color="#666666" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> United
Independent Photographers from around the world unite to
form an affordable Royalty Free and Rights Managed Stock
Photography Library.
At last, a stock photos
library offering the highest quality stock photography royalty
free stock photos, rights managed stock photos at one flat rate,
low price and the actual artist receiving all the payment... No
agency commission!
Beginning with a royalty free stock
photography photo library called
target="_blank">www.Flower-Photos.co.uk back in 2002, you
may guess correctly that it was focussed (no pun intended,
honest!) on flowers, plants and tree with some really high
quality close-ups that made me feel as though I was entering
another world.
As the art director, graphic designer and
website designer of a garden centre, garden center to our
American cousins, which was the flag ship of our group and our
group belonging to the UK's largest chain of independent garden
centres, I was in the perfect location to photograph flowers,
plants, shrubs and trees at the drop of a hat.
The website
really took off, paying for its self, the film and processing
including scans from Fuji Labs UK and then began making a
profit. Not a huge profit but enough to plough back in and
expand the library.
I was contacted from a number of
horticultural photographers over the first few years but
declined their portfolios as I simply didn't have the time to
manage a team of photographers and their work.
Over the
years however, I couldn't ignore some of the quality of work
being submitted and it wasn't just flower photography, it was
every theme imagineable.
In 2004, with many of my own
photographs, all the photos from www.Flower-Photos.co.uk
and the sister site
target="_blank">www.My-Flower-images.com I launched an all
subject royalty free and rights managed stock photography
website and image library called:
target="_blank">www.Photo-Image-Stock.com or
target="_blank">www.BuyRoyaltyFreeStockPhotography.com with
6 other photographers from around the world contributing a wide
spectrum of themes from food photos and cuisine to motorbikes to
landscapes and seascapes... it grew and grew and now in June
2005, there are 20,000 photos up on the site and that's only a
small percentage of what I still have waiting to be sent up with
more being submitted every week!
I and the library don't
take a penny or any commission from sales. The payments go
directly to the photographer, I get a larger viewership as
there's more to see and hopefully broaden my chances of actually
selling some of my own photos!
color="#666666" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I was sick
of paying $200 for an image from stock photo libraries and then
as I went through the online form and entering where the image
was to be used and how many issues were to be printed, the price
soar to $1,500 or more!
I thought it was about time someone
started a library offering really high quality stock photography
at a flat low cost price that didn't get higher the more
editions or posters were being printed, where it didn't matter
if the photo was being used on an inside page of a magazine or
the front cover, where you could use the image over and over
again with no additional charges....
target="_blank">www.Photo-Image-Stock.com provides just that
- One flat rate of $77.00 / £40.00 / €58.00 for a
single image and discounts for multiple image purchases as
below:
2-4 images (10% discount): $69.00 / £36.00 /
€52.00 per image
5-9 images (20% discount): $61.00 /
£32.00 / €47.00 pi
10-19 images (30% discount):
$54.00 / £28.00 / €41.00 pi
20-40 images (40%
discount): $46.00 / £24.00 / €35.00 pi
The majority of stock photos are taken using slide /
positive film but where digital cameras have been used, only the
highest quality digital images have been accepted.
The
slide film used is either Fuji Velvia or Sensia at ASA50 or
ASA100, then the film is processed at FujiLab UK
and scanned to CD at 450dpi and a physical size of 20cm x 13.5cm
(8" x 5.5")
which is higher than the industry
standard requirement of 300dpi but means that these images are
crystal clear if used as a front cover of a glossy
magazine.
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There's also a second option
for web designers or for those with low budgets so low they
can't even afford our low rates, subscibing to our service for a
low monthly or annual rate and downloading almost an indefinite
number of medium res' photos high enough res' to be used on
printed material if reduced in physical size but easily high
enough res' to be used for in-house posters or on web
pages.
I set out to provide excellent quality
stock photography at a very low and affordable price that would
enable graphic designers, web site designers, art directors,
picture desks and anybody else, to stretch their budgets further
and not choke every time they ordered a photograph from an stock
photography library.... I hope I have accomplished this in some
small way.
face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Anybody wishing to purchase
our images can visit us at the websites above and any keen
photographers with quality work wishing to
target="_blank">submit their work can also find a
submissions page with further information on our website
also.
About the author:
Neil J Bradford studied Fine Art, Graphic Design and Photography
at St Albans College of Art and Design, Watford College of Art
and Design and Watford Technical College between 1979 and 1984.
