The commercial and event photography industry has been turned upside down recently due to the global Covid-19 virus pandemic causing events and performances to be cancelled. Necessary lockdowns and social distancing measures in place around the world to curb the spread of the infectious novel coronavirus has meant a halt to some business activities and new ways of working.
Where has this left our photographic work? Documenting and visual storytelling of events, tradeshows, performing arts and marketing activities has been a long standing staple for us here at Reel Monkey, and though we miss covering them and working with clients immensely we’ve been increasing our stock photography collection whilst we’ve been confined to our homes.
Currently we now have around 3500 high resolution quality authentic stock images available to download and license through the portfolio of our Director and principle photographer, Mehul Patel, with more in the archive pipeline. Get in touch with us if you have any specific stock photography needs. Our images are natural, non-staged, varied and illustrative to help in producing editorial or concepts. We’ve put together this short video below outlining the categories and our range of imagery.
Mehul’s images have been published and licensed by media publications (newspapers, magazines, websites), travel guides, educational books, calendars and by businesses for marketing and promotional use. In 2020 his images have been featured in Dorling Kindersley’s ‘DK Eyewitness Top 10 Valencia’ travel guide and across several articles on travel website and app, ‘Culture Trip’.
Click image to read article about restaurants in Nice, France on their website
Click image to read article about the Blue Mountains in Australia on their website
Glossary of common stock photography terms:
License – A legal agreement made between an image user and a photographer or agency to specify how an image can be used.
Copyright – Almost all images have copyright. When you purchase a stock image you are purchasing a license to use that image. Stock images are not ‘copyright free’ or ‘monetarily free’ to use generally. The copyright is not exchanged when an image is licensed, it is still held by the agency or photographer.
Royalty Free (RF) – This is a licensing term used in the industry of stock photography that enables a stock photo buyer to use a purchased photo as many times as the license outlines in their terms and conditions without having to pay another royalty to the photographer or agency. Royalty Free images are not ‘free’ to use.
Rights Managed (RM) – This is a licensing term used in the industry of stock photography that enables a stock photo buyer to use a purchased photo for a particular and controlled use and is licensed according to that use and terms. eg – usage on the cover of a book / magazine with print run of 50,000 copies or on the homepage of a website for 3 year period.
Editorial Use only – A term where the stock photo can only be licensed and used by the buyer for editorial uses only. For example media articles, inside books and not for any advertising or commercial use. The stock image is likely to feature recognisable people or property without any signed clearances for commercial use.