It’s time consuming enough to look through all the photography email promos I get and so when stock houses assault me as well, I usually hit delete. But, this caught my eye.
Green stock? What will they think of next?
From the website:
Our Passion:
Our customers – We respect and admire your vision, talent, and work. We want to help you find the right images for your design in the easiest way possible and support you in every way possible.
Photography – Most of us have been heavily involved in the design and photographic community throughout our careers so, we know how to help.
Social Conscience – We are committed to helping our community and our world wherever possible.
For you to get to know us better, we could have sent you a trinket manufactured and shipped by the boatload from overseas. But to our thinking, and likely yours, we want a better future for this planet instead of creating yet more plastic swag.
Rather, impacting climate change in a positive, measureable way seems like a good place to start, and a good way for us to start to work together.
Sounds good to me.
Since it was my dog’s birthday last week and some of you kindly pointed out that the photograph I posted was out of focus, I thought I would see if BrightQube could do better. Well the price was certainly better. I guess I priced myself out of the market when I offered unlimited rights for $20 and a box of milkbones- I didn’t get a reply back from my enquirer. I’m a little surprised that he didn’t let me know that he was not interested instead of just not replying but hey, maybe I expect too much.
BrightQube is a microstock site and so I actually had to buy more than one image to make up the $5 minimum purchase requirement. I thought this experiment in green buying was worth it but I’ll let you be the judge. Below are the three best images I found for a search “dog birthday”:
Well, there’s something in here for everyone- goofy and staged, snapshot and the artsy B&W shot. I mean, we’re not talking Chip Simons here but any of these shots of a dog’s birthday will do in a pinch. The bonus is you’re helping save the planet. This little experiment earned me 2.75 terra credits, which will reduce almost 600 lbs of CO2.
PDN has a feature this month on shooting for Green Agencies. Admittedly, I’ve only read the on-line portion because I haven’t received my April book yet. Nevertheless, I was disappointed that this article didn’t focus on Green initiatives in the photography community but rather asked the kinda obvious question- are there special challenges when shooting for a Green Agency- ummm, no.
But the carbon footprint of a large commercial shoot can be big. How big? Well, I went on over to the TerraPass website and used their “Wedding Calculator” to model a recent shoot I did in Chile:
This is equivalent to the emissions one car will make in two years.
And the cost to offset? Less then your catering. Less than your courier charges. Less than your 2 year PDN subscription (if you live outside of the US). A measly $134.05.
A photographer friend has mused about going green by doing away with all of his non-electronic promotion. But how fantastic would it be if photographers imposed a Green Tax on the shoot and then offset it. I offset my own flight to Chile but I would rather the multinational pharmaceutical client have done it. And while we’re at it, let’s go a bit further. It drives me crazy to see food wasted on set. And you know I’m a big fan of ample catering but can we not get an assistant to drive the edible remains over to a local shelter?
I would love to hear from you on this- are any of you going Green already? Any agency sponsored initiatives in this area?
And back to BrightQube. I won’t lie to you, in terms of the quality of the images, there’s a time and a place for microstock. Furthermore, my activity today probably offset the equivalent of the lighting kit required to shoot a headshot of some CEO. But, it all adds up.
The best thing about the PDN article on Green Advertisers is that it named some agencies which might be worth a gander for those of you who’s conscience feels a little dirty when all of your good work goes to support McDonald’s and Nike (both in my past). But let’s go further, let’s earmark a bit of money in the quote for offsetting. In the case of my Chile shoot, that $134.05 offsetting charge would have been a drop in the bucket.
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Great post, Heather! I think we’re getting to a point where we really need to look at EVERYTHING we do and see how we can minimize our carbon footprint. On shoots, the other problem is – what happens to the sets once the shoots done? Some sets are elaborate enough that hopefully, they’re recycled or repurposed but i’d guess most of them are broken down and junked. I wonder if a company that tore down sets, recycled and repurposed the materials would be successful in Toronto?
Great point Liz- I know many local shooters used to get sets built or at least materials to build sets from a company called Hot Sets- which I think did just what you are suggesting- they reconstituted walls, doorways, windows etc. If anyone has any update on this- please post.
Some agencies are only allowing one person in the creative department to receive promos. Some reps REALLY hate the policy because they get more hits via mailers than by just sending links… My feelings are a bit mixed- we are all in advertising and how can the agency get away with telling suppliers how they advertise… Aren’t all of us in the business of waste?
Are the pooches Sally’s friends?
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