Quote from the Canva e-mailing of 30 November 2023 :

"Starting December 1, 2023, we will be asking you to register with our new payout provider Trolley by March 31, 2024. In order to receive your payouts after Mar 31, 2024, you will be required to both be registered with the new payout provider and to have completed the requisite tax forms. The tax forms are US W-8 (non-US Resident) or W-9 (US Resident) forms, and are needed in order to properly identify you and calculate correct taxes with the US government.
If you have not registered with Trolley and completed the tax forms by Mar 31, 2024 we will be unable to process your payouts. "


So March 31 is approaching, and (I suppose) we all completed the tax forms, but did any one register with Trolley?   I had a look on their website, and there is no such thing as a free registration. You're supposed to go for a paid subscription. 
Or did Canva just use the wrong wording in their e-mail and we're not supposed to register on the Trolley website at all ?

OK, I'm sure you will tell me this has been in the MR for months/years, but I only noticed today ...
It's been a while since I needed a MR, so I thought I had better adjust mine and make it closer to the 2023 Shutterstock release.


Must say I was unpleasantly surprised to read this :
I (the Model) hereby grant to the Contributor and Shutterstock Inc. (collectively "the Contributor") the right to ....  (bla bla) ...
and in the next paragraph :
I hereby agree that all rights in and to the Content, including the copyright, are and shall remain the sole property of the Contributor ....


What ? ??


Of course, there is no problem for myself, as I always make a "generic" model release, NOT mentioning Shutterstock or any other Agency, but are there really photographers that simply copy this text ?

As Bigstock hardly sells anything for me, it took a few months before I noticed my portfolio at BS was not increasing anymore (while I was still uploading to SS).
A short e-mail to Bigstock and I got a (surprisingly fast) reply :


"Thanks for reaching out to Bigstock Contributor Care. We truly appreciate your contributions to our collections during all these years! Unfortunately, they have reported that the Bridge Program between Shutterstock and Bigstock is closed; it will remain that way until further notice. If you like to submit the same content you have approved from one platform to the other, it will not be marked as a duplicate, however, you will have to do it manually. "

Must say I cannot feel happy or sad about this, but just in case you wondered, it's not a bug, the "bridge" is closed.
And no, I have no plans to start uploading manually.  Not for 9 dollars per month.

When I shoot images of a big port, with the cargo of the ships (= lots of containers) in view, I painstakingly remove every ship name and every logo/brandname from the containers.  That is such a boring job that I don't have many "industrial" images in my portfolio.  But yesterday I was browsing the Adobe library and I found lots of images of big ports, flooded with brand names.  Like hundreds of containers with the MSC logo on it.  And yes, these were commercial licenses, not editorial. 
Did I miss something?  OK, these logos are small, because it's hundreds of containers in 1 image, but still, it is possible to read the logos as they are not blurred at all.
So what do you do with your industrial photos full of small logos?  Just NOT shoot them, spend HOURS/DAYS removing logos, or just submit as they are and keep your fingers crossed?

I am a small seller on Etsy (selling my own digital backgrounds for baby photographers) ...  I just got the e-mail message below from Etsy, urging me to sign their petition against the new EU rules ...
I am sooooo NOT signing this petition!

Defend the rights of European small business owners
You may be aware that the European Commission has proposed legislation called the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The DSA includes new rules for how digital platforms like Etsy operate. As part of our ongoing commitment to running a safe and fair marketplace, we�ve been working with EU policymakers as the DSA is being drafted and negotiated.

 Unfortunately, some members of the European Parliament have recently proposed additional rules for the DSA that threaten to harm our marketplace and sellers� businesses. Some of these new rules would result in:
�           A slower, more bureaucratic process for creating a new shop or updating your account information. Marketplaces would have to verify that all information provided by the seller is correct before allowing them to sell, and also verify any future changes.
�           Your listings are more likely to be blocked or removed. Because the new rules would hold marketplaces strictly liable for items sold on their platforms, there�s a greater chance that legitimate listings might be removed. This would also divert marketplace resources away from where they�re actually needed�fighting bad actors trying to harm consumers.
�           Less choice for sellers and consumers would also result from the proposed rules, as many sellers are likely to be discouraged from the increased complexity of selling online. For example, marketplaces like Etsy would have to check every listing for full compliance with labelling and certification requirements before the listing could even be posted.

 Etsy's CEO, Josh Silverman, has been speaking up against these unnecessary and misguided rules with EU policymakers because he knows they would harm the creative business of every seller who wishes to sell online in Europe. But the reality is lawmakers won�t protect small business owners unless they hear from you�their constituents�directly.
Will you join us in urging EU policymakers to stop adding these harmful burdens on small businesses like yours?
Sign the petition

I woke up this morning with a facebook message about a Shutterstock batch of mine.  The series is of a black woman with african braided hair, which I call "afro hair" in the description of the images (because the model called it that way).  She is doing her hair looking into a mirror, so I cannot just ignore her hair in the description.
These images had reasonably good sales for 3 years already, and now I get this message on facebook :

• Please change your labeling of your photography on shutter stock as it is it is not even kinda racist.  You referring to a woman of color as having a afro hairstyle is completely disgusting. I spend hours looking for photos. and can't find them because of your complete race base labeling. I am attempting to convey the problem without anger.but there is not excuse. your whole photo shoot has not one afro. and to refer any women of color as default having an afro is completely racist. there is no way its a mislabel because afros are a thing specifically. thats the equivalent of me calling you from Belgium an asian.  for your benefit please update this soon it will support your pocket and creative directors looking through hours of shittly named photos.  I will check in on your progress in a few days before reaching out to shutterstock direct.

The message is from a person in North Carolina, and he obviously knows I'm not American.
I'm not asking how to reply - I already replied that I don't understand his point, because to me, to the model and to my Ghanese friends, this hairdo is called an afro hairstyle.
My reply was very friendly and polite, as I don't want somebody to get nasty on my FB business page or anywhere else.


But I do have 2 questions :


To the American Microstockers :  is calling this an "afro hairstyle" offending??  Here in Belgium, even between black people, it is not, but maybe in American culture it is
To all :  if he contacts Shutterstock about it, what do you expect their reaction would be?  Do nothing?  Delete the images?  Tell me to change the wording?  ??

Hi all, since this morning I get a 403 error page whenever I try to access the 123rf website (any page).  It's on my desktop PC and my laptop, and it seems to be me, not a worldwide problem.  So can anyone give me the e-mail address to contact support?  Not a web-address, as I won't be able to use it ...   thanks in advance!

"This page is temporarily unavailable. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. "

Since last week, this is what I get 90% of the time when I try to access my earnings page.  All other pages work fine.  Logging out/in and deleting cookies does not help at all.  Any one else with this problem?  Any solution?  If not, I guess I'll have to send a ticket to support ...

Hi, I usually do not resubmit anything, except on SS with corrected flaws + a notice to the reviewer, but sometimes I get cranky when I see how many well-selling files there are in the "refused" folder of the other agencies.

Does any of you have experience in resubmitting to FT/DST/123rf/GLO/DP/CAN ... ?  Do they allow it, and if yes, should we draw their attention to the fact that it's a second time, or to the first refusal-reason?   

For SS I know that resubmitting is only allowed if you "announce" it, and you're supposed to correct the file first, not just resubmit it, but what about the others?  Has any one ever had a problem with it ?

I often read topics about slow payment, and then "slow" means 2 to 3 weeks.

If 2 or 3 weeks is slow, what about 1 year ?

When was your last Rodeo pay-out?  I had one on 23 November 2012 (payment up till Oct12), and when I complained in May 2013, they sent me payment for November 2012, so by the end of this month, Rodeo will owe me 12 months royalties (which happens to be more than 800 dollars). 
Also in May, Rodeo let me know that sales had gone down significantly (I already knew that!) and I should not expect any payments until November.  Well, November has gone now ...

A couple of weeks ago I sent another enquiry, but I have not had any reply yet (or payment).

From other Rodeo contributors I heard that I'm not alone.  So here's my question :  how many Rodeo contributors are there on MicroStockGroup?  When was your last pay-out and have you contacted Rodeo about it? 

Hi, just checking if anyone else has this problem :
On my Dashboard at Graphic Leftovers, there's a "request payout" button (top right).
Whenever I click on that button, I get an error page saying "Page not found - Please try another page".
Well, I don't WANT to try another page, I just want my money   
After a few weeks hoping they would fix this, I contacted support, and they replied that I should give them my password, so that they could do the requesting for me. 
?  Does this mean I'm the only one with this problem?  If it were a general bug, I'd think they would try to fix the bug instead of offering to send the request for me?

Many of the IS-deactivators will probably be looking for another agency to compensate lost sales.  On another thread, several MSG'ers recommended Veer.

I have just been accepted at Veer, but am still hesitating - should I really start uploading there?

Looking at the various threads on the MSG-Veer-forum, I read about issues that are not very encouraging:
- the Alamy trouble
- slow reviews and upload limits
- keywording issues
- no opt-out of PP
- and worst of all :  very bad communication with contributors

I'd be grateful if some of the experienced Veer-users could update the newcomers :

Has the Alamy issue been solved completely?  I am on Alamy and would really be annoyed if my Veer stuff would go to Alamy.

Is deleting an image only possible by contacting support, and is contacting support really such a PITA ?

This week I had great news :  the oldest city in Belgium gave me permission to shoot in one of their medieval churches in December.  And with "medieval" I really mean medieval - it's 700 years old!  This church has been deconsecrated lately (I had to use a dictionary for that word!), but the altar, confessional and pulpit are still there.
Anyway, I want to do a shoot with models there, but since it is such a beautiful church, I want the church to be fully visible in the photos, as a well lit background. 
Wedding shooters would of course say :  shoot wide open and cranck up your ISO, but we stock shooters know that is out of the question.  I 'd get refusals for "out of focus" and "noise".
So the only thing I can do is add lots of light.  The church has good electricity, so I can bring my 5 Elinchrom strobes and 2 Quadras, I could even rent more stuff.
My main problem is :  how can I get the most light out of my studio strobes, into the (dark) arches and side chapels?  And what light modifiers would be the best choice for such a great building? 
Any one with (lots of) experience in lighting larger spaces with very high ceilings?