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Messages - Eco
Pages: 1 ... 8 9 10 11 12 [13]
301
« on: February 09, 2007, 09:39 »
Well I do believe in quality rather than quantity. I submit only 10 images a week, which is carefully select and prepare. It seems to work. My Dreamstime portfolio stands at 542 with an acceptance rate of 92.6 %.
302
« on: January 30, 2007, 00:37 »
2012? I think you are optimistic. Since I joined them March 2006 a total of 8 of my images were selected as best image of the day. Despite this and an interview published prominently on their web site, very few sales. Good for the ego? Yes. Good for my pocket? No.
303
« on: January 29, 2007, 16:53 »
I feel your pain leaf
Lately I found that I don't even utilize my full upload limit because I really don't have the energy to go through all that hassle. Well, I guess that is exactly what they are hoping will happen.
304
« on: January 29, 2007, 16:37 »
I see digital camera bodies as short term investments that come and go because the technology develops so quickly. Lenses on the other hand are long term investment - therefore buy the best. In the beginning I also though I could save money by buying third party lenses (Sigma, Tamron, Tokina). With numerous problems such as incompatibility with newer bodies, problems with front- and back focus and poor resale value I am now in a position that I only own Canon lenses. In the process I have lost a lot of money by buying cheap and selling at a loss.
My advice is forget about 3rd party lenses. Buy only Canon lenses. There are a few "bargain" Canon lenses that are inexpensive, but optically very good. I recommend the following:
Dirt cheap and a must have:
Canon 50 /1.8
Intermediate cost, but good value
Canon 50 /2.5 macro
Canon 24-85 /3.5-4.5
Canon 70-300 /4.5-5.6 IS (optically this is really a good lens and the IS is very useful)
Bargain L lenses
17-40 /4 L
70-200 /4 L
200 /2.8 L
Expensive, but well worth the money
24-70 /2.8 L
24-105 /4 L IS
100-400 /4.5-5.6 L IS
Pity your D60 does not accept EF-S lenses. The 17-85 IS lens is an excellent travel lens, and the 10-22 will solve your wide angle needs.
305
« on: January 17, 2007, 01:16 »
Thank you Madelaide and AreaPhotography for your kind words.
With few exceptions all my images on IV are also on other microstock sites. That is why they are priced relatively low (but still high compared to the $1 average of other sites). IV was one of my first sites that I have joined and since they did not sell outright I submitted them to other sites as well.
It does not cost me anything to keep them there and it is easy to upload to them. The occasional sale adds up and generates an income, even if it takes a year.
306
« on: January 16, 2007, 07:09 »
Yes, the limitations of a fixed lens can be an annoyance. For this reason I never shoot with only one camera body. Typically I will use the fixed 400 on one body (often in combination with the 1.4x TC = 560 mm /f4), and a second body with my 100-400 zoom close at hand. The advantages of the fast, fixed lens have already been mentioned by GeoPappas. For me another important reason is DOF. Regardless of differences in absolute sharpness a lens with maximum aperture of f5.6 cannot produce the smooth out of focus backgrounds of a fast f2.8 lens. In this respect the Canon 400 /2.8 lens is unsurpassed. This is so important in wildlife photography if you want to isolate the subject from the background (and/or foreground). Here is a good example: Canon 400/2.8 +1.4xTC @ f4 http://www.imagevortex.com/stock/photos/tag/animals_wildlife/449696557/
307
« on: January 16, 2007, 03:52 »
Hi GeoPappas
Thank you for the compliment.
Yes, I have build up a collection of quality lenses over the years. My most important lenses are (all Canon): 100 /2.8 macro, 135 /2 L, 17-40 /4 L, 70-200 /2.8 L, 100-400 /4.5-5.6 L IS and my all time favorite 400 /2.8 L II.
308
« on: January 16, 2007, 02:10 »
Where did I hear this whining of Photographers Direct before? Oh yes, the film shooters that said that digital photography is not "real photography" and that it will NEVER replace film. Where is film today?
I was with Photographers Direct for almost a year. I have put my absolute best material there. They don't sell your images; they only bring you in contact with potential buyers. In that year I had one potential buyer contacting me. I quoted to him a (modest) amount of $80 for the use of one of my images - I never heard from him again. Beginning last year I pulled all my images from Photographers Direct and joined microstock and I never looked back. More than once I have made $80 IN A DAY on microstock.
Fact is the stock market is currently in a period of massive change. Those that will survive (stock companies as well as photographers) must either adapt to the changes or go out of business. I am sure we all would like to get paid more for our images, but microstock is here to stay and it is likely to change the stock market for ever. I will not be surprised if more and more professional photograpers will be joining microstock to market are least some of their images. I think it is already happening. I predict that the more saturated the market become the more difficult it will become for beginners and amateurs to get into the big microstock sites (because of the higher standards if the images submitted) and rejections will increase. In fact, I think this already started to happen.
Bottom line: For photographers to survive in the future they must diversify by marketing their work in all potential markets. For Photographers Direct to deny photographers the right to also market their images on microstock will eventually lead to their own demise.
309
« on: January 16, 2007, 01:13 »
310
« on: January 15, 2007, 16:49 »
I joined them exactly one year ago (9/01/2006) and just yesterday I requested my first payment of $134.75. This I earned from 7 sales. All my images are priced at $30 of which I earn $21 (less for smaller versions of the image). So, yes sales and payments are possible at ImageVortex, but they are far apart. I don't upload frequently to them, but I will definitely keep my portfolio of approx. 300 images there for the time being.
311
« on: January 10, 2007, 13:34 »
I was interviewed by Crestock some time ago and the interview now appears on their site. Lately I did not submit too many images to Crestock. After this exposure I will have to start uploading some images again  http://www.crestock.com/news-item.aspx?id=146
312
« on: January 09, 2007, 03:48 »
Wonder what will happen if I just ignore the request. Will they close my account? Send me to Siberia?
313
« on: January 08, 2007, 12:29 »
So much confusion on this matter. Hopefully I can give more information to explain the origin of the whole debate. Apparently some photographers (why not everybody I dont know) received a request from Stockxpert to provide certain personal information for accounting/legal reasons. Very strange. Here is the full message. What to you think?
"Happy New Year!
We are contacting you because we need a little help. We are a Hungary based company and like all the other countries we have some very strange laws, especially when it comes to accounting.
In short, we need to have your birth location, birth date and mother's maiden name for accounting purposes. Don't worry about it, it's just a technical issue, nothing more. We know it sounds stupid, but unfortunately we cannot do anything about it.
We hate to waste your time and understand that things like this can be very annoying, so in return for your help we will credit you $20 on your account after we received all the data. Since this issue only affects some of our users, you may even consider yourself lucky to get a $20 bonus! :
To provide the data, please log in and use the form on the My account / Profile page titled 'Important!'.
Thank you very much for your help, and if you have any questions about this matter, please contact our customer service.
Best regards,
Peter Hamza / Stockxpert Crew"
314
« on: December 20, 2006, 00:43 »
Thank you Adelaide. My portfolio at LO is currently just over 500 images.
315
« on: December 19, 2006, 16:44 »
Just got back from a 2 week vacation and guess what? My total downloads is up to126 and I have reached my first payment at LO ($127.50). I feel very positive about them. Keep uploading - it is definitely worth it.
316
« on: November 24, 2006, 04:37 »
Joined LO July. Currently about 500 images online. My stats read as follows:
Views: 5536
Downloads: 66
Piggy bank: $61.20
No payment yet, but for me LO is for sure much better than sites such as CanStock, Crestock and Featurepics. I feel possitive about them and will continue to submit to them.
317
« on: November 12, 2006, 02:44 »
At Fotolia you are allowed to set you own price for an Extended RF License within a range of 10-50 credits (of which you earn 35% as a contributer with a bronze rating). What criteria do you use to set the price? Obviously you want to earn the maximum revenue, but you still need to be competitive with other similar images (which varies widely).
When I first started uploading to Fotolia I did not pay too much attention and at the time I left the price of the extended license on the default of 10 credits. Lately someone is buying quite a number of my photos at this ridiculously low price (good for him, bad for me). Now I am increasing the price on all my photos still set at 10 credits, but I am hesitant to increase it to the maximum of 50. Obviously the more popular images should be set higher and the less popular ones lower. What do you do? Also, is there a way to change the price on all your photos at the same time, or do you need to go to each individual photo? Doing this for all 450 photos in my portfolio is quite time consuming.
318
« on: November 06, 2006, 02:18 »
Hi all Just joined the group and this is my first post. Today I received this message from Dreamstime: Dear Nico, This notification was sent by a potential buyer, who is interested to download one of your files in an additional format. If you are able to provide such format please use the following link in order to upload it: http://www.dreamstime.com/modify.php?imageid=824150 Buyer needs the RAW image. Did any of you receive such a request before? I am not sure what to do  . I don't feel too comfortable to send out my RAW files. As it appears there no additional compensation for doing so. Thank you for your advice.
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