Being a Slim Jim

We're not caught in the rush to be the biggest, the fattest, the most anonymous image resource in town. Hec, we're small, we're slim and we're tuned in to offer the personal touch that means we know who you are and what you're creating. You're more than welcome to contact us at any time because we're just the usual fallible humans you find everywhere. The difference is we love our photographers work and we can convey that to our clients. Trigger is the sum of it's parts, a combined effort where ego's are out the window and talent speaks volumes. That's why we have a creative base of photographers that covers the widest spectrum of experiences from raw students to award winning mega talent, no names, but you know who you are. It's that vitality, that constant sense of creative rebirth that makes finding the right photographers for Trigger so exciting for us.

We've seen thousands of folios from prospective hopefuls and we get daily requests to review portfolios from folks who also want to be a part of Trigger. It's not a bunch of fun telling 99% of them that they're work just doesn't fit, but that's just the way it is. Taking a crit personally rather than professionally can hurt those less used to it but hey, move on, there are other image libraries that will be a better fit for them. We're picky, we edit hard and that's why our clients come to us, to find just inspirational images.


Jimmy Williams - Images by Trigger Image

Being small and niche means finding the right fit is vital if Trigger is to stand out from those other libraries so we take a lot of time mining deep into the heart of the internet to unearth the gems. As we're all aware the web is awash with digital imagery and 'photographers' so while you may think you're easy to find the truth is often much murkier. If you're relatively 'fresh' making contacts that develop through to commissioned work takes time and effort. So the ethos at Trigger is to provide a platform where you can show your folio for FREE to our database of contacts and exploit the opportunities offered through licensing. We'll also pass-on client requests to commission imagery if they can't find the specific image in your collection so what might have been a small job could turn into a worthwhile long term contact for the future.

In a competitive marketplace you need to update your images as often as you can, sending in your low res samples as email attachments to studio@triggerimage.co.uk is vital, our hard-nosed editors will then review them and get back to you. Old content is just that, so be proactive to keep clients coming back to your work. New work also goes to the top of our 'Just Arrived' gallery so you'll be seen first. To get your folio further afield Trigger also works alongside a number of distributors and Fine Art print on demand publishers to increase your marketing and sales potential, these now include Alamy, Age, DPA, Polfoto, Bonne Image, Mauritius, Glasshouse, Art.com and ArtFlakes and we will be looking to add new names to the list this year, so keep an eye on the Blog for updates.

Thanks for all your input
Tim

Trigger & The Big Boys

In a world of bland mega agencies, Trigger occupies a small but perfectly formed creative atoll amidst a sea awash with stock dirge. Millions of images you wouldn't want to use and the rare one you might find if you have the patience of a saint. Art buyers face a frustrating search and are increasingly rejecting what has been, in favour of something new. As a result after years of filling their galleries with literally millions of average staged shots the big agencies are now seeing the light and adding 'creative' galleries to their stock pile. Welcome to the modern world big agencies.

As a small agency Trigger cannot compete on size and we don't want to, we're not designed to do that. It's not how big you are it's what you do with it, afterall when did big equal good and small equal not so good. Trigger is small, we're niche, we're boutique, we're specialist, we love creative stuff and we want our carefully selected photographers to fill our galleries with inspiring work offering art buyers a real new creative choice of images for their projects.

The big boys have recognised that niche can be good and so they've been chatting to us over the past few months. The exciting news is that most of the work in our galleries is now being marketed to a whole new clientele through some of these big boy agencies including Agefotostock with offices in Spain, Paris and New York, DPA Pictue-Alliance in Germany, StockPhotoPro and Glasshouse Images in USA and now Alamy based in UK.

Alamy have 17.58 million images to date, which in anyones books is big, very big. Did we go grovelling to their door in the vain hope they would be interested in a small agency? No, they approached us. The result is we now have over 5000 images online at Alamy and this number will increase as our photographers submit new work. If you've ever tried to get images accepted by Alamy you'll know how difficult it can be. Their QC (quality control) is infamous for rejecting the slightest image aberration and if they reject one image they reject them all!! At Trigger we love aberrations if they add to an image and so this makes the decision by Alamy even more revolutionary.

Congratulations to our photographers for creating great images and to Alamy for recognising their creativity.

Tim