Some feedback to the comments. Firstly thanks and I understand the sceptic stance. Hopefully I can expand a bit.
Hopefully my website -
www.markhumpage.com will fill in some gaps about me to those who don't know me or my work.
As a chaser and elemental photographer I started off in the photography game, just like most others around here, as a passionate hobbyist. Over the years the volume and quality of stock increased through my travels and adventures, which culminated in my current relationship with Olympus (for whom I am an ambassador).
In recent times, I struck up a relationship with news agencies in the UK and which one in particular became very successful in selling my images to the National press. In fact it became my biggest source of photography income. With technology advances and mobile communication advances I became frustrated during my travels with the time lag in getting images back to the agencies as time and 'fresh' was very much the basis of selling stock to the papers. Dated images are history and not as successful in gaining press attention. This was compounded with time zone differences for the countries I was travelling. I gave the problem much thought and got together with a software coder with a view to producing a mobile application that could provide instant imagery from a scene of capture, as well as a few lines of text describing the event. The objective was, via the click of a button, to get that information to a contact within an agency who could a) do all the hard work in writing a journalistic piece on the event and b) have the ability to wire the information to the right contacts within the press industry. Hence the PhotFame app.
Yes, it is possible to self publicise your own work through various contacts, and I have even been down this route. However, having the right people and contacts directly within the press circles is invaluable and I learned this the hard way. I would frequently send information direct to press who just ignore stuff and only deal with credible agencies. Eventually, I used the agency for every event/shoot and had a far better success rate. Hence, it became my current biggest source of photographic income.
I am also aware of the quality/resolution advantages that using dslr equipment has over an iphone camera and I personally only ever shoot with my dslr gear. However, I also now take the iphone with me everywhere as a complementary tool. If I find myself on a shoot with a potential news story/topical photo opportunity I will take a snap or two with the iphone and fire this off immediately. In the time it takes to download images from camera to PC and fine tune adjustments the agency can be populating a journalistic piece and wiring off to national press for feedback. They will call you back on this point. Should the image grab attention then a higher res version can be used via the dslr. This lag allows you enough time to carry out the download/editing work. This also assumes you have sufficient time to downlaod to PC/Laptop etc. I know on most of my successful chases I'm either on the go for many hours at a time or just too plain knackered to get round to working on the images. Another good reason for the mobile application.
The agency I use is SWNS who are UK based and have a direct wire/feed into all of the major nationals in UK, Europe and the USA. As I have said they have personally been very successful and my previous relationship was the reason for getting these guys on board with the app. They work incredibly hard to get your photo in the press if they feel it has saleable value. More importantly strong elemental images from across the pond of tornadoes, Atlantic hurricanes, waterspouts etc enjoy high success rates with UK & Eu press because we Europeans just do not see stuff like this too often. It is great fodder for the public via articles and images in the papers. Whilst in the US the same images may be less popular because of the frequency and high awareness value that you guys have. In short, strong elemental images from the US, which experiences some of the biggest and wildest weather in the world are big sellers for UK & EU press. This is especially so when events occur in area of UK/EU interest ie. Florida/Caribbean with a high influx of UK/EU tourists.
Well I think that covers most things, I hope
and I trust it allays any fears that this is another one of those crap scammy apps, which I agree there are too many of, but PhotoFame was developed by myself as I felt there was a genuine need for something useful and practical whilst out in the field, based upon my own chase experiences. Hey and if I can make a few bucks at the same time I'm sure you don't begrudge me that.
Thanks and regards.
Mark Humpage
www.markhumpage.com
