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General Stock Discussion / Re: Cost of Living's Affect on Production
« on: June 11, 2015, 11:59 »
Hi everyone. Im mostly a reader than a writer on the forums, but this is a topic that a see very frequently, people in developing countries complaining about how the "third world" is taking the bread out of their mouths on micro stock. Im currently live in Colombia, and despite micro is just a eventual hobbie for me , I been close to this for a few years and I believe that theres isnt easier in one place or the other. It is true that less develop countries have a lower cost of life, but the income per/h is lower swell. For example , here in Bogota, you can live well with 1.000 usd per month, but for example basic salary is about 300 usd per month only, most professionals here earn about 700 usd per month. Other countries like ecuador, peru or bolivia are even cheaper. You can said that with an income doing micro stock of 1000 per month you can live on one of this countries very well, but there are facts that made this very difficult.First, to make a decent living here, you have to work more hours per week ,sometimes have other jobs aside of your day job, so there is no so much time off left to do micro, shooting , keywording, uploading and etc. In the case you have the time, all the equipment are more expensive, like camera, lenses, lights and gear to do it properly, because of import taxes and other. You can have the time and equipment, but still you need to have an space to do it like a garage or basement , or rent an studio. More additional cost, plus the expenses of production like paying models and transportation. In developing countries you can use your credit card and afford all of this at the beginning and pay later, in third world countries credit work very differently , so you have to gathered all the cash for equipment and production first ,and after start to shoot and upload and wait for the income to come without leaving your day job.
Like any other business microstock requires and investment of money and time to make it work, in develop countries is easier to have this 2 resources and produce more but this is not enough to live well, in less develop countries is much more difficult to get money and time to do it, but at the end , if you build a large enough portfolio, you can make a living. So this is very relative. I personally think that the problem is photography stock business, everyday there is more images, more photogs, more agencies and the demand remains quite the same, so it is a logical consequence that the piece of the pie for every photog will be less and less, no matter where you are.
Like any other business microstock requires and investment of money and time to make it work, in develop countries is easier to have this 2 resources and produce more but this is not enough to live well, in less develop countries is much more difficult to get money and time to do it, but at the end , if you build a large enough portfolio, you can make a living. So this is very relative. I personally think that the problem is photography stock business, everyday there is more images, more photogs, more agencies and the demand remains quite the same, so it is a logical consequence that the piece of the pie for every photog will be less and less, no matter where you are.