Merry Christmas!

All the best wishes from all of us to all of you. As you probably can see in the photo, Sabina is now less than two months away from giving birth to our first child!

Although there’s not much Christmas-ado around these latitudes, we do have a little plastic tree and we’re having a little family get-together tonight. Yes, it’s only the 24th, but that’s when we celebrate it in Denmark.

New Project
The last month I’ve been kicking off a new project, launched a web site called Gaia Photos, and it’s now on track to be a showcase platform for great photojournalism and visual story telling from around the world. I think it’s very interesting and I’ve only gotten very positive feedback from the photographers I’ve invited to join so far. The basic idea is that (at least) one photojournalist from every country will display some of his/her work here from time to time. I think together we can get a large audience, much larger that the combined audience of each of us individually, and hopefully professional photo buyers will also make a note of it and visit from time to time to find new and interesting material for publication. It is a bit on hold these days but once all this Christmas thing has settled down, I will find more top photojournalists to join. I could tell you all the great things I hope to accomplish with Gaia, but think I’ll wait till another time. For now, just go have a look at what we have so far, there is some great work up already!

Note
And a little note, my own web site is currently not online due to technical problems with my hosting company. There’s not much I can do about it but wait, it’s been three days now. Don’t like it one bit and I think it’s time to change web hosting company. There has been other glitches in the past with these guys. On the Gaia site I’ve chosen to work with BlueHost and I must say so far I am very pleased. Fast servers, incredible backend functionality, unlimited storage and bandwidth, voted best 24h support in the industry and seems to be a lot more reliable than NeedHost, the company I’m (still) using for my own site.

So just a quick note, if you need to get in touch with me, please use my alternate e-mail address until my site is back in operation, it’s

Bogus assignment?

I just received the following e-mail, looks and smells like a scam that has been going around in the photographic community for a while. The basic idea is that they pay an advance, cancel the assignment, ask me to refund the advance and when that’s done, they’ll cancel their original payment, which can be done within 30 days or so when paying with credit card. Here’s the e-mail, I’ve *-censored some personal details to protect the innocent.


Re : Photo Services
Hello, I want the photographic coverage of 4 of my employees and a translator coming in for tour.Their anticipated date for the tour is 15th of December,2008.The tour will last for 5 days or more pending on my arrangements. Your services will be needed for maximum of three hours each day of their tour.Let me know your cost. I hope you do accept credit. Warm regards, Mr J******** B******. In case you need to speak with me at my honeymoon base with my international roamed London number +44 *** *** *** *.Send replies to b******j****01@yahoo.com.vn


Just wondered, has anyone else out there received this e-mail?

What I did was reply and ask for some clarification. And stating that full payment is required in advance and that there can be no refund. I don’t expect any reply.

It's done...

...updating and watermarking my web photo galleries. It has gotten cold here in Nepal, so haven't really been out and about the last couple of days. Just sitting here at the computer, adding about 100 new photos to my web site. Here's the list if you're interested:

update: links are now pointing to my new site (where possible):

Nepal festival photos : About 10 new photos. A couple of good shots of the Kumari. Since I came to Nepal 3 years ago, I've been waiting for that moment where I could shoot the god-child sitting in her window. Well, last month it finally happened!

Daily life in Nepal : 6 new photos. People washing, eating, drinking etc. I really like this little collection, normal people going about their usual business.

People of Nepal : 10 new photos. Young and old. Classical and environmental portraits. People are always interesting subjects, aren't they?

Children of Nepal : Tightened this gallery up a bit. There's now 48 photos, a handful of new ones including a black-and-white photo of Sabina kissing her new niece that I really like (both the photo and the niece!)

Famous places of Kathmandu : 21 new photos! It was one of the smallest galleries before, so now it's a bit more complete with images from Boudha stupa, "the Monkey temple", Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Pashupatinath and various other Kathmandu landmarks.

Nature & Environment : 9 new photos. Including an old one of lightning striking in Kathmandu!

Photos of the Himalayan Mountains : 9 new photos. It was also a fairly thin gallery before. So added a few new ones, especially like the black-and-white's.

Trekking and Climbing photos : 7 new photos. Just expanded the rock climbing and ice climbing sections a bit.

Hinduism & Buddhism : 14 new photos. Making this the largest Nepal gallery. Religion plays an important part of pretty much everything here in Nepal, so of course I have plenty of these in my archive. And now on my web site.

Religious Art : 10 new photos. This has prooved to be a popular gallery. Perhaps because of the 'sexy' photos of Tantric temple wood carvings;-)

Kenya Safari photos : 24 new photos. A lot of wildlife here. Everything you'd expect, lions, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes etc. But also some of the landscape and human inhabitants of the Masai Mara. From a guided tour I won a few years ago, so not really much chance to work the usual documentary field, but still nice though.

Copenhagen Carnival : Nothing new here, just rearranged things a bit.

Photos of Bornholm : Same old, from 'my island' back in Denmark that I'd recommend everyone to visit some time. Also a bit from Copenhagen.

Black and White : A couple of new ones here. A collection of nice black and white photography - from 3 continents.


And a few from the more documentary / storytelling genre:


Tibetan protests : Photos of this years anti-Chinese demonstrations. A few new ones.

Nepal election photos : We've had two historic elections in Nepal this year. Just one or two new ones in this update round.

The 2006 Peoples Uprising in Nepal : Think I added a few new (old) ones here as well...


That's it. If you have time, go have a look at some of the galleries.

Watermarking my photos...

Decided to make some changes to the photo galleries I have on my web site. Make the photos bigger and watermarking them. There seems to be a trend nowadays, web photos have to be big, fill out the screen. So far I’ve kept the photos on my web site fairly small, mainly to prevent illegal use but also to facilitate quick viewing. But still, on a couple of occasions I’ve had a suspision that small versions of my images have been used illegally. And I’ve heard of other photographers who’ve found their images used under a different name.

I’ve previously spent some time optimizing my web site for search engines which has resulted in a fairly high number of visitors popping in and having a look. I don’t mind that. In fact, I’m happy to show the photos and build a “fan base”, if I can call it that. Many other photographers don’t seem to go that way, they just use their site as a small online portfolio exclusively meant for photo editors to do a quick review and find their contact details. But that’s not me. I like a broader audience and it gives me a small steady stream of little income sources. Posters, advertising etc. Nothing big, but nice with diverse revenue sources.. The downside is of course that surfers might save image copies and use them for their various purposes – without paying me. The internet is a fantastic place, but not really a place dominated by high morality and due respect for copyright.

(If you have the idea to steal some of my images, be aware of the terms and conditions I have: If I find out, I am reserving the right to bill you at 10 times normal rate!)

Ok, so from now on I’m putting a copyright notice onto all my images. As a compensation for the watermarks I’m making the photos bigger, around 750x500 pixels. That should also give users some “reward” for clicking on the small thumbnails. Pop! What a nice, big picture!

At the same time I’m putting a few keywords into the file names in addition to my reference number. Theoretically those two things should make it more likely that they show up in a Google image-search... In a years time or so. But Google’s gotta have a billion images indexed already and it’s not exactly a tool that professional image buyers are using on a daily basis, is it? I just still remember Dan Heller’s estimates, the photo market is 80-90% outside the established agencies! Not my experience so far, but still...

Ok, back to work. It’s not the most interesting work, watermarking, uploading etc. But I’m also adding new photos to the galleries, drinking coffee, listening to some music (REM, Automatic for the People – “Hypnotize the summer, steep it, steep it, Ig-nore-land...”). Luxury! So far I’ve uploaded some new photos of Kathmandu landmarks and children in Nepal. Next are the Himalayan Mountain photos and photos of Nepal’s festivals. Hope it’ll be done soon.

Shanti Sewa Griha

The Shanti Sewa Griha is a home and clinic for handicapped persons here in Nepal, where leprosy and polio patients live together with various mentally and socially disadvantaged people. My photo reportage from there, mainly about leprosy patients, is now viewable on my web site (parts of it, at least). Go have a look if you're curious: Leprosy in Nepal.

Having seen it, perhaps you'd like to support the project. And you can, for free! The Shanti Sewa Griha is one of 12 finalists in the 2008 World Challenge Competition, and there's a couple of weeks left for you to vote. Vote here! I know they'll appreciate it, so many thanks for your support!

Leprosy in Nepal

A few photos from today. I am doing a reportage from a local leprosy hospital/home. Nepal is one of the few countries in the world where people still get leprosy. It’s a double curse here, where fear and superstition results in victims being social outcasts, sometimes even stoned to death.

Sudarsan (12) and his brother Narayan (6) are confined to their bed, while their mother watches over them, feeds them, cleans them etc.

A couple of leprosy hit boys racing up and down the hallway in a wheelchair.

Eid Mubarak!

The end of the Islam Ramadan month, Eid al-Fitr, was celebrated in Kathmandu (and many other places) yesterday. Nepal's got some 8-900.000 Muslims, and 14.000 of them were in Kathmandu's 2 Muslim mosques yesterday.

I took some 150 photos in little more than one hour, edited them down to 79 on my hard drive and 32 on my web site. There's 7 here in the slideshow. I'd like to do a tighter edit of my web galleri, but as usual it's difficult to decide which ones to remove. If you feel like helping me out, I'd appreciate any comment on which photos should and shouldn't be a part of the gallery. Have a look here, at Muslim Eid al-Fitr, Nepal (link removed, my new site is at http://www.mortensvenningsen.com/) and tell me what you think! (Just use the comment section here on the blog post, thanks!)

Finally, it's here! (Canon 5D Mark II pre-review)

I’m really excited today. My new tool has been announced: The Canon 5D2 camera. Here’s the main features and some thoughts:


21.1 Megapixels - rocks! 2.5 times what I’m currently using. Recently, some clients have expressed a little dis-satisfaction with 8.2 MP, although it’s still sufficient for full page 300 dpi! And I can avoid the upsizing process when submitting for my stock agency... And it’s now truly full frame, 24x36mm. (God, how I’ve missed that!) The 5D actually was “only” 99.5%. Pixel density will be 156/mm, same as 20D and more than the 5D’s 122/mm.

ISO 6400 - wow! not the round 10.000-figure I was dreaming of, but really close. And an extended range going to 25.600! A significant help in tricky indoor and nighttime situations.

Video - this is really new. Mainly thinking of using the sound recording for slideshows. With an external mic. (Perhaps won’t make the camera more expensive as I previously thought. It’ll sell more, enabling Canon to achieve those low mass-production costs...)

-------UPDATE-------
Perhaps all those hours learning Final Cut Pro will now pay off - I don't see any video editing software bundled with the camera.
-------

Body - no vertical grip, weight 810g, exactly like 5D1 but slightly larger penta-prism, which leads me to the...

Viewfinder : 98% - small, but significant improvement over 96% (5D) and 95% (20D). Completely ok. So far the press release just sais “high-performance, high-magnification”. Hoping it’ll be significantly more than the 5D’s 0.71x magnification - so I can see what the heck I’m doing...

-------UPDATE-------
On second look at the specs, it is still a 0.71x magnification. Guess there'll still have to be something to differentiate it from the 1D series... It does have ISO read-out in the viewfinder now - that's nice.
-------

Spot meter : 3.5% - like the 5D, ok.

-------UPDATE-------
Talking about exposure, it's worth noting that the ISO menu now has an 'auto' option, and that there is 'highlight tone priority' in the exposure control. All good!
-------

HDR function - yes! New in-camera function. Saves me lengthy Photoshop processing hopefully. This could be really awesome for landscape/travel stuff sometimes!

Still no mirror lock-up button and digital ND-filters (except a 50 ISO setting), it does have the ½-res setting, just not sure if the 3.9 fps will double to 7.8 fps? Anyway, it’s in-between the 3 fps (5D) and 5 fps (20D). Let’s see, if not now then perhaps in the next firmware?

-------UPDATE-------
On second thought, it might not be possible through firmware alone. The camera reportedly(?) has a shutter lag of 73 ms + 145 ms mirror blackout time. That gives a theoretical top rate of 1/(.073+.145) = 4.5 fps. What a pity. Of course if I was using LiveView I'd avoid the mirror time and we'd be speaking of 1/.073 = 13.7 fps! But then we'd run into the limit of not-fast-enough digital signal processing. But I would be willing to take just half the pixels to get, say, 8 fps with a LiveView 'Action Mode'.
-------

Also, there’s a “silent mode” (using the LiveView) and a vignetting corrector. I like it! LiveView has some auto-focus options now. And there’s a nice 3” LCD and improved dust shake-off. Very useful around here (Kathmandu)!

-------UPDATE-------
...and the LCD now has auto-brightness adjustment depending on ambient light + the new anti-reflective surface. Both quite nice improvements. The menu looks a bit more fancy - but Canon's never been good at making GUI's. They've gone back to tab-menus again, which I personally find more confusing than the simple list. In a sharp situation and all. But there's now also a "My Menu" page where I can put those 5-6-7 menu points that I actually use, and leave the 100+ others buried under all the tabs. Cool!
-------

Apparently it has a new battery. No details yet.

-------UPDATE-------
The new battery (LP-E6) has 1800 mAh, old one (511A) has 1390 mAh. Nice 30% increase, sure we'll need it.
-------

And finally another good thing. The price is in the low end of my expectations: $2700. With the current 5D selling for $2250 it makes it a no-brainer to choose. 5D will probably drop to $1800 though, making it a bit more of a choice - if it’ll be continued...

5D2 should be available in November/December, giving me some time to choose a lens. I have the primes (20mm, 50mm, 90mm) and the long tele (100-400mm) but I’ll probably go for a new zoom. The 24-105mm will be bundled for $800 extra. Currently looks like my choice. It’s bundled with the 5D for an extra $675, why not same with 5d2? Oh well... Was hoping for a stabilizer on the 24-70mm (f/2.8), but you can't have everything, I suppose.

-------UPDATE-------
After some consideration, I’ve pretty much decided to go for the 24-70 f/2.8 glass. Without the stabilizer. It’s a close call though, both lenses have excellent image quality and mechanical construction. For me, that’s the 2 most important points. But in the end, the larger aperture made the difference. The stabilizer on the 24-105 is really nice, but not vital in the low end of the focal range. The smaller focal length (up to 70mm in stead of 105mm) is not vital – and with 21 megapixels I should be able to afford to crop the images a bit, if need be. The 24-105 is also lighter in weight and about $300 cheaper – actually $500 when bundled in the kit. But I think I’ll be happier with the greater focus accuracy, slightly brighter viewfinder and more shallow depth of field that the 2.8 aperture provides. I also think the IQ is slightly better on the 24-70. Shooting at f/4, it will be stopped down, while the 24-105 will be working wide open. All in all, can’t wait to get my hands on the new gear!
-------
UPDATE 2:
According to this report there is another significant difference between the two lenses: Barrel distortion. Apparently, the 24-70 f/2.8 outperforms the 24-105 f/4 at the wide end.
-------

All in all, a new dawn for digital photography is on the rise!


Ok, back to work...

Changing Media World

Strolling around the stupa. Modern dressed teenagers and a Buddhist monk. Nice mix of old and new. © Morten Svenningsen, 27 July 2008.

The media world is changing and I am sitting here thinking about where it’s going. In-depth journalism is getting rare, everything is happening so fast and no-one have time to dwell on issues from around the world. Professional photojournalism is getting squeezed by market trends, staff photographers are getting laid off and in the US there’s now only 4 (yes, four) newspapers with a foreign editor’s desk! Their presidential candidate, the “experienced” one, McCain, apparently thinks that Iraq and Pakistan are neighbours. And the other one, Obama, is believed to be a Muslim by a large portion of Americans! There clearly is a need for spreading awareness. And what can I do. I’ve become tired of pitching stories to magazines and newspapers. I have reason to believe that most of them never even look at my emails. I know, I should call them in stead. But they are always in a meeting to discuss the appalling sales figures or something.

Meanwhile the web, Google, flickr, blogs like this and all that, they flourish. And it’s all very democratic. But material is unedited, facts and opinions are mixed up and sometimes dubious. I and many other serious photojournalists are left to wonder how we can make a decent living this way. I am thinking of slashing my prices, I don’t like it but lately I’ve mostly been turned down because of one thing: Your price is too high, we don’t usually pay that sort of amount etc. Editor’s expectations are that they can get the material almost for free. Hey, I have expenses too. And try sending your staff photographer to Nepal and get the same photo as me, the same level of background information, then compare the prices.

Stuff is going on in my mind. Perhaps it’s all for the best, the world was never perfect. I just need to figure out a way to get through. Despite the downward spiral, I’m actually ok. Still trying to work in-depth and do some quality reporting. Customers come and go. I have a small but steady revenue stream and enough saved up to get the mythical 5D Mk II camera when (if?) it comes out. September perhaps.

Fingers crossed, gotta run. It’s a high-pace world we’re living in.

New Prez in Nepal

President Ram Baran Yadav outside the BICC / Nepal’s interim parliament. © Morten Svenningsen


We got a new president, a first, here in Nepal yesterday. Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, a 61 year old physician. Much to the dissatisfaction of the Maoists, their candidate didn’t win the secret parlamentary election and they are currently in a meeting to decide on their further participation in government. Fears are that they will pull out completely and return to warfare in light of the new anti-Maoist coalition that has emerged. Chairman Prachanda has called it an “un-holy alliance”, peculiar choice of words for a Maoist. But media are perhaps exaggerating the conflict overtones - wouldn’t be the first time. At the voting venue yesterday there actually was a quite jovial atmosphere among the MP’s. But let’s see.

The last weeks I’ve started to realized what a creative stand-still I’ve been in the last year. Or two. I’m mostly talking about the fields of contemporary photojournalism and world-class environmental portraits. I think I’ve been doing a decent job with the camera for a while but perhaps in a slightly boring way. Very controlled, technically superb but could have stronger appeal. From now on I think I’ve worked out how to improve and get some spontanuity in my documentary photos. It mostly rely on a feeling but in involves taking more of the whole frame into consideration in the shots. Not just the subject and the timing. There’s something for me to work on over the next months. The photo above, I think, is an example of an ok beginning! So stay tuned if you want to follow my progress into the stratosphere of photojournalism!


(By the way, what happened to nice fonts on Blogger and why have all my inbound links to my homepage suddenly disappeared in Google's webmaster control panel? Is Google loosing it??)


...Oh yeah, for photos please contact the photographer here...

Chasing holy cows

A holy cow in Nepal. Except it’s a bull...
© Morten Svenningsen

We had a little banda here in Kathmandu yesterday, a strike. One Maoist commander had kidnapped one of their own supporters and beat him up together with a couple of regular PLA’s. The poor guy later died of “multiple organ failure and excessive bleeding”. So his family, together with the support of rival party, NC, closed down the capital in protest. Meanwhile, top political leaders of the unelected lame duck government continue their exclusive closed door haggling to decide on vital issues before the newly elected representatives have their first meeting on the 28th. Have they really not understood the concept of democracy yet? To let the elected representatives make the decisions in stead of a handful of party bosses. Apparently not!

On a personal note, the battle continues. I’m still in a writing spree and cranking out articles by the dusin. Pitching some of them, like for instance a story about holy cows. Hence the photo above. (The article is available for publishing if you’re a publisher reading this.) Mostly though, I’m writing small tutorials on being a freelance photographer. Tricks of the trade. I’ve had this book idea for a couple of years now, been taking notes all along. So now I’m writing and editing it down to an article series, and I’ll compile the whole thing into a little eBook. Not sure when it’ll be finished. Every time I write one article, I get an idea for one or two other articles...

Had another couple of sales on Alamy last week, making things look a little more promising on that front. Otherwise just waiting for the 28th...

Link building for a photo web site

It’s really not as bad as people say, it takes some time but I actually like to do “link building” for my web site. Surfing around trying to navigate the depths of the internet and finding new places. And making a benefit out of it, hopefully.

What benefit?
Well, I’ve now spent several years taking pictures and I think I have about 500 images on my web site. Now I’d like to get some more visitors, not just people looking to hire a photographer in Nepal, but also the “general public”, the silent internet masses surfing around looking for whatever it is they’re seeking. Some of them might occasionally order a poster or something, but that’s not the main point here. If I can get a lot of traffic to my site, it’ll sort of bring some more life to the whole project. Comments, suggestions, more links, referrals etc. I might even start to sell add-space! Getting a diverse audience is part of my own little strategy, since it’ll hopefully make me less reliant on the random fluctuations of any one single market. I’ve never gone to any business school, but I do know that it’s dangerous to rely on just a few customers. Several staff photographers are being laid off these days, they’ve had comfortable jobs for decades now and just forgotten how reliant they’ve become on that one particular job and how difficult it has become to get your foot in another place. That’s not gonna happen to me!

Hence the efforts to make my web site more visible to all sorts of people. That spells making it show up in Google searches. On the first page, not listed on page 17 or something. It’s common knowledge that hardly anyone’s gonna click on your site link if you’re not on the first page. Your placement on Google is determined by your PageRank, which again is determined by the number (and quality) of other sites linking to your site.

Right now my Google PageRank is a disgrace: 1. It used to be 3 and I’m not sure what happened. But I’m determined to get it at least back to where it used to be. PR4 would be quite good, PR5 would be fantastic!

Now there’s many ways to get links to your site and improve your Google PageRank, one of the simplest ways is to get listed in various web directories. That’s what I’ve been trying to do the last few days. If you want to do the same for your site, check out this list of free photo-related web directories I’m using. (- It’s also good if you just want to browse around and see a lot of nice photo sites.)

My efforts are not over yet and it’ll take some time before the results start to show. Check back here from time to time if you’re as interested as me to see how it’ll all turn out.

Is it worth it?

(on Tibet & Alamy)



Norbu Gualtsen Rangzen (28), son of Tibetan refugee in Nepal, sustained injuries on his head, arm and back from police beatings during a peace march to mark the anniversary of the 1959 Lhasa uprising. Kathmandu, Nepal, 10. March 2008.

On Monday the Tibetans here in Kathmandu had a big demonstration, intending to march to the Chinese Embassy to deliver a letter demanding an end to the almost 60 year long Chinese occupation of their country. It was the 49 year anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising a.k.a. the Lhasa Massacre that forced the Dalai Lama to flee into exile in India. Allegedly, the Chinese government had put some pressure on the Nepalese authorities to suppress the event. They don’t want any negative publicity before the Beijing Olympics this summer, I gather. So the Nepal Police met the demonstration with force (see the above photo), but this time the Tibetans actually got within shouting distance of the Chinese Embassy.

Some background: I read somewhere that before the Chinese invasion, Tibet had about 5000 temples and monasteries. Today there’s only 2 left, the remaining 4998 having been demolished by Chinese “development aid”. Officially, Nepal recognizes China’s claim to Tibet, like many other countries. That’s realpolitik, considering China’s position in today’s world economy. Nepal still allows Tibetan refugees to cross into Nepal though, which about 2000 of them still do every year.

Later that night on BBC, some expert said he expects the last remains of Tibet to be gone within 10 years. I sometimes wonder how enlightened Tibetans view this historic development, being firm believers in the karma theory: If something bad happens to you, it’s because of the negative deeds you have performed in your past lives... Since the Tibetan exodus, the before so closed culture and religion have been forced to open up and have now actually gained worldwide popularity and support by Richard Gere, Uma Thurman’s dad and the likes. Is the whole thing some sort of divine play?

My stock photography

On another note, I just discovered last night that I’ve actually had my first 3 sales on Alamy during the last 3 months! One photo for an American school book, one photo for a British magazine and one photo yesterday that went into a large, national British newspaper with a circulation of 1 million. Cool! I quickly did the math and found out, money-wise, that it gives me a RPI of just around 1$. Less cool.

What is RPI?

Return Per Image (Per Year). This is the figure you get when you look at how much you’ve earned compared to how many photos you’ve had on sale for a year. A very useful benchmark in the stock photography business, since you can also use it to estimate your future income. Very useful.

How do you calculate your RPI?

You’ll need to know how many photos you’ve had on sale and for how long. And of course how much they’ve earned you. I’ll show you my numbers this time, so follow the example if you’re also a stock shooter and want to calculate your RPI.

number of photos uploaded		how many months available online		yearly equivalent *
10		8		6.7
278		6.5		150.6
21		4.5		7.9
122		1		10.2

* multiply the two other numbers and divide by 12 (months in a year)

TOTAL EQUIVALENT = 6.7+150.6+7.9+10.2 = 175 photos / yr

Total sales = $265

My cut (65%) = $172

My RPI = $172/175 = $0.98

$1 per photo per year is of course a ridiculous low number when you consider the time spent. I reckon roughly one hour for post-processing, upsizing, spot-checking, keywording, uploading, backing up etc. - not to mention time for research, training, the actual fieldwork, marketing and the investment in camera gear, computer and the whole setup. So is it worth it? -Not if you look at it that way, surely. But I’m also gaining valuable experience in this bizarre marketplace and so I expect to improve my RPI over time. + On long term, the photos will likely keep selling for perhaps 5 years or more. + I get “my name out there”, which has some marketing value, I suppose. + There’s always that chance that one of the photos is gonna get picked up for a global advertising campaign and fetch $10.000 or so.

Conclusion: Doing stock photography is a long term project which, in my case, has just begun. It might actually just be worth it!

High and low in Nepal

Happy Losar! Urkin and his boys throwing flour up in the thin air to welcome the new year. Langtang village in the Himalayas, 7. February 2008. © Morten Svenningsen.

With the full moon today, the Tibetan Losar (New Year) celebrations are coming to an end. The celebrations started two weeks ago and I had gone up in the mountains to visit some Tibetan friends and celebrate together with them. Absolutely great trip. Who said early February is off-season for trekking in Nepal? Of course they had 1 meter of snow the week before we got there! Got back to the city last week and there’s been lots of things to do. And problems are piling up in the city. As every year in the dry season, water and electricity is in short supply. We get about 100 liters of water from our tap every night. And we are 8 people in the entire household to share it. Somehow we manage, don’t know how. (What’s that smell?) Then there’s the daily 8 hour power cuts. And on top of that, the Tarai movement(s) have now had a blockade going for the last week. (More about this in one of the next posts.) Fuel and cooking gas are in acute short supply, paralyzing the Valley. 70% of public transport has come to a halt and is parked in mile-long queues outside closed petrol stations. Even some food items are starting to come in short supply! If anything’s ever gonna drive me out of this country, this has got to be it. All the shortages of really basic stuff. It’s not the earthquake risk, the overpopulation, traffic jams, pollution, poverty, corruption or incompetent political leadership. Just the shit you have to go through to get anything done! I’m gonna have to start adding a new fee to my invoices: General 3^rd world agony fee!

Anyway, the mountains are always a nice getaway. Check this site on Himalaya trekking for info and advice. And another thing. From today or tomorrow, the above photo will be available through PhotoShelter here. Yes, I’ve joined the club and set up a little photo gallery there with a Tibetan theme. I have a vague idea about putting some news/editorial and high-end commercial stock photos up there and promoting it a bit. But too many other things on my to-do-list for the moment, and with the above mentioned ‘challenges’, it’s more of an idea than an actual plan for now, I figure. The main attractions for me are the ability to set my own price and possibly get a channel to pitch my occasional news photos through. That and the nice user interface that I can integrate with my own web-site some time if it all works out.

Well, this was just a bit of personal rambling to let you know I’m still alive. Like I mentioned, more on the Tarai problems coming soon, so stay tuned.

Photo business

Sadhu, a holy man having renounced the world, drinking a cup of tea, with plenty of time on his hands...
© Morten Svenningsen 2008

Man there’s lots of things to do in this business! Funny thing, the actual photography seems to be just the least of it. Looking back at the last months, I’ve spent time writing, developing ideas, posting on forums, making web-site, building links, submitting material, writing invoices (yes, it does happen), taking backup’s, trying to catch up on market news, photography trends etc., besides running the little family, doing the occasional cooking, cleaning, walking the dog etc. So far this month, I’ve taken 3 photos (one of which is the one leading this post). That’s it! Man, life as an independent pro photographer is a lot more than just taking pictures. If it’s not too late to make a new year resolution, I’ll hereby vow to take more time doing actual photography this year! Some of the ideas I want to pursue: Create multimedia, go in-depth with some photo projects, execute some of the shoots I already have in mind, create new and thought-provoking documentaries and get up in some of those awesome mountains they have around here. And still I’m (we’re) waiting for the release of a new 5D Mark II camera from Canon - and wondering how long it’s gonna take to earn something equivalent of the cost. Could do with a new laptop as well, and there’s also a couple of lenses I’d like to get my hands on. Let’s see, how many thousand dollars is that? 3,4,5,6,7,8? And that’s why I have to spend so much time not looking through the viewfinder with my finger on the shutter button. Just can’t do it all the time if you wanna stay in business. And that’s why I occasionally will have to take some weeks in front of the laptop in stead, I guess.

Time to market (news photos, democracy and the loot)

Old news: My friend and colleague, Nick, in a sharp situation during the peoples uprising, April 2006. That's a cloud of tear gas behind him, he's trying to escape by the way.

© Morten Svenningsen

I’ve been looking for a better way to get some of my newsworthy photos out on the market. News photography is just a little part of what I’m doing, but we do have an election coming up here – probably. Right now I just have my web-site to use for fast turn-around times. In itself fine, but I’m afraid it’s still not that well known among broadsheet photo editors around the globe. And they usually don’t have time to surf around on the net and contact photographers they don’t already have a working relationship with. So I’ll need to affiliate myself with one of the big photo agencies or portals. Just not interested in joining a news agency who expect me to run around and cover every little event in the region.

So I was quite happy to come home yesterday and see in my inbox a solution present itself. My usual photo agency, Alamy, informed me that they intend to implement a 24h turn-around time from upload to online in stead of the usual 3 weeks! That opens up new possibilities within my existing business infrastructure. It’s still not quite upload-and-see-it-in-the-papers-next-day, but should be good enough for second cycle use. If just PE’s will start looking to Alamy for their news photos...

And here in Nepal the constituent assembly election date has now been set to April 10. Two years after the peoples uprising (v2), eight years after the last 4-year term election and 18 years after the first peoples uprising. Talk about a long time-to-market. Two years would have been okay, I suppose, if they’d just come out and said that from the beginning in stead of repeatedly setting dates and then postponing them.

If only they were as quick as the thieves of this country... Sabina had her mobile phone stolen Monday night – Tuesday afternoon she saw in on sale in a “second-hand” shop. Now that’s what I call time-to-market! Unfortunately, before she could get hold of some muscles (me - the police is a joke around here), the guy had taken it off the shelf and then tried to tell us that he just sold it. Right!

But if you ever have your phone stolen in Kathmandu, just look around in the second-hand shops on Bag Bazar. And bring some muscles or any other means of persuasion!

New web site!

Here's the result of the last week's labour - and the last half year's speculations and preperations!

Finally: I have just finished the complete re-design of my web-site and it is being uploaded as I write this!

So what’s new?

First of all, the old site consisted mainly of photos. I realized that it wasn’t doing me very much good with the search engines, since they are all geared for text and not for photos. Even after keywording all my photos they still didn’t show up in any Google search. So in the new design I have a lot more text, carefully filled with good keywords, on the different pages. Is that gonna do me any good? Don’t know yet. I have never targeted the “internet masses” with my business. But listening to people like Dan Heller, I figured it was worth a try. Even if it doesn’t convert into a steady sales channel, I hope that it will at least boost my Google ranking which fell from a modest 3 to a meager 2 recently, after they regrouped their priorities. (The ironic thing is that I started getting more profitable hits after that event!)

Secondly, the navigation sucked on the old site. Everything was arranged in categories and sub-categories and it was getting increasingly difficult to keep it logical. Now everything is arranged so it never takes more than one click to go anywhere from the main page! It makes it a lot easier to see what the site contains.

I also changed the general layout of the site, from a heavy, serious black to a bright and light white, which is a lot more readable for text and still totally acceptable for viewing photos.

And another thing I’m very excited about is the Web 2.0 features I’ve now implemented. Or at least Web 1.5. You can subscribe to a newsletter and there is an area for user comments and debate. Not very revolutionary, but pretty neat for an amateur web designer like myself. It was implemented with something called Joomla, pretty advanced stuff and a bit over my head most of the time. But once you’ve gotten it to work, it does a great job! So at least now there is those options. Whether they’ll be used or not, that’s another matter. Time will tell...

What else? The photo essays are no longer buried in some sub-menu but brought right up on the front page. The design could be better but overall I’m pretty happy about it. Lots of white-space although it’s not always in the best places (imo). And a side benefit: I think it’s gonna be a lot simpler for me to update and maintain the whole thing.

So that’s about it. I just have one last request. I would really appreciate it if you would have a look at the whole thing and tell me what you think. Is there any mistakes that catches your eyes? Something that doesn’t work? Grammatical mistakes? Anything.

Send me an e-mail, write in the comments section, here or on the web-site. The address is, if you don’t already know it, http://www.msmediaservice.com

UPDATE 2009 : I have a new-new site on www.mortensvenningsen.com !!

Thanks!

Another year, another million – I wish

Heating my hands. - Is this a good photo for stock sales? Who would be interested in buying it? It’s probably somewhere in the conceptual department... And do I really need that big copyright mark?

© Morten Svenningsen

New year is approaching and it’s cold here in Kathmandu. Nice in the daytime, but when the sun sets, the temperature drops 15 degrees in 15 minutes or so. Too quick for my body to adjust So I’m always shaking cold for an hour between 5 and 6. After that, no problem. We do have a little heater here, but it’s only good for warming the hands. Can’t heat up all the rooms which aren’t really isolated. So I’m generally dressing like I was stationed in an Arctic research station.

Anyway, the year is nearly over and it’s time for some re-evaluation, looking back and ahead. Think I’ll keep this one on the topic of my photo business. So excuse me for thinking out loud here, bit of rambling. But maybe some of you will actually find some answers to your own speculations. And as always, comments are welcome!

It’s pretty clear to me what I’m doing as a photojournalist, how I’m working, where my focus is and so on. As a stock shooter, hmm...

I haven’t had a single sale yet, so do I need to change anything?

Don’t think so. I’ve only had stock photos online for 3-4 months, about 3-400 of them. And only with one agency, Alamy. That amount, on average, would only make one or two sales in a year, as I read the numbers. So it’s not time to worry quite yet. But it’s always good to think about if there’s something that can be improved. But first I need to figure out, what’s my focus area? ‘Cause it’s good to know the market you’re in, what the customers need and so on.

And the answer: Nepal photos.

But that’s not really specific, is it? In my attempt to narrow it down, I came up with this list of possibilities:

• Travel, tourism, adventure, sightseeing, backpacking, luxury travel etc.
• Architecture, temples, statues, interiors, landmarks, monuments etc.
• Culture, festivals, artifacts, symbols etc.
• Religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, co-existence etc.
• Nature, landscapes, mountains etc.
• Animals, wildlife, insects, birds, butterflies, pets etc.
• People, children, teenagers, seniors, studio portraits, famous people, pretty people etc.
• Fashion, lifestyle, haircuts, costumes, ornaments etc.
• Food, dishes, fruits, vegetables, eating etc.
• Health, yoga, meditation etc.
• Business, small shops, global trading, hard labour etc.
• Product photos, cut-outs etc.
• Conceptuals, moods, emotions etc.
• “Traditional micro stock photos” (*), family/social/business situations, face expression with a very simple set-up and composition and on a white background, tra-la-la...

(*) Disclaimer: I don’t do micro-stock or royalty free photos, but I can still do some of their traditional motifs, can’t I?

That’s still a pretty long list. There’s other categories as well, but this is the ones I consider relevant to my photography work here in Nepal. Plus all the documentary stuff, of course. I can see some of the topics are more interesting than others, also from a business perspective. But honestly, I haven’t been able to pick one or two topics out. So I think I’ll just continue to be a generalist in the stock arena for now.

Even though I know, now is not a good time to be (or enter as) a stock photographer. The market is over-saturated with amateurs, some of them really good, by the way. The problem is that they are happy to give their photos away for next to nothing – hell, sometimes even less than that – since they don’t have to make a living of it. And that makes it really difficult for us who just want to get a fair price. But so far I’m having fun doing it – not all the time, but once in a while. Nice break from the serious documentary stuff. And I hope that in the new year, the market will work it out so that prices will better reflect the cost of doing photography.

Some of the other little things I’ve realized this year, when it comes to stock photos: Gotta get 100 variations. Commercial tend to pay higher per image, but requires model releases. Editorial probably makes up for it in numbers. Travel might be popular, but the ordinary stuff have already been done a thousand times over. Always be creative. Happy pics of beautiful people seem to do about a billion times better than sad ones. And it’s a lot of work. If you wanna be serious about it, it’s a full time job. You have to get up early, go out on location, shoot, walk, shoot, meet people, shoot, make arrangements and shoot some more. Then there’s all the post-processing. Very time-consuming. Editing, cropping, resizing, checking and cleaning up the details, captioning, keywording, archiving, submitting and managing all the photos. A full time job.

My conclusion: Honestly, it’s hardly worth it as a pro photographer. Customers must be laughing all the way to the bank, thinking about how much work+talent+gear they get access to for a few hundred dollars. But I’ll keep it up between assignments and my other documentary work. With time, it could still turn more profitable. And I still enjoy the hunt for that perfect shot. I just have to avoid thinking of it as pure work for now. ‘cause if I do the math and calculate the hourly rate, it becomes ridiculous.

Taking a few steps

Children in the slum loving the attention of the camera. This particular settlement is home to a couple of thousand people, the so-called sukumbasi's. UN says that around one billion people in the world are living in slums like this one!

Despite the countless number of little distracting situations that constantly require 'taking care of' and 'tending to', so common to my life here in Nepal these days, I've actually managed to get several things done in the last month or two! The Alamy work is, for the moment, finished. I've got about 300 photo's in the pipeline and they should be available online within a few weeks now. That's a fair start, but more is needed. I'll probably need something like a thousand photo's to get things rolling a bit on that front. I tend to shoot some 2-300 shots (keepers) a month. Only few of them are probably suitable for stock, so with that pace it's gonna take a couple of years... hmm, I'll have to find some time for that as well the next couple of months...

And then I've got a new web-site pretty much in place now. It's got some cool, new features, a bright and light layout and easier navigation. At the same time, I've tried to keep it really simple. All in all, quite an improvement, I think. So now, I'm producing some of the new stories and materials that I want to post on it, and when that's done, in a month or two, I'll be ready for the big launch. Hopefully, it'll bring in some new clients. I'm really hoping for (and focusing on) the editorial market, but I don't wanna miss any good opportunities working with ngo's and commercial organizations either. In the end, these may prove bigger clients than the editorial stuff. All depends on weather the situation here in Nepal will develop into peace and prosperity or revert back to war and terror, I suppose. Right now, it's still undecided. YCL and JTMM are competing with the government SPA-M alliance about who can make the biggest mess of the 'peace'!

In the mean time, normal life continues unabated for all the commoners, myself included. I'm currently finishing up a major story that I've been wanting to do for a while now - about a year, in fact. I just never took the time before now. It's about some of the poorest people in Kathmandu, who stay in shanty towns constructed on government land without permission. I've done fairly extensive research on this one, and the story is pretty much finished, but the photography is proving more difficult than I expected. I've got loads of ideas of shots I wanna get, and I have a really good location. Very 'scenic' and friendly people who are generally quite happy to let me shoot away both inside and outside their houses. But a big white guy walking around with his big camera is bound to draw a lot of attention, especially from the numerous kids running and crawling around. I try to use it to my advantage, but most of the time there's too many posers. If they would just keep an authentic look on their face! But no, they freeze up and stare directly into the aperture in a extremely rigid, corpse-like way. Or smile too much, damn it!. So it'll take a few more visits before I have those shots I want.

Insomnia and business adjustments

View from my kitchen balcony. It's about 5 o'clock in the morning and I just took this photo. The peak behind the valley ridge is called Manaslu, at 8156 meters it's the 8th highest mountain in the world.

© Morten Svenningsen.

Slightly insomniac here and mosquitoes inside the mosquito-net aren't improving the situation. Hence this write up. Ain't much going on here these days. Outside in the big world, BBC correspondent in Gaza, Alan Johnston, was released by his kidnappers after about 4 months of uncertainty about his destiny, and in the US, everybody's favourite president semi-pardon'ed Scooter Libby so he doesn't have to do any hard time. Looks like everyone's escaping captivity! Here in Kathmandu, the weather changes from exhaustingly warm over oppressingly humid to shockingly wet. It's called the monsoon. And it's a good time to get things done indoors. Although I must say that I do enjoy the odd crazy downpour from time to time!

So what am I doing indoors? Adjusting my business model a bit! Sounds fancy, eeh?

Well, up until now, the business side of things have frankly been a bit disappointing. As a professional photographer and journalist I've now come to realize that I've probably been spending too much time photographing and assimilating news stories! How can that be a bad thing, you ask? Because it leads to the fact that I've spend too little time tending to the professional side of things. Marketing, promotion, visibility, customer care, sales, that sort of things.

So I've done some thinking. About being a photojournalist in Nepal. Basically, I figure there's 3 categories of work:

1. News
2. Features
3. Stock photography.

The news bit is a difficult category to work as a freelancer. First of all, foreign media don't care much about the little everyday affairs here. So I'm waiting for the big events. The coming of the earthquake. The third revolution. The stoning of the King. Maybe even that constituent assembly election they're all taking about. (We've been waiting about 14 months so far, and now they say wait until November. Oooh-keeey, if you say so!)

Anyway, when shit really hits the fan (pardon my French, ladies) and things get a bit interesting around here, I'll be up against the local Reuters, AP and WPN guys. Even if I get the best shots, it'll be their stuff that makes the front pages the next day, simply because they have the global business infrastructure and all the accounts plugged in already. Hard to compete with, so I'm not really working that field right now. Just keeping myself posted. But I do have a few things up my sleeve I'm gonna try out when the time comes.

The second category, the feature stuff, is more interesting for me. The possibilities here range from stark social realism to human interest 'softies'. There's a lot of interesting stories here and I'm planning to do more of that stuff in the near future. I'm even contemplating a redesign of my website in order to give more emphasis on this field. I've been looking a bit into SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategies lately and I'm sure there's a few things that I can improve. So I'm pretty sure it'll happen. First, however, I need to figure out a way to do it that doesn't require a month or two of programming...

Of course, I could join some agency, but in my experience it isn't really worthwhile doing. The "middle-class agencies" don't really seem to be doing much good and the top agencies are pretty hard to get into. I've had brief contact with one of them, but otherwise I haven't pursued the idea much. Maybe some day, but for now I actually enjoy taking care of everything myself. I decide what to do, how to do it and when to do it. It's just up to me and the client.

Thirdly, there's the stock photography thing. In this field, I'm actually in the process of joining an agency! I looked around and decided to go with Alamy in London. So I'll send them all my generic travel/landscape/sunset work and see what comes of it. That's what I'm working mostly on right now, editing, adjusting, keywording, even though it's a bit on the brink of my field of interest. But if it helps to pay some of the bills...

Actually, I'm quite curious to see how the whole thing's gonna work out. Alamy's already got thousands of contributors and millions of photo's (9 and counting) but 'only' about 16.000 shots from Nepal. The funny thing about Alamy is that they practically don't do any editing at all. Their contributors range from amateurs fooling around to serious professional photographers living exclusively on their stock sales. Of course that means that there's heaps of mediocre stuff to kick around in on their (dump?-)site. But they're trying to implement an automatic ranking system so that the most relevant stuff gets places at the top of the heaps. If it works out for them, I think the "long tail" isn't gonna be a drawback, in fact it might even work out as an overall asset for them. And hence, for their contributors as well.

So that's about it for me this time. Plenty of work in the pipeline ahead. Take it easy till next time...

PS : It's now closer to 6 o'clock and the Manaslu view from before is now again obscured by the monsoon clouds.