Aren’t you glad I bought a GoPro so I can share everything? This has been a total whirlwind style three-week road trip that has finally ended on the shores of Bean Town. Nearly 2800 miles of backroads and dodgy toilets. My wife will pressure wash me at the car wash just to be sure. Between random tasks, I get to think about random things. This visual diary is the result.
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Stock: from very personal experience over the years, you are 100% correct. My thing was girls, and my stock material came from the shots that were not used for commissioned work that I did. It was mostly all 135 Kodachrome 64 Pro, with a little 120 Ektachrome when I had to use that format for some particular client.
Not only did digital and micro stock kill my rights managed agency deal, it also killed off the photography that was the very source of the stock material in the first place. At first, I thought this was all my own fault, and that I’d blown it somewhere along the line; later, in conversation with other pro photographers, I realised it had nothing much to do with anything I’d done: all the guys I knew had been hit the same way.
I wish you luck trying to get ordinary clients to pay for film work today: decades of photographers doing the computer-associated work for free, or almost free, has created a false costing expectation that I can’t imagine will ever be overcome. Fear: fear of standing up for ourselves, mainly because we fear not the client so much as we fear our fellow photographers to sell everyone short.
I used to leave my Nikons and ‘blads lying around the place, hoping that one day the kids might pick ‘em up and show an interest. Fortunately, they never did. The only descendent to buy a camera is a granddaughter, and she’s a medical doctor. Small mercies!
Author
Yes, photogs gave it away. And they are still giving it away, which is what makes it so difficult to feel bad for anyone. I’ve been wathcing it happen since 1997.
It’s not just stock photography, it’s really everything. “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose“. I’ve been the old guy in the room and dealt with some eye-rolling of people younger than me when I’ve been dealt this lesson. The so called “democratization of tools” marginalizes many, and ultimately feeds the very few. Screaming into the wind won’t help. We all must pivot. The days of being able to do the same thing for a lifetime like our parents, are gone.
Author
Yes, that model seems to be gone baby gone.
AI may be the next if not final Trojan Horse to gallop across our lives.
The ultimate elephant in all of those many rooms is always the same beast: when all human endeavour is redundant, who will be left actually working and earning the money with which to buy the products the machines will make? Perhaps the final irony will be unemployed robots.
Tried archery a couple of weeks ago, became completely obsessed, just looking into buying a kit. Can’t believe my favorite youtube influencer is doing the same.
Author
I bought it, but in keeping with Milnor tradition, I won’t use it until October..