I agree with mantonino: I think the scales make it quite different and I think there is use for both images. I think a measuring container with cups looks stupid in a European magazine.
I can't comment on the last one since it is too small to judge the technical quality.

I am one of the few people that has the LOWEST acceptance rate on Fotolia from ALL agencies. It's not by much but still. I don't really care anymore, I got used to it. I only get mad when they reject a really nice image that I worked on for a long time.
I think every agency has their faults and we have to learn how to live with them.

Quote from: yingyang0 on April 04, 2008, 19:24

Quote from: bittersweet on April 04, 2008, 18:05

Quote from: CofkoCof on April 04, 2008, 17:56

... and the contributors get 20-40% of it, where at other sites they get nothing of this surplus.

If a subscription sales won't generate less per credit than I'm making now, I don't see how my per image sales will be "cannibalized", plus each subscription sale comes with a "virtual lottery ticket" that may increase the royalty unexpectedly if the customer does not max out that day.   

Exactly what I said on pg. 2 of this thread. It will cannibalize, but for the better. The "cannibalized" downloads will earn the same or more than they would have before.

Dan doesn't yet seem to understand how different this program is from the other subscription sites. I know it shocked . out of me.

Istock is trying to attract every halfway decent stock photographer to go exclusive with them.  They will exert complete and utter dominance over the market if that happens.  They will be free to price at will and do just about anything they want.  They would have a virtually unlimited supply of good photographers for their macro business and would not have to worry about their macro competition stealing their well trained photographers.  Their only micro competition would be the bargain basement shops that take everything.  They figured out the way to destroy their competition, steal all of their good contributers.  The more exclusives that they get, the more they can sink their claws in their competition by raising their prices and paying their contributers more, further gaining more exclusives.  With each exclusive they gain their competition gets a little worse, making them even more attractive to buyers, allowing them to further raise prices, gain more exclusives, and hurt their competition even more.  It would not surprise me on bit if in 2-3 years, IS prices are 3-5X what they are now, and each contributer makes 3-5x more per download, and the % of people exclusive is very high, yet despite their rising prices their traffic skyrockets as they have no competition to their quality.  The only thing that could be done to prevent this is the other sites getting together and raising commissions almost simultaneously with IS, so that when IS raises prices and commissions, and contributers hit that exclusivity calculator link, they aren't left with an overwhelmingly easy decision to go exclusive.  (ask yourself, if IS raised commissions 300% tomorrow, how long would it take you to go exclusive with them (and virtually double that 300% to 600%).  I suspect most here would do it in a heartbeat).

Quote from: bittersweet on April 04, 2008, 16:00

Don't know what AAC6D63 is exactly responding to, but I think the others may have been referring to the similarities between my username and a certain istock celebrity.

Yep, like maybe this guy.

^Interesting handle Mr Newbie  

more info

Cost of the event:  US $350
Lodging: (cheapest) 112.5 Euro (5 nights)
Dates: June 15-22, 2008

a question for those who have gone to these things.  Can you use the pictures you take in the shoots for stock?  It seems it could get complicated or something when there are 50 people with images from the same shoot

and would it be worth the ~$1000+ it would cost

Quote from: fotografer on April 01, 2008, 11:17

I'm finding exactly the same as Lisa and Phildate.  I haven't reached emerald yet on FT but when I do it will put fotolia well in front of FT and possibly SS also.

fotolia well in front of FT  ?