gettyimages

Getty Critics: Poking Fun at Flawed Stock Photography

Art directors Andrew MacPhee and Bart Batchelor are intimately familiar with Getty Images' massive stock photo library. Over the course of their careers, they've had to dig through tens of thousands of photos to find ones that would do for whatever campaign they were working on.

But for every "right one" they found, there were hundreds of "wrong ones." And for every hundred "wrong ones" there were at least one or two that were downright hilariously absurd. It seemed only right that these ridiculous stock photos be shared with the world: thus was born Getty Critics.

Photog Accuses Getty of Loaning Images to CafePress Instead of Licensing Them

Photographer Remi Thornton recently terminated his contract with Getty after finding out that the agency was allowing online retailer CafePress to use his images on potential merchandise without paying an up-front licensing fee.

In fact, according to Thornton, CafePress has an exclusive agreement with Getty, which allows them use any of the agency's Royalty Free stock to populate their store, while only paying the photographer if the merchandise featuring their image actually sells.

iStockphoto Booting Top Photographer in Wake of Getty/Google Hoopla

A new controversy is brewing in the world of stock photography. Just last month, it came to light that Getty had agreed to license 5000 of its stock photos to Google while paying the creators of the images a meager one-time fee of $12. Now, one of Getty's most successful stock photographers is claiming that his account is being terminated in the aftermath of the first hoopla.

Google Strikes Controversial Licensing Deal with Getty Images

Back in early December, Google announced that the company would be adding 5,000 new stock images of "nature, weather, animals, sports, food, education, technology, music and 8 other categories" for free use in Docs, Sheets and Slides.

At the time nobody knew how Google got these images, who took them, or what kind of license they came with. The mystery continued on unsolved until a week ago when an iStocker discovered one of his own images in the search results. As it turns out, the use of these photos is the result of a little known licensing deal between Google and Getty Images.

Gallery Drops Photo Artist After Works Found to Be Sourced From Stock

Tim Olsen Gallery, a prestigious art gallery located in Sydney, Australia, has dropped popular Australian photo artist Ben Ali Ong after it was discovered that some of his photo artworks were actually based on uncredited Getty Images. An exhibition featuring Ong's work, which was set to open this week, was canceled, and a number of art buyers will be refunded.

Getty Images Acquired for $3.3 Billion by Private Equity Firm

American private equity firm Carlyle Group announced today that it has agreed to drop $3.3 billion to acquire Getty Images from private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. H&F purchased Getty Images just four years ago for $2.4 billion, so it seems that the stock photo company is doing decently well.

What if Every Olympic Sport Was Photographed Like Beach Volleyball?

Nate Jones over at Metro was recently looking through Getty Images in search of Olympic beach volleyball photos, when he came upon an interesting/"gross" discovery: some of the photographs focused on the body rather than the athlete or the sport. While other Olympic sport photos focus on action and emotion, it seems that certain beach volleyball photographers are intent on snapping images of behinds.

That got Jones thinking, "what if every Olympic sport was photographed like women's beach volleyball?" He then decided to take other shots of other sports and crop them through the lens of volleyball photographers. Here's a sampling of the hilarious images.

The AFP’s Nikon D4 Robotic Arm Rig for the London Olympics

Well, there's no question about it: photography is going to the robots -- or at the very least Olympic photography is. First we saw Getty Images and the robotic rigs it was working on (among other things), then there was the Associated Press and its robots, and now we have a making of video from AFP showing off the D4 wielding rigs its photogs will be using.

Getty Images Auction Draw Bids of $4 Billion

Photo agency Getty Images is on the auction block, in a second round of bids that are climbing towards $4 billion for a potential sale. Investment firm KKR & Co. and private equity investment firm TPG are on the list of at least five interested bidders, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Getty To Capture Olympics With Helicams Timelapse, 360-Degree Cameras and More

You may or may not know this, but Getty Images is actually the official photo agency of the 2012 London Olympics, and they plan on making this one of the most innovatively captured events in the history of photography. To do this they've enlisted as many new technologies as they can get their hands on: be it 3D, time lapse, 360-degree, or even helicam aerial photography/video, Getty intends on giving the people at home as immersive an experience of the Summer Olympic Games as possible.

The Handcuffs and Temptation of Stock Agencies

Someone finds your work on Flickr. They contact Getty Images to buy it. Getty Images contacts you for permission to sell it to their buyer. Do you do it?

Getty Images Changes Watermark from Annoying Logo to Useful Shortlink

Wanting to shed its image of being "old media" and "old fashioned", Getty Images has unveiled a new watermark that does away with the annoying logo in favor of short links. Rather than plaster the words "Getty Images" across the front of photos, the new watermark is actually useful: it provides a short link that directs viewers to the webpage for that particular image and also gives credit to the creator of the work. Inspired by the plaques found at exhibitions, the new watermark is offset to the side rather than smack dab in the middle.

AP Challenging Getty’s Supremacy by Spinning Off a New Photo Agency

When it comes to photography agencies, Getty Images reigns supreme. Founded in 1995 by Mark Getty and Jonathan Klein, the Seattle-based behemoth in many ways took stock and editorial photography into the digital age, causing the slow decline of "former-rulers" like the AP. Between Getty's editorial supremacy and the rise of an era where photojournalists find themselves replaced sometimes by average Joe's with smartphones, the last few years have consisted mostly of the AP trying to staunch the bleeding. But now it seems they're ready to fight back.

US Postal Service Uses Photo of Wrong Statue of Liberty on Stamp

The United States Postal Service admitted last week that the Statue of Liberty photo found on 3 billion newly printed stamps was in fact an image of the half-size replica (shown on left above) found in front of the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas rather than the original in NYC. The original photo was shot by photographer Raimund Linke and was found through Getty Images.

Dropped Getty Photographer Says He Made ‘Fatal Mistake’ in Sending Golf Photo

Freelance photographer Marc Feldman lost his job when Getty Images discovered that he had sent in an altered golf photo for distribution. But Feldman says that it was all an innocent mistake.

Feldman says he was in the press tent after the event, reviewing some photos. The golfer in the image, Matt Bettencourt, and his caddie came by to look at photos as well. The caddie had suggested that the photo would look better without him in it, and Feldman demonstrated how easily he could be removed.

The photographer said he thought he saved the altered image on his desktop, but somehow accidentally transmitted the image along with his final images to Getty."I certainly did not mean to send both of them to Getty," he told Guy Reynolds, the Dallas News photo editor who originally blew the whistle on him.

Getty Photographer Terminated Over Altered Golf Photo

Earlier today, Dallas Morning News photo editor Guy Reynolds noticed a strange relationship between two Getty images of golfer Matt Bettencourt at the Reno-Tahoe Open golf tournament. One photo featured a tight image of the golfer holding up his ball, victorious, after the 11th hole. The other image, vertical, shows the golfer in the same position, but with another person standing in the background, possibly the golfer's caddy. Initially, Reynolds assumed the photograph was taken by two different photographers, from different angles. However, upon further inspection, Reynolds realized the photo was taken by the same photographer, Marc Feldman, and it appeared that the tighter image was actually altered to omit the second person.