PhotoShelter recently announced Shoot! The Day, which will be a single-day event ideally flipping the stock world upside down. On July 20th, PS is hosting shooting events, seminars and on-site lectures concerning all things stock. In conjunction with the announcement of Shoot! The Day, PS also released the site School of Stock, containing tutorials and no-nos in terms of creating quality stock images.

I just think this whole idea is brilliant. The DIY aspect of PhotoShelter is exactly what the stock industry needs right now. As a photo editor, I am consistently bombarded with stale stock-- these posed and saccharinated images no longer have precedence online or in magazines, but why are they still around? Because there is so little of SOMETHING ELSE. PS writes, "We asked our buyers how they felt about the following statement: "When it comes to the images I search for most often, I think I've seen all of the content available within the major stock houses." 55% agreed with that statement. I agree too. There is very little diversity across the stock market, houses are buying up the same collections and re-posting the photographs. The same image of a women wiping her sweaty brow in pink high-waisty spandex has been representing "hot, exercise, woman" since 1997.

Through gathering buyers, editors, photographers and lighting experts (the Strobist is making an appearance during the event) PS hopes to rejuvenate the market by actually looking at visual trends and then translating that into a literal product. All I can say is THANK YOU. It's about time.

I'm going to be doing some renegade reportage from the New York Photo Festival starting on Friday... Although the events kicked off last night , the seminar I will be attending (VII) is starting at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and will be officially kicking off my binge portion of this mass event.

I attended the opening of Tim Barber's show the other night, as well as Getty's PORTRAITS tonight. I must say that the Tim Barber show was a bit overwhelming, but Getty's series of images was incredibly impressive. Although the free beverages were long gone by the time I arrived at Getty, I still deemed it an absolutely worthy event/show (especially because the goody bag was a pristine booklet).

VII will be consuming the morning and the afternoon will be punctuated by a lecture from Tim Barber, Jen Bekman and Laurel Ptak. The night belongs to the award ceremony and after party (hopefully more beverages) that will catalyze a continued weekend of festivities. Ill highlight the goodies.