Last month, I was contacted by a travel video production company in California. They are putting together a DVD on Patagonia and were looking for a spectacular image to use on the DVD cover. After searching the internet and even contacting the late Galen Rowell’s Mountain Light stock photography agency, they decided that my image above was the most spectacular image of Torres del Paine National Park that they could find. I gave them a reasonable quote of $300 for using it on the cover of up to 5,000 DVDs. I did not hear back from them until yesterday. Fortunately, they have decided to go ahead and purchase my image, even though their distribution partners are not going to pay for it and had wanted to use some less interesting images that they found on micro-stock sites for $30 or less. At least in this case, my client decided that the less expensive option was not worth it, but it highlights the tough reality that we as photographers have to deal with on a daily basis. Is my photography too expensive? Are there too many options out there for photo buyers? What is the value of a photo in the digital age?
I checked my Twitter account this morning, followed a link from @FiNS magazine, and discovered 1 of my tiger shark images being used on-line, possibly without my permission. You can read the article here. There is no image credit, but it is no doubt mine. I sent off an email to the London Evening Standard just a short while ago and am waiting to hear back from them. They could have gotten it from one of my agents like Alamy or SeaPics, or they could have just used it without permission after finding it on the internet. We’ll see what happens.
Another case in point. I was in the Seattle REI this past spring. They sell my mini prints and I have taught photo classes there. I saw one of my best images of Mount Rainier being used on a promotional brochure for climbing Mount Rainier. It took a few days, but I finally tracked down where it came from. It is still posted here, and is apparently free, even though the site says at the bottom in tiny letters something about respecting copyrights. The only place that this image could have come from was from the Singh-Ray filters blog where I am occasionally featured. One of my fans, decided to grab the image and stick it on this website without even giving me credit. The graphic designer that I now work with directly at REI did not see any copyright information (even though it is in the metadata!) so he thought that he could use it for free. REI did eventually agree to pay me several hundred dollars for using it.
The internet is an amazing tool. It allows me to travel the world chasing pictures and work from home. I have spent a lot of time & money modifying my website to the point that it is Search Engine Optimized (SEO). I now get hundred’s of visitors every day who find my site simply by typing in a Google search for something that I have photographed. I am fortunate to be able to pursue my dream full-time. I could be making more money doing something with my degree or the tangents that I briefly followed, but I made a decision that being stuck in traffic and working in an office was not for me. I am very grateful that I have been able to make my modest career possible, but my biggest concern in the years ahead is, what if there is no longer any value in my photographs?
My friends and peers who have been in the industry for the last 20-30 years are very pessimistic every time that I talk to them. There is no doubt that the analog days of the stock industry in the late 80′s and early 90′s was great time to be a photographer. Distribution was tightly controlled by a few agencies. Can you imagine having to pay several hundred dollars for a basic research fee every time that you wanted to look something up on Google? That was what you had to do in order to then have original transparencies Next-Day shipped to you. Next, you had to pay for using the slide, even if you just took it out of it’s sleeve to consider it for mock-up purposes. My point here is that those days are long gone. In this era of technology making our lives ever more spectacular, we as photographers need to be vigilant that we are not being taken advantage of, but we also need the search engines to help people find us in order to make sales.
I get requests all the time from people and organizations that want to use my images for free. If it is a cause I believe in, I usually have already donated money, but I will consider donating an image in exchange for a credit line and I typically ask for at least a small purchase of one of my prints or note-card sets as an acknowledgment of the value of my photography. Most of the time people agree to this modest request. One of my favorite questions that I ask designers that contact me on behalf of someone else, is whether they are working for free for their client? No is almost always the answer. So why do they expect me to work for free?
I understand that new photographers are very excited just to have any of their images published and almost always give away their work for free. My only question is, is that a viable business model that I have not yet learned about? Most photographers just don’t use their heads when they are giving away their work, but unfortunately, they are the rule now rather than the exception. Royalty free and micro-stock sites are here to stay, even though I can not justify selling images that take me weeks of effort and sometimes thousands of dollars to produce for those prices. On the consumer side, I understand that a whole generation of people has been brought up thinking that everything on the internet is free. (I personally never downloaded any music until iTunes came out and my computer software is all paid for.) I recently followed a blog thread by a well-known underwater photographer who had someone copy and make a painting of one of his images and then offer them for sale without his permission. He politely asked them to stop doing that. The person did stop, but not before sending him a long nasty email where she kept referring to his photos as “just stock photography.” Apparently, “just stock photography” now means it is for free.
Tougher times are ahead my fellow photographers, but I wish you success however you may find it.
I hear you Jon, the fight to keep making it as a nature photographer in the future, will become a non ending war with this kind of issues. I guess we can only look for new creative ways to make money come into our pockets. But one thing for sure is important, reminding people that photography is an art and it has a value, and they have to learn to respect that.
Thanks, Emil. I hope this is perceived as insightful rather than a rant.
Standing up for your own value, and the value of your work is getting harder and harder in the face of such tremendous over supply and de-valuation. $300.00 for a DVD Cover is a heck of a good deal (for them), and that really is a fabulous shot.
I think this post is really quite interesting. I would almost take it further – I think it’s true of all content, including articles. The web has devalued it, in that consumers expect everything to be free, or perhaps it has devalued it temporarily. It may just be a case of adjusting to new business models, models of scales. With our websites, we’re getting 12m page views a month, but in terms of ad revenue, you get between $1 and $5 for every thousand pages that are viewed, so ultimately what makes it a viable business is scale (in the dotcom boom, it was around $100 per thousand…ahh, I wish I had set up a site then).
Interesting discussion going on over on Tony Wu’s blog about people using “free” images that I referred to in my post.
http://www.tonywublog.com/20090713/rant-rave-respect.html
Also, Jim Goldstein reviews a new book coming out about things being “free” on the internet.
http://www.jmg-galleries.com/blog/2009/07/16/free-resistance-if-futile-or-is-it/
Interesting post (and beautiful photo).
I’ve spent most of the past 40 years working in one way or another as a photographer and a graphic artist. I can’t even tell you how many times my work has been ripped off.
By the way – I noticed after reading your post that when I right-clicked on your beautiful photo, that I could copy it and save it as anything I wished. You just stuck it out there on the web with no protection. You should post a sign, “Please rip me off!”
Good luck.
Jim
Thanks for the feedback about my “active” right-click. For years, it was disabled, but there were so many ways around it, that only my the most un-computer savvy person could not figure out how to do it. (On a Mac you can just drag an image image to the desktop.) With my bigger push onto the web the past year, I got some feedback from a number of sources that told me that it was pretty lame to still disable it.
I do make sales for internet use, but I can not stay up all night worrying about what anyone is going to do with a 780 pixel wide image. You really have to treat the web as the wild west and that it is going to be out there once you post it. The originals are all 5000-14000 pixels wide. I shouldn’t have to worry about losing fine art print sales at that size. Can’t do any real print work with them, either. In the end though, we all still have to figure out how to make a buck doing what we love in a very difficult world.
I ran across the lead in to your article on Twitter and decided to take a look. I have been harping on the same subject matter with those offering to give me credit. How nice I say but giving me credit won’t help when I have to spend $7000 on new equipment to help create these extraordinary images.
Very well written Jon! This situation has been on my mind for a very long time and as hype around a new book on “Free” hits the market I decided to write up some thoughts on the topic. It certainly relates to this post. My thoughts are extensive so I’m breaking it up over a series of posts this week. Check it out and let me know what you think. Assumptions of “Free”. Thanks for the thought provoking read.
Jim, Thank you for your comment. And thank you for your recent posts about the book “Free“. I am not a big reader myself but I am interested in it, plus my wife just quite her office job to return to freelance writing and research, similar to what she use to do. She went out and bought the book yesterday and is giving it the first (only?) read. I really have no idea where this is all going, but as far as photography goes, every well known photographer that I talk to laments the rampant enthusiasm for the free business model. How can a picture that costs $1000′s of dollars to create be valued the same as a picture that someone can do from home? Not really a long term business model for success. I know that for my own sales, it still comes down to dealing directly with clients and art customers who value what I do and are willing to pay me for my photography.
The “free” business model has been around longer than the internet. That’s why interns were invented! People have always worked for free, given away their goods and services for free, in the hopes of advancing their careers down the road. It’s one of the few leg-ups someone entering the market has over the more established players: pricing. Publish my work for free now, and I’ll use the fact you published it to get paying work down the line.
And to the established players, it’s one of the most annoying aspects to compete against. And so they’re always moaning about how there should be standards, price guidelines, guilds, unions etc., to keep the riffraff from ruining the business.
But let’s be honest, this is not a birthday party, and we don’t all get goody bags just for showing up. If you’re just starting out, you do whatever’s necessary to get work. Even if it means working for free or for cheap for longer than your weaker newbie competitors. And if you’re an established player, you need to be so good at what you do, people will pay you gobs of money even when there’s free stuff to be had.
Any business that is based around an activity people are willing to do for free (everything in the arts for example) is going to have this kind of ‘problem’. It’s just one of the things you have to put up with, in exchange for not having a ‘real job’! :) Let the less-skilled give their stuff away, keep charging for yours, and keep finding ways to convince people to pay good money for it.
P.S. I like that you ask designers if they’re also working for free. That’s a really good question to ask. Of course it probably doesn’t change their budget for photography, but it’s good to ask!
- Matt Haines
http://www.matthainesphotography.com
Voted “Best Photographer of Ventura County”
(VC Reporter AND Ventura County Star readers polls)
Director: Channel Islands Professional Photographers Association
Matt,
Thank you for your comments and insight. I really appreciate them. I also took a look at your website and enjoyed your work. I am super busy doing the Bellevue Arts Festival the next 4 days, so I don’t have enough time to properly reply to you, but again thank you for your input.
Jon – just discovered your work & blog via the Singh-Ray blog, and I’m really enjoying it!
I’m just getting started transitioning photography from hobby to business, and this post is pretty sobering – but I’d much rather plan based on unpleasant truth than happy fiction.
Off to look at more of your site…
- Jack
http://www.jackjohnsonphoto.com
Reading that over, it came across a bit harsh. The pitfalls of emails/comments/internet communication I suppose. So please, if you can, take what I said and put smiley faces after every third sentence (in your head, not literally). It will then come across a little nicer. Here’s one now. :)
-Matt
P.S. Thanks for your kind words re my work!
Matt,
No worries. I know to take everything said on the web with a grain of salt. I resisted allowing comments for a long time, but I am now trying to be more engaged with anyone that is interested in my work. As we both know, those of us who are self-employed have to work a lot, but it is very rewarding. I work very hard for the modest level of income that I have, my wife makes a few bucks, and we also have a few modest investments to help get us by. I resolved 9 years ago, that my brief stint working in a cubicle and driving home in traffic was no way to live. I’m fortunate thus far, but I always say to ask me if I can still do this next year? 8+ years and counting!
Jack,
I always tell my workshop clients that quitting their $100k-ish job to take nature photos is not an easy or wise decision. After 8 years, I am now grossing about 1/2 of that amount annually. It takes years to build up relationships and clients. Keep your day job and plug away at it as hard as you can for the foresee-able future. Are you married? Kids? It is not easy coming and going all the time. I’ve got many friends who have failed relationships because of the amount of selfishness that taking pictures requires. Balance is the key. Best of luck!
Hi, Jon – You’ve about nailed my situation, although the kids are grown & out of the house… My day job is as a self-employed IT consultant, so I have a little flexibility in pursuing photography, but it’s not looking like I’ll be able to move to full-time nature photography for the foreseeable future. I’ll have to see how the business side of it plays out, but that’s really icing on the cake for me at this point – getting out shooting & sharing the images is the real payoff right now.
Speaking of which, I’m really enjoying the beautiful images you’ve made & shared on your website!
- Jack
Thank you for this article! Makes me and others feel we are not alone. Its pretty common nowadays for magazines to just browse flickr and “request” for free images. Most people think that since photographs in digital form are not really physical stuff you can hold in your hands, they must be free.
- Allan
Jon, thanks for the good article. I agree that these days a good portion of photo inquiries is actually “for free”. Gosh, how I hate to even read them. Why would I give away a free licence when my website mentions clearly the prices?
The economical crisis has accelerated the speed that our business goes down the hill. Whoever I talk to, they all confirm that 2009 has been the hardest year for photographers in a long time. With companies becoming more cost-conscious, more often than not they try to cut back on photography cost. Photographers have been responding by reducing their prices (or going out of business).
In a recent blog post I show up another route that may be interesting for us as photographers. Instead of reducing/limiting the exposure of your images (e.g. by disabling right-clicks and sending DMCA-notifications) in the market, we should seek the *exposure* to the masses. Let’s distribute the images as widely as possible. Then find the (inevitable) infringers, and sue them to hell.
Continue reading here: http://www.zanzig.com/blog/?p=605
Jon,
I received your link through a fellow photographer (Matt). I concur with your comments and I truly appreciate you making the effort to post this so that others may think out the box.
I still struggle with how much should I charge for my work? I’m a novice photographer. I’ve come to the conclusion that we (photographers) have to get paid for not only taking the photo on scene, but the process of touching up and adding little special effects to a photo, which takes time and talent! Time is money, even though we enjoy what we do with a passion! We are creative artists in our own sense and like any other “artist,” we must get paid for our talent and creativity.
Thanks and I will frequent your blog more often. This was very educational and enlightening for me. http://www.patrickjonesphotography.smugmug.com
Patrick
Patrick,
The one thing that you will discover is that no one wants to pay you for all of your extra time. That is suppose to be included. Adjust you prices accordingly. Shoot for 2 hours, and you have created 4+ hours of work. Downloading, processing, exporting, Photoshop, keywording, adding to your blog/website, etc. It all takes a ton of time away from what you really want to be doing, and that is taking pictures.
For me, I originally got into photography to better connect with nature through my activities, plus I did not want to sit behind a desk working on a computer all day in some office. Now I sit behind a computer all day in my home! Be careful of what you wish for.
Hey Jon,
I seem to go through this more and more lately. Also, the lame offers to use my images for publishing. I just say no thanks after they turn down my terms. Holding out and getting the better deals is best. Too often I hear the words istock or micro stock from possible clients. I work way too hard to get my lava images to be short selling them.
I hear you, Bryan. Another photographer mentioned that he had a client ask to use 10 images for a dive resort’s website. He offered them to the graphic designer for $350 total, unlimited use! Guess what? That was too expensive & they started talking about iStock rates.
On another note, I just had someone contact me who wants to use 1 of my images as a background on their website. They are a bit of a non-profit group working on an interesting project. I told them that no matter what I offered them, I would be basically donating to their cause, but I would like a token payment acknowledging my work. We agreed on $175, which is OK for a small sale like this.
I hear you Jon. I often think about this and wonder if it is the fact that photographers like to work as an individual instead as a team member that makes them susceptible to economic challenges you described. If you look back on the history of mankind, survival of an individual has almost always been linked to participation in groups and societies. Groups generally do better than an isolated individual. All the stock photography websites, flickr forums and likes of such are flourishing today on the same content that photographers are finding difficult to extract value from. The only reason I could think of is that these sites are supported by many, while a photographer’s business is generally supported only by himself. Wonder what your views are on this.
Best Regards,
Saurabh Deoras
http://sdeoras.smugmug.com
Saurabh-
The thing that those of us who are sole proprietors have to remember is that we are (thus far) fortunate to be able to work for ourselves. I could make twice as much money working a “real job”, but how boring would that be? I briefly tried it, and it was not for me. I also think that most of my peers will agree that we like what we do because we can do it by ourselves. My photography goals are to see the world in a pristine & quiet state, especially those places that few others are fortunate enough to visit. Maybe it is not the most successful business model of all time, but artists have always had to find patrons willing to enable their vision. There are very few photographers in the world capable of not only taking the pictures that I do, but also staying in business through their photography. I’ve grown my modest business for the last 9 years & can not imagine doing anything else at this point. I have only myself to give credit & blame to. Anyways, what is job security for anyone these days?
I agree with you Jon. You are absolutely correct about job security these days and that, I feel, will open doors to the individual creativity. I think sustainable economic models will soon emerge in photography, like they exist in engineering. Thats because the sheer scale of participation in photography is very high from photographers, equipment makers, content distributors, educators and consumers. However, this may also pose a danger by commoditizing photography. Either way as photographers we got to follow the passion and the rest will follow. Also we cannot judge art on commercial platform alone. Being able to enjoy the nature in its pristine state, develop a vision and a sense of perspective are some of the very tangible gains.
Thank you again for your post and for this discussion. It helped me channel my thoughts.
Best Regards,
Saurabh Deoras
http://sdeoras.smugmug.com
Hi Jon,
I stumbled across your website via Google (looking for something else) and want to thank you for this excellent article. It’s very insightful.
Like many others, I have started in photography as a hobby, now have a small business along with my day job in the office, and the thought of someday having a living out of it is ever growing.
Of course it’s harder today than in the days of analog, but I think that professional photography still has a future.
Will revisit soon. The quality of the discussion here is hard to find on blogs.
All the best,
Birgit
Well Jon,
First, I can not remember seeing a better portrait view of that place ever!
Second, unfortunately there is no way to fight supply and demand. It is like when BP shareholders complain about their stock dropping and how if they simply did not sell their shares, the stock would still be $60 instead of $35. Supply and demand is nearly as solid as a rule of physics. The fact is, there are now tens of thousands of people who can shoot photos that are ‘good enough’ for CD covers.
So, people can try to hold out for more money, but even when they do, all they get is $300. Still, it is not worth your time to give it away so you are right to not bother with it unless they pay at least some reasonable amount. If they want better than ‘good enough’ they will pay. But most of the time, good enough is really good enough!
I’m off to the Big Island of Hawaii for a couple of weeks. The lava is flowing to the sea again!
Patrick
I found this post via Patrick Smith’s twitter feed, and it’s a frustrating story heard repeatedly. One tool I’ve only recently discovered (via one of Scott Bourne’s websites/blogs, I think…) for finding online infringement is TinEye, a browser plugin that is supposed to do a pretty good job of showing you where all on the internet a given photo is posted. For example, the search results for your Patagonia shot can be seen at http://www.tineye.com/search/3528adf5a7fe1e7950cbcd35665631d85a3e0b94/, although that expires in 72 hours, I think it said.
Great photos you have. At the same time, we have to recognize that that level of quality is easily achievable by a sizable number.
On one hand, there are photographers who hope to make a comfortable living out of what most others see as a hobby. On the other hand, there are successful people out there with 100k+ careers, who still have time to shoot as a hobby, yet are able to achieve the level of quality that the first group of photographers must dedicate their “full-time-less” time, just to achieve that level of quality.
So what we have here are people who are decently talented, yet need to make a living out of photography b/c they don’t have another daytime lucrative job, for various reasons.
Meanwhile, the second group is composed of people that can just as easily achieve the quality of “full-time photographers,” but on their spare time.
I’m sorry if this is hard to hear, but hopefully this will help those in the 1st group from being disillusioned into having a dream of making fortunes with relatively “common” skills.
Best of luck to everyone.
I find this very interesting and it hit a chord with me on all the points you bring up. Wow! I just had to add you to my blog site and a link with this article so that everyone else can read it. Very thoughtful and made me think and I agree with you on almost every point you make here. I work but also do photography when I am not working so I don’t have any days off. I love what I do and I have had to deal with images being copied on the web, my solution was to make them smaller therefore they are not really useful if anyone is intent on using them without permission.
Thank you for this article! Well done and well stated plus you are a fabulous photographer and I appreciate your talent.
Best Regards!