Hi Mlwnphoto,

"I would assume you distribute the same image to multiple agencies, therefore working with non-exclusive agreements, or do you pick and choose who gets what and work with image exclusive agreements? "

Thank you for the question, yes we distribute all of our contributors content to every agency we are only image exclusive not photographer exclusive. Most every agency accepts all of our content there are a few that do an in house edit but we are seeing  98% of our content accepted by those that do edit. We are also able to distribute your RM content through all of our RM distributors. We developed a backend system with our distributors that allows us to pull an image from all of our distributors if a buyer wants exclusivity of a specific image for an extended time period. This allows RM to finally be represented by multiple agency as apposed to just one.
 I had another person ask about this new direction of what we are calling " Spaces with Faces " since this direction is very new for us it is hard for everyone to go to the site and see examples of what we are looking for. If you are interested in getting an idea of what we are looking for in our lifestyle content we will offer up a small gallery here to share some of the new content that is coming into Spaces that clearly captures this new direction.
 In a nut shell if you are producing high end lifestyle imagery on location we are interested in talking to you about representing some of your work. We are big believers in spreading work around to several agencies it is the smartest plan for any photographer that is producing stock to follow. If you want a good idea of what we are looking for at www.spacesimages.com check out our parent company www.blendimages.com the Blend content is almost all lifestyle and if you can meet the quality you are seeing at Blend you probably will be a good fit at Spaces.
 Any questions please feel welcome to connect directly with me or if Tyler doesn't mind we can discuss things in the open for everyone to read. Thank you to all that sent e-mails and PM's we will be getting back with you by the middle of next week if not sooner. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Hi Fieldphotos,

 We just sent you a PM we would love to work with you. These images are " Best in Show " and the Macro agencies will love to get this quality of work. I look forward to your reply. This goes for all of you that might be interested in testing the Macro waters. We distribute to 90 agencies from Getty to Corbis and everyone in between in both RM and RF. we offer a 50/50 split and we also offer the best key wording available and some small retouching all for no extra charge. We are now taking location lifestyle as well to offer our buyers more and to allow our contributing photographers to get the greatest return from their locations. If you want to test out Macro please PM me and we can discuss anything about our agencies that might be of help.

Cheers,
Jonathan

HI AEK,

If you are still having trouble you might want to check out www.blendimages.com we specialize in ethnic lifestyle content. You can buy direct or you can find our content at the top 90 resellers in Macro stock. Best of luck.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Howdy,

 My March is bouncing back after a bad Feb. I am about 5% behind my average.

J

Thanks for the link Rimglow interesting read.

J

Hi All,

 I have seen a serious drop in my sales at SS I have not uploaded anything in 6 years but it has been a very drastic drop over the past few months. I was always getting monthly returns that were 1K or larger and over the past few months that return has dropped to an average of $600 a month. Six years with the images always selling well and now big shift. I am sure it is a change up in their algorithm or something of the sort but I just wanted to add to the conversation that there has been a big shift for our work as well. At the same time Istock has turned around and is showing stronger sales than they have in years. One up and another down makes the average very...average

J

Hi All,

 Lots of different feedback on this topic. I run a stock agency that deals with property released locations. We send our content to 90 different distributors. From Getty, Corbis, Gallery Stock, Masterfile, just about every Macro agency that sells content sells our Spaces Images content. We have always been directed by all of our distributors that an image with a property release will sell much better than one without and our sales show this to be absolutely true.
 Despite what everyone might think about the legal side of this topic the end is that resellers want a PR or they will put your content in Editorial. It will still sell in Editorial but from our experience the sales in Editorial are nothing compared to the Creative division. More and more agencies do not want the legal issues to deal with and if the agency that represents your content does not want to carry the risk and are asking for PR's then I guess that is the only answer that matters here. It can be debated to death as to what is legal and what isn't but if our resellers of imagery want PR's for their homes, businesses, schools, etc.
 Bottom line properties that are accompanied by a PR make more money than those that aren't. I hope this helps a bit I appreciate the posters here it has been a good topic to bring to light.
 

Thanks,
Jonathan
[email protected]

Hi Jet City,

 Some color press people prefer to work from a TIFF for high end reproduction. The only other thing I can think of is if they want to resize the image using a resizing software, the bigger the better when resizing. These days it seems everyone has adjusted to jogs but in the old days a color separator would have laughed if you brought them a jpg

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hope this helps a bit.

http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/stock-releases

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi All,

 This is an interesting question...Is it based off of all time sales and revenue or is it based on annual sales right now? I can safely say that the ones that put the most in their pockets are not producing for agencies anymore they run stock agencies or have retired. Not speaking of myself here but of others I know of in the industry that have been here for 30 years +. Their revenue over those 30 years is so way off the charts it would be very hard to catch up with the market we have now.

Cheers,
Jonathan

Hi calcaneus10,

 Same thing goes on right inside the U.S. as well. You can run your LLC from a state that does not have state taxes and save. There are some road blocks to go around but it is done all the time.

Best,
Jonathan

 Hi Dan,

 I don't know a lot but I know one thing, change is a guarantee. Adapt or die has been hard wired in us from day one. If you can find a way to treat photography as something you love and look at the cash as an added bonus or not at all, then hopefully you will nurture back the passion you once had. I have been on top of the mountain and tumbled all the way down so I get it, took me four years to enjoy shooting again. It is sad but not uncommon to hear a person lose their passion for something by making it their job. Best of luck I hope that some day you can enjoy that art of creating images without the worry of income being part of the equation.

Best,
Jonathan

YEA! You rock sir.

Cheers,
J