Photography: James Higgins

Prowling used bookstores in the search for old photography books back in 2002, photographer Karl Baden began to notice something unusual. Many of the most iconic images in the history of photography, he saw, were turning up on the covers of books that appeared to have nothing to do with the subject of the image. Man Ray’s Violon D’Ingres, for example, appeared on the cover of Walter Redfern’s Puns, one of four books that Karl found with that photo on the cover — and one of 41 books that use images by Man Ray.

Fascinated by this use of a work of photographic art, Karl began collecting books that place famous photographs on the cover, eventually building a collection of around 3,000 books. About  350 photographers are represented, and their images can be viewed at CoveringPhotography.com.

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Photography: Joe Thorn

One of the things that makes photography special is that it’s an activity that many people pay to do and some people are paid to do. It’s a business and an industry, as well as a passion, a hobby and a pastime. Usually, those two elements don’t mix. Photographers who shoot stock might enjoy their shoots but they’re rarely taking the kinds of pictures that they’d create for fun. They’re taking pictures that sell. The same is true of event photographers, commercial photographers and even editorial photographers. Services like Microstock and especially Flickr  have narrowed the gap a little in the last few years, enabling enthusiasts to sell images that were taken for fun but there are a few other areas where business meets photography in surprising ways.

Flickr’s Business Potential

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Photography: Mike Stimpson

When Toyota hired Rebekka Gudsleifdottir to shoot a series of billboard ads for the Prius in 2006, it was an idea they were after. Rebecca, then an art student in Iceland, had already gathered a large following on Flickr by creating a series of self-portraits in which she appeared twice. That double-appearance, Toyota’s advertising company felt, reflected the hybrid car’s two power sources. These days, they might want to avoid photographers whose careers appear to be as unstoppable as Rebekka’s (her work this month will be exhibited in New York) but that commission – remarkable for a non-professional — does show how sometimes a good idea, combined with the right execution, can be enough to win paid work. Rebekka though isn’t the only photographer whose creativity has helped to fill her order book. Here are five others:

Kevin Bauman’s 100 Abandoned Houses

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If a photographer were to open a store — or even a gallery — the business plan would be pretty simple: figure out the right price for a photo, put the price on a sticker, put the sticker next to the image, and wait for someone willing to pay that amount. It’s the way retail usually works and it’s straightforward enough. The seller names the price; the buyer gets to take it or leave it. Set up a photography business though and when it comes to ways of taking money for your photos, you’ll be spoiled for choice. Selling prints might be simple to plan (if hard to do), but event photographers have to create packages that combine hourly rates with physical products, making them flexible enough to appeal to different budgets but enticing enough to encourage clients to spend as much as they can. Even those sorts of packages though are fairly clear, and a quick look at what competitors are doing can usually provide a pretty good guide. It’s when a photographer want to license his or her photos that things start to get really complicated.

In practice, photographers are basing their prices on four main models. Choose the wrong model for your images, you could well find that you’re priced out of the market and struggling to make sales.

Microstock’s royalty-free model is the simplest. Prices are low and once a buyer has bought the image, he can do whatever he wants with it, short of selling it somewhere else. So an image that might have cost no more than a buck or three can end up on the cover of a book, on the website of an international magazine as well as on blogs, marketing material and in low-cost newsletters.

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The biggest difference between photography enthusiasts and photography professionals is what they’re hoping will happen when they put down the camera. A photography enthusiast hopes that he or she has captured an image that will make them proud, show that they’ve improved their skills and made use of their talent and technique. A photography professional’s aim is much simpler. They have to hope that they’ve created an image that sells. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the picture is or how much they enjoyed shooting it, if the picture doesn’t pay for the time it took to create it, they’ve failed. That requirement can dictate the subjects that photographers choose to photograph. As much as they might want to spend their days shooting sunsets and landscapes, most professional photographers will also have to make sure that they focus their lens on subjects for which they know there’s a market.

Often, that means topics that reflect businesses — which also happens to reflect the type of clients who buy them. Asked what sort of pictures sell best on his site, Oleg Tscheltzoff, CEO of microstock site Fotolia, once told us that it was always businesses and “everything around people.” Put a person in a suit and put them in front of your lens and you’ve got a much better chance of making a sale.

That’s certainly reflected in the sales figures that are easily available from stock sites. A look at iStockPhoto’s most popular files, for example, reveals that while the highest rated images tend to be artistic and natural, almost half of the fifteen most downloaded – the images that buyers actually paid for — contain people.

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Photography: illustir

The stock industry has changed. For established professionals who were already inside and enjoying the benefit of lifetime royalties from a reliable sales channel, it’s all been bad news. Competition has increased, and the prices — even of photos from companies as selective as Corbis and Getty — have fallen sharply. For enthusiasts, the kind of people who shoot for fun and hope to make a little extra money on the side, it’s been largely good news. Instead of hoping that one of the major stock companies would happen to look in their direction, they can now upload their pictures to a wide range of microstock firms with low acceptance requirements. If the image looks like it might sell, they can find an outlet willing to take it. But the news hasn’t all been positive. While microstock might be open source, it’s also underpriced. And the competition is fierce too. Fortunately, there are options that allow photographers to sell licenses for real money while still enjoying minimal acceptance requirements and open opportunities. Here are five of them.

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When her friend Ellis was posted to Iraq, photographer Kim Crenshaw decided to send him a care package. Like others hoping to support troops serving abroad, Kim filled the package with candy, soaps and snacks but as a photographer, she wanted to contribute a little more. She invited the soldier’s wife and son into her studio and photographed them lying on a bed, pretending to sleep. She then had the image screen-printed onto a pillowcase and included the bedding in the care package. The letter of thanks that Kim received from Ellis, in which he described the pleasure of laying his head next to his family at the end of a difficult day in the Middle East, brought tears to her eyes.

It also brought her a write-up in the The Apex Herald,  a newspaper in North Carolina where Kim runs her photography business.

Publicity might not have been the first thing on Kim’s mind as she looked for a creative way to make life a little better for a friend in Iraq, but it’s certainly a valuable result. Kim’s name is now known in her area. It’s also associated with generosity, care, patriotism and charity. When someone in Apex, North Carolina is considering booking a portrait session, they’ll think of her. She’s stolen a march on her competitors, won the kind of recognition that would have cost thousands of dollars in advertising, and picked up a halo that money can’t buy.

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We’ve heard the hype before. Citizen photojournalism, we’ve been told, is the future of editorial photography. Newspapers are shrinking their photography departments just as cameras have become standard features on mobile phones. With a camera-holder at every news scene, all a media outlet has to do is ask for submissions from any accident, disaster, terrorist attack or demonstration to be immediately inundated with a choice of free, quality images. Why bother sending a pro when the amateurs are already there, good enough and willing to work for next to nothing?

It was that hope that led to the rise of services like Scoopt, which took open submissions of news images and distributed them to the media. It was the potential of citizen photojournalism that led Getty to buy Scoopt in 2007. And it was the limitations of citizen photojournalism – the poor images, the rarity of important enough events, the inability of agencies to get between the photographer and the media, the difficulty of distributing images it did have to the right outlets – that led Getty to shut the service down two years later.

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One of the biggest problems for photography studios is amnesia. Clients book a shoot, pick up their pictures… then forget who took them. They might show the pictures to friends occasionally but for the most part, the images stay in the album and the direct connection to the photographer – together with the potential for referrals, repeat sales and additional sales — is lost. That’s a problem that two portrait studio owners are trying to solve by allowing photographers to put not just pictures, but their entire studio in clients’ pockets.

Tim and Joy Vertz are co-owners of Shoot the Moon Photography, a Milwaukee photography studio that specializes in portraits and weddings. Together with developer Jason Kelley, they have created an iPhone app that aims to help photographers maintain a permanent link with their clients.

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Photography: Vanessa Dualib

Food photography is usually a difficult niche for a photographer. Getting the lighting right is only part of the challenge. You also need to know how to pose the food, prevent it from drying out under lights and make it look appealing and appetizing. Many specialist photographers work with professional food designers whose job is to prepare the plate while the photographer sets up the shoot. Sometimes though, it can pay for a photographer just to pull out her camera, open the fridge and play with her food.

Vanessa Dualib, an artist from Sao Paolo, Brazil, has three loves: photography, food and humor. She now combines all of those passions in a series of images that turn vegetables into animals, and the serious business of eating into the not-quite-serious business of funny food photography.

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Photography: Craig Holmes

It would be great if success at photography were only about talent, technique and the ability to produce a great picture. It isn’t. Earning a living behind the lens also means understanding the business of photography, knowing how to promote services, sell images, and protect yourself against the most damaging competition. That’s hard enough at the best of times. It’s even harder at a time when anyone can buy a good camera, practice taking pictures and start marketing themselves. But the same opportunities that now give enthusiasts access to buyers also allow smart entrepreneurial professionals to pull ahead. So what would a small, modern and successful photography business look like if it were run by a photographer who knew business?

It would probably look a lot like the business run by Craig Holmes.

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Photography: Philip Brown

Philip Brown’s website makes very clear who he is and what he offers. At the top of the page, right next to his name, are the words “specialist cricket photographer.” In terms of nicheing, it doesn’t get much narrower than that. But it’s an approach that appears to have served him well. Philip works regularly for the UK’s Daily Telegraph, thousands of his images have appeared in newspapers, magazines and books, and he has edited two books of sporting photographs himself. It does seem as though there’s something to be said for tight nicheing.

Philip’s specialization however is relatively new. He’s been shooting for more than twenty years and until 2005, covered all sports. These days, he says, cricket makes up about 98 percent of his work. He now spends much of his time shooting in his native Australia, as well as in India, the West Indies and in other test-playing countries. He is currently in South Africa, covering England’s tour, a series that began in November and will continue almost until the end of January. The focus and experience clearly give him a good understanding of how the game operates, what is likely to happen next, and what he needs to do to get the best shot. Read the rest …

Photography: Daniel Y. Go

Landing an assignment to shoot the cover of Vogue or fill the pages of the New York Times Magazine isn’t likely to happen to everyone. You’ll need a resume filled with publications, years of professional experience, and a contact list that contains the names of some top editors. But the giant publications aren’t the only magazines that take pictures. There are more than 20,000 magazines available in the US and many of them have significant readerships, are willing to look at the pictures, not the photographer, and pay for the photos they use – even when they come from people who usually shoot for fun.

Best of all, because magazines cover such a broad range of topics, it’s possible for just about anyone with interests that stretch beyond capturing images to find a market for his or her photos. One of the most obvious is your local surroundings. States, regions, cities and even towns can have their own publications and are dependent on local photographers who know the area, and know where to find the best views at the right times. While some will employ staff photographers, there’s often plenty of room for freelancers, especially when they can match a great shot with local knowledge.

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For photographers, it’s all about the image. When a picture can speak a thousand words and a good photo can tell a complete story, what can be added by giving it a hundred-word description? It’s not like anyone will actually read it, and besides, photographers take the pictures. It’s the writers who do the writing, right? There are times though when a way with words can not only enhance the power of your image but also win you sales and attention.

For some outlets, a detailed description is actually a requirement. PhotoResearchers, for example, a stock site specializing in scientific images, accepts photographs of animals for its natural science collection to go with its inventory of bacteria and chromosomes. But the captions that must accompany those images, and which are embedded in the high res scan the client receives, are likely to tax all but the most knowledgeable of photographers. According to the company’s submission requirements:

“natural history images… should include the common and scientific names of any organisms pictured, as well as location information, and additional information about what is going on in the image. Other useful information may be included as well if it is relevant.”

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Photography: Carrie Sandoval

Becoming a successful photographer means learning how to handle a camera, understanding how to work with light, and figuring out how to edit and produce an image. You also have to learn business skills, marketing and promotions. And you have to know how to work with people. That can be the biggest challenge of all. While professional models are paid to deliver the poses photographers need, portrait clients have to be coaxed into relaxing and looking at ease for the shot. That’s particularly difficult when you’re shooting a subject so young that he or she can’t understand what you’re saying, and spends most of the shoot asleep. Baby photography poses a bunch of unique challenges but it can also be rewarding and enjoyable, and sometimes involves some interesting marketing strategies.

The biggest problem that baby photographers face is that newborns aren’t just incapable of following instruction, they’re also unpredictable. A photographer can never know whether the baby will arrive at the shoot frisky and full of energy, ready to gurgle, smile and coo, or tired, hungry and irritable, prepared only to cry, eat and curl up. While that can make planning difficult, the odds tend eventually to tilt in the photographer’s favor. Newborns, after all, spend most of the day dozing. Read the rest …

Photography: katiew

Clients never see the work that goes into creating the pictures they’re buying. They don’t think about the factors that photographers have to consider as they choose between different lenses, decide where to point the lights or plan the composition. They don’t have to figure out how keep a model, fed, watered and happy during a long shoot or remember to pack  a spare battery in case the one they’re using dies sooner than expected.

And neither do many photographers. Whether a photographer is shooting for fun or planning a paid set-up, the focus is always on the picture: how it will look, the style of the image, the story it will tell. The details — where to stick the tape, how to get the stain off the floor and how to stop passers-by from walking into the shot – all tend to be ignored. Until you start setting up and realize that you have to troubleshoot a thousand little problems before you can even get the camera on the tripod. It’s often those things that an assistant can push out of the way, allowing the photographer to focus on the real value he brings to the job: his vision of the picture and the skills that allow  him to create it.

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85111840. Photograph © Eke Miedaner/Flickr/Getty Images

Back in July 2008, Getty Images threw open its doors. Or at least, it pushed them open a crack. The exclusive stock agency wasn’t adopting microstock’s open source policy but it had forged a partnership with Flickr, adding selected images from the  photo-sharing site to its commercial inventory. Things went a little quiet for a while but in March 2009, Getty debuted its Flickr Collection, a selection of photos sourced from Flickr’s contributors and available for licensing both on a royalty-free and rights-managed basis. Getty hasn’t released precise statistics to describe how many images have sold, but the company has told us that Flickr images licensed to customers already number in the “thousands” and have been used in creative campaigns in more than 65 countries.

According to Claudia Micare,  Manager, Contributor Relations for Getty Images, the collection now includes more than 60,000 images provided by more than 6,000 photographers in more than 100 countries. To Getty’s own customers, those images show up in search results in the same way as other photos in the inventory. Editors browsing Flickr can also buy the images they see by clicking a licensing button above an available photo. They’ll then be taken to the image on Getty’s website where they can make their purchase.

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Photography: olivetti

Nature has to be among the most popular of subjects for photography enthusiasts. Unlike a model, a tree on a hill doesn’t complain about the cold, a sunset will arrive exactly when you expect it to and you often need to do little more than point and shoot to capture all the beauty you can see. You don’t even have to go looking for it. A photogenic scene can strike you on the way home on the daily commute or during a stroll on a Sunday afternoon. That’s why the keenest photographers carry a camera with them wherever they go. It takes something special to create pictures as exceptional as Ansel Adams’s but a personal gallery of breathtaking nature photographs is something available to any photography enthusiast even as they’re still learning the ropes. The troubles begin when you want to sell them.

Because nature is such a popular topic and one relatively easy to do reasonably well, the supply of images is always huge while the demand is always minimal. Microstock companies, for example, consistently state that the subjects most required by buyers are business images. A search for “nature” on iStockPhoto however, turns up over 870,000 results; a search for “business” produces fewer than 330,000 photos.

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For most photographers, seeing their photo on the cover of a book should be a highlight of their career. It’s the cover that does the selling so when a publisher decides that their image is powerful enough to attract attention and pull in buyers, it’s a sure sign that they’ve take a great photo. They’ll be able to see their picture on the shelf every time they walk into a bookstore, enjoy the feeling that customers are placing it on their own bookshelves… and the remuneration should be nice too. It doesn’t always work out that way though. Now that images are available on microstock sites, photos are appearing on book covers without photographers being aware of the sale, without being credited for the picture… and without receiving pay that would even cover the price of a latte in Starbucks.

Weldon Owen’s Snapshot Picture Library series, for example, are 64-page children’s books made up of around 70 pictures and 800 words of descriptive text. Altogether, the series covers 26 topics including tractors, trucks, birds and puppies. The photo credits on the back cover of the Sea Creatures title list are typical; they describe the sources as Dreamstime, iStockPhoto and Shutterstock.

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Photography: chotda

The photography books that line the shelves in bookstores and fill your Amazon wish list might all contain wonderful images and beautiful pictures but they also tend to follow a format. The photos focus on a theme, are accompanied by short passages of text, and each photo both stands alone and contributes to an overall impression of the book’s subject.  When you’re looking to create your own photo book, those bestsellers always provide good models to follow. Stray out of the photography section though and you can find plenty of other books that are strong on photography and which reveal a number of different ways of publishing your images.

The easiest method, of course, is the traditional and that’s true even when you head away from the mainstream shelves completely and into self-publishing. Beth Dow, whose Blurb book “In The Garden” won the company’s 2008 Photography.Book.Now competition, says that photography books can take two different approaches. In the first, what she calls the “handmade artist’s book,” every detail is integral to the whole, from the choice of images to the font used in the text. In the second approach, and the one that she chose for her images of British gardens, the aim is simply to show the photos. Sequencing is still vital but white space puts the emphasis on the images rather than on the story the book is trying to tell. Read the rest …