The last shoot of 2011 is one in style. Two beautiful models, and a concert piano. Great styling and idea by Lilly Rog, and a matching atmosphere!

Woohoo! Great team, models and location. Got the vibe flowing at the set of todays library shoot!

It’s 4.30 am, and I’m in the train that’ll take me to the airport, on my way to the microstock expo. I’m well prepared, and looking forward to an intense and productive conference. Lots of meetings with interesting people on my schedule, and many questions to ask. I’m curious what conclusions I come back with.

We’re shooting at computer shop Delft as we speak. Very productive morning. Images will be online soon!

If you’re attending the Microstock Expo in Berlin in November as photographer, You’ll be aware that one of the highlights for photographers will be “The Uber Portfolio Review“. Although a portfolio review by itself isn’t new or original, the concept of Microstock expo is more innovative, and refreshing, as its counterparts, as the critique will be anonymous, and be held plenary for the convention’s audience. The panel of experts – so far – is also quite diverse: well known names of fellow photographers as well as recognised industry names. Each photographer who registered for the convention on 4 to 6 November is elegible to enter 20 photos to be critiqued. The panel will select the eye catching images without knowledge of the author, and discuss this selection with the audience. A unique opportunity.

We took this opportunity, to scruitinise our entire portfolio, selecting only 20 images, which we think are most representative of our style, ability and our views on how the (micro)stock market will evolve in the forseeable future. This means we didn’t just pick the biggest sellers, nor our personal favourites, not even the technically most competent images. Criteria used, during our selection process, were:

• Buyers’ motivation: Why do we think some images sell and some others don’t?
• What will change in the buyers’ behaviour, given the current market place, and which themes and styling will sell beyond tomorrow?
• In which type of photography are we able to (at least) equal the competition?
• Does our anticipated niche market fulfill its expectations?
• How are our images we’ve found being used, in what style, and to what extend do the found tear sheets reflect our intended commercial viability of the images in question?
• What images in our portfolio stand out, either compared to our colleagues, or because we’ve managed to successfully identify a less covered theme, subject or concept?

To avoid the remote chance influencing anyone attending the conference, I’ll refrain from posting the photos we’ve selected. There are a few images, I’d like to share, which didn’t make the cut.

This image is one of our best selling images, and possibly the most pirated one. I’m sure it will be no surprise, it’s also the result of a photoshop exercise. It took us quite some time to create, and was disqualified because it’s something we will not be producing on a regular basis.

Although the photo on the right is an image from a carefully planned shoot, this image qualified outside our top 20 because if we’d had to retake this scene, we’d change everything, except for the model.

An example of an image which sells reasonably well, and has been found in use in various places, but  lacks for several reasons, despite the fun we had organising this shoot, and the pride of being Dutch

We took this image straying away from our call sheet and storyboards during the shoot, and I’m glad we did. This image exceeds expectations, and is probably one of the highlights of our more successful productions. We still don’t believe it’s the strongest in the series we took that day.

We’ve excluded our best seller by far as well. The primary reason for excluding it, is that taking this shot is pretty much like bird watching. It happened in front of us when we happened to be there. No planning, nor production involved. Besides, we all have a background in engineering, and this theme is pretty much within our zone of confort.

I hope the “Uber Portfolio Review” will shed some more light on the criteria we used to select our images. Of course, we’re extremely curious to see which images from the 20 we’ve submitted  - if any - will be discussed during the Microstock Expo in Berlin.

We’re looking forward to learn from the convention which criteria they use to address the merit of the selected images, as well as gaining insight in optimising our processes and selection criteria. Even if the panel chooses to pick none, the selection process by itself was a worthwhile experience, both because of the creative, as well as the analytical processes involved in self critisising our own portfolio, something I’d recommend to any serious photographer.

If all goes well with the planned update of our website, I’ll post the 20 images we did select, with our reasoning behind it, after the convention, perhaps with an excerpt of the feedback received. Time will tell. For now, I hope to meet quite a few of you in Berlin.

Say hi to our newest creative guru at corepics

Expected soon, stay tuned for more!

Top athletes and record breaking times at the world championships rowing under 23, these days at the Bosbaan, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Having full press accreditation, we’ve been able to capture the winning moments of the international crews from over 300 teams from 63 countries. For more information, see the official website of the world rowing under 23 championships.

We’ve selected 69 images of the hottest moments of four days of top sports.

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Bas Gerzon found an isolated version of one of our soccer fan photos in use inside a shop as decoration. A nice, unexpected, and novel use of one of our images!

More information will be added as soon as we learn more ourselves…