July 25, 2021

Photography Was Once A Wonderful Job

Instead of photography being a means to sell your hard earned unique imagery, your vision of seeing your photos in magazines, ads, travel magazines etc, and receiving fair payment for your hard work, you now send your images to one of the mega agencies, who then sell your images as Royalty Free photographs for they have eliminated Rights Managed imagery as a viable product.

With Rights Managed your image was protected by the contract the magazine, news paper, businesses etc, signed.

RM is too complicated compared to royally free where they have created a automated system, tiers of pricing and the costumer just has to choose his poison and then enter his credit card.

All image creation now is not considered art but a product to be sold in volume just like lettuce, wine or beer.

Rights Managed imagery is too costly to sell and monitor a photographer's sale and protect the image from being exploited for other purposes.

So why not just give the photographers income a lower percentage rate of the take and just sell RF imagery.

And that is the new way forward where the agencies sells images in volume and then gives the image creator next to nothing for his hard won image.

Rights managed has been put on the dusty antique shelf to be looked at but never bought! For the only way to make any money at stock photography now is by allowing buyers supreme control, dictating to the agency what they are willing to pay for an image that used to sell for hundreds, thousands of dollars but now sold in volume giving the photographer pennies on the dollar. Oh don’t worry about the mega agency for they are making big profits on volume sales giving the photographer his $1 sale sinking the artist further into muddy waters of poverty!

Frustration having to join a mega agency that could care less about your background as a photographer for you are paid just like the rest of the run and gun photographers with their sell phones clicking away for there is no time to wait and set up your tripod and compose a unique display of mother nature, these new breed of photogs get a kick out of seeing their images in print and who cares about the money.

Selling your images used to be managed by your photo agency. Now your images are sold by technology. Check a box on the mega site, a multitude of prices will come up, you say yea or nay and the images is sold or not.

The mega agencies now take 80% of the sale and you get 20% of the sale.

I am sure as we move through the upcoming years that will change also. For these wealthy money men and women don’t want the slightest amount of income to go anywhere but in their own back pockets.

Being a photographer for over 40 years I have seen the gambit of good times and bad times. And now there is no other way to describe the pricing structure of images created by the photographer as steering their hard fought creation of images to be sold for pennies on the dollar while the wealthy owners and investors rake in the millions of dollars a month while the photographers starve and shop at Value Village.

Now photography is just another means of profit for the wealthy while the image creators end up scrounging for a living wage. What we have here is an illusion of business, a facade of caring about their photographers but really photographers nowadays are just used and discarded like dirty rags. It is an illusion that these wealthy investors care about the artist, what they demand is a return on their investments from this particular mega agency. They could care less about the measly income of the photographers that make them big time profits through volume sales. They should be thankful their images were accepted in the first place.

This is just like any other business controlled by the wealthy, they don’t care how much these worker ants have to do to capture these magnificent
landscapes and what they had to endure to get the classic image, all they want to know is how much they will make off the backs of these artists!

These men and women should be thanking them, the editors of these mega mouthed symbols of greed for accepting images from snap shooters, phone shooters and camera shooters and the funny thing is that the industry has made photography a simple product to be advertised and sold cheap as if the buyers were watching wall street and saw the cost of a product hitting rock bottom.

When you have excess of a product, photographs, you have two choices lower prices or create packaged deals with news organizations, magazines, sports, medical industry, trade etc.. And this will bring in more income for the photo stock owners, for volume sales will lower the percent the photographer receives.

The new economy of trying to sell your image creation has changed the atmosphere of making images. But this should not stop anyone from making images for personal use, assignment use or agency use.

Pick a subject any subject and begin to study and explore the scene or object to see if this would be worth while to make an image of.

You must create your unique perspective in image creation by making images every day and night.

You have to start somewhere whether it is big or small baby steps. Get up early and get going. Explore your small town seeking imagery that inspires, motivates you to want to make more and more images that are calling you to become a photographer.  

Exploration of a scene is your highway to seeing life in a different way, a more respectful way and with more interest in your reality you want to create.

Photography is power over matter. The ability to stop time, freeze a subject in a scene that will remain still forever.  It has a godlike quality which is the attraction to photography for most people.

The few see photography as a means to express themselves through a visual medium that can change the reality we live in. War photographers are willing to get right into the battle field making images of the terror of violence and the corruption of nations.

We used to rely on our memory to keep the picture in focus but eventually the subject fades and you have lost an important visualization of a family member or friend.

Now with a click of the shutter you have captured the infinity of motion into a 1/4 of a second by pressing a button on your camera at the right moment. These still lives are a good way to study the end result and to understand the elements that were present that made you stop and look and then bond with your subject that made you want to make the photograph. 

By studying the image you will see the flaws of composition and the exposure too dark but this is just what you need to grow and become a better image creator.

 July 7, 2021

Good photographers spend their whole lives making images through their own unique, personal vision receiving the attention of others that admire their hard work.

These photographers are focused individuals that invest their time and efforts in traveling and making pictures of the world.

Photography once gave the image creator a great income, a 50/50 split with your photo agency. The owners of the agency respected their photographers and the efforts they went through to capture the perfect lighting and composition of their chosen subject. And they paid the photographers their fare share.

The agency demanded a decent price for each image submitted and made sure that the companies paid on time. All the image creators had to do was travel and make iconic imagery. Believe me when I say it was the best of times making lifelong friendships with your fellow stock shooters, learning about their techniques in creating beautiful images and enjoying stories of their travels and mishaps.It was really a feeling of family and our photo agency made it so.

In this new era of photography where everyone is a photographer and images are a dime a dozen it is very hard to make a living from something you love to do.

Photography was once assignments, until editors realized the bursting need for all sorts of unique individual imagery.

But if we jump to todays photographer I am amazed that anyone of them could make a decent living shooting something they enjoy.

Once upon a time when you were out traveling, most of the time alone, you were energized to seek out the best landscape, people, city images both in morning light and sunset light.

Your ability to sense a possible classic image in the scenes before you allowed you to slow down and use your intuitive perceptions to find the time of day to be present with your camera.

The freedom you experienced seeking your personal image revelations made you more aware of mother nature and people.

Now everything is shot with an I-Phone and the overwhelming amount of subject being taken literally damages the photographers ability to be noticed.

The unbelievable saturation of all subjects limits the photographers ability to compete especially if he is asking a decent price for his efforts.

Photography now has been reduced to a run and gun formula of snap, snap, snap hoping one of the images will expose a decent light on the subject easily forgotten.

If a photographer has the guts to stop and take in the beauty of mother earth, I mean really see your subject before you that has the potential to give you a reward for hiking up a steep mountain trail then you shouldn’t worry about whether your image creation will be noticed by the Royalty Free agency just be yourself and do what you love to do!

When I begin to feel natures real presence, a scene beginning to shape my visual senses that are present, aware of a subject beginning to evolve before me, angles begin to build a sensory purpose trying to move me closer or further away, patterns beginning to mold a landscape that has depth and beauty if you don’t turn away in these anxious moments of awareness, you feel your need to begin building a scene placing necessary objects and light into your vision of your final image creation. And by taking your time to really see the landscape before you, you decide to stay where you are for the potential subject is just starting to be revealed and you begin to see with open eyes. 

When we ignore the distractions in us and around us and focus our energy to grasp the essence of the scene presented and control your wondering eye that wants to move on trying to keep pace with your inner clock that sets time limits at work and now wants to limit your freedom in a valley of magnificent beauty just waiting before you to be revealed if you look hard enough.

Listen to your intuitive perception that is seeking beauty in the reality we live in, one of confusion, one of a disruptive force of greedy wars that exploit the citizens of the world for profits over human beings.

When you are in tune with your environment you can shed the politics of lies, shed your inner desire to move on beyond the landscape demanding your attention.

Where is your steady need to express your inner self through creating images that reflect your own personal vision?

The subjects are there right in front of you if you can just pause from this hectic pace of monied interest and just be precent before nature’s beauty.

The more images you make the more your visual senses will rev up your photographic eye. Do not allow yourself to be taken over by the imposition of time.

The feeling that you must move on, keep moving without a purpose. You have the talent to make good images. You must accept the fact that not all your images will be great but they will lead you further down the path of knowledge and through experience you will see your subjects on a personal level with details adding to the brilliance of your creations.

Image creation is studying your objective and using your unique inner perspective to compose your photograph with details that enhance the image but also reveal your unique inner talent.