The photography world is changing fast! Getty vs Istock

The photography world is changing fast! Gettyimages.com vs Istockphoto.com.

First off, I realize that Getty owns istock. When they bought istock for 50 million USD, some would say it is the smarted move they could have made. There was a time when I was desperately trying to get onto Getty to sell my photos, but now I feel indifferent about it. Using Alexa.com, I can see that their traffic ranking has fallen way down. They have shrunk back down to their 2005 levels. It seems people all over the world are starting to realize they don't have to pay tons of money to get top quality images.

It now seems that the main target for Getty will be for editorial and celebrity photos. However, this area too is in jeopardy. Shutterstock.com now has tons of great editorial and celebrity photography. In fact, I submitted all my celebrity photos from the Toronto International Film Festival, and they were accepted to shutterstock. I am glad because they were turned down by People magazine, some celebrity photo websites and all the local newspapers in my area. Oh well, their loss.

So, it will be interesting to see what happens in the end. With the growing number of all this digital information (including digital photos) floating around this world, will it be worth anything in the end? As we can see, high priced photo agencies like Getty will probably be forced to lower their prices to compete.