And still no Moneybookers. They told me quite some time ago that they will give serious consideration to adding Moneybookers to their payout options (in South Africa we cannot receive payments through PayPal). My first payment was by check and it took a very, very long time for me to receive that check. I am only a few dollars away from my 2nd payout, but I am not looking forward to go through all that hassle again. It is things like this that will definitely influence my decision whether I should stay with them or not.   

Wow! I think I am still in shock.  When the man from Crestock phoned me earlier today and told me I have won I could not believe it.  I have won a few prizes with my photography before, but nothing like this.  I must admit it is a great feeling. I haven�t even seen the announcement yet, or my interview - I am currently doing photography in a game reserve far from home and can only access the web with a sloooww dial-up via my notebook computer. I can�t even access the Crestock site with this slow connection. I don�t think I want to read my interview � I was so excited I think I talked a lot of nonsense. 

More importantly I just want to thank you all for your kind words and support. I am privileged to be part of a community of truly wonderful people like you.   

I started with a Canon 10D (6 MP) and later a Canon 20D & 30D (8 MP).  Recently a got a Canon 400D as a light travel camera and the pro 1D MK III (both 10 MP). 

I am somewhat undecided on whether I should submit images of the full 10 MP to sites such as SS that offer subscription sales.  To give away a 10 MP image for 25 or 30c does not feel right.  Alternatively I can submit the full resolution images only to those sites that charge according to size (such as StockXpert) and submit a smaller version to the subscription sites � but then how much smaller?  Two further problems with this: It will complicate my workflow and it may happen that a site that do not offer subscription sales today may decide to do so tomorrow (as was the case with Dreamstime).  What about the future?  10 MP may seem quite large today, but in a year or two that may be quite average.     

I will appreciate your thoughts on this.

At the moment there seems to be a lot more at BigStock that don't work as it should.  While BigStock never featured high on my earnings list, it was none the less very consistent.  Now for the fist time four consecutive days IN THE WEEK with no downloads.  This is very strange and never happened before. 

I then notice something on their "Alerts" page about problems with downloading: " Unless you attempt more than 10 downloads of an image you will not lose credits. If you reach or exceed 10 attempts you will be alerted that the system will deduct credits again... if this happens contact us for a credit rebate, no problem. We are very sorry about this unexpected problem. We are scrambling to correct everything."

If I was a buyer and have to try 10 times to download an image I know where I will be going and that is not back to BigStock. 

Thanks guys 

I really appreciate your support and votes. I believe we all dream of one day winning a big prize like that, but often when you feel the most optimistic about your chances it never happen.  Now it is out of my hands.  I will never lobby for votes in an unethical way - something that is apparently rive with the Crestock competition (if you can believe some of the allegations made about this in the Crestock forum).  Hopefully the judges will be the big equalizer.

Let the best image win.   

Just a reminder - time is running out for those that still want to enter. Here is my last minute entry: 

https://www.crestock.com/blog/photography/contest2007/entry.aspx?id=3995

Just need to share my excitement with someone.  Just today received my brand new Canon 1D MK III � the first one delivered to South Africa. This would not have been possible if it was not for my earnings from MicroStock. Now for the first time I have a proper camera to put behind my Canon 400 /2.8.  Well I am off now � must find something to shoot �? 

Deleted!

Apologies for the duplicate post.

Hi Peiling

You can have a look at my LO portfolio with the link below.  I mainly specialize in African wildlife, nature landscapes and travel photography with the odd sport image.   I found that the downloads more or less cover the whole range of subjects in my portfolio. 

What I did found, however, is that my downloads are very sporadic.  I may not have a single download for days or weeks and then suddenly I have a lot of downloads within a day or two.  What this tells me is that the occasional buyer that are specifically looking for African wildlife images will download quite a number of images from my portfolio because there are not that many similar images available.  What is to my advantage is that my portfolio is in a way unique because it covers quite I diversity of wildlife subjects that were taken over many years, often in remote wilderness areas.  Since I live and work as an ecologist in South Africa I am fortunate to have opportunities for this type of photography that few people have.   

Just a comment.  The list of top 50 photographers on LO is merely based on the number of images online and not based on downloads or any other measure of their success there.

Regarding the LO SideShow feature, I am also one of the fortunate ones with more than 100 downloads and thus legible to add images to the SideShow. I do, however, have a problem deciding on the pricing.  If I change the token price from 1 credit to 2 for a blog size image all the other prices change as well.  My biggest concern is the price of the EL license which changes from 50 credits to 200 credits.  If you change the credits of a blog size image to 3 the EL license go up to a whopping 450 credits.  It will be very nice to sell an EL license at that price, but I doubt if you will sell many (if any) at that price.  The Sideshow feature will definitely improve your exposure to potential clients, but as leaf said; if the prices are too high buyers may go elsewhere.  I am seriously considering changing my prices back to the original 1 credit and only utilize the increased exposure of the SideShow feature. A possible solution is to allow the pricing of normal downloads to be changed independantly of the price of the EL-licence.  What do you think? 
 

Well, let�s assume the original have a color cast I still like its color more than the "corrected" image.  I flower like that needs to have a warm color.

This is the puristic definition of NATURE:

NATURE is defined as the use of the photographic process to depict observations from all branches of natural history including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, plant life, landscapes and seascapes in such a fashion that a well informed person will be able to identify the subject material and to certify to its honest presentation.  The human element is excluded here.  Photographs of artificially produced hybrid plants or animals, mounted specimens, obviously set arrangements, derivations, or any form of manipulation that alters the truth of the subject, are ineligible.

If you want to succeed with such a subject specific stock site you will not only need quality images, but also diversity.  As important as the images themselves are the captions, descriptions and keywords.  I will buy from a site such as yours if I know I can search on a scientific name of an animal or bird and know that your site will be able to provide a photo of a rare bird or animal not readily find elsewhere.  For this you need a reasonable number of photographers that specialize in nature photography worldwide.  Those that travel to exotic places to shoot animals and landscapes that a casual photographer will never be able to submit.  If photographers use your site to dump their �nature shots� that are not readily accepted on the conventional stock sites I am afraid the whole concept will be set for failure.

Good luck with all your plans.     

I can say that my BEST shots, the stuff I'm REALLY proud of...  aren't on ANY microstock site.

That was my viewpoint as well until I realized one important thing many people often overlook.  For your portfolio as a whole to be successful you need some top quality images that attract downloads every day. These are the images that appears first under "most popular" searches.  They are the images that bring clients to your other, less than stunning images, because they click on your name, which take them to the rest of your portfolio.  If you think of it this way, the earnings from those top images are often much higher (indirectly) than you may think. Now, with few exceptions, my best images go to the microstock sites.  In this way they help me achieve what I like most: to travel the world.