Narrative

Many of the most memorable travel photos tell a story, or at least suggest one to the viewer. Take this into consideration when deciding which elements to place at the centre – and indeed the edges – of your photo. The key here is to force the viewer to get involved in interpreting the picture. Make them ask questions. ‘Where are they going?’, for example, or ‘What is that used for?’

This may be achieved simply through showing activities or objects likely to be unfamiliar to the viewer, or by including elements of uncertainty, contradiction or incongruity. For example, draw attention to a detail that looks out of place, an ambiguous facial expression or gesture, or use a partially obscured perspective.

People

Some of the most evocative travel shots are actually portraits – capturing places through faces, so to speak. Obviously there are any number of ways to take a portrait shot, but if your aim is to capture the spirit of a place, consider how you’re going to achieve that. Perhaps the person is engaged in an activity or showing a gesture or facial expression that conveys something about the local lifestyle.

One advantage of portraits is the potential to immediately engage the viewer with the image, particularly by focusing on the eyes through use of positioning, camera angle and lighting. In turn, the direction of the subject’s gaze or gesture can be a useful tool in directing attention to a particular detail or more generally into the rest of the scene.

If photographing people, you obviously have the choice of deliberately arranging, or simply capturing things as they occur naturally. Either can be powerful. Capturing people deliberately gazing head-on at the camera, for example, can be a fantastic way to engage the viewer, bringing them literally face to face with the subject.

Another tip here is to look out for visual echoes – recurrences of color and shape that strengthen the connection between the person and their surroundings. For example, a gesture may echo the shape formed by part of the landscape, or a piece of clothing echo the natural coloring.

Light

You don’t need any people or even a story if you have amazing lighting. Generally speaking the best time to shoot is either early morning or late afternoon. Those are usually the times of day when the light is softer, still providing enough warmth to bring out the richness of colours without being overly aggressive, and also generating shadows which provide contrast and depth. In urban areas, dusk can also be a good time, due to the combination of natural and artificial lighting.

Space

The range of an image can have a big impact on the effect or mood it creates. Think about what kind of feeling you want to convey about the place, and experiment with different ranges and perspectives to see how this is best captured. Think about where to position your viewer in relation to the image – surveying from above and beyond, or right in the thick of things?

In the simplest expression of this, a calm and peaceful place may be best captured in a wide-range landscape, while a chaotic, bewildering place may be better conveyed through a narrower, more limited vision – suggesting the whole through the parts.

Final words

Most photographers will tell you the single most important thing you can do is experiment. Try out new effects, exposures and angles. When you find a subject that interests you, shoot it in as many ways as you can. Look at the shots, decide which ones work and which don’t, and try to put your finger on the reasons for this – was it the lighting, composition, or maybe something about the colors? The more you do this, the more you’ll develop an eye for those perfect shots.

The above stock images are all available for royalty-free and editorial licensing at http://arenacreative.com There are many more to choose from, to be sure to search for keywords “new york” the next time you browse the collection.

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.

For example… I’m a full time stock photographer.  Still, people are always asking me to shoot events or weddings.  Then I have to explain to them that I only shoot commercial stock photography.  Then they look at me funny, like they still don’t get it.  You know… the types of generic images that you see in newspapers, billboards, advertisements, and on websites. They soon after usually respond with, “but you could do it… right?”; then I have to make another excuse why I can’t, or why I don’t want to, or even have to.  “I don’t have the right equipment for that type of work”, or “No thanks, I don’t want to work nights or weekends.”  I’m being honest.  I don’t even own an on-camera speedlight flash.  What do I need that for?  I use studio strobes for the type of work I do.  They’re just a lot less portable, and definitely not suited for shooting events or weddings.  I did enough of that working nights and weekends baloney when I was working my way through school.  Back when I was exclusively a graphic designer, all I ever got asked was if I could do web development. Remember, that it’s your right to be able to pick and choose the type of work you want to take on.  If I so badly needed the income, then yeah – then I might consider taking on non-residual types of photographic income like events, weddings, etc.

I wonder if medical doctors get asked if they can operate on their friends’ pets, or if pizza restaurant owners get asked if they can make a batch of cupcakes up for their friends’ kids’ party.  In the end, you can’t expect everyone to know exactly what you do for work.  Some of our jobs are a lot more complicated to explain than others. Once in a while I’ll get a certain photography or portrait request, and if I’m able to make it work for stock imagery, I will be able to work with the person.  Usually with signed model releases, my normal shoot rates are deeply discounted, or even nonexistent. It just doesn’t always happen that someone is in need of the type of images that I can make work as commercial stock photography.  I’ve been able to turn engagement shoots, senior portrait sessions into stock image shoots.  Are they the best sellers?  Not usually.  The best selling stock images are those that tell a story, or are generic enough for many purposes.  If the shoot consists of general headshots and portraits of a smiling person, well there are 5 million other images on the stock agencies just like those that you’re going to have to compete with for sales.

Yes, I have shot weddings before.  I borrowed the gear I needed at the time.  Is it my cup of tea?  Definitely not.  Am I going to be a good wedding photographer?  Probably not a great one.  I don’t shoot them enough, and I’m already spoiled with the aspect of control and direction when I produce stock imagery.  Live events are nothing like that.  You have to be ready to capture the action as it happens; just as a bystander.  It’s really tough work, and I give wedding photographers a lot of credit.  When my sister got married about a year ago, I didn’t shoot her wedding.  I did help them out with their engagement portraits, though. Even when I attend a wedding or event and bring along my DSRL, I think to myself, “Goodness the lighting in here is awful. No wonder all the photographers have to rely on flash so much.”  In stock, we don’t run anywhere past the ISO 100-200 range, whereas with weddings you are sometimes rocking out in ISO800-1600 for a large portion of the evening.  So no, there really isn’t much use for me in shooting someone’s wedding with signed model releases, for the purpose of stock.  High ISO images are just not going to cut the quality standards required for stock photography.

So that’s my Monday rant… let me know what irks you guys in the comments section below.

One of the things I honestly love about the summer is being able to grow fresh vegetables and herbs in my garden.  Growing up, my family always did a garden.  It becomes something you learn to enjoy, and when you skip a year, you really do feel as if something is missing.  The thing is, once harvest time comes, and your garden is producing at its peak, you are left with a lot of extra vegetables and fruit that you’re not so sure what to do with.  Even after hooking up the neighbors, family, and friends with your “overstock” you still find yourself with a excess of whole organic produce – not cheap in the grocery store, either. Here is a very simple tomato cucumber salad I love to make.  The hardest part is chopping up the ingredients.  Even if you don’t grow your own garden, you can easily grab these ingredients from your local supermarket. The crispy fresh cucumbers, the fresh vine-ripened garden tomatoes, and the basil intermingle into an amazingly flavorful combination.

Easy Tomato Cucumber Salad Recipe:

- 1 Large cucumber, or 2-3 Small

- Pint of grape tomatoes, or your favorite variety

- Dash of red wine vinegar

- Dash of white vinegar

- Dash of EVOO or regular olive oil

- 1 Tablespoon of sugar, or to taste

- freshly chopped Italian Basil leaves

- Cracked peppercorn, or ground black pepper to taste

Combine all of the chopped ingredients into a bowl.  You can slice them whatever style you’d like.  Add all of the dressing ingredients, toss them thoroughly, and then let them marinate together in a large bowl for at least a few hours.  Serve chilled, and enjoy!

The longer this salad marinates, the better it tastes.  The sugar takes away the tartness/acidity of the vinegar, so if you slip with the vinegar, you might need to add a bit more sugar. This salad makes a nice side dish to complement any meal.  Feel free to substitute any of the vinegars with your own favorites.

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. 

The return on investment formula:

I recently analyzed sales from a one hour photo shoot several years ago, during a planned trip. The results were suprising. Here I was thinking that it had been a waste of time with all of the expenses, although after calculating the earnings I was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately not everything you do is going to have a great ROI.

Why is ROI important to the success of your business?  If you don’t crunch the numbers once in a while, you won’t know if you’re barking up the right tree or not.  Be smart about your business analysis methods; try not to get too addicted to analyzing every statistic, to the point where you are wasting your own production time.  Throwing a bunch of spaghetti at the wall is one way to eventually see what sticks, but eventually you also have to use what you’ve learned in order to make wiser business decisions.  You’ll figure out which types of work you do, or specific products you sell, are the most worthwhile; also which types are not as profitable, maybe even a waste of time and money.  This method works whether you sell ipad, iphone, or android apps, microstock imagery, or you are a zazzle pro seller or cafe press store owner.  Everyone has a favorite type of product to produce, or maybe even a photographic subject that’s really enjoyable to shoot.  In the end, you need to take into account the amount of time you’re spending investing in your product, and compare it to the amount of return you’re seeing.  The “long tail effect” also comes into play.

Maybe you’re curious as to whether or not all of the precious time you’ve spent on social media marketing efforts have had a good return on investment?  Well, you can figure that out very similarly.  If you consider all time spent taken to network on sites like twitter or facebook as “straight up work hours” try taking the amount of time you’ve spent, and multiplying it by your normal hourly rate.  Plug that into the ROI formula as the “Cost of Investment”.  On a side note, the Photopreneur Blog interviewed me recently regarding the results I’ve seen from using a facebook business page in my social media marketing efforts.

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In my opinion, sports photography is definitely one of the most challenging subjects to capture well.  Anyone can get a DSLR with a fast enough burst rate and machine gun fire away, but that definitely doesn’t guarantee you a good end result.  All at the same time you’re going to have to keep composition in mind, hope and pray your servo mode autofocus doesn’t fail on any of the focus points, and be sure you’re getting a fast or slow enough shutter speed for the style of photo you’re after.  Whether you want to take better photos of your kids playing soccer or little league baseball, or you’re shooting stock photography, these 10 tips should point you in the right direction. I’ve picked up these 10 main points in my past sports shoots:

#1.  Burst
The paparazzi know how to burst – because they don’t want to miss a split second.  You don’t either – you can’t get back anything in sports.  If you missed the moment, you lost the opportunity.  I’ve learned to burst just because of the simple fact that my Canon 40D’s AI Servo focus mode isn’t perfect – I generally miss focus on at least half of the images, while I’m shooting a moving subject.  Certain movements are easier for the camera to track than others, lateral, vertical, forward/backward, diagonal all result much differently…  It’s no 1D series camera.  If you’re really serious about sports, you’re going to want to invest in one of those.  The newer 7D is supposed to be much improved in the AF department, but I haven’t had an opportunity to comment on that yet.  You still don’t need a fancy camera to shoot amazing sports photography – you’ll still nail some amazing captures with even your base level DSLR or pocket point and shoot, with time, patience and persistence.

#2.  Use Servo Mode Autofocus
If you’re unsure of how to change this setting, refer to your camera’s user manual.  On Canon, there is a button that says “AF-Drive”.  Push it, and then spin the finger wheel (just behind the shutter button) until it changes from “One Shot” to “AI Servo” on the top LCD.  You might have okay results with “AI Focus” mode, but I wouldn’t recommend it.  “AI Focus” mode is the same as “One Shot” mode, only it changes to AI Servo mode when it detects movement.  From what I’ve heard, it’s pretty useless and might only work properly when you’re dealing with a slower moving subject; maybe like a parade or something.  If you’re used to shooting with just your center focus point in your viewfinder, you’re going to want to be sure not to forget to make all of the other focus points live, so it gives your camera the ability to spot the most action that is happening in the frame.  If you have your moving subject in one third of the frame, you have a chance that the camera isn’t even going to recognize the movement, if you’re only using your center focus point.

#3.  Crank the ISO
If you can’t get a fast enough shutter speed, you’re going to end up with a mess when you pull the files from the CF card into post processing. I shot hockey once, and I was pretty much pinned at ISO 800 or 1600 the entire time.  If you’re going for quality, trying to stick to ISO100 or 200 indoors at a hockey rink, you’re going to be very disappointed, even with fast primes.

#4.  Chimp Frequently
If you don’t check your results frequently to verify you’ve got all of your settings right, then you might end up with an amazing set of photos on your camera’s LCD screen; and a huge disappointment when you get back to the computer.  Remember, this is the beauty and instant gratification of digital.  No dark room or developing is required anymore, in order to see the results.  Zoom in on your first shots with your LCD, and look at your settings.  The info button on the back of your camera is your friend.  Be sure you are getting good results before you go filling up three or four CF cards worth of garbage shots.  Just be sure not to chimp after every single shot, or you might miss too much of the action.

#5.  Use a Monopod
Monopods are great for panning movement.  They allow you the freedom to pan or turn easily, while preventing any vertical movement.  The results of this panning technique can be a lot of fun, especially if you nail just the right shutter speed.  A basic monopod is just around $10 USD.  Remember: IS (image stabilized/ image stabilization) lenses only usually help with non-moving subjects.  Some higher end lenses do have certain IS modes that will actually assist you in panning.

#6. Get Low, Get High – Change Your Perspective
Any soccer mom can shoot from standing height.  Don’t forget to change up your perspective to give your photography that “oh snap, look at that right there” effect.  It really does make the world of a difference.  Don’t wear super nice clothes, either – when I shoot sports, I’m usually in a regular old t-shirt and jeans.  Being prepared like this doesn’t stop me from getting creative with my angles.  I’m usually crawling around on the ground more than an infant at my skateboarding shoots.

#7.  Fast Prime Lenses FTW
If you have a trusty faithful and true prime lens in your kit, whether it’s a basic 50mm or your favorite 85mm lens, use it wide open to blow out your background and to allow for the fastest shutter speeds.

#8.  Shoot with External Flash
If you have the pleasure of shooting with strobes, it definitely helps a lot – but on camera flash isn’t always going to be the most flattering in most situations, or the most effective for that matter, depending on your distance from the subject. On camera flash is okay for a little pop of fill light once in a while, but in most circumstances it’s not a good idea.  If you have a way of triggering your speedlight remotely, get it onto a stand and try and plan out your shots, so that you can get some added styling from the strobe(s).  In some cases when you’re not controlling the shot, like at a sports event, be sure to be respectful to the players.  They might get a bit distracted if you’re blasting them with a bunch of strobes all at once as they drive to the hoop or are about to perform an amazing trick.  If you back-light or rim-light your subject, you can create some pretty fun effects right in camera, complete with lens flares and all.  Your other alternative is to strategically get your subject between you and the sun, and use the sun as your main rear light source.

#9.  The Finish Doesn’t Always Matter
Remember, if you’re working with an athlete that might not be the most skilled, it doesn’t really matter.  Nobody’s going to really know if your subject ended up making the shot, scoring the goal, or landing the jump; because this isn’t video!  That’s the beauty of it.  Capturing and freezing the action at the beginning or middle of the execution still comes out looking great.

#10. When All Else Fails, Fake It
You probably never would have guessed that I snapped this car photo with my 70-200 as we were driving down the street one day (I was in the passenger seat, camera in hand ready for anything interesting).  It was actually sitting at a stop sign.  I thought to myself, man… what could I do with this?  It’s the type of car (Porsche 911 Turbo Carrera) that just looks fast, even when it’s standing still.  I had to spend hours in Adobe Photoshop to get it this way, and it’s definitely not the most cost or time-effective way of capturing a speeding car, but it is an option.  You can also do this with people and athletes that are moving at some rate.  Maybe you froze too much action, and wished you could have panned the shot with a slower shutter speed.  When all else fails, just fake it in Photoshop!  Here I had to isolate the car, zoom blur the background, and also do a radial spin blur on the wheels to make them look like they were rolling.  A bit of selective color was added, removing the greens from the trees in the background, and the speeding car really did come alive.

To sum things up, sports is a really challenging subject to shoot – but I think that’s also the most gratifying part of it.  When you capture an amazing image, it gives you all the more reason to be proud of yourself.  It’s not as controlled as other photography subjects, as there are a lot more variables.  Give it a try sometime, no matter what level you are at as an amateur or professional photographer.  I hope at least a few of these tips were helpful.  We’d love to see your results!  Be sure to post some links to them in the comments box below. All of the photos in this post are Arena Creative stock photos, available for licensing at ArenaCreative.com – as you can probably already tell, skateboarding has become a favorite sports subject of mine.

- Anonymous Graphic Designer

This quote was taken from a seasoned graphic designer that I recently spoke with. And that, my friends, is the exact reason why I feel like it’s foolish to post high resolution images on flickr. There are a lot of professionals out there that aren’t completely sure about the proper way of using free images found on the internet.  Even if you aren’t a stock photographer (or don’t license or sell your photos online) you still might get really mad, surprised, or even amazed that other people will find them, and use them in all sorts of ways without paying you one red cent (or any type of credit, for that matter). Flickr has guidelines set, but not many people read them.

Creative Commons
If you want to share your images on Flickr but want to specify that commercial use is only allowed if they credit you, then you can do so via the Creative Commons license.  There are a lot of different options that you can learn about here.  I’m not going to judge you for giving your work away for free, but hey – not everyone out there is trying to make a living with their camera.  Koombayah, holding hands, warm fuzzy teddy bears, and all that lovey dovey stuff.  Sharing is great, and it’s better to give than to receive.  What you give is completely up to you, just don’t get mad if you find people using your images in the wrong way.  Just because you were nice enough to “share” doesn’t mean that the people using the images are going to hold up their end of the bargain.  It’s the same way if someone buys an image for $10 – you just don’t know.  It’s all running on the honor system.  Some abuse the rights while responsible professionals play by the rules.  It is what it is.

What If It Doesn’t Say Anything?
Sometimes you’ll find images on image sharing sites, or even google image search that have no home, no usage or licensing info; then what? You should still contact the original artist for permission. Don’t be stupid. Ignorance is not bliss, in this case.  If you get caught, (and there’s a good chance that you will in this internet age of TinEye and image recognition) you’re going to feel like a huge jerk.  If you’re working for a corporate job, or for someone else, you still could lose your job over one mistake. You could get your pants sued off, and it’s just not a fun ordeal to have to go through.

If You Post To “Flickr”
Like I’ve said in many previous posts, like the example of photographer Noam Galai – be careful about what you post! Ignorance is not bliss. Don’t feel the people online all have the best intentions. It’s like if you had a bunch of chocolate candy bars, and decided to leave them in the lunch boxes of all the kids at fat camp. Do you think those kids are going to ask who put them there, or who’s candy they are? By posting images on sites like flickr, you are basically putting your candy in all the fat kids’ lunch boxes. They’re hungry… and when Camp Counselor Rick isn’t looking, they’re going to dog them before you can finish saying “nougat”. Flickr can be a huge stage that can get your work noticed, if used properly.  You can even apply to get approved to sell RM stock imagery through Getty.  Be sure to watermark your photos, but even that only protects you so far.  Don’t post high resolution images unless you intend on finding people using them all over the internet.  Remember that many out there have very high resolution desktops.  Even if downloading is disabled, a simple screenshot can yield a high resolution image.  My desktop resolution alone is 2.5 megapixels, which is good enough to print a really high quality shot at 4″ x 6″.  Remember, there are still those that just use images illegally off of whatever they find when they use google image search… there’s a good change your flickr images could be found that way, as well.  Be smart, and happy shooting.

I have been wanting to use some palm tree vectors in some of my designs and stock vectors.  Seeing that last summer I was able to visit the Caribbean to shoot stock photography, I have a lot of elements ready to go.  I’ve always been such a sucker for palm trees.  Maybe it’s because I’ve lived in New England my entire life.  The maple, pine, and oak trees are beautiful as well, but to me, coconut palm trees are probably my favorite.  I have a huge print of one on the wall in front of my desk, just about my monitor.  I like to stare at it and drift away sometimes… LOL

You really can use this technique with any type of shape or silhouette.  If you just want to employ this technique on a photo of a person or an object that is already isolated over a white background, then you can very easily do so.  Just darken the person with the levels and dodge/burn tools, if necessary.  Then, follow the same process we guided you through in the tutorial video.

Here are a few quick promotional spots we are running on youtube for ArenaCreative.com with samples of some of our featured stock photography and graphics – they show my intense lack of skills with video production (and limited abilities using Windows Movie maker).  Animoto might have been a lot easier and nicer looking, but I totally didn’t even think about that until now.  They basically just show some sample stock images that we have produced at Arena Creative along with some text and our website URL.  You have to be very short and sweet on youtube, because lengthy videos are rarely watched by a lot of people.  I think I remember hearing, “keep it under 2 minutes”.  Even with TV commercials, they keep them 30 seconds or less for a reason.  Sometimes less is more with ads and promos.  Are these very catch, memorable or going to turn viral in any way?  I highly doubt that, but at least it’s something to start some sort of promotional presence on the main video hub site of the internet.  While Vimeo wins for cool and style points,  Google-owned YouTube is still number one.  All of the royalty free stock beats and music loops in these videos were custom made by me, and are also available for licensing on Pond5.

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.

Should I Be Proud of This
Am I embarassed by all of this?  Would you be?  I know some people might, but those probably wouldn’t have shot a photo like this in the first place, and then sold it on the internet through a horde of microstock agencies.  I’ve personally don’t have any shame about this.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the whole ad series hilarious!  It’s good I’m a goofball by nature, and have a reallygood sense of humor.  Let this be a lesson to all of you who have at one time modeled or have sold stock images – you never know where these might end up!  This ad campaign hit youtube, international techie trade shows, was plastered in busy marketplaces, and on the side of buildings in Tapiei, Taiwan, and probably was marketed in print and other web campaigns.   I had no clue it would be used like this, because in this business we are rarely told if, when, and where the photos that are sold end up getting used.  Most of them might even end up on someone’s hard drive collecting dust for years before use.  I know back when I bought a lot of stock imagery, I would stock pile images that I knew might be useful in my future upcoming graphic design projects. Because I thought a photo of a person picking their nose might be a niche stock photo subject, I did it anyway.  It turns out that it was, and someone somewhere found a use for it.

Why It Works
Do I think that it was an effective ad campaign?  Honestly, I don’t see the act of nose picking as something that’s oh so enjoyable, where you can compare it to a dockable laptop. I think that there might have been other more tasteful comparisons made, but if they were going simply for shock factor – they got it.  This ad series definitely gets your attention and then draws you in to figure out what the heck they’re advertising.  I’ll admit, the photo quality isn’t great.  This was an image I originally captured about 5 years ago, when I was still learning.  I had mounted my camera on a tripod in my office, with a white shower curtain on the wall behind me.  The lighting actually is pretty bad, but it was good enough to have enough value in the eyes of the buyer.  This was a photo where I had tungsten lighting mixed with natural window light, and so there were way too many color temps going on in the image.  I guess sometimes a buyer just needs a photo of a dude digging for gold, even though this photo might just land itself on awkwardstockphotos.com

Special thanks for the above gigabyte nose picker ad images were courtesy of micgadget.com and onecuckoosnest.com – click to view their take on the ad campaign, and how they felt about it.

What are some other touchy subjects you might want to stay away from, if you model in stock images?  Things like spousal abuse might make for some interesting dinner conversation, if they happened to end up in a major magazine or newspaper article.  What about topics like sexual incompetency or impotence?  Hemroids?  Drug and alcohol abuse?  Criminal themes?  Some people might not be bothered to “act out” touchy themes like this, but if you’re working with models you need to always be upfront and clear about potential image use.  I would also assume that reputable pharmaceutical companies that advertise sensitive topics would also do the same, and that they wouldn’t be using stock images grabbed from an online stock photo agency to use in that field of marketing.

The story of one stolen image here is pretty crazy.  It’s both disturbing, interesting, amazing, scary and infuriating all at the same time.  This type of story always plucks my heart strings, because I can relate to the way he’s feeling.  It just shows the power of the internet in this media age we are living in.  Any image you post online can end up anywhere… period.  Case closed.  I don’t care what you shot it with, how you designed it, digitized it, where you posted it, or what it is.  High res, medium res, or low res.  If the image is something of value to another person, or another person sees the potential value in it, it will be used.  It’s only a matter of time before it ends up all around the world.  Beware of how you share your work online.

Noam seems torn.  One one hand he is thrilled to see his art being embraced by so many people in so many places.  But, at the same time, he seems to get a pit in his stomach when he sees other people dishonestly making profits from his artwork.  When we license stock images, we sometimes get a kick out of where they end up.  Sometimes my head gets on billboards anywhere from Taiwan to Chicago.  Just yesterday an image of ours was featured on the Yahoo homepage.  It’s a really cool feeling.  These are images I know I have sold online, however.  In Noam’s case, the warm fuzzy feeling is short lived by feelings that are not so great.

In the stock photo industry, image theft has been a huge problem.  Newer technologies are helping to combat it, but it will still probably always be around to some degree or another. This is especially the case in illustration.  If you are a vector illustrator, you need to make sure you aren’t tracing photos that you didn’t produce on your own.  Otherwise, you are just as bad as the right clickers that steal images off of image sharing websites like flickr or deviantart.  Don’t think it won’t come back to bite you in the behind; because it will.

Ironically, when Noam thought he might try licensing the image himself through stock agencies, they rejected the image.  I got a chuckle out of this, because it honestly shows how ridiculously high the technical standards are in the business.  This screaming image was used hundreds, maybe even thousands of times all around the world – but no, the agency Noam submitted to didn’t feel it had any commercial value.  Hmm. Take a look at the top 100 on http://sxc.hu and you’ll notice that probably 50-75% of them would not even pass microstock standards… but they’re being downloaded and used all over the world, just like Noam’s screaming images.  It’s just something to think about, which is pretty ironic.  High quality standards are great.  I have them myself for my own stock photo website, as well as the others I submit to.  In this instance, it’s just ironic that poor Noam goes and tries to sell HIS OWN artwork and gets shot down, while hundreds or thousands of others are already using his photo all over.

Watermarked or not, images are still sometimes stolen.  Even still, it’s better than nothing.  Watermarking is the minimum precaution you can take to protect the images you do have online.  Not sharing them on the higher traffic websites like Flickr, is also a pretty good idea.  Be careful out there, because before you realize it your photos could be all over the place.

This stuff isn’t made up.  It’s real, and it happens.  This is just one story.  One person, who thankfully was informed about where his artwork ended up.  Is it his fault all of this happened?  What do you think about this story?  Has something like this ever happened to you?  Feel free to chime in with a comment below.

Learn more about Noam’s story: http://www.thestolenscream.com/ Check out his blog, and the products he’s got in his zazzle store.  Let’s support him – please.  He deserves it.  Helping him promote his story is the least I can do, as a fellow photographer.  You can follow Noam on twitter and facebook.

(video via FStoppers as also posted on the Chase Jarvis blog)

I feel her pain – this happens to me and many of my other colleagues fairly regularly.  Yeah, there is a huge difference between creative inspiration and blatant copying or idea theft.  People really need to stop blatantly copying ideas, especially in the illustration-type-photo department.  It never ceases to amaze me, the amount of gall some might have to do this outright, and expect to fly under the radar forever.  I don’t know how I find these, but most times it’s while I’m keywording, using the keyword tool.  Who has time to spend all day scouring the internet for potential copycats… you just have to basically accept that it’s bound to happen.  For example, I have an image of a man looking like he is thinking, contemplative… doodled words above his head, like the things he is thinking.  There is another VERY close, uploaded after mine.  There is another example of a silhouette shot, with typography added in a way that adds to the subject theme of the image; and yet I stumbled upon another version very close to mine, with same words used and all.  I won’t post links to examples… but I should.  You can see them if you ask me privately.  If you ever have concerns about someone habitually copying you, discuss it with the proper admins at the agency.  It never hurts to be on the same page with them, so they know who to watch out for.  They can’t police everything; so much slips their vision.  There just isn’t enough time in the day.  I’ve had many people banned for outright stealing vector elements from my images.

What it comes down to, is that imitation is said to be the highest form of flattery – but it’s still SO annoying when it comes to stealing the food off of someone else’s plate.  Even if the copycat only gets the crumbs.  Dear copyists: please make a change for the better.  Be original – don’t be a scavenging bottom dweller.  We all get ideas from one another, but make them your own.  Creativity feeds off of other creativity.  People can copy all of the most popular images they want to, but in the end, they’re only just stabbing themselves in the foot.  You have a much better strategy to try and create something original that isn’t there yet, and will have less competition.  You also have to realize that in microstock photography, you sell about 90%-95% of the images in your portfolio at one time or another, so just copying the first page isn’t going to do you any good.  Develop your own ideas, and stop being pathetic losers looking to sponge off of others, for an easy way out.  I’d say that it’s also pretty safe to say that most copycat efforts are never even half as good as the originals.  Don’t return evil for evil, although it can be tempting.  If you copy a copycat back in return, you just might be copying someone else that they stole the idea from.  It really can become a vicious cycle.  In the longrun, copycats get burned.

If you need stock images; every high resolution stock photo, illustration, and vector on our website is now on sale! We are not a huge collection, but there are over 7000 high quality images to choose from. If you need, you can stock up on some art elements or photos that you might be able to use in your designs – we’re just running a crazy last minute experimental promotion for kicks and giggles! Horde up some high res stock imagery at this insanely steal of a price while you still can.

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Sale ended 1/27/11

A few days ago I had the privilege to catch an advance pre-screening sneak preview of Seth Rogan’s new superhero movie The Green Hornet. For a quick review, the movie was amazing. I liked it just as much as I love the Ironman series.  First word that comes to mind is “hilariousness”. There was some purposeful corniness at some parts (if that makes any sense), crazy action sequences, lots of Inspector gadgetry, and even Cameron Diaz aging gracefully, actually starting to look like she isn’t 23 anymore. You’ve got to see it when it hits your local theaters on January 14th, 2011.  Here’s the official Green Hornet trailer from youtube.

Seeing the trailer alone, you might think it’s the same typical plot of the Batman series movies, or Ironman.  Rich parents die, leaving a spoiled rich kid all this money and a gadget slinging sidekick that happens to be one of the members of the estate “help”.  Even so, this movie was slightly more quirky and funnier than even Ironman.  Even the main villain Chudnovsky (played by Christoph Waltz) seemed a little sensitive for a bad guy.  I got a kick out of the fact that I have an Israeli style photo prop gas mask that is the same as the one he uses in the movie – the only difference is the canister on his is painted blood red, after he decides to change his name to “Bloodnovsky”, seeking to increase the scariness of his super villain image. Does this look familiar?

The movie has something for everyone: comedy, cars, even a double barrel desert eagle.  This is definitely the kind of action movie you will want to see on the big screen, in IMAX 3D if you can.

This isn’t a movie review blog, but Kato’s sketch book in the movie reminded me of the fact that we all need to remember to draw out or write down our ideas.  Kato, (played by Jay Chou) had page upon page of sketched in his notebook, as is briefly seen in the movie.  He even had sketches of Bruce Lee on one of the pages of his sketchbook. Obviously that was a cameo of sorts, seeing that Bruce Lee played the part of “Kato” in the original Green Hornet TV series.  Seeing that Kato was a creative genius, he could whip up just about anything his mind could think up.  Everything from gadgets for the Black Beauty (funny, we used to call my dad’s old Buick that) to a custom cappuccino machine.  My point is, he had a sketchbook full of his concepts and ideas, and didn’t just go straight to creation.  I find that especially with logo design, you can get very lost in the process of designing if you start from your head and just go straight to the computer.  It helps to sketch your ideas out first, and then take it to the computer once you have narrowed a few of your best ideas down.

Even keeping a notepad and pencil on your night stand for a quick scribble in the dark, in the middle of the night, is better than losing your thoughts.  I’ve had some nights where my brain was working full steam just before I fell asleep, coming up with all sorts of ideas for new images I wanted to create.  I failed to write them down, being so tired and wanted to get to sleep.  As you might expect, those ideas were just about 90% gone by the time I woke up the next morning. Don’t forget to doodle what pops in your noodle when you get that sudden creative inspiration!