A new startup company called Catalog has raised $1.5 million to drop the cost of advertising photos for businesses from hundreds or thousands of dollars to just tens of dollars per photo. As you might expect, many working professional photographers aren't happy with the business model.
Dear Minted,
I’ve been photographing families for seven years. Let me tell you; it’s been a long slog. I’ve learned so many things through the years that make my work consistent and creates happy clients, I’ve also learned that I work in a community of other independent photographers and we have also come to help, rely on and yes, compete with one another and still be friends at the end of the day.
Remember the StikBox? The creative smartphone case selfie stick raised over $40K on Kickstarter for a product that would eventually cost about $47. But before the Kickstarter was even over, China was selling a perfect copy for as little as 8 bucks.
Update on 12/28/17: This default opt-in was changed a while ago and is no longer the case.
If you use Zenfolio to host your photography portfolio, make sure you're aware of the company's Easy Photo Album Design Service, which launched in May 2016 to make it easier for photographers to sell albums. If you make and sell your own albums to customers, you'll want to turn the feature off. And it seems that many photographers aren't happy that the service is on by default.