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11/06/2006 10:49:18 AM · #1 |
This past Friday at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York, I went to a two-hour seminar by Patrick Donehue, Vice President of Photographer services at Corbis. He also once worked for Getty, and is currently on the board of PACA.
Donehue spent most of the time describing those he called the "meat eaters" of stock photography. These are full-time stock photographers who earn between $500,000 and $2,000,000 in licensing fees per year. (Wow!)
I'll recap below what Donehue describes as the characteristics that they all share.
Awareness and curiosity- These shooters are aware of everything. Donehue recommends reading works on awareness by Jon Kabot-Zimn.
Understand the balance between Art & Commerce- They people have a balance between both.
Read newspapers for ideas - They are NOT looking at pictures for the most part. They are looking for issues that may become relevant, and therefore worth shooting. The emphasis was on reading journals like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, NOT watching TV news.
High Sell-Through Rates - Average 65% (Although another professional in the audience objected, saying you can be quite successful with a slightly lower rate.)
Unyielding Drive
Thinking Globally - Most of the market is outside the United States. So they shoot things that are not American specific. They also use multiple distribution channels (international channels).
Early Adopters of New Technology - And not just digital. (They were the first buy carbon-fiber tripods because of the lighter weight.)
Balance - They all had alternate passions to re-energize themselves, from fly-fishing to movies to cooking.
Risking Taking
Understand Alternate Perspectives - visually, socially, politically, etc.
Client Intimacy - They meet with clients or client-like people, not to sell, but to listen and learn.
Personal Work - Work that they don't sell, just for them.
Decisiveness - There's no procrastinating with these guys. Right or wrong they go ahead and shoot.
I don't know if any of us will ever become "Meat Eaters", but I thought some might find it interesting.
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11/06/2006 11:01:39 AM · #2 |
| Good post, vital ideas. Thanks. |
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11/06/2006 11:22:06 AM · #3 |
Very interesting post, thanks! It's interesting to note that many of these behaviors are "universal" to success in business: awareness, drive, thinking globally, risk taking, client (i.e. customer) intimacy), decisiveness, balance.
Overall, I think it's great advice.
Given the amount of time I've devoted to photography over the past 12 months, I'm guessing I better get used to being a vegetarian! ;-) |
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11/06/2006 12:08:27 PM · #4 |
These two items seem to me to be mutually exclusive, at least with the newspapers mentioned, and especially if new FCC rules allowing further media consolidation go into effect.
Originally posted by Slagathor:
Read newspapers for ideas - They are NOT looking at pictures for the most part. They are looking for issues that may become relevant, and therefore worth shooting. The emphasis was on reading journals like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, NOT watching TV news.
Understand Alternate Perspectives - visually, socially, politically, etc.
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11/06/2006 12:11:48 PM · #5 |
Originally posted by Olyuzi:
These two items seem to me to be mutually exclusive, at least with the newspapers mentioned, and especially if new FCC rules allowing further media consolidation go into effect.
Originally posted by Slagathor:
Read newspapers for ideas - They are NOT looking at pictures for the most part. They are looking for issues that may become relevant, and therefore worth shooting. The emphasis was on reading journals like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, NOT watching TV news.
Understand Alternate Perspectives - visually, socially, politically, etc.
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Not really. He's not suggesting that the photographer "buy in" to the specific views projected by the media, just that the photog use the media's coverage as an indicator of what topics are "hot." The photographer should then consider the topic in light of his market (think globally, understand alternative perspecives, client intimacy) and shoot accordingly. |
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11/06/2006 12:22:19 PM · #6 |
Originally posted by Olyuzi:
These two items seem to me to be mutually exclusive, at least with the newspapers mentioned, and especially if new FCC rules allowing further media consolidation go into effect.
Originally posted by Slagathor:
Read newspapers for ideas - They are NOT looking at pictures for the most part. They are looking for issues that may become relevant, and therefore worth shooting. The emphasis was on reading journals like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, NOT watching TV news.
Understand Alternate Perspectives - visually, socially, politically, etc.
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I view these two points are complementary, rather than contradictory. The point is to figure out coming trends. One may disagree with a particular article, but the issue may still be relevant one regardless of what side one takes. Remember, the point is to make photographs that will be relevant and have high potential sales. Perhaps, these photographers make a series of photos representaing multiple perspectives.
As to the specific publications, Donehue's point was to find quality issue discussion. Let's be honest, TV tends to condense issues into sound bites. The meat eaters look for more...meat.
Olyuzi, I agree with concerns about media consolidation, but to me that's a separate issue.
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11/06/2006 12:45:32 PM · #7 |
Originally posted by Slagathor:
Originally posted by Olyuzi:
These two items seem to me to be mutually exclusive, at least with the newspapers mentioned, and especially if new FCC rules allowing further media consolidation go into effect.
Originally posted by Slagathor:
Read newspapers for ideas - They are NOT looking at pictures for the most part. They are looking for issues that may become relevant, and therefore worth shooting. The emphasis was on reading journals like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, NOT watching TV news.
Understand Alternate Perspectives - visually, socially, politically, etc.
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I view these two points are complementary, rather than contradictory. The point is to figure out coming trends. One may disagree with a particular article, but the issue may still be relevant one regardless of what side one takes. Remember, the point is to make photographs that will be relevant and have high potential sales. Perhaps, these photographers make a series of photos representaing multiple perspectives.
As to the specific publications, Donehue's point was to find quality issue discussion. Let's be honest, TV tends to condense issues into sound bites. The meat eaters look for more...meat.
Olyuzi, I agree with concerns about media consolidation, but to me that's a separate issue. |
It will be hard to get alternative views of issues (or even awareness of them) if they are not covered to begin with. This is especially true of local news and issues affecting minority groups, as has already been shown in studies done in markets where media consolidation has taken place.
Relying on the kinds of media outlets exclusively that you've mentioned above may make you a "meat eater" in your mind, but it won't make you a meat and potatoes consumer of news :)
Message edited by author 2006-11-06 12:46:46. |
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11/06/2006 01:38:50 PM · #8 |
Originally posted by Olyuzi:
It will be hard to get alternative views of issues (or even awareness of them) if they are not covered to begin with. This is especially true of local news and issues affecting minority groups, as has already been shown in studies done in markets where media consolidation has taken place.
Relying on the kinds of media outlets exclusively that you've mentioned above may make you a "meat eater" in your mind, but it won't make you a meat and potatoes consumer of news :) |
While it's true that the outlets suggested will be short on local coverage, that's exactly the reason they were suggested. They are global in scope, which is important when your intent is to look for marketable ideas for stock photos. You want a global market, not a local one.
Also, if the topic is important and global it *will* be covered. We may not agree with the coverage, but we are free to interpret the topic as we see fit. |
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11/06/2006 02:40:30 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by Olyuzi:
It will be hard to get alternative views of issues (or even awareness of them) if they are not covered to begin with. This is especially true of local news and issues affecting minority groups, as has already been shown in studies done in markets where media consolidation has taken place.
Relying on the kinds of media outlets exclusively that you've mentioned above may make you a "meat eater" in your mind, but it won't make you a meat and potatoes consumer of news :) |
It's easy to look at an article in the media and wonder, "What about the other guy's side of the story?"
I don't think these guys are buying whatever bias is in these articles, they're looking for stories to shoot. |
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11/06/2006 02:51:21 PM · #10 |
IDK, I've always heard (applying to investing, business ideas, photog, etc) that once you see it in the news, it's already too late to jump in... The people who make money off of anything are the ones who realize it first and then get out right when (or a bit before) the frenzy is at its peak
"the news" is geared toward selling stories and they're not going to try to sell a story that the general public can't absolutely buy into, meaning that they only show what's really happening, has happened, or is very likely to happen (and the people who predicted it already have their money "in the bag")
So you can look in the Wall Street Journal and other papers that aren't really read by your mainstream folks (and are geared toward helping business people make educated guesses at trends) and use them to help you predict what you think is going to be the next big fad... but you have to remember that the story in the journal is one perspective, and the news is not necessarily a different perspective, so the news is irrelevant, but make sure you get photos in your portfolio for all sides of the coming issue |
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12/04/2006 04:07:40 PM · #11 |
| I think when meat eaters look at these issues, they are looking for long-term issues. One example would be surveillance/privacy. This issue is going to be with us for a while. |
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