Photo value on Internet : worst than ever?

This month, I received one of my worst Sales and Royalty Statement since I work for a photo agency. Don't think it's necessary to give you the name, I guess every agencies are affected by... I have sold dozen and dozen of photographs for an Internet time limited access use for only 0,31$. Yes, you read well : 0,31$!! And of course, you have to subtract the photo agency rate, and then to convert American Dollars to Euros. Enough said, I think you can easily imagine that a photo on Internet has NO VALUE in 2010. Well, it's not always true, sometimes you can sold a photo for 50$ if it's big enough and if it's for a big and well known website...

What if photo value would depend of the number of views on a page? What if you removed all the photos and pictures on a daily news website, on every websites? Yes, it could be very poor, uninteresting, boring. I think everybody needs photographs to illustrate a website. So, why images don't have their right value, depending on their size and on the number of views? Don't you think photo value should be more important on Internet when you have thousands and millions of views and clicks than on a paper magazine?

Well, I hope and I wish 2011 will be a better year for all the professional photographers who are in the streets and everywhere to shoot what's happened in this world, a World who doesn't turn really round...

Juste Debout

Few days ago, I was thinking about pictures I didn't edit yet. Okay, I know, I have too many pics I've never edited yet!! But these pics had to be published 9 months ago and... there are still in my computer for some reasons...

Today, the "Juste Debout" organization just revealed the date of the 2011 Juste Debout final in Paris. So I guess today is the good day to share my "forgotten pics"! The big final will be the 13th of March.  Hope I will be there, in Bercy, to take some new pics of this impressive Worldwide Hip Hop Dance Festival.

Here is a selection of several pictures I took this year. It's the first time they go out from my computer. So you are the first one to see them. Hope you'll like them as I do.

"Over you" the 2000 fps video clip is online

Two months ago, I was talking about a video clip filmed with a RED camera and a Photron camera which can filmed at 2000 fps in 4K. By curiousity I went to the studio during the shoot as I had a friend of mine who has a short part in the clip (see her at 0'17). A lot of expensive stuff and a lot of people for "just" a video clip!

This is not my kind of music, but anyway, here is the link to watch "Over You". You can see the action below at 1'09 and there is also a couple of dance actions in an impressive slow motion. Too bad it's too short during the clip... The good point is that the guys at Woow, the film production company, are really cool and they do a very good job. Oh, and here is the link to watch the making of.

Just married!

Last wedding of the year but not least. 4th of December, A. and L. are just married, and it was not an easy task! I mean, not easy to take some photos outside as it was maybe 2°C with an icy wind. Freezy! I wish I could get the snow fall of the morning during the very fast shooting afternoon in Montmartre. Can you imagine snowflakes with the Sacré Coeur in the background and these two beautiful "birds" right here, in the front of this view? No regret, we did severals shots in different places in Montmartre but it was so cold that we made it in maybe 15 or 20 minutes with a step inside the (hot) car between each place. Hard for me 'cause I wanted to do some shots with 2 or 3 flashes and I finally did all with one flash on the camera or without any flash. One word : improvisation!

Anyway, I spent a really good day with A. and L. shooting from 10am to midnight. Hope they will enjoy the pictures.

Congratulations guys!

From the window...

View from my window today, in the suburb of Paris. Can't wait to be in the mountains! Have to wait the end of the month to spend some good time celebrate the new year with friends in Andorra. CAN'T WAIT!!!

Quentin Caffier, studio, new Pentax 645D and nice models...

Few days ago, I was with Quentin Caffier (yes, again!) at Studio Stenope in Paris for a beauty shoot day with several models. Renaud, from Focus Numerique, came with the new Pentax 645D. A nice toy! We had a long day testing the camera with very nice girls prepared by Vee Gomez (Hair) and Coline Roussel (Make-Up) for some beauty shots.

Focus Numerique just write a new article about the Pentax 645D (in French) in collaboration with Quentin after this day in a photo studio.

Here is one of the photo Quentin made and some "behind the scene" pics I did during this day...

Photo © Quentin Caffier // Kajsa-Stina @Idole under the "hard ring-flash light"

My pics on Cosmic Hip Hop and Zulu Nation France

Few words to let you know that the photo report I did during the 37th Anniversary of Zulu Nation at Batofar, Paris, is on the Zulu Nation France website (http://www.zulunation.fr/) and on Cosmic Hip Hop website with a good article in French (http://www.cosmichiphop.com/reports/live-rahzel-zulu-nation-party_49.htm). Many thanks to Dee Jay Number Six and Laurent "Bongo" Perrin.
Peace!

Two days off...

Two days off. Two days without thinking of work. Two days without any stress. Two days in another place, not the one you use to live, eat, sleep and work everyday. Two days with some good friends and good food. Two days in the French countryside, far from everything. Two days off!

Yes, it was fu****g cool. But unfortunatly, I was unable to leave without my camera! Is photography a drug? Maybe...

When you are a freelance (photographer, designer, etc.), it's always hard to tell you that you can go far away without thinking that you do something wrong, that you should be available to work after an urgency call from a client. You could miss a lot of things in two days. But you could miss nothing. How to guess? I have no answer.

Anyway, on friday afternoon, I finally decided to leave with some good friends in one of my friends' house, close to Chauvigny (Vienne), 3 hours drive south/west from Paris. A week-end of rest, good food, nature, and a bit of sport (we brought 3 mountain bikes and 2 mx bikes). The forecast was bad with a lot of rain. But what? Are we made with sugar?! I didn't take a lot of photos, but on saturday night, I absolutely wanted to go for a walk to capture the 2 nuclear reactors of Civaux. Nuclear power is the primary source of electricity in France. In 2004, the country's nuclear production of electricity was about 78,8% (425,8 TWh - Wikipedia). Civaux's Nuclear Power Plant has more than 800 employees and each reactor has an output power of 1500 MWe, one of the highest class in the world. The steam from reactors gives a strange atmosphere to the sky, even by night.

Civaux's Nuclear Power Plant and its steam by night

Eclectic week

Last week, I covered several events in Paris. And, as often, I run to an event from another one, so that I feel like a chameleon who can change his color when he goes to a different place and meet different people. Diversity is exactly what I like when you are a photographer. You learn new things each time you shoot a new subject. I could talk about that during hours and hours. It's a big part of motivation for me and I think I could resume it with one word : curiousity.

The snow is coming!

It's november and I know some people are already on their skis or snowboard riding the very first snow in the French Alps. I'm still in Paris and wish I could already ride my skis... So, it's a bit hard to wait, this is why I was just looking at my first ski pictures I did last season and there is one I absolutely want to share.

After my very first ski photo experience shooting the X-Games in Tignes (it couldn't be better for a first experience, isn't it?), I had to go in Chatel with some friends to try to capture some good action shots for a new ski brand (B2R - Born To Ride). Unfortunatly the snow was really hard everywhere, not easy to make a freeride shot in the powder if you don't have any powder! We finally saw a little heap of fresh snow with Hugo and I asked him if he could try to do a big turn on it. Not an easy task for him considering he had no speed and not a lot of fresh snow... But we did it and were really happy of the shot, except it's not a good one for the brand!

Rider : Hugo Cogez // Skis : Born To Ride // Location : Chatel, France

Shot with a Canon 7D // ISO 100 @ 1/400 and  f13 // 10/22mm lens // 580 EXII triggered by Mini TT1 and Plus II Pocket Wizard