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Messages - spike
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251
« on: October 12, 2016, 10:03 »
I could be wrong, but going on the stats... I guess you could say that if the amount of content in your portfolio has increased by 61% in the last 12 months, then you can expect a 21% increase in sales. On average.
I'm sure someone better than me at 'the math' can figure out what kind of increase/drop you can expect if you've had less than a 61% increase. And it's pretty clear that if you've not uploaded anything over the year, then you're going to have a bit of a drop in sales.
I could be wrong, maths was never my forte.
My portfolio increased by ~45% in the last 12 months, and my sales fell by ~23%. But that's just me. 
252
« on: October 12, 2016, 09:33 »
Any ideas of what to do next?
I suggest you to go shooting next. It's better to focus on your own earning instead of persistently put down somebody else's.
Yes, because turning a blind eye to injustices is always the morally correct choice. Topkek.
253
« on: September 19, 2016, 20:18 »
10-bit 4:2:2 internally is a BIG BIG thing. Hopefully it's not just HD...
If it can do that at 4k 60p it will be a dream come true.
It can't; only 30p at those settings But it can do 4k 60p for an 8-bit output
254
« on: September 07, 2016, 14:10 »
I watched the keynote.
When they showed the first "dslr" photo, I was saying to my friend that it looks weird, like it hasn't been taken with a dslr, there is noticeable blur spilling near the edges (which is a regular symptom of adding blur), so I wasn't surprised at all when the guy said that it's not a dslr photo, but an iphone one. It was very obvious to anyone who knows how to use a dslr. Or I'm super talented at spotting this kind of detail.
The funniest thing was when they announced that the "lens blur" whill come as a free update later this year. Lol Apple.
Btw, I have a nexus 6p, and its lens blur feature is pretty good as well. But with all these computational approaches, you can never get the same result as with the dslr. Now, will the average consumer notice? Probably not. They won't notice apple's lens blur, they won't notice google's - hell, they probably won't even notice the instagrams tilt-shift added blur. And fine. But saying it's revolutionary and dslr like is a mere marketing stunt. Which is expected from apple.
255
« on: July 29, 2016, 06:31 »
So he's a liar as well. People like that should suffer the consequences of their actions, so that they grow and become productive and law obedient citizens. I hope they get sued.
256
« on: July 29, 2016, 06:28 »
It's Belize. Not Brelize.
257
« on: July 01, 2016, 11:31 »
Terrible over here as well. 30% drop compared to May, which was 15% down from April etc... :/
258
« on: June 01, 2016, 15:49 »
Such a logo for (and from) someone who is creating products for millions of designers... it's an understatement to say I expected more.
They could have just outsourced it to some of their customers and there's a high degree of probability it would look better. Hell - they could have paid 5$ on fiverr and gotten a better logo.
259
« on: May 18, 2016, 21:36 »
My weekly rank fell 2x, that never happened before, I usually improve with time. Might be that they changed the search algorithm.
260
« on: May 18, 2016, 21:32 »
Overall numbers down, but RPD increase of more than 20%. Good.
261
« on: May 10, 2016, 17:06 »
before exporting them as TIFFs, then remove flickr, then import into AE and stabilize, then export. All that can take a lot of time. With wide lenses the warp stabilizer sometimes doesn't work as well, then I have to do manual tracking...
Yeah, it can take many, many hours (or days) to get a complex hyperlapse ready for upload. Sometimes it just works right away though, which I'm thankful for.
By the way, I now skip the export TIFF step and import the RAW files straight into AE (after LRT/Lightroom) before export. Saves some time and space and I can still work in 16-bit.
Oh, didn't cross my mind that AE would read the .xmp files properly. Thanks, any shortcut is appreciated!
262
« on: May 10, 2016, 14:43 »
time and effort needed to pull them off (shooting, stabilizing, editing...)
Sometimes I feel like I'm married to the Warp Stabilizer considering the amount of time I spend with it... 
Haha and that's not even the worst part! I use LRTimelapse for holy grail transitions and then do extensive edits on the frames in lightroom before exporting them as TIFFs, then remove flickr, then import into AE and stabilize, then export. All that can take a lot of time. With wide lenses the warp stabilizer sometimes doesn't work as well, then I have to do manual tracking...
263
« on: May 10, 2016, 14:07 »
Hello Irina,
i'm doing a lot of hyperlapse. Not exactly like the ones in your link, but similar. And they sell. Here are a few examples of sold clips the last few months:
http://www.gettyimages.de/detail/video/hamburg-airport-hyperlapse-stock-videomaterial/456862780
http://www.gettyimages.de/detail/video/frankfurt-city-hyperlapse-stock-videomaterial/470355310
http://www.gettyimages.de/detail/video/prague-national-museum-hyperlapse-stock-videomaterial/485954508
http://www.gettyimages.de/detail/video/frankfurt-city-hyperlapse-stock-videomaterial/470355308
http://www.gettyimages.de/detail/video/berlin-reichstag-hyperlapse-stock-filmmaterial/488027666
http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/hamburg-townhall-hyperlapse-stock-video-footage/456921178
https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/45577218/port-hamburg-hyperlapse-day-night.html
https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/44763268/hamburg-elbphilharmonie-hyperlapse.html
http://www.shutterstock.com/video/video.html?id=12665864
Best regards,
Martin
Wow, some of these are great! I'm doing hyperlapses as well, and considering the time and effort needed to pull them off (shooting, stabilizing, editing...), I don't like selling them for a very low price. But they don't even sell so well with a low price, so I'm curious about Getty - can you apply only with a video portfolio? If you're having great results there, I'd like to put my higher end stuff there as well..
264
« on: April 09, 2016, 09:05 »
Hi,
after 10 months of waiting for response I've got rejection (for the second time  ), so I just want to ask you(if you can) to take a look at my portfolio and try to tell me why do you think they don't want me. I understand that they don't want classic commercial fashion photography, but I'm more curious about lifestyle section. I'm not sad about rejection, or disappointed.. rather just curious, so please, let me hear your thoughts
Thank you.
http://ninamasic.com
Excellent stuff! Maybe focus more on the film stuff you have ( http://ninamasic.com/film), that seems to be the direction VSCO, oh I'm sorry, Stocksy likes.
265
« on: April 05, 2016, 14:30 »
Cool, all very useful info! Do you know some companies which offer advice and/or guidance to make sure that all the regulations are being met, no laws broken, etc.? I'd just find it easier if I paid someone who was a lot of experience in the field to guide me to the process, than try it by myself and potentially botch something.
@Justanotherphotographer: Also regarding taxes in my home country... no problem if they weren't 50% and it wasn't corrupt. Which it is. One third of the workforce is employed by the state, which sucks money out of the private sector in order to pay for their people, so they'd continue to vote to the party which gave them a job. It's the worst mix of socialism and capitalism. And yes, I can vote on the elections, but realistically my vote doesn't make much of the difference because both the biggest parties don't have the plan to reduce the taxes. The alternatives are dumb, linking vaccines to autism and speaking about chemtrails and homeopathy. So if I can't change the government, I can at least try to minimize how much I have to give it to it, and let it die because of financial starvation. #rantover
266
« on: April 05, 2016, 12:18 »
I've been doing some investigation into this as I also don't like paying high taxes in corrupted country either. My outcome was: It is possible to do microstock through offshore company, BUT it requires additional administrative work, lot of research into legislations, accounting standarts, etc. Your connection to offshore company may also spark a reason for tax audit in your home country. It might be good for large companies that can pay accountants and lawyers to do all the admin, not good for a photographer who has to do everything on its own. Therefore I decided: Instead of diving into the world of offshore business that you know nothing about, focus on what you already know - sell more images I've just read about a different scheme. You create a company in your country and use it for microstock. You ALSO create an offshore company which does some "work" for your company (marketing, consultations, ...) and that offshore company charges your company x amount of money. Since you spent this x amount, you deduct it from your taxes in your home country, and then just pick up the cash in the country where you have the offshore company opened. Not sure how legal/borderline legal/illegal/grey area this is, maybe someone else will. But it does seem like a simple plan to reduce the tax.
267
« on: April 05, 2016, 11:21 »
Well, you form a company, get registered, you would have to travel there, open a bank account (takes some weeks or even month), register a skrill acc or paypal acc with a bank account in the us, register with SS (they have lots of companies and will let you know which docs they need),..... Panama is not so recommendable since it remains independent and does not follow the usual OECD BS which pressures other countries. In consequence every now and then the powers in charge start a campaign against the country.
Singapore is expensive when it comes to maintenance and installment. HK is good but Bank accounts are difficult. Look for a jurisdiction which give you the possibility of a paypal account (e.g. HK, Panama with a US bank account, etc.) Paypal does not work with many offshore jurisdictions.
Regarding honesty: you should really work and have your office where your company is. If you pay out Profits you should pay the corresponding dividend tax in your country of residence. This way you are 100% legal.
So my current registration would be invalid, and I'd need to re-register and re-upload all of my files? That would be quite bad, as some of my files have a very nice ranking, also my account on Fotolia is highly ranked, so starting from scratch does not seem like a good idea. I don't think that I can get a US bank account - I'm not a US citizen (live in the EU). Why do you think PayPal is needed - Skrill is an option for most of the agencies? Also, how would I pay myself? I'd be the only person employed, the director, but I guess I can't just take any amount of money from the company's account like it's mine. Sorry if this sounds confusing, I unfortunately have no idea about the world of tax, companies, etc.  And honesty... well honestly, I see 2 options: 1) give 50%+ to the country 2) find an alternative solution which I find more fair
268
« on: April 05, 2016, 10:42 »
I think the best option is to move to a country with lower taxes. I remember someone did mention setting up a company and routing their taxes through it, but then they had other expenses and there was always the risk of something not being done correctly, causing a lot of trouble. They soon went back to the safer option.
Just Google "Panama Papers" and you can see how it can all go wrong.
I was also thinking of an offshore company in Singapore. The tax rate is 0 for foreign sources, and I've been there and seems like a solid country, not shady like the ones I mentioned before. But I think it's a bit more complicated to establish a company there. Don't know about other options regarding countries with lower taxes. Do you have any idea? And I find it a bit strange to move because of microstock income... I don't earn money to lose freedom, I earn to gain it! So setting up a company somewhere but not living there seems like the best option for me.
269
« on: April 05, 2016, 10:40 »
But how would that work, in practice? When you register on Shutterstock, you register as an individual, with your ID, as far as I can remember. So you'd need to receive the shutterstock payment on your paypal/skrill, and transfer it from there to the account in Panama/xyz?
How are tax treaties handled? My country has an agreement about double taxation, so I don't lose the 30% of my sales in the US. What about tax havens?
270
« on: April 05, 2016, 09:45 »
Did anyone try to create an offshore company in one of the tax havens (such as Belize or Isle of Man, or maybe even Panama) for the purposes of microstock? Would that even work?
I mean, we get paid as individuals on stock agencies, right? So all the money the company makes has to first "land" on a personal account, correct? Most of the agencies ask for your ID etc. I'm not sure how microstock factories do it. But my understanding is that if it's a personal account, then it has to be taxed, and even if you transfer it later to an account of a company in Belize, you're still taxed because you received the money. The question is - can the money go directly to the account of the company? Then it would work?
I don't think that giving away 50% of my earnings is really "fair" (I already give more than that to the agency), so I'm looking into other options.
271
« on: April 02, 2016, 15:00 »
Alamy passed shutterstock.
Not suspicious at all. Lol.
272
« on: March 21, 2016, 07:54 »
I don't want to encourage new photographers, it's bad for my business.
273
« on: March 14, 2016, 15:40 »
Great news. And something to keep in mind when people say "there's nothing we can do."
I'm not sure it's "us" who did it. If Adobe hadn't acquired Fotolia, DPC would be alive and kicking, regardless of what "we" say. Probably. But anyway, good news.
274
« on: March 11, 2016, 12:32 »
That is true. Came across this fellows work the other day. simply stunning.
https://500px.com/photo/143509577/little-hunter-by-jakkree-thampitakkul
This is so cheesy lol Edit: I mean the processing. Why? because of the obvious vignette, cyan/orange complementaries, exposure differnce between the two boys etc. It's easily digestible, like pop music, so everyone can see how "pretty" it is. It's simple and not stunning at all. But that's just my opinion, man.
275
« on: March 09, 2016, 18:42 »
Opted out.
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