There has been a lot of talk on the web throughout the photo industry about the power and use of Flickr for marketing oneself and as a source to license images. While Flickr has no infrastructure yet to support image licensing, stories abound about photographers being contacted by designers and companies from across the board… Read about it here, here, or here.
While some of these photographers are members of an organization like ASMP or use software such as FotoQuote to determine fair market value for the use of their images, I so far have dealt licensing my images on Flickr case by case. So far, so good. But ASMP is right around the corner for me as are relationships with microstock offerings like iStockPhoto.
Below is an image of my daughter Ella that was taken in our backyard while testing a 50mm f/1.4 lens recently nabbed on Craigslist for cheap. I had never been able to shoot that wide open before and was barely holding focus here due to the incredibly shallow depth of field that you get with f/1.4.
A graphic designer from Norway asked me if she could use it for a campaign she was working on for UNE, which is a portal for people looking to immigrate to Norway (as best as I can tell anyway). The image is used in the header of the UNE website and has been rolled out in a print campaign for newspapers and magazines as well. The price for this? Handsome. The print component to this transaction was what really ran up the price.
The image below was taken while exploring Montreal when in Canada for the wedding of a dear friend. This series of row houses had no significance to me other than they were oddly placed among the rest of the architecture in the area, they had compelling repetition and line as form, and I liked the unfolding of color. From an aesthetic standpoint, this image leaves a lot to be desired as the light is the harshest of the day. But for an online map company like Schmap, it is the perfect picture to represent a pocket of a charming Montreal neighborhood. Price? Free for credit and Flickr click-thru.
The next image is of a ristra seen while strolling Pike Place Market with my wife one morning. Whenever we have the time to make the morning a little more special, we head there for hand-pulled espresso from the first Starbucks and grab either pastries and savories from Le Panier or head to the nearby creperie. Shooting this image took about .2 seconds and has yielded a nice return as it’s been used three times in newsletters for Piedmont’s University of Gastronomic Sciences in the village of Pollenzo. Licensed for a lot? Let’s just say that Ella will have to find additional revenue to attend college.
And here is a snapshot of a row of Thai food laid out on my dining room table that was procured to help celebrate the favorite meal of friend having a birthday. Little did I know while shooting this image, that peanut sauce would wind up all over my Nikon and that it was be licensed for a recipe website called Loulies. Pricing was determined like this: I was beyond busy when the inquiry came in, I took a look at the site and determined there was no real bu$iness happening here, so I let them have it for Flickr click-thru and not a penny less. What can I say? Sometimes I’m soft.
So far I’ve had some good fortune come my way without really trying to get my images “out there”. But the thought of taking everyday images and turning them into a revenue stream is enticing to say the least. My next move? Head to the farmers market to get fresh vittle-gredients as I’m cooking for Mothers Day tonight. The move after that? Peruse my library and find a collection of images suitable for submitting to stock in the hopes that pennies will begin to rub together for me in the night while I slumber.
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