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Stock Work by Erwin Nielsen
Separating the Wheatfrom the Chaff

Photographers and stock agencies. Where do you fit in? We hear so much about "selling stock," what can you really expect? How do you start? What should you charge? Is it all worthwhile?

My credentials are that I have been producing and selling my own images for the last 14 years through my company, Images International Stock Photography. Last year, I asked a few other photographers who have Internet addresses to join with me in supplying images on specific photo requests. My client base (those markets that I have sold to over the years) is about 200. The most frequent sales have been made to: book publishers, calendar companies, magazines, advertising, newspaper and television (these are listed in the order of sales volume).

I'd like share my experiences with you in this thriving market. First, to define stock photography. There is the "commercial" stock photographer who produces standard high quality stock pictures that are widely used in advertisements, commercials and promotional literature. We see many examples of this fine work in stock agency print catalogs, and various galleries. They command high fees but may not enjoy the fruits of selling and reselling the same picture. In addition, some of these images may become out of date quickly.

Editorial Stock
Then there is the "editorial" stock photographer. He or she produces content-specific stock pictures that are primarily used in books, magazines, the electronic media, calendars etc. Most are a record of history as it is taking place today. The images evoke a mood, depict human emotions and happenings that can be understood universally. Typical editorial stock photography can be found when you remove the advertising photos in a magazine. What's left are the editorial stock photos, commonly referred to as "photo illustrations." They don't command the high prices of commercial stock images, but they do enjoy a longer "shelf life," and can be sold and resold over and over.

Breaking down editorial stock photographer even further, image requests come from publishers. Some of these requests are such that you look in your inventory and make a determination if you have those requested images on hand (such as brown bears, or the Washington Monument, red roses, etc.). Sometimes (and this is becoming more frequent), the image requested will be for some activity depicting lifestyle activity, e.g., child washing hair, person getting on a bus, etc. Now it is unlikely that you would have these images on hand. This brings me to the "speculative assignment" phase of editorial stock photography. It is this later category that I have found to produce the most income.

Today there are millions, upon millions of general theme images. After all, how many polar bears, Eiffel towers, and Grand Canyons do you imagine are out there and available to the photo buyer? Keep in mind that when the editor or photo researcher is looking for a picture he or she will solicit as many sources as possible and then pick and chose from the hundreds received. If you concentrate in this market, having your image selected is tantamount to winning the lottery without the big payoff.

But when an editor is looking for something specific that may or may not be in someone's inventory, the editor knows that to get the image someone will probably have to go out and shoot it. If you are truly interested in shooting for stock, this is the quickest way to make a sale. After all, you can shoot exactly what the editor is looking for, you have less competition for the image, so the chance of a sale is much greater. Develop a selection of friends and relatives, old and young, who will act as models for you. (I always make sure that they get at least one nice print.) I have found children are great. They like the idea of becoming "models." Or if you have the facility, do some interior "tabletop" shooting. Requests are constantly being received for food shots, or just plain household items (can openers, pots, scales, etc.). In addition to doing this speculative assignment photography, you will find that you are producing a better quality image, and that you are adding additional subject matter to your inventory.

What do these images sell for on the market? From my experience they can run from $50 per one-time use to as high as $500. In the book publishing business, where the trend is to use a high volume of images in each book, the price (which is normally set in the budget cost of producing the book) is less than a calendar company. But the volume of images used may well make up the difference. We have tried to set a minimum fee of $75 per image use and have found that most buyers will work with you. There is obviously some room to negotiate with most budgets. Book publishers generally pay in the $50-$150 range for an inside quarter- page, while covers usually pay $250- $400. Calendar companies generally pay between $150-$350. They may require an exclusive use for the year of the calendar, however. The area where the price is most negotiable is in advertising and commercial uses. With magazines sometimes price can be negotiated. We have a program called "foto quote" (206-842-4030 for ordering information) which is a great program to work from when discussing pricing with a buyer. It gives you some credibility to explain to the buyer what the "national" average pay rate is for a particular type of image.

When Should Fees Be Discussed?
Many requests for images will have a pay schedule as part of the image request. The buyer will indicate how much he or she is willing to pay and what the use will be. If that is not done, pick up the phone and ask. Let them know what you have and that you will send them out if you and the buyer can agree on the pricing structure. Sometimes that will not take place until the buyer has had an opportunity to view your images and make a selection. This is a great time to put your negotiating skills to the test. After all, the buyer has already decided that it's your picture they want to use. The only question is "how much?"

Transmittal memos. The ASMP ( American Society of Media Photographers) a great organization, has a highly legalized transmittal memo. And they recommend that you use it. I don't. I think it's a great turn-off for the editor and may well get you black-listed from doing any business with them. Send a simple memo containing a listing of the images or the number of images being sent, an indication of the subject matter, directly to the editor who has made the request, and enclose a copy for the editor to sign and return to you as an acknowledgment. I generally ask the editor to sign the memo and fax it back to me.

Should your memo have a clause for payment in the event of loss or damage to the images? Yes, however the $1500 per image suggested by ASMP is unrealistic in the editorial market. However, it may work well for commercial photographers sending in images. Stop and think. An editor sends out a request for certain images. This request may go to 25, 50 or more than 100 photographers. From that request, the editor may receive hundreds of images (or in the case of a calendar company, 10,000 or more). I don't think it is realistic to expect any company to assume that much liability. In fact, this is another way to get yourself black-listed. Our memo includes a $500 loss or damage clause for originals and a $20 loss or damage clause for dupes. As a practical matter, most publishers are insured against loss from fire, theft, etc., so you have some coverage if your picture winds up in the ash heap.

Dupes. Can you use dupes? Yes. In fact many editors would rather you send dupes than originals. If they want an original, they can ask for it. The factor that you will pick up on immediately is to shoot lots of "in- camera dupes." Each one becomes an original. Better to use more film and have the images on hand. What happens is that you will receive requests for the same subject matter from more then one buyer, so it's smart to have a group of the same image and each one can be treated as an original. If you only have a single "one of a kind photograph," then have some high quality dupes made and keep the original on hand, sending out only the dupes, if possible.

How long can you expect your photos to be kept? This can vary depending on the project. We have had images returned in 2 weeks from their submission and have also had images kept for up to a year. The duration will depend on the project. As an example, a calendar company receiving images for the next publishing year will review all the images received. Then they may separate the images by subject matter, covered bridges, trains etc., so that all the images of covered bridges from various photographers are placed together in a file. This means that they won't be looked at for selection until the editor starts preparation for the calendar of covered bridges. If the publisher is doing hundreds different calendars, it may be a matter of months until they get to the one on covered bridges. We don't charge a holding fee and I have not seen many buyers who would pay a holding fee.

Postage and labeling. If the request for images indicates a short time frame for the deadline, call and ask for their Fed Ex, UPS, or Airborne account number. Most editors will supply this to you, especially it they have worked with you before. It goes without saying that the information on your slide label should be as complete as possible. The editor is not interested in the exposure information (unless it's a photography magazine), but only when, where and what. The label should be printed or typed neatly and should include your name and address and, of course, the copyright symbol.

Dates. This is a subject of some controversy. We always used to put the date on the label-June, 1986, for example. However, this does date the image which could have an adverse effect. In other words, if the editor sees that the image of San Diego skyline was shot in 1986, he may want a more up to date image that reflects a more current view. We solve the problem this way: Our labeling system is based on A for 1, B for 2, C for 3, etc. In other words, 1998 is shown on the label as IH for 98. That way we know the date the photograph was taken, but we haven't alerted the editor. If the editor wants to know we will certainly tell him-the point being that we haven't made the date something obvious. Each slide should have a number so that the number can be referred to for billing. Our system is as follows: The first set of numbers (5) designates the subject matter. For example 01476 may represent canoes; 04586 may represent red wolves. The next set of numbers, again (5) represents two things: first the month 06 would be June; 01 would be January. The next 3 numbers represent the image number itself. Hence a set of numbers as follows, 01476-06320 would tell me that the subject matter was canoes, that the image was photographed in June, and that the image number is 320. Then, if we add IH on the label, I know it was photographed in 1998.

You may want to have mounts printed with your name, address, phone and fax number. If you check with the lab that mounts your transparencies and have them check with their supplier for the mounts, you can probably make arrangements to have mounts printed just for you. This saves a lot of time in label preparation as you then only need to prepare one label with the slide information and there would be no need to prepare a second ID label.

Image storage. We use three-ring binders and all images are in plastic file pages in each binder. All the binders are labeled alphabetically according to subject matter. Under a section called mammals, we will start with A for antelope and go through to Z for zebra, each binder containing the inventory of the particular subject. In addition, the first page of each section in the binder will have a heavy weight sheet of paper to record cross-reference information. For example, under Lions, African, you may cross reference this to Tanzania, or Kenya, and in the binders labeled Tanzania or Kenya, you would cross reference those to Lions, African. In this way, if the request is for images of Kenya you may want to include some Lions.

Should you send out samples of your work unsolicited? No. Much better to send a query letter first to see if they'd like to review your work. Many editors have too many photographers already and are not interested in looking at some new photographer's work. The exception is if your are specializing. Then you may "ring a bell" and get some response back. Keep in mind that most editors or photo researchers are not interested in a large collection of images. They are interested in a particular subject, and if you have something that fits that subject request, that's what they want to see.
Having a web page is a great tool. You, of course, may have some client inquiries from the page if it is "linked" sufficiently. When you are in communication with a new potential client, you can refer the client to your web page so that the editor can see an example of your work and learn something about you. Make sure that all your communications contain your name, address, phone, fax, and e-mail, address, and that you also include your web page information.

Using CDs and the Internet to show your work. My experience is that there are more and more publishers ready to use either your CD or your images transmitted by e-mail. We often send a sample of the images requested to the publisher by attaching them to an e-mail. This has brought some good results.

Sources of business. Try and get listed wherever you can. I have found that the Blue Book and the Green Book produced by Ann Guilfoyle have been good sources of business. Subscribing to some of the monthly reporting sources such as the Guilfoyle Report are helpful www.ag-editions.com. Also we have gotten some response from being listed in the PhotoSource data bank on the Internet www.photosource.com. Check into your local library and look up all the publishers, advertisers, calendar companies, newspapers, etc. and start a mailing list. A couple of other places you may want to check out include MPCA (The Media Photographers Copyright Agency) at www.mpca.com. Also Stockphoto www.stockphoto.net and PhotoLinks www.atchison.net/.

I suppose the bottom line to all this is, can I make a living at stock photography? The answer is yes, if you put in the time and effort necessary to make it work. First of all, back away from all those travel and landscape images. Sure they're great to photograph but don't rely on them to make a lot of sales. Instead, specialize. Find a subject you like and work it like crazy. Then let everyone know that you have this extensive collection of whatever the subject is that you have chosen. Also take to heart the suggestion of shooting stock requests. Last summer, I received a request for some images of special places in Sedona, Arizona. Now Sedona is only about 411ž42 hours from Tucson, so with my wife along we drove up one afternoon, shot some of the places in the afternoon light, spent the night in a motel, shot the remaining images in the morning light, and returned to Tucson that afternoon. Not a lot of money but earning $1500 for a pleasant short trip was great, especially if you consider the fun we had doing it.

Shooting for stock can be a lot of fun. Remember, if you're going to be setting your own schedule, you're accountable only to yourself, there is no director or editor looking over your shoulder, and for the most part, you are the one who chooses what you want to shoot. Add a profit and you're in "hog heaven."

Erwin "Bud" Nielsen is a photographer/writer based in Tucson, Arizona.