PROSPECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHER INFO
ABOUT ALASKA STOCK IMAGES
Alaska Stock Images is constantly on the lookout for photographers who have the desire and ability to go beyond the "norm" and who will seek out better, more unique images than what is currently on the market. We are not really looking for more photographers, but rather better, more unique images that fit our Alaskan-themed content. If those better, more unique images come from new photographers, that's great.
We represent images from over 200 photographers and offer two distinct collections to the world-wide market. Our target client audience is advertising agencies, corporate and editorial image buyers (magazines, general books and textbooks) as well as the retail product market (postcards, posters, mouse pads etc.). We make decisions on which images go into our various collections as we review them.
The two collections and their descriptions are:
1. Alaska Stock Rights-Managed Collection:
Our Alaska Stock collection is our flagship and largest collection of Alaska-theme subjects. These are the best and most unique images in the world of Alaskan lifestyles and landscapes including: recreation, outdoor adventure, business, winter/northern lifestyles, tourism, wildlife, landscapes, nature and Christmas holiday themes. Images in this collection were either shot in Alaska or "could" have been shot in Alaska, like a canoeist on lake w/ non-descript background OR buyers of images "associate" the image with Alaska, such as "penguins" or snowstorms. We actively market this collection ourselves through www.alaskastock.com and also world-wide through subagents and image partners.
2. Alaskan Express Royalty-Free Collection:
Our Alaskan Express collection is our royalty-free set of Alaska-theme images. This smaller collection of images encompasses nearly all aspects of Alaska life including: recreation, outdoor adventure, winter lifestyles, tourism, wildlife, landscapes and Christmas holidays. We actively market this collection ourselves through www.alaskastock.com and also world-wide through subagents and image partners.
REVIEW OF YOUR WORK AND REPRESENTATION
A panel of three will review your work. Should we feel your work marketable to our clients, we will offer you a contract that sets forth our mutual agreement. The contract is for "image exclusivity." This means you may have contracts with other stock agencies (except an agency which specializes in Alaskan images) for non-similar images. However the images that we select may ONLY be represented by Alaska Stock. No other stock photo agency may represent the images selected nor images that are similar to the selected images.
Our contract length is 4 years. Once you have signed a contract with Alaska Stock Images, this is how our agency works: 1) You submit your low-res jpeg images to us and we edit them based on content. At the point of this initial edit, the images do not have to be processed and refined. 2) We then send you email notification of the images we wish to represent. We select the images based on what we believe are most marketable to our target client group. 3) You return the high res and RAW images according to our final submission specifications. 4) Each image will be checked for size, proper processing, caption and keyword information. If the images pass our QC, the images are ingested into our database and put onto our website available for immediate licensing and distribution to our world wide partners. Images rejected and are not similar to selected images may be marketed by another agency provided the agency does not specialize in Alaskan images.
COMMISSION PAYMENTS
When a sale is made and we receive payment for the sale, you receive 40% of Rights-Managed sales and 35% of Royalty-Free sales. Our payments are made monthly and within 30 days of the end of the month for paid sales made in the previous month. A photographer never pays any extra for advertising images on our website or in other promotions. All the promotional fees are paid for by Alaska Stock Images.
Commissions are reported exclusively online in our password protected "Photographers Arena" along with shoot lists, model and property release form examples, tips and tutorials, and resource links.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
Choosing the right stock agency is an important decision. Selling stock photos is NOT a quick way to make money. Often a year or two goes by before regular earnings begin with a photographer contributing new work during this time. It should be looked at for the first few years as an investment. And the investment MUST be constantly updated and re-supplied. Being part of a stock photography agency should be a creative team effort. Alaska Stock Images tends to be more selective not only in which photographers to accept but also which images to accept from those photographers. We carefully examine all material from prospective photographers as well as looking at the photographer's potential.
It's difficult for an agency to maintain a close working relationship with a photographer who does not frequently contribute new work and communicate with the agency on a regular basis. We sincerley discourage the practice of a photographer giving us a set of images and then "waiting to see what happens. If they sell, I'll contribute more." This is unacceptable to us. We expect the photographer to commit to shooting new imagery and regularly submitting. We want to see a minimum of 200 new images from each photographer per year. We do make exceptions to this rule when a photographer has one or more truly unique images. A few of our photographers have only one image with us. Because they are such unique images, we allow this.
Photo "want lists" and notices happen primarily through email and Facebook. Once accepted as an Alaska Stock photographer, you will be encouraged to have a Facebook account and given access to Alaska Stock's photographer group in Facebook.
Your images and the copyright to them always remain the property of the photographer.
INITIAL PORTFOLIO REVIEW REQUIREMENTS FOR PROSPECTIVE PHOTOGRAPHERS
While this is not a solicitation, if you are interested in submitting images for consideration to Alaska Stock, please follow the guidelines below.
Your initial portfolio submission should be just that, a portfolio of your VERY BEST and unique images of Alaskan-themed images. Please limit your initial selection to no more than 300 images and attempt to show us at least 60. Only send images which are not presently marketed by another agency. We are more interested in seeing a smaller number of unique images (unique meaning unusual: locations, activities, lighting, behavior, expressions, action, etc.), rather than a large quantity of average images.
Initial Portfolio Submission Specifications:
Option A: Submit images on CD/DVD
- Images must be on CD/DVD with your name and contact info on the disc itself. Up to 300 images maximum. The disc will not be returned
- Images provided on disc must be:
- .jpg format
- Low-res images. Minimum size 9x12 @ 72 ppi ( 576x864 ) and no larger than 11x17 @ 72 ppi. (816x1244)
- Caption information. While we don't expect full caption info at this time, it is important at the very least that we know the species name (if not obvious) and the location.
Option B: Submit images via a website
- Send us the URL of your website. Provide the specific galleries we should be looking at.
- Caption information. While we don't expect full caption info at this time, it is important at the very least that we know the species name (if not obvious) and the location.
High-res images. Along with your initial portfolio submission, send 10 high-res images of your choice in order for us to evaluate quality of the image processing. Ideally these 10 images will be a wide variety of types of images: winter, summer, landscape, people, wildlife, night, day etc. Please put these on the disc in a separate folder titled: "High-res samples." These images should have the following:
- Exactly 10 images, no more no less
- Saved in 8-bit mode
- In the Adobe RGB 1998 Colorspace
- Saved in .jpg format
- At least 3400 pixels in length on the short side, and 5100 for the long leg or for square images (5120x3413px = 11x17 @ 300 ppi and 50MB when opened at 35mm aspect ratio)
- Fully processed, corrected and flattened. If viewed at 100% can you see any dust spots or other flaws?
- Tack sharp (in focus), unless it's an intentional blur.
- The three C's: Cropped, Cleaned and Color Corrected or otherwise enhanced to make the image look its best.
Biography. With your initial portfolio submission please include biographical information about yourself and your work. How long have you been shooting? What is the emphasis of your work? What is your passion? On average, how many different images do you shoot per year? Do you have a web site? If so, what is the URL? What are your future plans for your photography? What types of subjects will you shoot? How many unique images are in your collection presently?
Model/Property Releases. If your images are of people or of personal property, we will expect you to have model and/or property releases so the images may be marketed for commercial purposes.
Contact Information. Please include your complete contact information including: Full name, address, phone number, AND email address.
Alaska Stock is an all-digital agency. We no longer accept film as a final product. However we will review and edit slide film. If film images are selected for representation it is the responsibility of the photographer to have the images scanned in high-res to our standard specifications. If you are unable to scan the images yourself, we will supply the names of providers who can perform the scanning service for you.
We will review your work within 30 working days. At that time we'll judge whether your subject matter and quality of images will benefit the both of us. We don't want to sign you up if we don't feel we can sell your images. If we feel your images are marketable, we will then discuss with you the opportunities we have available to you and offer you a contract. If your photography is not something we feel is marketable we'll contact you via e-mail with a letter explaining why.
Address and mail or drop your images to:
AlaskaStock Images
Attn: Content Manager / Prospective Photographer submission
2505 Fairbanks St.
Anchorage, Alaska 99503
USA
If you do not receive information from us within 10 business days of our receipt of the material, please feel free to contact us: production@alaskastock.com
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