2025 01 07
This morning, I woke up to the news that Getty Images was merging with Shutterstock. I then logged onto Threads and saw outrage from a photographer about how the companies now have a monopoly and that we photographers should not allow this to happen!
Fast forward to the end of the day. Out of curiosity, I checked the stock prices to see what the market thinks of this soon-to-be photography monopoly. Well, at first they loved it! Prices of both companies soared. Then, the market took a moment to think about why these two companies that dominate the photography world decided to merge into one mega company, and the frantic buying turned into frantic selling.
Getty was up an impressive 89% (!) in early trading today before ending the day up a more modest 17%.
Shutterstock was up 48% in early trading today before ending the day up a more modest 14%.
My immediate takeaway this morning was not that this newly-created mega company was going to kill the photography industry but that it was a necessary hail mary by two companies that see the writing on the wall. If they donāt do something, they will die. If they do do something, they will still probably die. Ai is inevitable and itās depressing, to say the least, as someone who makes a living from making photos.
All this said, I donāt think photography is done. Hell, there will still even be quite a few people making a dang good living from photography for years to come. But the industry as a whole is in for a rough time and companies with market caps in the billions will no soon longer exist if their entire business depends on selling photography.
Good night, and good luck.
Nowā¦ back to the webinar Iām currently taking (along with three dozen other people!) on how to print photo zines. Yes, there is likely more demand than ever for making photos, which is cool! Itās the getting paid for making photos that will continue to get more challenging.
-Clayton
A town without people. Old Shawneetown, Illinois. April, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
This morning, I woke up to the news that Getty Images was merging with Shutterstock. I then logged onto Threads and saw outrage from a photographer about how the companies now have a monopoly and that we photographers should not allow this to happen!
Fast forward to the end of the day. Out of curiosity, I checked the stock prices to see what the market thinks of this soon-to-be photography monopoly. Well, at first they loved it! Prices of both companies soared. Then, the market took a moment to think about why these two companies that dominate the photography world decided to merge into one mega company, and the frantic buying turned into frantic selling.
Getty was up an impressive 89% (!) in early trading today before ending the day up a more modest 17%.
Shutterstock was up 48% in early trading today before ending the day up a more modest 14%.
My immediate takeaway this morning was not that this newly-created mega company was going to kill the photography industry but that it was a necessary hail mary by two companies that see the writing on the wall. If they donāt do something, they will die. If they do do something, they will still probably die. Ai is inevitable and itās depressing, to say the least, as someone who makes a living from making photos.
All this said, I donāt think photography is done. Hell, there will still even be quite a few people making a dang good living from photography for years to come. But the industry as a whole is in for a rough time and companies with market caps in the billions will no soon longer exist if their entire business depends on selling photography.
Good night, and good luck.
Nowā¦ back to the webinar Iām currently taking (along with three dozen other people!) on how to print photo zines. Yes, there is likely more demand than ever for making photos, which is cool! Itās the getting paid for making photos that will continue to get more challenging.
-Clayton
2025 01 01
Becoming a Daily Blogger in 2025
Today marks the successful completion of a full year of daily blogging!
Five days. Five, damn, days. At the time, I didnāt care that I missed posting to this here blog for five days because I was busy getting married. That clearly takes priority to casual blog posting, which goes almost completely unnoticed. Now, looking back from the comfort of a new calendar year, I see it as a failure of my objective! Perhaps because I live in the United States and we tend to see things as all or nothing. Perhaps because I donāt have my priorities in order. Perhaps because my standards are so high I consider it a complete failure to only get 98.6% of the way towards reaching my goal. Whatever the reason, when I noticed this five day gap (Iād completely forgotten about it because, you know, it doesnāt really matter) I was furious with myself. Why hadnāt I anticipated and pre-loaded blog posts? Should I now āpunishā myself, start the timer over, and do it all over again this year?
Coming or going? Somewhere south of Rockford, Illinois. February, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Becoming a Daily Blogger in 2025
Today marks the successful completion of a full year of daily blogging!
Five days. Five, damn, days. At the time, I didnāt care that I missed posting to this here blog for five days because I was busy getting married. That clearly takes priority to casual blog posting, which goes almost completely unnoticed. Now, looking back from the comfort of a new calendar year, I see it as a failure of my objective! Perhaps because I live in the United States and we tend to see things as all or nothing. Perhaps because I donāt have my priorities in order. Perhaps because my standards are so high I consider it a complete failure to only get 98.6% of the way towards reaching my goal. Whatever the reason, when I noticed this five day gap (Iād completely forgotten about it because, you know, it doesnāt really matter) I was furious with myself. Why hadnāt I anticipated and pre-loaded blog posts? Should I now āpunishā myself, start the timer over, and do it all over again this year?
Letās be honest, I probably donāt need to be sharing any old thought I have on the internet anymore. That said, Iāve made it clear from day one that the entire point of this here blog is for me, myself, and I. Iām doing this to improve my own writing skills, photo editing skills, and to think through various subjects. The fact that I am doing it publicly is a byproduct and not the main motivator, but itās also a way to keep me honest and put pressure on myself to continue to show up. Itās how my brain works.
As an example, I was doing my āmorning pagesā quite regularly for months after reading The Artistās Way. This was super helpful, however, as soon as I got busy with other shit (like getting married) I completely cut out this habit without even realizing I had done so. In a way, this here blog is my own version of the morning pages. Itās my version of therapy and it gives me a chance to think. Hopefully it does more good than harm when it comes to my reputation and people reading my business!
One quick story about a proud moment that justified the time Iāve dedicated to this here blog: I lost a big job we bid on this fall. We lost it, but we almost won it! This may sound insane but I was almost as happy by how close we came to being awarded the project as I wouldāve been had we actually been awarded the project. If youāre in the biz, you know about these calls you have with the client and/or agency leading up to bidding on a big project. On this specific call, it became very apparent to me that we had no realistic shot at winning this bid (for a number of reasons, but an obvious one was that all the examples they showed us were images they glowingly described as exactly what they wanted to capture ā they were all made by another photographer, whom theyād just worked with, who was also bidding on the project!). My takeaway from the call was that if we had any shot at getting the job, I needed to write a really good treatment.
Either the treatment worked or things changed beyond our control because we got the call that we were favorites for the job. It was all but guaranteed! Then, as happens, things changed again and we didnāt get the job. But I took it as a nice consolation prize and largely credited my habit of writing regularly with being the thing that put us over the top.
Most likely, in the new year I will tweak my approach a bit. My main priority is to continue the writing. Whatever approach best enables me to do this is how I will go about it. Again, there are days when I simply donāt have the time to jot down something worth reading, and those days probably donāt need a post. Maybe Iāll make it a āphoto a dayā situation so I can more easily fulfill my lifelong dream of posting to a blog every day for a year (sarcasm?), while keeping the words to days when I do have something more meaningful to share. Weāll see.
Thinking bigger, I often say you need to go to where the people are if you want to see noticeable success, and the people are not hanging out on blogs. If I really wanted to take this project to the next level, a YouTube channel would be the obvious next step. Learning to communicate in video form, versus textually, is a skill that will take you places in this day and age. The reality, however, is that I likely only have the time for a more casual blog, like this here one, that exists mostly as a space for personal growth and exploration. Regardless, I appreciate you being here!
Happy New Year!
-Clayton
This is one entry in a multi-part series of self-exploration and contemplation-out-loud in advance of the new calendar year. Some of this may happen; none of this may happen.
For the complete list of posts, see 2024 12 25.