Author Topic: Yuri Arcurs First Public Statement (Read 146489 times)

rene · « **Reply #225 on:** July 25, 2013, 22:05 »

So if I understand well Hasselblad sacked Yuri and he will be sponsored by Nokia.
Preference for sinking ships?

EmberMike · « **Reply #226 on:** July 25, 2013, 22:19 »

Quote from: gbalex on July 25, 2013, 21:28

...What is wrong with saying that the Audi's service package was not up to snuff, he tried to negotiate better terms and service with the auto dealer and they ignored his needs. Therefor he decided to part ways and is simply sharing why he felt the need to do this. There are sites all over the net offering customer feedback on cars, what is so wrong with discussing dissatisfaction with a business partner which fell short in fulfilling their side of the business arrangement...

Nothing wrong with it if Yuri just stated it as such. And did so respectfully.

Instead he came out with his comments about "professionals work with professionals", implying that neither we nor the microstock companies he left deserve the distinction. And then tossed his ego around suggesting that he is the most significant thing to happen to microstock.

We can respectfully state their reasons for disliking one company or another and do it while leaving our egos at the door. Well, most of us can, anyway.

Xanox · « **Reply #227 on:** July 25, 2013, 22:48 »

what the * guys, most of you sound like a bunch of angry trolls.

i fully agree with Yuri moving to Getty, 100% and that should be the end of the story and the message to all newbies and old stockers : microstock is a ripoff and pros should better not deal with croo-ks.

as for the super duper mirrorless sensors with glued prime lens that will feature in new high-end phones, gimme a break, i see some new sample images from the latest nokia and it suc-ks even in daytime, a bad noisy 41MP image will look a bit better when downsized to 12MP but that's the very best scenario you can expect !

KimsCreativeHub · « **Reply #228 on:** July 25, 2013, 22:55 »

Quote from: cthoman on July 25, 2013, 21:24

Quote from: KimsCreativeHub on July 25, 2013, 20:41
At one point a few years or so ago I remember istock had hit that "sweet spot" I remember EVERYONE was making good $$ and the clients/designers just loved the place!!!!!

My dream is to see the industry return to such days

That's probably not going to happen, but there will probably be other opportunities that develop.

Good point, I must say for the 1st time in 2 years I feel pretty good about our industry.

Xanox · « **Reply #229 on:** July 25, 2013, 23:01 »

Quote from: gostwyck on July 25, 2013, 18:12

Firstly quality is determined by the sensor, but modern DSLR sensors are so sensitive, that they can already show the flaws in even the best quality glass. The more light that is gathered (determined by the size of the lens) the more detail that can be seen and resolved by the sensor. That's basic physics. You'll be telling us next that they'll be removing those big astronomical telescopes on top of mountains and replacing them with your little camera phones.

i know what they're doing with phones, and it's nothing short than a dirty trick to get cr-ap quality.

basically they will package sensor + single lens + focus in a single package and fit in 5-6mm of space.
it works already .. but the tradeoff is quality is bad in any field and there's no way you can improve it.

it's laughable that many think there will be a big progress on this technology as they've already hit the wall and all they can do is using bigger and better sensors to slightly improve the overall output but from a sh-it lens you do miracles even if it was a medium format Hasselblad !

the only guys falling for this tripe and the BS marketing will be the same crowd who's ready to pay twice than an entry level DSLR for the latest Sony NEX or Nikon 1.

tab62 · « **Reply #230 on:** July 25, 2013, 23:08 »

sort of like 'over clocking' the cpu's in the old days and telling folks that you have a 1 GHz when your chip is a 550 MHz

Xanox · « **Reply #231 on:** July 25, 2013, 23:29 »

Quote from: tab62 on July 25, 2013, 23:08

sort of like 'over clocking' the cpu's in the old days and telling folks that you have a 1 GHz when your chip is a 550 MHz

even worse than that, for instance how they deal with the autofocus is very interesting and will not provide a properly focused image !

really, the nokia samples look shite even at ISO100 in daylight, i can't see where all their enthusiasm comes from and the 41MP pitch is pure marketing BS as each photo will ger resized and denoised and filtered 2-3 times before becoming a JPEG ... that's ridicolous but otherwise it would be obvious for all to see how bad these sensor/lens combos are.

and i'm not impressed at all also by Sony NEX & friends, rubbish so far, and no reason to improve further with such small lenses and cr-ap plastic bodies.

as always, manufacturers are profiting from dumb buyers who are totally clueless about image quality and couldnt find their as-s with both hands if asked.

what's next ? will the new nokias make me a coffee too ? really it's getting ridicolous at this point and more and mroe people ask me to skype them rather than making phone calls, wha the F ??

Shelma1 · « **Reply #232 on:** July 25, 2013, 23:50 »

Quote from: Yuri_Arcurs on July 25, 2013, 15:24

Quote from: dolgachov on July 25, 2013, 15:02
Yuri, from your experience and knowledge,

1. do you believe there will be any raise of .38 SS subscription royalty bar, maybe at quite high sales level, in the nearest future (let's say 12 months)?

2. do you believe prices for credit sales on major microsites will go any higher than current level in next 12 months or you believe we will see exactly the opposite?

3. now you obviously see a new horizons in raising income for YAP, comparing to horizons you've seen on micros, how big it is? the number you expect to have in 2014 and 2015 financial years now, how does it relate to the numbers for 2014 and 2015 you would expect to have if would stay on micros?

thank you!

1. No. Absolutly no. I would expect the opposite from a company that spends 30% on google addwords and is public. Where will they get the money from? What will happen if they spend 25% next year? Stocks will drop.!

2. Ask me in 6mth. There is a gameplan.

3. I have been very fortunate in business and yes we continue to grow. In 2013 we are forecasting to be awarded as the fastest growing corporation in Denmark!

Unfortunately, "fastest-growing" may not mean much. A corporation could sell, say, 1 photo in 2012 and 3 in 2013, which would mean 200% growth (amazing!). Lies, damned lies and statistics, and all that.

BrianM · « **Reply #233 on:** July 26, 2013, 00:04 »

Quote from: BK on July 25, 2013, 21:01

If newspapers are firing photographers for iPhones it's just a matter of time. The question is how big the impact will be and how best to make money from it.

When firms eliminate jobs, it doesn't mean there is a way to "make money from it." It simply means that the owners or shareholders of that business get to keep more money because there are fewer employees to pay. A few people that were already doing quite well make a bit extra and lots of people that needed regular jobs to make ends meet are in a tougher situation.

It was this way for bank tellers, check out cashiers, farm labor, and now some of the higher skilled positions such as staff photo journalists. In the latter case, you can bet the firms aren't anxious to compensate the crowd sourced replacement, they just want cheap or free labor that's "good enough."

Shelma1 · « **Reply #234 on:** July 26, 2013, 00:04 »

Quote from: Xanox on July 25, 2013, 16:19

Quote from: topol on July 25, 2013, 16:11
Having to really nail them is trivial when there are 20+ million images in store.

Due to Pareto's Law only 20% of those 20 million images are selling well and compensating for the remaining 80% of low sellers.

That means 2 millions of top sellers and of those 2 millions 100,000 are Yuri's, that means his portfolio alone impacts an agency like SS for around 5% of their sales but as far as we know it could be even 10-15% !

Of course random buyers will quickly grab the clones but some buyers could go back to istock if they're fans of Yuri and his team.

Why do you assume all of his images are top sellers? Didn't I read in another thread that half his images have never sold at all?

BK · « **Reply #235 on:** July 26, 2013, 00:26 »

Quote from: tab62 on July 25, 2013, 23:08

sort of like 'over clocking' the cpu's in the old days and telling folks that you have a 1 GHz when your chip is a 550 MHz

Good points. And digital will never replace film. The quality just sucks! No professional will ever use digital...

gbalex · « **Reply #236 on:** July 26, 2013, 00:42 »

Quote from: EmberMike on July 25, 2013, 22:19

Quote from: gbalex on July 25, 2013, 21:28
...What is wrong with saying that the Audi's service package was not up to snuff, he tried to negotiate better terms and service with the auto dealer and they ignored his needs. Therefor he decided to part ways and is simply sharing why he felt the need to do this. There are sites all over the net offering customer feedback on cars, what is so wrong with discussing dissatisfaction with a business partner which fell short in fulfilling their side of the business arrangement...

Nothing wrong with it if Yuri just stated it as such. And did so respectfully.

Instead he came out with his comments about "professionals work with professionals", implying that neither we nor the microstock companies he left deserve the distinction. And then tossed his ego around suggesting that he is the most significant thing to happen to microstock.

We can respectfully state their reasons for disliking one company or another and do it while leaving our egos at the door. Well, most of us can, anyway.

Agree with you about checking ego's at the door, they often do more harm than good.

Ron · « **Reply #237 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:08 »

Quote from: EmberMike on July 25, 2013, 20:46

Quote from: tickstock on July 25, 2013, 20:41
Quote from: EmberMike on July 25, 2013, 20:34
Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on July 25, 2013, 20:05
...It isn't envy. It's realization that previous actions were only done for a certain reason. It's anger at misplaced trust and lack of concern for the community at large. Of course, you know what happens when you try to effect change .

I don't think anyone here is under any obligation to the community at large. Yuri is free to move on to whatever pastures he likes, owing us nothing in return. We all have the same deal here. We contribute to this microstock thing while we're here, adding our own voice and skill to the mix, and we owe nothing to anyone if/when we leave.

I just think it's unfortunate the way in which he's chosen to make his exit. He's not so much leaving us behind as he is just doing something different while mocking what he was doing previously. It's like proudly driving around in an Audi for years and then getting a Lexus and swinging by the Audi dealership to mock Audis, Audi owners, dealers, salesmen, mechanics, etc.
Maybe the Audi turned out to be a lemon, it just took a few years to find out.

If by "lemon" you mean "super successful business that generated millions of dollars per year" then yeah, sure, it was a lemon.

I drive an Audi... its not true, its not a lemon, its a fantastic car. Wouldnt want to trade it for a Lexus

Beppe Grillo · « **Reply #238 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:18 »

Quote from: jm on July 25, 2013, 17:03

Quote from: roede-orm on July 25, 2013, 16:58
Quote from: jm on July 25, 2013, 16:25
Believe it or not - few of us don't speak Danish. To be honest I find using Danish in this thread impolite.
It is not necessary to speak Danish. But you can read it anyway. It is somewhere between English and German.
True. Now I can read it. In fact any language is somewhere between English, German, Russian, Chinese and Hungarian.

Like most of latin languages spoken by millions of people……

topol · « **Reply #239 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:19 »

Quote from: Xanox on July 25, 2013, 22:48

what the * guys, most of you sound like a bunch of angry trolls.

i fully agree with Yuri moving to Getty, 100% and that should be the end of the story and the message to all newbies and old stockers : microstock is a ripoff and pros should better not deal with croo-ks.

as for the super duper mirrorless sensors with glued prime lens that will feature in new high-end phones, gimme a break, i see some new sample images from the latest nokia and it suc-ks even in daytime, a bad noisy 41MP image will look a bit better when downsized to 12MP but that's the very best scenario you can expect !

As opposed to getty, a nice friendly and fair company loved so dearly by photographers

Ron · « **Reply #240 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:20 »

Quote from: Xanox on July 25, 2013, 23:01

Quote from: gostwyck on July 25, 2013, 18:12
Firstly quality is determined by the sensor, but modern DSLR sensors are so sensitive, that they can already show the flaws in even the best quality glass. The more light that is gathered (determined by the size of the lens) the more detail that can be seen and resolved by the sensor. That's basic physics. You'll be telling us next that they'll be removing those big astronomical telescopes on top of mountains and replacing them with your little camera phones.

i know what they're doing with phones, and it's nothing short than a dirty trick to get cr-ap quality.

basically they will package sensor + single lens + focus in a single package and fit in 5-6mm of space.
it works already .. but the tradeoff is quality is bad in any field and there's no way you can improve it.

it's laughable that many think there will be a big progress on this technology as they've already hit the wall and all they can do is using bigger and better sensors to slightly improve the overall output but from a sh-it lens you do miracles even if it was a medium format Hasselblad !

the only guys falling for this tripe and the BS marketing will be the same crowd who's ready to pay twice than an entry level DSLR for the latest Sony NEX or Nikon 1.

Now you sound like an angry troll. .

Its not okay to bash Yuri, but you are doing the same, in a more sneaky way, indirectly. LOL

SLP_London · « **Reply #241 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:25 »

Such a shame that 95% of this thread was wasted on bickering, quibbling and sniping. Yuri offered an opportunity for debate and it was wasted.

Regarding mobile phones, as I said in an earlier thread 'wake up and smell the coffee'.

And honestly, why on earth question Yuri's qualification and judgement of smart phone potential. Do you think he doesn't understand what competing with a DSLR requires?

Ron · « **Reply #242 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:31 »

Quote from: SLP_London on July 26, 2013, 01:25

Such a shame that 95% of this thread was wasted on bickering, quibbling and sniping. Yuri offered an opportunity for debate and it was wasted.

As I said in a

I believe he started the bickering, quibbling and sniping when he wrote this http://arcurs.com/2013/07/microstock-sees-its-first-major-setback-in-6-years-and-here-is-why/

You reap what you sow.

topol · « **Reply #243 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:34 »

Quote from: tab62 on July 25, 2013, 23:08

sort of like 'over clocking' the cpu's in the old days and telling folks that you have a 1 GHz when your chip is a 550 MHz

If you overclocked it, it really was 1 Ghz, buddy.

Ron · « **Reply #244 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:40 »

Quote

If we disregard non-images sales on micro sites, the withdrawal of our content, equals to a loss of total downloads in the range of 4-15% depending on the microstock site involved. Now consider why a subscriber to a microstock subscription plan should pay the same per month, if his favorite images are suddenly removed? If he paid 299 USD last month, why should he pay the same when now he/she can download less?

How about Shutterstock added 150.000 images last week, so the price for the package should go up now?

Quote

Furthermore, by cutting out the middleman we can keep the same prices but provide a whole new level of service. As of last month, our entire collection of images, now reaching 120’000, can only be found on our own site Peopleimages.com, GettyImages.com and Istockphoto.com.

http://www.dreamstime.com/yuri_arcurs_more-latest-adition_pg1

Quote

I also revealed my involvement in Scoopshot.com through a 1.4mil USD engle investment at a press conference in London. You can read more about it on techcrunch.

To sum up: In one day, microstock saw a public release confirming that Yuri Arcurs (me) and all our 20 photographers (70% of which are on the top 10 in the world) and our entire peopleimages.com production house, would leave and move all images to Istock/Getty. They witnessed an otherwise underestimated industry (mobile photography, scoopshot.com) being granted a seal of trust in a 1.2mil USD investment.

Which one is it?

Ploink · « **Reply #245 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:45 »

After reading the blog post three things occurred to me:

I should speak of myself in the third person more often.
The royal "we" is used much too sparingly on the internet.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

Ron · « **Reply #246 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:48 »

Quote from: SLP_London on July 26, 2013, 01:25

And honestly, why on earth question Yuri's qualification and judgement of smart phone potential. Do you think he doesn't understand what competing with a DSLR requires?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_business_failures

He wont be the first getting it wrong. Kodak anyone?

pancaketom · « **Reply #247 on:** July 26, 2013, 01:54 »

I thought SS stock had fallen because Attila had rejected most of my last batch of new images. Way to burst my bubble.

It sounds like this Getty/Istock he speaks of is a totally different entity from the one that has been shafting the rest of us for so long.

fotoVoyager · « **Reply #248 on:** July 26, 2013, 02:19 »

Unfortunately it was overnight for me so missed the chance to join this conversation - an opportunity to question Yuri about his predictions for the future is not to be missed whether you agree with him or not!

I too strongly dislike the subs model at such low royalty rates, nothing has done more to commodify photography. I know some of you do well at SS, but I imagine diminishing returns are just round the corner.

Unfortunately I cannot place the trust in Getty that Yuri has done, even though they are my agent. Their actions towards their exclusive photographers have never been positive since they bought iStock, from the Vetta royalty rate cut, the RC system that's designed to limit the number of artists receiving semi-reasonable royalties, destruction of the referral system, flooding the library with wholly owned content and making new uploads worthless by skewing best match.

I guess Yuri may have negotiated a deal that overcomes some of these obstacles to success there, so good luck to him.

The real problem in this industry is low royalty percentages, they should be up at the 70-80% mark as they are in the Apple App Store to make a sustainable, healthy business and profits for everyone, agencies and copyright owners alike.

I'm not as sceptical as some of you about phone cameras. If tech-change over the past decade has shown us anything it's that disruption and amazing advances can and do happen. Who'd of thought I'd be shooting with a 36mp D800 a few years ago?

Seeing a great image, controlling light and being in position are pro photographer skills that are never going to go away, irrespective of the camera used and I for one would be grateful if I didn't have to carry 7kg of kit up Himalayan peaks any more!

gillian vann · « **Reply #249 on:** July 26, 2013, 02:32 »

It's very confronting, isn't it, to be told what we all dread... I had lunch with a journo friend today who moaned about bloggers ruining her industry, and how she refuses to turn up to cover events that bloggers have been invited to. "they take rubbish photos and have poor writing skills, and they get their stories up almost instantly" was the gist of it. I couldn't help but think: yeah, so you have to outdo them or find something else to do. I realised that she might well say the same to me if I whinged about microstock.

Things are changing and we need to find a way to make it work. Yuri is doing that for himself. Congrats.

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Author Topic: Yuri Arcurs First Public Statement (Read 146489 times)

rene

EmberMike

Xanox

KimsCreativeHub

Xanox

tab62

Xanox

Shelma1

BrianM

Shelma1

BK

gbalex

Ron

Beppe Grillo

topol

Ron

SLP_London

Ron

topol

Ron

Ploink

Ron

pancaketom

fotoVoyager

gillian vann

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