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