FotoVisura is known as a self-publishing platform where art and documentary photographers can share and promote their work through images, video, audio, and text. The site also acts as a search engine for editors and curators who can browse the public archive for work. You’ve likely heard of Visura Magazine’s Your View and Visura Spotlight, as well as The FotoVisura Grant that recognizes outstanding personal projects worldwide.

This summer, FotoVisura is hosting a unique 3-day intensive workshop in Stowe, Vermont that features an impressive list of guest editors. The workshop includes editing, sequencing, design layout, and final presentation. Photographers will be paired with a guest editor in one-on-one and group sessions to help consult photographers on their goals – whether it’s a photo essay, portfolio, multimedia, book or exhibition.

The guest editor list covers a range of publications and industries, and spots are filling up fast. The editors include:

• Elizabeth Cheng Krist: Senior Photo Editor, National Geographic Magazine
• Sam Barzilay: Creative Director, United Photo Industries
• Angelika Hala: Photo Editor, Stern Magazine
• James Estrin: Co-Editor, New York Times Lens Blog
• Whitney Johnson: Director of Photography, The New Yorker
• Denise Wolff: Senior Photobook Editor, Aperture
• Emily Keegin: Deputy Photo Editor of Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine
• William A. Ewing: Directorial of Curatorial Projects for Thames & Hudson
• Graham Letorney: Co-Founder, Web Producer, FotoVisura, Inc.

Every editor hosts a different weekend, so check out the schedule to match your availability with your favorite editor. Accommodations, food, and transportation are included in the ticket price.

For more information, visit www.fotovisura.com/features/workshops.

By now you’ve probably noticed Google’s new and “faster” image search, launched in late January 2013, which displays larger images in an inline panel that lets users flip through image search results. But many in the webmaster and search engine marketing community are not happy about the impact these updates are having on referral traffic coming from Google Images.

So what’s been the result and how has it affected your website? The change means that the source page (i.e. your website) will no longer load up in an iframe in the background.

Users can click the displayed domain name, “Visit page”, “View original image” or the image itself to navigate to the source page. While the new search seems highly intuitive for someone searching Google Images, analytics suggest that fewer users are clicking to the source page.

In the past three months, we’ve seen a 78.69% drop in traffic to PhotoShelter members’ websites from Google Images search results (not Google web search results, but specifically image search results).

Why did Google do this?

One idea about the “why” of this change is that it’s a content grab on Google’s part. Other updates, like including IMDb results on the sidebar when you search a movie or Wikipedia results when searching a notable person, are other recent tactics that Google has employed to keep you in their ecosystem instead of visiting the “destination” site.

In many ways it provides a better user experience, but it also removes the need to utilize other sites. Some SEO consultants also suggest there’s danger here, because users no longer find the need to navigate to the source page now that they can see (and potentially steal) a high res photo directly on Google.

Is anyone else seeing these results?

PhotoShelter members are far from alone on this point – it’s an issue that the entire SEO community is grappling with. Webmasters were quick to react on dedicated forms like WebmasterWorld and Digital Point. An SEO consultant shared the effects one of his clients saw within a month of the change. The client is an artist and her site is 99% images – the consultant observed an 80+% drop in referral traffic from Google Images.

More recently, SEO consulting firm Define Media Group analyzed 87 domains worldwide from a variety of networks and business verticals, and found an average 63% decrease in referral traffic from Google Images after the January update. Those defined as “photo sites” are down 74%. Fashion, lifestyle, and entertainment sites are down 78%.

What happened?

PhotoShelter members have always seen a steady stream of referral traffic from Google Images (as is the case for most photographers’ websites). In 2012, the average number of visits to PhotoShelter members’ sites (in aggregate) from Google Images actually increased by 35.19% in the second half of the year.

Then on January 27, 2013 – the first full week after Google’s update to its image search – something changed:

Here’s a closer look at that data from the past 6 months:

A nearly 80% drop in referral traffic from one of the top three referring sites to PhotoShelter members’ sites is nothing to scoff at. But there are some important things to note:

• • Referral traffic from Google web search has remained relatively consistent over the last year and a half.
• • Average site visit duration (how long someone spends on your website during one visit) and number of pages per visit have also stayed nearly the same.
• • Bounce rate and percent of new visitors (people who have never been to your site before) have also stayed about the same.

The community is also talking about the concept of a “truer visit”. Internet marketers at MoreVisilibity explain that with the new image search, Google Analytics code does not have a chance to fire, “removing page view credit and decreasing referral traffic.” Meaning that it’s possible many of the visits you were seeing before were people who saw your image in the iframe that popped open in the background, but these people never actually clicked through to your website at all. So while this change may seem extreme, it might just be a more accurate count of visitors who click through to the original source.

So while the absolute number of visitors to your site may have decreased in the last three months, the true visitors are still behaving the same once they land on your website – which makes sense assuming you haven’t made any major changes in that time.

What can you do about it?

First, you need to truly assess the impact beyond simply reading the analytics. Start by asking if your business has been materially impacted in any way. If not, then the concept of a “truer visit” may actually be relevant to you.

Still, if Google Images is only sending a fraction of the “useful” traffic to your site as it previously did, then you might consider focusing on other traffic sources. For example, the #1 source of referral traffic to PhotoShelter members’ sites in 2012 was Facebook. Google Images and PhotoShelter.com were #2 and #3, followed by Twitter and Pinterest.

It’s also clear at this point that Google is taking social media – specifically Google+ – activity into account when ranking search results.

The photographer community has continued to grow on Google+, but if you’re still averse to getting active on another social media platform, consider this: Google Authorship, which links the content you post on a specific domain (i.e. your photography website) with your Google+ profile, is becoming a huge factor in how Google ranks your website. People who have set this up are often ranked higher for their targeted keywords. (Read more and learn how to set up Google Authorship here.)

Trey Ratcliff, known for his huge presence on Google+, ranks on the first page of search results for the term “hdr photos”. His headshot and name show up in the search results because of his Google Authorship (of course, over 5 million people have Trey in their circles, so keep that in perspective).

Overall, best practices in the wake of Google Image search update will likely be to continue optimizing your website with on-page text that Google can crawl and index in regular search, and build authorship via Google+ to help influence how your content appears in search results. Likewise, we will continue to optimize our own tools to help facilitate this.

How can you see the changes to your website’s traffic?

To see how your traffic has changed, log into your Google Analytics account and navigate to Traffic Sources>Sources>Referrals. Click on the google.com link and look for /imgres. Clicking this will give you a picture of how referral traffic from Google Images has changed over time. Be sure to look at a time period containing the week of January 28th, 2013 (the first full week after the update).

Our friends over at PhotoShelter just released their latest guide “Creating a Successful Photography Portfolio” with tips from top photo consultants to build a better online portfolio and attract more clients.

Our latest free educational guide, Creating a Successful Photography Portfolio, contains major insights from seasoned photography consultants on how to build an online photography portfolio that helps attract clients and win jobs.

Topics include:

• • 11 Secrets to Creating a Successful Online Photo Portfolio
• • Attracting Your Dream Client With Your Portfolio
• • Tailoring to Client Needs and Showcasing a Brand
• • 5 Myths About Portfolio Reviews Debunked
• • And more!

Those who download the guide will also automatically be entered to win a free Website Image Edit with top consultant Amanda Sosa Stone.

Download the free guide on the PhotoShelter website.

Our friends over at PhotoShelter have partnered with ASMP to create a new guide, The Photographer’s Guide to Copyright, filled with insights and resources to help you understand copyright law, register your images, and protect your work from infringement.

Navigating copyright can be a daunting task. So we’ve partnered with the experts at ASMP to break down this important subject and help you take the necessary steps to protect your work.

• • Understand your 6 exclusive rights under copyright law
• • Learn how to safeguard photos and avoid infringement
• • Get tips to register their work through the U.S. Copyright Office
• • Discover steps to take if their work is infringed

Download the free guide on the PhotoShelter website.

Our friends over at PhotoShelter have started a new series of guides dedicated to helping photographers create estimates and fee structures for their work. The first in this series is “Pricing Your Work: Magazine Photography.”

Pricing Your Work: Magazine Photography is the first in a series of guides with tips to help photographers create estimates and fee structures for their work. Get insights from Wonderful Machine’s CEO Bill Cramer who outlines what a photographer should expect when determining pricing for magazine assignments. The guide also includes:

• • The most common magazine shoot expenses
• • FAQs, including if/how to charge clients for a rental fee, rush fee, or a cancellation
• • An overview of the three basic types of magazine contracts, including the biggest win-win for photographers
• • Online resources for pricing and negotiating with clients

Download the free guide on the PhotoShelter website.

Our friends over at PhotoShelter have released results from their latest new survey, “The Photographer’s Outlook on 2013.” Key learnings reveal photographers’ top marketing channels to attract new clients, major sources for revenue, and anticipated business challenges for 2013. They’ve packaged the results in a guide and an infographic.

In late 2012, we gathered insights from over 5,000 photographers from the PhotoShelter community who shared their major marketing and business goals for 2013.

Download the guide and find out answers to:

• What will be photographers’ greatest source for finding new clients?
• How do they plan to invest their money?
• Which social media platform will they turn to first?
• Do they expect to make more money than last year?

Plus get helpful tips and resources to grow your business in 2013.

Get your free guide now on PhotoShelter.

Our friends over at PhotoShelter have released the last round of videos from Luminance 2012.

All 25 of the videos from Luminance 2012 are now online. We find it only fitting that we celebrate the end of 2012 with some of the most controversial, inspiring, and most touching speakers from the event. Now is the perfect time to revisit your favorite talks or experience Luminance for the first time in its entirety.

Gary Morgan

CEO Gary Morgan knows that people think Splash News is working to disrupt the content chain just to feed celebrity hunger. But the fact of the matter is that we – the consumers – are the ones demanding this type of content. Gary argues that Splash is simply trying to meet the demand. Celebrity entertainment has made its way into every major news cycle, whether we like it or not.

Tyler Shields

Tyler Shields has no problem raising eyebrows when it comes to his photography – in fact, it’s what he strives to do. As a photographer, Tyler believes that your goal should be to get more eyeballs on your work. The shocking images (for which he claims he has received upwards of 30,000 death threats) allows him to do the kind of work he really wants. Check out the video to see what that is.

Scott Belsky

Scott Belsky is the Founder and CEO of Behance, an online resource for photographers, artists, illustrators, and other creatives to showcase and discover new work. Scott challenges us to start thinking about the individual as a business, rather than relying on agencies and other groups to pave the way.

Rick Robinson

Vision Research’s high speed Phantom cameras capture at a rate of 1,000 to 1.4 million frames per second. They’re actually used mostly in science, engineering, and industry to study new products or phenomena. Marketing Manager Rick Robinson takes us through several mind-blowing video clips to show how interesting the world really is when you slow it all down.

Taylor Jones

23-year old Taylor Jones started one of the most popular photography blogs today. In a little over a year, Dear Photograph became somewhat of an Internet sensation. The premise is simple: take an old photograph, hold it up in front of the original location, take a new photograph, and add a caption. The result plays off our nostalgia, and is often somewhere between heartbreaking and heartwarming.

Learn more about Luminance here.

There was mixed reaction to Craig Peters’ talk at Luminance back in September. Craig, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Getty Images, spoke mainly about developing new models for content owners (i.e. photographers, videographers, illustrators, etc.) to license their work.

It’s a topic that, in and of itself, provokes a lot of strong feelings among photographers – not to mention the fact that Craig hails from a company that has its own set of advocates and critics for its licensing practices.

“New online publishing platforms means the world is open for anyone to create, publish, and share with billions of people,” said Craig. “This should be great for content creators, but general public doesn’t know about licensing and has little to no budget.”

In his talk Craig outlined, “a worldwide approach, one that evolves with the Internet, and one led by the content owners.” Check out the details of what he had to say in our video of his Luminance talk:

Since then, we’ve been more curious than ever to get the perspective of photographers today to learn more about how they view the powerhouse agencies, like Getty. So we spoke with two stock photographers who have worked with them in the past (and present):

Brad Mangin is a seasoned sports photographer who has been working freelance since 1993. He regularly shoots for Major League Baseball and Sports Illustrated. When MLB Photos and Sports Illustrated became business partners with Getty Images several years ago, Brad’s images were automatically hosted and licensed through Getty due to the partnership arrangement. He also continued to work with Duomo, which never formed a relationship with Getty. Brad still licenses his work through MLB Photos and SI Picture Sales, as well as through his own PhotoShelter archive.

Shannon Fagan got into the traditional world of stock photography in its heyday during the early 2000′s, when the industry was in the midst of a huge growth phase. At that time, Shannon saw stock as both a safe, predictable, and stable source of income, as well as a creative outlet. He was originally introduced to Getty by Art Director turned Deputy Director of Photography Rolf Sjogren, and approached them with a portfolio of ideas. He later signed with Corbis to diversify his approach, and also some of the royalty-free companies. Shannon is a former President of the Stock Artists Alliance and is on the Advisory Board for the Young Photographers Alliance.

We asked Brad and Shannon to share their thoughts and experiences on what it’s like working with the big stock agencies, and how they envision the future of image licensing.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about working with  the big stock agencies?

Brad Mangin: I think a big misconception is that you will get rich and make tons of cash. Of course I am only speaking for sports photography, which is all I do. The days of making big money are gone. The market is overly saturated and there are way too many images online for editors and art buyers to sift through. The pie of money has been divided into too many slivers, resulting in less revenue for everyone. Sure, every once-in-awhile you can get lucky and make a really good commercial sale if your images are with one of the agencies that is licensed by the leagues to sell commercially (Getty, AP Images, etc.) but those sales are becoming fewer and fewer because of the over saturation of contributor content on the sites.

Shannon Fagan: That you have to hate the big guy. What do I mean by that? Well, working with stock agencies is a business decision, not a personal relationship. It’s not [the stock agencies’] fault that [photographers’] jobs came to an end. Since 2008 alone, we’ve seen an industry slowly tossed one curve ball after another in how individual photographers are contracted. The larger the agency, the more eyeballs pointed with mouse right-clicks to your images – plain and simple.

Some photographers argue that selling images through an agency is better than letting them “sit” on your hard drive. What’s your take?

BM: I do both. I market the heck out of my baseball images online through my PhotoShelter-powered archive of over 60,000 images going back to 1987. Photographers who let their images sit on their hard drives are missing the boat. These are your images. Do something with them!

SF: I understand the argument for not “selling out” and putting  imagery into low-priced volumized collections, so long as the individual isn’t complaining about the industry overall in the next breath. Sitting on images for a niche opportunity is an argument, and probably the only business argument, for holding imagery back from the market.

What do you think about the sale percentage paid to photographers?

BM: The sales percentage paid to photographers should be 50% minimum. Heck, when MLB Photos started we got 60%! In the old days, the 50% that the agency kept paid for making dupes, editing, office space, salaries, marketing, printed catalogs, FedEx, etc. It was totally worth it to be 50/50 business partners with the agencies because they worked hard for you. Nowadays there are agencies that will only let their contributing photographers keep 30% of the licensing money – and that is not right. The big problem is that many photographers are signing these contracts and caving into the low percentage. Once you sign that contract for 30%, it will never go back up to 50%.

SF: There was a metric recently provided in an analysis report which said that any stock photo agency that gave more than 50% to their supply base of photographers was, over time, going to go out of business. If photographers want a larger percentage for their pictures, then they need to devise a new system that will allow for ways to receive more than 50%. And, to their credit, there are a few out there doing so.

I’m going to be brutally honest about photographers as a whole community: they are divided in a way that’s to the advantage of the agents and have failed to organize themselves against the business practices of buyers seeking fast, cheap, reliable imagery online. One has to accept that as a truth of the industry to argue percentages. Being a photographer is about being a business owner and, by default, a leader. If the latter is not fully understood, then what the photographer wants to make and what they can make won’t line up.  That being said, I’d like to see an extra 20% paid across all large agency contracts as a whole. I’d like to see agencies operate more like frequent flier programs perking the economy class for loyalty, commitment, and the ability to supply what’s being asked for in their imagery research reports.

Do you feel like you can sell via an agency and still protect your images’ copyrights?

BM: Yes I do.

SF: Yes. And more so, the agency has an incentive to chase a stolen image, as well as the legal backing, operational systems, and tracking to do so.

Why don’t you think more professional photographers move away from agencies like Getty and set up their own shop where they could control the marketing, pricing, etc.?

BM: More and more art buyers and editors like dealing directly with the artists themselves. This is why I am doing it. If someone wants baseball, they know they can come to me and get most of what they need going back 25 years. I work hard with my blogging and social networking to keep my archive at the top of many Google searches.

SF: Photographers are not, as a whole, analytical business operators with long-term strategic, service-oriented interests in mind. Photography is becoming an increasingly sought after profession by individuals hoping to receive quick fame or side money based upon what the industry was like in the 1980’s during its Golden Era. There is no shame in this. It’s simply a market condition. Since this dream also continues to permeate in the art schools and photography programs, and since many will enter the profession from these backgrounds, the necessary reality-based business models are not easily put into practice.

It’s simply rare to find both commerce and creativity interests in this profession at a core level to actually do something dramatic.  What’s more is that the profession will continue to be entered into by other non-photo professionals in a more rapid pace than ever before in history.

Now, that sounds like a lot of sour grapes, so let’s end on a positive note. Microstock and micropayment was built from the ability to crowdsource photography online. It’s allowing access to imagery that was formerly not affordable to the blogosphere and small business owner and serves as a counter against piracy when they may have been finding and using imagery illegally. The job of the photographer, as a career ambition, is to act smart and get positioned where the industry is going and to be a part of its exciting and constantly evolving future. Imagery is still selling at exclusive high paid licenses for those in it for the long haul and who are creatively in-tune. Professional photographers are best advised to hunker-down and tune out the things  that can keep them from seeing the common-sense positioning of the industry.

Now it’s your turn – what do you think of Craig Peter’s talk? Do you agree with his vision for a content-owner based licensing model? Can photographers step up to the plate?

Our friends over at PhotoShelter have released a few more videos from Luminance 2012.

Need a Break from All Those Holiday Sales?

We sure do. Luckily, over half of the videos from Luminance 2012 are now available online. This week’s videos feature the photographers themselves. Hear what Peter Yang, Barbara Davidson and Michael Muller have to say about the future of their industry.

These talks are truly chock full of insight, inspiration, and emotion. Plus, you’ll get to hear what they had to say off-stage in our exclusive intros to each video.

Peter Yang

Editorial and commercial photographer Peter Yang has photographed some of the biggest celebrities of our day: Donald Trump, Steven Colbert, Tracy Morgan, and Will Ferrell, to name a few. Peter takes us through how he brainstorms his portrait sessions, and why he believes that photographing someone eating a sandwich will always make for better picture.

Barbara Davidson

“Gang violence isn’t news – it happens all the time.” That’s what editors at The Los Angeles Times told photographer Barbara Davidson when she proposed the idea of documenting gangs in LA. Instead of giving up, Barbara was fueled to spend the next three years showing how deeply entrenched gang culture is in our society. She eventually received a seven-page spread in the LA Times and created a multimedia piece titled, “Caught In The Crossfire”.

Michael Muller

Michael Muller is responsible for shooting some the biggest names in Hollywood. But in this video, Michael also shares his stories from shooting a very different type of subject: great white sharks. He gets up close and personal with these wild animals using a newly patented underwater strobe system that’s said to be the most powerful waterproof lighting system in the world.

Learn more about Luminance here.

Our friends over at PhotoShelter are sharing another round of videos from Luminance 2012.

Thanks for helping the last round of videos from Luminance 2012 go viral. Today we’ve released talks from Lytro’s Eric Cheng, and the leaders of Aviary, Olapic, Atavist, and Piictu who gave their perspectives on the future of photography – with just 5 slides and 5 minutes to do it!

If you weren’t able to attend the event, you’ll be able to watch each talk in full. If you did experience the conference first-hand, get re-inspired and check out the exclusive backstage content!

José de Cabo

José de Cabo is one of the founders of Olapic, which helps brands leverage the power of photography by giving them the tools to collect all the photos relevant to them posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social sharing sites. Here he explains how the product works in under five minutes – pecha kucha style.

Avi Muchnick

CEO & Co-Founder Avi Muchnick is helping Aviary take off in the recent democratization of photography. Aviary helps developers to incorporate photo editing features into their own apps. Here he explains how the product works in under five minutes – pecha kucha style.

Evan Ratliff

Evan Ratliff’s company, Atavist, is dedicated to multimedia, long-form, digital storytelling. The idea is to commission writers to create narratives, and then hire photographers and multimedia specialists to develop the accompanying imagery. Here he explains how the product works in under five minutes – pecha kucha style.

Jon Slimak

Jon Slimak created Piictu, a photo app and interaction network where users upload their photos and ask for the community’s response – all with the exchange of images. Here he explains how the product works in under five minutes – pecha kucha style.

Eric Cheng

Light field technology is the latest development to hit the camera industry, and Lytro is at forefront of this movement toward what expert’s call “computational photography”. Lytro’s Director of Photography, Eric Cheng, explains just what exactly is the light field, and how utilizing its power can mean a lot more for the future of cameras than something like pet detection or improved pixel density.

Learn more about Luminance here.