MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => General Stock Discussion => Topic started by: cobalt on November 07, 2013, 06:55
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Hi everyone,
I am looking for people who are interested in bringing together professionals dedicated to Science and Technology. I am currently training two friends of mine to do stock - a molecular biologist and a physicist. I am a chemist by training, but I mostly worked in engineering before doing stock.
I have looked at many agencies, but I canīt find one that really has a dedicated, organized collection for these fields. And many images done by photographers might be artistically beautiful, but are not technically correct or usable.
We could work with an agency that wants to specialise in technology and maybe has an editing consisting of engineers,biochemists or car mechanics or medical doctors, or just share a large lightbox on pond5 where we can set our own individual prices. The drawback are the visible download numbers, but maybe they will offer a privacy option in the future. Pond5 also takes video and it is good to have both in one place.
We would need all kinds of videos and photos of working techniques, analysis methods, conceptual imagery for abstract ideas and concepts, also in software and thousands of images of machine hardware pieces, chemicals, glassware, thousands of screws, tools etc
So if anyone is interested in these fields and has an appropriate background, please write to me or post here.
I am not thinking of starting a new agency, I believe if we can just combine what we maybe already have and work together and network in the future we can build a really interesting lightbox. A flower free zone, unless the flowers are part of a genetic experiment. :)
We could also meet up and shoot together, I am ready to travel abroad for a good project. Also we could recommend industry events,conferences, new trends and good blogs to stay up to date. There is so much new stuff happening every day.
And we would remain in control of our work, or if you want to create a series also for exclusive content somewhere, it is up to the individual.
But I thought if can get a good network together, we will all benefit and make our voices heard between all the people shooting beautiful girls and art :)
What do you think?
Anyone who is interested also going to mexpo?
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http://www.sciencephoto.com/contributors.html (http://www.sciencephoto.com/contributors.html)
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Thank you! I know them, but I am also interested in the people that work in the microstock community.
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Already one sitemail:)
I'll also be opening a facebookgroup for more detailed discussions.
Material for schools and teaching would be great as well, including pre school or kindergarden. Any teachers out there?
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I am not really sure i understand what you plan to do exactly but it sounds interesting. I am not a photographer, but illustrator, and a molecular biologist. Here is my site:
http://www.alilamedicalmedia.com/ (http://www.alilamedicalmedia.com/)
I am on micro too but they only have a part of my port, except Pond5
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Hi Alila,
you have fantastic work, I added you to my (still very humble) artist webring.
I have no fixed agenda, i would just like to network,exchange ideas and experiences. Once we have enough people we can create a directory on the web if we like or just a simple webring. We can use light boxes or galleries on one or more agency to increase the power of the content. Those who have symbiostock shops can also connect them. Maybe we can share a Blog page somewhere to talk about our work etc
But at the moment I just want to see how many people are reading here and are interested. Then Iīll open a facebookgroup where we can be more detailed.
I am new to doing video and still free to choose the genre I want to focus on. But I have a few requests from friends who are either still working in research or have technology related businesses. They need photos and videos for presentations or websites, so i thought maybe this can be combined with stock. Other friends are interested in doing stock, either as a mix of side income/hobby or even full time, if it works for them. So I am trying to give them an introduction to working with agencies. I teach a class on stock photography at a school in Cologne so I can save them a lot of time, if they really want to take stock seriously.
And between us we could already do many interesting things, if we can connect with more people, even better.
Once the network stands, there will probably also be agencies interested in working more closely with the group etc...
These are all just ideas, but I thought this thread just before the expo in Berlin, might get us connected in time if anyone is going there.
But if nobody else is interested, you at least got one more link to your website :)
ETA:
in case you havenīt seen this:
http://www.jacksofscience.com/chemistry/awkward-science-stock-photography/ (http://www.jacksofscience.com/chemistry/awkward-science-stock-photography/)
A lot of the images on stock sites just shows how much some people must have hated science in school. And there is a lot of content that is missing and hardly any videos at this point. A lot of content is also outdated, old tools, old computers etc...
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Sounds great, Jasmin
I hope many people would join and we could make something out of it. A directory and a shared blog is a great idea to start.
It would be great to have a joined website for science and technology images. I am sure that niche would do very well.
Love the funny scientist photos. That 's how we are stereotyped, crazy and socially naive LOL.
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Well, what people donīt understand scares them. High School wasnīt too friendly to people who like IT or Science. Even when I was at university it didnīt make me popular when I said I was studying Chemistry. And not just because it is not the kind of thing girls do. There is an amazing amount of prejudice about all things Science. Which is sad, because it is so fascinating.
But it can also be hard to find school teachers who inspire and explain things well. I think more than 50% of my peers at university had had school teachers that were real scientist, not regular teachers. Some people apparently take science as a second subject and donīt get enough training to understand it for themselves. And then obviously you canīt explain it well. For a while I was helping teacher study group with their chemistry assignments. They were very intelligent and talented people but it was shocking to see how little they knew. They also didnīt have any lab experience, learning everything just from text books. That makes it even harder. In the end, science requires that you do things actively (again and again). I canīt imagine learning about chemistry without the lab and hands on experiments.
I really hope I can come up with useful video clips. At the moment of course I have no content (I think I have 2 chemistry pictures in my whole portfolio). But for me this is a longterm project, so I am not worried.
My old university used to rent out labs to media production companies for whatever film or TV scenes they wanted to produce. Youīd walk into the weighing room and there would be fake blood and the outlines of a dead body on the floor
Also all kinds of very important looking "media" people, always wearing only black would come out of nowhere and stay for a few days. Always looking very serious, often carrying long, heavy cables and blocking off areas when they were filming. My home town is a city with a large media industry. They also do a lot of filming in the area where I live, so you get to see some interesting things.
I donīt know if they still do it and if I could maybe afford to rent one including glassware and chemicals.
I will reach out to friends who need content for their own uses first and also try to do "home school" experiments at home.
Letīs hope we can get more people from here. I opened a private Facebook group and sent you a link. Try it if you like. I know many people are apprehensive about Facebook, but it would be part of our social media strategy anyway. Companies,schools,labs all have Facebook pages these days, so it is an easy way to stay in touch with customers as well.
Maybe we can get some science or tech journalists on board as well. There must also be a market for writing text.
Iīll be happy to run an official Facebook page once we have enough members and maybe others can do twitter or google plus. A blog can be shared. A central website for an interest group would also not be difficult to set up and isnīt expensive.