Looking Into the Future of Motion (Video) Stock

Creating clips that can stand alone, as in this slow motion wine pour clip, may be important for motion stock success in the coming years.

Motion Stock
Recently I participated in an exchange, in a stock photo forum, on the topic of motion stock. It was only a brief exchange but there were some great thoughts that have helped me gain a bit more clarity on the possibilities, and limitations, of motion stock and how stock footage may fit into my photography future.

The Importance of Editing Motion 

One stock photographer, who has been adding a lot of video into his stock shoots, shared how important it has been for him to edit together a short film from each of his stock shoots. He went on to explain that the exercise was invaluable for helping him to understand the kind of clips that needed to be captured during a shoot and the importance of providing for transitions. Editing his shoots into short films is making him a far better motion stock shooter. Further, those short films will then be available, as well as the individual clips, for stock licensing.

Finding Appropriate Clips Is Challenging

Another photographer, who also is very experienced in the motion world, went on to say that finding clips that can be edited into an a motion project in progress is very challenging, and that in his experience, in most cases, it was actually easier and more efficient for him to just shoot what was needed himself. There are issues of format, of frame rates, of lighting quality and quantity, of the "feel" of the footage...challenges of continuity that we don't face as still photographers.

Individuals Licensing Motion Stock Successfully May Become Rare 

Hearing about the challenges of working stock footage into motion projects (reading it actually), it dawned on me that as it is getting easier and less expensive to capture video almost by the day, it is getting easier and less expensive for those creating videos to shoot their own footage rather than to look for stock to fill their needs. Add that to the absolutely insane explosion in people shooting and providing motion stock and you can see that despite the exploding demand for motion, an individual photographer making good money from licensing stock motion might become even more rare!

A Demand For Stand Alone Clips

Yet another shooter, who has participated in both stills and motion for years even to the point of directing numerous television commercials, suggested that there will be an increasing demand for very brief stand alone videos that illustrate a concept or can be used as a generic ad for a product or service, perhaps as in a promotion for a travel destination.  I like hearing that since that is exactly the type of little clip I put together by combining a still image with some of my slow motion footage to create a video clip of a tungsten  light bulb exploding into an energy efficient CFL bulb.

Incredible Images, After Effects and Motion Efforts
A concept stock photographer that is currently doing some of the most incredible images I have seen is now using After Effects to create stand alone conceptual clips the echo his still style. These are beautiful and powerful clips and it is hard to not get excited about the possibilities for such motion efforts when watching them. That gives me further impetus to examine such a route for my own future.

Passion and Excitement are Paramount 

I actually did enjoy putting that light bulb clip together, and if I can just figure out a few more things to do that fit in with my own vision and approach, and that I can do with a very minimal monetary outlay, then I can see at least an increased effort on my part on getting into motion.  As with stills, I still see a vital component of success being having passion and excitement for whatever sort of visual you are creating.  The competition is just going to be far too intense for anyone who is simply creating imagery to make money.unless, I suppose, you have an intense passion to create images to make money!

Image Theft, Copyright Registration and Growing Your Income

Online theft is rampant...what are you doing to combat it?

Image Theft As An Income Source

I came across an interesting post today by photographer Thomas Hawke in which he views image theft as a potential source of revenue. That ties in with a “success story” circulated in the PicScout newsletter in which one of their clients, a niche stock photo agency, is deriving 50% of their income from tracking down infringers. They take the high road by viewing infringers as a possible long-term clients and attempting to convert infringers into licensors…an interesting approach!

Something You Can Do To Help Stop Infringement

As we all know, image theft has become huge and hurts all of us attempting to support ourselves with our photography. It is disheartening, at least for me, to see all of the appropriated images of mine circulating on the Internet, attributed to others, sometimes offered for sale by others and so on. I hate having to put watermarks on them as well. It is in the interest of all of us, professionals and non-professionals alike, to see progress made in stopping, or at least slowing down, infringement. One simple thing you can do, right now, is to take a minute of your time and send a letter to your congressional representatives to support S. 3804, the “Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act,”. The whole process took me less than two minutes. 

Register Your Images!

After years of neglecting to register my copyrights I am now a convert. It really is pretty easy to register your images online. I think it is important that all of us put out that little bit of extra effort to watermark our images, register the copyrights, be proactive in promoting efforts to control infringement, and to help educate people about copyright matters. In the years to come this is come to become more and more important if we are to continue to reap the rewards of our own creative efforts.

What Makes You a Special Photographer?

To succeed in making a good living as a photographer requires being special as a photogapher...and perhaps as a person as well.

A Tough Competitive World of Photography

It used to be that if you could actually make a decent living as a professional photographer you were kind of special. It was a tough competitive world, a world of film testing, strobe meters, gel filters. You’d shoot Polaroid’s till you got it right, and then shoot of a ton of film hoping that you would come close that Polaroid that the client signed off on.

Making Good Money In Stock Photography

If you were a stock shooter you had to get into the club, find an agency that would represent you, and get enough images accepted that you could actually make good money knowing that the “average” stock photo brought in one dollar per year. You prayed that your work would get selected for the big, lavish catalogs that agencies produced. Get your images in the catalog and you had a much better chance at making significant sales.

Photographers Who Come to the Forefront

Of course, there were those photographers who then came to the forefront by embracing the changing technology…and some stock photographers who feasted on the early days of Royalty Free. Now we have photographers who are combining their talents with social networking like Chase Jarvis and Jack Hollingsworth. Others have leveraged their transition to video like Vincent Lafloret.

Photographers Who Make Themselves Special

Colin Anderson is a great example of a photographer who has made himself special creating a body of highly stylized, conceptual and unique work. He has set himself apart. If you want a Colin Anderson style image you go to Colin Anderson.  Yuri Arcurs has made himself special by creating a machine that spits out a seemingly endless stream of beautifully executed on-target images. Tom Grill has made himself special with his in-depth understanding of the industry and well-organized thorough approach to filling the holes in agency collections (as well as creating his own agencies…).

Combining Talents and Expanding Skills

Photographers like Dan Heller and Rolf Hicker have made themselves special through combining their talents with a mastery of the Internet, while Jonathan Ross is building on his early RF success with a thorough understanding of stock from RM to Micro to motion.  Some photographers are using their skills to expand into workshops while I have seen others expand into consultancy on SEO and digital workflow.

A Plan, Strategies, and a Broad Revenue Base

Tom Grill once told me that “Whatever your plan is…stick to it”. I think that was good advice. My plan to “be special” has both a short-term strategy and a longer-term strategy. In the short term I am producing, or at least attempting to produce, exceptional concept stock photos that fill a definite need in the market place. My longer-term strategy is to gain exposure for that work through a website that generates significant traffic and broadens my revenue base into online advertising.  I think it is vital not just to think in terms of the next year to two…but to also think in terms of ten years from now. Besides, I figure it might take ten years to get my traffic up where I want it!

Billions of Photos and the Need to be Special

In the coming years, with the proliferation of photographers and literally billions of photos to choose from, there will be so many options for those who need photography that the slices of the pie will be cut increasingly small. To get a significant slice of the photography pie, to be able to make a good living, you will need to be special. How are you going to be special?

Putting Out Fires in Stock Photography

Don't try this at home! OMG what a mess putting out a fire makes!

Put the Fires Out Last

Put the fires out Last. I know, seems kind of backwards. But I think as a stock photographer it is an important point to at least consider. There are so many “fires” or “sparks” that can turn into fires, that if you put them out first you won’t have much time left to do the really important things. As a photographer, for me at least, the really important thing is to make images (OK...equally important as a stock shooter is to get the files into distribution).  But as a business owner it feels like all I have time to do is to put out fires.

High Res Files, Print Donations and Unread Books

I came in this morning to an e-mail from a company needing a hi res file, another company checking to see if one of my images was available, a call from my accountant (probably wanting to get paid), a request from a teacher about advice for a student on how to become a professional photographer (arrrgh!), and a message from a charity asking for a print donation.  On top of that, I am preparing for a trip to Thailand, have a growing stack of bills on my desk, two unread books and one that has been started, a huge file of images to be uploaded to my online database (including key wording and all that craziness), and an intern who needs help.

Images In The Morning; Fires In The Afternoon

All those little distractions never go away either. My preferred method of operating is to get rid of all those little things, put out all the fires, clear the decks and get down to the fun part of making images. But that is backwards…leaving very little time to do that all-important task of making my photos. Sometime ago I altered my routine to one in which I spent the morning making images or getting them out the door (portal?) to the agencies that represent them. That resulted in a significant increase in my productivity. But every once in a while I suddenly realize that I have fallen in to my old habits and am busy running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get all of the minutiae out of the way…an not “gettying” (intentional misspelling) to my real work.

Spontaneously Generating Administrative Tasks

So, it is back to dedicating the mornings to making stock images and getting them out the door…then the afternoons I take a break to put out fires and so forth, and offer my self the hope of doing it quickly enough that I can be rewarded by getting back to the images.  There is actually plenty of time to take care of all the pressing (and largely irrelevant) issues if I start each afternoon by dealing with them. And if I do have a lull in all the necessary administrative tasks that seem to spontaneously generate each day, then I can happily work right through from morning to evening

Getting home just in time to write these blogs or upload and key word some more images.

The Fires Will Still Be There....

At any rate, if you find yourself constantly putting out fires and not creating enough images, you might try coming up with your own version of a schedule that places first things first…you might just be surprised at how well that can work. I guarantee you that all those little fires will still be there when you get to them!

About the Image: Putting Out Fires

To create the photo of a businessman putting out a fire in his cubicle I first set up the cubicle walls in my studio (I purchased a set of cubicle walls at a used furniture store in order to have the flexibility to create this kind of set at will).  The portion of desk that is visible is a desktop I purchased a Ikea for a similar reason. For the extinguisher I just grabbed the fire extinguisher from my studio kitchen…this was a spur-of-the-moment idea.  I gave the model a count down to set off the extinguisher, “Three, two, one, go” and started shooting. I got exactly three frames off before I could no longer see the model. Who knew how much crap could come out of one of those little extinguishers? Geez! I don’t think we ever did get every surface of that studio cleaned after that shoot. For those of you who shoot out of your own living rooms and garages…that old adage of “don’t do this at home” couldn’t be more true!

Secrets To Building A Successful Photography Career: e-book from Jim Pickerell

Jim Pickerell has a new e-book out...his frank assessment of the photography world facing those seeking to succeed as professional photographers.



Jim Pickerell, the leading pundit of the stock photo industry (Jim Pickerell Interview), has put together an e-book that I believe is a must read for anyone attempting, or thinking about becoming, a professional photographer. Jim has a reputation as someone who has, shall we say, ”negative” leanings? But perhaps that is an asset when it comes to putting together a book to help would-be pros take a good hard look at the profession that is calling to them.

Jim does a very thorough job of laying out the current scene in professional photography, particularly the stock photo industry. If you are going to make it in this career you have to be aware of the realities…and have the determination to overcome all of the challenges. I think it is far better to be aware of the potential pit falls and to be prepared, than to underestimate the difficulties that lay ahead. Few people are as qualified to prepare a photographer for the worst as Jim!

Jim’s book, Secrets To Building A Successful Photography Career,  is a compilation of articles he has written for his stock photo news letter Selling Stock. If you subscribe to his newsletter you probably don’t need to buy the book…but nonetheless I enjoyed being able to read it again in book form. We seasoned pros may not agree with all of Jim’s conclusions but his research is extensive, organized and great food for thought.

At the end of the book is a section that pulls from comments left on his site by photographers who share a brief bit each about their experiences of life as a freelance photographer. All in all, the book is a fun and informative read. You can get the book for a 20% discount (full price is $25.00) if you order by December 1st and use the discount code “S98TO43CK” when you submit your order.

A disclaimer here…I make nothing off the book.

For more information about the book go to http://tinyurl.com/397yfyd.

Scarcity and Abundance in Stock Photography

Coming from a point of scarcity I would never have spent the time on this funny Chihuahua DJ photo...but coming from a place of abundance creates a more satisfying, and I believe, self-fulfilling experience.

Scarcity or Abundance?

I think a very appropriate question for us to ask ourselves in our current stock photo environment is whether we are thinking along the lines of scarcity or abundance…are we moving towards opportunity or shrinking from adversity?

Important Steps For Our Photography Businesses

Cutting back on overhead, shrinking waste and minimizing our expenses are all important steps to be taking in our photography businesses. But those steps will only take you so far…they are limited. Earning more money, while perhaps a difficult challenge, is really not limited. The sky is the limit! OK, maybe your time and imagination are the limits…but the opportunity is light years ahead of what you can achieve by cutting back.

Learning, Analyzing, Expanding

Are you learning new things that will help you be more productive or to create images that your competitors cannot? Are you analyzing what the market wants so that you can better fulfill real needs? Are you expanding your imagination and creativity to create images that have a “WOW!” factor that will command attention, get you work, and stand out from the crowd?

A Studio and a Creative Boost

I have a small studio that I work out of. It costs me around $2,500.00 a month to maintain. I have occasionally thought about working from home and saving that $30,000.00 a year. That is a sizeable chunk of change. But when I think about the creative boost that I get from having the space, the ease with which I can leave ideas in progress up as I work on them, and the increased likely hood that I will actually do a shot rather than put it off because I don’t have a suitable place to undertake it, I realize that I am better off keeping the studio.

Funny Chihuahuas, Silly Dog Images and Belief in Abundance

The funny Chihuahua “DJ” image above is a good example of thinking of abundance in the case of an individual image. I spent over a day just on the Photoshop work…that is an awfully long time to spend on a stock photo…particularly on a silly animal image. From a place of scarcity I might be telling myself to move on. After all, if we focus too much on declining RPIs we might come to the conclusion that quantity, pumping more images out, is the prime necessity. When that thought came to mind I reminded myself that I believe in abundance. I do believe that whether we see the future as one of abundance, or one of scarcity…we are right! And to actually create a stock photo future that is abundant for me I need to create the best images that I am able to…not to pump out more mediocrity, but to strive in every image to create something unique and excellent.

Create The Future You Want

If you spend the majority of your time cutting expenses and worrying about the demise of our profession, then you won’t be taking the steps necessary to create the future you do want. It is natural to worry when we stock shooters are faced with the daunting circumstances of an oversupply of imagery, of microstock pricing, and of competing with every amateur in the world. But it is vital that we pull ourselves out of that vicious circle and focus on creating imagery that uplifts our entire profession, that fills us with a sense of pride and accomplishment, that we create images that will rise above the vast sea of ordinary photography that surround us and stand out enough to be seen and licensed!

A big thanks to Shalom Ormsby for lending me his extremely talented Chihuahua Bodhi!

A Series of Portraits For Stock Photography

Putting aside time to create images that stand out from the crowd, such as this stock photo of an executive in a high tech environment, is important for thriving in a market saturated with imagery."

Stock Photography and the Music Business

It occurred to me the other day that the stock photography business has a lot in common with the music business. There is no shortage of musicians or photographers, but there is a shortage of those who do either discipline extremely well. In either case the chance of earning a living from such endeavors is just a tad bit daunting. That isn’t going to change…it is just going to get more challenging. That isn’t to say it’s not possible because it is possible. I am doing it…and many, many others are too. It does require what to me seems occasionally like an inordinate amount of dedication and drive. Thank god I love doing this because if I didn’t absolutely thrive on the process I would surely have quit long ago.

A Series of Portraits for Stock Photography

Part of what keeps me going is the “high” I get when I create an image that meets my requirements of applicability to the market and being fun to look at. Then I unabashedly sit and stare at my images, just enjoying them, for an embarrassing amount of time. I am mentioning this because I just caught myself staring at, and enjoying, a series of portraits I created for stock photos in the last couple of days.

Stock Shoot Out takes and Abstract Light Patterns

I have mentioned before that I believe in setting aside time to just “play” and explore and see where my imagery leads me. That time can either be behind the camera or behind the computer (or both). In this case it was behind the computer. I began by looking through the out takes of my last few stock shoots to see if something sparked an idea. I stopped at an executive portrait of an older, and very regal looking, African American model. He had this great look of self-assurance and the bearing of someone obviously in charge. I photographed him on a white background. I decided to start with this gentleman and see where I could take it. As I looked for suitable backgrounds I ran across some of my experiments with lights photographed with long shutter speeds to create abstract patterns. These abstract patterns look very “High Tech” to me, and indicative of technology, communications, the Internet and such.

An Executive Comfortable with Technology and the Future

I stripped out the executive and pasted him into one of my light patterns, then used a layer mask to fade him in and out of the lights.  I ended up with multiple layers and modes that, to me, speak of an executive comfortable with technology and ready to lead his enterprise into the future.  Even better…it just looks cool!

A Series of Images

My next thought was that if I could come up with a series of such images I could give an advertiser the opportunity to base a campaign around the images. I went back and found four other portraits I have done over the last few months and combined them with various other “light patterns”.  It is interesting, at least to me, to note that of the five models three I found through Internet casting agencies, one sat next to me on a flight back from New York, and one is a waitress at a nearby restaurant. OK...that doesn't have much to do with the price of tea in China...but I thought I'd throw it in there anyway!

Art Directors, Designers and Rights Managed Imagery

At any rate, these strike me as images that probably won’t sell a gazillion times…and that are a bit of a stretch for an art director or designer to work into and ad or brochure. With that in mind I submitted these photos to Blend Images under the Rights Managed category. Will they be worth the effort? I’ll let you know in a couple of years!