Talk about a cool tear-sheet… Kohls (a United States based clothing department store chain) used an ArenaCreative.com stock photo in a commercial featuring Jennifer Lopez’s clothing line! What an honor, and a surprise. At 00:03 during the above video, you can see the stock photo of the NYC Uptown / Bronx subway sign that I shot one day while in the city.
J-Lo is really popular again and in the limelight right now; coming off the whirlwind of being an American Idol judge, having the biggest hit single of her life (On the Floor, featuring Pitbull) and recently being in all of the tabloids regarding her recent split with husband and Latin singer/actor Marc Anthony. He also has a new clothing line at Kohl’s now, as well. I had seen this JLO commercial a few times before, but hadn’t paid much attention to it. As I sat there staring at the TV, realizing that was on of “my babies” on national television, I flipped out. In this business, we never really know where our images are going to end up. When we stumble upon them, and see them being used in real life applications, it makes up extra glad we were a part of it.Good old “Jenny from the Block”. At ArenaCreative.com we are proud to be a part of effective marketing and advertising materials, and want to thank the advertising department at Kohl’s for using one of our images. To learn more about us and other large corporations that have used our royalty-free stock images, click here.
As a stock photographer, you sometimes end up modeling in your own photos. You still have a responsibility to try and make sure that you don’t make an asinine idiot out of yourself, but unfortunately this sometimes still happens. Even worse, you could potentially make an idiot out of the people or models in your photos, depending on what you’re shooting. Thankfully this time, the dork was just me.
Following up on this previous post (a discovery of how the company Gigabyte computers used my stock image of me with my finger up my nose in an ad campaign for dockable laptop PCs) here are a few more discoveries from that ad campaign that I wanted to share.
It’s always fun finding my images in use One of the delights of the stock business. It never gets old. Back when I was mainly doing graphic design work, laying out ads and editorial spreads, I had a little bit of control over which images I used. Now, I’m on the other end of the spectrum. I sell hundreds of microstock images daily, and never know if they are simply laying around on a designer’s hard drive, or actually being used in marketing materials. Once in a blue moon you will get a nice person that emails you and says, “hey check this out, I used your image in this ____”. That rarely happens, though. This advertisement, below, was spotted on the Metro North train by the model herself. Thanks to her, I got to see this cell phone pic. Model Ellisse was used here in a montage of surprised faces for this poster by Mohegan Sun Casino located in Uncasville, Connecticut. I also noticed another photo belonging to my buddy Jason Stitt (keeweeboy) in the top row, fourth image.
The original photo is found here:
See how shooting a variety of different expressions and poses during a photoshoot can be useful in marketing? Whenever I work with new models I always explain to them that because we are shooting for stock, their images will be in use and in action in a variety of different places, if they are in fact sold. The thing is, you never know where they might appear. We just have to keep our eyes open, and eventually they will show up somewhere. I’m not sure how doubtful or sure they are that this will happen, but so far the majority of the models that I’ve worked with have been pleasantly surprised to find their photos in use for some incredible tear sheets to add to their modeling portfolios.
This is the perfect example of why you should never sell a stock image where you’re doing anything embarrassing. Here I am, digging for gold (picking my nose), featured at a busy international tradeshow blown up at poster size. Yeah, my mother would be proud.
Gigabyte, a Taiwan based computer company, used myself as well as a few others in an ad campaign geared towards their dockable notebooks. The point was supposed to be that it gets better once you “stick it in” to its dock. I can’t say that I think it’s the best marketing concept, but I definitely got a huge laugh out of it
When you post an image up for sale that you don’t think will be used, chances are… someone just might find a way!
I still think I had the best technique in the series
I later found out from another person that the same ad of me picking my nose was plastered on a huge billboard, on the side of a building in Taipei. Wow, my shining 15 minutes of fame, glory and honor! My parents always knew I’d grow up to amount to something special hahahahahaha!
That’s a question a lot of stock photographers and illustrators ask themselves. People ask me how my images get used, and I usually just say, “in advertising and marketing materials”, just to keep myself from babbling and boring them with a long story (like I’m known to do with my flapping jabber jaw). It’s even tough to explain to a normal person what a graphic designer does, and somehow people still end up thinking its CAD or something totally unrelated like that.
Anyways, back when I was a traditional graphic designer, I would horde as many stock images as I could whenever I had a stock photo subscription somewhere such as Photos.com or Shutterstock. That way, anything I had a feeling I might be able to use in the future I would be able to save on my hard drive and then use at a later date. This is something that happens a lot; so basically if you sell stock images, a lot of them are probably laying dormant somewhere on an image buyer’s hard drive. When you have a design position you begin to get a feel for which image themes and what type of imagery you go through the most, and obviously you can’t keep on using the same pics over and over again (unless you want to be a boring designer). I worked at a company that went through tons of sports, fitness, and medical related images in the custom magazines we produced for our clients. I honestly think at least half of my image sales aren’t ever even used – but who knows?
How can you find some of the images you sell in use? Go to amazon and search for your name or username/that you go by on the micros. Also try google book search in addition to plain old google. Lots of books online even have previews, and sure enough you will find your name credited in at least a couple if some of your images were used. Here are some recent finds my wife and I discovered.
Our beagle is pretty famous (he earns his Pedigree dog food, that’s for sure). Try searching for your own images if you haven’t already, and start a collection of tear sheets. You will only find a small random percentage of images actually in use, because obviously not everyone will credit your name in searchable text in each instance of use. If you don’t sell stock, but you do buy it – make a microstocker’s day by emailing them a link, or dropping them an email about how you were able to use their image! It only takes a minute, and you will no doubt put a huge smile on their face
One of the delights of the stock business. It never gets old. Back when I was mainly doing graphic design work, laying out ads and editorial spreads, I had a little bit of control over which images I used. Now, I’m on the other end of the spectrum. I sell hundreds of microstock images daily, and never know if they are simply laying around on a designer’s hard drive, or actually being used in marketing materials. Once in a blue moon you will get a nice person that emails you and says, “hey check this out, I used your image in this ____”. That rarely happens, though. This advertisement, below, was spotted on the Metro North train by the model herself. Thanks to her, I got to see this cell phone pic. Model Ellisse was used here in a montage of surprised faces for this poster by 
