Quote from: oxman on October 03, 2012, 21:41

Quote from: jsnover on October 03, 2012, 19:18

@oxman - do you like photocase? If not, is there currently an agency that has the type of hand-picked work you'd like to see?

I was not familiar with them. Just checked them out and typed in "gavel" and it returned a bunch of photos of gravel and no other options... so I feel that site has issues with content.

Regarding quality stock...  back in the pre micro days my firm used alot of stock from Tony Stone. That collection had a great feel and creative twist which is lacking in most stock. I'd like to see a micro stock with the style of the old or new Stone work.

http://www.gettyimages.com/creative/frontdoor/stone

How many gavel shots has Tony Stone done? If that's the stick you measure "higher artistic quality" by no wonder you can't find what you're looking for.

Just did.

New member here! I�m posting because I�m building a new stock photography site, and I would love to get your feedback on the idea. We�re hoping to get early feedback to help us create a marketplace that will benefit and meet the needs of the photographers themselves. We think the stock photography industry is broken, and we�re aiming to fix it. Here�s our concept quickly explained.

Sounds like a decent offering. Hopefully, it works out for you. Are you selling vectors too?

I'd suggest limiting the number of contributors you accept instead of limiting the images you accept. It's an easier goal to keep a smaller number of contributors with large portfolios happy with sales than trying to get sales for thousands of contributors with small portfolios.

Quote from: kurtvarner on October 03, 2012, 12:45

New member here! I�m posting because I�m building a new stock photography site, and I would love to get your feedback on the idea. We�re hoping to get early feedback to help us create a marketplace that will benefit and meet the needs of the photographers themselves. We think the stock photography industry is broken, and we�re aiming to fix it. Here�s our concept quickly explained.

Sounds like a decent offering. Hopefully, it works out for you. Are you selling vectors too?

I'd suggest limiting the number of contributors you accept instead of limiting the images you accept. It's an easier goal to keep a smaller number of contributors with large portfolios happy with sales than trying to get sales for thousands of contributors with small portfolios.

You may just have hit the nail on the head! That is how a new site should do it. It is how one of the small illustration sites manages to stay in the top 4 for most people that have gotten in. It also means you are getting feedback from a select few people that know the business rather than loads of noise from people that aren't really pros and aren't producing the goods in any case.

Quote from: jsnover on October 03, 2012, 19:18

@oxman - do you like photocase? If not, is there currently an agency that has the type of hand-picked work you'd like to see?

I was not familiar with them. Just checked them out and typed in "gavel" and it returned a bunch of photos of gravel and no other options... so I feel that site has issues with content.

Regarding quality stock...  back in the pre micro days my firm used alot of stock from Tony Stone. That collection had a great feel and creative twist which is lacking in most stock. I'd like to see a micro stock with the style of the old or new Stone work.

http://www.gettyimages.com/creative/frontdoor/stone

Ditto! Stone and image-bank, still reigns supreme in every single aspect. Know what the problem is? you simply dont have that kind of photographer nowdays, nor the editors nor the foresight. These people could spend two weeks on just one shot and thats without any photoshopping. In those days it was done by craftsmen, retouching, special-effects the lot. Remember Tea-bagging? you couldnt even get that sort of effect with PS!  and pictures sold like hot cakes and for thousands. You could open up a monthly sales-report and there was a neat sum of 10 grand in pounds sterling, others twice as much. Just look at their customers! dozens of the worlds biggest AD-agencies, designers like Conrans, shops like Harrods, Barclays, RR, BMW, range-rover, you name it.

Look at it today? 80% just do isolations and only because they think thats where the money is. Ive seen only one great port of isolations and thats by, RT, brillant, others are just copying.

Differant world, differant ladder.

I do wish the OP best of luck though, anything positive is always worthwhile.

The concensus is similar, the industry is at saturation point. 

Hope you find your niche, ive managed to start on a project aimed at a specific market.

Oh I found my nieche long ago, back in the film days actually and still holds very, very strong today. However I am not too sure even that is enough in todays stock world.
Buyers, lets say 10-15 years back were quality conscious, some even to the extreme. Today very much thanks to the internet, buyers have become blase, dont really care and just seem to go for any old rubbish as long as its cheap. They are spoilt. This is the downside of todays industry.