Rano Raraku, outer crater slopes, birthplace of the moai (statues), Rapa Nui National Park, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Easter Island, Chile, South America
© Geoff Renner/Robert Harding/drr.net

Established in the 1970's Robert Harding is one of the most respected names in the picture business. Under his leadership, Robert has brought together an edited collection of images representing the work of over 600 photographers in 200 countries worldwide. Digital Railroad is delighted to have more than 50,000 images from this unique collection now available for licensing in Marketplace.

Photo Credit: © Neil Emmerson/Robert Harding/drr.net

As quoted in the April/May issue of f2 Freelance Photographer Magazine Robert discussed the process of bringing his unique collection to the web:

"The shift to digital over the past 10 years has been little short of seismic. In our case the digital conversion meant the selection, editing and scanning of around 100,000 transparencies held in our files. We drum scanned them which, although was very expensive, meant they were future proof. Another benefit of drum scanning is the quality, which gives our clients the best possible results for reproduction."

Women in white during the National Day celebrations in the Bandar Seri Begawan stadium in Brunei, Borneo, Southeast Asia, Asia
© Alain Evrard/Robert Harding/drr.net

Please share your favorite image(s) from this collection, by posting a link in the comments below.

You may have read this in our newsletter a couple months ago (everyone DOES read those, right???) but it bears repeating: simply put, small image files lose sales. Just this past week a customer had chosen an image for a high-end, high-dollar advertising use, but the file the photographer had loaded to Marketplace was too small, about 14MB. The photographer was away on a shoot and couldn't get back in time to deliver a new scan, so the client ended up using their second choice.

In another case a photographer had loaded even smaller files, under 1MB, which weren't even big enough for a client to get a good look at, much less comp or use. Fortunately in that case the photographer had a staff member in his office who was able to upload the larger files in time for the client's deadline.

So, how can you help ensure that you never lose another sale? A good practice is to always upload hi-res images that are in the 40-50MB range. This will have your images ready the next time a sales opportunity knocks.

And as a reminder, refer to the following list for our minimum size requirements for uploading uncompressed image sizes:

Commercial: 11" x 17" at 300 dpi, 5,100 x 3,300 pixels, 16 megapixels, 50MB
Editorial: 8" x 10" at 300 dpi, 3,000 x 2,000 pixels, 6 megapixels, 20MB

Please note: Always upload the largest image size possible. But don't upsize, up-rez, or interpolate your images beyond a small percentage -- that can degrade image quality and produce artifacts that ruin the very usability you're trying to achieve.

If you've got a small number of images that need bigger sizes, simply use your archive's Replace feature to swap current files with new ones. And if you have a large number of images to replace, remove them from Marketplace, delete them from your archive, upload new images, and submit them to Marketplace.

As always, feel free to contact us at support@digitalrailroad.net if you have any questions or concerns.

Having attended more photo industry conferences than I care to recall, I am delighted to report that last weekend's ASPP Educational Conference in Phoenix was one of the best I have ever attended.

DRR Member and Photo Buyer Scott Rosen, with members Margaret Savino and Peter Bennett at ASPP Educational Conference, Phoenix, AZ, April 26, 2008
© Christopher Beauchamp/drr.net

What made it so special? Unlike other photo industry events that focus on a single constituency in the photo community, ASPP serves as an umbrella organization that brings together virtually all of the constituents on whom we as professionals depend: image makers, producers, artists, agents, buyers, technologists and distributors. Just a few of the talented folks I had the privilege to interact with were Photographers: Alison Wright, Kymri Wilt, Joe Viesti, Susie Fitzhugh
; Agents: Nancy Carrizales, Danita Delimont, Chad Bridwell, Helen Gilks, Rob Henson; Consultants Angela Murphy, Mary Virginia Swanson, Jain Lemos; Producer/Editors: Jennifer Davis Heffner, Jennifer Lim, Brigette Sullivan.

Given our mission at Digital Railroad-- to empower the community of photographers, agencies and image buyers with trusted technology so they can focus on what they love: being creative-- it's now wonder this weekend's conference got me so fired up. Tremendous thanks and gratitude to Cathy Sachs and the many industry professionals who offer their time and resources to ASPP for bringing together this community and organizing this terrific event.

Rather than keep all the learning and insights I gained to myself, read on to see my top takeaways from the conference organized in three categories: Highlights, Tactics and Strategy.

All photos © Dennis Brack

Just arriving back in Seattle from the ASPP Education Conference in Phoenix last weekend, Dennis Brack sends me an email which I just loved receiving and (with his permission) I have to share:

"The Digital Railroad envelops with sales checks are a great addition to my incoming
mails--let's hope they continue and increase in size!"

One look at Dennis' remarkable collection in Marketplace and there is no doubt he'll continue getting his fair share.

For folks who are new to Digital Railroad, or even just want or need to brush up on some basics, we've got some great new video tutorials online. They're very handy for optimizing your workflow and getting the most out of your Archive.

There's a great one on adding, managing, and editing Metadata -- a must see! Click here for Metadata video.

Plus
FTP Uploading,
Managing Groups (which has lots of great info on editing and sorting images in your Archive),
Member Invitations for your Archive,
and Slide Labels, which shows you how to control what metadata shows with your thumbnails. (bet you didn't even know you could do that!)

These videos really show off the great capabilities of the Digital Railroad Archives, and even if you already know the basics, contain lots of useful tips and details.

©Michael Mullady
(As toxic emissions pour from the biggest chimney in Latin America, Michael William Mendoza Garcia, 3, turns away in tears. Michael lives just across the river from the plant; as a result he is exposed to a high level of gas. He cries when the air is dense with gas because, "it makes him nauseated and causes vomiting," says his mother Maribel Garcia Torres.)

At an altitude slightly above tweleve thousand feet, in the Central Andean region of Peru, pollution is a fact of life for the inhabitants of La Oroya. Since 1992, the city of 35,000 has been exposed to toxic emissions released from a metal smelting plant owned by the Missouri based Doe-Run. A recent Health Ministry study from the government of Peru showed that 99% of the children tested had lead poisoning, a condition which causes mental retardation, hyperactivity, liver disease, kidney disease and death.

This Saturday May 10, 2008, during the WHNPA Eyes of History Gala in Washington DC, Michael Mullady will be awarded the Student Photographer of the Year award for his "Children of Lead" story . As sponsor of the WHNPA, DRR will also award Michael a free year subscription to DRR. We would personally like to welcome Michael to the DRR community!

New member Kymri Wilt recently shared this image and the inspiration behind it:

© Kymri Wilt/Mira Terra Images

"On February 6, 2008, California Coastal Commission held a 14-hour hearing and voted to deny the construction of a Toll Road through San Onofre State Beach. I attended the hearing along with thousands of others - many were surfers, many were environmentalists, and all were passionately professional about making their voices heard. There were CEO's, attorneys, moms with toddlers, commuters, activists, teachers, and all walks of business professionals, male and female, who took the day off work to give testimony or support. The definition of a stereotypical surfer was blown right out of the water. Surfers come in all ages, shapes and sizes. However, most of the signs, t-shirts, websites and promotional advertising seemed targeted to an outdated punkish youth subculture and did little to embrace today's real-life surfer - someone like myself (self-employed, vegetarian, wife, mother, homeowner, hybrid-driver, world traveller, photographer, etc.).

As a photographer, I wanted to capture the essence of today's surfer and environmentalist. I also wanted to explore a new way of conceptualizing what it means to be "green" - for an individual, for a business, and for the planet. I grabbed my surf buddy Kevin (a professional surf instructor/actor/model), and we brainstormed for all of two minutes then we were off. He had an expired laptop that he was keeping to someday artfully "smash into a gazillion pieces", but we decided that it would serve a greater purpose as a prop for our shoot (battery removed of course). We grabbed the laptop along with an old suit and some boards, and headed out into the surf, shooting all the way from the car right into the surf. It was pure, inspired, fun. The ideas just rolled out one after the next....Board Director, Green Executive, Rush Hour, Alternative Commute, 5:00, Boss's Day Off, Surfing the Web, Work Flow, Wet Suit, etc. etc. We've yet to decide upon the ultimate image to represent "Toll Road Alternative", so as not to forget the issue which inspired it all: www.surfrider.org

See more of Kymri's images in Marketplace.

We got another request just last week: a buyer in the healthcare industry was looking for images of the same model in different aspects of her day. To quote their request:

"What are looking for is to show one women throughout her day. So eating breakfast / drinking coffee, leaving for work, exercising, visiting with family or friends. Its really important that its the same women in each activity. She should be 35-45 yrs."

When I was at Getty Images, and here at Digital Railroad as well, I've been seeing ever-increasing numbers of requests like this -- what we generalize as "day-in-the-life", but really include any group or series of images with the same model or models in different aspects of their lives: their home, family, work, hobbies, fun, etc.

Thank the web, other electronic media, and even decreased costs of running images in print for the fact that many advertisers are now using groups of images to tell stories about their ideal customers -- but they're still having a hard time finding those images.

Which spells opportunity. In the past photographers often tried to avoid using the same model(s) for multiple shoots, but now if you have a great model it pays to use him or her over the course of a number of shoots to build up a library of that person's "life". And since those are harder to find, the photographer who has those series of images has a great advantage over those who don't.

© Blend Images/Andersen Ross/drr.net

So then the question becomes, once you've got these images, how do you make sure they're found?

Of course, it comes down to metadata. "Day in the Life" can work as a keyword, and/or part of the caption. The word "series" can also be useful, especially if paired with something more specific like a code designating a particular set of images -- which is good because that can be added to over time. Also if a group or series is uploaded to Marketplace together they will stay together if a user arranges search results by Date Added. And if they are shot on or around the same day(s), having the date fields for the images completed also becomes a way to find the group.

Digital Railroad member Peter Bennett in Long Beach CA has a front row view of the latest event to highlight the growing problem of pollution in the world's oceans.

© Peter Bennett/CaliforniaStockPhoto.com / drr.net

A raft made entirely of, and named, "Junk" will be setting out this weekend to sail from Long Beach to Hawaii. Floating on pontoons made from 15,000 plastic bottles culled from trash and recyclers, the trip is meant to call attention to the "plastic soup" and "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" -- a huge field of trash and debris in the Pacific. See the project blog and background here: http://junkraft.blogspot.com/

As Peter notes: "The big misconception about the marine debris is that is a big garbage dump; it’s actually a soup of flotsam, more macro particles of plastic and other marine debris. The reason I get technical about this is that I have heard more than once frustration at not being able to find photos of it. It’s actually impossible to photograph from above because the particles are so small and spread out. Size estimates vary from an area equivalent to the state of Texas to double that of the continental United States."

Peter has been covering the genesis and progress of the project, and will be there for the launch on Sunday and four days of sailing until the raft is clear of the shipping lanes and into favorable winds. Check out his images from the project in his Archive here: http://www.digitalrailroad.net/californiastockphoto/my/glbs.aspx?msid=789&lid=16670894&e=0&p=0