Microstock Posts » Editorial

Anyone for tennis?

Microstock Posts — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 06:50:50 +0000

I moved house recently, which has consumed most of my time and my energy. Hence, the lack of blogging recently. Somehow, I can still find the time to pimp my own photos though.

On Thursday, the WTA tour came to Bali, with the impressively named “Tournament of Champions”, well that’s what it says on the flyer. Initially, I pondered whether I should attend or not. Over the summer I upgraded my camera, but still have no lenses other than the standard 18-55mm lens, which is surprisingly good for a kit lens. However, not the lens generally needed for an event like this. The camera has a 12 megapixel sensor though, double of my previous camera and therefore I now have the liberty of being able to crop. So I decided to go, I love tennis and would enjoy it even if I was unable to get any decent shots.

I went on the opening day. The event was free seating and I imagined an Air Asia scramble to get a good seat, so I arrived an hour early and sat in the front row, close to the baseline. I even brought a towel to throw on the seat, for when I had to leave the arena, it worked a treat. It turned out that my camera and lens were enough to get some decent shots. I’m still editing and uploading the images, but below are some of the images which are already online. The players playing on the day were Ana Ivanovic, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Kimiko Date Krumm and Na Li. The final is on November 7.

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Shutterstock contributor photographs ‘the unseen side’ of Afghanistan

Shutterstock contributor photographs ‘the unseen side’ of Afghanistan

Microstock Posts — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:26:03 +0000

This article was written by the photographer Sophie Ibbotson and provided courtesy of Shutterstock.

I never intended to be a photographer. I read Oriental Languages at university with the intention of going to work for the Foreign Office, but the more I worked overseas the more frustrated I became with the “official” view of the places I went. Governments and the media alike seemed to get a sickening thrill from describing my favorite places as war zones, security risks and militant strongholds, or simply ignoring their existence altogether. I never read about or watched a news report on the overwhelming hospitality of Iranians, Pakistani villagers resisting a rising tide of militancy, or Afghanistan’s rich and multi-cultural heritage. A sense of injustice is a strong motivator, and I’ve been writing and photographing the unseen sides of Central Asia, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan ever since.

My aim in Afghanistan, as with all the countries I visit, was to document for myself, for my articles and for stock, the stories going on every day behind the headlines. I particularly like to meet and photograph people who are doing something different, trying to bring about positive change in their community and overcome the adversities presented to them by poverty, the natural environment or the failings of mankind.

My first location was Nechem, a tiny mud-brick village in northeast Afghanistan. I wasn’t entirely sure how I’d be received. My fears were allayed as soon as I stepped foot out of the car. Within seconds I was mobbed by small children (predominantly girls, surprisingly) wanting to have their pictures taken but also to see how the camera worked. The children were not only photogenic but incredibly enthusiastic about the whole process.

From Nechem, I traveled west to Baharak District in Badakhshan. I spent my time visiting rural enterprise schemes where villagers (predominantly women) learn skills to run their own businesses. The income this generates not only enables them to better care for their families, but also increases the status that they have within their communities. When at first I attempted to take portraits, they were exceedingly formal, to the point that the subjects looked miserable. When I showed them their pictures on the D200′s screen, however, they burst out laughing at their own solemnity, and the subsequent photos showed many more smiles.

One young woman was intrigued not by the photos but by the camera itself. I showed her the basic functions (how to zoom, focus, take a picture and review the image) and then didn’t see my camera again for the next half hour. The pictures she came back with were fascinating – intimate portraits of her friends with their children and, in one case, a pregnancy bump. It’s unlikely she’d even seen an illustrated magazine and yet she took to photography like a duck to water.

When I left Afghanistan and went back to the UK on holiday, I visited a class of students to talk to them about Afghanistan. When I told them it was my new favorite place, they looked absolutely horrified. The only images they associated with the country were battlefields in Helmand, burnt out tanks, and the shrouded coffins of heroes returning home. They did not understand, because no one had ever thought to tell them that the vast majority of Afghanistan is peaceful, that not all Afghans are militants, and that Afghan children are, in many ways, just like them. It was only when they saw pictures of their Afghan contemporaries, giggling and larking about in front of the camera, that their questions began to change. They stopped asking about weapons and death and the morality of the war, and instead started asking about schooling, employment opportunities and Afghanistan’s future. These are the questions we all need to be asking, and I believe adamantly that pictures are a powerful tool to get such topics on the agenda.

This article has been edited. To see the full article, click on this link.

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In the News

Microstock Posts — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 03:57:09 +0000

Another editorial post, but the last one for a while. There has been a lot happening here recently and I’ve enjoyed getting out on the streets and taking spontaneous shots, and not having to worry about model releases.

I’m sure a lot of photographers have goals they wish to achieve. I have wanted to get photos in the News section on Dreamstime for a while. This section is a great resource for anyone looking for editorial pictures of major world events. I have previously been disappointed that images I’ve sent have not made the News section, only consoling myself with the fact that Dreamstime seems to be quite selective, with the events and images they choose for this section. Well the event I covered was a major one, only the second direct election in Indonesia’s history. So I just had to make sure I got the shots right.

Voting started at 7am and continued till Midday.The early bird catches the worm‘, so I arrived at the polling stations at around 9am and missed out on all the savoury bird food. I was surprised to see voters dressed up in traditional or at least partially traditional outfits. Can you remember the last time you got dressed up to go and vote? Another thing that struck me was how patient people were in waiting for their turn. The electoral process is not exactly efficient, with dozens of parties to choose from and this being national and local elections, each voter has to make ticks on 4 huge ballot papers. Often voters were in voting booths for up to half an hour. Despite the long process the turn out was quite high, it seemed that people realised the importance of taking part. Just over a decade ago people would have been too fearful to voice a political opinion, other than a pro government opinion. The transgression to a genuine democracy after centuries of colonial rule and more recently a brutal dictator, is quite an achievement.

Altogether I had 8 images accepted of the election with 4 making it to the News section. Dreamstime gives a $5 bonus for every photo which makes it to the News section, which is obviously nice. However, despite the photos receiving far more views than non editorial images, at least in the first few days online, they have until now had no downloads. Within about a 3 week period I have had 21 editorial images online at Dreamstime alone and not a single sale. I also sent images to Bigstock and Cutcaster and nothing there too. Am I right in saying that buyers don’t look at microstock sites for editorial images, and if they don’t where do they go? Do they commission their own photographers, do they buy from stock agencies like Getty or Corbis at higher prices? Why are they not using microstock sites much? I realise that commercial images probably have a wider market, but there are still plenty of businesses worldwide that use editorial images. I have sold editorial images on microstock, but very few. I’m interested to know your opinions and maybe you know of other sites to upload editorial photos to.

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Jim Pickerell:
20 Apr 2009 Here are a few thoughts. First, the market for such images is almost exclusively in Indonesia. The useful life of such images is about 24 hours. Editors who need such images will make their decisions about which image to use within 24 hours. To have a chance of being used a breaking news images must be uploaded within hours of being taken. Sure there are weekly news magazines, but their editors also make decisions very quickly after the event occurred. If the event happens on Monday and the magazine goes to press on Saturday the editors will still probably make their decision in the first 24 hours because that’s when they will be focused on the Monday story. They will have other stories to worry about later on in the week. Most of the Indonesian newspapers will have staff photographers, or photographers they work with on a regular basis. A big story like the elections will be covered by these photographers. It is their pictures that will get used. There may be hundreds of other great pictures available, but the publication has already paid for the pictures their photographer shot, so why waste the editor’s time looking elsewhere for a picture. And yes they do use Getty, Corbis, Associated Press, Reuters and other wire services. However, they don’t necessarily pay higher than microstock prices for these services. That’s because they have an annual subscription to the wire service for a daily allowance of a certain number of pictures. The wire services are going to have a photographer covering something like the elections; his pictures will be available as part of their subscription so they pay for it whether they use it or not. Why pay more, even if it is only $3.00 or $4.00, when they don’t have to. It’s also necessary to take into consideration that in most parts of the world newspapers and magazines are declining in size and are reducing the number of pictures they use. This means that they tend to depend more heavily on the few staffers they retain and on the wire services they simply can’t afford to drop completely. Thus, there are even fewer chances they will accept something shot by a freelancer. There are hard news pictures that will sell such as an airplane crash -- if you’re the only photographer who got any pictures. Or maybe you get to shoot Brittany Spears waterskiing along the Bali coast and you are the only photographer who knows she is there. Fat chance.:) There are editorial feature pictures that might get used for such things as travel or food stories, etc. Such stories are in the planning stages for a long time and are often contingent on inexpensive pictures being available. But, in such cases the photographer or writer usually goes directly to a specific publication and “sells” the editor on the idea of the story, rather than waiting for editors to think up the story idea and then go searching for pictures. Another big market for editorial pictures is books. If the editorial pictures you’re shooting illustrate points made in textbooks books, there is a good chance the picture editors of such publications may go to microstock sites to find them. But then that depends on whether those are the kind of pictures the microstock site editors are accepting into their collections. Are they more focused on news events? Finally, maybe the best opportunity for microstock editorial shooters is web blogs. Typically, these people wouldn’t have subscription arrangements with anyone and they wouldn’t want to pay traditional single image prices. However, the fact that until now there have been no sales for these photos, probably means that there are no Indonesian bloggers who want to add pictures to their posts about the elections, or that those bloggers writing about the elections are unaware of microstock sites as a resource.

It’s Ok, Just Kiss

Microstock Posts — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 01:29:48 +0000

Last year a friend asked me if I was going to see the kissing festival. I just gave a smile as if to say, you have to be smarter than that if you think you’re going to fool me. I honestly thought she was pulling my leg and gave it no further thought. This year she asked the same question and I thought, Wow! you really go to some lengths for your practical jokes. She once again tried to convince me that she was not lying. I asked my maid if she knew anything about it and she just gave me the same perplexed look as the maid I had last year. Still I decided to go to Denpasar, the capital of Bali with my friend after saying that if she was lying she wouldn’t be getting a ride home.

Public kissing in many parts of Asia is unheard of. I don’t ever recall seeing couples kiss on the street and as I have spent most of this decade in Asia, when I make the occasional trip back to the UK, I am often taken aback seeing couples smooching, and only stop gawking when I remember that there are things like traffic and lamp posts to avoid.

As we arrived in the area there were large crowds of people. The main road was closed and full of stalls and there was a band playing on a stage. I pushed my way to the front with lots of excuse mes, until I reached the part where the crowd was partitioned by patrolling men armed with hosepipes. They were dousing the crowds with water, partly to keep the crowds back and partly for their own amusement. With my camera in hand, all I was thinking was that after today I might be in need of an upgrade. Luckily, being the highly trained professional that I am, my bag contains all the essential hi-tech gizmos. A 500ml bottle of water for thirst, the camera manual because I still don’t know how to use it, and a small towel for Balinese hosepipe men. I moved the towel to the top of the bag and stared menacingly at the hosepipe men as if to say, I have an anti hosepipe, camera loving gizmo and I fear you not, well not much.

The band stopped playing, little kids and their mothers stopped moshing and rows of teenage girls and boys came from… well I don’t know where exactly, to take their positions in the cleared space between the crowds, about 100 metres from each other. Hosepipe men were working extra hard now to ensure that there was a clear path between the girls and the boys. I was in the middle with a few other well prepared photographers, who sported even more sophisticated equipment, plastic bags seemingly cellotaped to their cameras. I was impressed. Then some of the hosepipe men started to wave to hosepipe men at the opposite side. Suddenly the girls and boys from both ends started running towards each other, I started taking photos of them running and then they ran past me, I tried to follow but there were already too many people in front of me. I could see other photographers snapping away closer to the action, but I couldn’t see what was going on. This happened quite a few times with each time me being in the wrong place.

Then there was a change of tactics, girls and boys were now being lifted (some reluctantly) on the shoulders of the strongest Balinese men on the island, now these men were doing the running with the crowds following behind. Again I was in the wrong place. I felt that I could move to the place where most of the action seemed to be happening, but for some reason I liked being where I was. I had been photographing non stop, for more than an hour now and really enjoying myself, my adrenalin was pumping hard, my towel was now around my neck as my camera was in constant need of it. At one point I reached for it and it wasn’t there, I looked behind me in the vain hope that it might be there and to my amazement it was, a smiling Balinese boy was standing right there holding my towel. I was so happy to have it back, I almost hugged the guy, must have been the occasion. As you can imagine I was very appreciative, as I simply could not continue photographing without the towel.

Finally right towards the end of the proceedings, a girl was lifted on the shoulders of a Balinese strongman quite close to me and the boy at the opposite end was called over. This could be it, maybe I could get a good look at what was going on. The boy past me with hundreds of people behind him, I followed. Although he had only just passed, there were already so many people in front of me, but I was closer than I had ever been and managed to push my way a little closer. Then I saw the couple both perched upon shoulders high above the crowd, they embraced, from this point on all shots were taken with my camera lifted way above my head. I tried to adjust my positioning the best I could. Then they kissed. Two complete strangers who have never even spoken to each other, kissing passionately with thousands of people around them. I was really hoping that I was getting some good shots. Luckily they kept on kissing. From the ooohs and the arghs of the crowd, I knew this was the kiss of the day. It was a really long kiss. I started to smile, thinking what an astonishing site this was. An openly accepted, publicly displayed kiss in Asia. They only stopped when a man came over and tipped a bucket of water on their heads. After it was over, naturally I looked to see what I got. Although I took quite a few shots, I only got one clear shot of the kiss, but as the Aussies say, “It’s a beauty”. I sent the photos to Dreamstime and a few to Bigstockphoto. I was quite reluctant to send the photo of the kiss as I like it so much, but I decided to send it just to Dreamstime to complete the story. They rejected the image for poor lighting etc., they were not wrong. But as I re-photoshopped the image, I decided not to send it back to them, instead putting it on Cutcaster for a much higher price.

I first picked up an SLR when I was 15. More recently I left photography for quite a few years, only getting back into it in late 2006. I realised again today how much I enjoyed taking photographs. With my camera in hand I have a perfect excuse to observe people and try and capture their feelings and unique expressions, to record moments in time, to get involved in events. Would I have been following the boys and girls rushing towards each other if I did not have a camera in my hand, probably not.

I headed back to the car, my friend was already there waiting, she looked like she’d been waiting a while. I was still buzzing and feeling pleased with myself. I shouted out “I got it!”. She replied “Great! Can we go home now?”.

NOTE: The image displayed is a watermarked comp image. Size and quality of the comp image has been intentionally decreased.

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Shutterstock contributor photographs ‘the unseen side’ of Afghanistan