ground, all you need (apart from that camera, computer, and Internet
connection) are a little enthusiasm and an open mind.
Interested? Then read on....INTRODUCTION FOR DESIGNERS AND
PHOTO BUYERS
All the above points addressed to photographers are relevant to you
(you do own a camera, don’t you?), but there is also a powerful addi-
tional rationale justifying your interest, as a user or buyer of photog-
raphy, in this work. Microstocks can save you and your client money
while delivering quality.
The microstock revolution sprang from designer-to-designer
cooperation and image sharing. It has evolved to provide the imaging
equivalent of cheap music downloads but with a key difference in
that this is business to business and not business to consumer. The
clients of the microstock image libraries are people just like you,
looking to buy good images at a good price—and what an incredible
choice there now is!
In preparing for this book, I have spoken with many designers,
publishers, and other users of imagery, in other words, those who
spend the budget on buying images. Just a short while ago, a surpris-
ing number of them knew nothing about the microstock image librar-
ies. In fact, the esteemed publishers of this work were among those
Introduction xiii