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Messages - Jonathan Ross
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251
« on: January 22, 2011, 00:41 »
Hi All,
Remember that when Yuri says his RPI he is speaking from 38,000 images. The new work he supplies does much better than $6 that is the balance from all his work online and some has been on for quite a long time. So his new work does not have to wait 3-4 years to recoup because it will make it's cost in the first couple of years return if not the first year. As you are in the game longer and keep producing work your RPI will always go down unless you increase your production to offset the lower returns of your earlier work. I just wanted to point that out. It is the same for everyone.
Best, Jonathan
252
« on: January 18, 2011, 16:38 »
Thanks Noodles, I love your name  Best, Jonathan
253
« on: January 18, 2011, 15:24 »
Hi All, Here is a link to the quality we produced that year of 4,000 images. www.andersenross.com We also produced all 3500 of our Micro images in three months. I was not in any way trying to boast I was trying to say if you are told it can be done that might be all it takes to achieve it, the right motivation. Tom set the bar and we learned about how to produce and what people we needed to get the work completed, and also an all around different outlook on stock itself. I didn't change my style just ramped up my work load and I got help so I could focus on just shooting and writing shot lists. As Tom would say " If the shutter isn't being pushed you are not making money ". We shot 8-10 times a month and got an average of 40-50 selects from each shoot, with holidays and sick days that works out to roughly 4,000+ shots, not really that tough to pull off. I had two assistants a producer and a person doing all the back end except the editing. I could never have done it on my own. Best, Jonathan
254
« on: January 17, 2011, 23:27 »
Hi RT, I know Tom very well and I swear I have never met a person more on the ball when it comes to stock. He ran Comstock for 20 years and is an increadibley open and willing to share with individuals. He can make a photo out of anything and he knows what and how to shoot it to create the greatest profit. I remember when I was talking with Tom once, he asked me " so how many sock images did you create last year " I was pretty happy with our results and boldly said " over 1,000 ". He didn't drop a beat and said " why not 4,000? " That next year we produced over 4,000 images for Macro. It was like watching someone complete the mile in under 4 minutes. Once I was told it could be done that was the fire that got me started really producing. To this day I owe him a great deal from those early lessons. I will say if you ever have a chance to speak with him I would look upon him as a sort of Yoda in stock, listen and learn. If he were a race horse I would bet the bank on him  Best, Jonathan
255
« on: January 17, 2011, 15:21 »
Hi All,
Just to offer some information that some might not be aware of. Jim started producing stock photography years before RF was even a gleam in someones eye. His modest price for subscription offers up news stories by the day about the stock industry. He travels the globe to be at every event that is of importance to our industry and then reports back the information he has gathered with a non-biased approach. Think of him as the only reporter that is out to tell the stock story from a clear view point, if he didn't he wouldn't have followers. Don't get me wrong, Tom Grill and John Lund are good friends and a great asset to us all but they do not blog or post a newsletter every day, they are busy with other parts of their business, I consider us incredibly lucky to have people like John and Tom offering up great advice for free. I wish we had more people in this business willing to report back what is taking place in the industry on a daily basis. That's just me talking because I love receiving and sharing info. Macro/Micro it doesn't matter anymore we are all the worker bees and the more we stay together and educate ourselves the stronger we will be as a group. Power to the shooters. Just my two cents.
Best, Jonathan
256
« on: January 17, 2011, 00:00 »
Elenathewise, That one as well  Best, Jonathan
257
« on: January 16, 2011, 23:33 »
Okey Sean. My fault I did not see Laflors post, I missed it. My bad. I have reedited my mistake, thank you for pointing it out.
Jonathan
258
« on: January 16, 2011, 22:25 »
Hi Sean,
Your message is a bit cryptic and I am not clear what you are asking. I don't think the word sorry was every used. Not quite clear.
Jonathan
259
« on: January 16, 2011, 22:14 »
Hi jbarber873,
"I can also tell you with over 30 years in this business that my assistants were and are always encouraged to use my studio, my props and my equipment. Believe it or not, I get more out of their enthusiasm and energy than they ever get out of using my studio. I can give you a whole list of photographers that I helped start out, and it does make for a lasting friendship."
Well done, I couldn't agree more.
Jonathan
260
« on: January 16, 2011, 21:14 »
Hi Jim and Daniel,
Thank you Jim for sharing your work for free to this group and to Dan for directly addressing something that was built purely on speculation. Jim, I appreciate your writings everyday even if we don't always agree your information is always enlightening and great food for thought. Much more than I can say for this post. Excuse me for being the catalyst, I never expected this to be the outcome.
This post has been edited.
Best, Jonathan
261
« on: January 15, 2011, 15:53 »
Hi Leaf,
Thanks for getting this out. Jim is a good resource and generous to share. Good article and Daniel offers good food for thought about the entire industry. From mentorship to producing this model follows a similar practice of many successful photographers I have met over time. Good luck Daniel, great to hear positive results in this industry gives me a sense of security that stock photography is still very strong and if done right can still make a smart photographer move quickly to the top.
Best, Jonathan
262
« on: January 13, 2011, 15:40 »
Hi All,
Just finished reading todays post by Jim Pickerell. It is a strong well made statement on the future of Microstock. The story really focuses on how there is still room to be big in Micro and uses Daniel Laflor as an example. Great read to finally here that stock can still make you a strong living if you know what you are doing. Well done Dan my hat is off. I cannot post the letter as it is a payed site but maybe Jim will catch this and share the letter with all of us here. Great read Jim thank you.
Best, Jonathan
263
« on: January 13, 2011, 15:17 »
Hi falzettaM,
I personally don't know of any agency that is RM letting you sell the same work in RF as well, it's in most their contracts. Every RM agency I shoot for would not be happy, I can't even move an image from RF to RM without upsetting the apple cart and would never consider it myself. Keep your RM in RM and your RF in RF and you will stay free from concern. I will say it is a lot easier to remove an image from RM and move it to RF than the other way around. Hope this helps.
Best, Jonathan
264
« on: January 13, 2011, 15:05 »
Hi All, We have been extremely lucky. Our income grew just a tad and it seems to be continuing, we have been building our new agency Spaces Images so I have not been shooting this year. November was 8% higher in our sales than last year without uploading any new work, with the exception of Istock because of their limit but they are not the reason for the growth. Our Micro was up just a bit but our Macro stayed strong with no new images and grew in sales, that is where the 8% growth came from. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. Fingers crossed Best, Jonathan
265
« on: January 10, 2011, 18:19 »
Hi Lee,
Thanks for sharing the numbers still even if someone is driving that is a lot of shots, you must have been knackered. Great to see the results some really nice shots in there. Gang shoots can be a lot of fun. It always amazes me how a bunch of different photographers can shoot the same models in the same locations and get such different stuff. Very cool indeed, keep shooting.
Cheers, Jonathan
266
« on: January 08, 2011, 11:32 »
Hi Lee, It was a great interview. The two of you are top notch in my book. Keep the masses educated and keep taking great photos. I also saw the article on you and Tyler shooting some 60,000 images with 7 other photographers in 4 days that was also an interesting article, trigger finger must have been aching that day  I would love to hear more about it. Thanks for all your sharing. Best, Jonathan
267
« on: January 07, 2011, 14:26 »
Hi All,
I think the best thing I saw from the post of IS is that they will not make it retroactive from the 1st of January. I said I thought they would about a week ago but Mr. Mexico says no they will start it when it is in place. so that's one good thing. Interesting reading on this post. I will say that maturation takes place in every business. There are a finite number of buyers so to ask IS to hustle up some more buyers is good but there will be a point where the new buyers start to level off and the sales numbers will reflect that at some point of the game, unless they keep raising prices. It happened with RF Macro before Microstock had made a dent, at least in my sales at Macro RF. Also after Getty joined in the game Macro never had more than one player that held the lions share of sales that is not as true in Micro, there are strong companies like SS and a couple others that are serious players in the industry so this also effects the growth at IS and the outcome of the entire industries growth. Sales are more diversified than stock sales used to be which is good for us photographers. The more diversified the sales are the better the business is for us shooters. Just my opinion.
Best, Jonathan
268
« on: January 06, 2011, 18:52 »
Hi G, I agree, it just takes the right person or people to grow tired enough of the control of the big agencies to start doing it themselves. I know that was the catalyst behind Blend Images was a bunch of us were tired of all our work being rejected at that point in stock so we did it ourselves. This could come sooner than we think, Monkey business is kind of the start of such growth only it is run by individuals instead of being a co-op. There are several people I have read here on this site that could start this. Hey, I started an agency and I am just a regular joe, it just takes time, trust and the right people, oh and money, did I mention a lot of time But I will say that many of the people that start it won't necessarily be friends in the end and that might be the best way to avoid any trouble from the start. Keep it strictly business that follows a tight business outline that keeps anyone from getting to much control or others that don't work but come along for the ride. The document that is written for this group needs to be thoroughly thought out and possibly by an outside source that is not vested in the company, there are good lawyers that will build a business outline for you. The right group of people can and will eventually do this in Microstock, this industry just keeps recycling itself every few years. My opinion. Best, J
269
« on: January 06, 2011, 17:15 »
Hi Elenathewise,
I think it is a great idea but to make it work takes a lot of trust and a lot of really hard work. There would have to be a board of a few people to represent the company and keep it's business in tact. If you should choose to make this fly I would help in every way possible but my time is so short at this point of my career I surely couldn't be a board member or really help build the company. I am always welcome to share any information on the subject and help anyone get it off the ground with what knowledge I have and would be happy to shoot for such an effort but I am to swamped myself to give the time needed to make this kind of opportunity work at the moment. I know it can be done it is just the matter of gathering the right people that are willing to see their income effected for a few years as the company grows to a point of truly supporting it's creators. Just my two cents.
Best, Jonathan
270
« on: January 06, 2011, 14:23 »
Hi alias, Just to help Jonathan Klein said it himself when interviewed, so it isn't just based on guessing. Leaf, I have been lucky enough to be involved in two co-ops now that are both making good returns especially for the owner shooters because they get a larger slice than the contributors to their site. I will say I would love to be involved with something of the sort but from my experience it would take a very special group of people to pull it off. They are out there but I don't know if they would opt in. It has to stay reasonably small in co-op form or the board has to absolutely be trusted and supported for a certain period of time to make it fly. Niche Micro collections could be a great way to start this. Baby Boomers are going to hit 65 here in about a week and senior images and footage I think are going to sell really well for the next twenty years. So who's in  Cheers, Jonathan
271
« on: January 05, 2011, 13:38 »
Hey gostwyck, You and I agree more and more these days  I think there will be companies sold when they saturate their profit margin and can get the best price possible. We saw Getty hold on to it's company to long and they lost a huge portion of the value of their company when they sold. At least that is the way it was presented to the public, I am a big cynic to the end and I don't always believe what I read so I am not sure what really took place when Getty's stock plunged and they were purchased it might have been part of the plan to go private. Either way I would guess that all of these sites will change hands in the next 5 years. I don't think we are looking at Ford or Sears here. Best, Jonathan
272
« on: January 04, 2011, 20:34 »
Is it tomorrow yet?
273
« on: January 04, 2011, 18:54 »
Hi aeonf, I totally get it, apathy is a killer. Easy to bitch but much harder to get off your butt and make a change. Like RT said, the smooching that goes on at their own site keeps me from ever really making a comment. I think I made a couple when I first started before I realized the depth of information that was being bounced around. Yep, I think it comes down to agree or go home and find some other way to make the new models and agencies work for you or just go home. Where is Jimmy Hoffa when you need him  Best, Jonathan
274
« on: January 04, 2011, 17:55 »
Hi gostwyck, Those are great examples of what a company can do to make a huge profit and keep their content providers happy. Not only that but their providers have more money to make their photos even stronger. We are always having to settle for second best model these days instead of the model that we think would sell because of the overhead issue and our diminishing returns. I was trying to describe is the agencies were making tons of money at 50/50 when they changed it it was to increase their profit margin and it continues to grow to this day. Why not pay your people a reasonable share of the sales and still make a great company. Contributors would flock to Istock and they would reap the rewards of their followers with their strong business model. Nordstroms stores started here in Seattle as only a shoe store and they used to let you return a pair of shoes whenever you wanted for a replacement, no charge. That model is why Nordstrom grew so fast and strong, they had customer support that followed them due to their ethics and customer service. Now they are everywhere and they still offer good service. Why must a company try to pay the least amount possible to their workers, I think it will hurt them in the end. I know you get what you pay for and when I hire people to help me I try to offer them a good paycheck so they will bust their ass for me and return whenever I need them. Just my opinion.
Best, Jonathan
275
« on: January 04, 2011, 16:54 »
The only people would be the really big hitters who are independent. If they pulled their images and uploaded elsewhere, iStock would feel it. For the rest of us, while there might be some satisfaction, it won't matter to iStock one iota. Added: I'm not sure what would happen to iStock if Yuri pulled his port totally. Interesting to speculate.
I doubt very much that Istock would 'feel it' __ certainly nothing like as much as the individual contributor would. The 'Big Hitters' would feel the loss of their entire IS income the most and anyway they are actually the least affected by this.
By their choice, via the upload limits, Istock only have about 17% of the portfolio Yuri has elsewhere. That pretty much demonstrates how much they care about any individual contributor. In contrast other agencies positively fawn over Yuri.
They fawn because his sell through rate is through the roof. Yuri is limited to how many images he can upload at Istock. He has an 80%+ acceptance rate at Istock so it is just a matter of time till he will have his 38,000 images on Istock. It might take 20 years the way they control their uploading of non exclusives but that is the reason he has less on Istock than other sites. It is the same for me, 80% acceptance 1500 images at Istock 3500 at Fotolia. I still have 2000 images to upload to Istock, at 30 a week I still have a years worth to upload. I agree Istock would not feel the pain from their top shooters leaving they would just replace them with others. But how does Istock benefit from keeping one of the highest selling photographers from uploading their work at a higher weekly percentage? It is definitely not an issue with to much saturation from the same photographer when they have millions of photos in their collection. I see it as only an incentive to try to get you to go exclusive, not to control the quality.
Best, Jonathan
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