'Low-fi' stock photos and prints

Ever more stringent quality control standards have become a way of the stock photo industry filtering out photographers who don't have higher end cameras and don't apply themselves to the correct processing of images in preparation for sale on the web. But this has the effect of also filtering out lots of images that buyers may be looking for, images that are perfectly good enough quality to be used on a blog, small scale in a brochure or even as a 10" x 8" print on a wall.

Over the years I have discovered a demand for photo subjects I captured in the early days of digital cameras - images that were acceptable to online stock libraries then, but are no more. In running my own site here at Light Touch, I want to be able to continue to make these images available.

To reflect the 'low-fi' status, these images are not available at the largest sizes and they are priced at about 25% less than the regular stock photos. You'll see the term 'low-fi' in the description or keywords area.

As well as images from the early days of digital, 'low-fi' images may include scans from negatives and even an occasional bang up to date mobile phone image.

Importantly, you'll always see a large preview image so you can easily assess the quality of what you are buying.

As a result of an enquiry received this morning, this is the first 'low-fi' image I've just put on the site. More will follow.



This was captured in Covent Garden in 2004 on a Nikon 4500 digital camera which cost £600 in those days! This is recognisably low-fi. It has a 'toy camera' feel about it only because of the conditions in which the photo was made. However other images captured on the same camera have finished up in national newspapers and magazines and one has earned me close to £1,000 in royalties. So 'low-fi' does not necessarily mean low quality and if it's an image you want then it's an image you can now get.

Starting with Tournai, only 600 pics to go......

I'm back after 15 days, mainly in the Netherlands, spent touring in the VW camper. Here's the first few pics from dullish weather in the dullish tow of Tournai, Belgium. Sorry people of Tournai, I wasn't looking too hard and I guess I didn't find the exciting bits!


Photos of Tournai - Belgium by Scott Hortop

13 Wish Road

Right now I'm 90% of the way through a fiction novel, THIRTEEN, set in Brighton & Hove, written by Sebastian Beaumont. In the novel a depressed taxi driver picks up a ride on a weekly basis from 13 Wish Road. Things happen to him related to this address which are either part of his insanity or supernatural. It's a key part of the book when he finds that 13 does not exist, in the real world there is only 11a.

A few days ago on a mission to buy some fish (long story....), I for the first time ever in Brighton asked a bus driver where to get off a bus in order to get to a destination - Hove Lagoon. I was carrying the book. The reply, out of the blue, was Wish Road. Since this was the sort of absurd occurrence that would happen in the book, I asked him to repeat it. I heard correctly, "Wish Road".

I had assumed that the street was fictitious, but no..... I walked down Wish Road, just as the taxi driver in the book had driven down it, expecting to find 13. But it was not there, there was only 11a.....

11 Wish Road is the house on the right, next door to 13.... I mean 11a Wish Road.

The additional weird coincidence here is that about a year ago, when I lived in London, I did a commercial shoot in 11 Wish Road, completely unaware of the significance of its neighbour, because at the time I was not reading the book.  (I did not even know the name of the street because I was taken there by the client.)

It would be obtrusive to show images from that shoot here, but I have used them in my commercial portfolio. And now I've finished the book it's good to see..... no, I won't say, that would spoil it for you.

Photography at an inner city school (always a pleasure!)

Yesterday I visited the Inner London 6th form college for perhaps the fifth time in the last three years to allow them to fill some gaps in their prospectus with some new photos, concentrating in the main on activities outside the classroom. I only shot for three hours on this visit but seemed to get a lot done compared to a visit last month which was not as well organised in terms of making sure that students would be available in the right place at the right time.

With students, a few props and location in place, left to my devices most of the time to come up with something, this sort of shooting is challenging but fun. It may be an inner city school, but it's always struck me how the place seems to be a pleasure to be in, both for staff and students. And I really don't think that everyone is on best behaviour just because there is a photographer about!

It was when I was doing the library shots that my Canon EOS 5D gave up on me, the viewfinder mirror falling off and rattling around inside the camera. It was only on Monday (because it was a much smaller job and I was using public transport to London) that for possibly the first time in 5 years I had gone to a job carrying only one camera body. So that was a lesson painlessly learnt because yesterday I had backup everything!

 

 

Shooting Young Enterprise

I've been covering the annual awards ceremony for the East of England region of Young Enterprise for a number of years now. It's always held at one of the Cambridge colleges which makes for a pleasant experience for all; this year it was held again at Queens College.

Young Enterprise has been around in the UK as a charity promoting entrepreneurial activity in schools for a damn sight longer than Sir Alan / Lord Sugar has been berating the higher profile, older and frequently untalented individuals who we make fun of on television in The Apprentice.

Unlike their TV counterparts, these entrepreneurs get to run real companies. The awards day is an intense experience for the entered teams who get to face a panel of judges, invited guests at their stalls and do a stage presentation all in one day.

The winning team this year were from Colchester High School for Girls who came up with a product - a security pouch hidden within a bra cup - which one suspects was inspired by bitter experience, but is a truly original idea to meet a real need for security. A fact which was not lost on the judges.

My photography aims to cover every aspect of the day, giving students images to remember the day by (available for secure download from my Photoshelter hosted site), Young Enterprise photos to use for PR purposes and finally photos of young people engaging in enterprise activities which Young Enterprise can use on their website and brochures. The nice thing is that I'm largely left to my own devices - other than getting those damn formal presentation photos at the end  - I did get them, but none here because as ever they're just not as interesting as the rest.

Here's a selection from the day, starting with the winners:

 

New microstock launch - get ready for the Digital Copyright Exchange!

The Hargreaves report on copyright came out today. It seems that the whole nation will be humming Newport State of Mind.....



(So head over the water
On the Transporter)

And as the mainstream media concentrates on the effect on the music industry, the huge potential impact on almost every photo that you see in front of you on the web will probably never get a mention.

"a work should only be treated as an orphan if it cannot be found by search of the databases involved in the proposed Digital Copyright Exchange..."

"in most cases the fee for use of orphan works would be nominal"

So on the face of it a Brit wanting to use a photo on the web has to check that it's not on the Digital Copyright Exchange and if it's not it's an 'orphan' and for a quid or whatever he gets to use it.

Suddenly it seems to me that the Digital Copyright Exchange could take over from the profusion of microstock sites as the place to get a photo for a dollar.

I'm not sure what the microstock sites, foreign photographers with images copyrighted in the USA or Sindy with her holiday snaps will think of this idea. But I'm sure it will all sorted out by the time Newport next get a chance to bid for the Ryder Cup.

Altogether....

Newport
Twinned with Guangxi, Province in China
There’s no province finer

Copyright is boring....

.... but is vital to artists / creators to be able to keep their meagre living.

Put simply, big organisations (eg Google, News Corporation, BBC) would love to be able to pick images off the web and use them without having to fuss about copyright and such trivia. But you watch them protect their own creations!

In a BBC website article "Shedding light on copyright confusion" Will Gompertz chats to his mates and declares "the people to whom I have spoken regarding the issue of orphan works all want to see them put in to the public domain" which is all fine and dandy until you get down to specifics.

Such as that through no fault of my own but the actions of others there are hundreds of my photos on the web that are 'orphans'. Indeed the BBC itself very probably and unnecessarily made an 'orphan' of the image on that page, an action which is unlawful (see Paul Ellis's comments, it breaches CDPA 1988 Section 296ZG: http://bit.ly/kqjq5M.

So unless the new legislation does not enable others to make money out of my work without payment then you can expect me and other photographers to go on banging on about copyright.

Like I just did in my comment on that BBC page - Will, more of your mates should be photographers!

From the streets of Paris

Yesterday I put up some rather more recent images from France, however it reminded me of how so few of my available photos of France were currently online, which drew me to some images from Paris 4 years ago when I visited on my birthday and to this image in particular.

For this photo I have to be thankful for the man, who is perhaps the owner of this Parisian street cafe, sitting where he did to do his sums and paperwork. The curtain separates him from the street emphasising a different world inside and out.

One of the photos in my gallery of images from Paris - and for the moment I like it so much that I've made it the featured image on my stock and art print site's home page.

Euro Jaunt (3) - Photos from Metz, France

This is the church of Temple Neuf, on an island on the River Moselle in Metz.

One of the little delights of the Euro jaunt occured in Metz. We had turned up relatively late in the afternoon searching for a campsite. The one marked on the Michelin map did not seem to exist so we asked in a boulangerie of its whereabouts. A customer behind me told me to follow him, which I did, assuming that he was at the site we were aiming for. We followed him (with his wife), drove into the city centre, strange route going past all the sights before finishing up at the municipal campsite which is in a great location right in the centre a couple of minutes walk from Temple Neuf.

Then they waved goodbye and drove off. They were simply locals to the boulangerie who had taken it upon themselves to get us to the campsite, throwing in a guided tour of Metz en route.

A nice memory from a city where the stay to get photos was only an hour or so the next morning before we had to move on again into Belgium on the way home.

See more stock photos of Metz

Euro jaunt (2) - photos from Heidelburg

The first big stop on our European voyage was Heidelburg where we stayed with Shirley's friend Carina and her partner Jack. Right now Carina lives in the UK and she was over there on an extended two week stay and we diverted ever so slightly from what would have bee our natural route through Germany to the Black Forest to meet up with them. In fact we didn't even stay in the camper when in Heidelberg but were put up for two nights in Jack's apartment, a walk from Heidelberg's town centre and an excellent base to get some images.

Jack was more than keen on enabling our sightseeing and on one excursion he took us to a little visited viewpoint which allowed me to get this stunning cityscape of Heidelberg Castle and the Old Town (Altstadt) in the evening sun.

Click through to see more photos of Heidelberg.