Funny Animal Pics, Concept Stock Photos And SEO For 2010

This funny animal picture started my Animal Antics collection of anthropomorphic pet pictures for greeting cards, coffee mugs, and other products.


I believe it will be increasingly important to produce creative, conceptual photos that are not competing with all the other images out there.

Funny Animal Pics, Concept Stock Photos, And SEO
What does 2010 have in store for me? More funny animal pics (for my efforts with CaféPress, ImageKind, Greeting Cards, and all those veterinarians and animal groomers that e-mail me seeking to use those photos), More stock photos, particularly concept images, for Blend Images, Superstock, Getty and Corbis; and more interviews and blogging. All of the above will contribute to the most important aspect of my ongoing SEO effort by providing quality content for my website.

Increased Demand, More Money, And Higher Price Points
If nothing else it should be interesting to see where the image industry goes from here. Obviously, as the economy picks up there will be both an increased demand for images and a willingness to spend more money on them, though I don’t think prices will rebound to pre recession levels. But I do expect prices in the microstock arena to increase. There will continue to be plenty of free images and a lot of very low priced ones, but as iStock has done with Vetta, there will be more offerings at higher price points. When RF first arrived on the scene the prices weren’t much higher than microstock levels, but gradually the prices grew until now, in many cases, RF prices are significantly higher than RM!

Traditional Stock, Microstock, and Fading Community
I also think that more and more there will be less separation between micro and traditional stock. After all, it is all stock, just at different price points. The trend started by Veer and Fotolia of offering stock from all categories in one place will continue. The “community” aspects of microstock will begin to fade as micro is absorbed more and more into the folds of the traditional players like Getty and Corbis, and as microstock is dominated more and more by pros and those micro shooters who excel at producing vast quantities of quality images.

Millions of Dollars And Image Theft
Another area to watch will be the anti-theft developments spearheaded by companies like PicScout, LicenseStream, TinEye and C-Registry. The millions, perhaps billions, of dollars that are being lost through copyright infringement and unfulfilled potential license fees, is just too big a piece of the pie to go unclaimed. The question is when, rather than if, image theft will get reigned in…and how much of the increased revenue will find its way into the pockets of photographers as opposed to the pockets of distributors.

Creating Stock Photos, Imprinted Products And SEO
I would probably make more money in the short term by devoting less time to my Internet efforts and SEO, and more to creating stock photos, but I totally believe that in the long term, it will be to my huge advantage to develop both my web presence and to increase my personal branding. Plus, my strategy of creating more silly pet pictures for distribution as photo imprinted products, and for increasing my print sales (through Imagekind), also relies on increased web traffic and high rankings in the search engines.

2010, An Awesome Year
So in the coming year it will be more of what I was doing in 2009. I am totally convinced that 2010 is going to be an awesome year, partly because I intend to make it an awesome year, and partly because, well, 2010 just rolls of the tongue so nicely!

Seeing Your Photo Business With Fresh Eyes

Sometimes, to see the way forward for your business, it helps to have a fresh perspective.

Peeling Bananas
For fifty some years I have been peeling bananas. It is often a struggle. I look for anything to get a starting cut into the skin near the stem so that I can start the peeling process without smushing (come on,  that has to be a legitimate word…), the fruit. I have tried everything from a fingernail to a key, but knives work best.

Start From The Other In
I recently watched a short video on the Internet. It was about how to peel a banana.  I watched for amusement, as I already know how to perform that particular task. Uh, I thought I knew how to peel a banana. The more efficient way to free the banana from its skin is mind-boggling simple. Start from the other end!  OMG, it works so much better!

Tools, Techniques And Pain Points
I remember once, giving a demonstration at Photo Plus in New York on Photoshop. At the end of my presentation one of the people approaching me at the podium was a man who identified himself as one of the engineers for Photoshop. He said he would love to have a talk with me about my “Pain Points”, areas where I was continuing to use tools and techniques I had learned in Photoshop years earlier, and was continuing to use despite the fact that there were new and better tools and techniques. Geez, and I was passing on these “pain points” to my audience. Embarrassment!

Preconceptions, Old Habits And Fresh Eyes
OK, where am I missing other solutions to problems hiding in plain site? Where in my business am I being a slave to preconceptions and old habits?  What are the pain points in my photography business? Perhaps more importantly, how do look at my business and at my photography through fresh eyes that I might see what these pain points are? How can I re-frame my business and and be sure I am on course for my future plans.

A Different Perspective
One way to look at one’s business through “fresh eyes” is to have someone else look at your business. A little over a year ago I had my brother do just that. The fact that he was totally un-involved in the photography world gave him the ability to look at my business from a totally different perspective…and it radically altered the thrust of my efforts.  It was his observations that pointed out to me the wisdom of embarking on an Internet-centric path of SEO (search engine optimization), creating an online image database, and adding content ranging from articles and interviews to this photo blog.

An Open Mind And Objective Evalutation
If you know someone in a different line of work, who you respect, it might be a good idea to have them review your business and be open to what they might come up with. Of course, you also need to utilize your own knowledge and determine what feedback is actually of use. The tricky part is having an open mind, being able to use objectively evaluate the feedback, and incorporating any new ideas into your business.

Suggestions From Within The Photo Industry
I also welcome suggestions from those within our photo industry. It was at the suggestion, maybe I should say urging, of two of my fellow photographers, Jack Hollingsworth and Shalom Ormsby, that I began my blog centered around stock photography. I routinely seek out the opinions and ideas of my fellow shooters, but always keeping in mind that it is up to me to determine when those suggestions and ideas are germane to my own business approach. Most of the feedback I get I have either already incorporated, or have decided for one reason or another that it doesn’t work for me. The hardest part for me, as I mentioned earlier, is keeping an open mind.  Those suggestions that I have taken to heart and incorporated into my work have made a huge difference in my approach over the last year. As to how successful this new course will be, only time will tell.

Photography And The Future: Advice For The Road Ahead

The road ahead for stock photographers lies under storm clouds, but are those rays of optimsim and future success awaiting us?

I have compiled the advice offered to photographers from the photographers, CEOs, agency owners, art directors, designers, photo researchers and others who I have interviewed over the last year:

Jack Hollingsworth, Stock Photographer, Blend Images Co-Founder, Social Media & Photography Consultant
The money is in getting the photography in front of the consumer.

Marc Romanelli, Stock Photographer (Stills And Motion)
I choose to shoot what I know, shoot what feels right, diversify by shooting motion, as well as stills, finding new agencies that want to build their collections quickly as Workbook did, loading them up with images but not forgetting the "girl that brought you to the dance" in the first place...that would be your bread and butter agency. In my case that agency is Getty.

Ellen Boughn, Stock Industry Consultant and Pundit
Think of your business as a multi-layered cake. Get your work into all the layers of the business. DEVELOP a specialty and be the best at it in the world. Even photographers on microstock sites need to build their brands within the site in order to get maximum downloads.

Colin Anderson, Stock and Assignment Photographer and Co-Founder, Blend Images
Shoot work that is unique and hard to copy, and keep expenses down to a minimum.

Jonathan Ross, Stock Photographer and Co-Founder, Blend Images
I would say keep costs down. Don’t buy that new camera this year unless it makes you more money. Research is a bigger part of the game, more then ever before. Do your homework and get your ducks in a row before you spend your money on a shoot. Invest in R & D and try to stay true to your vision instead of just copying what you see working for others or that you have already shot yourself. Most of all have as much fun as possible, that always brings the largest rewards, financially and personally.

Rick Becker-Leckrone, Stock Shooter, Co-Founder & CEO Blend Images stock agency
One thing is especially important to keep in mind – now is not the time for a shotgun approach to production. The last decade was about creating massive amounts of RF imagery. Now there’s too much similar content. RM has been underserved with new imagery, but it’s a relatively small market. Micro is interesting, but a lot of hard work and not completely clear one can generate the same returns as in traditional stock. (Yes, some do, but very few.) Chill out in 2009. Figure out what you’re truly good at shooting, figure out what the market is missing and make fewer, but better targeted content. Don’t count the success of your 2009 in the number of images you produce.

Shalom Ormsby, Assignment and Stock Shooter Stills And Motion, Co-Founder Blend Images
A short story, since I’ve been so long-winded. At the end of a talk the Dalai Lama was giving about true happiness, he was asked what was the happiest day of his life. The Dalai Lama smiled and said softly, “That would be today.” May today be the happiest day of your life.


Tom Joyce, Owner/Creative Director Creativewerks
Do whatever you do with great passion and make it as perfect as you can. Then let go of it and grab a beer.


Lanny Ziering, CEO SuperStock, Co-Founder Blend Images
Talk to people who buy pictures, find out what they want, go and shoot it.

Trevor Lush, Stock and Assignment Photographer
I see me moving away from the high-volume work I've been doing in the past, towards a much more targeted approach. Fewer images with more added value.

Patty Meyers, Owner, Bloodhound Stock Photo Research
I find more and more art buyers are going to these alternative sites for innovative work. Basically, my advice is to get your images out to as many traditional and alternative image sources as possible, watch the trends and keep your work contemporary, and try and find a niche which needs filled. That and find a partner with a real job.

Inti St. Clair, Assignment and Stock Stills and Video
Shoot what you love. There is not a lot that’s easy about being a pro photographer, and the sad reality is that very little time is spent actually shooting, but as long as you’re loving it, it’s all worth while.

Collette Kulak, Art Director, Marian Heath Greeting Cards
Shoot what you love. There is not a lot that’s easy about being a pro photographer, and the sad reality is that very little time is spent actually shooting, but as long as you’re loving it, it’s all worth while.

Tom Grill, Stock Shooter, Agency Owner (Tetra), Blend Co-Founder
With declining RPI’s it’s becoming more difficult to earn a substantial living from stock photography. Now is a good time to honestly access your talents and resources relative to what it will take to make a go in the tougher times ahead. Follow the old stock market adage of getting out when the market is high and jumping in when the market is low. NOW – in this time of severe economic downturn -- is the time to buy stocks in the stock market as well as pour images into the stock photo market.

Lance Lee, Stock and Assignment Photographer, Mentor, Entrepreneur
For our stock photography projects, I'm encouraging our photographers and production team to work as if they are working in a film production. The process is pretty much the same - creative story telling translated into pictures.

Dan Heller, Stock Photographer And Stock Industry Analyst
Photographers are going to have to get behind initiatives that encourage openness, distribution, and wider-scale adoption of intellectual property. This is the one and only path that will help bring order to the chaos of images on the Internet. And with that comes ranking and prioritization, much like how Google ranks websites.
And when that happens, “quality” images will percolate to the top, and reward those photographers who truly are better than others. If one assumes that most “pros” are better photographers than consumers, the only way pros’ images will be found and licensed by buyers of any sort, will be when there are business incentives for companies to build those technology solutions.

Sarah Fix, Creative Director, Blend Images
A photographer’s greatest assets are their creativity and ability to speak to the market. What is your creative advantage? What do you do better than most?
There is always opportunity during challenging times. Right now in our industry there are fewer images being created, fewer shoots with higher production value, social networking is making it easier to give and receive information, the rights managed licensing model is in need of new content, motion is gaining momentum with affordable cameras that capture both stills and motion – how do you plan on taking advantage of this moment? Adapt as the market changes.

Jeremy Woodhouse, Stock Photographer and Educator (Photography Workshops), Blend Images Co-Founder
Take time to get grounded in a location, check out the bookstores, post card racks, see where the “hot spots” are and work around them. Look for new ideas; introduce some of your own technique/style into a location. Use the light, not only the edge of the daylight but even midday light can work, especially with HDR. You can beat the contrast big time. Revisit the same locations several times in different light.

John Feingersh, Stock Photographer, Co Founder Blend Images
Hold on, keep your chins up, find those holes in the files and fill them with great imagery.

Charlie Holland, Stock Shooter, Former Director of Photography, Getty Images
Be smart, direct your efforts. Spread your submissions out over collections, over time and over business models. Do not overspend on your productions.

Sarah Golonka, Stock Shooter, Stock Photography Consultant, Art Director/Editor
Keep your head up and look back to help prepare yourself for the future. Be aware of and open to change and work with it vs. against it. Analyze your sales history and draw your own conclusions as to why your images did and did not sell, then apply that information to your future shoots. Keep taking creative risks and stick to shooting what you are good at vs. trying to reinvent the wheel.

Trinette Reed And Chris Gramly, Stock and Assignment Stills And Motion (Trinette is a Cofounder of Blend Images)
Trinette: Be open minded and open to change, experiment, use the downturn to focus on what you really want to be doing, stay connected.
Chris: Stay open to the changes and open to learning; don’t pretend to know what you don’t know.

Don Farrall, Stock and Assignment Photographer
I used to counsel photographers about getting into stock and can be credited for bringing a handful of photographers, and even a few illustrators, through the process of securing a contract with Getty; back in the days when that was a Golden ticket. I would have to say that I am much less “Bullish” about it now. These are difficult times to be encouraging, so I suppose I would want to see someone’s work first before I answered that question for them.

Offir Gutelzon, CEO PicScout
Making content available for more marketing applications and promotional use, while selling content as RF, is essential. Photographers should follow your actions, like those you’ve taken that improve rankings on search engines, and promote themselves in new ways, even at the risk of image infringements.

Hope that helps! Look for more interviews in the coming year. BTW, I predict that 2010 is going to be a good year...based on the fact that it rolls off the tongue nicely!

To see the entire interview with any of the above people go to my Interiview Index.

Stock Photo Expedition: In Search Of The Himalayan Holstein

A rare stock photo and funny picture of a batch of Himalayan Cows watching the sunrise.

From Holland To the Himalayas
No one is sure when the first Holstein cows made the long migration from Holland to the Himalayas, but those interested in such matters speculate that it was in the late 1700’s. It is believed that these Himalayan Holsteins are the purest of modern Holstein cattle as their remote and rocky habitat has isolated them from other breeds for hundreds of years. This remarkable branch of the popular breed of milk cow has adapted well for life in their mountainous habitat.

Mountain Goats, Antelope, and Yaks
Among the unique traits of the Himalayan Holstein are it’s ability to climb with the sureness of hoof of mountain goats, the strength and agility to leap like antelope, and the ability to survive on terrain so barren of vegetation that even a Yak would starve. These remarkable beasts have developed a sense of smell so keen that they can locate a single sprout beneath several feet of snow. They also have become quite adept a raiding the alfalfa fields of villagers in the dead of night utilizing their amazing athleticism to bound easily over the rock fences erected by the villagers.

The Stealth Of A Snow Leopard
Over the years the Himalayan Holstein has become as stealthy as the much-fabled snow leopard. Their Black and White camouflage hides serve them well in the patchy snow and harsh shadows of the higher elevations. It is a rare privilege to see a single Himalayan Holstein let alone a batch (the scientific name for three or more Himalayan Holsteins gathered together in one place). You can imagine, then, my excitement at being able to photograph these three cows as they watched the sunrise.

The Quest For A Stock Photo
For years I had thirsted for a shot of these amazing creatures for my stock picture collection. This was my third trip to the Himalayas in a effort to fulfill that desire. The first two had been disappointments. The closest I had come to sighting one of these rare beasts was some frozen hoof prints on a remote glacier and the stories I heard from my Sherpa guides as we huddled around the campfire at night. But on this, my third expedition, fortune was with me.

Cluster Peaks And Fresh Scat
I had heard rumors among the villagers and Sherpas that Himalayan Holsteins are very found of watching the sunrise and would often climb atop the highest peaks available to catch the burgeoning dawn. Apparently they prefer clusters of sharp peaks that facilitate both a good view of the sunrise and a clear view of any potential threats as well. I was lucky. A local villager had shared with me that he had seen their tracks near just such a cluster of peaks, with relatively fresh scat, to indicate their presence. Nonetheless, I had to wait patiently in a blind, downwind of the peaks, for almost three weeks before the coming light of the dawn revealed these three excellent specimens. I was only able to get this one shot off. Even though they were over a hundred yards away they apparently heard my shutter click and in an instant they had bounded away and out of site.

Base Camp, Laptops, And Stock Photography
Back at my base camp I downloaded my shot onto my laptop. I was elated to see that I had captured a clear, sharp photograph, the only known photograph, of a batch of Himalayan Holsteins. Not just an incredible memory, but also an important and valuable addition to my stock photography collection.

Funny Pictures: Humor In Stock Photography

Funny pictures, and effective stock photos, can be created by revealing the unexpected, as in this photograph of a nude audience to illustrate presentation issues.

Entertainment Advertising And Images We Want To See
Entertainment advertising is upon us. With the advent of TiVo and technologies that allow us to zip past commercials, with pop up window blockers, with viral advertising and with such a vast quantity of, well, stuff, to choose from on the Internet, on Television and even on Satellite Radio, advertisers are increasingly at the mercy of our viewing discretion. If they want to get their messages across, to get their messages seen, more and more they have to create advertisements that we want to see. They have to create entertainment advertising. One way for us still photographers to participate in this is through humor. We can increase our chances to prosper in these difficult times by creating images that employ humor with a strong concept that is relevant to the market.

Funny Pictures, Negative Concepts And Best Sellers
Funny pictures, stock photos employing humor, can take a variety of forms from black humor (negative or looming disaster) to silly (outrageous expressions) to the absurd (over-the-top imagery). I have often heard the negative images don’t sell, but my personal experience has been the opposite…when humor is introduced to that negative concept the image can be a best seller. Of course, the same is true for any of the concepts; humor, executed well, raises the bar for any image.

Facebook, Twitter And Going Viral
One particularly important aspect of adding humor to your photography, making your photos funny as well as informative, is that people love to share humor. Nothing can spread the word for an advertiser faster than people telling their friends, spreading the message, e-mailing it, posting it on Facebook and tweeting on Twitter. Humor is the grease for that Holy Grail, the message gone viral.

Half Time Commercials And Humor In Advertising
A premier example of the value placed on funny advertising is the Super Bowl, where in many cases people are looking forward to the half-time commercials more than the game itself. If you need proof of the premium placed on humor in advertising, you have to look no further.

 
By using a picture of a Sumo wrestler in this stock image I tried to minimize any possible offense to people struggling with weight issues.

Funny To One, Offensive To Another, And Sumo Wrestlers
You do have to be careful with humor though. It is important to remember that what is funny to one person, or one group of people, might well be offensive to another group. I encountered that very problem when trying to work out an idea I had for an impossible catch…a flying trapeze artist about to catch someone so overweight that the catch would seem impossible. I sat on the idea for over a year because I was afraid I would offend people who have to deal with obesity problems. Eventually I hit upon what I felt was a perfect answer…a Sumo wrestler. By using a Sumo wrestler in the shot the issue of obesity was sidestepped. Sumo wrestlers are extremely respected and proud of their size and are not generally regarded as suffering from obesity problems. I did check with my model, an actual Sumo wrestler, about whether there would be a problem with such an image, and both he and a Sumo wrestling association gave me a thumbs-up on the image.


Adding animals, such as with this lion trainer with his head in a lions mouth, is an effective way to add humor and impact to your stock photos.

The Unexpected, The Absurd, And Animals
As with the Sumo wrestler, showing the unexpected or the absurd is a great way to add humor to your stock photography. Another way of adding that “funny” element to your work is through the introduction of animals. People have a natural affinity for animals, particularly cats and dogs, but in the example here the cat is a big one and it works perfectly to create a timeless, funny and dramatic photo about the negative concepts of risk and danger.


This funny bowling picture works because the image walks that fine edge of possibility allowing a viewer to momentarily suspend their disbelief.

The Fine Edge Of Possibility
Another technique in adding effective humor to your imagery is by capturing situations that have plausibility, but are over the top. Part of the trick is to walk the fine edge of possibility, to create an image that is just real enough to make a viewer, if only for an instant, suspend their disbelief. If you can get a viewer to that place, where they pause and consider the situation, you have caught their attention and that is exactly the job of your photograph.

Funny Pictures, Success, And Revenue
Humor is a powerful tool to increase the effectiveness of your stock photography. It can turn negative messages into positive ones, increase the chance of viral success, and make people want to see your messages rather than avoid them. Funny pictures are the corner stone, for still photographers, of entertainment advertising, and as such can significantly add to your photography success, and to your revenue.

Flying Money: History Of A Best Selling Stock Photo

The first stock photo I ever made with Photoshop, 19 years ago, and still selling!

Flying Money, My First Photoshop Stock Photo
I noticed, when looking through my sales history, that many of my images have a very long life. The above image of flying money, which I named many years ago, Flight of the Greenbacks, is one of those long-lived pictures. It brought in just under $400.00 over the last year. Now $400.00 in a year for a stock photo is hardly what one would call spectacular, hardly worth mentioning, I suppose. But the cool thing about this image earning that amount over the last year, is that I created this image in 1990! This image was, I believe, the first stock photo I ever created in Photoshop.

Hundred Dollar Bills and Wings of Egrets
I photographed the money, a $100.00 bill, with a 4x5 Sinar camera using Ektachrome 4x5 transparency film. The wings came from a 35mm slide of an Egret in flight that I had photographed for part of a housing project brochure. I photographed the Egret using either Ektachrome or Kodachrome slide film, I don't remember which. The cloudy sky image was also from a 35mm slide. I had all the transparencies scanned on a drum scanner at a separation house. It cost me a hefty $110.00 a scan, and each scan was transferred to me via SyQuest disk.

Photoshop 1.0 And A Macintosh II
I used Photoshop 1.0 for the digital work on a Macintosh II. My machine had a whopping 32 megs of Ram and a un-calibrated 13 inch monitor. In Photoshop, back then, there were no layers, there was no history, there were no layer masks and there wasn't even a pen tool to create clipping paths (at least at don't remember one). It took me two full days to create this image, and probably a third day of just cleaning up edges. Trying to get things perfect was the difficult part. Well, that and the fact that everything took forever to do! Rotating a 30 megabyte file took over half-an-hour, and since all you could see during the duration was a bounding box, accuracy was non-existent! I don't even like remembering it. Finally, I had to deliver the image to Tony Stone Images (this was before Getty Images existed) as a 4x5 transparency output from a film recorder.

$15,000.00, Fifteen Years, And A Time Magazine Cover
Though the earnings of this image have dropped considerably, way back in the day, it earned some good money. I would guess my total returns for this image is in the neighborhood of $15,000.00. Another interesting point is that it took fifteen years from the time I created it for it to show up on the cover of Time Magazine. The people at Time isolated the flying money and added in a face to illustrate an article on what they called "The Great Retirement Rip Off".

Photoshop, Progress Bars and 3D Programs
In the early nineties I was constantly being told that you couldn't use Photoshop to do professional level work. I just smiled and went back to watching that progress bar. Actually, I should say several progress bars. You could be much more efficient with two or three machines. I remember once using the "radial>zoom>blur" filter on a photograph in an operation that took 19+ hours to finish, then it didn't look very good so I did the old "command-z". I suppose there are those out there (Colin Anderson, Shalom Ormsby and Phil Banko, for example?) who now experience those same situations doing high-end work with 3D programs.

Income Producing Assets
Every time I set about to make a stock photo, I am trying to create an image with that kind of staying power. In the well-known investment book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki advocates investing your money in “income producing assets”. That is how I view my stock photos, as income producing assets. I am investing my time, my money and my ideas in stock photo assets. I don’t know about you, but I find it very reassuring that those assets can still, even in these years of industry turbulence, have a long and healthy life.

PicScout CEO Offir Gutelzon Interviewed

Searching For Images? This "search metaphor" stock photo is currently part of an image infringement law suit by Getty Images.


Interview with Offir Gutelzon, PicScout CEO, December 12, 2009

Disclaimer to John Lund: The answers provided reflect PicScout’s opinion as of the date of this response. Given the highly fluid environment we are in, answers could change quickly based upon market changes.

Q. Offir, can you give us a brief background; how PicScout came to be and your role in that, as well as a little about where your company stands today?

A. In 2002, Eyal Gura and I founded PicScout. At the time, Eyal’s girlfriend (now his wife), was working for an Israeli stock agency in the job of searching for image infringement on the web in the old fashioned way--manually. That is, searching online for images and looking for attribution and ownership both online and in the real world and trying to determine if licensing had been engaged for the online usage of images owned by the stock agency. This proved to be a challenging task, if not an impossible one. Eyal and I, who at the time were both getting advanced degrees from IDC Herzliya (http://portal.idc.ac.il/en/main/homepage/Pages/homepage.aspx), recognized a tremendous market need to have an automated system which could track, protect and monetize images in the ever-exploding Web. I assumed the role of taking our vision from an idea to a product operation model to R&D and into reality, which we knew would require a seamless infrastructure capable of serving millions of Rights Managed images globally.

Through the PicScout proprietary and highly scalable image recognition technology, we created the image copyright protection marketplace, bringing millions of dollars back into the industry with our now widely-used product, ImageTracker™. From the outset, we envisioned our goal: Image commerce becoming a legitimate Internet economy.

PicScout believes every image on the Web—whether an amateur or professional image-- is usable, saleable and trackable. The company recently launched products and services to assure that every image gets its credit™ and engender a new model for image commerce, moving the industry from a practice of policing infringement to one of enabling use. The enabling technology we recently announced, the PicScout Image IRC™ includes our products ImageTracker™ and ImageExchange™, and creates a pervasive online image marketplace. PicScout does not run the image marketplace; running the marketplace is, and always has been, what the image industry itself does. PicScout just makes it possible for our customers to present their store fronts to their customers—the many millions of online users trying to find them—through the use of the PicScout ImageExchange™ add-on.

Today, PicScout, with its many customers, is realizing the new model in an actual online marketplace of images that exists everywhere an image resides. The Image IRC assures that every one of its images is recognized with ownership and rights and equipped for transaction at the point of the user experience, wherever that may be. See: http://www.picscout.com/news-and-events/industry-wide-support.html and http://tinyurl.com/ybfu7tj.

PicScout has moved from a single product company to a company with a platform of products and services that now serves multiple industries: The image industry and all its users. These users are challenged every day both to find images and determine their rights, so they can legitimately use an image they find online. These users are from many categories of creative groups who employ images to accomplish their work—designers, corporate marketing and communications professionals, the advertising industry, the publishing industry, bloggers, photography editors and buyers. The image marketplace, based on the PicScout Image IRC, facilitates communication and connection between image owners and image buyers in a new model that moves away from infringement to legitimate and immediate image use.


Q. There is considerable buzz about your new products ImageExchange and Image Tracker. Can you give us a brief run down on these products?

A. PicScout products offer both the carrot and the stick.

Our first product, ImageTracker, represents the stick. Launched in 2003, ImageTracker is based on proprietary PicScout image fingerprinting technology that allows any image to be identified even if it has been altered. ImageTracker has been widely adopted by image owners and licensors across the industry. ImageTracker has successfully identified potential cases of infringement for our customers. Equipped with the information, our customers have acted to restore tens of millions of dollars to the industry by pursuing infringement charges.

ImageExchange, the carrot, reverses the image commerce model and leverages all that the new PicScout Image IRC has to offer. ImageExchange is the tool for image buyers and users to see ownership and available rights and transact for image use at the point of encounter with an image anywhere online. ImageExchange, currently in beta trials, is a free Browser add-on. Creative professionals register for the beta and download at http://imagex.picscout.com/ Once the tool is installed, its button can be turned on or off. Using ImageExchange, an image buyer recognizes any of the tens of millions of Image IRC images by markers wherever they encounter one of the images online—whether in a search, such as through Google or Yahoo! Image Search, or at a site, or anywhere online that an Image IRC image might appear. The international information symbol—a small, encircled appears in the upper right corner of an image. ImageExchange enables an easy 4-step image acquisition process: Find, click, view metadata, click-through to transact.

Our creatives in the beta (marcom people, designers, photo editors, etc) are telling us that they are saving hours and days of time. They tell us they get requests all the time to find and use certain images in presentations, marketing materials, and in print or online publications. While the new Google Similar Image feature and Yahoo’s search functions make searching for the right image easier, the image user still must then spend hours and days trying to find the rights, and usually they're not able to do so. It's been very frustrating for them, to say the least. PicScout ImageExchange is making their work much easier.

Consider that until now professional image buyers—those in corporate marketing, designers, advertising agencies, and magazine, newspaper and online photo editors, for examples—have steered clear of online images altogether, because of ownership ambiguity. A designer risks too much for themselves, their companies or their clients if they reproduce an online image and later must face accusations of and charges for infringement for themselves and their client. So individuals in professions comprising image users must avoid the feast of images the internet inherently has to offer with ready availability, because image copyrights have been impossible to manage. ImageExchange opens the online image marketplace for legitimate transaction and a new model for image commerce emerges.

Q. Some of my images, particularly my Animal Antics photos, are infringed to a truly amazing degree. The infringements, though, are mostly on social networking sites, Flickr, non-commercial blogs and so forth. I get the feeling that few if any of the many infringements of my images are worth pursuing. Is that true? If so, do you think it is true for most photographers?

A. You present an example of where Image IRC and ImageExchange are invaluable. While you are right in saying that using your images without permission is infringement, it is impossible to fight all infringements unless you have endless time and money. Rather than you, the owner, having to bear the responsibility of pursuing infringement by using a product like the ImageTracker and then enforcing your findings, if users are enabled with ImageExchange, they will recognize your image’s ownership, what the rights for use are, and be able to pay for/license the rights to use the image at the point of encounter. Essentially, cases of infringement become promotions; though you’re not condoning the infringement, you provide an immediate remedy for it.

In terms of the ImageTracker, today most of our clients find it worthwhile to specifically pursue business accounts rather than individual accounts, although some do consider individual cases as a matter of principle.

With the new ImageExchange, infringement and any excuses for non-legitimate use can no longer withstand scrutiny, if your images are part of Image IRC. So ideally, what occurs is a reduction in the number of infringements because you take away the excuse and the hassle of trying to figure out how to buy it. At PicScout, we fundamentally believe that if you give people the opportunity to do the right thing (by identifying images with the icon and providing corresponding licensing information), the vast majority will do the right thing – and for those that don’t – the ImageTracker serves as the enforcement tool.

Q. I believe one of the dysfunctions of the current system for licensing and distributing photography is that there doesn't seem to be a practical way to license for "personal use", i.e. screensavers, homework reports, non-commercial blogs, or prints to stick on your refrigerator. Do you agree? Is there an answer?

A. Any image, including those you mention here, can be recognized with ownership and rights and equipped for immediate transaction if it’s part of the PicScout Image IRC. Wherever one of our images is encountered, its marker, the icon, can be seen by anyone using ImageExchange. This means the shopping cart and pricing charts provided by the licensors can include a range of potential uses and a range of prices. We believe if our industry makes it easy for people to buy (not necessarily license), and buy at a level they seek to use the image for, they will do the right thing. You can think of it as the same as people who buy music for personal use, they do not necessarily know about the music studio that created the music, they just use iTunes or go to Virgin.

Q. Does registering your copyright with the Copyright Office make any difference when dealing with many of the most common infringements such as unauthorized use of pictures on social media sites and/or non-commercial blogs?

A. When an image is registered with the Copyright Office, you do have the right to file for statutory damages, which carry many substantial penalties, and in some cases you can recover legal fees, as well. You should speak with an attorney for additional information regarding this question.

Q. PicScout is for collections over 30,000 images. I, for example, have about 6,000 images out there, and they are almost all handled by various agencies. Should I just leave it up to the agencies to enforce the copyright?

A. You are referring to ImageTracker in your question, where we typically require a minimum number of images. The images for ImageTracker also must be Rights Managed images where the licensor can easily validate who does and who does not have permission to use a particular image. The primary image usages should also consist of commercial web sites in order for the product to be of value in terms of revenue recovery. If your images are represented by one of the agencies working with us, you are safe. If you want to get reports directly from us, you should be aware of the efforts you’ll have to make on your own behalf and the necessary fight you face to prove your rights, even when a case may seem clear.

Image IRC with ImageExchange embraces any image—rights managed, royalty free, or creative commons. We are about to announce a photographers platform where images may be submitted to the Image IRC through a photographers service. This will be the first of many announcements forthcoming which will enable photographers, regardless of image collection size, to be able to include their images in the Image IRC, which means all their images will appear to ImageExchange users with the icon.

Copyright enforcement is a component of the “stick” model. Enabling use—the “carrot”—is the more proactive solution and much easier on you and buyers of your images.

Q. It is my understanding that it is impossible to track and enforce infringement of RF images. Do you think that your technology will move the photography world more towards RM images and away for the RF business model?

A. From a tracking perspective, RF images are the same as RM images. However, to enforce copyright infringement, you must be able to prove the person/entity did not have the right to use the image. Historically, given how Royalty Free images have been distributed, tracking of an image’s use by image owners and distributors has proven very difficult to do. You should also speak with an attorney for a specific legal opinion on this point.

Our ImageExchange technology provides no advantage for one license type over another; Under ImageExchange use, RM, RF, as well as UGC images, all contribute to growing the overall size of the marketplace by enabling more people to buy more images at the point of the user’s experience. Whatever the technology, market demand will ultimately judge the model which best meets the needs of customers.

Q. Are the concerns of stock agencies any different than those of individual photographers?

A. PicScout is focused on ensuring that Every Image Gets Its Credit. Doing so aligns the interests of agencies and photographers by specifically focusing on growing the overall market size of paid/authorized image consumption.

Q. Are agencies doing a good job of combating piracy?

A. Technology has evolved quickly and as a result piracy is as easy as a right-click-and-save-as. The best way to combat piracy is by providing a solution that does not require consumers of images to significantly alter their behavior. ImageExchange does just this by providing a solution at the point of the user experience – enabling users of images to connect with the licensor for authorized use. Until there are more ImageExchange equipped users and knowledge of how to use legitimate images increases, agencies will use products such as the ImageTracker with their own good compliance teams, or one of the legal partners from the PicScout network, to do what they can to combat piracy.

Q. One hears that copyright is less respected in countries such as China and India. Is that true? Is that changing at all?

A. PicScout provides ImageTracker services on a world-wide basis depending upon client needs. While we are in the process of reaching out in India and China, our statistics show that even in developed countries such as US, UK, and Germany, the infringement rate of RM images on Commercial websites is as high as 85%. Can China and India be much worse?

Q. I have given permission to many people who make "siggies, tags and tubes" to use my “animal antics” work non-commercially in exchange for links to my site and a credit line. The idea is to at least bolster the importance of my site and get the word out about my work. That would seem, however, to make tracking unauthorized uses very difficult, or even impossible. In your opinion is that a good idea or a mistake?

A. I greatly believe it’s a good move to permit others to use your images in exchange for marketing, even if tracking unauthorized use is difficult. This is one of the reasons we created the Image Exchange, so you can market your images and manage their use in different applications through the Image IRC. It doesn’t matter where your image appears or who is using it, the ImageExchange always displays the icon, which can also serve as a sales/traffic generator for the artist/agency.

Q. You say 90% of images on the web are infringements. How did you come up with that figure? What percentage of copyright infringements is worth going after?

A. Today, PicScout company data shows more than 85% of rights managed images on commercial web sites are being used non-legitimately. We came up with this number after constantly crawling the growing web for more than 7 years to maintain accurate reporting of non-legitimate usage to our clients.

Note some additional historical information about infringements: Currently, Image Tracker serves only RM images, because we believe these are the only image infringements actually worth the time and effort required for enforcement. As we see the market shifting increasingly to RF, the advantage to the industry clearly comes from creating awareness of every image’s rights and connecting people directly to images’ licensors.

In 2003, PicScout was searching commercial web sites for Rights Managed images of some major stock collections and discovered that nine out of every ten images found were unauthorized uses. (Infringements of Stock Images and Lost Revenues, 2007)

In 2005, SAA and PicScout joined together to conduct a more in-depth study of the infringement problem. Using a sample of 20,000 images over a four month period, PicScout used its own technology to comb commercial websites in the US, UK and Germany. In just 4 months, 388 infringements were located. Translating this to an annual number, it was determined that nearly 1 out of every 17 images was being used non-legitimately. Interestingly, the highest rate of misuse was in the US (64%), followed by Germany (23%) and then the UK (13%). Furthermore, it was determined that on 29 of the sites where images were found, another 91 images that were not included in the sample were also being used. This suggests a pattern of misuse – if one image is found to be non-legitimate, it’s a good chance there will be more. Unfortunately, we also determined that these unauthorized images were not short-term uses; one year after the study, “many of the same images were still in use” on the websites. (Infringements of Stock Images and Lost Revenues, 2007)

“Getty says it finds about 42,000 examples of copyright infringement a year. For its part, Corbis says it uncovers about 70,000 violations annually.” (LA Times, 9/13/09)

Q. Is piracy on the web going to be an increasing problem, or will developments like PicScout turn the tide?

A. We believe that given the opportunity and the tools to “do the right thing” most people will do it. The PicScout Image IRC with ImageExchange model opens the online image marketplace for legitimate image use and transaction; such a model has not been widely available until now. As the industry and its users embrace the new image commerce model, we believe online image rights infringement will diminish and become comparable to the real world, at least. Having said that, we believe that infringers will always exist, and therefore, there always will be a need for the stick, such as the ImageTracker.


Q. What kinds of copyright challenges do photographers face in dealing with Europe and Asia?

A. Each country has its own regulations and laws regarding copyright. We would suggest that you speak with a copyright attorney for specific opinions and quotes here. If you would like an introduction to attorneys in the UK and Germany, we would be happy to provide them to you.

Q. If it isn't economically viable for PicScout to handle photographer accounts with fewer than 30,000 images, what advice do you have for such photographers?

A. See previous answers regarding pending platform announcements. First, make sure all of your image distributors are using the ImageTracker. Second, when PicScout announces the photographers platform upload your images to be part of the Image IRC.

Q. Do you have a favorite PicScout success story you can share?

A. For the ImageTracker, PicScout has brought millions upon millions of dollars back into the industry through recaptured revenue and we are very proud that we have created this revenue stream for photographers and agencies. Some agencies are more effective in copyright revenue infringement collection than others – this is why in 2010, PicScout is devoting significant attention on an account management basis to help our agency clients improve their processes and collection methods for image infringement either internally or through using outside third party legal partners.

I’ll tell you one story that demonstrates well how important it is to recognize that every image gets its credit and why every image should ultimately be part of the Image IRC.

One of our own PicScout team members and her husband, an amateur photographer, were on vacation and he took a beautiful picture of our employee on a dock during (sunrise/sunset). Weeks later, after returning home, they received a promotional mailing from the lodge where they had stayed. In the advertisement touting the lodge’s many features and assets, the company had incorporated a slightly altered version of the very photograph our team member’s husband had taken. It was discovered that the lodge had acquired the image through Flickr without permission to use it. The lodge thought the amateur’s image was valuable enough to promote their business – and should have sought permission and/or compensation to use the image. This image is part of the Image IRC, and as adoption of the ImageExchange becomes commonplace, the image will populate with the icon as users encounter it.

Q. Do you see Google Image search becoming an increasingly important tool for art directors, designers and art buyers to find images for commercial uses?

A. Kids and students now growing up to be the next image buyers are making their choices now from among one of the big three search engines. According to PhotoShelter, 6% of image buyers surveyed use image search engines, which adds to the traffic coming through traditional stock houses. Google, Yahoo! Image Search, Bing, as well as any web page that contains an image, offer technology to inspire creative professionals and enhance their productivity, such as Similar Image. Ultimately, incorporating the ImageExchange icon and the PicScout connection functionality, where owner information is readily identified, will further expand the relevancy of these search engines for users and buyers of images.

Q. Do you forecast the consumer ever becoming an important revenue source for photographers?

A. We see potential for current expansion among the quasi creative professional as being an immediate source of additional revenue. This group, consisting of corporate communications professionals, i-bankers, consultants, sales people—in fact, anyone needing to convey messaging through today’s graphical environment, both internally and externally—as being an immediate source of market expansion. Over time, we also see the general consumer market developing, once ImageExchange use penetrates among the professional and quasi professional image buyers to find images and transact for legitimate use.

We believe this will occur because of the precedent that will be set for image buyers to transact online for image use.

In terms of the casual image buyers, like those wanting to enjoy images they find online to use as posters or emblems on a t-shirt, of those that are aware of copyright protection, they believe today there are only two real options: Either don’t use the image; or copy the image and think no one will know or no one will get hurt. The reality is the marketplace has not made it easy for them to use an image in a legitimate way.

Also, it's not that everyone online has gone bad, it's that awareness of what is legitimate use is limited. On behalf of iStockphoto, KRC Research in Washington DC, conducted an online survey of 1,003 adults in June 2008 asking them about digital media usage. The study “revealed that 33 percent of Americans are using downloaded digital content, but nearly 30 percent are unaware that permission may be required for its use. This lack of awareness spikes to 38 percent among Americans in both the 18-24 and 65 and older age groups.” http://www.istockphoto.com/file_pressreleaseview/35/iStockPR_09_17_2008.pdf

To illustrate the difficulty in identifying image ownership and rights, do a Google Image search for a happy family or a youth soccer team. You'll see some great images, but with many, many duplications of same photos that all seem to have different origins or site residences. Without the ImageExchange, actual ownership of any image found in a search is anybody's guess.

Q. This may be a little off topic, but I believe the biggest challenge facing photographers in the coming years will be getting seen amid all the mind-numbing quantities of photographs being uploaded onto the internet. Do you have any opinions or insights you could share with us on that potential problem and what photographers can do about it?

A. I believe this question is best addressed by asking agencies how they feel quality, uniqueness, freshness and other characteristics of images can best be showcased when there are such vast quantities of images being uploaded onto various sites. While the amount of images is growing, I greatly believe in the idea of price discrimination, where prices should be different based on the type of usage of the image, or considering different levels of services for different sizes or types of companies; i.e., profit or non-profit.

Q. Are there issues that I haven’t brought up that you feel are important for photographers to be aware of?

A. Collectively, it’s in the industry’s best interest to ensure that Every Image Gets Its Credit. Therefore making images part of the Image IRC and enabling use of the ImageExchange, either through an add-on or as a native part of an application or program, provides a clear mechanism for enabling a legitimate internet economy to develop for images. This means a vast increase in the quantity of images purchased as well as an awareness increase in terms of the valuation of images. Rapid adoption of both are important to the industry’s ability to play catch-up with technology advances and consumer behavior trends. Also, making content available for more marketing applications and promotional use, while selling content as RF, is essential. Photographers should follow your actions, like those you’ve taken that improve rankings on search engines, and promote themselves in new ways, even at the risk of image infringements.