State of Stock II

Apologies for a complete disconnect the past week.

So to follow up on the original State of Stock post, I have licensed stock imagery directly for photographers. I have purchased imagery from photographers directly when it was an image on their site that attracted me or the art director OR when I have always wanted to work with the photographer but never had the perfect situation arise and stock was the way to go.

Stock photography has kind of an ugly connotation to it - some people assume it's a stereotypical cheesy image with people perfectly framed and perfectly smiling directly at the camera, others (like myself) view it as an already existing image (whether photographed specifically for stock, personal, or commercial use) that is available for licensing.

I have also found that photographers are in the running cost-wise with stock houses and most often more affordable (and more willing to negotiate). In fact in the past few weeks I was working on a project with designers scouring all sorts of stock sites while I was searching photographer sites. Rony Shram came up with some amazing shots that fit the bill... in fact they liked them so much that they decided to commission him to do a small shoot for the project. AND since he's mostly a fashion shooter they loved the sexy/sleek look to his images but asked if he could apply them to cityscape... which he did. We got great imagery at close to stock pricing.

My opinion is that if you reach out to people, network, and let them know what you're doing they will most likely respond. Offering additional services and opportunities to clients makes you that much more marketable and someone they are likely to reach out to to help with the creative needs.