PhotoOp 2010

It was a giant stock photo shoot produced by Veer.  The primary goal of the shoot was to quickly generate a large volume of images to drive up the quality of photos in the Veer microstock offering.  The shooting took place over four days, ending last Sunday. I was honored to be among the photographers invited to participate.

Veer took on all responsibility for producing the shoots and will also manage the edit (selection), post processing, metadata (keywording) and submission of all images on behalf of the participating photographers.  Each photographers’ images will be added exclusively to their Veer Marketplace account where the photographer will earn their regular royalties.

Veer & Microstock

PhotoOp comes hot on the heels of the Veer’s Dash for Cash contributor drive and ahead of a major site redesign due in the coming weeks. Dash for Cash has dramatically increased the quantity of community submissions thanks to the monetary incentives for having images accepted. The limit of 100 submission per week and the requirement to have the images approved also boosted the quality of submissions.

Discussions with Veer staff and management provided an insight into the company and its placement in the marketplace. Their customer base is primarily higher-end designers who are passionate about the company and its product offering. This doesn’t make the introduction of microstock an easy process.  As they told me, “microstock” was a dirty word for many of their important clients.

The Veer strategy for introducing microstock has therefore been, until now, to offer a column of microstock images alongside the regular search results. This shows clients that there’s some low-priced alternatives that can meet certain needs. The coming redesign will integrate microstock more seamlessly with the other collections, moving emphasis off pricing and removing the “microstock” distinction – hence the recent change to make the ‘Marketplace’ brand contributor-facing only.

Four Days, Nine Photographers, Ten Locations, 150 Models

Veer produced the PhotoOp shoots internally. As you can see, there was quite a lot to do. What made this even more impressive was the detail to which each shoot was produced. Models, wardrobe, properties and locations were coordinated inline with detailed briefs. All this was done for four separate shoots for each of nine photographers! Each photographer had their own models for the entire day so there was no issue with multiple photographers uploading similar shots.

The production was handled internally using Veer’s experience producers and art directors. Other staff were called in to provide additional assistance. Each photographer was assigned both an assistant and a runner, who were, in most cases, grossly overqualified Veer or Corbis staff or professional photographers themselves. Kevin Yee, a professional photographer based in Calgary, was assigned as my assistant. He saved many shots with awesome lighting suggestions. My runner was Christy Herdman, Veer’s Manager of Community Content Editing (i.e. boss reviewer!) who had everything I wanted before I asked for it.

Models were sourced in a variety of ways including agents, Veer’s own model database, friends & relatives of staff, and even street-cast models. Each photographer worked with four models for an entire day, which over four days and nine photographers (and a little repeating models) makes 150 models in total. That’s a lot of model releases!

Varied Photographers

The photographers were chosen specifically for our range of backgrounds.  Many of the photographers were experienced shooters for Veer’s high-end Fancy collection. At the other end was myself – a hobbyist photographer with only modest experience.

While photographers split into three teams of three per location, there were still opportunities to interact at the official and unofficial social gatherings. It was great to hear the perspectives of experienced stock photographers on the event and on microstock in general. These are the other eight photographers who participated:

• Tyler Olson of MicrostockGroup, who I’ve been meeting a lot lately.
• Marnie Burkhart
• Jeff Way & Marta Wilkosz, aka team Wilkosz + Way
• Patrick Lane
• Rebecca Frick
• Monalyn Gracia
• Kate Kunz
• Darren Kemper

Why?

Crowdsourced stock photography started with non-professionals. The quality level was generally very low compared to what it is today. Microstock agencies have done various things to raise the quality standard. In the early days many hired professional photographers to shoot wholly owned stock for the collection or created it in-house. Some still do.

Other agencies create events where photographers can participate, create stock at a higher quality level than they have before, and generally raise their experience and skill levels.

PhotoOp 2010 was designed to achieve similar goals:  raise the quality of images in the collection; raise the skill level of participating photographers (though in this case most were accomplished professionals already); introduce experienced photographers to the microstock opportunity at Veer; and, test the profitability / effectiveness of produced shooting events.

A Learning Experience

For me, as a hobbyist photographer with very limited experience this event was amazing for me. It’s now almost a week later and I’m still mentally processing, but I’ve identified some of the more significant lessons I’ve taken away from the event.

Just being a part of such a large scale production was itself enlightening. In terms of the shooting itself, the bulk of what I learned came from working with a professional art director. Beau Lark was the art director working with myself and the two other photographers who shared the same location each day.

The difference that Beau made to what I was seeing on the back of the camera was intense. Even on the first day I noted my addiction to having his input into what I was shooting and directing the models. By the fourth day I’d learned enough to get shots to work on my own, but Beau kept stepping it up.

Being able to arrive and just walk on to a set with everything prepared was a pleasure. It demonstrated that production is the bulk of the game. The Veer team had spent months putting together all the parts that made the shoots simple and easy for us photographers.

Here’s a few of my favorite shots which I quickly processed. They’ll look much better once the Veer team have done their magic.

Thankyou!

As you can see from my enthusiastic description, I’m absolutely chuffed to have been part of PhotoOp 2010. Everyone was so welcoming and helpful. In addition to all that I learned and all the stock photos I shot, I really enjoyed my week in Calgary with the Veer and Corbis teams. Thanks to all the great people and amazing talents for making it such an amazing week.

Corbis’s Brian O’Shea documented the entire event, including interviews with all the photographers and many other participants. In August that video will be released on the Veer website.  I’ll be sure to point it out when it happens.  I’m super keen to see how it looks and listen to what the other photographers had to say. I’m also looking forward to hearing about plans for the next PhotoOp, heavily rumored to be taking place in Buenos Aires.

Here’s some behind-the-scenes shots from the iPhone squad. Click for larger version and credits.

Microstock Group – a meeting place for microstock photographers

Pixamba Relaunches as Media Management Service

David Mail, creator of the original microstock upload software, ProStockMaster, re-launched his short-lived microstock agency, Pixamba, as an image management service for stock photo buyers. The service allows individuals and organizations to manage the photos and illustrations they license in a managed and totally online service.

StockPhotoRights.com

Getty Images, with the support of Corbis and Shutterstock, launched StockPhotoRights.com – a website designed to help education stock photo buyers about their rights and responsibilities when licensing stock photos.

Veer Dash for Cash

The latest in a series of contributor incentives, the Veer Dash for Cash launched and will continue until the end of June.

LookStat Analytics Live

The extra analytics services that LookStat previewed last month are now live as part of the LookStat service for all users. The pricing announced at the beta launch will go into effect shortly, though existing members will retain their collections and will stay on the free plan until they choose to upgrade.

iSyndica Extras

Users of iSyndica can now import their earnings data from unsupported microstock agencies with the CSV files downloaded from the agencies. Additionally, a new top tier service level has been added with 1TB storage capacity.

Alamy Reduced File Size Requiments

In a move welcome by most contributors and signifying the times of electronic dominance in the publishing space, Alamy reduced their minimum file size requirement from 48mb (uncompressed) to 24mb.

Have you seen Microstock Charts yet?

Today, Peter Hamza and Andras Pfaff launched their new microstock agency, StockFresh. If those names sound familiar, it’s because they’re the founders of the successful microstock agency StockXpert as well as the free photo site SXC. Both of those sites were sold to Jupiterimage and ultimately went on to Getty Images, who have since closed StockXpert.

The sale of the outstanding 10% portion to Getty Images was merely last December. In the six months since then, Peter and Andras have built a completely new microstock agency and filled it with over 100,000 images.  Yuri Arcurs has 30,000 there and Ron Chapple’s iofoto collection is there, 15,000 images strong. Even I have 49 online.

Today, the new agency opens its doors to both contributors and buyers. The site is fully functional and well refined. It’s not even in beta. It’s actually easier to use and faster than many microstock agency websites that have been online for years.

The Details

The Verdict

The building part is what Peter does well. StockXpert grew to success because of other factors: it was among the first agencies, it built up a strong community early, it had the traffic driven from SXC, and ultimately benefited from the marketing and promotion of the Jupiterimage and wider Jupitermedia empire.

Now that Peter is without all those benefits, seeing StockFresh through to success will be a greater challenge.  On his side are his experience, his wealth of industry contacts and the cash from the sale of his previous businesses.

From the contributor aspect, there’s a lot to like about this agency. The pricing is not undercutting the competition and the royalties are exceedingly generous, both for credit sales and subscriptions. Subscriptions are also limited to medium size and below. The upload process is smooth and uses most industry best practices. Established contributors will have little trouble getting their portfolios online.

The buyer perspective presents the challenge.  The agency doesn’t have a great deal to differentiate itself from the existing microstock agencies. And without an active API, partnering will be difficult. If there is a way to attract new photo buyers or steal them from the competition, Peter hasn’t revealed it yet.

So while contributors will have relatively little work to get their portfolio online, and doing so would certainly help support high commissions and smart agency strategy, it’s not clear yet whether uploading will pay off financially.

Go StockFresh

You can sign up with StockFresh here.  They’re also on Twitter here (Peter and Andras) and Facebook too.

Peter Hamza is also attending the CEPIC New Media Conference next week, so come and share a pint and talk stock with him in Dublin.

Microstock video? Check out Clipcanvas.com to Sell Stock Videos or sign up to Download Stock Footage

The offer coincidentally arrives hot on the heels of a similar campaign from new microstock agency, Polylooks, in partnership with Zoonar. Zoonar are paying €0.15 per file. Files are submitted to Zoonar, then through activation of a partnership opt-in they become available for sale on Polylooks too. They need to be accepted on Polylooks to receive the bonus payment at Zoonar.

The Same But Different

Fotolia pioneered the pay-for-accepted-files technique back in 2005. They paid between 20 – 50 cents per accepted photo depending on the total quantity. Comparatively, the Zoonar-Polylooks offer is lower but the Veer offer is significantly more generous.

Dreamstime also pays exclusive contributors 20c per accepted image. This is a permanent incentive and pays retroactively when contributors convert to exclusivity – the only program with these attributes.

Why it’s Needed

The top microstock agencies have a lot of stock and add to it at a rapid rate.  Newer agencies who are still building their buyer base don’t have the same selling power to attract contributors and build their portfolio. Most serious microstockers assess each new agency based on expected return on investment, with that investment being the time to upload and submit. Utilities such as iSyndica and the picNiche Toolbars help lower the cost, but for portfolios with a lot of releases to attach it can still be quite high.

Offsetting that cost with a cash bonus is an easy and fast way to overcome contributor resistance. Even for less serious microstockers, simply getting a cash bonus is proving to be a sufficient incentive.

Have you seen Microstock Charts yet?

On the speaking roster:

Opening Keynote: Yuri Arcurs

Yuri Arcurs’s name is synonymous with microstock. He’s held the title as the world’s top selling microstock photographer since 2007 and has since branched out into other entrepreneurial endeavors within the industry.

Yuri will open the event with a keynote presentation discussing the convergence, or not, of microstock and traditional stock.

Making Millions with Microstock, One Euro at a Time

This session will cover microstock from many angles with a top agency CEO, a traditional stock photographer with microstock experience, a top microstock seller operating as a business, a successful solo microstocker with the industry leading forum, and an industry observer moderating.

Serban Enache	Jonathan Ross	Andres Rodriguez	Tyler Olson	Lee Torrens

Stock Video – Where the action is!

Everyone wants to know what’s going on with video. How much more lucrative is it than stills? How fierce is the competition? Are sales growing or declining? What does a stock photographer need to know to achieve success with video? We’ve put together this session with the CEO of one of the top video specialist agencies, a senior director of a video-enabled microstock agency, a top selling microstock videographer and an equally successful photographer-turned-videographer. If you ever wanted insights into stock video, this session is the place to get it.

Andy Goetze	Dittmar Frohmann	Tom Bennett	Simon Krzic	Pavel Losevsky

What’s next? How will the stock media business evolve?

Nicknamed “THE FUTURE”, this session is all about the difference between the stock photo market of today and that of tomorrow. We’ve lined up the head of the most innovative microstock agency, an entrepreneur with experience creating successful stock collections in both tradition and microstock, an industry association president and traditional stock shooter himself, one of the most respected strategical thinkers on stock photo industry and technology, and heading it up the industry’s best connected consultant and new author.

Ellen Boughn	Shannon Fagan	Kelly Thompson	Cathy Yulet	Taylor Davidson

Using new media tools to get business, not just more friends, followers and fans

While everyone is spending lots of time and money on social media, not everyone is using it to increase their bottom line. This session, run by two stock photo industry veterans, concentrates on demonstrating how companies and individuals are using new media tools for real and measurable success and how those methods can be applied in the stock photo industry.

Marco Oonk	Beate Chelette

IPTC Photo Metadata

The standards that make it possible for us microstockers to enter our metadata just once, directly into the photo, come from these people! They’re going to discuss current issues with metadata standards and how to keep ownership information intact within images in online use. This session is presented by the IPTC Managing Director, legal counsel to PACA & adviser to PLUS, and an IP and licensing legal specialist.

Michael Steidl	Nancy Wolff	Dr Christian Donle

Attending

Also attending the event, greatly enhancing the networking opportunities, are many well known microstock industry people and service providers:

• Robert Davies of picNiche and the recently and exciting picNiche Image Deck beta
• David Mail of ProStockMaster and the recently launched image management service Pixamba
• Peter Hamza, founder of StockXpert and shortly a fresh new microstock agency
• Mark Milstein of Northfoto and microstock reviewing service Microstock Solutions
• Daryl Lang, staff writer for Shutterstock & BigStock and former PDN editor
• Amos Struck of StockPhotoPress, FotosVerkaufen and GuteWolke
• Roberto Marinello of MyStockPhoto.org, prolific Italian microstock blogger
• Olivier Yiptong of CaptureShot, a new search venture with very interesting plans
• Richard Thomas – aka RTimages, pro microstock photographer
• Mark Butler, manager of the Monkey Business Images distribution business
• Ted VanCleave, CEO of ImageRights.com image monitoring service
• Vitezslav Valka, CEO of the innovative and rising microstock agency Pixmac
• George Doyle, former StockByte executive and current iStockphoto exclusive contributor
• Hugo Angelmar of iSyndica, the rapidly expanding microstock distribution utility
• Matthias Reichel of pixolution.de who have some very cool image sorting technology
• Olivier Lantzendörffer, aka Opla, rising microstock photographer
• Sarah Hipwell, avid local Dublin microstock photographer
• Jean-Marie Guyon of CandyBox Photography, high production microstock contributor
• Mikhail Lavrenov, aka MikLav, microstock photographer and blogger
• Tony Rowland of Imense, providing automated keywording services and much more
• Offir Gultezon, CEO of PicScout, creator of the new Image Index, Registry and Connection
• Robert Walters, CEO of dynamic German midstock/microstock agency PantherMedia
• Holger Mette, the traveling microstocker
• Daniel Laflor, a bloke bitten by the stock bug

These are just the people who’ve let me know they’re coming. If you’re coming too, let us know in the comments.

Access to the Conference is included in the Congress, so you can expect most of the Congress visitors will also be present at the New Media Conference. If you’ve registered for the Congress you’ll have access to the participant lists to see who else will be there.

If you haven’t booked your ticket yet, booking is now open online via the CEPIC website here. I hope to see you there!

Microstock Group – a meeting place for microstock photographers

Tony Stone at Vivozoom

Some say he’s the true founder of Getty Images, but however he’s described, Tony Stone’s move to re-enter the market with his former Getty colleagues at new microstock agency Vivozoom caused much commentary in the market.

iStock Turned Ten

While the microstock business model isn’t technically ten years old yet, iStockphoto is and celebrated in typical style.

iStockalypse Cannes

Part of the aforementioned celebrations, iStockphoto ran their largest yet iStockalypse event in Cannes, France to coincide with the World Photography Festival. The lightbox of photos from the event is just getting started but you can check out the early results here. Giorgio Fochesato has some great photos of the event on his blog here and here.

Corbis Follows with Low Price Options

Identical to the Getty Images move last year, Corbis has introduced cheaper licenses for small sized version of their photos. The move is designed to slow market share loss as usage moves away from print and further into digital and online publishing.

Pixmac Visual Similarity Tool

The young and innovative microstock agency, Pixmac, introduced a more scientific version of ‘similarity’ searches available at most top microstock agencies. The system analyzes image contents to produce a list of photos with similar content and composition, rather than relying on keywords or other metrics like existing systems.

New LookStat Analytics Beta

LookStat released a beta preview of some very useful new features in their analytics tools, including analysis of RPI, Sell Through Rate, and even Return on Investment (ROI)! Each of these metrics can be applied portfolio-wide and to individual collections. The new terminology is explained on the LookStat blog along with the usual insights into what’s selling. Pricing for the new advanced functionality was also announced and explained in a separate blog post.

iSyndica Turns One

Celebrating its first year of operation, iSyndica gifted members a week of free distribution (May 1 – 7) for new files and a 30% discount on new subscriptions.

iSyndica Picks Up after Fotomind Closure

In an innovative and welcome move, iSyndica stepped in to pick up the contributor debt and portfolios after the closure of little-known microstock agency Fotomind. Contributors were able to easily move their Fotomind portfolio over to iSyndica, ready to be distributed to iSyndica’s 35 supported agencies. Any outstanding commissions below the payout threshold was equaled in iSyndica credits.

picNiche Image Deck

Robert Davies launched the most ambitious addition to his picNiche suite of microstock tools yet with the picNiche Image Deck beta. An add-on to the existing add-on for Firefox, the Image Deck automates the submission of photos at Fotolia, Dreamstime and Shutterstock. By taking metadata (Title, Keywords and Description), category and release information before upload, the information is automatically populated in the image submit pages at each of these three agencies. More agencies will be added shortly. Check out Robert’s Image Deck blog post for more details

Polylooks and Zoonar Partnership

Polylooks has always been limited by it’s legal status, limiting it from accepting images from contributors outside Europe. Not so for fellow German agency Zoonar, who launched a creative partnership with Polylooks to boost contributions from outside Europe.

Upload your content to Zoonar with the option to distribute through Polylooks active, and your account will be credited with €0.15 per accepted image. Photos are subsequently available for sale on both Zoonar and Polylooks with payments from both credited to your Zoonar account. The offer is valid for the first 200,000 images accepted. See the Zoonar landing page for details.

Have you seen Microstock Charts yet?

Eva Serrabassa (caracterdesign), Joan Vicent (sensorspot), and Alexey Ivanov (studioxil)

Here’s what they had to say:

Alexey Ivanov

Studioxil.  From Moscow, Russia – Exclusive Gold canister level contributor and inspector.  studioxil.com @studioxil

Alexey primarily shoots models in studio, focusing on beauty and fashion. Here’s the summary of his tips:

• It’s not expensive to start out shooting for microstock.  You can create ‘home made’ images in your house.  Choose the biggest space you have available.
• Post-processing is the second half of the ‘art’ of photography.  It can’t be done by others.
• Even photographers with professional make-up artists do a lot of post-processing.  Don’t be afraid if re-touching takes six hours per image.
• When starting out, use friends and family as models so you’re relaxed and can focus on the photography.
• Models must have relaxed lips, slightly open.  They also need to be ‘unavailable’, with high attitude.
• As you move up to the second level and move out of your home, find the biggest available space. This helps you do more with lighting and you can raise your quality higher and faster.
• Models are left alone and bored whenever you’re looking at the back of your camera. Be aware of this and keep in touch with the model.
• Alexey shoots 600 images per shoot and just chooses one to upload.
• Instructing models in detail on how to move and making corrections makes their poses unnatural. Natural poses are more desirable.
• Great lighting can be achieved with a single light and a reflector.
• The best school is experimentation.
• The quality of an image is more about the content of the image rather than the technical aspects.
• Working with a make-up artists provides the biggest jump in the quality of your photos. But be aware that make-up artists are creative people and want to have input into the ‘art’. You need to manage this and talk with all people who have creative input.
• When working with a professional team, the best models will want to work with you.

Joan Vincent

Sensorspot.  From Barcelona, Spain – Exclusive Diamond canister level contributor and site administrator.  joanvicentcanto.com

Joan is an ideas man.  That’s his strength and he works with it.  This is his advice:

• There are two types of photographers: good ones, and yourself. The first step is desire with inferiority. Ambition is critical. You need to want to be the best photographer in the world to get good.
• Be conscious about what photography schools tell you about becoming a professional photographer. Joan said they laughed at him when he said he wanted to become a professional.
• Schools tell you how to shoot but not what to shoot.
• If you shoot every day, you will eventually get good.
• There’s a big difference between concept and story. Everyone tries to shoot concepts. Go beyond the theme / topic of the image and show what happened before and what will happen after.
• A story can save a picture but a concept will never save a picture.  A concept is one of many ingredients, but the story is the complete recipe.
• The story is what is remembered.  Hollywood films have the best actors and the best production, but the stories are rarely memorable.
• Images can create more questions than answers.
• Create an atmosphere that matches the idea of the image.
• There’s also a big difference between stereotypes and characters. A character is a step beyond a stereotype. He or she has personality – something that makes him or her different.
• Characters are real people, not mannequins. They need to be credible.
• When everyone else is shooting stereotypes, you will make more money creating characters.
• Create ideas and keep a notebook to record them.  Put everything in the notebook.  Ideas evolve.  They might not be great initially, but keep them evolving until they are.  There are no bad ideas. Just better and worse ideas, and more developed and less developed ideas.
• The best source of ideas is your own life.
• Ideas are like Bonsai. They are small and detailed, not big and expensive.
• Stock photographers are no longer just photographers because they shoot the photos they want to shoot. They are now art directors too.
• Joan still rarely shoots with professional models. He continues using his family and friends.
• Stock photographers shoot much more regularly and have larger portfolios than most other types of photographers. Use that to your advantage.

Eva Serrabassa

caracterdesign. From Barcelona, Spain – Exclusive Black Diamond canister level contributor and site administrator.

Eva is another graphic designer turned photographer. She’s been with iStockphoto since 2004 and the photo of her daughter blowing a dandelion, above, is iStock’s top selling photo with over 18,000 downloads so far.

• Always get releases for locations. Even in public, get permission to shoot to avoid problems.
• Explain to the model what the shoot is about. Send the release at the time of requesting their services and have them send it back signed before the shoot date.
• Time for Prints (TFP) & Time for CD (TFCD) are ok for small productions but not so much for big productions.
• Be careful with TFP tax implications. You may need to declare the expense and service both ways and at market value to comply with laws.

What Works for You?

Given the different methods and styles of these three photographers, much of the advice conflicts. You need to take what works for you and leave what doesn’t. Which tips can you integrate into your production and workflow?

Microstock Group – a meeting place for microstock photographers

The morning workshops provided educational content on lighting and retouching techniques.

JJRD introducing the workshop

The three daily shoots continue with varied themes from studio portraits, beach scenes out on La Croisette, office shoots taking advantage of the Palais des Festivals and a Marie Antoinette shoot at the Mediatheque (library).

iStockalypse shoots are no longer ‘gang shoots’ with multiple photographers shooting at once, but the size of this event makes it a necessity.

Studio Portrait Shoot

Beach shoot on la Croisette in Cannes

Indoor lifestyle shoot in the Palais des Festivals

Lifestyle shoot with Hank managing the dog

Marie Antoinette shoot at the Mediatheque

Have you seen Microstock Charts yet?

The Ash Cloud – What’s Happening?

The volcanic ash cloud that’s closed most European airports for the past week is starting to blow away and airports are opening up, and just in time for many. The turn-out of contributors here is impressive. We’re all swapping stories about the creative ways we managed to get here.

iStock staff from European offices have come early to step in for those who couldn’t make it or are still coming.  The first item on the program was altered, but there’s enough people and equipment for the iStock even machine to get everything on track for the rest of the program. Management are VERY grateful for the people who made special effort to get here and the staff who’ve gone well above and beyond to keep the event alive.

The Future of Microstock Workshop

The speakers for the first scheduled workshop were among those who haven’t made it yet, so JJRD, iStockphoto VP of Content Development, and Andrew Wedderburn (rogermexico), Content & Community Lead, stepped in.  They teamed up to give a description of iStockphoto history, present and some quick insights into the future. JJ opened with the statistic that more than half of all photos sold today in the US, across all licensing models and all outlets, were sold by iStockphoto.

There were lots of other interesting tidbits:

Vetta – The (relatively) high-priced Vetta collection at iStockphoto has been a successful well beyond expectations, or in JJ’s words, “a massive, massive, massive success”. Andrew expanded on the makeup of the iStockphoto buyer base explaining how many “don’t care” about the price. Many of the exclusive contributors I’ve spoken with today and last night have reported their income tripled or quadrupled after the introduction of Vetta Collection. Andrew went on to explain that the recent price rise for exclusive content has also met little resistance. He profiled buyers again, explaining how the price rises fall withing the “range of price sensitivity” for those who do care about price.

Some insights into the current situation and planning of the company were also interesting:

• iStockphoto have recently opened an office here in France – their second in Europe after the Berlin office opened last year – and hired nine programmers in the past month.
• When asked about editorial licenses on iStockphoto, JJRD said the list of ‘things to do’ stretches from Cannes to Milan, but editorial was not among the staffed priorities. “We’ll see”, he concluded.

When the discussion turned to the inspection process at iStock, JJ made a point to explain that, “never in the history of iStockphoto has an inspector rejected an image for not being salable”. While the statement is all-inclusive, he went on to explain that they let the market decide what is commercial and “treat photos as works of art rather than products”.

JJ also spoke very highly of the information sharing between iStockphoto and Getty Images, saying, “The Getty Images ownership has been positive in every way”.

Shooting the Cannes iStockalypse

Three shoots were setup around the Palais des Festivals. The red carpet shoot, pictured below, on the stairs of the Palais attracted quite a crowd beyond the participating iStockers. Three times I was asked who the famous people were and had to explain that they were models. That didn’t stop many people pushing through and getting in close to snap their own shots of these faux celebrities.

There’s another three shoots tomorrow and then again the day after, all around the city of Cannes and with lights and professional models, plus another three morning workshops. I’ll cover them all here, so stay tuned.

Microstock Group – a meeting place for microstock photographers

How would you celebrate such a milestone?  This is how iStock are doing it:

• A dedicated birthday website with contributor headshots and a 10-year interactive timeline
• $20,000 in cash and prizes from a contest on iStock plus a Twitter competition

And the festivities continue later this month in Cannes, France:

• The biggest ever iStock involvement at the World Photography Festival (which you can attend for £15)
• An iStockalypse with private and public shoots for exclusives, non-exclusives and non-members
• Four educational workshops on stock business, lighting and workflow

What? You Can’t Get to Cannes?

If you have any chance of making it to Cannes, France this month from 22nd to 25th, do so.  If you can’t, don’t worry. I’ll be bringing you all the action right here and on Twitter!

I’m super excited to be going to this event!  This will be my second iStockalypse.  Last time the iStockalypse conveniently came to me here in Buenos Aires.  I wrote about what I learned as a guest observer. This time it’s a lot further away but iStock have helped me out with travel so I can share the experience with everyone else.

Much More than an iStockalypse!

iStock are really making a big deal about this event. As guests of iStock, attendees are in turn guests of the World Photography Festival. The festival includes five days at various venues around the famous Cannes palais des festivals. It all kicks off with the formal awards ceremony on the Thursday evening.

The educational workshops run each morning. The topics will cover the business of stock as well as technical topics of lighting and workflow.  In the afternoons there will be a total of nine shoots over three days – three simultaneous shoots each day. Some are private by invitation-only and some are open to non-exclusive contributors and even non-member guests.

Some of the iStock staff will be participating in the portfolio reviews as part of the awards festival – see list with bios here.

iStock will also have lounge at the festival for people to meet staff, get additional portfolio reviews and just hang out. At the conclusion of the iStock programme there will be a sizable private party. Naturally.

More Information

The best place to start is the iStockalypse website which includes a schedule and a list of who’s coming. The iStock forum thread has useful information on hotels and a discount code for booking tickets to the awards festival. The Sony World Photography Awards website has a full schedule here.

Don’t forget to check out the iStock10 website. I’m honored by the mention of the Microstock Diaries launch in 2007 of the timeline. The $20,000 cash and prizes competition is now finished.

Join Us in Cannes

And if you’re in the Cannes, France area or can get there later this month, come join us!  If not, follow along here. I’ll do my best to make it feel like you’re there!

Have you seen Microstock Charts yet?