Highlights:

1) Florentine Films, Sarah Botstein and David McMahon presentation “In the Trenches of 'The War'”. The producers shared their insights on the effort required to identify and license source material—including footage, photos, audio and text-- for this remarkable film. You could hear a pin drop as the speakers played excerpts from Ken Burn’s latest masterwork. Some data points worth mentioning: total production to produce the film was $12MM; a rather paltry sum when you consider the production schedule was nearly two years long. Also, it was fascinating to hear the producers reveal the deeply personal stories of the soldiers and families in the film that they had a chance to meet along the way. Particularly moving was the episode of their identifying a previously anonymous soldier from whom they wished to get permission before featuring the soldier’s face on the DVD jacket and book cover. While the soldier was contacted and agreed to the release, he did not wish to be identified as the personal trauma he experienced from his war effort was still present with him some 60 years later.

2) Mary Virginia Swanson: While I was familiar with Mary’s work from my time at Getty Images (Getty purchased The Image Bank shortly after Mary sold her agency Swanstock to TIB), I had not met Mary before and was totally blown away by her presentation. With a background in Fine Art, Mary approaches the stock licensing business from a unique vantage point. She stressed both at her own agency and now as a consultant, the need for photographers to first and foremost develop a unique and signature style and then make every effort to promote and develop a brand that focuses attention on the quality and consistency that photographers bring to their craft. This point of view very much is in synch with our efforts at DRR to empower photographers by helping them create a branded archive experience to help them stand out when approaching photo buyers. During her presentation Mary cited multiple examples where photographers and agencies are creating new and powerful brands as well as thought leaders to assist in how we think about brands, including: Brian Storm’s work at MediaStorm; the lessons she learned at Magnum of story over subject; Ed Kashi’s “Aging in America"; for inspiration on what’s next, the TED Conference and seminars; Douglas Levere’s “New York’s Changing” project.

3) Panel discussion: Where is all the great stock photography going to come from? Paul Henning did an excellent job gathering meaningful insights from a large panel that included photographers (DRR Member Rick Becker Lecrone from Blend, Gene Mopsik, ASMP; Mark Skalny), distributors (Chad Tidwell, Fotolia; Patrick Donahue, Corbis) and buyer (Pam Huling, Discovery). The panelists comments on the state of the industry—given the range of licensing now available—Rights Managed, Rights Ready, Royalty Free, Microstock-- certainly cemented the perception that the industry is in a constant state of change. Moreover, the overwhelming sentiment among this group (contrasting with Mary Virgina Swanson’s) was that to be a successful commercial stock photographer, it behooves you to consider having a portion of your work represented in each of the three major licensing models (Rights Managed, Royalty-Free and Microstock) as each attracts different buyers AND buyers that purchase across multiple points in the value chain depending on project and budget. Pam Huling certainly confirmed this point of view from the buyers perspective stating that the plethora of image choices combined with the current landscape of licensing options is very attractive for buyers. It was certainly gratifying to hear almost all of the panelists reference by name DRR as a company that gives photographers fair and ready access to the marketplace. Gene Mopsik gave DRR perhaps the strongest endorsement of the weekend stating that he hopes more photographers look at DRR as a way to take control of which images they distribute and how they are licensed.

Tactical:

Model Releases: Often members ask us about where to get model releases. During another excellent presentation from attorney Nancy Wolff and Bonnie Beacher, Sr. Director of Rights & Permissions at McGraw Hill, the panelists referenced the excellent set of guidelines available from ASMP.

Got Copyright? A project from Columbia University, KeepYourCopyright.org was created to educate copyright holder on how to preserve and optimize the value of your copyright. Also, Nancy Wolff’s book is a must read for all photo pros who derive an income from licensing intellectual property. A Professional Photographer’s Legal Handbook was referenced throughout the conference as a go-to resource for all questions surrounding image licensing. A copy is within arm’s length of my desk at all times.

Subscribe: Win Holden, Publisher of "Arizona Highways", gave a marvelous dinner presentation sharing the mission of this publication and it’s long history of supporting and honoring great photographers. Used ostensibly as a vehicle to promote travel and tourism to Arizona, AH is also rightly proud of it’s legacy in providing a much needed platform for promoting the work of more than 185 world class photographers since the magazine debuted in 1925 including: Ansel Adams, Josef, David & Marc Muench, Larry Lindhal, George H.H. Huey as well as ASPP and Digital Railroad Member Tom Bean whose images are featured in the current issue.

Strategic:

Create a unique identity: The ubiquity of powerful digital photography tools--- available to consumers and pros alike--- has led to a rapid increase in the number of images. As supply grows, without an equal increase in demand, understandably buyers are benefiting from lower prices. 1000’s of photographers have entered the market for stock licensing through Microstock—many of whom do not rely on licensing photographs as a sole source of income. (Patrick Donahue, Chief Photographer of Corbis, quipped how his daughter at college and her friends found it was cool and infinitely more fun than other past-times to spend a Saturday afternoon shooting pictures and submitting them to iStockPhoto.com.)

While this need to "be everywhere" – as advocated by several of the sessions we heard this weekend, pro shooters, whether commercial and editorial, should create a unique and distinctive brand. Successful brands will resonate broadly with buyers of photography—whether an ad agency creative director or a designer at a marketing communications firm or a web designer looking for an image icon or a blogger looking for inexpensive (or free) photos to illustrate a blog. By empowering photographers with the ability to quickly launch uniquely branded, e-commerce enabled websites, DRR provides photographers with a powerful mechanism to meet this requirement to create and sustain a photographer’s individual brand identity.

Be everywhere: Buyers are buying across the spectrum of the value chain; therefore successful commercial photographers need to be open to making their work available across the chain. Rick Becker Lecrone, who as co-founder of Blend, has built one of the most successful commercial stock production companies, advocates this very position while simultaneously focusing all of their work on perpetuating the unique identity Blend has established in the market for being the go-to source for multi-ethnic images. Again, by building a global licensing platform—supporting both RM and RF licensing-- with members and buyers in more than 70 countries, we at DRR are helping photographers achieve this very objective.

Whether you agree or not with the positions stated above, hopefully the observations I've shared have stimulated your thinking on how we as photographers, buyers and agents/distributors participate in shaping the ever-evolving ecosystem of professional photography.

Comments? Feedback?

Thanks, Mark