Picture Archive Councel of America
August 25, 2008
What's New?

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Maria Kessler
Maria Kessler

When I first learned about PACA, and the basic premise that it was a trade association dedicated to its members' common interests (copyright, standards and best practices), it was clear to me that this was an organization that my company would benefit from (and that I would contribute in whatever way I could).

When I think about the benefits of PACA, the community aspects and the 'association' aspects stand out. Nancy Wolf’s Legal Updates and her guidance on critical watch-dog efforts have been invaluable to our commercial pursuits, but it all gets real when we recognize that we are all working together to progress our common interests. The 13th Annual International PACA Conference and now bi-annual spring 'educational' conference are where we meet, where we are introduced to the larger community, our colleagues and partners, and where we share the thoughts and opinions that guide us through the various new phases of our marketplace.

Over the years, there have been a number of challenges our industry has faced and engaged. At each stage we are dealing with technological advances (from digitization, PhotoCDs to websites and search engines), standards (ever changing equipment, formats, delivery and storage mechanisms) and business practices (shifting business models and addressing solutions for workflow advances from our advertising and publishing customers). The PACA Conferences are a forum for listening to our colleagues express their views on panels, in meetings, or to sit and share coffee or food and just talk about the challenges that we face.

I have never left one of our Conferences without a general sense of what’s hot and what possibilities abound in our industry. But more importantly, I get to meet the people I work with and the people I speak to on the phone or over email. Whether we speak the same language or not, without sharing thoughts and ideas in a face-to-face manner, something gets lost in translation. The value of what connections we make, the interaction about issues we commonly face, and the personal experience are well worth the time and relatively small expense.

I look forward to personally meeting as many of our members as possible at our Conference in October. It’s good for our industry, it’s good for our businesses and it’s good for all of us as professionals.

As always, we are a community that serves your interests. Let us know how we are doing. I invite you to provide us with your feedback or industry issues.

Sincerely,
Maria Kessler
Jupiter Images/PACA President

 

PACA 13th annual international conference

What Role Is Technology Playing In New Business Opportunities?

The stock photography industry in 2008...

  • ongoing, and rapid, migration from print to web & digital usage
  • lower entry thresholds for content creators
  • massive supply of images and content
  • new marketplaces bringing buyers in direct contact with photographers
  • and inevitably, downward price pressure

No doubt about it, the stock photography industry is going through another cycle of convulsive change. But out of these changes a host of new opportunities have been born for those able to recognize and adapt. Technology is playing a large part in these developments, and this year’s Technology Panel session brings together a range of speakers to give voice and insight to some of these changes.

John Griffin (Cutcaster) and Oleg Tscheltzoff (Fotolia) are both relative newcomers to stock photography. John, a former stock trader on Wall St. and Oleg a serial entrepreneur in the technology space, have both launched businesses in the last few years that give photographers and content creators the chance to license their images directly with the customer.

Technological advances in the way media is produced and distributed, and the challenges it poses to an industry, is nothing new to the music industry. Ben London (Recording Industry Association of America) will be able to bring together not only the obvious parallels to the image industry, but also acknowledge how technology has created opportunities for an industry already in the throes of adaptation, and having learned some valuable lessons.

As visual communication is quickly migrating from print to web, how is content being utilized in this new space, what kind of development is being realized and what types of opportunities will present themselves? Kevin Goldsmith (Adobe) and Giles Copp (version industries) offer a view into new technologies and forward-looking trends.

Some of the panels are fairly new to the stock photography industry, others come from creative industries outside our own, but all have a real interest in technology and how it is changing—and has already changed—the landscape and business of monetizing digital assets in an online environment.

Important Conference Information

Conference registration is available online. The current discount registration fees are available until September 15th. Register now to avoid missing the deadline.

Don’t forget to book your hotel reservations. PACA has negotiated a fabulous discount rate for rooms at the New York Downtown Marriott (our Conference hotel) of just $289 per night (their normal rate is $509). These reduced rates apply to stays between October 21 and October 30, 2008, based on availability. Rooms are going fast and you must make your hotel reservations by August 31, 2008. To avoid disappointment, reserve your room(s) today!

Official Sponsors Of The 2008 PACA International Conference

What’s the best way to promote your company to the Top Of The List at the PACA 2008 International Conference? Sponsorships!

By popular request we've added more opportunities for you to highlight your business. This year Conference sessions can be sponsored and will include Visual Session Starters/Photomercials. Start each session with a slide show presentation to promote your company until the session starts. One title slide and at least 20 beautiful images in a PowerPoint presentation will entertain the waiting audience. Also new are meal sponsorships that include the distribution of your promotional piece during the meal. Traditional sponsorships are still available for the Conference Marketing Hub breaks, cocktails, registration bags, pens, t-shirts, pens and lanyards. For a complete list of sponsorship items and details, please visit the PACA web site by clicking here.

All sponsorships include a display of signage at the sponsored event, acknowledgement in the Conference Program, acknowledgement in all PACA newsletters leading up to the event, banner ad in rotation on PACA's home page in advance of the event, and your company’s name on the sponsorship list of the website with a link to your homepage. Sponsorships over $2000 have the added bonus of a free promo piece included in the registration packets.

Individual Sponsorships are available through August 31 on a first come basis, and then based on availability thereafter. Co-Sponsorships are available after August 31. Don’t delay—make your selection today!

We thank these companies already signed up for sponsorships:

  • Getty Images: Sponsor of Jim Carroll, our Keynote Speaker
  • StockShop: Sponsor of the Art Buyer’s Panel
  • National Portrait Gallery: Sponsor of the “Enforcing your Copyright in the United States” session
  • Imprezzo: Sponsor of the Technology Panel and the Lanyards
  • PicScout: Coffee Sponsor for entire event
  • Image Source: T-shirt Sponsor

Closing Party

Don’t forget to register for our closing party at the Grill Room. You asked for a more casual dinner and we’re delivering... a relaxed atmosphere with passed appetizers, a buffet dinner and 3 hours of a full open bar! This celebrated restaurant overlooks the Hudson River and will be the perfect place to end your weekend with more opportunities to meet & schmooze with your fellow attendees.

 

Guest Editorial: VIEWS FROM A PACA MEMBER

Dear fellow PACA Members,

This is an alert about a new web search site, Cuil.com—a competitor to Google. Please try out Cuil.com using your own agency as a keyword. Their search engine evidently pulls in pictures as well as text, but pictures and text are not necessarily coordinated in a meaningful way. I was alerted to this a couple weeks ago by a photo researcher who searched North Wind Picture Archives as a test run on Cuil.com. She was so alarmed, she emailed me.

I immediately did the same search, and there were some important problems. A picture of a book having nothing to do with us came up next to our website URL. Search results also included publications that list us in the picture credits. Unfortunately, the image that appears with the book URL has nothing to do with the image used in the book, e.g., Encyclopaedia Britannica's Guide to Shakespeare. EB used one of our images in the book—but the picture next to the Shakespeare listing was our 19th-centuy American mountain man. The image is not in that book, it does not belong to Encyclopaedia Britannica, and it is not credited to North Wind Picture Archives. It is our copyrighted image and we asked Cuil.com to take it down as well as all other North Wind Picture Archives images that inappropriately appear, such as our 17th-century Dutch sailing ship illustrating a Viagra spam site.

Cuil.com replied a few days later: “...We have already improved our algorithms and some of the problems have been fixed. Could I kindly trouble you to provide us with a link (or query) of the search results and what images are problematic for you. We will then take those images down promptly.”

As far as I could tell, none of my complaints had been addressed. I asked them to take immediate steps to eliminate the imagery problem on their search engine. The Cuil.com response was to ask me to itemize every instance of a misused image. There were 425 search results for North Wind Picture Archives. There are hundreds of links and I should not have to list them. After I explained that this was a systemic problem not limited to one or two items, I received the following message:

“Your initial complaint that there was an unrelated book image next to your URL http://www.northwindpictures.com/ has been addressed, there's no picture there. We also took down the mountain man by the EB guide to Shakespeare as per your request: ‘It is not acceptable to use our mountain man picture next to EB's Guide to Shakespeare’. I'm afraid I could not find a a 17th century Dutch sailing ship, hopefully because the Viagra spam site is not there either (of course there might be other Viagra spams posing as legit hits, these guys are terribly hard to beat)... I'd like to know if there are other images that you'd like us to remove from our servers.”

The picture was indeed removed from our URL, and our mountain man was removed from EB's Guide to Shakespeare. However, our mountain man image still illustrated a book entitled, "Legacy of Light: Quakers in America," (still under search results for North Wind Picture Archives). The picture isn’t in the book, and even if it were appropriate to the subject, this is an unauthorized use of our picture. Two instances of our 17th-century Dutch galleon appear next to a listing for an MP3 song, "Download the North Wind, David Lang and David Anderson," another unauthorized use. Also, a different picture that is not ours was now next to the North Wind Picture Archives’ URL—a child riding a dolphin. It has nothing to do with our website and does not represent the type of picture we stock.

Cuil.com’s reply:
“I have now removed the mountain man, the child riding a dolphin and the 17th-century Dutch galleon pictures. For some reason (perhaps because of the javascript that does the animation in your pages) when we crawled your page we didn't get any images, thus our algorithm attempts to find pictures that match your name (a dolphin for Pacific is not so bad) but it does not ‘understand’ your business and books. We're working on an improved version of the system but I hope that, for now, we have removed the problems. Let us know if there are remaining problems.“

Once again I complained that this cannot be adequately tackled on a case-by-case basis. “If the search algorithm is finding random pictures to attach to words, the entire commercial photography and illustration community is going to have grounds to attack, because you have no legal authority to use the pictures in this way. Using images which are not illustrating the copyright-owners' listing gives the viewer the impression the illustration promotes the URL it appears with,” I emailed.

Since this exchange with Cuil.com, a new problem has arisen. Cuil.com has given us a logo. We have a logo—a pine tree, in green on a white background. The newly assigned logo is blue and black and bears no resemblance to our insignia. I plan to complain about this, but complaining is time-consuming, and in this instance it doesn’t appear to be very productive.

Perhaps we need a cooperative effort to get this overseas organization to revise its technology. Thanks for your help.

Nancy Carter
North Wind Picture Archives
800/952-0703
mail@northwindpictures.com

ALASKA STOCK IMAGES CAPTURES DENALI IN INNOVATIVE NEW EIELSON VISITOR CENTER
Anchorage, AK

Alaska Stock Images, Alaska’s largest stock photo agency, announced their role as the primary source of photography for Denali National Park’s new Eielson Visitor Center. Over 20 Alaska Stock photographers created more than 70 custom assignment and stock images of majestic landscapes, wildlife, botanical studies, and park activities, which are featured on interpretive panels, both inside and outside this innovative facility.

"We were very happy and excited to receive the contract to do the custom photography for the new Eielson Visitor Center exhibits two years ago and now to see it completed in such a spectacular facility is most rewarding", commented Jeff Schultz, owner and founder of Alaska Stock. "The images that were needed to show off and explain the park's beauty to the world proved to be quite easy for some and quite a challenge for others. In the end it was very gratifying. We were fortunate to work with great people like Marc Belanger from Aldrich Pears and Carol Harding from Denali Park who made the entire project such a joy.”

Carol Harding, Denali's interpretive planner, remarked, "The National Park Service is extremely pleased with the outstanding quality of the images supplied by Alaska Stock for Eielson Visitor Center. Jeff Schultz was great to work with, and always responded immediately to our needs."

Built with sustainability in mind, the Eielson Visitor Center is located in the heart of Denali National Park at Mile 66 on the Park Road and is completing the process of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification. Total cost of the 7,400 square feet low-profile, earth-bermed building and its exhibits was $9.2 million and includes large indoor and outdoor viewing areas, an indoor dining area, space for indoor ranger presentations, captivating exhibits plus an interactive topographical model of Mount McKinley that is twelve feet in diameter. Visitor’s can view spectacular vistas and various exhibits featuring Alaska Stock photographs any day the center is open as well as during a special grand opening dedication event.

For more information about Eielson Visitor Center visit www.nps.gov/dena/parknews/evcopenjune08.htm.

For further information, please contact:
Jeff Schultz, Owner
www.AlaskaStock.com
800/487-4285
jeff@alaskastock.com


MAP RESOURCES RELEASES HI-RES JPEG CITY MAPS

Now, designers can get hi-res maps of major US cities in JPEG format. Maps are full size, 300 dpi CMYK high-resolution images. Users can use the entire map image, or cut out portions. City maps are highly detailed with streets and significant features. Maps are Royalty-Free, with prices starting at $299.95. JPEG maps are available for: Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, DC. Other cities are available on request.

For complete information for JPEG maps, including prices and comps, visit www.mapresources.com/newmaps.asp. Maps are available online or by calling Map Resources (800/334-4291). All major credit cards and company purchase orders are accepted. All purchases come with a money-back guarantee. Map Resources has specialized in developing editable maps for the professional business and graphics industry since 1984. The company offers a complete selection of stock maps and custom mapping services.

Learn more about Map Respurces at www.mapresources.com.


MASTERFILE CITY FORUM: WHERE CREATIVE EXCHANGES FLOW
Toronto, Canada & Düsseldorf, Germany

Starting in August, Masterfile will be offering creative professionals everywhere a valuable networking and information sharing service, the Masterfile City Forum. This chat room style feature will be accessed through Masterfile’s own ever-evolving virtual metropolis, Masterfile City (www.masterfile.com/mcity). It will be a meeting place for designers, art buyers and creatives from around the world. Masterfile is inviting them to take part in a creative exchange, sharing ideas and solving problems with an international group of colleagues. Software tips and tricks, design trends and concepts, outstanding campaigns and cutting edge websites—all will be open to discussion in the Forum. Registered users will also be free to post images, documents and PDFs there. They’ll determine what the “talk of the town” will be, and it is hoped that Masterfile City Forum will become an invaluable service to the photography and design world people who use it.

Any visitors to the website will be able to view all topics and content of the Forum, but in order to join in the online conversation they will need to register in Masterfile City. Registered users will be able to reveal or conceal any personal information they choose—their name, nickname, nationality, gender, profession, etc. They will also instantly become eligible for regular prize draws at Masterfile, including one for two round-the-world airline tickets. All participation by a registered user in the Forum (and anywhere else in Masterfile City) is rewarded with “creative points” that accrue to an account and increase their chances of winning a prize.

The Masterfile City Forum will be first launched in English, but other language versions will soon follow. It has been developed by Masterfile’s European office, as well as the design agency Parasol Island and the IT consulting & software engineering company Iterranux, all in Düsseldorf.

For more information, contact Masterfile:
Phone: 416/929-3000
Email: info@masterfile.com


EXPLORE THE GEOMETRY OF THE NATURAL WORLD WITH MOUNTAIN LIGHT PICTURES’ LINDE WAIDHOFER
Bishop, CA

For Linde Waidhofer, landscape photography is as much passion as profession. Waidhofer is bringing that passion to Mountain Light Pictures’ ever-growing list of contributing photographers. Waidhofer searches out the emotional impact of wild and mysterious landscapes. She finds the geometry and design beneath the surface of the natural world, in images of simplicity and abstraction. Waidhofer loves the wildest corners of the West, natural light and changing weather. Her Western landscapes have appeared in National Geographic books, and in magazines in Germany, Italy and the U.S. She has photographed assignments from Japan and New Zealand to Alaska and the Alps. Waidhofer has published three books of landscape photography: High Color, Red Rock, Blue Sky, and, most recently, Stone & Silence. Her latest photographic adventure has been an ongoing exploration of Patagonia, the southernmost end of South America, a landscape of incredible beauty, relatively unvisited, unknown, and almost unphotographed.

Mountain Light Pictures is the home of the Galen Rowell Image Collection—stunning photographs from around the world produced by one of the most influential photographers of the latter part of the 20th Century. MLP also represents a growing list of the finest working outdoor and nature photographers including Robert Holmes, Chris Linder, Justin Black, Harrison Shull, Chris Noble and Dennis Coello. MLP continues to seek out photographers who see photography as an accessible and honest form of communication.

“We chose to work with people who share Galen’s dedication to producing stunning, vibrant, pictures of all things rooted in the natural world,” said Dean Stevens of Mountain Light. “The addition of Linde Waidhofer is a huge step toward fulfilling our goal of building the world’s finest commercial library of travel, outdoor adventure, landscape, lifestyle and environmental photographs.”

Mountain Light Pictures
877/291-7700
mlstock.com
mlpictures@mountainlight.com


PHOTOSHELTER LAUNCHES PHOTOSHELTER PRINTS
New York, NY

PhotoShelter Inc., where an online community of 42,000 independent photographers finds success through image sales and archiving technologies, today announced a limited-time opportunity to purchase a selection of prints from The PhotoShelter Collection. Handpicked by PhotoShelter’s team of editors, the prints reflect the wide aesthetic range of images contributed by PhotoShelter's global photographer community, from exquisite floral still life to Las Vegas Elvis impersonators. Available now through October 1, 2008, images can be viewed and purchased at www.photoshelterprints.com.

Since the September 2007 launch of The PhotoShelter Collection, the company's stock photography marketplace, visitors have frequently requested the ability to purchase prints—recognizing the contemporary art quality of images contributed by PhotoShelter photographers who range from renowned Pulitzer Prize winners to undiscovered, or emerging young talent from around the world. PhotoShelter Prints is a direct response to these requests, and part of the company’s ongoing exploration of new sales opportunities for independent photographers.

“With thousands of contributors from more than 160 countries around the world, we’re in a unique position to make independent photography accessible, at reasonable prices, too,” said Allen Murabayashi, PhotoShelter’s CEO. “We’re excited about the potential of PhotoShelter Prints to continue to help members of our community be successful, and we’re looking forward to introducing these exceptional images to homes and collections everywhere. Some of the work has never before been offered publicly.”

Two galleries of images are available; one offering photos with a contemporary aesthetic and the other a classic. The selection of images and contributing photographers is a broad sample of the diverse work and specialties available as stock photography through The PhotoShelter Collection. In addition to dozens of emerging talented photographers, notable contributors with prints available through this offering include Radar Magazine Photo Editor Stacey Pittmann; award-winning editorial photographers Ami Vitale and Landon Nordeman, whose images regularly appear in the world’s most widely read newspapers and magazines; and Andy Biggs, whose African wildlife images are currently featured in Banana Republic retail stores across the United States. Print prices vary by size, ranging from $100 to $450. All images are printed on archival quality Kodak Pro Endura Supra paper, which offers print stability and longevity of up to 200 years.

PhotoShelter Prints are available today through until October 1, 2008. Pending the success of PhotoShelter Prints, the company may formally launch a PhotoShelter Prints line, which would then be open to participation from the full PhotoShelter community of photographers.

To join our community, visit www.photoshelter.com.


FOUR TABLES REMAINING AT PICTUREHOUSE NEW YORK!
New York, NY

Attending the PACA International Conference? Make the most of your marketing dollars by exhibiting at our 8th annual Picturehouse New York event and join your peer as they meet hundreds of potential buyers. This year's event will be held at the Altman Building, centrally located at 135 W. 18th Street in the heart of Chelsea, on Wednesday October 29th—but don’t wait, only four tables remain!

Picturehouse events are centered on networking in a fun atmosphere, with free wine, beer, and refreshments served throughout the day. While visiting representatives of participating imagery libraries and agencies at their tables, image buyers discover new sources of imagery, mingle with fellow buyers and sellers, and get to know the people behind the scenes.

“Email, voicemail, and phone calls are too often cold, impersonal or intrusive,” says Reiman Publishing’s Trudi Bellin. “Personal contact can have a huge influence on business relationships. Picturehouse was an opportunity to put faces with names.”

Since its 2001 launch in the UK and NY, Picturehouse has hosted dozens of events in major cities around the world and brought together nearly 450 agencies and thousands of image buyers.

For more information or to book your table go to www.picturehouse-us.com/newyork. We look forward to seeing you there!

With warmest regards,

Deborah Free, President
Picturehouse Marketing US LLC
585/768-7880
deborah@picturehouse-us.com
www.picturehouse-us.com


SURVEY OF SELF-EMPLOYED PHOTOGRAPHERS

In these rapidly changing and challenging times, many photographers are finding it necessary to modify their business strategies. Some stock photographers are turning to assignments. Others earn their primary income from non-photographic sources with photography being only a secondary source of income. At the other end of the spectrum, amateurs with no expectations of earning a living from photography are finding that taking pictures can be a source of additional income, not just an enjoyable hobby.

All these people need industry trend data to properly plan for the future. Our survey at www.jimpickerell.com/surveyshared.aspx is designed to provide useful statistics and develop baseline data. We expect to follow up with additional surveys on at least an annual basis. Every photographer who earned money in 2007 from selling or licensing their images—be it $100 or hundreds of thousands—is encouraged to respond to the survey’s eight simple questions. The survey will be open until September 30, 2008. An in-depth analysis of the results will be made available through this website soon after.

The data will be tabulated by Jim Pickerell, active in the industry for more than 45 years as a photographer and editor of the newsletter Selling Stock.

All responses will be held in strictest confidence. No attempt will be made to identify specific individuals. If anyone has questions or would like to comment on this survey, Jim Pickerell can be contacted at jim@scphotos.com. For more background on Jim Pickerell, go to www.jimpickerell.com/about.asp.

One of the many benefits of PACA membership is this twice-monthly newsletter, read by many in North America and internationally. The newsletter actively encourages and welcomes contributions on all aspects of the business and we want to hear your views. In addition, the Career Opporunities section is free to members. Use this section to place job postings. PACA’s reach is substantial so make sure you get the most of your membership. Please e-mail information to pacanews@pacaoffice.org.