Using Conceptual Images

When dealing with stock photography and design, there are several routes you can choose when selecting images to illustrate your idea. You can go for the run of the mill image, i.e. businessman on a cell phone. Or you can go another route and search for something much more conceptual to convey your point.

So let’s say the concept you are shooting for is business communication. If you go for the aforementioned businessman on a cell phone, you are playing it safe. Nothing will be misinterpreted and you will have an enormous selection of images to choose from.

On the other hand, this is such a common way to portray business communication that it might not have the impact that a more attention-grabbing image would have. It is a little more risky since your intended message may not be completely clear by the photo alone, but if it is intriguing enough it will lure your audience in and make them want to know your message.

Take a look at the images below. Watch them go from straight forward to uber-conceptual! It’s all in how you use them.

11 Ways to Celebrate Shark Week

1. Don’t get attacked by a shark.
2. Don’t attack a shark. The chances of them attacking you are slim, so let’s call it even.
3. Smile and appreciate your one row of pretty teeth, instead of the multiple rows that sharks have. And if you have some shark teeth happening in there, smile anyway. They look cool!

4. Refer to every person you meet as “chum”.
5. Make that Jaws “duh-nuh” sound every time you walk up behind somebody.
6. Anytime a challenge arises, quote Roy Scheider from Jaws saying, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
7. Don’t eat a Great White shark. They are known to have high mercury levels which could leave you mad as a hatter.
8. Pretend that if you have to be in constant motion to keep breathing, like most sharks. Then, when you are out of breath in about 10 minutes, take a nap.
9. Tell your kids that they are lucky that you feed them. Baby sharks have to find food on their own. After they call you “lame” or a “nerd”, make them dinner anyway.
10. Go around knocking on people’s doors and when they ask who it is, you say, “Land Shark”.
11. Hug a shark. Wait!!! On second thought. Look at a shark . . . through aquarium glass . . . from far away. Or even better still, maybe just some photos.

Keywording Tips for Stock Photographers, Part 5: Synonyms are Your Friend

Another week, another keywording tip for all you stock photographers out there. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out our previous installments (entries, parts, chapters).

Which leads me to this week’s topic (theme, subject, focus). When it comes to keywording stock images, synonyms are your friend (pal, buddy, mate). There are hundreds of things out there that can be referred to by more than one word. As a stock photographer, you have no way of knowing which word your customers will use in their searches.



This problem (quandary, dilemma, obstacle) is magnified when you think about the international stock photography market. Even nations that speak the same language don’t always use the same words (Are your potential buyers looking for a truck or a lorry?).

This doesn’t mean that you need to spend hours keywording a stock image (photo, photograph, picture) with every possible word variation. But it is a good idea to include some common synonyms in your keywords lists, especially for stock images of popular subjects (think cell phone, cellular phone, mobile phone).

Weirdest Animals to Photograph

We have covered the scary and the not so scary animals to photograph, but how about the just plain bizarre. These are the animals that leave you wondering if this was some kind of photoshop prank. We promise you that these are the real deal.

Although some of these animals look like B-movie creatures, they are real animals that exist in the wild. So, next time you are out photographing bunnies and lambs, be on the lookout for these weird animals. They are out there!



Tapirs – Like the combination of an elephant, anteater and maybe a pig. It also looks like someone forgot to color in the rest of him.



Ribbon Eels – I guess he just heard a funny joke. The ribbon eel looks like a Muppet. I could see him hanging out with Kermit.



Moles – Look at those feet and claws! Of course, they are just for burrowing, but they are cartoonishly big in comparison with its body. Also, not being able to see an animal’s eyes is a little weird.



Aye-ayes – Looks like the cross between a bat and monkey. It is actually a type of lemur. This one could have probably made the scary list.



Leafy Sea Dragons – There is a lot of weird things going on in the ocean. This is one of them. It almost looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Least Scary Animals to Photograph

After giving you all nightmares with “Scariest Animals to Photograph”, we thought we’d take it easy on you and give you something a little less horrifying to look at. Well, some might be horrifyingly cute, but that’s a risk we were willing to take.

The only danger involved with photographing these animals is an extreme case of the warm fuzzies. So, without further ado, here are the least scary animals we could find:



Lambs – Almost cute enough to give you a stomach ache. Of course, they grow up and lose some of their cuteness, so enjoy it while you can.



Marmots – This chubby, little guy isn’t too intimidating. And he’s just the right amount of ugly to make him cute. Watch him nibble on a graham cracker for further proof.



Penguins – It’s hard to feel too threatened by anything that clumsily waddles around like that and can’t fly.



Cotton-Top Tamarins – Nothing that begins with the word “cotton-top” will ever be scary.



Hedgehogs – Sure, they have spines running along their back, but they are not barbed or poisonous. Besides, their defense mechanism is to roll up into a ball. Not exactly anything to be scared of. Just don’t step on him.



Bunnies – I think the picture takes care of it pretty well.

Scariest Animals to Photograph

Whether they make your skin crawl or make you want to run for your life, there are some animals that are just plain scary. For photographers, it can be even worse. They have to sometimes fight their natural instinct and become comfortable enough to photograph these animals.

From the life-threatening to the creepy, here are the animals that give us nightmares.

Snakes - Especially cobras. Venomous and intimidating. It’s not that we don’t trust them or anything, but it’s also not exactly the best recipe for close-up photograpghy.



Spiders – Classic scary. Any kind of spiders. Too many eyes and too many legs to not not be frightening. The fatter and harrier, the scarier.



Sharks – Particularly the Great White Shark. With the added challenge of being underwater, sharks make for a frightening subject. Maybe it’s the movie, or maybe it’s the rows of sharp, razor-like teeth. Although they are unlikely to attack, we have no desire to swim up and give them a big hug either.



Lions - The perfect image of ferocity. They are big and strong, and very likely faster than you. Get a camera with a great zoom.



Millipedes – Take the creepiness of a snake and add a couple hundred legs. No, thanks! And the Giant African Millipede can be almost 16 inches long!

Capturing Emotions in Photos

One of the most difficult challenges for stock photographers is accurately capturing emotion in their images. The facial expression of the subject determines the mood of an image in many cases, so that is where the challenge lies.

There are several things to consider when striving to portray a particular emotion through the facial expression of the model. It needs to be a little more apparent and stronger than what a person may show in reality. At the same time, it needs to be realistic so as not to seem cheesy.

Much of this will depend on the features of the model. Some people show emotion better than others, whether it be an inviting smile or an intimidating scowl. But the key is finding how they display emotion. No two smiles are alike and every one can show something different.

Designers want natural looking images, so it is essential to make it look unforced. For photographers, coaxing out the best natural facial impressions and capturing them is a challenge, but look for it and it will be there.

A Look Back at the Last 5 Years in Social Media

Five years ago, YouTube (YouTube) was just getting started, MySpace was the most popular website in the U.S., and Facebook (Facebook) was still limited to college and high school students. Mobile was mostly an after-thought, as we were still more than a year away from the introduction of the iPhone and the idea of an app store. And “widgets” were just starting to emerge as a way to integrate third-party apps on a website (Newsweek would declare 2007 to be “year of the widget” in a late 2006 article).

Fast forward to today and the sites we use and the way we use them have shifted dramatically. Facebook is closing in on Google as the Web’s most trafficked site. There are hundreds of thousands of mobile applications that users access across a variety of smartphones, and social media is increasingly being consumed and produced on the go. And “Like” buttons have become the new form of social currency for publishers around the world.

How did we get to this point? Here’s a quick look back at the last five years in social media.

The News Feed Brings It All Together

In late 2006, Facebook introduced the news feed – a controversial concept at the time (incidentally, there are many parallels between it and Facebook’s most recent privacy issues) that has since become perhaps the most important and oft-imitated feature in social networking.

It’s hard to remember life before the news feed, but it consisted mostly of visiting your friend’s profiles, making wall comments and perhaps maintaining a photo gallery. For Facebook, this innovation (and a lack of innovation by then leading social network MySpace (MySpace)) is the one that established the service’s utility and has been at the heart of its expansion since — showing you at a glance what your friends are up to on Facebook and around the Web.

Nowadays, whether it’s Twitter (Twitter), Foursquare (Foursquare), Flickr (Flickr) or yes, MySpace, the experience very much centers around seeing the most recent updates from your friends, in reverse-chronological order.

Video Emerges as Social Media’s Perfect Compliment

A few months before the birth of Mashable (Mashable), YouTube made its debut on the Web in February 2005, making an unprecedented ascent into the mainstream consciousness. By December of that year, it had already become the most popular video site, and by July of 2006, it was serving 100 million video views per day (today, it serves more than 2 billion views daily). Then, in October, Google bought YouTube for a whopping $1.6 billion, just 18 months after the site launched.

At the end of last year, I declared YouTube the top social media innovation of the decade, as it has come to embody so much of what we now know as social media, from highly shareable content to citizen journalism to the ability of anyone with a camera to claim their 15 minutes of fame.

Social Networks Spread Their Wings

In early 2008, a new battle in the social media space emerged – the battle over portable identity. While OpenID had long promised a single sign-on for third-party websites, Facebook, MySpace and Google (Google) started to realize that your social networking profile had potential to be used as your identity across the Web, while at the same time enabling publishers to make their sites more social.

Facebook Connect emerged, as did Google Friend Connect and MySpaceID. Eventually, as Twitter’s popularity grew, they also got in the game. Today, Facebook Connect – which has evolved into the Facebook Open Graph – is used by hundreds of thousands of websites that can add simple copy and paste code to let their visitors “Like” stuff; “Likes” that are then pushed back into the Facebook News Feed. MySpace and Twitter ultimately hooked up with Google Friend Connect (google friend connect), which is now in use on some 9 million sites.

Mobile Makes Social Indispensible

While there’s been a running joke that it was going to be “the year of mobile” for about a decade, it’s only within the last few years that smartphone use has exploded, and along with it, use of social media while not in front of a computer.

According to data published earlier this year, 30% of smartphone users now access social networking sites from their phone’s web browser – and that doesn’t even take into account people who download apps on their iPhone (iPhone), Android (Android), BlackBerry (BlackBerry Rocks!) or other devices.

Thanks to increasing mobile broadband speeds, video is also going mobile. YouTube now serves up 100 million videos to mobile devices each day, and with more and more new phones offering video capture capabilities, we’re also seeing smartphones become an important part of content production.

What's Next?

Now that we’ve established where we are – a social ecosystem that’s moving beyond the walls of individual sites to mobile devices and third-party applications – the question is: what’s next?

Keywording Tips for Stock Photographers, Part 3: Some Keywords that Really Should be Forgotten

In our last Keywording Tips blog, we talked about some words that photographers tend to leave out of keyword lists that they should be including. In this blog, we’ll turn things around and talk about a few words that really should be left out of keyword lists.

Incidentals- Just because you can see something in a stock image, doesn’t mean that it needs to be in the keywords. Stock photography buyers who search on the word “trees” don’t want to have to wade through dozens of images that barely show a few trees in the background in order to find the images that show nothing but trees. A good rule of thumb is to only include a word in a keyword list if you would be happy seeing that image come up in a search for that word.

Wrong Information- Many stock photography buyers absolutely have to make sure that the information they have about an image is completely accurate for legal reasons, and they won’t buy an image unless they’re one hundred percent sure that the information in the caption and keywords is correct. Things like locations, scientific names of plants and animals, and ingredients in food are just a few of the facts that some buyers need to know are accurate. Don’t ever guess when you’re keywording stock images. When in doubt, leave it out!

Trademarks- It doesn’t happen often, but legal issues can arise out of trademarked terms in stock photography keywords. Common words like Band-Aid, Frisbee, Hula Hoop, Jacuzzi, Popsicle, Post-its, Q-tip, Rollerblade, and Tarmac are just a few examples of trademarked terms that are often found in keywords. Since it’s better to be safe than sorry, these terms should not be used as keywords.

When it comes to keywording stock images, more isn’t always better. Putting quality before quantity will help you get the best results from your stock images’ keywords.

Keywording Tips for Stock Photographers, Part 2: Don’t Forget the Basics

Welcome back to Part Two of our series on keywording tips for stock photographers. If you missed Part One, you can still check it out.

In order to help potential customers find your stock images, you’ll want to make sure that you describe certain things in the keywords for every image you submit to a stock photography site.

After much searching, the Glow Images Team has come up with the top three things that photographers should be including in keywords lists for stock images, but aren’t. Here they are, in no particular order:

People, Person, and Nobody- One thing most buyers of stock images definitely know is whether they want an image with or without people in it. Often they start browsing stock photography sites by searching on a simple word like “people,” “person,” or “nobody.” If you’re not including these words in your stock images’ keywords, then your images aren’t showing up in these searches.

Ages of People- Including accurate numerical ages (such as “30s,” “30-35 years,” etc.) is important when keywording stock images, but it’s also important to include more generic age-related terms for the customers who don’t consider the exact age of the models to be important. Words like “adult,” “child,” “teenager,” “middle-aged,” “senior,” and “mature,” along with other similar terms and synonyms, are all useful descriptors of age that stock photography buyers search on.

Ethnicity- Including the ethnicities of models can help your stock images show up in more search results. Many stock photography buyers are actively looking for images that showcase diversity, so you should also use keywords like “multicultural,” “multi-ethnic,” and “diversity” when applicable.

Make it easy for customers to find your stock images by keeping these three things in mind when you’re keywording your images for stock photography sites

Best Scenic Nature Locations for Photographers

There is no easy way to pick the most scenic nature locations for photographers. So much depends on the conditions. But hang around long enough and you will snap the perfect shot.

There is a moment when the light hits the landscape in just the right way, and you capture the scene exactly as you had pictured it. It’s a photographer’s dream!

Head over to our full blog to check out the full list!

Glow Adds Yet Another Collection

We are excited to announce that we have added the Gardenpix collection to our site.

Gardenpix is a rights managed collection of images from all different kinds of gardens and outdoor spaces. From sleek, modern flower gardens to old-fashioned country vegetable gardens, it’s all there. The collection features a variety of plants and flowers, as well as garden layouts and peaceful garden scenes.

So, check out Gardenpix! See how your own garden compares.

Glow Welcomes 3 New Collections

We are pleased to announce the addition of 3 great collections to the Glow Images website: PhotoAlto, ZenShui, and es Collection.

The PhotoAlto collection features stylish and creative imagery while still being modern and practical. The collection covers a wide variety of subjects and styles.

ZenShui is a beautifully blended mix of eastern aesthetics with western themes. It brings a Zen-like quality to everyday subject matter.

The es Collection is known for its avant-garde styles and content. The imagery is often conceptual and creatively captured.

These newly launched collections add to the site’s already diverse and high quality content. Check out the site and explore!

Keywording Tips for Stock Photographers, Part 1: Why Does Keywording Matter?

Photographers are artists, but when they’re submitting their images to microstock sites, they also have to learn the technical side of the industry, including how to accurately assign keywords to stock images. As a professional keyworder with nearly four years of experience in the stock photography industry, I know that the one thing most keyworders will agree on is that there’s a lot of grey area when it comes to keywording stock images.

So what are keywords, and why do they matter? Keywords are descriptive words assigned to an image so that it can be found in a collection of stock images. Keywords are the words that stock photo buyers will enter into a search engine in order to find your images. For example, if a searcher enters the word “dog” into a search engine, the search results will be all the images that have the word “dog” assigned as a keyword.

Keywords are arguably the most important part of a stock photography submission (not that I’m biased or anything) because they allow your images to show up in search results. In other words, keywords are what allow your images to be seen by potential buyers. Customers can’t buy stock images that they can’t find.

Since keyword quality is directly related to sales, savvy photographers need to understand how to maximize the impact of their stock images’ keywords (and therefore, maximize their sales revenue).

In the coming weeks, the Glow Images blog will feature more articles exploring the ins and outs of keywording for stock photography. Keep checking back to find out how you can turn keywords into your stock images’ best assets!

Disturbing Photos from the BP Oil Spill

We all know that the oil spill in the Gulf is a horrific event, enough to make any conscientious person angry. But wait until you see some of the effects this has had on the wildlife of the region. Then, your blood will really start to boil.

The aftermath of this disaster brings several issues to the forefront: offshore drilling and safety concerns, seeking alternative energy sources, and protecting the environment. Take a look at the pictures below. Hopefully, images like these will help get the wheels turning and get discussion started for ways we can prevent this from happening again.

Warning: Some of the images below are disturbing.










But there is hope. Clean-up efforts are underway, and we are all talking about how we can make this better. A step in the right direction!

Check out more pictures at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/03/gulf-oil-spill-photos-ani_n_560813.html#s89359.


See this story (and many other interesting ones) on the Glow Images Blog! http://www.glowimagesblog.com

Caption Me! Contest #4

It's that time again! Think this photo is just too ambiguous for its own good? We think so too! Come up with a witty/clever/cool/funny caption for this photo! A winner will be chosen and will receive some recognition from us here at Glow Images.

Multicultural Web Design

Here's an interesting article about multicultural web design. Multicultural images and web design are some of our passions at Glow Images.

Check out the article at http://webexpedition18.com/articles/multicultural-web-design/

The U-Socket (or Socket to Me!)

There is a new piece of home technology on its way designed to keep up with the ever growing portable device market.

It is called the U-Socket. Essentially, it will be like traditional wall sockets, but it will have USB outlets along with standard electrical outlets. This will eliminate the need for adapters in most cases.

Besides the convenience factor, the U-Socket promises other advantages. As an Energy Star compliant device, it is designed to output power only when something is connected to it. This could save you some cash and the reduced energy usage is good for the environment.

There is little question that the introduction of the iPad has increased the demand for such a product. Not all USB ports are designed to handle the kind of power it needs, which has been an issue for some users. The U-Socket will be able to charge the iPad at full speed, according to Lifehacker.com.

Should these catch on, this could eliminate the need for bulky adapters. With houses continually being built to be more efficient and technology friendly, there is a chance that these could become standard installations. The U-Socket can replace any standard wall socket and will range between $20 and $30.

As with most new technologies, it is not without its criticisms. One concern is that because wall sockets are typically placed near the ground, it will make using the devices while charging difficult. There is also some concern about child-proofing the USB ports, although they are generally considered to not be dangerous because they do not produce enough power.
Overall, the U-Socket has potential to make things a bit easier on those of us with a plethora of gadgets. It is hard to say how much they will change things until they get put to use. We’ll see what the market decides!

For more details about the U-Socket, visit http://bit.ly/7IYNnR.

Make Your Photo an Astronaut!

Remember when you were a kid and wanted to be an astronaut? Well, chances are, that dream didn't exactly come true. But now, thanks to NASA, you have your chance to make this childhood fantasy a reality! Sort of.

NASA has set up a program for people to send their photo into space on the remaining shuttle missions. It is known as “Face in Space”. People can upload their images to NASA’s website to ride along on the mission of their choice. These photo-astronauts will have the choice of flying on either the Discovery or Endeavor. After the shuttle has landed, participants can print out their own Flight Certificate, signed by the Mission Commander. NASA is also encouraging everyone to follow the status of their mission through Facebook and Twitter. So, your dream of becoming an astronaut is not dead. Maybe it’s not exactly how you pictured it, but getting your face into space makes it a little closer. And it was cheaper. Now you can work on your dream of being a professional athlete / rock star.

Go to http://faceinspace.nasa.gov/ for more details.


Think this story is funny or interesting? Check out the myriad of other entertaining stories that we publish on the Glow Images Blog every day! http://www.glowimagesblog.com/

Your Next Laptop: Concept Designs Point the Way

An incredibly fascinating article about new concept designs and ideas for laptops. In a few years, I could be typing this blog from one of these awesome gadgets! Click on the photo below to head over to PCWorld.com to read the full article.

5 Gadgets That Will Transform Your Home

In this day and age, it is pretty evident that once we get settled into and figure out a new gadget, it will be obsolete the next day. Many gadgets, and subsequently lifestyles, are fluid, and change quickly each day. This got Glow to thinking, what gadgets exactly do impact our lives significantly?

Funny you should ask, because we found this great article about 5 gadgets that change our lives at home. Enjoy reading about it, but remember, at the end of the day, the best gadget to have at home is a light switch.

Click Here to read the full article.

World Cup!

We here at Glow Images take pride in our multicultural imagery, and there is no better place to see and support a multicultural lifestyle than the World Cup.

The World Cup is being hosted by South Africa this year, and Glow Images was just curious, who do you think is going to win?

Leave a comment on this post, or head over to our blog at glowimagesblog.com and comment on who you think will win the World Cup, and who you will be rooting for.

Simplicity

“Simplicity is the key to happiness.” – the Dalai Lama

If there is any truth to this saying, then you may want to start simplifying your life. That doesn’t mean giving up all your worldly possessions or throwing your TV out the window. It can be achieved just by de-cluttering a few things.

For starters, you can clean up and organize your social media accounts. Streamlining these will make them much more valuable and much less time consuming. Mashable.com provides some easy how-tos for organizing both your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Another way to simplify is to cut down on your paperwork. Papers tend to stick around, stack up, and are not as easily organized as digital information. Check out these 5 tools to help you become paperless. Coming into work and seeing your desk devoid of messy stacks of paper will be a reward in itself.





Simplifying these little things that you see every day can go a long way. Less clutter will mean less stress. With your mind free from these stresses, who knows what you will be capable of? Enjoy your enlightenment!

“Get together. Work it out. Simplicity is what it’s about.” – Donovan

"Pulling out all the stops"

The 2010 HOW Design Conference is right around the corner, and Glow Images isn't afraid to pull out all the stops to show the world what we are made of. But what exactly is "pulling out all the stops".

The phrase comes from more sophisticated organs that have been used in years past. When the organist pulled out all of the stops in the organ, the instrument would operate at its full noise making capacity. Even though we here at Glow don't frequently play the organ, there is no doubt that we will be pulling out all the stops at the 2010 HOW Design Conference.



Glow Images is super-excited to be at the conference from June 6th-8th to show the design world what we’re made of.

Make sure you stop by our booth to enter our daily raffle. You could win your choice of 350 Glow Images Microstock credits, a 1-Month Print Resolution Glow Images Subscription, or any 3 Glow Images Brand VCDs!

We’ll also be giving away the coveted Glow Balls to participants who stop by our booth. (Your kids will really love these!)

Come see us at Table #2 on Sunday and at Booth #314 on Monday and Tuesday to learn how Glow can help you. Or just stop by to say “Hi,” and maybe tell us about some good places to eat. We can’t wait to meet you!

Reverse Vending Machine

Drop in a few coins. Get a can of soda. This has been a pretty standard formula for vending machines for a long time.

Now, reverse it. Take your empty can to a vending machine, and drop it in. Get rewarded.



That’s the idea behind a new reverse vending machine designed to promote recycling by making it more convenient. These “Dream Machines,” launched by PepsiCo and Waste Management, will be placed in high-traffic areas, such as gas stations and stadiums.

Each time a container is recycled at one of these machines, the consumer will earn redeemable points from Greenopolis. These points can be used for various prizes, including coupons and discounts.

For those who aren’t that excited about collecting the points, there is another incentive. As an added bonus, PepsiCo will also be donating to a charity for each container recycled.

The ultimate goal of this program is to increase beverage container recycling to 50% by 2018.

In case you’re wondering, these machines will accept cans from any soft drink company. It’s not restricted to Pepsi products.

These machines have been met with a few criticisms though. For one, they can only store about 300 containers, so there is some concern that they will fill up too fast. Another concern is that the points system will not be an effective incentive, especially in places where cans and bottles can be returned for cash.

One thing is for sure, they will encourage discussion about recycling and the environment. Be on the lookout for these “Dream Machines,” and we will see what they can do.

Watch this video for a walkthrough of how it works.

Glow in the Market

For anyone who is wondering where they can see Glow Images out in the market, here is just one example that you may have seen.

For the full article about this image and its journey from Glow's website to its celebrity status on the cover of Where Magazine, head on over to Glow Image's website

Please Caption Me!

It’s time to test your creativity again. Here’s yet another image from our free blog-res image collection (*restrictions apply) that leaves us scratching our heads. What is this woman doing with a baby bib? Why is she hiding behind it? And just what is going on with that facial expression? We’ll leave the interpretations up to you! We’re sure you can top the original caption: “Close-up of a mid adult woman holding a baby bib.” Let your imagination run wild! A winner will be chosen and honored with some Glow Images respect.

http://www.glowimagesblog.com/?p=476

Please Caption Me

©2010 Glowimages. Image #101-5678845


Back by popular demand, it’s the Caption Contest from Glow Images. Here’s another image from our free blog-res image collection (*restrictions apply) that begs the question, just what is going on here? Something has taken this woman’s breath away. What could it be? Giant furniture? Ugly carpeting? Old-timey telephones? Take your best shot, and amaze us with the perfect caption.