ASPP AGENCIES | PHOTOSHELTER
(www.photoshelter.com)

It's here! The latest fantastic PhotoShelter Guide, Pricing Your Work: Corporate and Industrial Photography.

Pricing Your Work: Corporate & Industrial Photography is the second in a series of guides with Wonderful Machine's CEO Bill Cramer packed with tips to help you create estimates and fee structures for your work, such as:

• Tips on what to charge for corporate and industrial shoots.
• How to find clients and get smart with contracts.
• Plus the main factors that influence the value of an assignment. 

Click here to download Pricing Your Work: Corporate and Industrial Photography, and here to like PhotoShelter on Facebook!  

© Xavier Forés / age FOTOSTOCK

ASMP & CEPIC Bring Together Photographers and Distributors

The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and the Coordination of European Picture Agencies Stock, Press and Heritage (CEPIC) will bring photographers and distributors form across the globe together at the CEPIC Congress 2013 in Barcelona next month. The Congress, which runs from June 11 - 14, has designated June 11th for its second annual "Photocentric Day," a day of inspiration and learning with the theme: How can the professional generate revenues in the digital world? Solution-oriented discussions will address the changing roles of content creators and distributors and examine the technological, cultural and legal factors affecting the creation, distribution and monetization of visual content today and in the future. 

ASMP Executive Director Eugene Mopsik notes, "Again this year, ASMP is pleased to sponsor and produce the Photocentric Day in cooperation with CEPIC. This is an important opportunity for image creators and distributors to discuss significant issues of mutual concern leading to a better and more profitable working relationship."

Christina Vaughan, President of CEPIC said, "After a very successful first Photocentric last year, our conviction lies deeper than ever that for our industry to thrive, we must be at the heart of learning, support, education and discussion for all professional photographers who want to understand and flourish in our creative Eco system. CEPIC looks forward to another inspirational day in partnership with ASMP."

The program will begin with a Keynote Presentation by award-winning photojournalist Benjamin Lowy, whose use of camera phones, social media and other new technologies are revolutionizing the genre. The day's schedule also includes:

• Regulating Free and Micro-Priced Licensing Models examining the legal and economic implications of legislating minimum price standards coordinated by the Union des Photographes Professionnels.
• Three "5 Minutes to Wow" presentations introducing ground-breaking technologies from Pixolution, EyeEm and the CEPIC Image Registry. 
• Focus on Professionalism addressing the influence of the camera phone and social sharing on the market for professional imagery.
• Premium High-End Photography examining how an investment in premium imagery, creators, placement and pricing will lead the new image revolution.
• Compensation and Attribution in the Digital World exploring legislative and technological solutions for ensuring fair compensation for rights-holders.

Regular admission is 150.- € excl. 21% VAT. Professional photographers may be eligible for a 30% discount bringing the cost of admission to 99.- € or 130- USD excl. 21% VAT. The complete schedule, speaker and pricing details can be found here. 

NEWS FROM NATIONAL

—Jain Lemos, ASPP Executive Director

The out-of-office auto responses are in full swing as many of our members have headed to Canada for Visual Connections in Toronto on Thursday, May 16. And they'll continue to arrive in our inboxes next month as the CEPIC Congress in Barcelona gets underway.

These face-to-face trade events are in demand again at last. As many of you know, ASPP has traditionally held a bi-annual Educational Conference. We started in Santa Fe in 2002, followed by Alexandria in 2004, San Francisco in 2006, Phoenix in 2008 and Boston in 2010. Last year, the Board opted for regional one-day events. This brings us to 2014. What do you want to do? Maybe it's time to come back to New Mexico!

As the Education Chair for the San Francisco conference, I can tell you that organizing these events is both challenging and rewarding. The good news is that some of the challenge is mitigated by the fact that we've done this enough times to have solid processes in place. There is plenty of support for the administrative side of things, too.

What I found most challenging was making decisions. If you're the decisive type then this is really going to be a breeze. It starts with location and then dates, venue, theme, topics, speakers, format and what to serve for breakfast, lunch and happy hour.

So won't you think about volunteering? Call me, maybe??

PRESIDENT'S CORNER

The early returns are in and the ASPP is ahead! I am referring to the member benefits survey we recently sent out to you. If you haven't responded yet, please take a moment to do so. As an incentive, once you complete it and provide an email address, you'll be entered into our contest to win a new Canon A3400 IS digital camera too. We'll provide a complete summary of the results once all of the responses are in and cover them both in the magazine and here.

In the interim, here's a snapshot of what we've learned so far. Most of you joined the ASPP for networking and educational opportunities as well as to support the organization and our activities. The member benefits that you find the most satisfying are product discounts (Apple, Adobe, PDN subscriptions, etc.) followed by discounts to events and conferences, particularly those sponsored by our "sister" organizations such as the ASMP, PACA and APA. The additional discounts you'd most like are on software and hardware, photo equipment, phone and shipping services and travel costs such as cars and hotels. This gives us good direction in where to seek new benefits for you.

Most of you are "very much" or "extremely" likely to recommend ASPP membership to a friend, colleague or client. We are delighted to hear that of course. We are thrilled that almost all of you love our magazine, a benefit that comes to your door four times a year. And, most importantly, you want more events for your chapter. Duly noted and stay tuned!

—Michael Masterson, ASPP National President, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , (213) 760-1176

ASPP MEMBERS | JIM PICKERELL 
(www.selling-stock.com)

Here is a recap of recent articles posted on Selling Stock. (There is a fee in the form of credits to read the full text of some stories. Some articles are free and most stories are 2 credits, but that varies depending on the story.)

Scoopshot Partners With Ebyline Scoopshot, the global crowdsourcing photo and video service has announced a global alliance with Ebyline, a company which helps media publishers, agencies and brands to collaborate with professional freelance journalists worldwide by providing workflow tools.

Selling Instagram Photos The Instagram community of 100 million users will have a new way to market their images with the August 2013 launch of InstaStockImages.  

Alamy Introduces New Contributor Forum Alamy has introduced a new forum for contributors as part of their continuous improvement strategy. Access the forum here. Following the website redesign in April, the new forum has a fresh interface, enhanced features and is encouraging positive engagement within its community of photographers.

Newscom Launches Pixation Images Newscom, the world's largest multi-agency library of digital images, has announced the launch of its sister company, Pixation Images. The focus of this new platform is to provide quality creative images designed for commercial use that clients need to sell their story.

Photographer Day Rates Survey Results The United Kingdom company Eposure has posted preliminary results of its Photographer Day Rates survey that was conducted online through its blog. Eposure is a company that "brings commercial photographers and businesses closer" and provides information and mentoring programs for photographers.

Compensation For Passive Image Use At the CEPIC Congress in Barcelona on Wednesday June 12th there will be a discussion on a new initiative that could generate significant new revenue for image creators whose images are "crowdsourced" and posted without authorization to various domains on the Internet. This story examines the "Winston Project," a system for collecting revenue for "Passive Image Use," when a user uploads an image created by someone else to a "crowdsourced" domain, or when a user clicks on an image or shares it within the domain.

ASPP AGENCIES | LEBRECHT
(www.lebrecht.co.uk)

Lebrecht Music & Arts announces two exciting acquisitions and a very special composer anniversary 

Richard Wagner Anniversary

The Richard Wagner bicentenary anniversary falls on May 22nd. To celebrate, Lebrecht has added more original stage sets from Wagner's famous operas, including Parsifal and Götterdämmerung, to their extensive collection. Lebrecht's website is home to the largest and most thorough choice of Wagner images.   

New Acquisition: Stereoscopic Opera

Doreen and Sidney Spellman have made available to Lebrecht Music & Arts their unique collection of stereoscopic images of Paris Opera productions from the 1860s. The scenes of popular Paris operas are in fact photographs of tiny clay models. These are quite remarkable and provide historic research material for all opera lovers. The images are duplicated so that when they are looked at through a Stereoscope they give a 3D effect. Click here to view these very special pictures.

New Acquisitions: American History

Lebrecht has recently uploaded a new collection of images of 19th and early 20th century America with fascinating pictures of Native Americans and Cowboys. Looking at this collection of old photographs and drawings, it seems that cowboys really did do all the things that we see in modern day Westerns! Click here to view a lightbox of this new material.
 

Zoomy Images Site Launches Featuring Enhanced Search Technology and Simple Pricing Structure

Zoomy Images LLC, an online image and audio provider for the creative industry, has launched its service at zoomyimages.com. The agency is a Los Angeles-based stock photo agency serving the creative market’s demand for stock imagery and audio files.

Zoomy offers high quality, affordable stock images designed specifically to meet the needs of the creative industry. Zoomy aims to save time and provide more accurate search results through its technology-enabled search software. Merging reverse image search with a face recognition technology that enables visually similar image results and high quality imagery, Zoomy Images delivers fewer but more relevant search results. Zoomy Images offers to cut the clutter and deliver results.

Commenting on the launch, founder Joey Separzadeh stated, "Zoomy Images offers users the benefit of the quality-versus-quantity equation, with refined search results driven by unique technology. Many of our competitors boast the sheer number of images available, while we focus on providing the right image within the first few pages of your search query. We believe our business is perfectly positioned to serve the creative industry with an easy to use platform and quality images at affordable prices. Our simple pricing structure contrasts the competitions misleading and gimmicky teaser prices, and the need to purchase credits that ultimately expire and have no value."

Zoomy Images launches with a robust library of images and audio files, a fully staffed office, and an in-house photography team shooting exclusive Zoomy content. The agency was founded in 2012 by entrepreneur Joey Separzadeh, Managing Partner of Optimal Investment Group and is staffed by tenured stock imagery professionals.

ASPP AGENCIES | PHOTOSHELTER
(www.photoshelter.com)

Great news! Photoshelter has released the latest in their wonderful free guide series, Creating a Successful Photography Portfolio, with tips from top photo consultants on how to build a better online portfolio and attract more clients. 

Topics include:

• 11 Secrets to Creating a Successful Online Photo Portfolio
• Attracting Your Dream Client with Your Portfolio
• Tailoring to Client Needs and Showcasing a Brand
• 5 Myths About Portfolio Reviews Debunked
• And more!

Download the guide here and enter to win a free Website Image Edit with top photography consultant Amanda Sosa Stone, courtesy of Agency Access. The winner will be announced on Wednesday, May 1, 2013. Click here to learn more!

ASPP MEMBER | UNIVERSAL IMAGES GROUP (George Sinclair)
(www.UniversalImagesGroup.com)

JMC Inc (formerly JTB Photo Communications) based in Tokyo, Japan and Universal Images Group Limited (UIG) headquartered in Chelmsford, England and Chicago, Illinois, USA have entered into an agreement in Tokyo on April 12th 2013 for UIG to manage the global distribution business of JMC in respect of the JTB Photo picture library and to handle all international representation. The digital library currently has 150,000 travel, travel related, cultural, cultural heritage and religious rights managed images online and which have been fully key worded in English and are provided as 50 MB tiff files.

JMC, one of 127 companies within the JTB Group, (which employs 27,000 people and has annual revenues of $12 Billion) is responsible for the creation of content and support services for the 175 JTB (Japan Travel Bureau) offices based in major cities around the world; and JTB which is the largest travel business in Japan. JTB Group also includes publishing, financial services and real estate businesses.

JMC and UIG will work together onsite in Tokyo to further edit the remaining 650,000 images in the picture library, plus editing 10,000 new images submitted on a monthly basis by JMC's 900 photographers, illustrators and artists.

"It was critical for us to focus on the web development, system & software, content & publications and business support services for the JTB's travel business," said Tsuguo Chihara, JMC Managing Officer and General Manager. "Given UIG's prior professional expertise in the management of distribution services and international licensing, including experience with other major content publishers like De Agostini, Encyclopaedia Britannica and Discovery Channel, and prior services for JTB Photo, it was important to transfer this responsibility to UIG." Both parties expect the transition to be complete within 60 days.

"We are highly delighted in this development as the JMC picture content represents the largest library of international travel rights managed imagery from Japan and is comparable to those that are available in the UK, USA and Australia that have also been created to provide valued content for the travel industry," said George Sinclair, Executive Director of UIG (and founder also of UIG's sister company, the Virtual Picture Desk). "As we continue to develop our online education business plus producing and sourcing content for the electronic publishing, info graphics, subscription services and mobile product markets, it is important to expand the range and depth of content."

UIG recently increased its content management facilities to include editors in Florence, Italy, and Sydney, Australia, and will add further offices later this year in addition to these and existing facilities in Chicago, New York and London. The number of licenses for new RM content through UIG's distribution network increased by 198% in 2012 over 2011 and is expected to increase by a further 65% in 2013. UIG has added further content from Asia including content from Japan and Korea and will announce the release of these and other Collections during the CEPIC Congress in Barcelona.

ASPP MEMBERS | JIM PICKERELL 
(www.selling-stock.com)

Here is a recap of recent articles posted on Selling Stock. (There is a fee in the form of credits to read the full text of some stories. Some articles are free and most stories are 2 credits, but that varies depending on the story.)

Surprise: Images Are Cheaper In London Than India, But Not Beijing Last week we asked the question "Where is the best place to license images?" if the image is available in the Getty Images collection. We thought India might be the cheapest source, but we found some surprising cheaper alternatives.

Shutterstock Launches Offset: Opportunity For RM Photogs Shutterstock has announced plans to launch Offset, a new RF offering of premium, high-end stock photos and illustrations. Currently the curated collection is in private beta. A public launch will follow later this year.  

The Stock Business: View From A Stock Agency Photo Editor There was a time when one of the keys to being a successful stock photographer was to develop a strong working relationship with a top photo editor at one of the major stock agencies. That period has passed. Rolf Sjogren who managed a high-level team of art directors, photo editors, producers and retouchers for Getty Images from 2001 through 2008 explains what happened and gives us a picture editor's perspective on how the stock photo industry has changed in the last 20 or so years. 

Bruce Livingstone Launches Stocksy Bruce Livingstone founder of iStockphoto has launched Stocksy.com. Stocksy has been designed as a co-op and pays photographers a 50% royalty on each sale. At the end of the year, the company divides 90% of its profits equally among contributors and other shareholders. 

Social Sites Strip Photographer Metadata The International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) has released a new study into the use of images by social media websites. Among those that remove photographer metadata from the images they host are Facebook, Flickr and Twitter. 

Depositphotos Launches Clashot: Mobile Application Depositphotos has created Clashot.com, a platform that allows image creators using mobile devices to share their images and potentially earn revenue from some of them.