Blogging the NYC PhotoShelter Town Meeting

First off, if you are anywhere near Atlanta, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco or Los Angeles, you might want to grab a seat while they are still available. If the program in NYC is any indication of what to expect, it's worth playing hookie for a day to attend one near you. Everything is free, too.

Also, PhotoShelter chose today to announce a new stock photography business model that flies in the face of all of the recent, photographer-predatory stock photography trends (cough *Getty* cough):

Real selling prices, set by photographers, and photogs keep seventy percent of the revenues. Way to go, guys. 'Bout time we see someone sticking up for shooters for a change.

I would think this would be of particular interest to many people here who might currently be dabbling with microstock.

(Updates and more info after the jump.)
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(UPDATE #1)

Wow. This is about way more than decent pricing and 70% to the shooter. They are talking real-time info for photographers on who is buying what for how much, a community of photographers educating each other as to what photos are really worth -- in short, doing a 180-degree turn on much that is wrong with the stock photography industry.

This is going to raise a lot of eyebrows. Not a lot of love for Getty in this room, BTW...
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(UPDATE #2)

In other news, there's food and drink, too. Because I knew you'd ask...
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(UPDATE #3) Looking at the notes to photo buyers on the PS Collections poop sheet, they stress that they are specifically looking to offer the work of advanced amateurs and hobbyists, along with the pros. Combined with the community of photographers comparingsales and pricing information, it is possible that this could be a turning point in the previous model in which the big agencies hoard information and had the upper hand throughout the process.

Sure beats the heck out of microstock, IMO. You get the feel that they are looking to use the internet not to take advantage of photographers, but to enable them. It is exciting at first blush, and I am looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

Discussion is ongoing in the Flickr threads, here.
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More Info:

1. PhotoShelter Collection Site, which goes live tomorrow.
2. More details, courtesy PopPhoto.