Elevation Photos Blog

Supply Side Photonomics!

Now more than ever, the dearth of images available to photo buyers/editors is unbelievably overwhelming!

The battle being waged right now to get images published is as intense and challenging now more than ever for everyone in the photo business.  Other than the big three (although equally as difficult), the lines are being drawn in some cases between photo agencies who feel entitled to being in business, those who believe they have worked hard and earned the right to stay in business and those who are completely new to the industry and want to use technology to carve out a piece of the pie for themselves using content off of other people’s back.  Coupled with the fact that technology has caught up with the professional and the price point for launching an agency has been dramatically reduced.  Yet, even for those agencies who have unique and original content it seems as if those opportunities are few and far between.  The spaces are getting filled in quickly.

There are arguments on all sides of the coin about the state of the industry at the moment. And sometimes the questions that have been poised from all of us have often times been more important than the answers themselves.  For instance, the obvious ones such as is there enough demand for all these images?  Are we pricing ourselves out of the market?  Too high?  Too low?  As a freelance photographer are you diversifying yourself?  What does agency loyalty mean? Does it matter? Is the fight for 5 more cents from a blogger worth the fight at all? And while all this is taking place at grease lightning speed, the chatter in the photosphere world rages on about what the future holds for all types of media as we know it. Some of it realistic, while most of it tangential at best.   We just don’t know. Nobody does.

What we do know is this; suppliers being harangued by the buyers over pricing and suppliers not innovating enough to produce unique and quality content. Mediocrity is being rewarded to all of us by what images are being priced at, the value of our content and what separates this photographer from that one.  All of a sudden the gate keepers of the content have been flipped over and taken for a ride all the while no one asking the tough questions and wondering how the hell did we get here?  It’s almost as if the train left the station but no one asked what direction is was going in.  This, I am certain of, needs to change and it will.  The how, why, when and where’s still need to be decided on but I have no doubt it will change. For in order for this industry to survive, hard choices need to be made, leaders need to emerge and the old playbook needs to be thrown out.  Passengers need to pay, conductors need to responsibly oversee and the train needs to get back on the right track.

But the buyers you ask? What about them? Are their decisions based on price? Is the sea of images just too much to swim in? Has the dwindling economy forced buyers to purchase this quantity in bulk while sacrificing quality?

As agencies, we need to continually ask them these questions. We need to challenge them to go left instead of right. On our end we need to produce better images, unique content and hold the value of these images as hard as one can.  While not easy at all, it’s something that will truly separate one agency from another.  We are not in the commodity business as some may argue. We are content generators who provide a product that drives millions of people to your website, home page or publication. While some are excellent at it, others not so much. The next 6 months are critical and I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  The industry not only needs convergence driven by innovation but most importantly it needs many of us to think hard about our business, where it needs to go and how we need to get it there.

On that note, have a great July 4^th weekend!

 

RIP Michael Jackson

 

I was 11 years old when Thriller came out in 1982. 

We had pretty much just had cable in our house and I remember making sure to watch the epic video EVERY HOUR on MTV!  It truly was a first for a lot of us who have never seen a video like that before and a littly tiny guy dancing around the screen dressed up as a vampire with moves none of us would even try to attempt!

The only story I have to share with you all was back in the Summer of 1992 in New York.  For some reason on a weekday I decided to head up to Central Park since it was a beautiful NY summer day and I missed feeling grass underneath my feet. Before the Great Lawn had Kentuck Blue Grass installed, it was a pretty beat up field but still a great place to go to get away from the concrete jungle NY so often feels like!

Anyway, I got out near the Plaza and started heading West along the South side of the Park towards Columbus Circle.  I remember it wasn't that crowded and since it was a weeknight there wasn't the usual tourist crush and the smelly horse carriages that line that street to take over paying and over zealous tourists around the park.   I noticed one carriage approaching me and it was being followed by an unmarked blue-greyish van.   The carriage stopped right in front of me and out came from it was a small child, another small one and this strange looking person with a black hat, military black jacket and he was wearind a mask and dark glasses.  For a minute I thought, , No, this can't be what I think it is.  For one, how crazy would that be and two, how awesome would that be!

But, lo and behold, right there in front of me was the King of Pop himself.  One security guy, the driver of the van ( tinted windows of course) and me, 2 kids and Michael himself.  I was more shocked and in awe than I thought and with a quick, Hey Michael , loveyour music!..he sort of raised his gloveless white hand, acknowledged me and then quickly was shuttled in to the van along with his kid friends ( he didn't have any children at that point) and drove off in to the NYC streets. Some 17 years later from that NYC Summer, I never thought the King of Pop would be dead at 50 years old! 

He truly was one of a kind and I am grateful (along with the countless millions of fans) that we as kids were able to witness a living legend as Michael Jackson was and will continue to be.

I hope you finally find peace and quiet wherever your soul ends up. The world was a cruel place to you and I think, for a lot us, you died a long time ago.  ....

MEDIA NOTE: 

First, it was incredible to witness the power of a site like TMZ and how it trumped the major networks and news websites in terms of breaking the death of Michael Jackson. They ran circles around the traditional media and I am afraid this might have been a ground breaking media moment that will only be a testament to how we all get our news, receive it and who we are willing to trust in terms of the validity of where it comes from!

Second, I LOVE what the NYT's has for an interactive way readers can read how the world feels about the death of the pop icon himself!  I have never seen anything like it and it's yet another way old media wants to reach out to the new one that's knocking on its door and threatening its own existance. 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/25/arts/jackson-legacy.html

My Space Becomes Vacant Space, etc

No surprise that the once venerable My Space has been a complete and utter failure since being acquired by Fox! With the recent reduction of about 1,400 people over the last week, I would imagine that Rupert Murdoch is having second thoughts about purchasing this over hyped media company! 

(My new favourite site is  http://www.businessinsider.com/  and I say that because I find the info relevant to not only the business of media but also the musings and misgivings of Wall Street! )

On yesterday's Street Signs with Erin Burnett, she mentioned that with the amount of publicity that Jon and Kate plus Eight has generated and the increase in sales over at People and a less than 1% change at US Weekly since last year, it begs the question; Why are top entertainment magazines/websites crying foul over lower subscriptions and no one buying their magazines? With that mindset, I feel as if media companies in this space are using this as an opportunity to tell agencies, we have to pay this much , can only afford this price and you will have to take it or leave it. I am rambling a bit here this morning but as a content producer, I believe that the migration from print to pixels shouldn't change the price of an image just because the medium of it has changed.

But, back to my topic on My Space.  It will be interesting to see what Face Book's moves are going to be now that is has surpassed My Space as the dominant social website.  What will be there next move, how will they make money and what other ways can they increase marketshare? All challenging questions for a company that charges nothing for its services and hasn't stepped up to the plate in terms of offering its platform to a more enterprise, corporate space that actually can have a spend on its interface and networking technologies.

My Space started out as a ground breaking social media site but floundered as a viable business model. The take away from it will be how much more will it take to fix it, how much will Rupert spend to change it and how many more people will lose their jobs to justify it? As users grow older, more sophisticated and migrate over to a face book type platform, how long will it be before FaceBook becomes the old model and a newer one takes it place.  As many of us are on Linked In, how many of us have really looked at it lately?  Is it a real lead generator or just another failed business model that has yet to deliver what it claims?  The jury is still out but if I were them I would be talking to Facebook to be acquired or merged to make it a more efficient platform and one that people can log on to at the same time. 

As the social media fight play itself out, look for more ways for people to claim their space online and create their own unique media space. This time, you just might have to pay for it!

Our Images On Their Mobile Devices And NYC

It's been a great week for Elevation Photos here in NYC this week. While US Weekly miscredited the full page of Heidi and Molly Sims in the new issue out now, nonetheless, I was happy about it!

While the wash out for the US Open but a damper on some of our plans, it's all good and it looks like they are getting their first rounds in.

As any New Yorker knows, you end up walking a lot around the city when it's nice out ( it has been horrible weather) and for someone who hasn't done it in a while these concrete streets really take a toll on your feet if you're not used to it!

The incredible thing is that even more so now than ever, everyone has an IPOD or some device plugged in, playing or staring out wherever you look.  ( My sister just got her blackberry curve and it's already consuming her in more ways than she knows!)  What started me thinking is when I was on the subway sitting next to someone heading out to Woodside and seeing them scroll through images on either People.Com or Perez..I couldn't tell but it got me thinking. How does something like that impact an agency like mine and others I know.

The question of rights, monetization and how to track these is a big issue and something that is getting to be more of a challenge each and every day.  I thought, wow, for every person in NY who scrolls through E online mobile or whatever site, if I even got a penny a view I would be in a sweet position right now. ....but I don't and the question becomes who does?

Halfway through 2009 and there isn't that , wow that make sense, business model to help agencies make money online, through blogs, etc.   Some companies now claim to have agencies interests at heart but just like an overseer they make money off of other people's hard work!  No thanks.

As I wrap up my time here in the big apple, I love the fact that NYC takes down what it creates each and every day.  Whether that means ripping up a street fifty times to fix that one inch of a leak, or knocking down that beat up building on the East side or taking away city streets from cars and giving it back to bikers and pedestrians (Bloomberg I am impressed) , at the end of the day it's that sense of re-invention and understanding that something that has been standing for so long sometimes needs to be taken down, fixed or rejuvenated. 

That's what I think about the photo industry.  We are in lull, not so exciting state of affairs and I think it's time for an implosion of some kind to make all that is wrong with our business, our models, etc and make it right again.  It's gonna take some time but eventually we'll wake up and realize that all that we have ever known and then some has always been right beneath our feet.

Have a good weekend....I'm almost ready to go home I need to see the sun!

Mick

Elevation Photos Rocks 2009 CFDA

(Heidi Klum And Molly Sims by Evan Agostini/Elevation Photos)

Elevation Photos cleaned some house last night at the 2009 CFDA's picking up home page images on People.com and Instyle.com and some NY Post Pop Wrap Coverage as well! 

http://www.people.com/people/0,,,00.html

www.Instyle.com

http://tinyurl.com/m46g5t

 

 

 

 

I can't thank the people who worked with me last night ENOUGH...It felt really great to be with people you respect and appreciate and that's one of the reasons why I am even that much more happier this morning!

 

The image on the left we all just knew would be THE ONE and it turned out that faith has a lot to do with experience and seeing this image on People validates it even more!

 

So, thanks to all last night...and it really makes this trip to NY well worth it!

 

Elevation Makes It To Sydney!

It took 17 months, but Elevation Photos made it to Sydney this year for the 2009 Sydney Film Festival!  ( Photos By Kourash Azar/ElevationPhotos)

  Teri Hatcher attends the CORALINE Premiere tonight as well

 Also in the newest InStyle Magazine out now with Rebecca Romjin Elevation Photo's own Tyler Boye was on assignment at the Chateau Marmont for the Diamonds in Africa Dinner with Sharon Stone, Angie Harmon, Tom Ford, Debra Messing !  Check it out!

Why The Lions Will Need To Sleep With The Lambs

( Eve at the House of Harlow Event in LA by Brian To/Elevation Photos)

The electronics store Best Buy made a smart decision a few years back.  After realizing that on top of selling the most popular HDTV's, home theaters, wireless routers, laptops and the like they did their research and reached out to a company called Magnolia, experts in home theater wiring and set up.  After getting requests from customers about helping to set up their home networks and spending more time answering a range of easy to hard questions about their recently purchased laptops or computers, they did their research and signed up Geek Squad to fill that void. Now both of these companies are in most Best Buy stores doing what they do best while the folks at Best Buy can spend more time selling their products and not spending time on how to create new ones or in their case servicing an area they have no idea about.

A smart move and an example of how a lion share company like Best Buy decided that instead of tackling what others were experts at, they made a calculated business decision, ran the numbers and decided it was best to work with smart partners to satisfy their customers needs and inquires. Most importantly, they figured it was better to get some percentage of that marketshare than nothing and that's where the lambs like geek squad and magnolia became their new best friends. Everyone's happy, everyone gets a cut and you and I as a customer spend more of our hard earned money in one place should one decide to use these services. I expect as a consumer to see more of that in a lot more retail, big box stores.

I've come to the realization (gee, really Mick?), that the Photo Industry is at a serious crossroads at the moment. We're either going to survive as a sum of smart, expert parts or we're going to suffer as a giant, non creative business that spends more time upping each other rather than doing what's best for the business. The reason why GM is suffering at the moment deserves an entirely different conversation and blog all together but what we should take away from all the discussion now is this;  the fact that GM had way too many dealerships that created too much inventory and not enough customers is somewhat analogous to what's happened to the photo industry on certain levels yet not as tragic in terms of the scale of destruction that those in the auto industry are going through now. But unless we as an industry make tough decisions and execute them we might suffer the same fate!   Yes, there are other critical factors involved as to why GM are in bankruptcy but one thing you keep hearing over and over from actual dealerships is that instead of customers staying loyal to one dealership they just went across the street and played one off the other. That's fine if it was a different car company but when it's the same brand and type you could tell the writing was probably on the wall a long time ago!   (Image above Right of Pete Wentz and Nicole Ritchie by Brian To/Elevation Photos)

Which brings me back to the title of this blog entry and this notion of the lions in our industry needing to sleep more with the lambs. The smart, business approach would be to partner up with those who can satisfy your customers needs, identify partners that make sense and get the deal done quickly. You will see immediate results I guarantee that. Second, the fact that there is so much of the same thing won't work for the lions but if you work hard and stand out you will be a selected lamb that will be allowed to grow and prosper on your own with the support of a larger network that, again, will only help everyone's business.  They can concentrate on selling the many products and generating sales, while the experts can spend more time creating a valuable product ( or images) and less time fighting off the same people who would now potentially be their partners!  Make sense?

(Analynn McCord from Taking of Pelham123 Premiere by Scott Kirkland/Elevation Photos)

This is a discussion that pertains not only for entertainment but can and should be applied to news, sports and creative as well.  The take away from all this is obvious on many levels of course but unfortunately the reality of what's taking place says something else.  But we can change that if we want to.  And if we put enough pressure on certain partiesI have a good feeling that the business will speak for itself and smart decisions will be made. 

It just makes sense.

The Pursuit Of (Photo) Happiness

 Finally, my old friends at Corbis launched yet another website and another foray in to the search for photo nirvana!

Have a look  http://pro.corbis.com/

It's just incredible how many machinations Corbis has tried to get it right.  And for the first time in a long time I think the new site looks fantastic with some cool features. Apparently all in house this time from the ground up.  It's a different place from when I worked there more than 10 years ago and I have long since been in touch with the people I know who still work there and despite the insane amounts of money Bill Gates has poured in to his personal photo collection, there is a tiny place in my heart that still wants them to get it right..but i know they just won't!            (Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock by Scott Kirkland/Elevation Photos)

(Kristen Stewart at the 2009 MTV Movie Awards by Adam Orchon/Elevation Photos)

Thus, this continual pursuit of photo happiness is pervasive in all of us who are in this businesss. Whether that's getting your company's website perfect, making sure you find photographers who match your standards and vica versa a photographer finding the right match with his/her agency and most importantly, connecting with your customers and clients who help put food on your table! In the end, it's a constant adjustment pattern on everyone's end to make sure all the cylinders are working and the parts aren't getting rusty. Yes, the price of oil is in a constant flux but your human brain oil is the commodity you need to keep these things moving right.

I never thought I would be doing what I am doing now some 13 years now and I am always trying to improve my game. It's challenging for sure but it makes me work harder and believe that my photo happiness has led me to start this agency!  The jury may still be out but  exactly17 months later since launching I am feeling more confident than ever!

While some believe that more of the same makese sense, image counts are a key to success and giving pictures away for free and/or doing assignments for nothing somehow makes sense I have only one thing to say; WHY?  The value of the brand you build, the time you spend and the return on that investment should be priority number one. Information on the internet is free for now but eventually we will be paying someone to read the NYT's or watch the newest LOST on Hulu or ABC.Com.  If the consumer really wants something they will pay for it but if the store across the street is giving away free milk it brings down the value of every gallon or pint of milk in town.

(Halle Berry at the 2009 Spike TV Guys Choice Awards by Magali Ruer/Elevation Photos)

So, this pursuit of photo happiness, while gratifying can also present multiple hurdles that everyone including Elevation Photos need to overcome and navigate each and everyday.

Today is definitely another day but in the end it's the choice me and all of you have made to make what's wrong right again in our business.  We've all worked too hard to relent and wave a white flag.  I get that talking to people sometimes and I remind them that while hope springs eternal, Summer is the time for re-energizing, staying focused and thinking about how one can improve their business, tweak what's working (or not) and make that ever so needed adjustment to get it right.

The Value of Valuation, Be Wary Of it!

In the WSJ this past Tuesday, there was an article about how Twitter is having a hard time filling it's positions because they need to take that much more time to find the right fit. Yes, they are growing by leaps and bounds, are signing up droves of (let's wait and see) loyal twitterers each minute and yet still haven't figured out how to monetize any of it.  ( Hey guys, charge 50 cents to sign up you will start making money!)

Back in 2000, Image Direct shared office space with a company called Jumpcut.  Jumpcut was ahead of its game in terms of the demand for video, media and its place in how the world was going to ingest information. Unfortunately, I knew it wasn't going to work out when the CEO was more interested in playing video games on the $50k projector and scooting around the office on his razor and wasting countless hours sitting on his $1000  Aeon chair trying to talk up his company I knew it was doomed.  Well, when I read about how the co-founders of Twitter are concerned about corporate culture and creating one by engaging in "rituals" such as family style lunches, weekly teas and/or happy hours I couldn't believe it.  No , really I thought, are they past future CEO's who think this is a dot com boom again?  Get with it Twiiter! With a supposed $225 million valuation estimate, you really need to stop playing in the sand and start planning a stratospheric leap out of the sandbox and onto to the adult playground.

The day after I graduated NYU as an undergrad, my first job was working at Annie Liebowitz photo studio on the Westside of Manhattan. It was a fantastic experience even though I was like the 4th 1/2 assistant /intern/order taker!  Remember those iconic Gap ads she did back in 92-93?  Well, you're talking to the kid who painted that cycolorama GAP WHITE probably a gizzilion times that Summer of '93!  But, it was truly an amazing experience and probably the reason I got myself involved in the business of celebrities to begin with and perhaps one of the reasons why I didn't want to be a photographer but more on that another time.  I met a lot of great people, witnessed some amazing shoots and even had a few lunches with Annie, her partner the late Susan Sontag and some countless other intersting people. For a 21 year old kid, that was a cool Summer indeed. What's the point of all this Mick?  Basically, reading about how Annie is bankrupt, had to sign up with Getty really kills me. Not in a million years did I ever think a succesful woman like Annie Liebowitz would have to claim bankruptcy! 

The valuation of her , Twitter and countless other brands on the outside may come up with astonomical numbers and/or figures but when you look under the hood it may be a different story. This has nothing to do about the power of the brand but more to do with the value of it, what it costs and how much it's really worth and that's why investors and the public seem so skitish and wary of a company like Twitter and are so shocked about a bankruptcy claim by one of the most iconic photographers of our time.

Busy days ahead, planning to head to NY in a few ( exciting announcements to come) and continue to talk about the value of what Elevation Photos can bring to a company and how we can help them accomplish their needs. 

The power of the brand is only as far as the companies that sign up with it!

 

Predictably Irrational

(Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie by Chad Buchanan/Elevation Photos) 

On NPR the other day, author Dan Ariely was discussing his book called Predictably Irrational.  Although I haven't yet read it, it's basically a book that delves into the minds of both the consumer and producer of market capitalism and something called behavioral economics. 

For sure, this type of study can be applied to all sorts of decisions you and I make about the choices in our lives.  For instance, last night's American Idol winner was clearly the irrational choice based on what everyone predicted ( that Adam was the clear winner) and so really wasn't a suprise for those of us who thought it made perfect sense that the underdog will and should win this time around.   

Newsweek's decision to change the font, look and feel of its magazine out now follows somewhat of the same mentality. It's predictably irrational that a lot of smart owners and business decision makers at Newsweek thought that by changing it's look and feel more consumers will want to buy and or subscribe to the magazine now that it has made these cosmetic changes. I am afraid to say that won't be the case.  Adding an extra pint of blood to an already dying patient only prolongs the death by only a few days.  

Having said all this, let's apply it to the photo industry because there seems to be a lot of predictably irrational actions and decisions a lot of us do each and every day. The obvious one is why Getty Images still decides to cover even B and C list events with triple sometimes quadruple coverage.  A not so obvious one is why contributors who work for them think that they will have a chance to make more money, shoot quality events or even be allowed to inquire about shooting something like the Oscars, Golden Globes or an A List premiere.  You can preach to the choir enough times but if the choir are wearing earplugs there's nothing anyone can do! 

(Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony from Chickenfoot by Devin Stone/Elevation Photos) 

Sometimes predictably irrationality works as in the case of the newly formed Chickenfoot with lead singer Sammy Hagar, ex-Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, super guitar guru Joe Satriani and the drummer from the Chili Peppers.  If you're good enough all the factors of why it shouldn't work sometimes do and in the case of these guys I am sure they will gather enough fans to continue their new rock journey!

In most cases though, predictably irrational behaviour has pervaded our society in so many ways. The banking industry, for example, is a clear example of how regular everyday people can be cajoled and bamboozled into thinking that taking out a 0% interest mortgage, with no money down makes sense. Or the fact that rich folks would trust a guy who tells them that one would make a continous rate of 10% return each and every year should you want to put money into something called the Madoff fund! And the best of them all, that it makes sense to purchase an SUV built for times of war, repackaged and called a Hummer at more than $60k that needs $100 to fill up its tank! 

If we're smart, we can do better and make smarter decisions.  But, history has a funny way of repeating oneself so the jury is still out about all the changes, both politically and economically, Obama is trying to push through. 

As for the photo industry, I hope and pray that more of the same gets thrown out along with the baby water. It's time for all of us to think hard about what kind of business we want to be in, how we're going to be succesful and what are the best options for making this a leaner, smarter business. Elevation Photos is trying to take a different approach and 16 months after launching we are still trying to re-invent the wheel.  It's hard to take patients off of crystal meth when that's all that they have known for years!  As a son of two doctors, patience with patients is something my parents always taught me to think about in terms of changing people's way about themselves! But, if you believe in a full recovery, make the necessary adjustments to the prescription and stay the course in terms of the rehabilitation you can only be succesful.   And that's exactly what I plan to do over the next few days as we head into the long weekend. 

So, enjoy your days, get some well needed R&R and think about all the decisions you make.  Like, does it make sense to order the shake along with the large fries?  Or is it better to get small fries and a diet coke?   Whatever you decide to choose, I am sure it will be predictably irrational....