Any photographer who produces stock photography knows that the stock world has experienced a massive shift. What was typically a resource of high end images has how shifted to a goulash of mixed quality. One would suppose that may give a new meaning to the expression “The media is the message”? But I digress.
Microstock agencies offer royalty free images for a few dollars. Even big agencies such as Getty now sell some pictures for $10. For photographers who specialized in producing stock only, they’ve had to adapt and change to this new reality.
We started offering self-managed stock photography over a year ago when we partnered with Photoshelter to power our Image Archive and Client Area. If some agencies are offering royalty-free pictures for a few dollars which thousands of buyers can purchase, there are just as many buyers, who want to have exclusive rights to pictures in their territory. They don’t want their marketing message watered down by other users using the same image. There is something to be said to having an original image that no else can use. This is why companies want exclusive rights and / or hire us to create original images for them.
By offering our own images, it allows us to keep control of their usage by offering them via managed-rights to users who need them. We offer competitive licence fees, and as we don’t pay commissions to agencies, we can generate more revenue to put into the studio. Our main business is still creating lifestyle imagery, specializing in industrial, corporate, portraits and fine art wedding / family journalism. But as a photographer I’m often able to create images that can sell as stock, including my recent working vacation to photograph Kona, Hawaii.
So, as I was going through our image database I came across some conceptual images I’d created a couple of years ago that hadn’t yet been made available and could be used for a variety of purposes. Surprisingly, when I looked up the definition of “conceptual”, I discovered its meaning wasn’t a simple one to define. There are many variations of the definition, and so just as many potential uses (yes, I do enjoy reading the dictionary).
Windows. There’s a concept. Or is it an object? Obviously it can be both. “Eyes are the windows to the soul”. ”Large bay windows let in so much natural light”.
conceptual |kənˈsep ch oōəl|
adjective
of, relating to, or based on mental concepts : philosophy deals with conceptual difficulties.
ORIGIN mid 17th cent.: from medieval Latin conceptualis, from Latin concept- ‘conceived,’ from the verb concipere (see concept ).
concept
For other uses, see Concept (disambiguation).
There are two prevailing theories in contemporary philosophy which attempt to explain the nature of concepts (abstract term: conception). The representational theory of mind proposes that concepts are mental representations, while the semantic theory of concepts (originating with Frege’s distinction between concept and object) holds that they are abstract objects.[1] Ideas are taken to be concepts, although abstract concepts do not necessarily appear to the mind as images as some ideas do.[2] Many philosophers consider concepts to be a fundamental ontological category of being.
A concept is a cognitive unit of meaning— an abstract idea or a mental symbol sometimes defined as a “unit of knowledge,” built from other units which act as a concept’s characteristics. A concept is typically associated with a corresponding representation in a language or symbology[citation needed] such as a single meaning of a term.
The meaning of “concept” is explored in mainstream cognitive science, metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. The term “concept” is traced back to 1554–60 (l. conceptum – something conceived),[citation needed] but what is today termed “the classical theory of concepts” is the theory of Aristotle on the definition of terms.
If you’re reading our blog via an RSS reader that doesn’t allow embedding of pictures, click the following links to view the images in this post:
Dean Oros Photo + Design: Kona Hawaii
Dean Oros Photo + Design: Conceptual Window Images
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