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Messages - surpasspro
26
« on: April 28, 2010, 16:02 »
I guess I'm trusting that with access to my account that he won't cash my money and take off or misuse my images. You still have to trust a third party service or someone you hire, so relying on family is not a bad thing.
I would still have copyright to my images, but I will probably have to limit the amount of time a royalty can be earned.
27
« on: April 28, 2010, 12:40 »
The person I'm considering is family related so there is a level of trust there. I have a meeting setup with him and will gauge his interest with all the pros/cons/risks laid out. I might have to hire someone full time, but I'm trying this route first.
In the last 3 years, I've traveled to close to 30 countries and all the continents. Most of it with my day time job photographing most major cities and photo shoots with models in those cities. Also, throw in photos from personal vacation trips. So, I haven't submitted much in a couple of years, due to traveling and time constraints. I've also been focusing more on stock video production to diversify my port, (which is time consuming), so that's why I'm sitting on a back log of images.
The number of shots taken in Antarctica was extreme, but if you've been there you would know why. I also managed to shoot close to 450 HD video clips on that trip as well. As ShadySue mentioned, I've paid for many of vacations with my "photo/video snaps".
28
« on: April 27, 2010, 20:29 »
I do have enough marketable images, vacation snaps aside. Where having someone help me get them online is necessary if I want to increase my revenue. Perhaps paying him an hourly wage would work too as apposed to a percentage. I don't know its a bridge I'm crossing and looking for input.
29
« on: April 27, 2010, 19:44 »
sjlocke ~ Was in Antarctica for the trip with 20k photos. The scenery was fantastic, so I took more photos than a normal trip totals of 3 to 4k.
I'm focusing my travel and editorial shots with Alamy, since I believe they are a better spot for them (I could be wrong). I'm not stopping with contributing to the micros, that is and has been my main outlet. I will have to drill down into the details a bit more to figure out a proper percentage as Randy mentioned.
Its sounding like most photographers do everything themselves as I have done. Just looking for a better way to reduce the back log of images.
30
« on: April 27, 2010, 16:26 »
Right, I'm not on their level and hiring someone full time when I'm not even full time doesn't make sense to me. Trust me, I'd rather have full control over all my images, but with a lot of people time is always the enemy. Just trying to find a happy middle ground with some help, where I can clear my backlog and continue shooting. With more and more images uploaded everyday to stock agencies and seeing a lot of mine images idle is sparking me to try a different approach to getting them uploaded.
If 50/50 is what keeps someone motivated to upload then I'll do that. Want to do what's right and fair. Rather not go through the trouble of training and having someone stop because of a lack of return on their time.
31
« on: April 27, 2010, 16:07 »
What do volume shooters do in this situation? When the amount of images outstrip the amount of time necessary to process and upload? Most I would imagine probably are full timers and may hire full time help to do this. I know there are keywording services out there that will do that part, but what about just doing everything else besides making the images?
32
« on: April 27, 2010, 15:38 »
The person I'm considering has a full time job, so this would be something to hone his Photoshop skills and make extra cash. Wasn't sure of the best method to pay him, hence why I put it out there for input. Want to make sure its worth his time of course without giving out the farm as well. Perhaps a monthly stipend along with percentage of sales would work best.
Agreed that I could spend an a hour a day, but between my day job, trying to submit to micros and also doing stock video, its time that I'm finding hard to find.
Yes, It's worth going through the process, I've traveled extensively and have a back log of quality images. I wouldn't waste my time or someone else with snap shots. My last trip alone I shot close to 20,000 images.
Just trying to find a way to clear the backlog of images and focused on what I enjoy more which is shooting more images.
33
« on: April 27, 2010, 13:21 »
Yes, I would give him access to my account. So, he can log in and keyword or submit accepted images, or whatever he needs to do. He would basically manage my Alamy account and I would only give him images to work with.
I was also thinking around 40% as well. So my last sale on Alamy was for $450. Minus the 40% royalty I'm down to $270. So he would get 40% of that ($108) and I would net the rest. The sale before that was for $48, so obviously its not always going to be a big sale.
Otherwise I make zero, since I'm not going to have the time to do this myself and also contribute to the micros.
34
« on: April 27, 2010, 12:39 »
I have a full time job and a tens of thousands of photos sitting on my hard drives for years that I haven't gotten to. Although I've been a contributor to the micros for 5 years now, the last couple of years I've barely uploaded due to time.
Instead of flat out hiring someone I thought of partnering up with someone I can trust. I have a friend with photoshop skills and I could give him batches of images to clean up, keyword and upload to Alamy. I have a lot of travel shots and want to focus on Alamy right now instead of the micros with him.
Instead of an hourly wage, his payment would be a percentage of the sales of the images that he works on. He only gets paid if there is a sale. What percentage of the sale (after Alamy takes their royalty) would you figure to be fair? I have to make it worth while for him.
35
« on: November 24, 2009, 15:03 »
How does it work with Getty to sell videos, compared to the micro sites. Can you sell there and on other sites or is it exclusive? How do you become a contributor?
36
« on: November 18, 2009, 08:56 »
canstock has been charging a payout for years... I normally wait to have a large payout before doing it. With them its taken years, lol
37
« on: September 03, 2009, 11:59 »
I use the hp smartmedia server, which also has 4 bays for hard drives. Actually just ordered a 2TB drive to fill out my last slot since I'm running out of space. So, I'll be up to 5TB on there. It uses a microsoft server software with duplication. You need a PC to setup the software initially, but after that I was able to use it with my mac.
I looked at the drobo at the time and just didn't trust their propriety software to run it. The acer looks like a new product, since I didn't see it at the time when I bought the HP. I got tired of having different external hard drives to backup my stuff. Now I use them to backup the HP and store the files off site.
38
« on: August 24, 2009, 12:13 »
My favorite travel/hiking lens is the 24-105mm, compared to the 24-70 its light weight and doesn't extend out as far with the lens hood on. It also has the longer reach... its a f/4, but I don't need 2.8 if I'm outside.
I'm going to Yellowstone in a couple of weeks and will bring the 100-400mm, but that's only because I know I'll see wildlife, otherwise a 70-200mm is fine and It probably won't be used much anyway.
Also, I don't leave home without the Gorilla Pods for SLR's, wrap that thing around stuff and balance it on the ground. Have used that on every trip.
39
« on: July 27, 2009, 21:04 »
I would try something like Adobe Premiere Elements for the PC... its not free, but priced right and worth the cost compared to pro software.
40
« on: July 27, 2009, 16:26 »
I will use a tripod, even in daylight if I know I want to create a HDR image. Otherwise, I'll only lug it around at night.
41
« on: July 24, 2009, 13:45 »
Revo is the most strict site I submit to... I like that in a way, but wish the sales there were better. They are also the odd one with a 20 second limit... which really sparked my question... if they only accept 20 seconds do most buyers not need clips higher than that? Sometimes I have a clips that could be cut off at 20 seconds, but I go up to 30 and don't submit them to Revo since I don't want to spend the time to create a separate file.
42
« on: July 24, 2009, 13:07 »
The length of video excepted varies from site to site, with Shutter taking up to a minute and Revo as low as 20 seconds. I hate to create different version just for different sites. The max I submit is 30 seconds... does anyone know where the sweet spot is for sales... 15 second, 20 second, 30 second or higher length clips?
Not all clips can be 30 seconds due to the nature of it, but know for instance if 20 second is enough, then I could submit that to all sites without worrying about length...
43
« on: July 02, 2009, 10:46 »
I have always been charged... I waited until $100 and then requested a check. My earning there have tanked again down to the way they were a year ago.
44
« on: June 24, 2009, 14:26 »
I shot a model once in Milan in the subway there and the Italian security people had me leave. I don't know the laws over there since I'm from the U.S., but when personnel asks you stop its not worth arguing with them unless you know your rights. So, I would go ahead and do it, but if they tell you to stop, I would just move on, not worth the hassle.
45
« on: May 21, 2009, 11:19 »
Pond5 is a good site to sell footage and the majority of my income from video is from there... this month however has been especially low. I don't know if that's due to my reduced submissions. I've actually never had a video rejected by Pond 5, even thought I get rejections at other sites for the same file.
Even though I want all my stuff accepted its actually a bad thing I think from a buyer's perspective. Just glancing at other people videos there is a lot of clips with obvious camera shake and movement that would get rejected easily on a site like Revostock or istock. I don't think there is a lot of quality control going on there.
I've just learned not to submit any videos with camera shake and ALWAYS use a tripod. Just a tiny bit of shake will ruin a clip. The thing that I do love about Pond 5 is that you can set your own prices and they pay 50% commission. I use Final Cut Pro for all my editing.
46
« on: May 05, 2009, 13:43 »
Is the a link to the video requirements, such as the codec that are accepted? TY
47
« on: April 02, 2009, 09:40 »
Why is Canstock the only micro that I receive payments from that charge me paypal fees? Its bad enough that I rarely get payouts, but on top of it I have to pay fees.
48
« on: March 02, 2009, 19:25 »
I get board easily and dread having to keyword and submit my images. I'd rather be shooting or editing... I shoot what I love or wherever I go, so I may not always get a shot I can sell, but I sometimes do. Either way I have fun and learn more. Plus seeing new places helps inspire ideas, so some travel is required.
49
« on: February 28, 2009, 11:34 »
Stockxpert's upload process is easy, but since we can't embed meta tags that sites can extract then it takes time to copy and paste all the keywords. That gets time consuming and between uploading photos and video I don't have time for everything. Like photos there are some sites that are just not worth my time anymore and for video stockxpert has hit that category.
My photo sales at stockxpert have been on a decline, so it seems to be dieing slow death, for me anyway. There is another site thoughtequity.com which seems to be on the level of corbis, any info on that one? Looks like I have to really upgrade my equipment to get to that level.
50
« on: February 28, 2009, 10:01 »
great blog, thank you for that. I also contribute to stockxpert, but have only had one sale, not worth it. I spoke with a stockxpert rep right before they got bought out last year and they also admitted their video section of the site hasn't done as well as they wished.
Pond 5 has been great since they accept basically everything. However because of that when searching videos there a lot of videos that shouldn't have made it due to camera shake. Things that would not be accepted at other sites right off the bat.
I find issues with istock on their video side. Odd rejection reasons, files not uploading, VERY long inspection times, over a month sometimes (may be better now), etc.
Revo, is find it the most difficult along with istock to get accepted clips. They don't accept clips bigger than 15 seconds, wish they would go to at least 30 seconds. Shutterstock can be good until you get a subscription sale for $2.50 which I hate.
All in all like other posters I like switching back and forth from editing videos and photos. The video is just more time consuming and takes away time from my growing pile of photos to process.
Has anyone had experience with Corbis motion or some of the other top sites?
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