MicrostockGroup
Microstock Photography Forum - General => Newbie Discussion => Topic started by: FiledIMAGE on April 10, 2013, 23:12
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Hi All,
Thought id introduce myself as I'm really enjoying this site. I work in Melbourne Australia freelance taking lots of travel/portrait/wedding/music imagery.
I dabbled in stock a while back but didn't give it enough of an effort for it to do anything. Wish I had now. I basically got into it again after a big road trip across the US and trying to take more stock like photos. I bought a Kindle, downloaded some books and have thrown myself into it. Its also a way for me to sort thru the 10s of thousands of images that I have doing nothing on my PC.
An idea of my portfolio can be seen here:
http://depositphotos.com/portfolio-2209782.html (http://depositphotos.com/portfolio-2209782.html)
I am achieving between 65-95% acceptance rate to 9 libraries. Fairly happy. Im still uploading borderline shots to test the boundaries of the reviewers. For example how much of a copyrighted landmark can be in a shot before its rejected. How small can people be without a model licence etc. Its fun stuff overall. A few sales have come thru but with only 100 uploaded or so I guess that should be the case.
My next step is to move more into the stock photography concept type thing. Most of my shots are standard travel, urban type imagery. Id like to do the 'man resting on holiday' type image. Also explore the editorial imagery sector. I have A LOT of images that I think meet this grade. I just don't understand it yet
Anyhow enuff from me. Have a good day!
Chris
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welcome here.
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Hey Chris, welcome along! I'm sure you will find MSG to be a useful place.
All the best with it.
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Welcome! :) Are you only on deposit for now? I would strongly recommend to submit to Shutterstock and others.
To compare:
Depositphoto's - 446 images online and about 30-40 downloads per month
Shutterstock: 273 images and 134 downloads just for this month. Hope to go over 300 dl this month.
Fotolia and Dreamstime are also very good for me.
You have some nice images and if you have thousands you could make a flying start! :)
Good luck!
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I've been on-board for almost 2 years now and the more involved, the deeper I go! To the point now where its almost obsessive. Rejections help you learn. Acceptance keeps you motivated.
Very nice portfolio. A real potpourri. You'll do well!
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Wow Flamingos are very orange in Oz! Good stuff love the piglet. :)
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Welcome. I'm pretty new myself, but have already found this forum an invaluable resource. Not least to know that you're not alone when an inspector rejects your "awesome" image, or an agency's upload requirements want to make you tear your hair out :)
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Wow Flamingos are very orange in Oz! Good stuff love the piglet. :)
no, they're not Australian (else they'd be poisonous too:P )
do we even have them??
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Flamingo's used to live in Australia, but now are extinct there." Phoeniconotius eyrensis, from the late Oligocene of South Australia, was one of the most massively built flamingos known. At the time Lake Eyre was a vast inland lake, home to many other water birds as well as crocodiles, lungfish and numerous marsupials. The youngest Australian fossil flamingo is Pleistocene in age. Flamingos most likely became extinct in Australia as increasing aridity caused permanent inland waterways to disappear." (Australian Museum). However there are flamingos in Zoos when they escape they gorge themselves at barbies eating prawns and drinking tinnys this turns them bright orange. :)
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Flamingo's used to live in Australia, but now are extinct there." Phoeniconotius eyrensis, from the late Oligocene of South Australia, was one of the most massively built flamingos known. At the time Lake Eyre was a vast inland lake, home to many other water birds as well as crocodiles, lungfish and numerous marsupials. The youngest Australian fossil flamingo is Pleistocene in age. Flamingos most likely became extinct in Australia as increasing aridity caused permanent inland waterways to disappear." (Australian Museum). However there are flamingos in Zoos when they escape they gorge themselves at barbies eating prawns and drinking tinnys this turns them bright orange. :)
you forgot to mention that surely they had poison barbs in their feathers? :)
back OT, I'm curious that the famous beach huts are allowed as stock, without a property release. I shot them a few years back, but on film... and frankly, getting a beautiful sunny afternoon with achingly beautiful blue (Qld-esque) skies is near impossible in Victoria. :P
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Hey Chris welcome.
I myself am quite new to the site but have well over a decade in stock photography so thought I'd toss in my 2 cents worth
A few sales have come thru but with only 100 uploaded or so I guess that should be the case.
Years back (before photography) I worked in advertising, then, your target was 1 sale per 100 people that saw an advertisement, according to friends still in the industry these figures are still pretty accurate with 1-2 sales per 100 people.
I use this as a guide for selling stock images, for every 100 'views' of an image I hope to achieve 1 sale. If I have had an image up for a while and it is in excess of 150 views with no sales I either re-keyword it and try again or delete it if it's not a strong image.
Just a rough way to measure sales and not clutter up your portfolio.
My next step is to move more into the stock photography concept ---- Id like to do the 'man resting on holiday' type image.
Chris
A tip on keywording, you being an Aussie, and me a Brit, we speak proper English unlike our Yankee counterparts to me and you. 'Man resting on holiday' means just that. To the Americans 'Holidays' are Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter etc, they refer to our version of holiday as 'Vacation' so just remember when keywording the Americans make up a massive part of the market so make sure you aren't missing sales due to differences in languages.
All the best, Darren.
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Hey All,
Wow thanks for the responses and tips. Some great pointers. I certainly have applied for more and am submitting to 8 libraries currently. Really trying to keep consistently uploading. Even though I am using Lightburner im finding between the upload limits for some libraries and other failures thats its super hard keeping up with whats got to the library or not. I thnk I need to have a break, get images from pending for each library. Then go thru manually each library. Gets confusing!
Chris