StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

Fill Us Up: Getty Images´ iStockphoto Introduces iStockvideo

iStockphoto´s competitor ShutterStock announced in February 2006 the introduction of Shutterstock Footage and noted then that "Shutterstock is the first among their competitors to branch from still photography into video".

After accepting video submissions for two months, Shutterstock Footage went fully online in April 2006 and showcases currently 2,953 royalty-free footage clips. The site is still in beta modus.

iStockphoto today announced it is now accepting user-generated video for the new service iStockvideo, to be launched later this year on September 5th. iStockvideo will offer royalty-free stock video/footage and film in broadcast-quality, as well as animation clips for as little as $5 for thirty-second clips.

QuickLinks For 2006-07-30

• Introducing Photosynth from Microsoft:
  Photosynth is an amazing new technology from Microsoft Live Labs that will change the way you think about digital photos forever.
  Photosynth takes a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed 3-Dimensional space. With Photosynth you can:
  •Walk or fly through a scene to see photos from any angle.
  •Seamlessly zoom in or out of a photograph.
  •See where pictures were taken in relation to one another.
  •Find similar photos to the one you’re currently viewing.
  Microsoft Live Labs.
  Related:
  •Microsoft turns photo collections into 3D walkthroughs (ars technica)
  •Microsoft offers 3D photos (EETimes)
  Tags: Microsoft Photosynth

QuickLinks For 2006-07-28

• Dan Heller vs. Grover Sanschagrin of PhotoShelter:
  Summer slump. Scorching heat. The World Cup is over. Bruno the celebrity bear shot dead. Not the football, but something else is coming home. Jonathan Klein's total compensation last year was only $17.1 million. Thomas joining Zooomr. Depressing times, and people seem to overreact:
  I recently got (yet another) email from "photoshelter.com" ... I found it in my spam folder, and I would have not even paid attention to it if it ... I emailed the guy who sent it (Grover Sanschagrin) saying that he was playing with fire by sending unsolicited emails in this day and age. I had assumed his response was going to be, "oh, you're right!" After all, everyone is aware of the problem as a whole. But in this case, his response was, "You run a blog about the photo industry, and you list your email address. I don't think that's too much of a stretch." ... Clearly, photoshelter.com isn't in bad shape yet.
  Tags: Dan Heller Grover Sanschagrin PhotoShelter

Analysts: Getty Images "neutral", Jupitermedia "buy"

Shares of Getty Images are currently at (-$8.83) $46.37 (-16.00%), shares of Jupitermedia are currently at (-$1.33) $10.07 (-11.67%).

Newratings.com writes today:

• Analyst Steven M Ashley of Robert W Baird maintains his "neutral" rating on Getty Images Inc (GYI.NYS), while reducing his estimates for the company. The target price has been reduced from $85 to $60.
  In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that the company has reported its 2Q06 revenues marginally short of the consensus. Getty Images has reduced its revenue and EPS guidance for 2006 from $830-$850 million to $820-$830 million and from $2.70-$2.80 to $2.63-$2.70, respectively. The company’s RF business continues to remain challenging, Robert W Baird adds. The EPS estimate for 2006 has been reduced from $2.75 to $2.66. (Link)

QuickLinks For 2006-07-26

• An Image Bank for Everyday Revolutionary Life:
  An online photographic archive which makes publicly available for the first time over five thousand images from the mexican painter and muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896 - 1974): As the title of the project suggests, the archive offers a politicized vision developed in the context of revolutionary struggles in Mexico and abroad.
  Mexican stalinist painter David Alfaro Siqueiros was exiled from Mexico in 1940, following his assassination attempt on Leon Trotsky, the Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist.
  Tag: David Alfaro Siqueiros, and thanks to Christoph of LuckyPix.

Getty Images Announces Soft Q2/2006 Numbers, Lowers 2006 Revenue Guidance

Getty Images (GYI, Quote, Profile, Research, Upgrades/Downgrades History) today announced the results for the Q2/2006. The company reported revenues of $204.8 million (10.5% growth compared to Q2/2005, but slightly lower than the expected $205 million to $210 million) and lowered the revenue guidance for 2006 from $830 million to $850 million down to $820 million to $830 million. The quarterly profit fell about 34.5%, with a net profit in Q2/2006 of $22.3 million vs. $34.0 million in Q2/2005. Getty Images predicts revenues of $205 million to $210 million for the third quarter of 2006.

Shares of Getty Images closed up $0.95 at $55.20 (+ 1.75%) on the New York Stock Exchange today. A quarter earlier, the shares of Getty Images closed up $1.31 at $76.13 (+ 1.75%) on the NYSE, 27.5 percent higher than today. In after-hours trade today, shares fell down $5.20 to $50.00 (-9.42%).

The numbers in detail:

Revenue with Sequential change (S) and Year-over-year-change (Y):

YEAR	Q4/04	2004	Q1/05	Q2/05	Q3/05	Q4/05	2005	Q1/06	Q2/06
Total	$162.1	$622.4	$178.1	$185.3	$184.5	$185.8	$733.7	$200.9	$204.8
S	5.6%	-	9.9%	4.1%	-0.4%	0.7%	-	8.1%	1.9%
Y	20.6%	19.0%	13.8%	23.3%	20.2%	14.6%	17.9%	12.8%	10.5%

Alamy Releases Q2/2006 Numbers

711,939 new images submitted in Q2/2006, including 504,452 new RF and 207,487 new RM images: all numbers, all details here (PDF-download).

Tag: Alamy

Related:

• Alamy Releases Quarterly Statement 2004/2006 (May 31, 2006)
• A paradigm shift : Alamy prepares for online submission (May 24, 2006; Topic 4)
• Alamy has released the Quarterly Statement 2004/2005 (Apr. 11, 2006; Topic 2)
• Alamy: More than a Million of Pix and Worldwide Expansion (Apr. 27, 2004)

MAX Magazine Feels Really Sorry: How To Use Flickr Photographers To Maximize Your Company´s Profit

Your Flickr photo in MAX magazine:

MAX, the leading monthly german lifestyle magazine from the MILCHSTRASSE Publishing Group (acquired by the mighty Hubert Burda Media Group in late 2004) and a "Visual Leader" in photography since 15 years, started four month ago to publish multi-paged features of the best photos found on Flickr in the Flickr-Portfolio, usually around 6 pages. 

All this without paying a dime to the Flickr photographers (The Group Rules of MAX explain: "What' s the "crop" of my work? Fame - in one word! You will get no money, sorry").

NBC Universal And Digital Railroad Create The New NBCU Photo Bank

In early June 2006 NBC Universal announced a new image asset archive and distribution strategy for NBC Universal’s photo archives which represent "an extremely valuable business and historical asset". The company noted then that the photo archive is dating back to the 1940s and the era of NBC Radio, and that the new company-controlled online digital image distribution and licensing strategy will begin in July 2006. Right on time, NBC announced on friday that the selected software partner for managing, distributing and selling the photo assets of the NBC Universal Photo Bank is NY-based Digital Railroad, Inc.

QuickLinks For 2006-07-23

• And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here? :
  Der Bildredakteur ("The Picture Editor") is new blog launched by Alain Nicolas Lavanchy, a swiss picture editor, art buyer and rights clearance specialist.
  His last post on his old site noted that the blog will develop into a magazine, including a specific ISSN (International Standard Serial Number).
  From blog to magazine: first time that I have heard of something like this happening.
  Tag: Bildredakteur

QuickLinks For 2006-07-21

• New York Times Selects Redux for Syndication:
  The New York Times has partnered with Redux Pictures on a deal that will allow the agency to syndicate the newspaper's photos to the domestic editorial market. It is the first time The New York Times has contracted with an outside company to handle picture resale. [...]
  When asked why the Times chose the boutique Redux over bigger competitors like Getty Images, Redux founder and principal Saba said his company offers the expertise and knowledge to market images to magazine and book publishers.  [...]
  The resale market for newspaper photography is not huge, but occasional exclusives can net sales in the five-figure range.
  AmPhoto/Jay DeFoore.
  Tags: NYT Redux Pictures

QuickLinks For 2006-07-19

• PixOasis.com for photogs delivers high-res photos to clients:
  PixOasis´online imaging system allows professional photographers to immediately display and transfer over the Web any number of high-resolution JPEG, TIFF and even Photoshop PSD files photos. Photographers can transition from Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom or Apple Aperture to PixOasis’s easy-to-use uploading and e-mailing modes. Then, after a photo editor receives and opens his e-mail, they click on the automatically embedded link, which immediately takes them to a secure gallery of the photos, hosted on PixOasis’ servers. They can view, edit with the built-in light-box and quickly share the images with colleagues. PixOasis allows photographers to create a separate on-line album for each assignment. Clients see only the album – and shots – intended for them.
  PopPhoto.
  Tag: PixOasis

Jason Pagan Launches Alternative Photojournalism Agency Anarchy Images

Tired of yet another new royalty-free collection with hispanic or southeast-moroccan focus and yet another new starting micropayment site from Greenbow, Alabama? 

Jason Pagan, formerly working for The Bettmann Archive, Corbis and the Black Star Photo Agency, starts a new career as President and owner of Anarchy Images, a new story-based photojournalism agency for deep photographic coverage on international social and political issues.

The Big Three Continue Their Efforts In The PLUS Coalition

Once in a blue moon you receive a press release which mentions the Big Three like a blood brotherhood, and not like the natural enemies they are:

Getty Images and Corbis have joined the PLUS coalition as Charter Sustaining Members, Jupiterimages has committed to a second year of Sustaining Membership in the PLUS “Leadership Circle".

All details here. Related:

• Mission Impossible Accomplished: PLUS Coalition Unveils Universal Picture Licensing Glossary (Nov. 09, 2005)
• PLUS COALITION PUBLISHES UNIVERSAL PICTURE LICENSING GLOSSARY (October 25, 2005)
• PLUS COALITION CREATES A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE FOR IMAGE LICENSING (August 23, 2005)
• PLUS Coalition - Bringing the Picture Industry into the 21st Century (May 06, 2004)

Tag: PLUS Coalition

QuickLinks For 2006-07-14

• Off the topic for the summer slump: Videoblogging Chancellor Interviewed by Videoblogger.
  German chancellor Angela Merkel probably was the first high-level politician to start her own video podcast over a month ago. [...]
  Her first show was ridiculed on YouTube. Merkel's commitment to blogging perhaps is more serious than anybody thought at first. The popular videoblog Xolo.tv was able to get a long interview with her about videoblogging. You can watch it on their site today. [...]
  No question -- no German chancellor (or perhaps any national leader anywhere) has ever before granted an interview to a videoblogger. It's fantastic.
  Poynter Online.
  Tag: Videoblogging

QuickLinks For 2006-07-12

• Complete Coverage: Rencontres d'Arles 2006:
  We recently traveled to the South of France to witness the Recontres d'Arles festival of photography and discovered that no one does a photo festival quite like the French.
  This photo ("traditional feast of roast pig and mutton was served for the hungry masses") was taken by "our intrepid correspondent Jay DeFoore".
  Jay deFoore/AmericanPHOTO.
  Tag: Photo festivals

Next Influential Newspaper Boycotts Photos Of Robbie Williams Concert

A short update on "German Newspaper Puts Photo Boycott On Robbie Williams":

One of the most influential german newspapers, the Süddeutsche Zeitung (Southern German Newspaper) of Munich, followed today the behaviour of the newspaper Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten and decided not to publish pictures of the Robbie Williams´concert under the restrictions of an "immoral" (German Association of Journalists) photographer working contract.

The newspaper instead chartered an airplane for one of its photogs and published later a bird's eye view photo of the concert arena.

[Thanks to Michael Hirschler/German Association of Journalists (DJV)]

Tag: Robbie Williams

German Newspaper Puts Photo Boycott On Robbie Williams Concert

A note from Michael Hirschler/German Association of Journalists (DJV), responsible amongst others for the freelance journalists and photojournalists of this association:

On July 11th, 2006, the newspaper Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten did not publish a photo of the Robbie Williams concert held in Dresden on July 10th, 2006, but left an empty spot next to an article dealing with the concert. It also added a statement:

"On this place we wanted to print a picture of the Robbie Williams´concert. But we had to refuse to do so. The singer´s management wanted to constrain the photopraphers´ work by an adhesion contract which is unacceptable to us. The local chapter of the German Association of Journalist in Saxony called the restrictions a "flagrant example of an immoral contract" and appealed for a photo boycott. The Dresdner Neue Nachrichten follows to this appeal and will only publish a review in the edition of July 12, 2006."

QuickLinks For 2006-07-11

• Photojournalist Ad van Denderen/Hollandse Hoogte "was severely beaten — more than once, apparently — before a crowd of onlookers at a beach in Split, Croatia. van Denderen’s injuries includes nine stitches to the face. When he attempted to complain to the local police, he, the victim, was arrested and his cameras and film were confiscated".
  Photopermit.org and NRC Handelsblad.
  Tags: Cancel your trip to Split

© Foto: Hollandse Hoogte/NRC Handelsblad

QuickLinks For 2006-07-10

• One Really Great Idea for the long-dreaded first post-Katrina hurricane season:
  This month's really great idea Operation Photo Rescue is the brainchild of photo assignment editor Dave Ellis and photographer Rebecca Sell of the Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance-Star. [...]
  They get photographers to make digital copies of disaster victims' water-soaked photographs. They get other photographers, editors and photo professionals to rebuild and reconstruct the images and make replacement prints. Then they give the prints back to the people that want them. ... They've gotten a lot of support from their newspaper, a commitment from West Coast Imaging to do 1,000 prints for free and 35Gb of free server space from Photoshelter.
  James Colburn, The Digital Journalist.
  Tags: Photo Rescue

QuickLinks For 2006-07-07

• Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS):
  Pete Jenkins has published a report on the mid-June meeting with Jeff Sedlik to discuss the progress of the Picture Licensing Universal System (PLUS), PLUS UK, the licensing software system (Media Matrix) and the NUJ (National Union of Journalists) to possibly become a full member of the coalition.
  The report says that even "Microsoft have an interest in PLUS" because "they have new imaging software due to be released in the future and see the value of the PLUS initiave".
  Tags: PLUS Picture Licensing Universal System

QuickLinks For 2006-07-06

• Getty Images Slumps on Price Concerns:
  Shares of Getty Images Inc. ... fell Thursday after PiperJaffray raised concerns about the company's growth prospects, citing increasing competition and customers' unwillingness to accept further price increases.
  PiperJaffray conducted a survey of image buyers and found that while Getty is perceived to have the best offering, "pricing appears to be a serious concern."
  Of the 197 U.S. buyers surveyed, "49 percent said they will look elsewhere if Getty raises prices," analyst Aaron Kessler wrote in a note to investors. [...]
  About 53 percent of respondents said Getty had the best royalty-free images and 65 percent said the company had the best rights-managed images. [...]
  But the analyst warned that buyers may emigrate to discount sites such as iStockphoto. "We believe micropayment sales could potentially cannibalize (Getty's) royalty-free sales," Kessler wrote.
  Houston Chronicle/AP.
  Tag: Getty Images

QuickLinks For 2006-07-04

• The Smartest Guy in the Room:
  I recently returned from a Microsoft Pro Photo Summit on the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA. We had the opportunity to listen to discussions on a variety of topics from storage to what professional photographers "want." [...]
  On this occassion, it happened to be Thomas Knoll, the inventor of Photoshop.
  Dressed in a polo and dockers, he looks and sounds like the guy you want to have invented Photoshop, not the multi-millionaire software developer that he's become. While he was on a panel, he answered a question by using words like "quantum physics" and "photons" and "demosaicing." Even though 99% of the audience had no idea what he was talking about, everyone agreed that it was fascinating.
  PhotoShelter blog.
  Tags: Microsoft professional photographers Photoshop

QuickLinks For 2006-07-01

• Visual Search Firm Pixsy Gets First Round Funding:
  Pixsy, an SF-based images and video search firm, has received an undisclosed amount of first round funding…the funds will be used for the continued development of the “Pixsy Media Search Platform”….besides the main public website, the company’s service is also used for private label photo and video search engines.
  Rafat Ali.
  Related:
  •Pixsy Introduces "Visual Search" Engine Based On RSS (Apr. 08, 2006)
  •Pixsy: "Next Generation Photo Search Engine" (July 30, 2005)
  •Interview With Mark Thomson/Yotophoto (July 19, 2005)
  Tag: Pixsy