Because You Need Them
It's the year 2006. You are searching for a photo of a jack oak (Quercus ellipsoidalis), taken in late fall or early winter, before the leaves have fallen. People should be in the picture, including teenagers
The old adage, "once you've seen a tree, you've seen 'em all," doesn't work anymore. Your clients are no longer satisfied with standard catalog shots of trees. For your project in progress, your image will have to complement the message of the text. The author requires it, the readers expect it.
Photobuyers in the 80's and 90's didn’t have to be picky-picky. They could be satisfied with "something nearly on-target," because readers didn't expect on-target illustrations. Besides, a decade ago the methods available to try to locate a highly-specific picture were labor-intensive and costly. Today, photobuyers are more selective. They know they can tap easily into highly specialized collections of photos, thanks to the Internet. If one agency or individual photographer doesn’t have the exact picture a buyer needs, they can quickly find someone who does.
Back to your search for a picture of Quercus ellipsoidalis. You may need such a picture just once.
In the interest of speed and cost, you will seek out an Internet site(s) that provides strong coverage of "trees" (there are 66 species of oak trees alone).
Photobuyers in the coming decade will look more and more to photographers who specialize. The Internet is going to make such photographer – specialists valuable resources to photobuyers in the coming decade. You will be able to easily contact a photo specialist directly, because increasingly you will be seeking content-specific pictures, whether it be fly fishing, orangutans, the Chesapeake Bay, rodeos, gliders, or oak trees.
Here at PhotoSource International, we tell photographers to remember when marketing their pictures: Photobuyers buy pictures, not because they like them, but because they need them.-RE
 Tommy Thompson |
 Kerry Kolb |
 Jon Saban |
 Jake Nelson |