MicrostockGroup

Well... that was the line I got from Peter himself. I had a decent 60-70% approval rate for half a year and in the last month, it dropped to 20%. Of course all the rejections were the now infamous "thanks, but we are not looking for such image right now". Why I wondered? My technique improved, my selection stringency improved (my approval rate at Shutterstock and iStock is at almost 100% now) yet here almost every picture was being rejected (70 of 84 rejected). So I wrote a message to the admins blasting the reviewers basically insinuating that there was a reviewer out to get me, blah, blah, blah, two days later I got a response and a re-review of my images (additional 7 were accepted).

Anyways... here's a quote "...I took a look at your recent uploads and I approved some more although in most cases I have to agree with the admin who checked them. On StockXpert travel photos don't sell too well, just try searching for Rome and you'll see how few downloads they have. Still, many people want to upload travel stock so we are very selective..."

Anyways to follow up, EVERY SINGLE non travel photo I submitted got accepted recently. I ticks me off because I like travel photography and almost nothing else, but... at least now I know.

I'm glad they aren't very strict on illustrations. They accept nearly all of my submissions.

I understand their reasons for declining, I just wish their rejection reasons would actually say why instead of the typical "we are not looking for such images at this time"

No offense on anyone intended... but....
    I keep hearing that  'travel"  ... 'landscape"  ... pix do not sell. Yet, I sell them daily on SS and just about as frequently as my 'stock'  shots on DT, BigStock and others...  INCLUDING.. StockXpert.  No, I'm not going to be able to quit my day job or retire tomorrow.  However, the bulk of my 'folio is just that,  travel shots,  national parks,  etc.  And,  they're selling.  They are selling well enough that I will continue to upload them. My first payout from SS was... mostly from  'travel-landscape' shots.
     If StockXpert stops taking them....  no biggie to me.  If their customers don't want them, I can understand that.  But someone somewhere is buying them up for whatever reason.  And that's fine with me.
     However, fact of the matter is...  StockXpert just took a batch of my 'travel'  pix late last week.
     
      Believe me, if I had the meg/pxl's I'd be loading to the marco's but until I get my Mark II... I'll be sending my ' travel'  shots to all the micros that are taking and selling them.
   Sorry if that offends any.  -tom

after thought... you know, the bulk of what I shoot and submit, I shoot primarily for my own personal joy.   If they want 'em, great.  If they don't, great.

The fact that travel photos don't sell well at StockXpert is more a result of their marketing (or lack of such) than anything else. I sell lots of "travel" photos all over the place.

Believing that travel photos should remain with the full price agencies only forever, is a bit short sighted. Nowadays, stock photographers come from all over the world. I live in Thailand, and travel to Cambodia, Laos and Malaysia within a couple of hours. That makes those locations as available for me as Manhattan is for someone living in New York state.

While I agree that it's a nice thought that we should try to get as much as possible for our "exotic" shots for as long as possible, the whole point with microstock is the fact that anyone form any part of the world can become a contributor, given some basic quality requirements are fulfilled.

The world becomes less exotic that way, and we may or may not like that, but it's the way it is, and we're all participating. When it comes to truly unique images, the situation is very different. If I know that one of my images has that quality, it's not micro. The challenge is where to set the limit. How unique is unique?

epixx - Thank you,  exactly!  I can say that my BEST shots, the stuff I'm REALLY proud of...  aren't on ANY microstock site. Those are in hold for a future endevour, be it my own gallery and site or, if I ever make it into a marco or art agency.  My BEST stuff is never going to be sold for a quarter.  Not to say I'm not proud of the majority of the work I upload to micros.  But the BEST isn't with them.    -tom

I wonder. Does that ever happen?

Someone, in a recent post elsewhere in this forum, said that designers/purchasers on microstock need a specific image and they search for that. They don't give a rat's ass who took it.

Any designers/purchasers on here care to comment?

Hi!


Is that announcement anywhere on the stockXpert website or in the forums? I could not find it. I assume that many of their photographers do not read the microstockgroup forum but would appreciate to informed about this as well? Or does stockXpert just assume that their photographers will learn about this new policy by "trial and error"? :-)

All the best,
Michael

ps: Sorry if it is on the website and I just missed it...

May I ask what is in your opinion, the right place (non-micro-stock)  to sell travel picture. Alamy maybe? Thanks for any input, feedback
jean

I agree with ECO
And by the way, great images in a shoe box don't sell for themselves. I only try to upload every single image that I can imagine will sell.
Of coarse there are a bunch of images that do not make sense to upload on the micros but this is a really different matter.
Also we must think what should be considered difficult or unique to shoot. Some pictures from remote locations or unusual subjects may be unique for me but no so unique for others and I always keep this in mind.
I have a few pictures of endangered species that I do not consider to upload, because they are difficult to get for everyone, but if I have a Lyon picture I would upload it despite it could be considered one of a kind for me, since we do not have so many Lyons around town.


For jeancliclac

I've never submitted to them but if you have many travel pictures you can consider http://www.lonelyplanetimages.com
I've heard they are good at it and it's theire speciality, but they want one initial submission of 500 images.

Thank you Miguel, I will have a look, at  http://www.lonelyplanetimages.com and will be back here with my experience if I submit at this place.
Will have to gather the 500 pictures first...

Anyone having good experience with Alamy and travel pictures?


And a  last question, what about the need of model release? I have plenty of portrait from China, peru, India, etc.... but no single release.....are those pictures mostly used for editorial?

Thanks again to the nice people of this forum!

Jean

Tyler is the one who reads the whole thing. I clipped part of the message for you guys in the original post. Yeah, I hear some of you. I'm ALL travel stock. I don't like doing anything else. I will if I have to (mostly for money) or if I have a brilliant stock concept (very few of those) because stock photography in its conceptual lack of soul just doesn't move me. What does is money.

And yeah, travel stock sells great on some sites. I do great with it on Dreamstime: , just about 5 minutes ago I sold yet another Extended License there with this shot:


It's funny too because I just went through a whole Q&A session at Fotolia because they stopped accepting (maybe they never were and I just didn't notice) panoramic pictures.

And to epixx: I agree. Travel shots make a bulk of my sales everywhere including StockXpert and a good bulk providing for a payout every month for half a year now. It's just a pity that I can't seem to get anymore travel shots in and if so, it is with a great difficulty...

Can't be too bad, they accepted this four days ago:



And I'd have to say it's not that flash as travel/scenic photography goes...

Maybe they are looking for unique rather than best when it comes to travel/scenic stuff?

Just my 2c worth.

Funny you should mention the Eiffel Tower.  They recently took a couple of my shots from Vegas and the faux  Eiffel. Of course, I had 'shopped' out all the commercial references.  And I hate to sound contradictory, but my entire last batch last week was all  'travel/landscape'  shots.  They took them.
       Who knows??  I intended to upload more of them tonight. I'll let you know if they take them.     -tom

p.s.  And to be perfectly honest,  I DO NOT  consider them to be what I'd call  "WOW"  shots.   They're okay, but I don't think I'll be seeing any billboards with them displayed.