I don't know about anyone else here but I am sick of earning crumbs from under the table from the feast that the fat cats are getting from our images. Piddling little sales of a few cents (converted to UK pounds spells even less) I didn't study photography for 4 years as a student to be one day being reduced to earning a pittance from my images. As a student we were told of the lucrative career we could make from photography.
It's like everything online that has been devalued. Music, video footage and photography. Rant over.
It was mid 1980's when times were more optimistic I suppose. I don't mind selling just microstock but we should get paid far more than we do for the time, editing and legwork of getting to these locations. I also sold an image that ended up being used as the main backdrop of an A listed Hollywood movie poster. Did I get much for it ? No, I got peanuts.Was it a photo arts course? I did a photo science course in the UK in the mid eighties and we were told that a career in photography wasn't easy and that most of the photo arts students usually ended up waiting tables.
I don't know about anyone else here but I am sick of earning crumbs from under the table from the feast that the fat cats are getting from our images. Piddling little sales of a few cents (converted to UK pounds spells even less) I didn't study photography for 4 years as a student to be one day being reduced to earning a pittance from my images. As a student we were told of the lucrative career we could make from photography.
It's like everything online that has been devalued. Music, video footage and photography. Rant over.
I don't know about anyone else here but I am sick of earning crumbs from under the table from the feast that the fat cats are getting from our images. Piddling little sales of a few cents (converted to UK pounds spells even less) I didn't study photography for 4 years as a student to be one day being reduced to earning a pittance from my images. As a student we were told of the lucrative career we could make from photography.
It's like everything online that has been devalued. Music, video footage and photography. Rant over.
I work at a photography school and we tell our students from day one that the world is not waiting to discover them, photography is one of the most popular hobbies on the planet and many amateurs deliver better work than some so called professionals.
In any creative profession - music, painting, dance,acting, the majority donīt make it to full time income for a family status.
You have to work crazy hard to stand above the crowd.
As a student we were told of the lucrative career we could make from photography.At High School, I remember an English teacher saying we shouldn't bother about Home Economics as if we did well academically, we wouldn't be cooking for ourselves.
Photography was a perfectly good career choice in the 80s and a nice field of study, combining art and technology. No one could have predicted where it would end up.
Photography was a perfectly good career choice in the 80s and a nice field of study, combining art and technology. No one could have predicted where it would end up.I remember the rejection letters I received from stock agencies in the 80's, never thought we would have it as good as it is now. Almost every post you make here is negative and didn't you give up on microstock? I don't like a lot of the things the sites have done but I still prefer being able to do this job than have rejection letters and just hear about how much other people are making.
Photography was a perfectly good career choice in the 80s and a nice field of study, combining art and technology. No one could have predicted where it would end up.
it's all about the availability , as you or someone else said in another thread.
remember in the 80's we were maybe one of what??? 50 photographers in the district...
some had photo studios, others go freelance. in NYC the freelancers were earning more money
freelancing there than many studio owners across the USA and Canada.
wedding and retouching were also a "professional" job.
then as every cousin's cousin's cousin got to be a "professional" because they could afford
an automatic camera with BIGGGGGG ZOOOOM lens with the coming of auto and digital
respectively, it became saturated with "professionals".
i remember how just before that, these same people could not even figure out how to use
the gossen luna pro or sekonic meter; never mind figure out the proper fstop for depth of field
manually,etc...
it also started the introduction of department store photo studio where the christmas portrait
with santa and the elves wearing purple suits (*underexposure*) ... and every customer was so
happy with their christmas portraits with those multi size pictures on one 8 by 10.
time capsule till today, it's quite a big step for mankind, isn't it???
personally, if i were to be a photographer today, i rather learn to do the jive, waltz, tango, rhumba,etc.. and become a dancer teacher.
it's highly unlikely there is going to be an automatic learn to dance invention to replace
the dance class.
And what's the definition of a "professional photographer"? Certainly it's not one who makes money taking pictures....we all achieve that distinction....it's my view that a professional photographer is "one who earns a good, decent living strictly as a photographer/videographer".
Photography was a perfectly good career choice in the 80s and a nice field of study, combining art and technology. No one could have predicted where it would end up.I remember the rejection letters I received from stock agencies in the 80's, never thought we would have it as good as it is now. Almost every post you make here is negative and didn't you give up on microstock? I don't like a lot of the things the sites have done but I still prefer being able to do this job than have rejection letters and just hear about how much other people are making.
For a side income Microstock is far too much work and time consuming. Does anyone make money by selling my images that get printed? I am not getting sales on FAA.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
For a side income Microstock is far too much work and time consuming. Does anyone make money by selling my images that get printed? I am not getting sales on FAA.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
If you're asking if people are making money by reselling your micro as prints, maybe.
There could be a lot of different reasons for not getting sales on FAA. One reason could be because buyers can print it cheaper by buying your micro images. I've found that a lot of print buyers do price shopping. The problem with having stuff on both micro and POD sites is you're competing against yourself on price. Meaning if FAA has a print for $50 and the buyer does a quick search and finds the same image on micro for $5 they can buy the micro image, print it for a couple dollars at Walmart, and save $40. A 40x60 canvas on FAA can be over $600. Again, if they can buy the image for a few dollars on micro, print it at Costco for $275, they just saved over $300.
I'd suggest to anyone that you have a strategy with a consistent price model across all sites and all licensing.
No, I don't have the microstock images on FAA. I have completely different photos on there. Microstock is not getting photos from me which I shot for hanging on someone's walls. Microstock is not getting sunrises or sunsets...from me when all I get is a few cent. These photos were taken specifically for hanging up inside someone's living room...
For a side income Microstock is far too much work and time consuming. Does anyone make money by selling my images that get printed? I am not getting sales on FAA.
Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
If you're asking if people are making money by reselling your micro as prints, maybe.
There could be a lot of different reasons for not getting sales on FAA. One reason could be because buyers can print it cheaper by buying your micro images. I've found that a lot of print buyers do price shopping. The problem with having stuff on both micro and POD sites is you're competing against yourself on price. Meaning if FAA has a print for $50 and the buyer does a quick search and finds the same image on micro for $5 they can buy the micro image, print it for a couple dollars at Walmart, and save $40. A 40x60 canvas on FAA can be over $600. Again, if they can buy the image for a few dollars on micro, print it at Costco for $275, they just saved over $300.
I'd suggest to anyone that you have a strategy with a consistent price model across all sites and all licensing.
I don't know about anyone else here but I am sick of earning crumbs from under the table from the feast that the fat cats are getting from our images. Piddling little sales of a few cents (converted to UK pounds spells even less) I didn't study photography for 4 years as a student to be one day being reduced to earning a pittance from my images. As a student we were told of the lucrative career we could make from photography.
It's like everything online that has been devalued. Music, video footage and photography. Rant over.
Sorry to ask. What do you mean by SEO optimisation? Some photos I turned into digital art. I don't have a website of my own. I just add photos onto their website. I don't have a paid account there. I spend a lot of time on these photos. Microstock only gets the easy to shoot photos from me. They don't get holiday photos either from me unless it is one that isn't excellent for digital art or canvas prints. I went through a holiday brochure today and someone took a stunning photo in the golden hour in the morning. I wondered if the photographer had put this stunning image on microstock. I just hope he hasn't. He/she should get lots of money for it. It's just stunningly beautiful.
Sorry to ask. What do you mean by SEO optimisation? Some photos I turned into digital art. I don't have a website of my own. I just add photos onto their website. I don't have a paid account there. I spend a lot of time on these photos. Microstock only gets the easy to shoot photos from me. They don't get holiday photos either from me unless it is one that isn't excellent for digital art or canvas prints. I went through a holiday brochure today and someone took a stunning photo in the golden hour in the morning. I wondered if the photographer had put this stunning image on microstock. I just hope he hasn't. He/she should get lots of money for it. It's just stunningly beautiful.
Also, if you don't have a paid account there, that's probably another reason. It's a numbers game. Unless you're already world famous or have the most amazing work, you're not going to get sales with 30 images. I have almost 2,000 images there and had around 300 sales last year.
Also, if you don't have a paid account there, that's probably another reason. It's a numbers game. Unless you're already world famous or have the most amazing work, you're not going to get sales with 30 images. I have almost 2,000 images there and had around 300 sales last year.
so you think the game rules change too???
i remember when you were with istock exclusive, you said it's not the number but the quality.
you said you sold more with less.
Photography was a perfectly good career choice in the 80s and a nice field of study, combining art and technology. No one could have predicted where it would end up.
it's all about the availability , as you or someone else said in another thread.
remember in the 80's we were maybe one of what??? 50 photographers in the district...
some had photo studios, others go freelance. in NYC the freelancers were earning more money
freelancing there than many studio owners across the USA and Canada.
wedding and retouching were also a "professional" job.
then as every cousin's cousin's cousin got to be a "professional" because they could afford
an automatic camera with BIGGGGGG ZOOOOM lens with the coming of auto and digital
respectively, it became saturated with "professionals".
i remember how just before that, these same people could not even figure out how to use
the gossen luna pro or sekonic meter; never mind figure out the proper fstop for depth of field
manually,etc...
it also started the introduction of department store photo studio where the christmas portrait
with santa and the elves wearing purple suits (*underexposure*) ... and every customer was so
happy with their christmas portraits with those multi size pictures on one 8 by 10.
time capsule till today, it's quite a big step for mankind, isn't it???
personally, if i were to be a photographer today, i rather learn to do the jive, waltz, tango, rhumba,etc.. and become a dancer teacher.
it's highly unlikely there is going to be an automatic learn to dance invention to replace
the dance class.