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10 Ways to Generate Revenue With Online Sales

Online sales have long been the go-to for photographers looking to earn passive income. While you reach out to editors and communicate with clients about their latest headshots or food photos, have you considered which images you’ve already made might make you some quick cash?

A Comparison of PhotoShelter and Squarespace for E-commerce

I recently I canceled my PhotoShelter account after being with the service for 8 years, and I wanted to provide a better understanding of the pros and cons of PhotoShelter and Squarespace. I currently use Squarespace and while I wouldn’t say the service is without its faults, I do believe that it is a better service for my needs.

Q&A with Bloomberg’s Photo Editor: Diversity of Photography Voices a Must

With a background in literature and journalism, today Eugene Reznik is the Digital Features Photo Editor at Bloomberg. Before grabbing that gig, he was the Director of Photography of the digital publication Hopes&Fears, an editor at American Photo Magazine, and a writer for TIME Magazine’s LightBox photography section.

Paying Tribute to the Women Behind the Lens and the Stories They Tell

Today is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women everywhere. So, we’d like to pay tribute to the women behind the lens—and also the women whose stories they tell.

Rigid vs Collapsible: Comparing Two Types of Beauty Dishes

The Beauty Dish is revered by many photographers for having a soft, but contrasty quality of light. The classic design puts the flash tube behind an opaque or translucent tube cover, which helps eliminate a central hot spot. Like umbrellas, beauty dishes are available with white or silver interiors and can be fitted with a “sock” or grid to control quality and spread of light even more.

A Rapper Stole a Photo, and It’s More Complicated Than That

Detroit-born rapper Danny Brown recently caused a ruckus when he posted an image taken in Melbourne by Michelle Grace Hunder to Instagram without permission. The photo had been taken at a music festival for Howl & Echoes, a Sydney-based online music site.

10 Tips for Getting Hired as a Photographer, From Industry Pros

What are photo editors really looking for from professional photographers? And how can you make connections with potential clients and land gigs? We asked a number of photography trailblazers to share their best tips for how to get hired as a photographer.

6 Top Online Photography Portfolio Hosting Options

Your photography deserves a website that can showcase its creativity and beauty... without breaking the bank. Former TIME CEO and Curator Gallery owner Ann S. Moore told us in a recent interview, “Shame on you if you don’t have a website! You absolutely have to have one!” Today we'll be looking at a few of the top industry solutions for hosting your photography portfolio in style.

PhotoShelter Unveils Lattice: A Pinterest-Like Curation and Discovery Platform for Pro Photographers

Two hundred million images... PhotoShelter has amassed over 200M images from over 80,000 photographers in the almost a decade since they burst onto the scene. And today they unveil a new way for those 80,000 photographers to share those 200M+ images with fans that might not even know they exist yet.

It's called Lattice, and maybe the simplest way we could describe it is Pinterest for Professional Photographers, Curators, and Photography Lovers.

How 4 Photo Editors Are Using Instagram

Instagram is a powerful tool that professional photographers must take seriously if they want to be discovered via the platform – because just like every other person with a smart phone, photo editors from major publications are on there too. It’s a way to stay top of mind and connected with the photo-editors you’ve previously worked with, and to share work that can catch their eye and could inspire your next assignment.

How Joe McNally, Jeremy Cowart and Ami Vitale are Making the Next 6 Months Count

It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through 2014, right? But the good news is there’s still over 200 days left to bring in business, make more connections with potential photo clients, and end the year strong. To help you out and provide a little inspiration, we’ve also launched PhotoShelter’s Guide to Conquer the Rest of 2014 -- a compilation of our best business advice to help you make the next six months count.

On top of that, we also wanted to know what some of the most seasoned photographers are doing to rev up their businesses before the year is up. Are they focusing on marketing? Reworking their websites? New projects? To find out, we caught up with a few top photographers including Joe McNally, Jeremy Cowart, Ami Vitale, David duChemin, Stacy Pearsall, Dixie Dixon, and Gary Arndt to ask one question: How do you plan to grow your photo business over the next six months?

Free Pricing Guides Help Budding Photogs Navigate the Business Side of the Industry

One of the challenges if you're just now carving out your niche in this crazy world of professional photography is figuring out how to price your work. How exactly do you determine how much your photos are worth, what expenses can you expect to run into, what contracts are you likely to run into and what exactly do they mean?

All of this and more is explained in a series of free guides that PhotoShelter has released over the course of the last year. Starting with Magazine Photography, then Corporate & Industrial Photography and finally finishing off the series with a guide for Photojournalists.

Getting the Clients You Want: Advice from Adventure Photographer Alexandre Buisse

Commercial mountain photographer Alexandre Buisse is a natural adventurer. When it comes to rock climbing or going for his major dream client with a cold call, Alex is a brave soul with immense talent to match. His client roster includes Patagonia, Red Bull, Sports Illustrated, Outer Edge Magazine, and many more.

We talked with Alex about his experience cold emailing and calling, what he’s learned about negotiating licensing rights, and his key marketing strategies. He also lays out the three things a budding adventure photographer should do when looking to get work -- including the importance of a work/fun balance.

Have Camera, Will Travel: Fifty Awesome Photo Workshops Around the World

You could go alone to New Zealand, Mexico, Cuba, or wherever your wanderlust takes you, and bring your camera along for the trip -- hope to stumble upon the ‘photographic’ spots, and take some pictures you think might be good.

Or, you could sign up for an amazing, fully immersive photography workshop in an exotic locale with a pro photographer who knows the land, guides you to all the best spots, gives you feedback during critiques, and helps you edit your new travel portfolio along the way. We prefer the latter -- and after finding out about all the amazing photography courses happening all over the world this year, we had to share. Wherever and whatever your heart desires to go and photograph, there’s probably a workshop to guide you through it.

PhotoShelter’s Photog’s Outlook on 2014 Survey is Packed Full of Interesting Info

Despite all of the crazy gloom and doom talk that tends to circulate in the photography industry, it seems us photographers are still an optimistic bunch.

PhotoShelter has just released their "Photographer's Outlook on 2014 Survey," and besides being chock full on interesting and useful tidbits about who to follow and what to read (we're proud to say PetaPixel made the most-read blogs list!), it also showed that photographers have a very positive perspective on the upcoming year.

Infographic Gives You Nine Ways to Grow Your Photography Business in 2014

If 2014 is finally the year you plan to turn your love of photography into a business and see if you can quit your day job to do something you enjoy, then PhotoShelter is here to help. In the infographic below, they provide you with nine very useful tips that will help you begin to look at photography from the business side of things.

What the Photo Community can Learn from the Jasmine Star and Doug Gordon Ordeal

Last Friday, WPPI Director Jason Groupp announced that Jasmine Star and Doug Gordon withdrew from next year’s conference in light of all the controversy surrounding allegations of plagiarism.

I advocated for this move with many others who saw their transgressions as a violation of trust that affected the entire industry. The outcome seemed proportional to the infraction, and I saw no reason to urge further action. I have no vitriol against either Jasmine or Doug, I just think we all have to own up to our mistakes, pay the piper, and move on.

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PhotoShelter Unveils Overhauled ‘Beam’ Portfolio Sites

The leading photography portfolio service PhotoShelter (also known for their sales and marketing tools for photogs) today announced the launch of their overhauled and much improved portfolio sites and tool suite, dubbed 'Beam.'

Presently in beta, Beam is an API-based platform that promises to allow photographers to "showcase their images at their best on nearly any device." Not only that, Beam is designed to be flexible, allowing for rapid expansion of template designs, tools, and the inclusion of third-party integrations.

The Economics of Copyright Infringement in Robert Caplin vs Perez Hilton

Freelance photographer Robert Caplin filed a copyright infringement and DMCA violation complaint on June 26, 2013 against Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr., aka Perez Hilton. Hilton is best described as an Internet gossip blogger, who has been known to appropriate copyrighted images and then “transform” them by drawing captions, tears, or other scribbles, and thereby claiming “fair use.”

His well-trafficked entertainment blog sells advertising to support itself. Caplin is a regular contributor to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times. He also runs The Photo Brigade, is a prolific Instagrammer, and is an all around great guy. And I don’t like to see Perez Hilton stick it to great guys.

Photo Essay on Bombing Suspect Taken Offline to Stop Theft by Screenshot

In 2010, then BU journalism student Johannes Hirn put together a photo essay titled "Will Box for Passport." The essay was based around a boxer by the name of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, better known now as "Suspect #1" or the "Black Hat bomber" from the Boston Marathon bombing.

According to an NPPA report, once Tsarnaev and his younger brother were listed as suspects, several publishers both large and small found and began using content from the essay without ever ascertaining Hirn's permission. All the while, Hirn was on the phone with his former BU professor Peter Southwick to figure out how he could properly license the images before websites and blogs began stealing them -- it was already too late.

Photographers: Finding New Clients, Not Gear, Is Biggest Challenge in 2013

In late 2012, Photoshelter surveyed around 5,000 photographers to find out the industries outlook on 2013. Some of the findings were pretty interesting.

The chart above shows the top challenges the photographers think they'll face in 2013. Only 10% of those who responded were worried about gear-related issues. People don't seem to be having a hard time finding the right equipment to use for their shoots -- it's the business-side of the photography business that's weighing photogs down.

Rant: I Love Photography

It might sound strange to use the verb "Love" in the title of a rant. But here goes.

I love photography.

Why am I telling you this? Isn't it self-obvious? Don't we all love photography? The answer is no. There is a percentage of photographers who hate photography. They do not appreciate photography. They do not consume photography. They don't look at photo books or photo magazines. They hate the guy with the iPhone taking Instagram shots.

Interview with Allen Murabayashi, CEO of PhotoShelter

Allen Murabayashi is the co-founder and CEO of PhotoShelter.

PetaPixel: Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background?

Allen Murabayashi: I was born and raised in Honolulu, and had a pretty early love affair with photography. One of my childhood friends, Jon Emura, had a neighbor who had us over one weekend afternoon to show us how to use an SLR and light meter. After that, my dad let me borrow his Olympus OM-10 to take pictures.

When I was in 7th grade, my parents took a trip to Hong Kong and got me an Olympus OM-4, and I was in Heaven. I wasn't a great photographer, but I was always taking pictures from junior high onwards.

Inspiring Webinar by Tim Mantoani

Photoshelter hosted this truly inspirational talk with photographer Tim Mantoani. It runs a bit long, but it's definitely worth a watch. Mantoani shares about what truly motivates and inspires him in photography, as well as the experiences photography yields. Most importantly, Mantoani talks about envisioning your dream photo and how to go about capturing it.