In Chapter Five of Microstock Money Shots-Popular Themes Without People, I devote a few pages to the art of photographing food. I mention tips for creating images of appetizing plates of food if a stylist isn’t in your budget because even the most delicious tasting items often look unappetizing and utterly disgusting through the lens without the skills that a  food stylist brings to the table.

Not all culinary shoots can bear the cost of a stylist so build a few of their tricks into your skill set. There have been a spat of articles by food prop stylists as well as about food photography in the past months. (A prop stylist is the one responsible for the non food items in a shoot such as the type of flatware, centerpieces and other extraneous materials to add to a themed photo)  A food stylist may double as the prop stylist as well as preparing food for the camera.

The summer 2010 issue of the pricey and erudite magazine, Gastromonica, has an intriguing article about the evolution of prop styling for food photography. The author, Francine Matalon-degni, presents a lengthy review of how food photography has evolved from the flowery, heavily propped shots from the early 1990’s to the redesigned Bon Appetit and Martha Stewart minimalist images a few years into the 2000’s and on such as…”full-page bleeds of creamy sauces, landscapes of scalloped potatoes and enormous blocks of beef”. She discusses how a photo of a perfectly plated piece of pie went from being the norm to some of today’s images showing forks and  crumbs left on the plate as if the photographer has caught the eater just leaving the table.  Along the way in this lengthy piece, she equates food prop styling to changes in the American politcal scene…a reach but then we ARE what we eat.

Some food editors have gone to the extreme of showing no props and only crumbs of the food. ©Olivierl/Dreamstime.com

Cautionary note: I was reviewing a group of images shot in a kitchen with a model supposedly preparing a meal. What I saw was the work of an overly enthusiastic stylist: every vegetable for a soup was lined up in perfect rows and neatly sliced. Fruit in a bowl on the counter looked like a display at an eleborate buffet in a hotel’s breakfast room. The pans on the stove came straight from the store and had nothing in them. Lesson? Add a little reality to your cooking shots by actually having something in the pot on the stove. Make the kitchen appear as natural as possible and that means a tiny bit of a mess.

The New York Times often features articles directed at photographers with instructions on the technical tips to use in food photography from the “Diner’s Journal columns. The latest, by Andrew Scrivani, is called “How to plan a food shoot” and an earlier piece concerned Four manual settings you need to know when shooting food.

Food stylist and author Denise Vivaldo gives some good tips for styling salads and preparing chicken in two separate videos. Want the lettuce in the salad to remain perky? Pack the bowl with wet paper towels before adding ingredients and plop some mashed potatoes under the lettuce. Stand a few leaves upright in the potatos. Catch the video here. Or to get a jump on prepping a lucious looking (but nearly raw chicken or turkey) for holiday shoots watch this. (Cover your ears after the first several “You Guys”.)

NPR’s All Things Considered offers help in building towering sandwiches…gaffer’s tape anyone? In an interview with food stylist Delores Custer, it’s suggested that mortican’s wax is a perfect adhesive to keep cutlery in place…remember just because it’s pretty doesn’t mean you should eat the stuff once the shoot is a wrap!

A photographer whose still life images are brilliant is Mitchell Feinberg. Check him out in this  Photography Post.

(Back to Chapter Five of Microstock Money Shots. It is about much more than shooting food. The photographers whose work  appears in the chapter are below:)

Chapter Opener: Carnival ride- Racheal Grazias

Dove in flight-Christopher Ewing

House of Parliment, London-Maksym Gorpenyuk

BBQ doesn't always mean beef! ©Armonn/Dreamstime.com

African with face paint-Lucian Coman

Colorful guitars-Ilya D. Gridnev

Shark from below-Joshua Haviv

Owl in flight-Brian Hansen Stock Photography

Wolf spider captures a blowfly-Cathy Keifer

Snow Monkeys-F. Mann

Peaceful landscape-Piotr Skubisz

Close-up of a leaf-Coolr

Coyote crossing the road-Nelson Hale

Lightning and small boat in storm at sea-Russ Allen

Toronto Caribbean Day parade-A.C. Gobin

Asian statues against red-Juha Sompkinmaki

Beach with palms and blue water-Petra Silhava

China’s Bird Nest Stadium-Orpheus

House of Parliment, London-Maksym Gorpenyuk

African with face paint-Lucian Coman

Colorful guitars-Ilya D. Gridnev

Shark from below-Joshua Haviv

Owl in flight-Brian Hansen Stock Photography

Wolf spider captures a blowfly-Cathy Keifer

Snow Monkeys-F. Mann

Peaceful landscape-Piotr Skubisz

Close-up of a leaf-Coolr

Field of lettuce-Laurent Renault

An image of a key ingredient can be very simple and yet still effective ©Yekophotostudio/Dreamstime

Variety of deserts-Regien Paassen (Also on the cover)

Salad-Rohit Seth

Holiday turkey-Olga Lyubkina

Hamburger-Sergey Peterman

Casual Friday concept-Eutock

Big dog and little dog-Eric Isselee (Also on the back cover)

Inside the curl of a giant wave-Mana Photo

Snarling dog-ZelenenkyyYuriy

Close-up of bees in hive-Florin Tirlea

Dining room-Chad McDermott

Home exterior-Ken Hurst

Fireworks-Galyna Andrushko

Responses to rude behavior pop up everyday this summer: escaping flight attendant, rude boss outed for playing Farmville and an intern feeling mistreated by a photographer.

Recently a very frustrated photographer, let’s call her Susie, bcc’d me on an explosive email she sent to a prominent assignment client who she felt had caused her money and time needlessly.  Her reaction? She didn’t simply burn a bridge, she nuked it. A law in physics states that for every reaction there is an opposite and equal reaction. Does that rule apply to business? Not usually but sometimes.

© Dmitriy Shironosov | Dreamstime.com

During the first visit to an art buyer who didn’t see enough fashion work in the book (Susie is a lifestyle photographer with terrific ad work using models), the prospective client asked her to do a test shoot…on her dollar.

She was jazzed. Hired a stylist, make-up, scouted for the perfect location, spent a few days in prep and a day shooting. Susie sent the work to me and I picked my favorites. She sent the best of the lot to the client and then waited. And waited. And waited. After 2 weeks, she called. Left a message. Did that a few times. Tried email. Nothing. Maybe the art buyer was fired? Maybe she died?

Finally she left a message, “I understand if you are avoiding me for personal reasons or something else. But if you don’t want to work with me, please email or call so that I will stop wasting both of our time.”

Art buyer responded, “Sorry but there simply isn’t enough fashion work in your book.” Remember she asked Susie to do a fashion test, as there wasn’t enough fashion in the book. When I looked at what the client uses, Susie’s work was spot on. The match that burned the bridge was lit.

How to handle an impossible client for your photographic services?

Should you try to work it out with a client? Sometimes it works and the fact that you are willing to bend a little…(not completely over) can sometimes help even the coldest heart and rudest jerk. Suggestions:

©Yuri Arcurs/Dreamstime.com

• Eat crow. “So sorry the shoot didn’t work for you. I’ll redo it at cost. (Only if you truly did screw up in a major way or if the client is a regular)
• Talk over the situation with someone that can give the issue perspective. Maybe YOU are the jerk. (Exclude significant others: you have a right to exaggerate the a-hole’s behavior to them for maximum sympathy.)
• Offer to discuss the issue with the client…in a non-defensive manner. “Could you spare a few minutes to help me to understand what went wrong, so I can avoid this situation in the future?”
• Ask yourself what could I have done differently? Then DON’T do it again
• All else fails, dump the client. Don’t nuke them. You never know where they’ll show up again.
• Nuke the worst of them anyway as you don’t want to work for them ever again even from the poor house and no matter where they show up or what they say about you, people will soon come to consider the source of the negative remarks and discredit them.

Big names can get by with being prima donnas…but you better be better than damn good if you intend to act like one.

Over the next few months, I will give you a glimpse of a few of the chapters in my new book-Microstock Money Shots, including tips from that chapter.

Since photo credits tend to be in tiny type in all books, I’ll give credit where credit is due by listing the photographers whose work appears in that chapter.

(Of course, I’m trying to entice you to buy the book! As we were advised in class, “always end a book report with…to learn more, read the book!”)

In the book introduction, Andres Rodrigues writes about his evolution into a top microstock success story. Much to learn from Andres about the learning curve in microstock.

Chapter one is titled “A Snapshot of the Microstock Industry” but it includes the key points in the history of stock photography that might effect the future of stock–if you don’t pay attention to history, you may repeat it and not with the best results!

Other topics include understanding the types of stock licenses including a solid explanation of the various creative commons licenses and what they mean. A quote sums it up: “No matter what licensing model they use, all serious amateurs and professional photographers want to know what to shoot to maximize downloads of their photographs. This book shares my more than thirty years’ experience working with companies that specialize in stock and microstock business models to answer that very question. This book suggest(s) which types of images the marketplace demands year after year.”

A section in Chapter One called “Understanding Your Rights” lays out the different kinds of businesses in stock photography: rights managed, royalty free and microstock with details on how they differ so that you can better judge where some or all of your photos will perform best. Copyright is highlighted with an explanation of the creative commons copyright and what it means to you.

I suggest that the motivation for someone to seek a stock photo is often because they believe that it already exists. Thus, like it or not, stock photography is a business of cliches. Highly unusual or artistic images may get used for marketing purposes now and then but are rarely licensed repeatedly. Speaking generally, the best stock photo is a photo that already exists. It’s up to you to create something new; combining commerce with art to produce a marketable and desirable image.

Photocredits in Chapter one: Chapter Opener: Pete Saloutos.  Interior shots: James Steidl, Chippix, Teng Wie, Yuri Arcurs, Alexander Raths, Beata Becla, Andresis Pidjass

Read more… or

This is our summer of discontent. The never ending recession combined with falling day rates, cheap stock, overwhelming heat, high water and the lack of funds to escape to a cooler spot has many photographers in the doldrums. Work is slow and a hoped for turnaround in the fall is still too far away to hang a camera strap on. So have a cool drink…forget lemons to lemonade…how about a bloody-hell Mary? Or a Hail, Mary for that matter and a chuckle.

A colleague (I can’t reveal his name in order to protect his lack of innocence) who speaks to photographers day and night has heard enough photographers’ complaints lately to write a book. Instead he kicked his funny bone and came up with the following as proposed issue themes for PhotoDistrict News beginning in Jan 2011.

January: Happy New Year Editorial Day-Rate issue
February: In the Black–that WAS Photo-History Month issue
March: Beware the Idle of March-The undercut issue
April: Ding Dong. Oh, #$%@&, is that the Tax Man at the door?
May: “Captain! May Day! May Day! issue
June: Graduation Special: Brooks Institute Owes me $100,000 issue
July: Happy Google Images Day!
August: Back to Trade-School Issue
Sept: Rights Managed Memorial Day issue
October: PPE Conference: Please Please Earn (something, anything) issue
November: Happy Thanks-For-Nothing: Disgruntled Photographers’ Issue
December: “Here Comes hidden Contract-Claus, Here Comes hidden Contract-Claus…”

Now that we’ve gotten you laughing…mosey over to Amazon and buy my book due out August 24 for a read about how we got here -that’s in the first chapter and some tips on all things photographic except the stuff that you already know about lenses, lights and tripods (the rest of the book).

I’ll recap each chapter as the month goes on and list the names of the photographers that appear in that chapter. Stay tuned!

The  panels at CEPIC, especially at the day long New Media Day organized by Microstock Diaries’ Lee Torrens, were thought provoking and for the most part, interesting.  I especially enjoyed the dialog between Sarah Fix from Blend Images and Taylor Davidson on my panel on the future: Taylor posed the question, “What core value does an agency create and deliver?” Sarah came back with some smart answers. I’ll interview her soon for a run down of her remarks. Unfortunately time ran out but we hope to continue the dialog  around the subject of disruption in the stock photo business at PhotoPlus Expo in the fall.

Ellen Boughn from Stock Photography Strategies, USA at the Rotunda in Dublin City Hall for a VIP Reception ©ctk photobank

Here are the best places to learn about what went on at CEPIC:

Tweek’s Daily newspaper

Videos posted to Vimeo: (Excellent selection of well made videos from the panels)

Selected (curated to use a popular word at CEPIC) vids on YouTube:

VIP Reception

Pavel’s interview with me

Beatte interview with CEPIC’s Klaus Plauman

FastMediaMagazine interview with Maria Kessler at Image Rights

StockPhotoPress Interview mit Norbert Weber von Polylooks auf der CEPIC 2010 in German

Flavors of CEPIC by Pavel

Interview with Pond5 video by Pavel

Flickr photo stream by Taylor Davidson

Complete photo coverage by ctkphotobank and previous years too

I have attended CEPIC almost every year since I held the position of Executive Editor at Corbis in 1997. (At least I believe an event in London was an early precursor to CEPIC as I recall being on a boat on the Thames with some Germans and Roger Ressmeyer taking a photo of me that he magically sent to my husband by the miracle of digital photography and email. AMAZING it was then.)

Once the delegates to the Congress are home , the content of the panels and discussions meld into the over all business view of those attending but the connections grow into good business.  We are daily connected in ways that dwarf our previous means of communication with business colleagues via the post, fax or even email. Even so there is nothing that compares to the many business relationships forged with international colleagues over a drink, serendipitously at a lunch table or during an impromptu or scheduled meeting. These can only happen in person and for stock businesses and archives, only at CEPIC.

Ellen Boughn in the stands at the new Aviva Stadium in Dublin for CEPIC interview with Pavel Losevsky

I have thought that CEPIC might be losing its relevance. But what was demonstrated by this year’s invigorated CEPIC is an industry strengthened and changed by outside forces that is smarter, quicker and, though smaller, stronger. Plan on coming to CEPIC in 2011 to keep up with the changes.

*Thanks to Russian photographer/videographer Pavel Losevsky who tirelessly documented CEPIC and the offical photographers from ctk photobank

Next week I will be joining colleagues Cathy Yeulet (MonkeyBusinessImages), Shannon Fagan (photographer), Taylor Davidson (business strategies), and Kelly Thompson (iStockphoto) in Dublin, Ireland as I host a panel entitled, The Future, at the New Media Conference. This crystal ball event (not of the disco type but more the fortune teller type of thing) will examine a central issue in the working lives of professional, stock photographers now in mid-2010: What’s next?

New Media Conference June 9, Dublin Ireland

Stock photographers worldwide are ringing their hands. They are seemingly in the midst of a perfect storm of events: relatively cheap digital cameras with decent resolution; a thundering crowd rushing toward microstock and helping turn the best of them into serious pros; established microstock photographers seeing declines in revenue as traditional stock photographers jump on that bandwagon; an Internet that sucks up photos by the billions; advertising budgets in the tank and magazines dropping dead. Some say revenues are falling like birds from the sky but overheads are still flying high.

Assigning blame for shifts in the industry is as silly as blaming the Internet for the fact that our way of life has been fundamentally changed forever. We are living through a period of unprecedented change and you as a photographer may get flattened as it rolls through the industry. What will you do to adapt; to stay on your feet?

Join us at the New Media Conference for ideas. You as a photographer are going to have to think your way out of the present into a productive future and here is a chance to bounce your thoughts off others who have been spending a great deal of time pondering the issues. Will Google Image search become monetized? Will Flicker, Creative Commons and Plus get together to organize another third party to issue image licenses…bypassing the Getty gatekeepers?  What’s next?

Taylor wrote about one of the events that will happen around CEPIC and the New Media Conference:

“Before the Future”, June 8th
Ellen, Shannon, Lee Torrens and I will be hosting an invite-only social mixer called “Before the Future” on the night of June 8th before the New Media Conference kicks off the next day. Our goal is to bring together a diverse set of thinkers in the photography industry and create thoughtful and valuable conversations and connections between people driving the future of the photography industry. And, well, have a good time.

Thank you to Jonathan Ross and Space Images for sponsoring the mixer.

A sad but true fact is that many photographers will leave professional photography behind and seek new challenges over the next months and years. Some will go completely broke while they wait for the business to return to previous levels. But others, and I hope you are one of them, will discover how they can use their skill and expertise in a related field. (I don’t think salvation for most lies in transitioning to video.)

What new ventures will appear? Will the time come that finally buries the stock photographer for good or will this be a time of energized regrouping and give us new businesses where the skills and talents of photographers/photoeditors/producers/stylists/etc are again valued?  I hope for the latter but know that the rewards of recovery will be going to a much smaller set of photographers.

Join us at the New Media Conference next week to listen and learn while adding your voice to the discussion about what’s next. Want even more information…illustrated? Lee Torrens has it all mapped out for you.

And if you are there, stop by and say Hello and thanks to the New Media Conference sponsor JaincoTech.

©Szefei/dreamstime.com

My birthday is this week, making it a good time to look both backward and forward. I thought I’d share some of the mistakes that I’ve seen photographers make over the years in the hope that my readers won’t make them.

A big mistake that a photographer made that almost cost me my reputation in photography before I had hardly started.

Before I started a photo agency, I decided to become a  rep for assignment work. My first photographer was recommend by several of my photographer friends. He had been in Europe for a while and had experienced a lot of success in advertising jobs according to him and to the tearsheets that he showed in his portfolio. I worked with him for a couple of days, getting ready to take the book out when I happened by the international newsstand on Las Palmas in Hollywood. As I browsed the European magazines, the guy’s work popped up everywhere. But in Europe, in those days anyway, ads carried photo credits AND my guy’s portfolio had been shot by at least five other people.

Instead of investing years of work overseas to build up an international portfolio, he had stopped by the magazine stand at Heathrow on his way back to L.A. and bought the magazines with the ads that he most would have liked to have shot. That was the end of my repping career, thankfully before I had called on any art directors/art buyers.

Here are some mistakes not to make, in no particular order:

1. Spending money as soon as you earn it but before you have it, even if you know you’ll get it soon.

2. Waiting until after the shoot to hand out model releases.

3. Not putting a value on your own time when figuring ROI (return on investment) per shoot.

4. Staying with the same vendors (insurance, bank, credit card, phone, etc) year after year without annually doing comparison shopping

5. Buying the most expensive equipment unless you absolutely need it. And buying is cheaper than regular renting.

6. Never registering copyright

7. Bad mouthing your competition

Cheaters almost always get caught! If not at the newsstand, online! ©Ariturk/dreamstime.com

8. Spending more than an hour a day on social media

9. Writing a blog that only other photographers read (unless you are Chase Jarvis.)

10. Not keeping excellent records in regard to deductible expenses.

11. Not having an annual budget

12. Not understanding a financial statement coupled with not having one.

13. Not reading distributor contracts, purchase orders and other legal docs or not getting help when you don’t understand them.

14. Cheating, lying and stealing (just for good measure). And that includes faking model releases, exaggerating expenses on productions, directly copying other’s work and violating the items listed in item 13.

Happy Birthday to me.

Who is the first brave soul to add to the above list based on a mistake they made?

Fresh out of ideas? Your creative meter stuck on zero? Got spring fever (idea) blahs? I recommend reading Hugh MacLeod’s advice.  You can scan the points or dig deeper for more detail.  It’s rather long but hey, if you are stranded in a morass of boredom with your creative brain flat lining, what else do you have to do?

The down low on getting low down shown here. © Zmaj011 | Dreamstime.com

Although it’s doubtful that reading anything can change the DNA of a dullard into a wildly creative visionary, a wimp can become a muscled hunk with daily workouts. So if you have a creative spark at all (and if not stop reading this), sometimes all you have to do to fan that spark into a brightly burning flame is to change your point of view. Or if not a forest fire of ideas, at least small fires of an interesting nature. (That paragraph left me with a burning desire to drop all metaphors for good).

There are mental points of view that can kill ideas such as: everyone will think its a stupid idea; I’ll look like a dumb a#s and the worst: it won’t sell! Instead of examining your self esteem, try pointing your camera in a different direction: Change your visual point of view to get a creative kick in the pants.

Sometimes all you need to do is change your perspective. Or as they call it in the movie biz: POV (point of view). Get down on the ground level; get to the top floor and shoot up or down. Your position relative to the subject of your image has a huge influence on the impact of the final picture. All too often we fall into the trap of framing an image straight ahead. “Oh that’s a cool shot” Snap Snap” on to the next.

Aerial of alkali flat in Owens Valley, California, USA ©Iofoto/Dreamstime

Break out of old habits. Look around: where could you place the camera to capture a unique angle? Access to high floors? Go for it and shoot down into the interiors of hotels and other open spaces in homes and public buildings. (But you care that you aren’t violating privacy or restrictions against photography).

Look at the world not just from a bird’s eye view but an ant’s. This may sound silly but as a campaign for beef a couple of years ago shows, the results can be surprising or creepy depending upon your POV.

Create images where small looks large and something tiny appears to dominate the image. You are after uniqueness and surprise. Shooting from an unusual perspective can add mystery to your images. Listen to the creator of LOST, J.J. Abrams, in a TED talk explain the mystery of mystery and how it adds intrigue and interest to most creative pursuits

Shooting the model from above and upside down is a refreshing departure.©Iofoto/Dreamstime

Patterns emerge when you approach a view from a new perspective. Once objects are reduced to grids or mathematical shapes, illusions are created that catch the viewer by surprise and capture his/her attention for a moment longer than a casual look-see. Reality becomes abstract and intriguing.

The next time you take out your camera, shoot the image you have in mind and then get down on the ground or up on a ladder or shoot from a high advantage point as well as the straight shot. You may surprise yourself with the results.

Images that demonstrate a POV that departs from the expected don’t sell as well as the predictable but remember always shooting for the market can make Jack and Jill a dull boy and girl with a boring portfolio.

Last week I closed my post with the mention that two items had caused me to wonder about the possibilities of future changes in the microstock business. First there was Tony Stone entering the market with his statement that he would help Vivozoom ‘focus on the most relevant images” and then an announcement from Microstock Israel that it would concentrate on images of life in Israel and the Middle East.

Stock photographers have been developing niches and specialties since the camera was invented. Many independent photo agencies, in the past, were known for a niche or specialty. If a picture researcher wanted a photo of a historical event, she/he went to the Bettmann Archive; for current events to Black Star or Magnum; for access to National Geographic photographers to Woodfin Camp; for science to PhotoResearchers; for lifestyle to Image Bank or the Stock Market. Several of these collections still thrive but some are closed or the brand and its culture lost to the uber-brands of Getty or Corbis.

Instead of contacting independent, specialized companies, today’s image buyers rely on keyword search and hope to find relevant content. But since few editors/keyworders or executives in the large RF/RM portals have expertise in niche fields, important images within a specialized field can go astray. They are lost in the vast middle of an online collection because the keywords don’t identify the key aspects of a technical subject or do so inaccurately. Since niche collections have a niche group of buyers, the images are not downloaded as much as more popular themes like business or families.  Thus they don’t license as often and are often dropped because of it. A lot of specialized visual knowledge has been lost to the industry with consolidation. (Nevertheless keyword accuracy and relevant search are much more likely in one of the traditional companies than at any of the microstock sites.)

According to Selling Stock (subscription required) textbook publishers are still afraid of microstock images because they can’t trust the captions/keywords. Jim Pickerell writes, “The percentage of micro uses continues to grow, despite the complaints of editors that often the caption information on microstock images is not detailed enough and its accuracy cannot always be trusted.”

In microstock, photos of a technical nature or of specific plants, animals or locations are lost into the middle no man’s land in search because the keywords are even less apt to be correct than in the traditional companies.  The volume of images hitting the micro sites daily make it very difficult to check for accuracy or to add keywords to technical subjects. A perfect example of data that is key to many users is the scientific name associated with plants and animals. Or as I found, even the common name can be wrong.

I searched for ‘platypus’ on Shutterstock, iStockphoto and Dreamstime. One site returned a bald eagle against a flag, another several spiny anteaters and another several different species of fish. At least I could see why a spiny anteater was included since both the platypus and spiny anteaters are the only mammals that lay eggs but that wouldn’t matter a bit if I included an anteater in an educational program and called it a platypus. “So what?”  I can hear you think. Who cares when photos of people jumping on trampolines outsell platypus images thousands to one? Answer: Teacher’s care, students need to know, publishers will walk away if there is even a hint of inaccuracy in an image. Photos are tools of communication. Public communication has an obligation to be correct no matter how obscure the subject.

Does it matter that if you were looking for a platypus in a microstock collection, you could think it referred to an eagle, a duck, a fish or a lizard? If you are putting out a science book, you’d better be certain that what you see is what you want!

Dreamstime has made efforts to establish special collections that have been ‘curated’ by Dreamstime members. These often subject oriented groups of images can be helpful but there is still the lingering worry that the person that assembled the collection may not have any particular knowledge about the images besides the thought that the photos are ‘nice’.

Shouldn’t the case be made for specialty microstock companies that are staffed with reviewers that are versed in the subject? Either within a brand or as stand-alone companies? Would the costs be too high?  How about a medical collection reviewed by starving medical students? Or collections that are assembled by others with specialized knowledge? Or Like Israelis who know their land, its places, its religions and its businesses? iStock has taken a step toward the Tony Stone philosophy that only the relevant should survive in the creation of the Vetta Collection.

As a former biology teacher who  wrote educational materials and worked on science based exhibitions and books that required absolute confidence in the information associated with the photography that I selected, I believe that curated and specialty microstock collections could be an important next step in the business. What do you think?

The media often feature Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein as the founders of Getty Images, but were they truly the company founders like Mr Hewlett and Mr Packard, or Steve Jobs who started up their companies from scratch in their garages?

Mark Getty and work colleague Jonathan Klein cleverly identified the potential for huge growth in the stock photo industry, sought out Tony Stone Images as the market leader, acquired the company, and left their careers at London-based Hambro’s Bank to become Chairman and CEO of the company. It was Getty Holdings, representing a consortium of Getty family interests, which bought Tony Stone Images (Tony had previously purchased Click! Chicago and my company, After-Image).

The two re-branded the business as Getty Images, and worked with Tony and his existing management to carry the company forward. So you could say that Tony Stone (who founded his enterprise in the loft of his home decades earlier) was the true founder of Getty Images.

Tony Stone catalog from 1996 Vol 8

I was insulted by Klein’s remark in the recent NY Times article, “When we began, stock photography or licensed images, preshot images being licensed, was perceived as the armpit of the photo industry,” said Jonathan Klein, the chief executive of Getty Images who helped found the agency in 1995. “No self-respecting art director or creative director would use a preshot image, because it wasn’t original, it hadn’t been commissioned by them, it wasn’t their creativity.”

I know from  direct experience as the president of Tony Stone Images/LA that the top creatives regularly bought stock photography including for high visibility,  big campaigns for major advertisers prior to the invention of Getty Images.  I submit that neither Getty nor Klein were responsible for elevating the creative level of the stock photo business. Those laurels go to Tony and the photographer/founders of the Image Bank (Pete Turner, Jay Maisel, Larry Fried as well as businessman, James Garcia). There is no doubt of the immense achievement of Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein – they continued the acquisition of companies which Tony Stone had started, and accelerated the move into the digital world. But the very least they should do is refrain from continuously insulting those whose shoulders they  stood on.

It was Tony Stone’s vision that kickstarted Getty Images’ position at top of the creative market. When I sold my company, After-Image, to Tony and became part of Tony Stone Images, we had over 400,000 photographs in the files in Los Angeles. Tony took one look at the dozens of meticulously organized file cabinets and asked me, “Why do you need all these photos?” He had recognized the highly creative nature of some of the After-Image collection but correctly realized that much was just ‘filler’.

Tony Stone catalog from the mid-1990's

Tony Stone has joined the executive team at Vivozoom

Tony’s theory then and now, reinterated on Microstock Diaries, is that there is no point in wasting time and resources on anything except the best photos in a genre. He once told me that all the world needed was a dozen of the best photos of Paris as those were the images that would run as covers, chapter openers or full page spreads. Why have photos of every little burg in Provence when those images will usually only run small. Of course this was before the Internet and the decline of print. And prior to microstock’s long tail circling the globe.

In addition to the big news last week that Tony Stone has joined  former colleague, Lawrence Gould, at Vivozoom, I noticed news about a new microstock company specializing in images from Israel, with what seems to be an emphasis on religion. Is there a new era in the lifecycle of the microstock business, signaled by these two unrelated events? What do you think? Stay tuned.