August 20, 2021

Cheap Images

Lets face it photography as we know it is done. It isn’t the competition that did me in for I enjoyed the challenge of bringing something back to my photo agency they could sell, it is the billions of images made each day and the photo agencies selling those images dirt cheap.

As with all supermarket products volume sales is the key to success and now that is the new wave of mega photo agencies that will screw the photographers out of their hard earned efforts in creating a great image by selling the image for pennies on the dollar to anyone and everyone.

Who gets rich, well of course the people working for the photo agency see a glimmer of profit by working for these multi-million-heirs that own a share of the profits off the backs of the image creator.

This beautiful mother earth, the bright skies, the cumulus clouds dancing around in a blue sky but now we have image overload, too much of one subject after another where is the innovation, the unique viewpoint that can give the viewer a sense of the photographers motive for stopping and setting up his tripod and camera to wait for the potential light to burst through and illuminate the landscape before him.

Images are so cheap because of digital cameras mostly taking the pictures for you, there is no depth to image making now for in the past creating images was first, studying your subject and then plan the visual details that will enhance the possibilities of you creating a landscape you will be proud to photograph.

But in todays modern frivolous desires to take images not for the beauty before the photographer but for the fast paste run and gun approach, for time is precious nowadays demanding people don’t stahl around and study your subject but breeze by like a dancing fly snapping pics without depth and certainly not a reflection of your inner unique perspective.

And because of this, taking pictures are as easy as talking on a phone. Oh yeah, that is where must snap shots are taken anyway from your phone and then from your automatic hand held camera.

Photography used to be a job that allowed you to slow down your life and focus on your inner ideas that could be expressed if you would just study the landscape you are hiking through without feeling you should be somewhere else. The here and now is where all good photographers should be. Life is distracting enough with the covid pandemic but as image creators we must still be present in our own unique reality seeking subjects that inspire us and make us push on to find the composition that will enhance our visual senses and the viewers of our hard earned work.

There is an over saturation of images and because of this the prices are dropping to compete with other mega agencies while the photographers get shafted for their hard earned efforts.

And now with the advent of stock agencies giving their images away for free, how is a photographer going to survive in this constant lowering of prices and the ease of surface gleam photos without character supplying every continent on this polluted world with cheap pics.

To make a living in photography nowadays is almost impossible, what once was a competitive market place with dozens of good photo agencies competing to sell their stable of photographers great imagery, has been reduced to four giants of low cost image volume sales. These corporate agencies pay their photographers almost nothing, how does anyone make a living when your images are sold on the cheap.

The new wave of photographers get their egos stroked just by the agency selling his/her image at bulk pricing along with thousands of other photographer's work.

In todays climate of greed, the corporate investors demand a good return on their investment and this undermines the income of the photographers once again as their percent of the sale dwindles to almost nothing.

Since everyone takes pictures and can sell them why go out looking for images if you work for a company.

You can take the images yourself and the company can pay you on the cheap and save themselves a bundle of money. 

It is not empathy, a connection to the scene in front of the photographer that he will study to make the best image possible, oh no, this employee needs to move on quickly keep racing around just to get a few pics that will be just good enough because this employee has a big date tonight and he isn’t going to miss that for some stupid image of a tin can.

And this attitude grows amongst the younger generation, it is basically to get somewhere and just get the pics and send them directly to their photo agency and their job is done without breaking a sweat.  

Without fully grasping the beauty of the scenes before you, you ignored the possibilities starring you in your closed eyes, oh no! you have to hurry through the city landscape snapping pics at anything that moves losing sight of your inner voice screaming at you to slow down and think the photograph through without letting go of your personal artistic vision!

There seems to be no depth to image creation in today's lackadaisical need for the photographer to be seen as the one with an importance vision with blinder on and not the external world one could study for ever and not fully connect withfully mother nature and her beauty now being demolished by greed from the wealthy crooks of me first and you last.

 

 

August 15, 2021

 

Photography Blog Notes

 

In the spur of the moment a potential image forms in your mind, what a blessing, and it can’t be resisted, you see the potential light getting better and you must act immediately for this beauty is greater than your original intuition, you always have to be prepared to move, anticipate a more startling beauty in mother nature and switch gears from your original focused attention to your new subject lighting up like a christmas tree.

 

The excitement of pushing down on the shutter, your creation captured for we are hunters not looking for an animal to kill but looking for those moments that bring you closer to your own revelations of life and your purpose. 

 

Once an image had been taken we used to worry about our exposure, light, composition, lens used, shutter speed, etc…

 

There was always a nervous energy dropping off your film to a lab and waiting a few hours to pick up your film.

 

It was exciting to open the film box and begin to lay your images on the light table. This was the moment of truth and you had no one else to blame for color, details and exposure but yourself. Sometimes you missed the mark but the majority of the time you hit a home run!

 

Fast forward, now a click and you can see your image make exposure changes, shutter speed changes, filter changes and you are ready to make another image now with the right exposure.

 

In the past as one got better and better dealing with the cameras controls one relied on instinct, your experiences in the past made you a better photographer and once you past the test of knowing your light then it was just a matter of composition and timing.

 

Vision is just being aware of surroundings and what your intuition is saying to you. To be a good photographer you must have patience and a desire to be part of mother nature, immersing yourself in the landscape seeking that one and only image creation that will make your journey worthwhile.

 

But now there is a laziness to image taking. Partly because it seems that everything has already been photographed but in reality it isn’t the over abundance of look alike images that is the culprit it is whether you have a unique perspective that changes a simple image into a great image.

 

Because of digital cameras everything is fast paced, the ease in which one can allow the camera to correct exposure, shutter and then take the photo for you. 

 

A good question would be to ask why does the camera need a photographer. Drones are beginning to fill that bill.

 

Now so easy, so fast, so false, without a subject that you can connect with you will not be able to bring to life a stagnant landscape. Just having a camera does

not mean that you won’t have to think and be present in your vision, looking over your potential subject as if it was a friend.

 

Composition is the framework of a great image. If you don’t dig deeper into the subject before you find the flaws and the angles that will maximize the beauty in the scene whether it is still life, a portrait or landscape.

 

We all can shoot the exterior of places, people and things but without connecting visually with your subject you are just going through the motions.

 

What we see, what we feel can be a mind game, the truth is just being present with an open vision in your reality you will create, your thoughts move the external into your visual existence allowing you an original version of the scene in front of you.

 

Timing is everything when you are photographing, being there in the beauty of nature whether it is fog, rain, sun, lightning, snow you name it being present anticipating the composition of the image forming in your mind because you are intensely aware of your surroundings and are there to make great images.

 

First you must travel to parts of this beautiful country that have the potential to allow you to be creative in your composition and exposure by finding unique subjects through openness and respect of mother earth.

 

Mother nature is your friend and enemy. If you go with a preconceived notion of how and where you want to make an image you will more times than not miss the intuitive image trying to speak to your narrow vision.

 

You must open your heart to nature, open your mind, open your unique talent, by waiting for those moments of intense beauty by exploring your landscape, your details formulating into a composition of beauty. 

 

Your inner openness to allow the subject to dictate to you where the best light is, what lens to use, open your mind and allow the external reality to support your efforts as you set up your tripod and with patience marvel at the scene before you and her beauty as you press the shutter and know that the image taken was worth the time to just be present within the beauty of landscape, you are intensely aware of respecting the beauty of the scene given to you with great light and you will leave with no deliberate destruction of mother earth.

 

 

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.

 

June 24, 2021

The End Of Stock Photography Revisited

Photography was once a wonderful job where you had the freedom to travel and photograph people, cultures, landscapes, still life, mother nature, abstract subjects, food, clouds and everything under the sun.

And through photography the image creators experienced the world first hand, the good, the bad and the ugly. There was respect for the photographer and the photographs created imagery.

Back in the old days film was the golden egg and you had to make images through your inner perception of light and composition, bracketing images under harsh lighting situations. You really had to be careful with your exposures making sure you kept the highlights and shadow details.  Photography was a career, the best career you will every have. You were paid well for the images you made.

In the beginning of stock images photographers were welcomed to send their images to the photo agencies or drop them off in person if they happened to live in the same city as their agency. Back in the 80’s these new breed of agencies split the sales 50/50 and then had photographer meetings where the editors gave the photographers insight on trends, subjects that were becoming popular. These new breed of photo agencies respected the images that all their photographers created. They wanted originality in their photographer’s creations that would sell for a high price.

They respected you and you respected them. But the whole stock photo business slowly became a tidal wave of new and inexperienced photographers giving their images away for peanuts.  

They were conned into believing that a new means to sell your hard earned work was being developed and your images would be put on a disk and sold to companies that needed original subjects to sell their products with, this became the new means of exploiting photographers hard earned photo creations and was called Royalty Free images.

This would be the virus that would eventually undermine a photographers ability to earn a decent living wage through the making of images with meaning and purpose.

And once digital cameras became the leader of making content, film was abandoned and creating photos became taking photos and millions and millions… of eager photographers began blitzing agencies with imagery that was just good enough to be submitted and accepted and as image volume increased and the payment for the efforts of these young men and women photographers slowly over time was reduced. Instead of a 50/50 split it became 60/40 then 70/30 and now it is 80/20 and because of the competition between getty, shutter stock, alamy and adobe, images are given away for free or pennies on the dollars.

The photographers were and are being scammed for their hard earned efforts and volume sales, no matter how small adds up to profit for the investors and the owners of the agencies.

You can’t make a living earning almost nothing and expect to survive in this greedy arena of powerful wealth that is addicted to the exploitation of photographers.  

When you look back at the old days of photography it was based around film, and film was expensive so there wasn’t as many photographers seeking fame and fortune. But digital cameras changed all of that and made everyone a photographer with no need to think and compose your subject by listening to your inner intuition giving you the details needed to make a great image.

Images are a commodity and they are sold cheap because volume in the stock photo industry is the nectar of honey bees moving money up the ladder into the pockets of owners that couldn’t make a decent image if they tried.

A photographer in today’s climate of selfish greed loses his ability to make a decent living doing the only thing that makes him feel part of the world culture.

They give their life to create photographs with purpose, putting their welfare at risk, their determined effort to show the world what is actually happening in all countries across the globe run by dictators, oligarchs that see only a cash cow to be exploited at the expense of the people. These criminals don’t care
who gets hurt as long as they get their fare share of
the loot.

In the past photography was about slowing time down, allowing your inner vision to really see the landscape in front of you and not to ignore the subtleties that were forming that would enhance your image creation.

Nowadays it is a quick click and you're moving on approach to image taking.

When you look deeper into time well spent, when you are really present in the compositional flow with your senses, feeling the connection with the subjects illuminating presence forcing you to dig deeper in the exploration of your own inner mind and the external reality shifting to accept your inner vision, now you are becoming a real photographer.

Reality becomes an illusion if you seek images through shallow constructs that will not inspire anyone looking at your images.

It is easy to create a superficial photo which leads to
mediocrity, a false expression of your true inner abilities.

It is what you bring to the scene before you that will make or brake the illusive vision that is dying to be revealed.

Photography is still a beautiful way to express yourself. Don’t think about the money but your own immersion into the external world full of subjects that need your visual expertise to show others who you are and what is truly happening in this corrupt world of the wealthy oligarchs.

 May 26, 2021

Photography Blog

Photography once upon a time had depth and purpose exposing the hell people lived in all over this world. These photographers risked their lives to photograph history and to try and change the corruption of governments including ours that tentacles all over the world.   

There are still photographer working at news agencies that try and give the people the truth but now most people get their news from talking heads and web sites that promote violence under the mask of freedom for the people but the people they are referring to are not colored but white and their propaganda is a lethal weapon spurring violence and death around the world.

Everything in its place, nature and man intertwined in the beauty of existence. If you think you can create the perfect photograph think again. Perfection is an illusion of your ego.

The challenge today in photography is fighting conformity, the redundant image seen thousands of times over and over again, a cliche of our shallow existence as social media dulls the inspired brain and seeks conformity of thought.

Photography is undermined by the ease in which anyone can take a photo and upload it for free to the stock agencies.

What use to be a good living creating images now is just chump change as the stock agencies get more wealthy off the backs of the newbies of photography.

A photographers independence, his shooting style is not scene in the news media, the public eye but now seen only in a family album.

What we have in today’s manipulated society is an attempt to exploit subjects without connecting on a deeper level with the person or scene in front of you.

If you had a dream of becoming a professional photographer better think again.

The saturation of images being produced has reduced prices and the ability of photographers to succeed in this crazy world of stock photography.

With their scam of greedy motivation for power and money the corporations make sure that the image creators can’t make a living doing something they love for there is no viable way one can survive when images are sold for pennies.

Could you ever believe that the photo stock agencies would be reduced to a handful of monopolies undermining the photographers ability to make a decent wage for their efforts by reducing his income, lowering the split of sales now at 80% for the agencies and 20% for the photographers and surely that will also go down as more and more people seek a means to stimulate their egos not realizing they are being scammed by the agencies to do their work for them and allow them to keep all or most of the profits from your hard earned efforts.

It seems we are back once again in the days of criminal wealth that converted into a legitimate business but still seeks a pay scale that gives them the power and the image creator a wage below a sustainable income.

The impact of cell phone cameras and the ease of programing your camera to do the work for you creates a massive amount of images that undermine the artists ability to make a decent wage for his/her family.

Photography is moving toward a technological break through whereby the corporations won’t need us photographers much anymore because all images in future publications will be digitally created, looking as real as any other photograph now being created.

Now that would undermine any possibility of making a decent living in photography especially for studio photographers. Lets face it, our reality is breaking apart and we are being replaced with tech savvy people that can create people on a computer.

Technology is convenience, you don’t have to think but have someone else do the thinking for you.

It used to be a way of life for a photographer. A means to express oneself and being paid well for doing it.

Photography is more of a hobby now and your financial return on the images you create by uploading them to the goliaths of stock photography won’t buy you a home or feed your family. You will have to work at two maybe three jobs to make a living in this world! But it certainly won’t be in the artistic realm of image creations.

There is no way you can make a living by submitting your images to photo agencies now in this overloaded spectacle of the old run and gun approach to taking photos. There are billions of images taken daily and very few have a depth of character that creates a meaningful purpose allowing people to see and feel the underlining reality that is hidden from us by the criminal elites that spew nonsense and contorted truths to sidetrack people in believing life is good and all can make a name for themselves. Yes, on the unemployment line.

But if you are one of the few super stars of stock imagery, producing model released photos of the current fads in marketing then you could make a comfortable living. But you have to remember you can easily be replaced by photographers with a good visual sense that could make the same quality images on the cheap just to get exposure.

And don’t forget your time as a photographer is wearing down to a crawl and finally a stillness in the air as one still makes images not for the agencies but only for themselves.
 
Photography is an addiction where you have no choice but to make your individual life a series of unique images that express who you are.

What a wasteland of talent being pushed aside by corporations unwilling to pay these talented photographers what they are worth.

The take over of photography by corporations is a means of media control, if you look closely at what getty wants for their clients it is poser rock, happy faces and people eating, people sitting together, eating together, hugging, laughing living the good life and where is this good life they speak of I guess because of the corporate profits they make off the backs of photographers doing the dirty work as they vacation on the islands they own but they are moving away from islands and buying land that is safer than having to board a noah’s ark to escape the big floods.

This is a media scam, a conditioning of the population in believing that life is good and we are all happy and feeling good instead of the truth that this world is deteriorating into a man made free for all that pits the elites of criminal behavior and wealth over peoples rights to be free and not mind controlled by the manipulators of ads, making people believe they too can live the high life, bullshit there true purpose is to placate the people making them think that they are living the good life when they live in a massive climate change and vicious storms all created by the polluted air we breath by the corporate criminals, their profits destroying this planet.

I will always keep making images no matter how old I get and I will select my favorite images to give to my daughters and put them in a book so they can see my efforts of image creation before I pass on.