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Messages - Fastmediamarco

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1
Veer / Veer to merge microstock and RF in unprecedented move
« on: January 28, 2010, 05:58 »
I haven't posted in a while but I thought this would be interesting enough. I spoke to Veer Nairn Nerland the GM of Veer.com to get some more info and he answered a couple of questions.

The change effectively ends the distinction between Micro and RF and marks the end of RF as we know it (at least on Veer). Images can move up and down the priceband. This means that clients will ultimately see a mix of micro and rf as single offering. http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=3660

Marco

2
General Photography Discussion / Photographers club to open
« on: December 08, 2009, 07:25 »
Hotshoe magazine is opening a members club for photographers in London. It's a place to work, relax between jobs and meet other photographers. The club will open in January and will also take foreign membership. It's in the same building as their new photo gallery.

http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=2612


4
If this hasn't been picked up here yet I thought this would be an interesting discussion to follow:

http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=2440

Techdirt has written about Microstock in response to a post on Photobusinessnews. This is some of the things that Photobusinessnews wrote:

The profits in microstock are like end products where the pollution dumped into fragile eco-systems as a part of the process is simply disregarded.

In the same vein of thinking, microstock photographers have little to no regard for the damage they are doing to the photographic environment, causing immensely talented photographers to close up shop.


Techdirt doesn't agree and says:

In the end, it really comes down to how you deal with it. Do you whine and stomp your feet and compare the new world to pollution? Or do you figure out how to adapt? Economic progress doesnt care in the slightest how much you liked how things used to be.

I think it's interesting how the opinions still differ so much on the subject...

5
Here are a number of responses from several professional photographer groups. More on the way http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=2053
If this is not useful, interesting or entertaining let me know...no offense

6
yesterday I  have started a project with the readers of my magazine. I have asked all photographers to answer a single question:

What is the single most important thing you have done that made you a better and/or more successful photographer? (In max 50 words). (http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=2006)

Responses are coming in quite rapidly and I will organise and publish them for everyone to look at. It would be great to get the microstock perspective here as well.

Thanks, I hope you enjoy the answers and the ideas

Here are some of the responses:

Put my camera down while photographing a deadly accident

There was a key moment at the beginning of my transition from assisting to shooting for myself where I was at a party with lots of ad folks and I decided to take myself seriously, and I presented myself that
way. I got my first ad gig from those connections.

Continuing Education - the more I can learn from my fellow photographers on an on-going basis the better I become

left half my gear at home. took a 5d, 24-70 and 2 fashguns

7
General Stock Discussion / Alamy revenues down 30%
« on: November 05, 2009, 01:20 »
This came out yesterday. They do believe things are getting better but have seen a big decline so far this year.
http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1905

8
General Stock Discussion / Re: Asian Photo Agencies?
« on: November 04, 2009, 18:18 »
Hi again,

I worked with Alex, the founder as a consultant/interim MD for the first half of this year to help set out the long term plans for the company.

When I left I started my Stock photography news site and forum. Asia Images is foremost a production company but they do have some increased focus on direct sales in Asia. If you want Alex or Sarah's (creative director) email adress I can dig that up for you.

9
I interviewed Thought Equity Motion this week. While they are obviously focussed on motion (video) what they are trying to do is universal. They will move from being a library only to a company that provides 'contextual media'.

When applied to photography and microstock the concept of providing context around core content will create new volume and opportunity. The concept implies that if you have a central piece of content, whether it's music, a sport event, text etc you offer other content around it that gives further informaton, depth and entertainment.

For commercial photography this could mean showing travel photography (which can be purchased for prints for example) around a travel story. Just thinking out loud here of course.

Getty's partnership with Daylife also points in this direction. The article is quite long but gives insight in a company that is allready working on this. http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1867

What do you think?

10
General Stock Discussion / Re: Asian Photo Agencies?
« on: November 04, 2009, 09:38 »
Woops,forgot http://wwww.asia-images.com even thought I worked with them this year... thanks

11
General Stock Discussion / Re: Asian Photo Agencies?
« on: November 02, 2009, 19:01 »
123RF sells Microstock into Asia (part of Inmagine.com). Some other players are:

Panorama
Imagine China
Oriental touch
Argus photo

I'm not sure which one does microstock of those 4

12
I uploaded a new video (by reeldealHD) with a seminar that was held at the conference of the Picture Archive Council of America. This one is about how far Google has progressed with visual search and specific technology Imense is using to advance visual search. It's pretty long so I summarised the highlights. I hope that, like with the keynote speech, this will be useful. http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1781

There will be one further video from the conference

13
Microstock News / Re: Pixmac adds Dreamstime to offering
« on: October 30, 2009, 16:43 »
If I recall well FT has a reseller program that lets their partners set their own prices

14
There's a bit of a fight going on here in the UK between the association of Picture libraries and one of its members: http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1738 I'll keep on following it as it develops

15
Microstock News / Pixmac adds Dreamstime to offering
« on: October 30, 2009, 08:01 »
Pixmac, the microstock aggregator has added dreamstime to their product line up that allready had fotolia: http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1733

16
Great discussion, thanks for the compliment RT, appreciate it.

A couple of things here, the algorithms they use are very advanced and not only look at search terms, but also at adspace sold around those search results, how many results allready show up (to avoid burying the new content) and a number of other tweaks. The Wired article said that on a big day it had 62.000 assignments ready to be taken on...

Revenue is allready huge; $200 million so even when the content is bad, someone is paying or it (through advertising). It kind of made me feel that content becomes meaningless, in fact, a friend said to me that in a way communication becomes meaningless, but maybe I'm getting to phylosophical now...

The bottomline seems to be that this is going to get bigger and it's ever more important to find a niche or specialism and focus on personal work that can not easily be replicated.

17
Thanks for the encouragement Jonathan,

I should have some more PACA things coming in, a bit snowed under with some interviews and articles. If there is anything in particular relating to the industry anyone wants me to research or report on let me know and I will do my best to publish it.

Thanks,
Marco

18
I posted an article about a company called Demand Media on my magazine site and it kind of threw me of course. This company is a massive "content generating machine" that automatically produces lists of subjects that will be popular (it uses algorithms), pays contributors $15-$20 to produce it and then publishes it on their own community sites or sells it to publishers and corporations to fill up their sites with more content.

As far as I can see it's mostly text and video now but you'd think that this model can also be applied to Microstock quite easily. I'm not quite sure yet what to make of it. Do you think this is this a threat or an opportunity for Microstock?  http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1613

19
Imagerights International is a company that just launched at Photoplus. It helps track unlicensed images used online with a combination of technologies. It's a bit like picscout but for individual photographers. Before the launch I interviewed Ted VanClaeve who is an artist and co-founder of the company. The article is here

http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1570

ps, I have no relations, agreements or kickbacks with any of the companies I have interviewed

20
I thought it would be good to know the latest on what PACA thinks about the future of the industry and some of the opportunities. I have just received the video of the keynote speech that was given last week. Maria Kessler talks about looking at changes in other industries and how to use those learnings to secure the future for Stock Photography

Here it is:

http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=1575

Let me know if you find this useful. I'll have some more video on the event later.

Marco

21
General Stock Discussion / Re: Fast Media Magazine
« on: October 06, 2009, 08:01 »
Hi there,

First of all, great you picked up on this.

I am responsible for Fast Media Magazine, in fact, it's a one man show right now. When I started a couple of months ago I started looking for imagery. While I have a background in traditional stock (I worked at Getty Images for 10 years and Corbis for 2) I don't have a budget to speak of for photography (or anything for that matter...) so went to Istockphoto first. I then found Stock exchange and a number of great conceptual images that I have used in the first magazine. Finally, when Getty changed their blog pricing I bought 2 images of them (Flickr). I did a small post on this some time ago. http://www.fastmediamagazine.com/?p=151

The magazine comes from a passion for the industry. I have done all the work and things are now stable and in place and readership is growing. I am trying to bring outside views and ideas into the industry both for microstock and other models. I don't believe in micro/mid/macro but do believe that a continued debate on the model of the future is necessary so photographers can keep shooting and be rewarded for it.

If you find some credits missing that would be the result of juggling many balls right now, sorry about that (let me know if you miss something and I will add it). I have a couple of lightboxes ready to go for the next issue. For the first one I have informed all photographers individually via the comments on sxc. If one of you has any ideas about a quicker way to do this that would be great.

So, I hope this helps a bit, thanks for some of the great pictures, many of which will be used over the coming weeks and months. Also, if you have any suggestions, tips, ideas you want me to write about or report on just let me know. Oh, and if you can help spread the word that would be great too. :)

Best,

Marco

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