tosh brown
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Thanks, Jay – found one too called Photo Shack.
I’m mainly using the iPad for backup storage/viewing on shoots. Dumping cards into it for redundancy. Not for editing on the road. Hoping to one day be able to leave the laptop at home.
Got one coming up though where I also need to also pull shots into specific named folders and present the clients with a slideshow.
So far this app is working good. Only problem now is the initial download time from camera to iPad.
Sloooooooowwwwwwww…..
Just finished the Graph Paper Press/Photoshelter merge.
Thanks, to Kurt, Matt and all for the insights.
Still some style tweaks to play with, but overall I’m pleased with the results.
TB
Very well done, and thanks for sharing Phil.
In just this week alone, I’ve said NO to three different inquiries promising exposure or asking for images in trade for gear.
But, this morning I received an actual check from a company that I said NO to back in October. They came back around after realizing that the free schlock images they had turned up weren’t what they needed to promote their company.
Celebrate your small victories, and keep saying NO!
Looks really nice, Matt.
I just finished the move to Photoshelter as well. Do you have the Fotoquote licensing turned on for your images?
After consulting with a number of hook and bullet photogs that were already there, I decided to toggle mine on at 100% rates along with them. Not sure if we’ll get many buyers, but at least it’s a show of pricing solidarity within the hunting and fishing photo industry.
Next for me, is switching my existing web platform over to Graph Paper Press so I can meld in the stock archive. Still not sure which theme to go with. Some of them have a lot of clutter.
http://toshbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-list
TB
Thanks, All.
I’m also planning to go the Graph Paper blog route once I’ve switched my archive over, but I’m wishing they had a theme that wasn’t so busy with boxes and features and superfluous displays. One thing that I’ve learned over the years about photo websites: clutter scares people away. Especially busy editors and art directors that don’t have a lot of time to look for photos online. Less is more.
Kurt: I noticed that you’ve got the Fotoquote plugin enabled for rights managed sales. Are you getting any nibbles through that program?
Thanks for the nod, Zach.
Hammertime should get the credit for this one. We’ve talked about collaborating on a book that might celebrate the odd subculture of transient western bird hunting, but we weren’t sure there was a big enough audience. The jury is still out, but with this project we’ve definitely turned up a few passionate bird bums.
For the near term we plan to keep having fun with the words and images.
Thanks for reading,
TB
Burning is a local term (Texican redneck speak) that refers to someone blasting across the flats under full power.
Here’s a website that we’ve launched to head off a serious problem on the Texas coast. Scooter and tower boats burning the flats, plowing up seagrass, running over fish, and harassing anglers.
Nearterm we’re hoping to get a few no-motor zones established to combat those that are beyond education. Longterm we’re hoping to influence a cultural shift toward better stewardship of the resource….
No Doug, I don’t have a solution, but I do have a suggestion: if anyone is serious about their work, then they shouldn’t give it away on istockphoto.com, or by any other vehicle that sells it for 1/10th of its value.
Have I ever given a photo away in hopes of getting paid in the future? Yes, but it’s been a long time, and I’ll never do it again because what I learned from that incident is free work leads to more free work.
And no, this isn’t a “back in the day” thread because those stock rates we once enjoyed will never return. If I breached protocol here by posting information that provides awareness to the current plight of the photography biz, then I’ll happily refrain from doing so again.
Out.
Yes, I do try to get the best possible rate for each stock license–as should everyone else that promotes themselves as a photographer.
As said by Rupert in that article:
“Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting,” he said.
In order to stop readers from moving to the huge number of free news websites, Mr Murdoch said News Corp would simply make its content “better and differentiate it from other people”.
He may be onto something, here. He’ll probably get devoured by the Free Web Militia, but I hope he pulls it off.
What we all need to hope for is a day when people will readily pay for quality online content, which in turn SHOULD lead to quality pay for the content providers. At that point the free-zines will either have to ramp it up or fail.
GO RUPERT GO!
What about your book work? How is the market for the nice photo books you’ve done with the Collector’s Covey? They have been one of my “go to” gifts for sporting friends.
Those books have done well (thanks for the biz!), but obviously sales were down this past Christmas when everyone was flat on their back. Coffee-table books are fickle and you don’t want to release one while the DOW is dumping 200 points per day.
I think there will always be a need for great imagery in the book publishing market. That’s part of the reason why I’m hedging my bets in that direction.
And for the record: at some point Departure Publishing will have a need for photos that I don’t have in stock, and we WILL be paying CASH! So, if any of you have an an idea for a big audience coffee-table book, shoot me a proposal via email.
All good points, Zach, but I’m not quite ready to declare it a dead business. Is the “party over”? Yes, I think it definitely is, because for me the party was 1998 through 2005.
That said, I do think the new shooters that make a commitment to the photography business might see a little success once the dust clears. Full-time success? No, but if they’ll learn the business and price their work correctly, they’ll make a few sales.
On the other hand, I think that the people that are taking the more casual approach, the ones that are undercutting the business they’re trying to get into, will eventually get frustrated and move on.
You mentioned the simplicity of supply and demand but there are a lot of other factors at play. I know a number of editors that are tossing around the term “search fatigue”. They’re tired of looking through jillions of flickr pages and CD images to find one decent shot.
My guess is that a lot of the new shooters that have come along with the digital era will eventually get frustrated and bail once they figure out how little cash is available. Their websites will go away, and they’ll quit mailing CD’s and the guides that are shooting product shots in exchange for schwag will lose interest and move on. What’s to keep them plugged in? A free hat and their name in a catalog?
A big percentage of the glut will eventually filter through, and at that point the photographers that played their cards right will see an increase in sales. Will we ever see 2005 prices again? Absolutely not. But I do think there will always be a little money to be made by the savvy shooters.
So I guess, in simple terms, I’m taking a stance somewhere between Chicken Little and Gene Krantz, the NASA Appolo 13 Flight Commander that said “with all due respect sir, I think this will be our finest hour.
While I haven’t had a paid fly fishing assignment in 3 years, I had a decent one last month on the hunting side. I just finished a massive website rebuild and my plan is to keep shooting and keep selling (for cash). When the dust clears, I’ll hopefully be one of the ones still standing. Hopefully a couple of you guys will be there too.
Rock-n-roll
TB
Will –
In this market there are very few fly fishing AD’s that are actually looking to buy a quality image. They don’t have to because they have a lot of options for getting free/cheap ones.
There’s a big misconception out there that guys like me are paying all our bills through paid fly-fishing assignments, and copious stock image sales to magazines and gear companies. Up until 2005, that was the case for me. Since then my business has dropped over 70%.
That said, I think you have to be a generalist and have a little coverage in a lot of areas. I’m constantly looking for that niche where I can become the expert shooter that no one can touch, but to date I haven’t found a niche that this shrinking market will support. Suppose you became the primo underwater trout photographer: it doesn’t matter how many great shots you can produce because you’ll still go hungry if the market–across the board–only pays for 12 underwater trout shots per year.
The challenge, these days, is not creating great work because the market is hugely overstocked with great work. What we need right now are buyers, and they won’t come back until all of the free/cheap product filters out of the system.
Not trying to be the prophet of doom, guys. But I feel like everyone needs to get a realistic grasp of what needs to be done to rebuild the freelance photo business. In all honesty, I think the only shooters that will have a chance to break in and earn an actual living are the ones with serious fine art photography backgrounds. Tibor Nemeth and Paolo Marchesi are good examples. However, they’re getting hired to do the big jobs, across a lot of markets. They’re not relying on fly fishing because they understand the true depth of this diminishing cash pile.
If you enjoy shooting pics, then by all means keep after it. Learn the biz, price your work accordingly, and make a few extra bucks. You do, however, need to be realistic about the potential of ever being able to earn a living from it. That’s why I started this little publishing gig. I had to do something to diversify and stay afloat.
TB
Well guys, as long as we’re on this subject, there’s another issue that should probably be addressed.
Last year at the FFR show in Denver, a young guide whom I’d never met walked up and said “Dude, I love your shots–did you see mine in the new ________ (reel) catalog?”
Of course he had a copy, so he flipped it open and showed it to me. It was small, maybe a 1/4 page, but it was a nice shot. “Good job,” I told him, I hope you got a decent pay for it.”
“Nah, they didn’t offer any money but I got some killer schwag, (pointed at his hat) and my name in the catalog.”
At that time, I was hoofing it to an appointment and I didn’t have time to explain my Circle of Insolvency theory to him. For anyone interested, here it is:
Suppose the Reel Company sells it’s product for $500. In simplified terms, they’re probably offering 40% to most retailers ($200). Let’s divide the remaining 60% equally between cost and profit – again, this is a simplified model.
Now let’s say that in today’s world I would charge them $750 for that small shot in their catalog. They won’t pay me cash, but instead they offer one of their reels. At first glance this seems like a good deal. What fish-shooter wouldn’t want a shiny new reel, right? Well here’s where it all falls apart.
If I really wanted that reel, but they paid me cash instead of barter, I could take that cash down to my local fly shop and buy the reel. I’m still making a few dollars ($750 license fee less the $500 reel cost). The fly shop has just pocketed their $200 cut, and the Reel Company just got another reel order from the fly shop. Cash, in this case, made the world go ‘round.
Had I accepted the barter deal, the Circle of Insolvency comes into play. I would have left $600 on the table (My normal license fee of $750 less their $150 cost in the reel). My fly shop lost a sale and is still sitting on a shiny $500 reel. So in the end, the reel company made out like a bandit; but me and my fly shop are now one step closer to the soup line.
Barter used to work when products were priced in terms of donkeys and guinea hens, but that all went away when coin arrived on the scene. Even if Reel Company offers you 3 reels for one of your photos, the cash flow still stops before it gets to the fly shop, and then Ebay gets to make money when you have to hock the two extra reels to pay your light bill.
Ask for cash (demand cash) for every photo transaction. The fly fishing photo business is turning into a back-alley swap meet, and unfortunately it’s mainly due to guides and casual shooters with DSLR’s that don’t understand the value of an image. If you see it happening, try and explain the ramifications to the shooters. We’ve lost a lot of paying companies in the past 2-3 years, but maybe we can get them back if we stand firm on the cashola equation.
TB
For the rest of us, if we submit it, unsolicited, then we cannot expect to be remunerated for it. However, if we then get asked to do more work, then if becomes a business transaction.
My thoughts…
Mike, I’m afraid I’ll have to disagree with this. When I first got started, no one was asking for my work. I was sending in sleeves of slides “over the transom”. Maybe it works differently in your markets, but in the US that’s traditionally the way it’s done. That’s the way you get noticed. Timely persistence.
If the AD’s ended up using my work, I sent them an invoice. 95% of the time they paid without question. The remaining 5% got crossed off my list. Had I waited around for someone to ask for my work before I requested payment for use, I’d have never gotten very far.
Pro, amateur, hobbyist: it doesn’t matter. If someone uses your work, whether they requested it or not, you need to be paid (promptly and fairly).
If everyone will stand firm on this principle, we can reverse many of the disturbing trends that are beginning to crush the freelance photo business.
There actually is a ASMP rate for web usage but I don’t know what it is. If a e-zine or publication can’t pay for content it means that they are not viable so what is the point of proping them up with free work. They need to get funded by the market or borrow money like everybody else.
Very good point, David. And if the industry is truly switching from print to online, then all of us will soon be faced with a sink or swim decision if the no-pay entities become the norm. Everyone needs to demand payment for their words and images. Pro or hobby, it doesn’t matter, but it’s crucial for the health of the photojournalism business that you be fairly compensated for your efforts.
Last week I read an article about the need to throw out the term “freelancer” and change it to”feelancer”.
Sounds good to me.
