Using Stock Photos

Just a few tips and short cuts to using stock photos.

Stock photography is great for presenting information to your customers. Stock photography has a number of alternate names including picture libraries, photo archives or image banks. Typically, in order to use these pictures, although publicly available, there is a small fee for usage rights.

You can save time by using stock photography to enhance newsletters, blogs, advertisements and brochures. Using stock photography is obviously less expensive than having a full time photographer on staff.

Sometimes full rights and usage is available for purchase. Other times, full rights are limited. In those cases, photographers might require that they receive a certain percentage of sales and or royalties of usage. Agencies usually hold the images on files and negotiate fees. With technology and easy access that the internet provides, negotiations are generally quick and easy.

The cost of using stock photos depends on how long the pictures will be used, what location the images will be used, if the original photographer wants royalties and how many people the photo will be distributed to or seen by. Of course, prices for stock photography vary.

There are several different pricing arrangements. Royalty free stock photography allows the buyer to use photographs multiple times in multiple ways. When you buy royalty free pictures, there is only a one-time charge for unlimited usage. When the images you purchase have a royalty free section, the agency is able to resell the image to others. If an image is rights managed, there is a negotiated price for each time that it is used.

Sometimes a buyer of stock photography might desire to have exclusive rights to the images. In that case, no one else will be able to use the pictures once exclusive rights have been purchased. It may cost thousands of dollars to purchase exclusive rights because agencies who handle the sales have to make sure that they are making a profitable sale. If a photograph would make more money staying in circulation, they would lose out selling exclusive rights.

Stock photographers sometimes work with agencies producing images for them alone. Different subjects and categories might need multiple varieties of images. Sometimes contributors work for multiple agencies selling their photographs for a fee. They work out arrangements for royalties or they sell their shots for full rights. This has proved to be a big business for photographers around the world.

Stock photography started in the early 1920s. It especially grew as its own specialty by the 1980s. Galleries hold hundreds, thousands and even millions of pictures available for purchase. Stock houses sprung up in many different places. By 2000, online stock photography became microstock photography, which we call photo archives online. Companies like istock photo and bigstock photo offer you the opportunity to purchase so many pictures and when you use them up you can add more credits for another fee. Photos that are distributed online are typically less expensive than those that are sold hard copy.

Though I appreciate and enjoy the arts, finances do not allow a budget for professional photography so I use photos that I have taken with my cell phone.  These photos are mine and I do not need permissions to use them.  Google's Picasa allows me to place a watermark on my photos before I share them.  

As a small business owner I find using my cell phone photos and placing the watermark on them to be the easiest and most economical way to have photos readily available for use.  If you happen to have the opportunity to do so, please support the many fantastic photographers that have made their photos available.

Georgianna Hardware Corporation  

QR Codes

QR Codes are Quick Response Codes.  Find out how to make yours on the GHC blog page.

A few final thoughts on the QR code:  Be cautious of placement on t-shirts and remember that printed material should link to your current web page.  Enjoy!

Success!

As I sit to write this blog I am thrilled because of my success!  I don't mind bragging a little bit about it because if you have been following my story you know that I have been alone in this process for a little while and I doubt it will come as a surprise to you to find that people are very happy to be critical of my attempt to maintain GHC on my own without making changes.

As I write, I still believe the decisions that were made over the years were good and solid.  I had faith in my team and still respect their opinions.  The problem was that when I was left to my own devices I found that I needed to learn a lot.  My team had skills that I didn't have.  I was left with no choice but to learn about whatever void I found in myself.

Recently, I saw an infographic about learning that referred to the learning curve.  It showed the upward curve and a short way up the line was marked that suggested you hit a point of  "I don't know what they heck I'm doing".  I guess that is when we hit a wall and just throw in the towel but this time was different because I refused to do that.    

Tonight, with all of my problems, I found that I had cleared one of the hurdles that was holding me back. When I sat down after doing a victory lap I saw I was left with a pile of junk on my desk.  My coffee cup now has orange juice in it and I'm ready to continue on tomorrow with my little bit of success.  I guess it's not a shocker for me to let you know that I have already been reminded that it's only one of the many more hurdles that I will encounter.

Thank you all for being an inspiration to me.

Georgianna Hardware Corporation/GHC

Blogging for GHC

Blogging for GHC has led to a little bit of trouble for me.  As I told you a while ago, I am currently alone in this venture.  It happens and I'm thrilled that I have been able to hear about the success of the people that chose to move on to greener pastures!  I know that some readers may think that I say that to be politically correct but those people are wrong.  I like to see other people succeed and it pleases me to see that happen.

Trying to stay well read on news regarding construction and manufacturing, keeping up with the GHC social pages, and maintaining the web site means that I am fairly busy.  Anyway, I have posted a blog on the GHC blog page and I would appreciate your sharing your thoughts about my changing the GHC web page host.

Thank you for sticking with me through thick and thin!

What is an RIN?

Your RIN is your Renewal Identification Number.  When you need to renew your driver's license, you probably need the RIN that is assigned by your state Department of Motor Vehicles.

I received an innocent looking card from the Georgia Department of Driver Services a few weeks ago.  I put it on my desk.  It sat there and I picked it up and glanced at it on occasion and finally I had no choice but to take action. My card didn't have the RIN so I was required to appear in person with four documents that the DDS was willing to accept as identification.

Crap.  I had to dig through the archives to find my certified birth certificate.  Then I had to search through my wallet for my Social Security card.  Finally, I needed proof of my residential address.  I had received the postcard from the DDS at my residence but that wasn't good enough because I needed something better such as a bank statement or utility bill.

Blessings to me because I did not need to bring my marriage certificate nor a divorce decree to prove a name change and since I have always been a US citizens I did not need addition documentation.

I griped and complained through two trips to the DDS.  On my first trip I was told that there was a four hour wait.  Since they were going to close in three I decided to go home!  My second trip was a success after three hours.

To save some time I should have studied up.  I know I created my own problems and you can avoid them by doing your homework!  I wish I had known that I could have visited www.USA.gov to verify all of the information that I needed.  A lot has changed in four years!

#SHEP, Savannah Harbor Expansion Project

I am still miffed about the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project not receiving necessary funding in the budget that was announced this past week.  Instead SHEP is designated to receive a paltry $1.52 million for
pre-construction and design.  

It may not seem as if it is a big deal but Savannah is the fourth largest port in the United States.  In world ports, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and the New York/New Jersey ports rank higher on the list at 16, 21, and 25 respectively.  Savannah ranks at #44 in the world ports and it is the second busiest port in the United States for containerized exports.  It's a big deal to the future of the United States.

Fortunately, Gov. Nathan Deal is prepared for the state to move forward even though the price just keeps increasing as time passes.

I started to look in to this more closely because I wondered how much had been spent on negotiation and research prior to the current administration denying the necessary funding to keep the Savannah port in the top fifty of the world. The United States only holds four of those positions and while other countries are preparing for the Panama Canal Expansion in 2016, Savannah and the United States has been left high and dry.

I never did come up with a cost but I can tell you the more I read, the more disturbing this is. Even if work begins this year the project will not be done until late 2017. This is not just about Savannah, it is about creating jobs and commerce throughout the southeast.

Fifteen years in the works and now it has come down to behavior that is comparable to a playground popularity contest.  I never did like Dodge Ball.

http://www.georgiannahardwarecorporation.com/