Known for his strikingly unusual images of wildlife, Eberhard Brunner has been shooting photos professionally for 14 years. As the whole world has seemingly made the switch from film to digital photography, Brunner stays true to the traditional medium.
While Brunner says he loves the job, he doesn't recommend it as a full-time profession due to changes in the industry.
"I guess I'm stupid, but I love it," he said. "I tell people all the time, don't quit your job, do it in your spare time."
Brunner said while there is little financial gain for the time spent seeking the images, it is something he enjoys doing.
Brunner, 68, has lived in Alaska since 1964. He spent 30 years guiding and running a lodge at Swift River, west of the Alaska Range, after which he decided to pursue photography full-time.
Brunner, who has approximately 3,000 publishable images, said the transition came when he was guiding.
"I would say to myself, 'I wish I had a camera to take a picture of that animal.' So I got some gear," he said.
According to Brunner, his images sell from $150 to $800 each. His gross income from stock images averages around $65,000 yearly.
Brunner has published in Safari International magazine and is the winner of numerous awards, including a spot in the Kodak International Photo Contest, and an award in the National Geographic photo contest. Brunner augments his sales with magazine spreads, or on a single type of wild animal. But most of his sales come through a combination of submissions to publications and from three stock photo agencies in Alaska, Germany and Australia.
In Alaska he is represented by Alaska Stock Images, which only sells Brunner's Alaska-related photos.
"We sell a lot of bears and eagles, eagles and bears," said Jeff Schultz, president of Alaska Stock. "While we have clients that are interested in Alaska images, digital imagery off the Internet has changed the business."
Schultz says that the "royalty-free" image banks are becoming more sought after. Royalty-free means that the image can be purchased for a one-time fee with unlimited use, for a fraction of the fees usually paid to royalties. Images that include royalty fees are images with specific limitations for use both in where it is published, the circulation, and the type of media. Then a price is determined for one-time, or a pre-determined time for usage.
But the buying and selling of images is changing, according to Brunner.
"There is far more competition, which is good," he said. "But now with the advent of digital cameras, the availability of images has driven the price down. Now it's more like clip-art."
Millions of images are available everywhere, from the Internet and stock photo CDs, according to Schultz.
"The images are not the best, but they are cheap," Brunner said.
Photographers used to make their living from fees for assignments and from usage fees. Availability of stock images has reduced assignment fees, which is also putting the burden of all the expenses on the photographer. Many photographers while on assignment were getting their expenses paid by the client, then shooting stock images to sell later. Now digital photographers are shooting everything in sight and submitting them for royalty-free images just to make their expenses.
This has also forced photographers into going two ways, according to Schultz.
"You either flood the market with royalty-free images, or you become the best at what you do and carve a niche for yourself and negotiate every image into a very lucrative sale," Schultz said.
Brunner is living proof of this recent phenomena.
"You have to find the loopholes, or have a niche," Brunner said.
Brunner's sales of Alaska wildlife photos are second only to his images from Africa. "The images from Africa outsell work from Alaska, 80/20, but, still, bear images do pretty well," he said.
Brunner says that his images of Africa are more marketable due to the recognition factor of the animals. "In Africa you have lions, tigers, cheetahs, elephants, giraffes, etc., but in Alaska its only bears, eagles and caribou," he said.
Brunner also still uses film to make his images, despite the shift to digital.
"Our submissions are about 50/50, film to digital now, which is up (for digital) from a year ago," Schultz said. "But we scan film into digital, so everything at the agency is ultimately digital."
"Film is not dead yet," Brunner said. "Film is more practical for what I do, and better quality. Besides to replace my Nikon system, it would cost me $40,000 up front."
Brunner has augmented his income by acting as a safari guide on trips to Africa, which he said costs his clients about $500 a day.
It was in Africa that he shot his best-selling image of a cheetah surrounded by other cheetahs.
"We mainly go to Kenya and Tanzania," he said. "This past year was my 26th time on photo safari in Africa."
Brunner said he would like to do more shooting in Alaska, but travel and conditions make it too expensive.
"In Alaska, out of 15 days you might get two or three days of good shooting. In Africa, by comparison, you will get 15 out of 15 good days of shooting," he said.
After years of making wildlife images, Brunner said he has perhaps identified a different focus for his work.
"Just like the Eskimo here in the '60s and '70s, the Africans are losing their culture," Brunner said. "I would love to go into the villages and do more shooting here in Alaska. In retrospect, it is not the animals that are becoming scarce, it is the indigenous people's culture and way of life."
Brunner has had shows of his wildlife and African cultural images in Aspen, Colo., Anchorage, London, Nairobi and Munich.
Rob Stapleton can be reached at rob.stapleton@alaskajournal.com.
