The Power Of Working With A Stock Agency

A bridge to  nowhere, or the way forward to opportunity? This concept stock photo is the result of a collaboration between the photographer and his stock agency.

A Rickety Bridge, Concept Photos And A “Supply Chain”

A couple of weeks ago Blend Images asked me to work on some concept stock photos. One concept they asked me to undertake was that of “Supply Chain”. As I thought about what I could create to illustrate that concept this bridge image that I had captured on a trip to Myanmar sprung to mind.  I liked that the bridge was rickety and near failing and could represent the adversity and challenges that face most supply chains.

A Bridge In Need Of A Location

I went through my archives and found the image. The existing background was very uninteresting so I decided to strip the footbridge out and put it in a much more dramatic setting.  I decided to create a clipping path using the pen tool and have the isolated bridge on a separate layer. Then I could simply try differing backgrounds till I found the one that worked the best. It took me about an hour, give or take a few minutes, to create the clipping path and put the bridge on it’s own layer.

Fog Banks, Cloudscapes

I went back to my archives in search of just the right background. It didn’t take me long to realize that having the bridge simply disappear into a cloudbank would be great. I used a combination of San Francisco Fog banks and high-altitude cloudscapes to create my ideal scenario.  The whole effort from clipping path to finished image only took a few hours. I was pretty excited with the image, which I realized had a compelling drama as well as enough flexibility to apply to a wide range of concepts.

This version of the footbridge was before my agency art director suggested adding a person, and while it is still a great image, adding a person takes it t hat extra step.

Editing And A New Direction

Next I sent a low -resolution jpeg to my art director, Jim Dougherty, at Blend. He quickly replied that I should try adding a person to the image, perhaps a figure crossing the bridge.  Looking back it seems like an obvious option, and yet without the input of my editor I wouldn’t have tried it...I was pretty darn happy with the image the way it was. In fact, when Jim first suggested that I try it I was a bit doubtful. I figure it might actually limit the sales opportunities...I really like how the bridge without a figure seemed so open to a wide range of concepts. But one thing I have learned from thirty years of being a professional photographer is that I don’t have all the answers.

Crossing The Bridge

The next morning I went in to the studio, set my camera up on the camera stand and used the self- timer to photograph myself in a variety of standing and walking positions. I ended up silhouetting myself out in three different positions. I began with having the model (me) just about to enter the fog bank, and then I began trying different scenarios. None of them were really working for me. Finally, I just added myself in the foreground to look as if I am contemplating an attempt at crossing the bridge. That was it!

Rights Managed, Or Royalty Free

Originally I was thinking this would be a Rights Managed image. A lot of work went into it...a full day of photography and imaging not even counting the original bridge image shot in Myanmar. And yet, I could see so many potential uses from the risks and dangers of “Cloud Computing” to such tried and true concepts as “The Way Forward”, The Future, and “Journey’s”.  Add to that the fact that as an RF image I can also include the original bridge photo sans model, and I decided to go Royalty Free.

Working With An Agency And The Big Picture

This is just one example of how working closely with an agency can pay off. Every photographer works differently with their editor or art director, but however one works with them, it is important to take advantage of their knowledge. As photographers we see only a very small part of the big picture. Art Directors such as Jim have the advantage of knowing what the gaps and needs of the agency collection are as well as having access to a ton of market research. They see the work coming in from numerous other photographers as well, which helps them understand where an individual photographer can fit in and maximize their own strengths.

Honing In On Market Needs And Fine Tuning Photography

As stock photography continues to get increasingly competitive it becomes ever more important for photographers to hone in on the needs of the market and to minimize wasted efforts that are duplicating existing work or aimed at non-existent needs. Working closely with an agency can help photographers make the most of their time and resources and help them fine-tune their photography to make it the most effective it can be.

Converting Social Media Efforts Into Photo Revenue

As we all start to drown under the demands of social media it is important to consider how we spend our limited time.

Converting Social Media Efforts Into Photo Revenue

Wow, I haven’t written a blog post in over a month! As a matter of fact, I haven’t been on Google + more than two or three times in that period, have barely glanced at Facebook, and have all but abandoned my nightly perusing of Google Analytics. I haven’t looked at Pinterest in over a month, nor have I kept up with Tumbler. A few perfunctory tweets on twitter rounds out my social media activities. Taking note of this, I realized that I have found a way to convert my Social Media efforts into more revenue. I am doing that by spending less time on social media and more time doing what I really love doing, making more images. Between Getty and Blend I have uploaded fifty of my composited concept images and uploaded another 45 “accepted” images shot as part of a joint shoot with a friend of mine. This has been the most productive month I have ever had. So while my headline maybe be a little misleading I think it is important for those who are serious about stock photography to carefully consider how they use their time.

Cutting Down On Wasted Time

For the last several years I have been working at getting more efficient, more disciplined and more productive. That isn’t necessarily the same thing as spending less money on shoots because in what I do time is my biggest constraint, not the cost of the shoot. My emphasis has been on efficient use of my time and I have found a couple ways that are really helping me in that goal.

Next Image Up

My latest technique for increasing my productivity is to have my next image already planned before I finish the current one. I am now spending a little time each day planning out the next image and what individual steps need to be done towards completion of the image whether it is finding a photo from my archives, shooting a prop, or casting models.

First Task The Next Morning

Whether I am about to begin a new image or hopefully complete one in progress, I find it immensely helpful to plan the first task to undertake the next morning. I can’t stress enough how important this seems to be to jump right into a good creative/work flow each morning.  Getting a good productive start in the morning seems to almost always carry right on through for the entire day.  So the last thing I do before I leave the studio is review what I will start on first thing the next the morning.

Committing To Ideas

The other part of my increased productivity is in committing to ideas.  I always have a list of ideas to work on, but now I commit to the next one before I finish the one I am working on. Now it doesn’t always play out that way. I also allow myself to jump into images that present themselves to me during the course of my work. For example, as I peruse through my files looking for parts I need an idea will often spring to mind. If I finish an image and it is fairly early in the day I might then jump on such an idea and try and whip it out before starting on my next “major” idea. But again, the important thing is that I have an image already mapped out and ready to dive into.

Breaks, Exercise and "Off" Time
I do take occasional breaks to exercise and to surf the net. Giving myself permission for brief sorties outside my “production zone” insures that I don’t get burned out…which would really negatively affect my output! I might also add that I often take a day out of my work week to work around the house and I take several trips each year with at least one being a major one usually to some exotic destination. Giving myself plenty of "off" time keeps  me at my best when I am working.

Quality, Quantity And Consistency

A reminder here that the one trait I can see that is shared by all the top earning stock photographers that I know is that they all are prolific photographers. They combine quality, quantity and consistency. That is the overriding goal I find myself working towards these days. If I can achieve that then I believe the money will take care of itself...and so far it seems to be working.

Gold At The End Of The Stock Photo Rainbow

There is gold at the end of the stock photo rainbow for those who approach their shooting with discipline and thought.

My Top 100 Images For 2012

I recently took a very close look at my stock photo sales for 2012. One of the more interesting things was that of my top 100 selling images, thirty percent (well, okay, it was actually 29%) of them were created before 2005 (which is as far back as I have been keeping track of sales). That seems pretty significant to me. That figure includes my sales from Blend Images, Getty and Corbis.

Endless E+ Images And Search Algorithms

That high number of long-in-tooth images seems even more impressive when I look at the seemingly endless number of E+ images that fill page after page of search results on the Getty site. With so many images competing for search slots how the heck does anyone ever see any of my images?  The answer has to be that the search algorithms Getty and others use do take into account an images’ sales history, and possibly even the photographer’s body of work as well. It sure would be nice if we could see behind the curtain once-in-a-while whether or not it would help with our sales!

Market Needs And Production Value

So what can we individual photographers do to make those algorithms work for us? Well, there really isn’t a whole lot we can do, which makes it that much more important to focus in on those things we can do. Certainly it is obvious that the more quality we put into our images the better off we will be. In this case quality can be production value as well as relevance to market needs. Actually, making sure your image is something the market needs probably is even more important than high production value! The trick here is to not let your perception of what the market needs inhibit your creativity. I believe it is also vitally important to edit really tightly and not water-down the over all quality of your body of work.

Improving Agency Sales

Another thing we can do is get our imagery up on our web sites with links to work on the agency sites. I get around twenty visitors a day that find my work via the Internet and then click on through to whatever agency is handling the image they have found. While I can’t track what percentage of those visitors actually license images some of them do, and when they do it is a double bonus because the image they license moves up in importance.  When you think about it, having a website that can help drive traffic to your images, even on agency sites, is one of the few things we can actually do to improve our agency sales. In fact, I am currently having my own site “tuned-up” to provide, hopefully, a better user experience as well as better SEO. Should have that up in about a week or two.

Success In Stock Photography

I really believe that success in stock photography necessitates images that have a long life span. So my mantra is creating photos that are relevant to the market, have a high production value, and resist becoming dated.  My own recipe for success also includes diversifying my images as much as I can (the limiting factor being that it has to be something I enjoy creating) and diversifying in terms of agency distribution.

Gold At The End Of The Rainbow

If there is gold at the end of the stock photo rainbow (you knew I had to work that in), the only way to get there is by having the discipline to create new work necessary to ensure maximum visibility.

SEO Advice for Photographers

If you want to be found on the Internet by people searching for photographers then good SEO is essential!

Google, (or any search engine) is looking for the best site to send to a searcher.   So, of course, if you want to get on the first page of the search engine results you site has to convince Google or whatever search engine is being used that your site is the best or at least close to the best.

Google doesn't rely on just your website, but also looks at the links on other websites that point to your site. For instance, if someone searches for "photographer" then Google goes and looks through its database and finds websites that are related to "photographer".  Let's say Google finds 10 sites that are tied for 1st place.  All ten are really good sites. To break the tie, Google will look at how many links are pointed to the sites, what the links say, and where the links come from and it will assign a score for those links.  The links from the most important websites will count the most. Links from unrelated sites are worth almost nothing.

There isn't much you can do about the links from other sites. Unless you are buddies with the owner or something you most likely will not be able to have the links say what you would like them to say.  You would like them to contain the keyword phrases you are trying to get a good ranking for.

The only place where you have control is on your own site. Once you have a "perfect" site, (search engine wise), then you need those good links.  If your website is really good, other sites with related content will link to it. But again, all you can do is make the best site you can and let the links happen!

So let's see what you can do about your own site. Google looks at 200 variables to makes its decision on where to rank your site. This includes things like spelling and grammar; good sites don't have a lot of miss-spelled words and/or poor grammar.  It checks to see how many pages the site has, how many of those pages are related to the keyword phrase being searched for, what the keyword density is, what kinds of ads if any are on the page, how cluttered the page is, etc.  Nobody (outside of Google) knows for sure what the 200 variables are and how they are rated. 

You can have a great website, but unless you tell Google about it you still won't rank well. For good SEO, all you can do is make sure your site is really good, is easy to use for humans, and can communicate that to Google.

If I was Google, I would first look at the title of the website.  If I were looking for a photographer for a book cover, I would not bother with a website that had the title: History of Mesopotamia.   However, if I spotted a website titled " John Lund, Professional Photographer, Sausalito, California, then that might be worth taking a look at. The search engines will look to see how often "photographer" is used on each page, and if your site has the word on 3 pages but someone else has it mentioned on 48 pages then they will probably get better results than you.  But that is just one variable of 200...

If a keyword phrase is in the title, it should be in the text of the page at least once. Each page on your site is a chance to optimize for a keyword phrase, maybe two, but not more than that.  It should be good reading for a human. So you might have a page related to "business photos", and one titled "Financial Concept Photos" and one "Photoshop Composite Photos" etc.  If you have lots of pages, each optimized for a phrase or two, Google begins to think maybe you are an expert.  That gives you better ranking.

When you look at the source code of your page you will see near the top of the page something like this:

That is the title tag and is in the "Head portion of the page".  In other words it has to be between the tags and also in the head portion will be the description tag... put it under the title tag:

.

Pictures have an alt tag you use to tell people who can't see the picture what it is about.  Google reads it.  It's for blind people and people that have text only browsers etc.  Put a good detailed description of the photo in the alt tags.

Typical alt tag (for the picture at the top of this blog):

alt="A woman executive stands at the top of a lighthouse in an urban setting scanning the horizon for opportunities and risks in the world of business and finance."

HTML has something called headings. H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6

H1 is the most important heading. Use it only once on a page.  Google thinks it’s more important than regular text. H2 is next in importance... you can use it once or twice under an H1 tag. H3 and lower you can use lots of if you want to. But they are for headings of paragraphs, nothing else. If you are going to work on your site I would suggest you take a few online tutorials about HTML.

So, as far as SEO goes...

Make as many pages as you can about different aspects of your business.

Include as much text as you can on each page... between 250 and 500 words is good.

Put the keyword phrases in your title, alt tags, body text, use headings with the phrases in your body text, and don't use the phrase too often.  Usually 1 to 3 times in the body text is good. 10 times is too many for 250 to 500 words.

Google has to spider your site before it can index and then rank it.  So be sure there are links on your pages that Google can read so it will know about all your pages, or make a sitemap to tell Google what pages you have.

Join Google's Webmaster Tools.  It tells you everything you need to know about how to rank well at Google.

Use Google analytics.

And there you have it, my webmaster's sage advice on SEO for photographers…have fun!

Attitude Is Everything

Attitude is Everything!  Too many stock photos? Be inspired! I make a conscious decision to be inspired by my fears rather than to drown in depression. I made this image for Blend Images.

Many Ways To Become Depressed

There are so many ways to become depressed in this business! If I start perusing other photographer’s work I can quickly become despondent over the vast numbers of really creative work. Or I can become near suicidal over the even vaster numbers of crappy photos that threaten to, or actually do, bury my own images in a sea of mediocrity (and yes, some of my images are crappy too…I admit it.)

5-Cent Sales And Big Cancelations

Sales reports can be a great source of depression as well. On my last sales report I had a 5-cent royalty for an RM image. I also had a $1,500.00 canceled sale…and that sure doesn’t help my frame of mind!  A few days ago I spotted one of my still images in an ad on television. It is a little hard to spot because it is one of many images used and goes by in the flash of an eye…but nonetheless…there it is on television. It is an RF image which means it is kind of hard to track down how much I got paid for the image…but the largest sale for it in the last several months is $14.00. Swell.

Waiting For Images

Waiting for images to go up is another great way to ruin an otherwise good day. Images occasionally get lost, often take forever to get online, and get rejected for ridiculous reasons.  My favorite “lost” image story happened with Getty. I submitted an image, forgot about it, and it popped up one day in my collection…three years after I submitted it! It sells pretty well…and is a tad depressing thinking about all the sales I missed out on during those three years!  I have been watching Corbis lately and while I may be exaggerating, it feels as if I haven’t had a new image go up there in months!  Though I did see a Corbis image of mine used in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that might net me anywhere from $1,000.00 to $5.00…who knows (do I seem a tad bitter today?).

The Importance Of Attitude

My point here is on the importance of attitude. If I let all that stuff get me down then my productivity will surely follow in a downwards arc. Instead of being depressed at the vast number of awesome images out there I need to be inspired to create even better ones of my own.  Rather than being depressed by the endless waves of mediocre, or worse, images that threaten to drown out my own sales, I need to have the resolve to create images that are so on-target, relevant and visually interesting that they rise above the vast morass.

I'LL Show Them!

The emotional shock of a low sales report is energy I can use to motivate myself to create new work. “I’ll show them” is a lot more productive than “Why bother?” Any of us who have participated in stock photography for any great length of time know that there are up months and down months…and that the up months have gotten progressively more challenging to achieve. But those up months are still available provided we have the motivation not just to create new images, but also to do so in a very thoughtful way. We can no longer afford to just create images, now we have to pay attention to what the market needs and wants and where the buyers are going.

Still Making A Living And Having Fun

One of the few things we can have control over is our own attitude. By making a conscious decision to have a good attitude we can turn negatives into powerful positive forces.  Despite the constant barrage of arrows and darts that seem to continually find me, I am still making a good living at stock photography, and when I don’t allow myself to succumb to negative emotions I realize I still am having a great time creating fun images and enjoying the community of my fellow stock shooters.  

Choosing A Stock Photo Agency

 

It's a jungle out there when searching for a new stock photo agency!

Choosing A Stock Photo Agency

There are hundreds of stock photo agencies out there, and more seem to spring up every day. In the volatile and every changing stock photo industry it can be important to diversify. You never know when an agency may fold or undergo a dramatic turn for the worse, or when some upstart agency (remember iStockphoto) will come along and upset the apple cart. Even a gradual shift in the client base of agencies can sneak up on you and leave you scrambling. Whether you are looking for your first agency, or an ancillary one, or perhaps one that offers penetration into a new market segment, here are thirteen important points to keep in mind (I have to give credit to Rick Becker-Leckrone, CEO of BlendImages, for bringing these points to my attention). 

1.         How will the agency ensure that your work is viewed by the maximum number of potential customers?  How extensive is their sales network?  Does it include the highest producing agencies like Getty, Corbis, Shutterstock, and Masterfile? If the agency is not relying on distribution, how much are they prepared to invest in marketing?

2.         If the agency offers direct sales opportunities, how does their search / retrieval system and e-commerce platform function?  Be a secret shopper.

3.        What new licensing models and innovative ways does the agency have for getting non-traditional buyers to explore and license your work?

4.         Who else’s work does the agency represent?  Any shooters you know and admire?  Call them and get their perspective on the agency.

5.        What kind of systems do they have for editing and ingesting content? Can you upload edits from anywhere in the world 24/7?  Can you upload high-res and model releases?

6.         Will you have an editor to work with in generating shoot ideas and to provide sales statistics and feedback on how different types of imagery are performing?

7.         Will they represent both your stills and motion stock?

8.         What kind of experience does the agency personnel have in delivering results in the stock photo industry?  Look for at least 15 years industry experience in an editor and even more from senior management.  

9.          How well placed in search will the content be on sales partner sites?

10.       How big is their overall library?  If too large, your work will get lost.  Look to see how much work exists in their collection that is similar to yours. 

11.      How long will your images take to get to market?

12.       Will the agency have face-to-face photographer meetings and provide creative research reports on a regular basis?  What does the agency provide in terms of support outside of basic editing? What is the overall level of transparency of the agency?  Do you have any idea what their gross revenue is?  How many images in the collection?  What the goals of the agency are?  Who the owners are?  Good to know all of these things.

13.       Does the agency understand the legal requirements of stock and carry a robust E&O policy?  If there are legal complications, do they have the knowledge, legal counsel, and wherewithal to defend the agency from lawsuits arising from models / clients?  Do they carefully vet model / property releases?

Getty And Blend

My own agencies of choice are Getty Images and Blend Images. Getty, being the largest of the traditional agencies, is an obvious choice. But Blend is a very interesting one as well (Disclaimer: I am a co-founder and owner of Blend Images).  With Blend my images not only get a wider audience with both RF and RM content on Getty, Corbis, Masterfile, Superstock and God knows how many other distributors, but I also get my images up on Microstock sites at macro prices. How cool is that? The eyeballs appear to be migrating to places like Shutterstock, Fotolia and others. With Blend Images, without any additional work, I get representation on Shutterstock, Fotolia, iStockphoto and others. In addition, I can actually call Blend and get a person on the phone! I might add that I know other Blend non-owner contributors who have the same experience…and not just with art directors and creative directors, but with all of the staff right on up to the CEO, Rick Becker-Leckrone. Finally, Blend gives me art direction, research reports, and creative meetings as well. As a matter of fact, I head off Thursday to a two-day Blend meeting and workshop focusing on motion stock.

A Word About Royalty Splits

If your goal is to make as much revenue as possible then it is important to look beyond just your royalty split. Running an agency is expensive. Shutterstock, for example, is reported to have spent $40,000,000.00 on advertising last year. An agency that gives photographers an unrealistic share of the royalties won’t have the funds to run effectively, and it is important to remember that 50 or more percent of nothing is…well…nothing! What is a fair royalty split? I don’t have an answer to that question. But that may not be the best question to be asking.

Consistent Production The Key To Success

Once you have signed with an agency the key to success is producing your best work consistently. It is consistent production more than anything else that will eventually lead to success. It is a universal truth with stock photographers that big royalty checks motivate us, and small royalty checks tend to sap our creativity and motivation. You have to be aware of that and move beyond it.

Seeing Results

One final note.  In my own experience (and I don’t have experience with micro agencies) it takes time to see results. Give it a good year of consistent production before judging the success or failure of the agency.

A Question For Photographers

For photographers the search for ideas is a never ending journey and one that is often best served by moving into unexplored territory.

The Search For Ideas

As a stock photographer I am always searching for ideas. The search for ideas is endless and can be a real challenge. There is a tendency, at least for me, to go back over my existing work and checking my sales database for what is selling and for which images and ideas have been more successful than others. But it is vitally important for my long-term success to ask myself just what ideas have I not done yet.  More than that, what techniques and styles have I neglected to explore?

Images You Haven’t Created

Of course, ideas that I haven’t done have no track record and no sales to peruse to judge their success. But what that question might do is enable me to push beyond my current boundaries and come up with something that might well be very successful and that won’t “cannibalize” sales from my existing image base. It only makes sense that expanding your library of images into new areas and categories, categories that don’t compete with your existing images, are a primary method of growing your overall income. But the exercise of determining what image areas that you haven’t yet created has other benefits as well that accrue even if the images don’t turn into best sellers.

Creating Images And Expanding Skills

By creating images that are different than what you have already created you will expand your photography (and other skills), learn more about what is valued in the marketplace, and hopefully put a little more distance between you and burn out. This is often referred to as moving outside your comfort zone. I know that pushing myself out of my own comfort zone has brought some huge, and unexpected, rewards. Creating new kinds of work keeps the creative fires burning and promotes the growth that is necessary to avoid becoming irrelevant.

Diversity And Investment

Additionally, by broadening your offering, you will help insure that if a given style or

Approach goes out of style the impact on your own revenue will be minimized. Diversity, after all, is a cornerstone of investing whether it is in the stock market or the market of stock photography.