Pinney. In the 40's and 50's, Roy was freelancing to the major magazines of the day (LIFE, LOOK, LIBERTY, COLLIERS, etc.). He covered the Normandy invasion on D-Day, the pre-invasion of Afghanistan by Russia, the Yom Kippur War.
In 1951 he recognized the growing need for stock photography and operated PhotoLibrary, Inc. He was among the early members of ASMP, and he started PACA (Picture Agency Council of America) and was its second president.
I lost track of Roy in the 70's and then learned that he turned his camera talents to movie making where he has been involved with several national wildlife television shows as a filmmaker.
Roy has always been in the forefront of photography innovation. Can we expect to see him re-enter the still photos industry, this time in digital form?

Roy Pinney
FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHY
325 W 45th St #516
New York, NY 10036

"I'm a one-man band," says Larry Mulvehill. He sold his first stock photo in 1971; "I think it was a picture of a bear to Encyclopedia Britannica." Larry operates his stock photography business out of his Oceanport, NJ home. "I don't hire any help, I keep it simple, and I've got my files of 45,000 photos down to a system that's easy to handle."
He maintains two files, his "star" file (where he logs in his super-winners) and his regular file. He places his "star" slides in 4"x5" black mounts, seals them, and stores them in shoe boxes according to subject matter. "China here, Cuba there, radio station broadcast towers over there. I don't need a computer search program. I know where everything is. I use the CRADOC Captionwriter, the early version for the PC. It works great."
Larry is experimenting with digital imagery. He has sent several dozen of his slides off to a service bureau, which scanned them onto a disk. Larry then uses PHOTOSHOP to manipulate the scanned images to form new combinations. "My stock agent has reported great interest in these images."

Larry Mulvehill
32 Commanche Dr
Oceanport NJ 07757
fogfilter@aol.com
members@aol.com/fogfilter

Conrad Bloomquist has worked as both a professional photographer and as the manager of Scenic Photo Imagery, a Minneapolis stock photo agency representing 70 photographers at its peak in March of 1992. Conrad found that the time consuming duties of reviewing both current and prospective photographer's submissions, the labeling, filing, sending out and restocking images, and dealing with buyers representing all levels of competency can take its toll.
He got to the point where, in order to advance his agency to the level of being a truly nationally recognized stock source, he was faced with having to hire several more office assistants and to spend upwards of $50,000 in new advertising. "What I came to realize was that while running this size of agency, I wasn't able to devote nearly the time I wanted to getting out in the field and doing what I really love, scenic photography." So in March of 1992, after eight years of marketing for other photographers, he decided to release them all and spent four months emptying the files of their images. Now he markets only his own images under the name Scenic Photo!, specializing in scenic U.S. landscapes and cityscapes. "Of course total revenues aren't as high right now. But it costs a tremendous amount of money to run a multi-photographer agency, and the result is that my personal net income is about the same."
To market his more limited range and focus of subject matter, existing client lists were pared down and new self-promotional materials were created. "Good self-promotional materials are critical to individual photographers for establishing name recognition and credibility in the image marketplace." He routinely mails out 8 1/2" x 11" color promo cards along with his latest travel itinerary, and also uses color photo business cards exclusively. "A photographer's business card should be a photo of the best, most representative, and most saleable image in the file," says Conrad.
This summer, besides numerous excursions within Minnesota, Conrad will be going in July to central Colorado for wildflower images, and deep into Canyonlands National Park in Utah with his maroon Pathfinder. "If you see the Pathfinder and a big guy with a large black backpack full of camera gear, stop and say hello!"

Conrad Bloomquist
SCENIC PHOTO
9208 32 Ave N
New Hope MN 55427
Phone and Fax: (612) 542 8740

"I've seen it all," smiles Burton McNeely, a stock photographer who has been with The IMAGE BANK since 1975, and has done commercial assignments for everyone from Chrysler Marine, to Yamaha Motors, to Eastman Kodak. He owns a commercial lab (12 employees), produces films and videos, is an expert in underwater photography, and is owner of a photo decor gallery. "There's very little in this industry I haven't seen or done."
His headquarters are downtown Tampa, but his off time finds him enjoying his Land O'Lakes studio/home/office on stilts, where alligators are the nearest neighbors.
And what about the future? "When you anticipate the changes, you can roll with them when they strike," says McNeely.
The "digital age" did not surprise McNeely, who recently augmented his lab service to include drum scans and flatbed scans, high resolution film output in 35mm, 4X5 and 8X10, CD-ROM recording, and graphic design services. His people will even (digitally) retouch and restore historical or damaged photos. He recently used digital technology to restore old Ektachrome slides from an extensive essay on hurricanes, shot for LIFE in 1964-65." A couple of these 'action-severe weather' photos still sell 4 or 5 times a year for good ad rates," says McNeeley. "Strong, new stock photos are also being created digitally by combining image elements from my extensive stock files. These new compositions are subjects that would be difficult to shoot on location. They are already selling well."
"I don't look back," says McNeely. "The action is ahead of me. Why look back?"

Burton McNeely
Creative Color Digital Imaging
4911 W Grace St
Tampa FL
Phone: (813) 289-4385
or (800) 330-5680

"I welcome assignments that take me into areas that I wouldn't normally have access to," says Billy Barnes who has been supplying stock photos to the publishing world since 1957. "For example, if I get an assignment from a hospital, I usually make an arrangement with them. If they do the administrative work (scheduling, model releases, distributing keepsake photos) I will make an adjustment in my day rate, as long as I can use the outtakes for my stock file."
Barnes is one of the pioneers in freelance stock photography. He sells directly to hundreds of markets, plus has photos in several stock agencies.
Since agencies require model releases, he uses a unique method for getting them. When in public, in addition to his standard file photos, he makes a duplicate photo with his point-and-shoot camera. He sends a print to the subject, or, if it's a child, to the parent, along with a release form to return to him. The photo itself serves as legal compensation.
Billy Barnes is known throughout the Southeast as "that homespun North Carolina commentator" on PBS radio. His byline is also seen on travel features.

BILLY BARNES
313 SeVerin St
Chapel Hill NC 27516
Phone: (919) 942-6350

Dennis Cox is a model for the media photographer of the future. Unlike stock photographers of the 80's who filled their files with "across the board" fine, excellent catalog stock photography, Dennis began asking himself, "Why am I taking this picture? Do I have a specific market for it?" If the answer was no, Dennis pointed his camera in a different direction.
This simple marketing technique has paid off, and will come into increasing usage as we move toward the New Media of the next century. Dennis chose an area of specialization that he enjoyed, and began building his photo files vertically: China. He is now becoming known as a photographer with a strong and expanding file on China.
As China moves into modern times, his earlier pictures will become as important to photobuyers as his contemporary images.
Dennis leads photo tours to China twice a year. His next one coming up is September 13th-October 6th.

Dennis Cox
ChinaStock Photo Library
22111 Cleveland #211
Dearborn MI 48124-3461
Phone: (313) 561-1842
decoxphoto@aol.com

Lynn Seldon Jr. came to stock photography via the back door. A travel writer for eight years, he noted that photos not only enhanced the impact of his articles, but also the sales.
Three years ago he bought his first Nikon, and has seen his net profits steadily increase. Photography now brings in 50% of his gross revenue.
In the early stages of his travel writing career he spent a lot of time contacting potential markets. "Now I've discovered ways of getting them to contact me," says Seldon.
"I have built up a solid market list over the years. Periodically I send out 3,500 travel photo post cards to my list. I keep in touch. Invariably, the mailing results in assignments and also sales of the picture featured on my post card. The mailing always pays for itself. The added promotional value is priceless. It's also a good way of cleaning my list.
"I keep adding to my Market List, by using PHOTOGRAPHER'S MARKET, plus I subscribe to the Weekly Photobulletin, not so much to make sales but to add new contacts to my data base for later contact down the road. Also, I pick up new contacts for my vertical markets from the Changes section of PhotoStockNotes."
And where is he off to next? To capture story projects in Florida, the Grand Canyon, and Las Vegas; and at home he's working on a book project on his home state of Virginia.

Lynn Seldon Jr.
2625 Collins Ave #1807
Miami Beach FL 33140-4750
Phone: (804) 358-2503

New York-based Casey Allen has experienced the evolution of stock photography over the last 70 years. "When I was 8 years old, a nurse in my father's Minneapolis office gave me a camera. The results delighted me and have ever since." His photographs have appeared in hundreds of publications and his career has spanned just about every facet of the fields of photography and writing: photojournalist, photoessayist, teacher, writer, columnist, photo editor, artist, critic. He believes we are experiencing a sunset with B&W photography. "People will soon look at B&W as an artifact. It'll become an art form. I don't see it competing with point-and-shoot photography in the coming digital era."

Casey Allen
451 West End Ave #2D
New York NY 10024
(212) 362 6867
Fax: (212) 262 6619
CaseyA@aol.com

COST OF STARTING A WEB BUSINESS Note: While every stock photographer's situation has its own special mix, it's helpful to see how other photographers just breaking into the market look at expenses and necessities to run their own particular kind of stock photography operation. In this spirit, PhotoStockNotes interviewed photographer Jack Clark, of Fall Creek, Oregon.

PSN: What is the nature of your stock photography business? JC: I currently have about 8000 photos of quarter-mile drag boats. I'm highly specialized. I don't know of anybody else selling drag boat photos. I haven't discovered a strong demand for drag boat pictures, but I love the sport. I am willing to establish my website and wait for the photobuyers who want these photos to become web savvy. So I am in no real hurry. As Rohn Engh says, the photos will just eventually be an annuity for me. PSN: Are you on-line? JC: I have two email addresses with my Internet Service Provider (isp) and 15 mb of disk space. The cost is $28 a month. I believe I am getting a break, as I go through a local credit union and my fee is automatically deducted from my CU account.

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