2013 April | evolveimages

Apr

View From The Top

If you want to find out how to take pictures at 8km per second, or how to really be an ‘out of this world’ photographer, then check out this recently posted video from Chris Hadfield.

It’s a quick primer from a Canadian with a neat ‘stache hanging out in the space station and taking some darn good pictures that, I am willing to bet, you can’t match. But do prove us wrong!

Chris takes us through his kit and his technique. He tells us about his three-point process and what time of day he really likes to look down on the Sahara. He tells us a few other things that makes it seem like a jolly photo expedition hanging around in a glorified tin can in space, prey to a whole universe of equipment malfunction.

The overall effect is to make you feel like a big kid and just fall in love again with the romance of being an astronaut.

And if you want to know how this celeb photographer keeps his facial hair quite so neat, or brushes his teeth, cooks his dinner, etc. you can go to one of the other videos also uploaded by Chris and the Canadian Space Agency and view-able at youtube.

Apr

Image Buyer’s Guide Tip # 1: Never Pay Too Much For An Image

Editor’s Note: This post is the first in a series we plan ultimately to publish as a standalone guide that can be shared widely to help educate photo buyers on the best practices when licensing images from photographers, stock agencies, archives, libraries, or other sources. If you are a photo buyer and would like to share a tip, technique or best practice that you’ve used to help you license great images for your projects, please email, Tweet or post your ideas and we’ll contact you to have you featured in a future post.

Ever fall in love with a great image only to find out the fee published on the the website is more than your budget can handle? What to do? While it’s always good practice to have a 2nd or 3rd choice as a back-up in case you really can’t get your first choice at the price that will meet your budget, here are some tips to make sure you are getting the best price you can:

1) Comparison shop: Unless the image you’ve identified is only available exclusively from a single agency or photographer, try Google Image Search to see if your image is perhaps available from more than one source. Here is an example of a search we did for images of “Family making sand castle on beach.” At the top right of the results we found the identical image available from AGE FotoStock and Getty Images:

Clicking on each image takes us to the pricing page for each photo. The result? AGE FotoStock’s prices for this image range from $49 USD to $489USD. The same image priced at gettyimages.com starts at $26 USD to a high end of $618 USD. Both agency’s prices are determined by the file size you choose to purchase.

Fees for the image from AGE FotoStock range from $49 USD to $489 USD

Fees for the same image from Getty Images range from $26 USD to $618 USD

2) Call or email the photographer or agency: Even if the website has a published price (as per the examples above) often times a simple email or phone call can yield you a lower price. Whether you are a first time client or a repeat buyer, agents and photographers know they have to compete for your business and more often than not are willing to “reward” your purchase with a lower price.

3) Buy more than one image: Whenever you purchase more than one image from a single agency or photographer it is customary for the buyer to expect a discount. If the agency or photographer does not advertise this, again, call or email and ask for the “multi-image rate discount.”

4) Invest in a subscription: If you find an image sourced from one of the many subscription image services that are available, often the price of a single image can offset a significant percentage of the total fee of a subscription. Shutterstock offers this image as a single image download for $19 however they also offer a one-month subscription where you can download as many as 25 images per day every day for a month (a potential value of $9500) for just $249.

5) Extra Credit: License Your Images at the End of the Month or Quarter: While it may not always make difference, stock agencies often set aggressive revenue goals for their sales teams and sometimes the pressure on reps to meet these goals can work to a buyer’s advantage. Agency reps, especially those who are commission based, are driven to close as many sales before the end of a month or quarter. Timing your call to ask for a lower price at the end of a month, when a rep is trying to achieve his or her sales target, can yield a larger discount than a call placed to the same rep at the beginning of a month or fiscal period.

How do you get your best prices for images? Please post a comment below.

Editor’s Note: If you have a question about how to license images, let us know and we’ll post a response and ask our readers to chime in as well. Disagree or have an alternative point of view? We invite your comments and feedback. Thanks!

Apr

Christopher Kimmel: Wild And Free

Christopher Kimmel is a self-taught outdoor photographer who grew up hiking, canoeing, camping and skiing in southwest British Columbia. Coupling hiking, scrambling and climbing with photography is a passion that Chris has developed over the past several years. During this time Chris has started Alpine Edge Photography, a small company where Chris works as a freelance photographer dedicated to capturing stunning outdoor adventure sports for various clients and for commercial stock.

Through his photography, Christopher hopes to share the wild and free feelings of being out in the beauty of nature. He strives to draw attention to the interconnectedness of humans and their environment, while conveying the importance of leaving our urban centers and enjoying the natural world around us. His desire is that these images would inspire those who view his work to go out and explore the outdoors for themselves— to feel the sense of awe that only being in the beauty of creation can bring.

Capturing a story or moment in time is not always easy—especially in the alpine. More often than not, photo gear is carried up into the mountains for thousands of feet before any pictures are even taken. Despite these obstacles, Chris remains dedicated to capturing strong compositions in the backcountry. Christopher’s fondness for the outdoors and adventure continues to draw him out to explore natural areas. Some of his favorite areas to explore are the in the North Cascade and Pacific Coast Mountain Ranges. We asked Chris to share the back story on some of his images now available exclusively through Evolve:

“After a difficult hike gaining over 5000 feet elevation and battling hoards of mosquitoes and black flies Aaron, Matt and I found a flat patch of snow below Silvertip Peak (seen in background left) where we could rest our weary bodies before making a push for the summit the next day. Before heading to bed we took a few night shots. Pictured in this shot is Aaron and I while my other friend Matt was tasked with illuminating our tent with his headlamp. Silvertip Mountain had been on my to-do list for a few years and the next day we made a successful push to the summit. Since there is no trail leading to this area of the North Cascade Mountains it is rarely visited. The approach is via several steep vegetated gullies continuing to a forested rib that leads east from the Skagit River Valley near Hope, British Columbia, Canada.”

“Early this winter Kelly, Adam and I took a day off work to go alpine touring up to Thar Peak in the Coquihalla Recreation Area. We approached Thar via the east ridgeline and topped out around noon. We had lunch on the summit and enjoyed the gorgeous weather and views of the Anderson River Mountains. This picture of Kelly was taken about during our approach up the east ridgeline. As Kelly slid over the snow the movement of his skis shot thousands of powdery snow particles into the air which were then illuminated by the morning sun. It was a fantastic day in the mountains!”

“The morning sun had just risen as our crew of three lifted off in a helicopter heading towards the back end of the Coast Mountains to conduct several snow surveys for the day. During our flight we flew through the Seymour Valley and over the Seymour River near Vancouver Canada where I was able to snap this shot. The Seymour River is one of the largest rivers to empty into Burrard Inlet. The river supplies drinking water to Metro Vancouver and supports a healthy salmon run including Coho, Pink and Steelhead.”

“After hiking up towards Stewart Peak in the Cheam Mountain Range near Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, my friend Aaron and I set up camp on this snow-dusted rocky ridge. We got to bed early in order to wake up early for the sunrise and to prepare for our summit bid later the next morning. We were awarded for our early rising as the morning light blew us away! We enjoyed our breakfast while we took in the views of Welch and Foley Peaks and the sunning sunrise. It was a brilliant start to a beautiful day in the mountains.”

“After conquering the summit of Crown Mountain in the pouring rain I began my decent in hopes finding dryer weather. Eventually the clouds began to part and the fog lifted. For a few seconds the sun shone through a small opening and lit up this Old Growth Forest near Grouse Mountain. It was a beautiful scene that I had the pleasure of viewing and photographing. A few seconds after this photo the clouds swallowed up the sun and it began raining once again. Crown Mountain is a popular scramble near Vancouver BC and is accessed via the top of Grouse Mountain or through Lynn Headwaters Park on the east side.”

“Lines created by tiny streams of water returning to the sea at White Rock Beach are illuminated by the setting sun low on the horizon. The combination of lines and light made for a unique textured abstract that I happened to stumble upon during an evening walk on the beach. After snapping a few pictures of the patterns I took in the sunset from a nearby bench.”

See more of Christopher’s images on his website and those available exclusively on Evolve.

Apr

Susan Gary: Re-Discovering An Old Friend

Susan Gary is a fine art and stock photographer from Huntington Beach, California. She initially became interested in photography at the young age of 12. Taking pictures of friends and family with her fathers old Rolleiflex medium format camera, she was fascinated with the idea of capturing and preserving the moments of life. But life got busy with school and other things. She started a family and a boat cleaning business with her first husband in the early 1980’s, then her husband died in an accident in 1986. With the responsibilities of running the family business and raising two young boys on her own, photography took a backseat for twenty years, except for point and shoot pics of the kids and camping trips in the mountains. But the idea of becoming an accomplished photographer never left her mind.

In 2006, with family now grown and more time available, she re-found her old friend. Mainly capturing landscapes and flowers, one day she discovered the joy of bird photography and new high-end cameras and lenses followed. She started supplying stock imagery in 2009 and with it, family moments and portraits was added to her repertoire. Susan shares the back story on some of her new work now represented by Evolve:

“Calling on my skills learned from birds in-flight photography, this image of a male friend dangerously diving backward off a high cliff in Copper Canyon near Lake Havasu, Arizona was expertly captured.”

“When my oldest son showed up one day at the family business, feeling sore from a new large tattoo on his chest inked on just the evening before, I shot several frames. In this one, he is showing us just how tough he is.”

“Hummingbirds are my favorite bird to capture. This is a composite of cherry blossoms with a shot of a hummingbird which was originally captured at my neighbor’s feeder, added. Creating new works of art by combining two or more original images in Photoshop is an obsession as well.”

“Christmas baking is all the more fun when creating new homemade goodies and then taking lots of pretty holiday pictures of them.”

“Hearing that the rarely seen White Pelicans had been frequenting at a nearby park, I loaded up my Canon 1D Mark IV and 300mm f/2.8 lens and headed over to the park in hopes of finding them. Coming upon this group bathing together in the lake was a fascinating and rewarding experience.”

“During a family vacation in Hawaii, I captured this refreshing moment of my happy and excited granddaughter as she emerged from the Pacific Ocean at a black sand beach in Hilo”

See more of Susan’s images on her website and on Evolve

Apr

onePicture Project: Harnessing The Power Of A Single Image To Make A Difference

onePicture Project: We believe in the power of a single image to make a difference in the world. Each month we invite editors and creative directors from leading agencies, publishers and design firms to select one image from a small set of exclusive images that we will offer for licensing on our website.

Each time a photo buyer selects the featured onePicture image to license for a project, Evolve will donate 100% of the royalty we receive* to the non-profit charity of the photo buyer’s choice.

To kick off the campaign we’ve asked our Lewis Blackwell, Evolve’s Chief Creative Officer, to select an image and share his thoughts on why he believes this image can make a difference:

‘For the first in our onePicture Project this seemed an appropriate image. It’s a lovely rendition by Lars Hallstrom of a familiar subject, but it’s so bright, clean and minimal in depiction that it allows the viewer to focus absolutely on the concept – or rather concepts. There are a lot in here and that’s why it has considerable potential for users.

We want the onePicture Project to support the causes that our clients care about. This project is all about how, when we work together, from small starts, great things come, and how hope and joy are all bound up with the risks and fragility of life. This image can say that and much more. And every time a client finds a use for it the image can now only communicate afresh, but it can really work to help a good cause.

So please find a way to put it to work and help us give to a cause you care about.’

If you are a creative director, art director, art producer, or designer (or know of one) and would like to nominate an image for onePicture Project, please email us and we’ll send you the details of how to participate in this important campaign.

Questions? Call us: +1.888.933.5976

*Please note: Each time buyers license an exclusive image from Evolve, we share 65% of the fee with the photographer, and the royalty Evolve receives equals 35% of the license fee. Images selected for the onePicture Project, Evolve will contribute 100% of the 35% royalty we receive to the respective buyer’s charity of choice.

Apr

The Internet Of Things: The Elephant In The Room That Threatens to Squash Us

This article by Evolve Images Chief Creative Officer Lewis Blackwell was recently published in The Drum.

I’ve had coffee with an ambassador who represents the elephant in the corner of the room.

It is a virtual elephant in a virtual room. But it is a room we’re all in and the elephant threatens to squash some of us. Even in virtual rooms there’s only so much space.

The ambassador’s name is Andy Hobsbawm. We’ll get to the elephant’s name in a moment. Andy’s something of a digital guru (in the Digital Hall of Fame, no less ) and one of the founders of the business EVRYTHNG.

He and his colleagues are concerned with developing ‘the internet of things’. That’s the elephant. They point out that we are at a point where everything significant that we buy could carry a digital signature to be uniquely identifiable and connected so as to create a web of things. The life of that bottle of water on your desk, or the shoe on your foot, can be trace-able, link-able, and thereby carry intelligence. About you as well as it.

It sounds a little far-fetched and yet it is already here. Andy’s company is doing projects with the likes of Diageo, while the link between Apple and Nike+ is well established, enabling our running shoes to chat to our iPhones and computers and entertain the web with our efforts to get fit.

Anyway, Andy’s business gives me a headache quite quickly as I struggle to imagine the implications of the humungous data generated by everything we touch. And then there’s the data generated by mixing up the data with other data in order to create more data that predicts the future and reshapes our existence. Got that? Just a little scary, yes?

I don’t mind my bike or my fridge talking about my habits but the implications of underwear or individual deodorants having their own Facebook page, or the web-of-things equivalent, is mind-boggling. What if – oh dear, how embarrassing – you don’t appear to have a deodorant life? Too much information or not enough, either way as we become even more defined by our consumption this could get vicious. I can sense a lobby forming to say our rights are being eroded in ways that go way beyond what Google’s done to us so far.

But never mind the encroachment, there seems an inevitability about the internet-of-things. It’s going to creep up on us rather fast – elephants do move amazingly quickly – and then sit right on us. It could crush several aspects of the media and marketing landscape we know and love and earn our livings from.

The internet-of-things will change how we define and spend across media, what we think of as marketing, and how we conceive and design products. Just a few alterations to consider then.

Everything becomes media (once again, Marshall McLuhan’s crazier statements become true). Everything will be developed and designed with a view to how it is no longer a dumb product but one that communicates. Endlessly. We will need to plan and control the interaction with a stream of information from the birth of the product through all its mediations unto its death. Us do part. Of course, in some cases, our death may come the sooner and that will be a little blip of data in the life of the product.

I’ll finish by mashing this thought with something shared by Sir Martin Sorrell recently. He wrote that American consumers spend less than 10 per cent of their time on newspapers and magazines, but more than 20 per cent of marketing budgets are spent on these traditional media.

And these consumers apparently spend a third of their time on the internet and mobile while only 20 per cent of budgets are spent on those media.

Sir Martin concluded that things must change. His clarity with stats, and his position at the head of the mighty WPP, makes it seem inevitable. The pressure is mounting and at some point the spending – and thinking – will slide more rapidly from traditional to digital. But some of that digital media is already looking old. What the internet-of-things proposes to do is reshape aspects of the digital offer, adding a higher level of measurement, accountability and control that makes the case even more compelling to spend there. The future of media and marketing will look very different again.

Now I’ve forgotten to tell you the elephant’s name. Feel free to propose one below. A delightful old media souvenir to the best suggestion.

Apr

Scott Rinckenberger: Joyful Solitude

Scott Rinckenberger is a Seattle based fine art landscape and adventure photographer specializing in capturing the most pristine and wild places his legs, skis and bikes will carry him. After training under one of the most high profile photographers in the industry, Scott seamlessly segued a professional ski career into a successful photography business built on sharing images and stories accessed via a love of adventure and exploration. Scott’s work has been featured in art exhibitions across the US, and Scott has appeared widely in the North American media both as a photographer and as an outdoor athlete. Scott’s clients include Powder, REI and Intel.

When meeting Scott for the first time, I couldn’t help but be impressed by his calm demeanor and purposeful manner. While certainly equipped with an equally quick smile and easy laugh, I understood immediately that these more serious traits are an essential by product, and certainly have been honed, from practicing his craft as professional mountaineer. Thankful for us, Scott is able to share the peaks and vistas as captured through his lens. We asked Scott to share the back story on several of his images now represented exclusively by Evolve:

“My method of photography relies on my immersion in my subject matter. One of the subjects with which I am most intimate is the alpine environment in winter. As a professional level ski mountaineer, I see the camera as a means to share places and moments that require an immense amount of training and practice to access. This image was captured near the summit of a remote and previously un-skied peak in the Washington Cascade mountains. This was on my third attempt to ski from the summit, and would prove unsuccessful. Heavy winds created sensitive avalanche conditions which barred a safe summit bid, but, in the plus column, created a very dramatic photograph as loose snow was blown hundreds of feet above the ridge and backlit by the morning sunlight.”

“The San Juan Islands on the Washington coast are one of the more peaceful places I’ve found. Each summer I join my wife and friends for various forays on the islands with bikes, kayaks, cabins and bbq’s to keep us entertained. Often I find myself out on my bicycle in the early morning enjoying the solitude. I try to always carry a camera with me when in beautiful environments, and on this particular morning I was on a spectacular stretch of forested road just in time to see the sun penetrate the marine fog and forest canopy and begin to illuminate the roadway with subtle and inspiring light. The artist, cyclist, driver and lover of metaphor in me all enjoy this image immensely.”

“Due to the arduous and exploratory nature of many of my backcountry ski outings, I often operate with just a single partner and generally in untrammeled environments. This image was taken 25 miles from the nearest road on a day that began with a midnight wakeup and many hours of climbing before the break of dawn. The tracks are those of myself and my partner after summiting a remote and tall peak in the Glacier Peak wilderness of Washington State. This was likely the first midwinter summit descent to date. As I looked back at our descent tracks, late afternoon light glanced across the disrupted snow highlighting the contours of our tracks and telling a story of joyful solitude.”

“I love this image because it encapsulates one of my favorite memories of a 3 month trip to Southeast Asia with my wife. On a high cliff above the Cambodian jungle sits an abandoned colonial French settlement, complete with a church, hotel and casino. It is in the process of being reclaimed by nature and is in a haunting state of ornate decay. We decided to rent a soviet era motorbike and ride up the mountain from the neighboring town of Kampot in order to spend the night camping at the ruins. As I wandered the basement of the hotel, I saw this incredible reflecting pool and asked my wife to stand in the doorway. The ambiguity of silhouette combined with the penetrating fog and organic elements creates a compelling scene that captured the fascinating feeling of this very unique part of the planet.”

“The alpine environment has a wonderful way of communicating to a climber. There is often a path on a mountain that is in harmony with the environment. A sweet spot that ensures the largest margin of safety while requiring the least wasted energy. In this image, my ski partner navigates this path of least resistance while avoiding an avalanche prone face to the left and a fragile corniced ridge to the right. Eventually on this day our path of least resistance began to resist and we were compelled to abort the mission in the name of safety and to respect the all-important rule that returning from the mountains is the single most important criteria by which to judge success.”

See more of Scott’s work on his website and those available exclusively through Evolve.

Archive for

View From The Top

Image Buyer’s Guide Tip # 1: Never Pay Too Much For An Image

Christopher Kimmel: Wild And Free

Susan Gary: Re-Discovering An Old Friend

onePicture Project: Harnessing The Power Of A Single Image To Make A Difference

The Internet Of Things: The Elephant In The Room That Threatens to Squash Us

Scott Rinckenberger: Joyful Solitude

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