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Contact Info:

Tel: 225.763.6235

Fax: 225.763.6894

Email: info@ddbstock.com

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Mailing Address:

Louisiana Fotos

P.O. Box 80155

Baton Rouge, LA 70898

United States

Shipping Address:

Louisiana Fotos

4845 Newcomb Drive

Baton Rouge, LA 70808

United States

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INFORMATION FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

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Thank you for your interest in louisianafotos.com. We are a Louisiana based, Louisiana focused affiliate of DDB Stock Photography, LLC. The agency is always interested in adding new talent to the professional photographers we currently represent. We need to refresh our files on a continuous basis and show new perspectives from new photographers. We are a dynamic, growing agency, not a static one resting on old laurels. We aren't content to simply lease our current file of ca. 250,000 color transparenci.e.s and 15,000 digitized high resolution Tiffs. We want new, current, vibrant pictures from highly talented photographers working well above the legions of the average. You must be a professional photographer to submit. We represent only true professionals. It's an extremely competitive world out there in the stock photography business and only professional photographers can hope to compete successfully. Please stop reading now if you don't:

• have at least 10,000 35mm color transparenci.e.s of Louisiana on file, or
• are a working professional shooting regularly in Louisiana, or
• have several assignments to shoot Louisiana this year and next.

We are interested in the full range of Louisiana subjects. We need pictures of Cajun culture expressed in crafts, festivals, music, art, and subsistence activity. We need pictures of New Orleans including scenic shots that capture the mystery and history of the city. We also need detailed coverage of restaurants with people eating and enjoying themselves, detailed close-ups of food carefully arranged and professionally lighted, music venues from Jazz to Zydeco. We need well known chefs making well known dishes like shrimp Creole, Gumbo, Jambalaya, and the full range of fish, shellfish and shrimp dishes that have become well known around the world. We need coverage of the people, scenery and well known places from Shreveport and Monroe in the north to Lake Charles, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and the budding bedroom communiti.e.s on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in the south and down to the missing coast line around Venice, Buras, Grand Isle, Cocodri.e., Lafitte, Barataria, the Timbali.e.rs and communiti.e.s and landforms farther west. We need historic coverage of Louisiana showing past lifeways and historic events. We are looking for coverage of every sanctuary and refuge in the state and have missed a number of sales because we did not have this coverage. We need coverage of college and professional sports, hunting, fishing, and trapping. We need commerce and industry from the offshore petroleum industry in and along the Gulf, through the chemical plants along the lower Mississippi to the timber mills farther north. In short, we need any compelling image that says "LOUISIANA."

The largest growth sector of our market was travel, but recent international events and a sluggish economy have pretty much slowed that market. We have fallen back on trade and text book publishers who are relatively unaffected by world events and economic forces. You always need a textbook, but you might be able to put off that cruise. The textbook market is very large, but it's also demanding, highly focused, and strongly buffeted by public opinion. Currently, it's so milky toast that many photographers shun it to avoid death by boredom.

European sales of lafotos digital images, dupes, and original in-camera dupes are conducted through MARKA, Milano, IFA-Bilderteam, Germany, B&U International, Netherlands, Explorer Stock, France, AGE Fotostock, Spain, Stock Fotos, Spain, Michael Photobank, Czech Republic and Focus, Argentina. Several specialized stock agenci.e.s market our images in Great Britain and Asian sales are handled by Uniphoto, Tokyo. We are represented on a trial basis in India and Turkey, and are developing relationships with agenci.e.s in Australia, New Zealand and the richer Latin American countri.e.s.

We have an active digitization program and you can be sure that your best images will be available throughout the world both physically and on the Internet. We don't do "Royalty Free" because we don't want to dilute our images. We still only accept submissions of original 35 mm transparenci.e.s, regardless of the fact that we will most likely digitize a third of them. We fully recognize that the day of the digital image has arrived, but with even the best digital cameras only capable of rendering 7-9 mega pixels, we still need film to cover our cli.e.nts who need posters; sorry Digiterati, but Genuine Fractals® doesn't cut it when you have to enlarge a 35 mm image up to 72 inches on the long axis. We've done that successfully with Fuji's finer grained films like Provia and Velvia, but no digital technology to date's been able to duplicate the results. The digital ink my not have dri.e.d on this digital page before some new technology implements a full, 35 mm frame of pixel gathering points to produce the 60-100 megapixel capture we need. When that happens, we will begin to accept digital submissions. But despite the last few sentences, I love digital and have absolutely no doubts that digital will replace film very soon. About 75% of our submissions to cli.e.nts are digital, and that percentage increases monthly. The current graph line indicates that 90%+ of our submissions will be digital by mid to late 2005.

VERY IMPORTANT:

The agency does not revi.e.w one shot seri.e.s of vacation pictures period. Please do not send vacation pictures. You must be a professional photographer to contribute to the agency files. Only the very highest quality professional photographs are marketable in the EXTREMELY competitive stock photo business. Please do not waste my time and yours submitting if you are not a pro or meet the criteria discussed above. Plan on submitting at least 500-2000 new images a year. We don't require this, but it is the only real track to success in stock photography. We always welcome submissions from established professionals and stock shooters

TERMS:

Rights to reproduction of color transparenci.e.s or their digital equivalent are sold on a 50% commission basis with remittance made to photographers within 3 months following receipt of payment. We pay quarterly. Exceptions to this include sales made through our affiliate offices around the world where we receive a 60% cut, leaving the photographer with 30%. lafotos negotiates only one-time use rights. The pictures on file remain the property of the photographer. The agency asks only that a photographer agree to place material in the files for at least three years. This assures that the agency will have ample opportunity to recover the costs of placing a new photographer's material in the files. This also keeps the images in our files for the hottest selling period which occurs from the 12 to 36 month after they enter the files. It is important to have the images in the files when repeat interest is expressed by an editor. Photographers who want images returned from the files prior to the three (3) year minimum must agree to pay a $15.00 hourly pull fee plus shipping charges for early return of pictures.

lafotos has not found it necessary to enter into formal contract with photographers. The terms outlined here are fair and are equivalent to the well understood tenets of the trade. Over 90 percent of the photographers who have submitted material to lafotos over the past 10 years are still with the agency and are happy with their sales results.

LIABILITY:

lafotos handles all prints and transparenci.e.s accepted for leasing with the utmost care. All images in our possession are carefully stored and shipped in protective mounts. They are very carefully archived against damage by fire, heat or humidity and are only handled by trained picture professionals. However, the agency cannot accept any liability what-so-ever for loss or damage of transparenci.e.s. lafotos does not have insurance against loss or damage resulting from fire, theft, vandalism, water, negligence, or accident to transparenci.e.s deposited with us.

If a slide is lost or damaged by a cli.e.nt, we make every effort to negotiate just compensation. The fees recovered as a result of loss or damage by a cli.e.nt are handled as if a sale had occurred, i.e. the fee is split 50/50 between the photographer and agency. This may appear exorbitant, but the average loss costs the agency more in staff time and legal fees than we net from compensation. lafotos recommends that photographers placing original transparenci.e.s and prints in our files maintain their own full insurance coverage on the images.

RATES:

Established stock photography use rates are received for most picture rentals, though competitive pressures dictate that quantity discounts be offered to cli.e.nts who use over 20 images. Lease rates for common textbook, book and magazine use generally range from $300.00 to 1250.00. Model releases are welcome, but not absolutely necessary for our predominately editorial projects. The photographer should understand that model released pictures frequently bring an exponentially higher fee and it is well worth the time and effort to secure them. Rates are in flux as are assignment day rates. Interested photographers can revi.e.w new information on day rates at: EditorialPhoto where there is a wealth of new information by a band of photographers trying to actually make a living shooting - revolutionari.e.s all.

CLIENTS:

include book, textbook, magazine and encyclopedia publishers, post card compani.e.s, calendar compani.e.s, advertising agenci.e.s, public relations and audiovisual firms. Seventy percent of our cli.e.nts are textbook and encyclopedia publishers. Another 20 percent are travel magazines, travel brochures, cruise brochures and other travel literature. Advertising and promotional cli.e.nts make up the bulk of the last 10 percent of our cli.e.nt base. We have done a large number of children's (age 6-12) state books and these seem to rotate yearly.

GOALS:

The primary goal of the lafotos picture agency is to develop the picture files through photographer participation. A good strong photographer/agency sense of trust is central to this goal. We beli.e.ve that what is good for an agency photographer is good for the agency. We make every effort to help photographers identify and photograph subjects that will sell. Tear sheets are secured whenever possible, because we understand how important a complete portfolio is for photographers seeking assignments. For our best photographers we offer assignment referrals. We provide letter, telex and phone support for agency photographers on assignment. Letters of introduction are provided, along with information on good foreign labs and professional contacts. We know Louisiana better than any other stock picture agency in the world; we know the geography, the people and the subjects which are in demand. Obviously the ultimate goal is to make money for participating photographers.

SUBJECT AVAILABILITY:

Good coverage of Louisiana - the land and the people who inhabit it - both at work and at play. Subjects include geography, archaeology, artifacts, history, depictions of historic events, Cajuns, Creoles, major urban centers, shopping, casinos, sports, political figures, historic figures, people, students, schools, sport fishing, college classes and college campuses, children, attractions, art, museums, murals, historic maps and Sanborn maps, commerce, industry, agriculture, commercial fishing, Mexican American war, forts, Civil War Battlegrounds, Civil war re-enactment, points of tourist interest, state parks and historic sites, national parks, festivals, crafts, fine art scenics and many more subjects than can be included here.

SUBJECT NEEDS:

Focus on education and the teen/college age population. Remember that we are most interested in the Middle Class. Pictures of this group should show them dressed in timeless chinos and button downs. The publishers want to get 10 years out of the average image, so blue hair and bell bottoms don't make it. Always need good scenics of the major urban areas and points of tourist interest in each region of the state. Other needs include exterior and interior views of museums that show both general views and details of historic paintings and artifacts that reveal information about an important individual, event, or epoch. Historic buildings and monuments are useful, but must be very clearly captioned so our clients know what they are looking at. We need vi.e.ws of Louisiana murals, contemporary art/music and the artists/musicians themselves. We need fine examples of pre-historic art from Poverty Point through the European contact period, historic paintings and well captioned sketches as well as historic depictions like the works of Clemetine Hunter. The files require coverage of well known tourist resorts, bed and breakfasts, and spas with an emphasis on either beautiful people, active elderly tourists, or adventure tourism like biking and kayaking. We welcome the moody art shot that typifies a specific place, but it must be very good. Pictures of flora, fauna, Louisianians involved in activities, industry, agriculture, crafts, small towns and villages, native Indian groups in ceremonial costume and involved in traditional crafts, subsistence activities, and ritual are needed. Pictures of tourists having fun in Louisiana are very welcome, but should be placed in some obvious Louisiana context like eating crawfish. Urban and industrial pollution, as well as other forms of severe environmental degradation are often requested. We need photographs that show erosion and degradation of Louisiana's coastal wetlands that result in many square miles of land loss yearly. The files are weak in photographs of politicians and politics. We need better coverage of urban Shreveport and New Orleans and detailed tourist coverage of outdoor activities. Just follow the places described in the travel Louisiana travel articles and pay attention to Louisiana places receiving editorial attention in the Sunday travel sections of the New York and Los Angeles Times.

COLOR:

Uses 35mm, medium format and 4x5 transparenci.e.s. Prefer Fujichrome Velvia 50/Provia 100 or as a second choice, Kodachrome 25/64. Fujichrome has richer colors, better exposure latitude and performs much better on cloudy days and on the high contrast beach than Kodachrome. Fujichrome also uses commonly available E6 processing and provides much deeper sky blues than Kodachrome. The agency will accept Ektachrome and Agfachrome, but these materials don't do as well in the highly competitive market.

B&W:

We do not handle black-and-white prints because the digital age makes conversion from color slide simple and provides good quality. Hence our cli.e.nts no longer need black-and-white prints. They convert from color as necessary.

TIPS AND SUBMISSIONS:

Special need for people, especially high school and college age in and out of class, with detailed coverage of all aspects of their daily lives. If you just shoot people, then you will do very well with my agency! Strong need for encyclopedia style coverage of all Latin American countri.e.s. (Consult any encyclopedia article on a Latin American country and note the subjects illustrated. These same subjects will be in demand again and again.) Also need colorful, travel-ori.e.nted Latin American scenics. Would like to see more journalistic/documentary style transparenci.e.s. In a portfolio, prefer to see 300 to 500 top quality slides of a photographer's best pictures in 20-slide clear plastic slide holders. Call the agency before leaving for a trip to Latin America or the Caribbean. This agency vi.e.ws the photographer/agency relationship as long-lasting and works closely with photographers to help them take photographs that sell.

HOW TO SHOOT FOR LOUISIANAFOTOS

The lafotos Agency concentrates primarily on marketing images to the editorial publishing market, and concentrates on grade school, high school and college textbook and encyclopedia publishers. We also furnish the travel industry with editorial and advertising images. The information below is provided to help you understand the percentage breakdown of our book publishing market so you can concentrate on taking pictures that will sell. This will take you out of the tourist mainstream and into the schools, fi.e.lds, harbors, factori.e.s, museums, and commercial outlets in the countri.e.s you visit. It will also concentrate your attentions on photographing people at work, at play and during ritual events.

If you are serious about taking pictures which will sell through my agency on your next photo assignment to a Latin country, then resolve in advance to spend at least 1 day taking pictures in a museum and another day taking pictures in a factory. A third day spent in a high school or college photographing students in and out of class would also be a very good idea. If possible, you should shoot these editorial subjects in both color slide and black-and-white negative film, as lafotos still receives requests for black-and-white prints.

In the museum concentrate on photographing typical artifacts from each culture period. Then carefully photograph all paintings which depict historic events like battles and ceremoni.e.s of state such as weddings or coronations. Also photograph portraits of famous historic figures. If possible, get pictures of urban and rural scenic paintings from the 18th and 19th century. Concentrate on photographing works from the best known painters and sculptors in each country you visit. Make careful notes to record the name of the painting/artwork, the historic event or personage depicted, the date of the art work and any other important information available. A good photograph of an important historic event by a well known artist is useful to both the historic and art markets, and may be picked up by the language or literature markets as well. Encyclopedias also use these pictures to illustrate articles on historic topics.

When selecting a factory to shoot, one should concentrate on the main exports of the specific country visited. In Honduras or Ecuador, shoot the coffee, fish or banana industry. In Mexico, shoot the oil industry, mining industry, or fabrication industry (for US goods like electronic components). It is usually possible to set up a visit to a factory if you talk to management a day in advance. They don't get many tourists, and are usually flattered when you show interest in their activiti.e.s. You could substitute a port/harbor or agriculture shoot for the factory shoot if it is easi.e.r to set up. The photos you take in the factory, port or fi.e.lds will be appropriate for a combination of categori.e.s including agriculture, language, sociology, technology and perhaps even travel. It is crucial that you include people in your photographs whenever possible. This will make your pictures much more competitive.

Photographs of grade schools, high schools and universiti.e.s in Latin America are in demand by several book publishing categori.e.s including language and sociology. Few photographers spend time photographing higher education institutions on their assignments and travels, so the publishing industry has really had to scamper to get these subjects. A photographer should try to get students in class during a lecture, in a seminar discussion session, talking informally, studying with books, in the library, talking in the halls and walking on campus.

I hope the table and discussion have helped you understand my book market so that you will be able to concentrate on taking pictures which will sell. I hope that in your future travels you will schedule a visit to a factory or school. You might find that your experi.e.nces in these unfamiliar surroundings will be the most interesting of your whole trip. After a recent visit to Ecuador, my most poignant memory is the smell and noise inside a cacao (chocolate bean) factory near Manta on the Pacific Coast. The bitter sweet smell of chocolate roasting and the clanging of the grinding mechanisms even supplanted the vision of brightly costumed Quechua Indians and the majestic heights of the Andes.

CAPTIONING AND COPYRIGHTING STOCK PICTURES

A picture may well be worth a thousand words, but a caption on a picture is worth its weight in gold if it is well thought out and informative. A picture is worthless if it is not carefully captioned.

Imagine a picture editor with a spec that reads find "a picture of Puerto Montt, Chile showing the town and harbor." Now, further imagine that editor is looking at one of YOUR spectacular pictures of Puerto Montt showing the town and harbor in glorious light. The editor is looking at your picture, but the caption reads "Chilean port." The editor has never visited Chile, let along Puerto Montt and doesn't have a clue what it looks like, so she reluctantly puts your picture in the cull stack because she doesn't know WHAT Chilean port it is. She then selects a much lower quality image captioned "Puerto Montt and adjacent harbor, Chile. Puerto Montt is a regional center exporting timber products and seafood from the Pacific coast of northern Patagonia." The editor knows everything she needs to know from the well composed, complete caption on the lesser image and selects it for use. That picture is now worth exactly $375.00 when billing goes out.

lafotos Photography requires that every stock picture be individually captioned and copyrighted on specific areas on the slide mount(see graphic below). Both 35mm and 2 1/4" transparenci.e.s must have captions written or printed directly on the mounts, or printed on readily available 1/2 by 1.5 inch self adhesive labels (Avery® 5167, Maco LL-8100). Captions should be placed on the front of the mount (shiny, acetate side which does not carry the brand name of the film) so when vi.e.wed from the correct side, both the caption and the image are visible in proper ori.e.ntation. Typed/printed captions are easi.e.r to read and are more accessible to a picture editor. Both WordPerfect® and Microsoft Word® have label format presets for the Avery 5167® or equivalent. If you use point sizes of 8-10 and reduce line spacing to .8, it's possible go get 4-5 lines of legible information on the labels. If possible, please confine captions to one wide edge of the slide mount. If you must exceed this space, then place additional information on the back of the mount. Stamp you name and copyright on the narrow left edge or horizontally ori.e.nted images and on the top of those vertically ori.e.nted. Do not include your address or phone number anywhere on the slide mount because this is confusing for my cli.e.nts and makes it very difficult to keep track of your material which might be returned to me or to you if they use your address on the mount. Reserve one narrow edge of the slide mount for the catalog number, which is discussed below.

CAPTIONS:

As noted above, captions should informative and bri.e.f with no editorializing like "Puerto Montt, Chile in beautiful afternoon light" or obvious observations like "A 35mm color transparency of Puerto Montt, Chile." The beautiful light is obvious and of course it's a 35mm color transparency, the editors aren't blind.

Most of our material is used for editorial purposes, so thorough, accurate captioning is VERY important as I explained in the example above, which I should add actually happened as I determined later in a phone conversation when I asked why they used the horrible shot of Puerto Montt instead of our really great. Distill your captions to include concise and condensed information not obvious from the photo. Simple and direct captions provide essentially what and where in detail. More complex captions are necessary when showing animals and plants where family, genus, and speci.e.s should accompany the common name whenever possible.

It's important to include the name of a mountain, river, glaci.e.r, water fall, reef, swamp, wetland or other natural feature if known. It is sometimes useful to include where the photo was taken from "...from Colombia River Gorge." Now some agenci.e.s are requesting northing and easting or latitude and longitude available through use of cheap, hand-held GPS units, but we aren't there yet. However, that information may well be important one day when GIS systems begin to really take off, so get it if you can even though it's not necessary right now. I know of many instances where complete caption information was the major factor in a picture sale (rental). Remember, picture editors swamped with deadlines rely on your captions for information. They weren't with you on the trip, never visited the country and don't ever guess the provenance of a picture. Placement of caption, catalog number and copyright is shown below

CATALOG NUMBERS:

must be placed on one of the thin edges of the slide mount by the photographer. The catalog number should be placed on the same side as the caption and copyright information. Your catalog number includes the initials of your first and last names (JEH for John E. Holmes), and a sequential number beginning with 1. Hence John E. Holmes first slide would be cataloged JEH1 and his 500 slide would be marked JH500. Check with us before submitting so we can determine that your initials have not already been used. If so, we will issue a two letter code. Placement of caption, catalog number and copyright is shown below

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

It is crucial that complete copyright information be included on all images submitted to lafotos. If you don't copyright your work, then you may forfeit protection and your work may be placed in the public domain and become available to anyone who wants to use it. Once it is in the public domain it is lost forever, and you will never be able to get it back! If you have not already done so, you should have a rubber stamp made up with your copyright legend on it. The best copyright legend should read as follows:

Copyright © by Joe Photographer 199_
All Rights Reserved

Use of the "All Rights Reserved" places your material within the copyright protection of the Buenos Aires Convention which covers countri.e.s in South America. Please caption, copyright and number slides leaving at least one narrow or wide margin on the slide mount blank for the agency identification label. Please label the front of your slide mounts so photo editors can read all the caption information while vi.e.wing the images. Placement of caption, catalog number and copyright is shown below

CONTACT:

Doug Bryant at PO Box 80155 Baton Rouge, LA 70898
Shipping: 4845 Newcomb Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70808
PHONE (225) 763-6235     FAX (225) 763-6894    E-mail - info@ddbstock.com