publicity

Wanted: Wedding Photography in Exchange for Free Instagram Publicity

Instagram has over 400 million active users now, and top photographers on the service can make thousands of dollars per photo by promoting products. With the value of Instagram followers increasing, it seems that some people are now trying to use their follower counts to get free photography.

A young couple in Chicago posted an ad this week that was aimed at photographers (and other vendors) who would be willing to offer their photography (and other services) in exchange for free publicity... through an Instagram account with 17,600 followers.

The Story of How My ISS Photo Went TOTALLY Viral

Here's my story on what it's like to have a photo go totally viral around the world. After accidentally capturing a portrait with the ISS in the background, I sent it to a lot of local news outlets in the Netherlands, along with a lot of big international photo blogs (PetaPixel was one of them).

I started by just contacting them on Facebook with a short message along with the photo, to just try to see if they would be interested in the photo itself. No need to write a long story if they don’t like the photo anyway, I thought.

Instagram Power Users Covering the US Open Alongside Press Photographers

It pays to be a top user on Instagram. In addition to having hundreds of thousands of eyes glued to your stream of photos, marketers for the world's top brands are constantly trying to think of ways to incorporate you into their advertising campaigns. Case in point: at the US Open this year, there will be three Insta-celebs covering the event alongside the photojournalists from major national media outlets.

Did Sigma Make the SD1 to Serve as the Brand’s “Halo Product”?

Sigma generated a lot of buzz recently after announcing its SD1 DSLR with a $9,700 MSRP, and that's probably exactly what they were trying to do. As articles all over the Internet questioned why a 14.7MP Sigma DSLR would cost the same price as Pentax's 40MP medium-format DSLR, Sigma was quick to point out that the camera would actually be selling for a slightly more reasonable street price of $6,900.