smokehard

According to the New York Times, Yahoo(Flickr) and Getty Images have inked a partnership that would see Getting using photos taken by flickr members and paying them the same rates they pay Getty Staff photographers.

Yahoo and Getty Images said Tuesday that they had entered into a partnership under which Getty editors would comb Flickr in search of interesting images. They will then invite photographers to participate in the program and ensure that their images have the proper releases to be licensed legally. Those who are included in the program will get paid at the same rates that Getty pays photographers who are under contract with the company.

Well that is certainly cool. However, I do wonder if the editors are simply going to be looking through shots taken by people with high-end cameras? It would be a shame if that’s what they were going to do as there are a tonne of great photos on flickr taken by people with low-end and pro-sumer cameras.

Getty also runs a site called iStockPhoto, where amateurs contribute photos that the company markets at lower rates. The photos on Flickr are of sufficent quality to demand higher prices, Mr. Klein said.

“It is a real testament to the quality of the photography on Flickr,” said Kakul Srivastava, general manager of Flickr.

A bit of a cheap shot to all the “amateurs” uploading photos to istockphoto, don’t you think? In all honesty, from the point of view of Getty or any other photo clearing house, 99.9% of flickr photos are of no use to them whatsoever. I don’t think it’s as much a testement to how awesome flickr photographers are. Rather, I think it shows how far Getty will go to find as many stock photographs as possible.

Anyway, if anyone from Getty is reading this, go look at my best  photos (in my opinion)!