All You Really Need To Succeed: A Copy Of Macworld

Once again the feud between the pros and the amateurs heats up online. Now the hot topic on APAnet is the article in Macworld which seems to advocate that everyone buy a DSLR and join the ranks of micro-payment stock photographers.

I don't understand all the controversy surrounding this. What's wrong with micro-payment stock has more to do with the amount of money that's paid both for the license and to the photographer than it does with who, specifically, is supplying the photographs.

So what if Macworld tells its readers that they can buy a prosumer DSLR and get into a profitable sideline? That's not a problem for us. Why? Because no matter what market our work serves, there will almost always be an amateur to compete with. This is more true for wedding & party photographers than it is for, say, corporate and advertising photographers... and much less so for photojournalists. It's always been a big problem for stock photographers, even before the digital revolution. Haven't we always had to live with amateur competition?

As a teenage amateur photographer I took a job away from a pro when I accepted an offer to shoot my friend's sister's wedding for $100 (1967). That was waaaaaay before digital, waaaaaay before anyone can do it and waaaaaay before I was even really ready to compete with a professional. Is my crime ameliorated by the fact that, even at that age, I knew where I was going career-wise?

The problem is not who is making pictures but, rather, how they are compensated. Agents used to be called ten percenters because they took an average of ten percent commission for brokering the sale. Now, in the micro-payment stock arena, they get eighty percent. It doesn't matter whether it's eighty percent of $1 or eighty percent of $10,000. Eighty percent is a radically skewed number.

There are also, I hate to remind you, lots of full-fledged professionals participating in micro-payment stock. Do you really think a handful of Macworlders-with-cameras can easily knock a Jack Hollingsworth off his lofty perch? I don't.

Rather than seeing the crisis of our time, I see a crisis of confidence in some of us. Personally, I have no such crisis. I'm confident in my ability to compete. I have talent and experience, which translates into a career based on the same, rather than a sideline dependent upon being lucky enough to pull it off.

An amateur can bury his failures, a professional cannot. Which are you? Think about that, then go out and make pictures.



Oh, just FYI, I responded to Macworld in a letter to the editor.....

I've read your story, "7 tips for selling your photos," by Heather Kelly with great interest. Excellent reporting on a growing segment of the advertising industry. Though Ms. Kelly's article is right on target, there are a few things she left out that your readers may wish to consider.

First - I'd like to point out that Ms. Kelly has erred in calling it, "microstock." The actual name for this piece of the stock photography pie is micro-payment stock. Omitting the word payment from the name does your readers a disservice by creating the impression that there is actually a substantial amount of money to be made in that business, while micro-payment more accurately describes the situation: these companies pay you peanuts for something that is actually very valuable.

Second - It's true that stock photography is not easy money. Having been active in stock photography for more than twenty years (and decidedly not in micro-payment or any form of royalty free stock photography) I can attest to the fact that it is, indeed, very hard work. In fact, it's a business, and success cannot be achieved as a sideline to your day job. It takes a very strong commitment and about sixty-plus hours a week to achieve success as a stock photographer. It also is not quite as simple as buying a good DSLR camera and getting, out of the chair, [leaving] the house, and [seeking] out new settings and subjects.

Third - Let's not discuss your cat. Let's discuss real business issues such as major investments (and reinvestment every 18 months) in powerful computers, expensive software, expensive cameras & lenses, expensive lighting equipment, travel expenses, insurance, permits, legal advice, accounting, etc, etc... all necessary for stock (even micro-payment stock) photographers.

Fourth - Look at the best sellers from the micro-payment stock companies (let's not call them agencies because they're not agencies): these are all, without exception, images with very high production value. This is not something one does in one's spare time, not when attempting to earn 12% of a license that's usually priced at $5.00 or less in a volume necessary to equal real money.

I could likely write an entire book on what it takes to be a successful stock photographer (in fact, I am) so I'll stop here, but my point is this: Ms. Kelly's article was far too short, way too simplistic and unfairly raises the hopes of your readers to unrealistic levels, much less giving them an accurate picture of what they can expect to earn in micro-payment stock photography.

Joseph Pobereskin
Photographer
Director, ASMP Chicago/Midwest Chapter
Immediate Past President, ASMP New Jersey Chapter
Founder, Stock Artists Alliance

Done..... whew!

After three months of talking to myself and three days of mind-numbing, eye-straining, blindness-inducing, brain-busting html coding..... voilà: pobereskin.com v3.0 It's about time!

The major change was to make the portfolio images much, much larger; maintain constant navigation; maintain quick as a flash image loading; update all the internal links; eliminate the registration page (don't applaud all at once!); change the front page image and eliminate the membership badges. Now all that's left is some minor housekeeping to sweep up the bugs and enlarge all of the collection images and link them to my stock photo site..... it will all happen within the next week and by October 1st I will have it all 100% working.

If you're inclined to inspect and if you catch a bug, please shoot me an e-mail right away so I can fix it ASAP.

What's The Frequency, Dan?

The past few days we've seen cool mornings with a heavy fog here in Chicagoland and as I walked to the corner to get my Sunday NY Times yesterday I noticed that leaves were already dropping from some of the trees. In the land of endless winter, the fact that this was occurring a full week before the calendar officially turns to Autumn really didn't surprise me.

I remembered that a few years ago, still living in New York City, I'd wanted to make a trip to Vermont to catch the fall colors but, because of a busy schedule, I was unable to get away. Instead, I headed off to the Upper East Side to make pictures of rush hour traffic. Being that the color of rush hour on New York streets is predominantly yellow (taxis) and red (brake lights), I was inspired to scan and manipulate the image to imitate the fall colors I was missing by not taking the ride to Vermont. It turned-out to be a good idea for a city boy.
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Canon EOS-1N, 600/4.0 Canon Lens EF L Ultrasonic, Fujichrome Provia 100 film

Web 3.0 ...or, If You're Ever In Vancouver

The big buzzword about the Internet these days is Web 2.0... like that's really happening. Let me tell you something about the Internet: if they're talking about it in magazines and at lectures and forums it's already happened, it's over! Web 2.0? Nope, I'm here to tell you we're now at Web 3.0! Quick..... somebody put me on the lecture circuit before my expertise lapses.

Anyway, you all know me, you know I want to be where it's happening, I want to be on the cutting edge. Hey, I'm into all sorts of social media networks now: LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook and... something I started with a couple of months ago... flickr. I like flickr. flickr is cool, flickr is hip, flickr is where the younger ADs and editors are looking for pictures these days. Using flickr is so 3.0!

Well, I met the younger, cooler, hipper set. No, not ADs and editors... Thieves who think they're younger, cooler, hipper ADs and editors.

I've got to stop here for a moment and bring you up to speed on a new Internet business model. According to Mark Cuban in this week's issue of Newsweek (you know Cuban, don't you? Internet entrepreneur, owner of the Dallas Mavs and the HDNet cable network?), well Cuban thnks the only way to really make money on the internet is to stop what he calls aggregators from linking to your content. Cuban says you have to tightly control your content to keep others from monetizing your content (capitalizing on your work) so you can monetize your content.

So, back to my rant... just about the time I was reading Cuban's article in Newsweek my web site access log told me that someone had found my web site by searching a common misspelling of my name. I ran the search out of curiosity, to see what you get when you misspell my name, and guess what? There's a whole bunch of links to web sites illegally using my pictures and giving me a misspelled photo credit for the unauthorized use. Typically, the credit reads photo courtesy of poberskin.

I got a good laugh out of that because for a photo to be courtesy of, somebody has to have done the courtesy of asking me for permission. (or they could pay me)

My friend Eliot once told me to let them steal all they want, then I could sue them. The problem is that most of these people don't have any money to sue for, and the one that does is in Canada! How the hell am I going to bring a copyright infringement suit in freakin' Canada?? No, I just reset my permissions so that nobody can see, or link to, my pictures on flickr.com, I've gone dark.

I made the small frys take my pictures down, got the big fish in Canada to do the same. The Canadian magazine guys were such thieves that they were obviously stealing all their pictures from flickr pages, even the stuff in their print edition.... it all disappeared from the web, including the cover of the current issue of the magazine, Westworld. Well, if I can't sue them at least I can out them!

So, if you're ever in Vancouver and you're driving down the road and you see a car with a BCAA... British Columbia Automobile Association... sticker, flip 'em the bird for me!

Location, Location, Location... The Donald Sure Can Pick 'Em!

Trump Tower on the Chicago River
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Above: Canon EOS-5D, 15/2.8 Canon Fisheye Lens EF, ISO 100

September 11, 2009

Don't Tell Me..... Summer's Over Already?

I don't know what to make of the weather, I'm thinking it's all a cruel joke. The Chicago winter (when it snowed at least every other day from November to the end of March) seemed to last until July, then it warmed up just a bit. I used my air conditioning for only three days in August and, now, September 2nd feels like late October. So, what? Summer's over already?

One of the things I like best about summer is going to the farmer's market and buying fresh, organic produce. Is that ending now too?

I guess I got the last good carrots of the season at the Deerfield Farmer's Market last Saturday. It's going to be a long winter!

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Carrots: Canon EOS-5D, 28~105/3.5~4.5 Canon EF Ultrasonic lens, ISO 100