MicrostockGroup

I personally see nothing wrong with your photos, composition-wise, but I will say a couple of things that have nothing to do with your photography skills, and that is:

1. It is going to be very difficult for new folks to get into istock nowadays. Getty/IS is on the path of changing the company back into high-end, high-priced RM-type of business, with exclusive members only, and what was once acceptable will not be now. If I were starting all over with IS today, I doubt that any, maybe a few, of my photos would even be accepted.

2. You are coming into the IS game when there are millions and millions of images, and hundreds of thousands contributors. There are likely hundreds of similar photos already in the database similar, some better, some worse, than your images. Basically what they mean is "we don't need any more of these".

You will have to up your game to be accepted and the only way I know how to do that is by studying what is selling best there now. Vetta collection wants artsy-type of images, etc.

All of the above is just my opinion, and maybe other, more experienced photogs here can be more specific about your composition. Hope my comments give you some perspective, at least.

You're going to beat your head against this wall until it's bloody, trying to get in - and if you do, find that it's very difficult to get images accepted, often very hard to figure ouit why something was rejected - and then not make enough sales to even begin to justify all the time spent. 

Wow that sounded a bit negative even for me          But I got into IS 16 months ago and it's gone downhill steadily since then.

Exactly !  My thoughts too.  I got accepted a few months back (after several failed attempts), and most of my images are now accepted

But these are NOT stock material !!  I'm surprised Veer accepts your images !?  I can't get in there !??? 

Hope this helps   Didn't want to be too negative, but you did ask !

*eek*
It's not sounding as easy as I thought, though it's reassuring to know it's not just me.
Looks like they have the pick of just about everyone in the microstock arena and can therefore make it as easy or difficult as they want.

I have been sending my less artistic shots as they always seemed to look more commercial to me and therefore make them more attractive to the microstocks.
Looks like I should probably start concentrating less on the white background, isolated objects and get out there and take photos which are a bit more interesting.

Looking at the top selling photos is pretty enlightening and has given me some ideas, though theres the usual "My photo doesn't look very different to that!"

Thanks for the advice (both positive and negative!). Looks like I've just got to keep on working on it and one time I will be lucky  

If you read down farther, I made it clear that this is my opinion. I got it from the writing on the wall. 

Agree!  but no, theres no way they gonna mix it in with the RM stuff. A= RM side is suffering, not what it used to be and images that sell are almost all conceptual.
B= IS cant throw out all non-exclusives, too big a chunk of business would go down the drain BUT they could within reason enforce exclusivity.

Apart from this, youre spot-on.  My hunch is that its going towards Macro, RF and so on.

You got to remember, any RM file is 50mb-Tiff, converted to high-end jpgs.

Shooting RM stuff for Getty is a totally different ballgame.

best

I completely agree.  This seems to be the path IS is taking.

Tons of s**t that is way worse than these images gets accepted at IS (and other agencies to be fair) everyday, especially from exclusives.  Just go to their front page and see what's under "exclusive uploads" tab. Maybe if you tried to get accepted as an exclusive it would be easier.... Not that I am particularly impressed with the photos, but I've seen way way way worse;)

Nowadays you have to be more creative to get accepted at IS. I don't say you are not creative, but you have to apply your creativity. Shoot something with stronger concept, and make three very different images with different subjects on different locations in different circumstances. And don't shoot flowers that are not really exceptionally, amazingly, extraordinary beautiful. And no sharpening! Noise reduction only very selectively!. IS hates noise reduction, so it's better to leave some noise if that preserves the details in shadows.
Watch for all technical requirements as purple fringing, color bending, artifacting, white ballans etc.

I'm sure you can do it. You just need three different images