I just got back from visiting a cool assignment Elevation Photos is part of up near Eagle Rock here in LA ( sorry the images will never be made public!) and was going through my emails to find about a dozen of them all forwarded to me about what was posted today on both John Harrington's blog and Paul Melcher's blog about the Buzz foto distirbution deal they have with Getty.
Read below for more in depth reporting
http://blog.melchersystem.com/
http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/
Having just read them both, it doesn't surpise me at all that Getty would want this content. If they can use one of their many portals to deliver these street photos and try to bury them on the Film Magic site I guess they can and they have done so.
Believe me, I understand the issues at stake that John and Paul bring up and having been part of that company for many years am surprised they weren't more careful to think that agencies like mine wouldn't use this as an advantage ( and others as well) when speaking with Publicists, etc. I was aware of this partnership a while back and have benefitted from it and rightfully so. If Getty thinks they can own the world (both inside and out) they just took about 2 steps back in trying to reclaim it. Surprise..people in the industry read the bylines of photos, put 2 and 2 together and bingo the cat is so obviously out of the bag!
Having said that, I have met Brad ( who owns Buzz) and love the guy. And it's funny that Getty having bought his old company (Online USA) have now reached back and decided to work with him again. Funny, I never have gotten such a call and you would think that the content generated by my company's assignments my old compadres would want to try and make money off of and from a business standpoint wouldn't that make sense? I swear I am just about as personable as Brad so it must be something else...
ANYWAY, ...man I just keep getting dragged back in to these arguments and blog postings. Getty or Getty Vast or Darth Vader Images whatever the case the important thing to get out of all this is that Elevation Photos is thriving, growing and will continue to grow despite all the doom and gloom scenarios people want to write about what everyone else is doing. Trust me, I have had my share of it but the smart ones know how to maneuver, take advantage when the door is wide open and is 2 steps ahead of your closest competitor.
Because the minute you make the same mistake on your end, trust me, these guys will be all over you! Stay sharp, be smart and do what you know needs to be done to get it right....
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