Help!
How do I find images on this site?
What's a Lightbox?
What's My Account?
What's a Shopping Cart?
What are Royalty-free Images?
Do you sell Royalty-Free Images?
What are Rights-Managed Images?
What are your Rates?
How do I License an Image?
What about Free Use for my Organization?
How do I find images on this site?
There are many ways to locate images on this site. If you just want to get an
idea of the types of images we have, go to the Home page and look for the
Favorites image near the bottom of the page. If you have some idea of what you're looking for,
you might choose Browse Images from the menu bar. This will allow you to "drill down"
on categories of images. If you have a pretty good idea of what you need, try a simple Keyword
Search in the top of the right-hand control panel. If you want to zero in on something
specific, particularly if you are familiar with search strategies, try the Advanced
Search.
Our images are heavily keyworded, so regardless of how you start looking for images,
once you find an image that is close to what you want, you can often find exactly what you're looking
for by using the live links built into the keywords. Lastly, if you can't find what
you're looking for, call us or e-mail us! Only a tiny fraction of our image collection is currently
online. Return to top
What's a Lightbox?
A Lightbox is a way of keeping track of images that you are interested
in while browsing the web site. When viewing thumbnail images or large preview images, click on Add to
Lightbox to add that image to your personal Lightbox. You can later view images in the Lightbox
by using the Lightbox menu command.
Clicking on the Add to Lightbox
a second time will remove an image from the Lightbox. If you want to share your lightbox with someone, you
can e-mail them a link to your lightbox by clicking on Send Lightbox to a Colleague while
viewing your lightbox. If you have Registered to our site (see below), you will be able to view your saved
lightbox from another computer. Return to top
What's My Account?
The My Account menu, in the web site Menu Bar, allows you to register to
our site and to log in or log out and check pending orders. Only registered users may save lightboxes or make
purchases (using the Shopping Cart). Registration is free, and it helps prevent spammers
from abusing our site and allows us to contact clients and provide specialized services. No sensitive
information (like credit card info) is required or stored on our servers when you register. Return to top
The Shopping Cart allows users to purchase MargeCards or Giclee prints online -
the Shopping Cart cannot be used to license images for publication. When viewing images from our site, the purchase
options available are shown along with the image. Clicking on the appropriate product, followed by Add to Cart
will add that item to your shopping cart. Items can be reviewed and removed from the Shopping Cart prior to checkout.
You must be registered to use the shopping cart. This allows us to calculate state taxes and shipping charges prior
to checkout, and again helps prevent abuse of our system by spammers. Return to top
What are Royalty-free Images?
Royalty-Free (RF) image licenses are based on UNITS (for example, a single image or
a collection of images). The Royalty-Free license fee is essentially a standardized 'purchase price' for that unit. The terms of
a Royalty-Free license grant clients virtually unlimited usage rights, so that the same image can be used by any company for
any number of uses with few restrictions. For example, the same image of a tiger could be used by different companies
to sell gasoline or computer software, or to promote a sexually oriented web site. In the current market, Royalty-Free images are
generally of lesser quality than Rights-Managed (RM) images because the market has been 'flooded' with
mediocre Royalty-Free images. Return to top
Do you sell Royalty-Free Images?
No! We sell only Rights-Managed (RM) images. Because the Royalty-Free buyer
has no information available on the image licensing history of a generic Royalty-Free image, and because generic Royalty-Free images have a
much higher volume of use, clients who use Royalty-Free images are exposing themselves to potentially embarrassing
conflicts of usage. While the upside of a Royalty-Free image is unlimited use and lower cost, the downside is that an
image can be used by any company in any number of uses with no restrictions.
Royalty-Free images have also had a very negative impact on the ability of professional photographers to
survive in the stock photography market, as buyers have come to expect to pay the the same fee for a complex
studio or field shot as they would for a point-and-shoot royalty-free stock image. We could not survive
selling hundreds of images on a CD for $99, as each of the images we license may have cost us hundreds
or thousands of dollars in expenses just to "get the shot." Return to top
What are Rights-Managed Images?
Rights Managed (RM) license fees are based on specific USE. Since the history of the use
of each image is recorded, clients will know ahead of time if there are any conflicts or concerns. The Rights-Managed model allows clients
to license an image with varying degrees of exclusivity, such as by category or geography over a specified time period (for
example, exclusive rights in all birding magazines in the United States for one year). We license images strictly by the
Rights-Managed licensing model. Return to top
What are your Rates?
We use industry-standard rate calculators to determine licensing fees. (We do not "sell"
the rights to images.) Licensing fees depend on many factors, including the proposed use (e.g., book, magazine, brochure,
web site), the duration of use, the size of the image in the finished product, the distribution and number of copies printed,
and the number of languages the printed piece appears in. In general, the licensing fee for, say, advertising use in a full-page
magazine ad will be higher than for editorial use of a quarter-page image in a local brochure. Return to top
How do I License an Image?
It's easy! To inquire about licensing an image, request a quote by clicking on the link
called Request a Quote on Image XX-XXXXX below any image on our web site. Or, just
give us a call. Either way, tell us the proposed use and include the image size and resolution needed, the press run and geographic
distribution, and/or any other pertinent details. We will get back to you shortly with a quote. Return to top
What about Free Use for my Organization?
We do not provide "free use" images for charitable organizations, schools, government agencies, or others.
Providing "free" images would undercut our Rights-Managed business model, and it
would devalue our images. Furthermore, donating image use would be equivalent to us making a financial contribution to the
organization. We prefer to make our charitable contributions directly to the organizations of our own
choosing. Return to top
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