MicrostockGroup

Wise words and the connection to microstock is all too obvious.

Peanuts, it's not peanuts it's spare change. I could pick up more walking the streets of a large city, but OT.

xst is right. Editors that are to that point aren't just taking out the heart and soul, they are constricting any creativity at the same time. Lets make everything plain vanilla and off white. An oppressive situation like that is a relief to get away from.

I know it's easy for me to say, if you don't like it, then leave, for Micro. It's not my main source of income or second source and probably not third either. Could be if I wasn't so lazy, but I started wondering if I could get accepted, then after I was on SS and IS and Alamy I wondered why I was wasting time with the rest. If it was just for the money, I would have needed to be earning something... conclusion, not worth the time, effort or constantly changing and variable rules, low commissions, acceptance/rejection variance, and basically unprofessional way many of the smaller agencies were run on the whims of someone up top. I could work one day at something else and make what I did at the small agencies in a year. Forgeta-boutit

I quit and I feel better for doing so.

I'm guessing it was posted here because she is a stock photo consultant, has a long history in stock and wrote a book on microstock

http://www.ellenboughn.com/bio

If the judging is setting the standard at Photo Factory Microstock images, and much of the heart and soul and creativity is removed, because it won't get accepted or sold, you claim that's not going to change what we shoot? Buyers may choose what people shoot but at least that's optional and based on needs, not some "stock - stock", closed and limited mindset.

OK I'm free to shoot all the shots of things I like and enjoy that I like, Free to submit them and they will refuse every one. Somehow I don't see that as freedom of expression.  

Maybe some people think a hamster running on a treadmill is going some place, because, hey, it's running and the wheel is spinning. In the end the scernery and where you are is the same, and that's pretty much what shooting Microstock has turned into. Repeat best sellers, if it sells, make more. If it sells, copy it. The agencies don't want expression and creative shots, they want Microstock style and images that sell.

So I'd disagree, if I want to make some money I am forced to create and upload what the agencies have predetermined in their narrow perspective, they want. In that way we are "told what to photograph" and how, and how many.   Sure we can produce anything we want, it won't get accepted and won't sell. If the idea is to earn money, in Microstock, the freedom and artistic side needs an outside income for living and paying the bills.

But maybe that's just me.

When I shoot what I like it goes to Alamy. It's that simple.