StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

QuickLinks For 2006-11-30, Part II

• Getty Images says received two default notices:
  Getty Images said on Wednesday it received two notices of a purported default from some holders of the company's convertible debentures. The notices represent about 29 percent of the company's $265 million of 0.5 percent convertible subordinated debentures, Getty said in a statement. Getty said the default notices stemmed from the company's failure so far to file its third-quarter report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
  Reuters, also the Seattle Times ("Getty Images spokesman Alan Pickerill declined to estimate when the results would be filed"), original statement here (Edgar Online): "While the Company has questioned the claimants’ legal theory ... the Company believes that if an “Event of Default” were to occur and the Debentures were accelerated, it has adequate financial resources to pay any unpaid principal and any interest that would then be due on the Debentures".
  Related:
  •Shuman & Berens LLP Encourages Stockholder Of Getty Images To Consider Their Legal Options (Nov. 15, 2006)
  •Getty Images Announces Delay in Filing Form 10-Q, Forms Special Committee to Investigate Stock Option Grants (Nov. 10, 2006), also here.
  Tag: Getty Images

QuickLinks For 2006-11-30

• Snapshot of the true content generators:
  It is difficult to know these days whether the internet is re-inventing photography or vice versa ... the emergence of truly huge banks of photographs has spawned a new industry.
  Victor Keegan on new start ups like geograph.org.uk, woophy.com, Thomas´ Zooomr.com and fotolibra.com, and the inevitable rest of the gang (iStock, Flickr, Getty, Corbis).
  The Guardian Unlimited Technology today.
  Related:
  •Net profits for amateurs' snaps (Toronto Star today) on Shutterstock, Scoopt, etc.
  Tag: User generated photo content

QuickLinks For 2006-11-29

• medicalpicture runs a feature to the World Aids Day on December 1st 2006, with text and a lot of images: aids.medical-picture.com.
  Tags: medicalpicture World Aids Day

• "Getting into Alamy is like getting into Paris Hilton, it's just not that difficult, though it can be fun and even quite profitable":
  According to this message entitled "To All Contributing Artists - November 28, 2006" (doesn´t seem to be faked), Oregon-based Acclaim Images, owned by Fred Voetsch and in business since June 2002 with currently 222,375 stock photos and illustrations online, is experiencing a "lack of growth in our stock photography business", which requires a "basic restructuring" of Acclaim.
  For reassuming "the gorilla warfare style of online marketing", three employees recently left the company. "I will be freezing image uploads until we are done. This may be several weeks. Please do not ask when it will be back online; it will be back online when we are finished ... If you disagree with me start your own company and compete with me, don't expect me to change mine to suit you".
  Stockphoto.net.
  Tags: Acclaim Images Paris Hilton Alamy

Corbis´ New President Gary Shenk Being Groomed For Future CEO Position, Says "No One Really Knows How Big The Marketplace Is"

The last eight years have seen incredible efforts of research analysts, investment bankers and the so-called industry experts to determine "how big is the stock photo market, how much money can we make in which segment, where should we invest our money?". In the last two years, new questions have emerged about "How big is the micro stock market really? Royalty-free flash music loops, how much money is in that?"

For Greater Productivity, Getty Images Beta Is Optimized For The Latest Generation Of Browsers

This was the result today, accessing Getty´s new website section Getty Images Beta several times over the day from several places, with Firefox 2.0 running under WIN or Mac, with or without first and second firewall, with or without coffee.... .

Switching back to Firefox 1.5.0.7, everything´s fine again:

Picade, The New Photographer-Driven Stock Photo Agency: Forget RF Licensing, Photo Portals and Microstock

I recently mentioned the soon to be launched new stock photo agency Picade. One of the founders, Illinois-based photojournalist and stock photo consultant Brian Seed, Picade´s Chairman of the Board, disclosed yesterday more details:

This agency endeavor of ours represents photographers fighting back against those agencies that pay too little, steadily cut their royalty payments, and in general treat photographers as very disposable entities. Our agency has been created and funded  by a hard working group of its members. Any income generated belongs to its members: we have no outside shareholders.

Pfizer´s Viagra Website And MetLife´s Ad "A Moment Of Silence" Share The Same Image: The Wall Street Journal On Stock Photo Recycling

The Wall Street Journal today runs a long story on "When Marketers See Double; As Digital Libraries Spread The Use of Stock Photography, Some Ad Images Are Recycled", quoting stock photo buying companies why or why not they intentionally decided to use images which other competitors in the same industry are using, as well as citing execs from Onrequest Images, Corbis and Getty Images.

The article points to three image examples (however, all three were provided by Onrequest Images) and additionally to a photo sharing table with "examples of companies that used the same stock photo in marketing materials". The best example quoted so far is clearly the demonstration of using the same image in MetLife´s "Why MetLife" advertising campaign ("A moment of silence") and on Pfizer´s website that "provides answers to frequently asked questions about its erectile dysfunction drug Viagra":

Image Source: Product Researcher

Image Source is the world's leading independent producer and brand for creative and commercial royalty free stock photography. Founded in 1999 by Christina Vaughan, Image Source now supplies images to creative professionals based around the world 24/7 through imagesource.com. Image Source is headquartered in London, UK with sales offices in Cologne, Germany, and New York, USA. The company also supplies imagery through over 250 distribution partners worldwide. This strong international sales network enabled the company to win the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade Category in 2005.

Image Source is currently looking for a

• Product Researcher to join the research team in the London office.

All details and contact information here at Worldwide Stock Photo Industry Jobs.

QuickLinks For 2006-11-26

• Storm erupted after government paid photographer Richard Bennett $154,100 to produce a photographic book, without previous tender:
  The Government handed over $154,100 to Richard Bennett to produce his latest photographic book "Islands of Tasmania". No tenders were called for the contract and the taxpayer money came from the Premier´s Department.
  The Government defended the funding saying the book would help promote Tasmania ... Fellow photographer Rob Blakers termed the situation "unprecedented" and called for the Government to explain why tenders were not called. The book, which includes pictures by Mr Bennett's daughter Alice, sells for $49.95 ... Mr Bennett said the Government had bought 3000 copies.
  Sunday Tasmanian.
  Tag: Richard Bennett Islands of Tasmania

QuickLinks For 2006-11-25

• Veer on Image recognition-based retrieval or "I know what I Like":
  Image recognition-based retrieval has been the big buzz in search for a couple years now. So far, we’ve had a couple fun and interesting efforts, but nothing, you know, useful. But now Riya has stepped up to the plate with Like.com.
  Here, the potential of visual search is harnessed and applied to the great challenge of our times: online shoe shopping. Seriously, it’s pretty sweet - you can use the color tool to get the shades you like, then highlight the heel shape to eliminate all those icky wedges left over from last summer (And, if you still have time, you can search more than just shoes).
  Veer: The Skinny.
  Related: All blog posts in the category Image Search Technology since April 2004.
  Tags: Image search technology Image recognition based retrieval Riya

QuickLinks For 2006-11-24

• The Daylight Magazine wins Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism:
  Daylight Magazine announced on Nov. 21st that Daylight Magazine editor Michael Itkoff was named on October 26th the recipient of the 2006 Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism, given annually in honor of the famed Black Star photo agency president.
  The $5000 award will be put toward the printing costs of Issue #6 in May 2007. Issue #5 (Global Commodities) will be on newstands in late November.
  Black Friday doorbuster deal offer: for every subscription order Daylight Mag receives between December 1st and December 25th 2006 one complimentary copy of Issue #3 (Sustainability) will be included.
  Tags: Daylight Magazine Howard Chapnick Grant

New RF Stock Photo Production Company Juice Images Soon Online

In the past months lots of new stock photo production companies have launched, like GoGoImages or very recently EyeCandy Images, to name only a few.

With a focus on high-end and "top quality, relevant, contemporary and truly creative RF images of Lifestyle and Business subjects to the global image market", London-based RF stock photo production company Juice Images will launch its website in late November this year: "No fuss, no fancy hype, just great images which speak for themselves".

QuickLinks For 2006-11-23

• When the news are bad, don’t shoot the messenger who reports the bad news:
  London-based award winning freelance photojournalist Sion Touhig, who will give on November 28th a presentation to the "Visual Journalism Group of the Royal Photographic Society", recently reported from a "demonstration against climate change at Nottingham Airport during which 24 people were arrested".
  The Leicestershire Police Major Crime Unit now tries to charge him with "various 'aiding and abetting' offences", relating to "Causing a Public Nuisance, Criminal Damage, Aggravated Trespass, Breaching the Terms of the Aviation, Transport Security Act": "I assumed I was going to be arrested at Loughborough ... Presumably they decided to reserve the possibility of arresting and charging me till some future date".
  Sion Touhig's Photojournalism Weblog.
  Related: Alamy And The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programme (Nov. 19, 2006)
  Tags: Sion Touhig Climate change Leicestershire Police Major Crime UnitNovember and 20 degrees is too much in Central Europe

A21 Reports Q3/2006 Results

A21 (ATWO), the parent company of SuperStock, the Royalty-Free brand Purestock, the subscription brand PurestockX, of Ingram Publishing/Ingram Stock and ArtSelect, has released the Q3/2006 results:

 

A21 Revenues (in T$)

YEAR	Q4/04	2004	Q1/05	Q2/05	Q3/05	Q4/05	2005	Q1/06	Q2/06	Q3/06
Total	2.100	7.475	2.312	2.327	2.064	2.859	9.563	2.935	4.511	5.904

 

Assuming that A21 will generate at least the same amount of revenues for Q4/2006 as for Q3/2006 (m$ 5.904, which splits in image licensing revenues of m$ 2,986 and in product revenues of m$ 2,918) and adding the revenues of the first nine months of 2006 (m$ 13.350) to this amount, A21 will have 2006 overall revenues of at least m$ 19.254.

But A21´s stock has dropped 62.5% since May 15, 2006.

Corbis´ CEO Steve Davis Says Global Stock Image Business Is Over $2.5 Billion

Corbis announced the day before yesterday an exclusive partnership with IndiaPicture.com with the core message that "this partnership will introduce over 70 million pictures from the Corbis collection to the growing Indian market".

QuickLinks For 2006-11-22

• Tracking down the customer, advanced version 2.0:
  "Flickr has launched a new service called Camera Finder, which displays the most popular cameras on the photo sharing site. In a particularly inspired move, they’re using the metadata from photos uploaded to the site to track the popularity of certain cameras and camera phones. Surveys and market research are great, but the most interesting data surely comes from tracking what people are actually doing, rather than just asking them - as a result, this data is a goldmine for camera manufacturers".
  Mashable in "Flickr Launches Camera Finder".
  Tags: Flickr digital camera camera phone

Dreamstime: Vacancies For Keyworders

Dreamstime is one of the leading stock photography agencies in the world. If you want to be part of a new era in stock photography, this is your chance to join our team.

 

Dreamstime is currently looking for

• Keyworders for further rapid expansion.

All details and contact information here at Worldwide Stock Photo Industry Jobs.

QuickLinks For 2006-11-21

• Adobe taps the power of negative thinking:
  "Adobe promotes its Digital Negative (DNG) format as a replacement for the profusion of useful–but proprietary–image formats of today’s high-end cameras. The San Jose, Calif.-based company believes the industry and consumers would benefit from a unified format.
  Now Adobe’s challenge is to build consumer demand and find industry allies. So far, only a handful of cameras support the technology, it doesn’t ease some of the difficulties of the proprietary formats, and it’s not a neutral industry standard".
  Stephen Shankland/CNET in a 3-pages report on Adobe´s plans with DNG and the reaction of photographers, software makers and camera manufacturers ("Nikon currently has no plans to support the DNG format within its cameras").
  Related:
  •Adobe Announces Camera Raw 3.5 And Updates DNG Converter (Sept. 19, 2006)
  •Getty, Corbis, National Geographic, ASMP, ASPP... Everyone Loves Adobe´s New .DNG Format (Sept. 29, 2004)
  Tag: Adobe DNG

QuickLinks For 2006-11-20

• The world's largest database of Mediterranean stock photography and digital video:
  Sites & Photos is a relatively new image bank with a collection of over 84,000 images and 22+ hours of video covering 448 archaeological sites in 8 countries, compiled by the israelian archaeologist M. Samuel, who says that "during my time as a student I came to realize how limited the photographed documentation of archaeological sites and monuments was".
  Today Samuel is the head researcher and archivist of Sites and Photos.
  Tags: Sites Photos Mediterranean stock photography and digital video

After The Recent Updates On UPDIG, PLUS And IPTC, BAPLA Kicks Off The Digital Guidelines And Metadata Panel

While the local german heroes are still stuck between a rock and a hard place (catchword: image database interface standardization and protocols) which of the local image databases and related software selling companies is John Wayne and which is not and while the rest of the world outside has fortunately decided not to care about that domestic Kraut affair at all and not to listen to that same old local song any longer, other organizations with a more global and intergalactical focus continue in their efforts to make the world a better place for you and me in the digital image age.

With this in mind, BAPLA has launched the BAPLA Digital Guidelines v1, and the BAPLA Metadata Panel v1.4., two new initiatives to encourage consistency when working commercially with digital images.

New Photo Agency EyeCandy Images Launched

At the recently held PACA conference in Key West BJ Formento and Richeille Formento announced the launch of their new photo agency EyeCandy Images, which starts with multicultural RF and RM image collections.

BJ Formento, with a strong background as professional photographer and former contributor to Digital Vision, Image Source and Corbis, serves as the company´s CEO; Richeille Formento, a former CD working for Calvin Klein and DKNY, as VP Creative.

According to Richeille, after showcasing EyeCandy´s images for the first time during the PACA, "many of our peers stated that we were as good as, if not better than Photonica".

Alamy´s AlamyRank Under Harsh Attack From Contributors, James West Answers Back

Editorial Photographers UK and Ireland (EPUK) runs a website exclusive ("Alamy CEO: AlamyRank "not disadvantaging specialist contributors"") and a blog post ("It’s Rank! Alamy's Punters Get Their Algorithms In A Twist") on the recent reaction of photographers to the newly introduced tool AlamyRank that will move images from the best collections to the top of search results.

When Alamy introduced AlamyRank and Diversity Algorithm in July this year, the company also said "it has applied for patents for these two key technologies that make the new search approach unique in the stock photography industry".

QuickLinks For 2006-11-19

• New underwater photography workshops website - DivePhotoFest.com:
  Professional photographers Simon Buxton, Wetpixel moderator Mike Veitch, and Tim Rock are pleased to announce the launch of a new underwater photography workshop website: DivePhotoFest.com. The website features all the latest news and information about what to expect from one of their underwater photography workshops.
  Wepixel.com - Digital Imaging for divers.
  Tag: underwater photography

Meet Lise Gagné, The First Global Crowdsourcing Stock Photography Star, With 390,000 Sales

Jeff Howe over at crowdsourcing.com runs a great interview called "La vedette du stock" (interview and translation from original French by Shazz Mack) with Lise Gagné (www.lisegagne.com and www.istockphoto.com/lisegagne), "the world’s first crowdsourcing photography star with over 390,000 downloaded sales of her stock photographs in just 3 years".

Bruce Livingston of iStockphoto wrote in a comment to the interview "Lise is the iStockphoto Powerhouse, Diva and mentor to thousands". Lise is an "exclusive iStockphoto photographer and has worked with them since 2003".

Jeff writes in his foreword that "Gagné also feels the microstock model offers advantages over the traditional stock agency route; fascinating given the disparity in pricing structure".

"Will Buyers Actually Use Google And Search Engines To License Images?"

Dan Heller is back with a long post on "Do buyers use search engines more than agencies to find images?" and Search Engine Optimization, responding to a readers´question "I am a bit worried about whether buyers actually use google and search engines to license images?"

Dan writes:

"While there have been no bona fide studies on the subject, one can extrapolate ...  For example, if only .1% of google searchers would actually license an image they found for a given search, the fact that the site itself gets hundreds of millions of searches a day, even the tiny .1% that might convert into buyers would still yield a higher total than what all the photo stock agencies yield."