StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

Apple´s Aperture: "An Underwhelming Captioning Solution"

Since Apple had announced Aperture on October 19, the „First All-in-One Post Production Tool for Photographers" and supposed Photoshop-Killer, this had been commented a lot.

Rob Galbraith and staff writer Eamon Hickey recently interviewed Apple's Joe Schorr, Product Manager for Aperture, and Rob Schueben, Vice President of Applications Marketing. The results of their investigation (the best one I have read so far) on Aperture in its current first version are partly disappointing.

QuickLinks For 2005-10-29

October had been a busy month and I missed to mention some old and new stuff:

• Corbis recently found a lively market for dead stars (acquiring the Roger Richman Agency); now Forbes updated the annual list of top earners of Dead Celebs (also here). Martin Cribbs, a specialist in branding dead celebrities at image licensing company Corbis, said: "On the surface, Shakespeare was this genius writer, but what's relevant is that his plays were filled with sex, violence and political intrigue" (Link) -- just like in real life.

CromaBASE: A New Digital Platform For Professional Image Management With Integrated Color Management

From the viewpoint of a single professional photographer, companies like Digital Railroad, IPNStock, PhotoShelter and StockPipeline (in alphabetical order and named here despite of all the differences between these companies), are grabbing the headlines today if he starts to think about: "Where should I turn to?". Except for IPNStock I had been writing a lot in the past about these companies.

These are all US-based companies and for the moment they mostly (except for two) have a strong focus on the US market. Any international audience (like the members of StockPhoto.net) clearly tends to listen to what is going on in the US for being able to judge about what are important news and developments in the international picture business at all. Even if they are thus missing what it is happening in the "rest of the world". But as we all know, in these times foreign local news might become global news pretty fast.

New Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG) Version 1.0 Released

The Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG) is a initiative of "a working group of digital imaging professionals and allied trade groups and manufacturers, dedicated to promoting worldwide standards in the commercial application of digital imaging" with the "mission to bring the creators, distributors, customers, and other vendors in the Imaging trades together to identify and promote digital imaging standards. We will identify delivery protocol that promotes creative and quality control, and builds value and efficiency."

Members include the Stock Artists Alliance, ASMP, APA, Editorial Photographers and other professional associations.

Areas of work and objectives are:

The History Of A Study, Strictly For Internal Use

Joseph Pobereskin, founder and past (2000 - 2002) International Board of Directors member of the Stock Artists Alliance, yesterday in a very interesting message (requires registration; topic: "Join SAA with RF images") in the StockPhoto.net group:

Three years (or so) ago, Getty Images, the worlds largest purveyor of Royalty Free imagery, commissioned a study of the stock photo industry by an independent consultancy (the results to be used internally). Among the many findings were these: 

a) the stock photography industry is $2 Billion/annual globally (all companies, all forms);

b) if not for the existence of Royalty Free it would be a $6 Billion/annual globally.

In other words, because as an industry we/they/you sell RF so cheaply, you've let $4 Billion slip right through your fingers. That's the proof.

Getty Images Launches "Exclusive by Getty Images"

Getty Images just launched "Exclusive by Getty Images", a collection of "distinctive celebrity and editorial imagery".

The collection is "a premier online solution for magazine and newspaper customers seeking to differentiate their publications with highly distinctive imagery not available anywhere else" and offers "premium celebrity portraits, celebrity portrait archives, reportage features and editorial specials."

The imagery offered is created by "a growing network of elite photographers including international celebrity shooter Lorenzo Agius, renowned photojournalist Tom Stoddart and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Turnley." Additional photographers are Polly Borland, Mitch Jenkins, Kevin Westenberg, Julian Broad, Jonathan Olley, Derek Hudson, Uli Weber, James Burns, Dario Mitidierim, Judah Passow, Mike Goldwater, Christopher Pillitz, Joe McNally, Amy Toensing and others. Getty Images states that this is a "completely new product."

"Exclusive by Getty Images" is managed by Steve Blogg (director of photography, editorial contributors, EMEA), Nick Bull (director of photography, celebrity portraiture) and David Laidler (director of photography, editorial contributors, Americas).

Jonathan Klein had announced earlier during the 3rd Quarter 2005 Earnings Call some days ago that:

However, amid all the buzz and excitement of royalty-free, it would be a big mistake for any of us to lose focus on the rights-managed licensing model. Let me assure you, we remain very focused on this important part of the business. Rights-managed imagery represented 42 percent of total sales in the quarter. You would expect us to focus on so big a part of our business. Importantly, rights-managed revenue grew at a double-digit rate in the third quarter, and as Liz will share later, it too was driven by both volume and price. (Link, pdf-file)

The launch of the subscription service Creative Express of Getty Images is just two months old.

More details here.

QuickLinks For 2005-10-25

• SuperStock/a21, announced that it has named industry veteran Candice Crough as Vice President of Direct Sales. Previously she had been working for Imagestate and Corbis. Details.

• Preserving Press Photography is a Photo Archive News intuitive "dedicated to protecting and representing collections of photographs from press photographers too small to be bought by a traditional photo agency and of no present interest to museums or national collections."

As Will of Photo Archive News writes, "One aim for the PPA is to preserve pre digital press photography for future reference and interest. A dedicated website is planned." This is the kind of initiative we all should support.

• PDN looks back at the recently held PhotoPlus Expo 2005 session "What Stock Business Model is Right for You?" in this article (related: this entry):

"Stock Artists Alliance executive director Betsy Reid twice asked the panel to explain why royalty-free collections typically return only 25 percent of the royalties to photographers, a much lower percentage than rights-managed sales. The members of the panel didn't have a clear answer."

Funny to notice that PDN after this entry always inserts the words "IPNStock and the PhotoPlus Expo are owned by VNU Business Media, which also owns PDN."

• The StockAsylum about JupiterImages' New Web Site:

Meckler said the web site should be "official" in a couple of weeks. "But, even when it is officially launched," Meckler added, "the final product won't be done until March. At that time, we'll be second to none." Meckler said his company will add additional independent brands to the web site within 40 to 50 days. JupiterImages also plans to purchase additional brands, the company has said. (Link)

• I wrote earlier about the new stock photo agency for Jewish Stock Photos. Now ChristianPhotos.net is launched, "a new stock photography service targeted for small to medium size churches" (Thx to Will/Photo Archive News). - Also new: EZStockphotos (Thx Thomas)
  

• Bad news from Mactribe: "Hurricane Wilma has temporarily knocked out our main server in Boca Raton, Fl. Please bear with us as we get the site back up and running shortly."

• Small world: Steve Rubel had worked four years with LTU Technologies, the image search technology company mentioned here earlier. Now Steve writes about "Riya Facial Recognition Photo Search Site Set to Launch", a competitor to  Flickr and Picasa.

• Dennis Dunleavy: Photojournalism - A Definition.

• Local News: Fotostoria and Simplephotography are two excellent blogs about photography and related events. Another one is Fotografie-Forum News (all blogs in german). Reading this blogs - and Conscientious - you´ll get a pretty good overview of what is happening in Germany in this area.

Adobe Photographers Directory Expands Through Cooperations With Professional Photographer Associations

WOW! Adobe has closed some deals with different worlwide associations of professional photographers to include their members "through an expanded update to its worldwide Photographers Directory. The Photographers Directory is now highlighted in the Favorites section of the Adobe Bridge feature in Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Photoshop® CS2 software and is also accessible from the Adobe Web site".

Participating U.S. associations include the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP); the Advertising Photographers of America (APA); the Editorial Photographers (EP); International Virtual Reality Photography Association (IVRPA); Professional Aerial Photographers Association (PAPA); Professional Photographers of America (PPA); and the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) as well as other canadian, european and pacific associations.

More details here: "Over time, Adobe has plans to expand its comprehensive listing beyond professional associations to include qualified professionals who are not affiliated with an organization."

So, Adobe, what is missing now are cooperations with the 5% of top stock photography at Flickr, some micropayment sites and some photoblogs (Link).

Getty Images Announces Q III/2005 Results: Creative Images Used In Advertising Outsold Editorial Images

On July 26, 2005, Getty Images reported (1; 2) the Financial Results for the Second Quarter of 2005. Jonathan Klein noted then that "this quarter is quite possibly the best quarter in our 10-year history". The company predicted that "for the third quarter of 2005 the company expects to report revenue in the range of $180 million to $184 million and earnings per diluted share of $0.56 to $0.58." Here are the full last Q II/2005 numbers for comparison.

Today Getty Images has just released the numbers for Q III/2005. Quarterly Highlights (details):

• Revenue grew over 20 percent. Revenue grew to $184.5 million (compared to $153.5 million in the third quarter of 2004)
• Creative image volumes increased 15 percent
• Operating income rose 41 percent and operating margin increased to 32 percent. Operating income grew to $58.7 million (compared to $41.7 million in the third quarter of 2004)
• Net income grew 46 percent. Net income grew to $39.1 million (from $26.7 million in the third quarter of 2004)
• Earnings per diluted share increased 36 percent to $0.60 

For the fourth quarter of 2005, the company expects to report revenue in the range of $187 million to $191 million. For 2005, the company expects to report revenue in the range of $735 million to $739 million.

"Our competitive position has never been stronger", said Jonathan Klein, Getty Images' co-founder and CEO.

The average Price Per Image (PPI; "the average Price Per Image data is global as of 1Q04. Prior to 1Q04, PPI data reflect Total Americas + EMEA only", according to Getty) had been in 3Q05:

• RM: $577 (compared to full year average 2004 of $569)
• RF: $233 (compared to full year average 2004 of $199)
• RM Film Clip: $628 (compared to full year average 2004 of $615)

In % of Total Revenue for in 3Q05:

• Rights-managed Imagery (RM): 42.3% (compared to full year average 2004 of 47.9%)
• Royalty-free Imagery (RF): 38.4% (compared to full year average 2004 of 32.9%)
• Editorial (News, Sport, Entertainment, Archive): 11.7% (compared to full year average 2004 of 11.6%)
• Film: 4.6% (compared to full year average 2004 of 5.5%)
• Other: 3.0% (compared to full year average 2004 of 2.1%)
   

For all numbers, read the Quarterly Metrics (xls-download) of Getty Images.

The results "topped Wall Street targets of net earnings per share of 57 cents and revenue of $183.1 million, according to Reuters Estimates". Klein said "for the first time, creative images used in advertising outsold editorial images". He added that Getty, which has made several acquisitions this year, was still in the market to buy more photo companies in areas of the world where it is growing (Reference: Reuters; Getty also competes with Reuters Group Plc [RTR.L: Quote, Profile, Research]  in sales of editorial, or news-related, images).

Continue here with the QIII/2005 conference call transcript (link not availabe in this moment at Getty´s site, will be added later [Update Oct. 24: here´s the link]) or the webcast.

Getty Spokesperson Deb Trevino said earlier (Q II/2005 conference call) that Getty Images generates cash at the rate of about $200 million a year (balance sheet here) and "may choose to spend it on acquisitions".

Getty Images recently acquired according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer and other sources the following companies/parts of their offerings:

• MedioImages ("MedioImages is pleased to announce that we are now part of Getty Images. As of September 2005, Getty Images acquired the MedioImages brand and entire MedioImages collection"). MedioImages states that "since the company was started in 2003, over 36,000 images have been uploaded to the site, with another 10,000 to be added soon." MedioImages features RF and RP/RM material.

• The predominant part of images offered by Rubberball (for the moment, there is no real public announcement of the complete/partial acquisition of their image offerings available so far); founded in 1995 by Mark Andersen and Alan Bailey, the company sells royalty free images and royalty free stock footage. 

The Seattle Post Intelligencer continues:

Getty Images has made two major cash purchases this year, a $165 million acquisition of London-based Digital Vision and a $51 million acquisition of Tokyo-based Photonica West. It also recently bought the collections of Rockville, Md.-based Medioimages and RubberBall of Orem, Utah, increasing its collection of wholly owned images by 50,000.

Klein played down questions from analysts about Getty Images' loss of collections to JupiterImages, a relatively new entrant in the digital-image market. Klein acknowledged that the issue was creating some "noise," but he said it would not cut into the company's revenue.

"The imagery is totally replaceable, which is why we have suffered no impact to date and do not expect any more in the future," he said. "The imagery that we have replaced it with is better and often comes to us at a higher margin."

PS.
Alan Meckler, who recently wrote about "Getty Images In A Panic", in a comment yesterday:

Getty on the other hand must resort to threats and dishonesty in its dealing with the image world. [...]

Related: Peter Appert of Goldman Sachs asked (pdf-file) in the QII/2005 conference call: "... there’s been some – it feels like there’s been some noise in the market, around competitive dynamics in terms of some of your distribution partners, people coming and going."

Meckler continues:

We all know the Bible. One of my favorite stories is that of David and Goliath. Need I say more?

Although this is aimed at Getty Images, these sentences point up generally the differences in the "personal can-do attitude" between an employee world like Corbis and "I don't have a secretary, and I answer my own email and cell phone" (I couldn´t believe it the first time I read it).

Update Oct. 24: The Getty Images 3rd Quarter 2005 Earnings Call Transcript is online:

Online Photo Storage And Marketing Systems For Professional Photographers

Some weeks ago a photographer mailed me and wrote:

Entities like the Digital Railroad and Photoshelter do seem to offer some kind of solution, but I don't know if individual websites can offer the range of content required by time pressured picture editors looking to fill their papers with pictures - especially when the trend seems to be subscription services, which take away the 'headache' of dealing with individual photographers or small agencies dealing in Rights Managed imagery.

Here are some news from both companies:

• Digital Railroad (the company recently appointed Lee Corkran as VP of Products) has announced plans for the Digital Railroad Marketplace with a centralized search function (Global Search). DR states that "more than 10,000 top photo buyers around the world" use their services; see the new Buyer Directory. - More details here.

This was my first story on Digital Railroad in August 2004.

• PhotoShelter is now officially launched. Initial clients include Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Vincent Laforet and 2004 Canon Female Photojournalist Award winner Kristen Ashburn. Details here.

Read an interview with PhotoShelter´s CEO Allen Murabayashi I published earlier in July 2005 here and my first story on PhotoShelter here. PhotoShelter also runs the blog A Picture's Worth.

Ongoing discussion at Rob Galbraith and older at Lightstalkers.

Both companies of course do offer more than only a simple solution for online storage because they enable you to market your images. The next issue of a special mag will run a story on the growing demand for online photo storage services for professional photographers. I´ll link to the article later. [Update: Here´s the link]

Next, I´m busy with a five page story for a mag about the new "middleware technologies" which recently entered the picture business. Interview partners include Executives and VPs of photo agencies and photo portals as well as picture editors. Again, I´ll link to the article later.