Welcome to the April edition of Continental Drift.
This month's newsletter has been written under a blue Mediterranean sky, overlooking the sea, in the village of Peyeia, Cyprus. Here until mid April, Alan Skyrme then flies to Sicily, with a couple of days en route spent in London, before returning to his studio in Natal at the end of April.
Since the last newsletter.....
Alan Skyrme Gallery
Few changes since the last newsletter. We have removed a few more images from the "Recent" section and will plan to start work on re-organising the site - to separate our Fine Art images from our Commercial images while maintaining a single stop for both types of image - when we return to Natal.
Shoot Acai
We have developed a storyboard about acai, and are building a second one (incomplete but visible on the site), to support the sale of acai articles to health food magazines. Acai images continue to sell both directly and via our Alamy collection.
Shoot Froot
We continue to build stock of tropical and general fruit images. Our trip to Cyprus has resulted in numerous fruit images (bananas, olives, figs, pomegranates, various citrus fruits, and carob) that will soon be loaded to both our stock libraries and to the Shoot Froot site. Just before leaving Brazil we added a number of tropical fruit images to our stock, but will not add these to the site or libraries until we return at the end of this month.
Library sites
Images continue to be added to our library sites at Alamy and Photographers Direct. We are now considering illustrations as part of our stock, though preference will continue to be on photographic images. While recent months have been quiet sales-wise, the coming of Spring has seen renewed interest in our stock images.
The Image Market
There has been regular debate about the damaging effect that the developing Micro Stock image market has been having on the image market in general. Principally the effect that it has had on the price of photos in general, and thus on the earnings of traditional (macro) stock photographers.
The debate will continue.
However, while the quality and price of micro stock is acceptable to many buyers' budgets, it is clear that there are some downsides to consider:
Have a look at this recently published article!
Some photographers, Alan Skyrme Photography included, do not plan on producing images for the micro stock market. Our preference is in supplying high quality editorial standard images that suits the needs of the discerning buyer.
Alan Skyrme Photography
Wednesday 31 March 2010
Wednesday 10 March 2010
Continental Drift - Update 10MAR10
We have added a second storyboard to the Shoot Acai site .... not finished yet but will cover the health benefits of acai. Should be finished by the end of the month.
Alan Skyrme Photography
Alan Skyrme Photography
Sunday 7 March 2010
Continental Drift - Update 07MAR10
Shoot Acai now has a story-board covering the life-cycle of acai (Euterpe oleracea) from palm to plate!
Articles of between 500 and 1500 words (or longer if required) area available for publication in healthfood magazines, books etc
A second story-board will be added at the end of March, focusing on the health benefits of the fruit.
Alan Skyrme Photography
www.shootacai.com
Articles of between 500 and 1500 words (or longer if required) area available for publication in healthfood magazines, books etc
A second story-board will be added at the end of March, focusing on the health benefits of the fruit.
Alan Skyrme Photography
www.shootacai.com
Thursday 4 March 2010
Continental Drift - March, 2010
Welcome to the March edition of Continental Drift.
This month sees Alan Skyrme travelling to Europe: specifically to Cyprus and Sicily with a couple of days en route spent in London. He will return to his studio in Natal at the end of April.
Since the last newsletter.....
Alan Skyrme Gallery
We have removed a number of images from the "Recent" section and will soon start work on reorganising the site - to separateour Fine Art images from our Commercial images while maintaining a single stop for both types of image.
Shoot Acai
New images will be added to the site in the coming weeks but in the meantime we are building a storyboard about acai prior to selling articles on the subject to health food magazines.
Shoot Froot
We continue to build stock of tropical fruit images.
Library sites
Images continue to be added to our library sites at Alamy and Photographers Direct. We are now considering illustrations as part of our stock, though preference will continue to be on photographic images.
Shoot Stories
We have discontinued the Shoot Stories site, and as a result will also discontinue the linked Shoot Images Gallery site.
The Image Market
The global financial crisis has obviously had a significant impact on all markets but the creative image market has also been impacted by strategic decisions taken by some (though not all) stock image distribution libraries.
A market for low cost micro stock images has established itself, appealing to buyers that want to download royalty free images for general use where image quality is not necessarily a priority. This has squeezed the market and put pressure on photographers who produce high quality editorial (Rights Managed) quality images. This micro stock market is now suffering - high volumes of images flooding the market from a multitude of amateurs with digital cameras of varying quality.
Alan Skyrme Photography has always prefered to work either directly with its clients or, when selling stock images, to produce high quality editorial images. We use top of the range professional equipment in our own studio settings.
We prefer to work on a fair trade basis with quality libraries such as Photographers Direct and Alamy. As a result we will continue to build stock placed with these two agencies, though we will also consider placing royalty free images (NOT micro stock) with a third agency later in the year. Traditional Royalty Free images are very different to micro stock royalty free images - in nature, in quality and in cost.
We work on a basis of client loyalty where regular orders are rewarded by lower costs and will continue to do so to ensure customer satisfaction.
Alan Skyrme Photography
This month sees Alan Skyrme travelling to Europe: specifically to Cyprus and Sicily with a couple of days en route spent in London. He will return to his studio in Natal at the end of April.
Since the last newsletter.....
Alan Skyrme Gallery
We have removed a number of images from the "Recent" section and will soon start work on reorganising the site - to separateour Fine Art images from our Commercial images while maintaining a single stop for both types of image.
Shoot Acai
New images will be added to the site in the coming weeks but in the meantime we are building a storyboard about acai prior to selling articles on the subject to health food magazines.
Shoot Froot
We continue to build stock of tropical fruit images.
Library sites
Images continue to be added to our library sites at Alamy and Photographers Direct. We are now considering illustrations as part of our stock, though preference will continue to be on photographic images.
Shoot Stories
We have discontinued the Shoot Stories site, and as a result will also discontinue the linked Shoot Images Gallery site.
The Image Market
The global financial crisis has obviously had a significant impact on all markets but the creative image market has also been impacted by strategic decisions taken by some (though not all) stock image distribution libraries.
A market for low cost micro stock images has established itself, appealing to buyers that want to download royalty free images for general use where image quality is not necessarily a priority. This has squeezed the market and put pressure on photographers who produce high quality editorial (Rights Managed) quality images. This micro stock market is now suffering - high volumes of images flooding the market from a multitude of amateurs with digital cameras of varying quality.
Alan Skyrme Photography has always prefered to work either directly with its clients or, when selling stock images, to produce high quality editorial images. We use top of the range professional equipment in our own studio settings.
We prefer to work on a fair trade basis with quality libraries such as Photographers Direct and Alamy. As a result we will continue to build stock placed with these two agencies, though we will also consider placing royalty free images (NOT micro stock) with a third agency later in the year. Traditional Royalty Free images are very different to micro stock royalty free images - in nature, in quality and in cost.
We work on a basis of client loyalty where regular orders are rewarded by lower costs and will continue to do so to ensure customer satisfaction.
Alan Skyrme Photography
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