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Messages - Uncle Pete
4251
« on: February 02, 2019, 09:52 »
Small update:
-----
All-time summary:
Total moles identified to date: 468
Total moles wacked: 236
Summary for week ending Feb 3:
Moles wacked (by SS) from Jan 27 - Feb 2: 116
Moles pending: 105
https://forums.submit.shutterstock.com/topic/96349-thieves-thread-update-week-ending-feb-3-468-so-far-flagged/
Highest praise for you, and finally somehow getting their attention. I only got two shut down last year on my own, you've done an outstanding job. And I realize that some people on the SS forum have been contributing to your collection as well. If the crooks found that they can't profit, hopefully the word will get out and they will do this less. If the claim of locations are true, those people are probably using fake IDs or borrowed IDs and could be the same group behind it. I mean, once they can't profit, we could get rid of a repeating person or orginization and get the profits to the correct artists.
4252
« on: February 02, 2019, 09:34 »
Is anyone familiar with the infamous Getty image infringement extortion letters?
Sales wise, Getty has gone from decent four figure advertising sales just a few years ago, down to pennies in the present day. They'll need to reinvent fast or they'll continue on their steep decline.
I keep getting the feeling that they just don't care about iStock or artists at all. Their collections and news services probably make the most for them, so why would they care? Not saying they shouldn't, from our side, just why they might be ignoring us. I keep thinking, they were the big agency the top and the best, and then after IS got sold, it was a hard fall, until SS passed them, and now AS has passed them.
4253
« on: February 02, 2019, 09:28 »
I find LinkedIn a real great source of spam accounts. 
Which kind? You mean people who pretend to be something they aren't? If Linkedin worked, by now I'd have gotten at least one request for the kind of photography I do? Seems like friends and word of mouth does best. Good old fashion, insider referrals.  Freelance is not a good description to have for anything to do with news or Editorial.
4254
« on: February 02, 2019, 09:24 »
I think there is some component of artist location in the search algorithm. If they boost that it would tend to increase local sales and decrease sales from farther away. This might be good if you live near a lot of buyers, not so great if you don't.
I am in the US and just looking at my map maybe a few more from the Americas, but there are a few from Europe and one from Japan in the last 10. I haven't seen anything obvious other than frozen pipe sales in the Midwest and east coast of the US.
Oh frozen pipe, that's a good one. Yes I think you are correct, we might be getting a position boost by location of artist and buyer, when they are close. I've never been able to confirm that, but the logic seems reasonable. We know that computers have cookies of what's viewed and there's some tracking by agencies, it would make simple sense to match some of that. Just like years ago when people felt they were being blacked out during times and for places, due to sales drops, that could be location matching, giving preference to locals. We've seen since then that the times for drops are pretty much matching with global demands in different locations. Things like Saturday is the low day for many because all the world is slow, but Sunday picks up, because Japan and Australia, for starters, are waking up for work, it's their Monday morning. The other part of trying to make sense of the searches was made more interesting and difficult, when I found that the search changes about every 20 minutes. Then as I was cross checking, it changed again. That was one session, the same day, just reloading the same search on the same page, on Shutterstock. Very strange.
4255
« on: February 02, 2019, 09:12 »
Cold and snowy? Tractor broke down twice. Oh Microstock?
Pretty much as usual, although I did have a burst of downloads on SS, almost all subs, at the end of the month.
Best January since 2016 and that year has a $21 Single to put it higher. Last year was half of this year. I'd say Best January ever for me, but just by dollars over the rounded average of the last six years.
4256
« on: February 01, 2019, 11:36 »
I don't know, but computers which is what most of the video is used on, is landscape. If there was a site that ran columns like magazines or newspapers, Portrait might have a use.
I would imagine that vertical or Portrait composition for video demand is severely limited, but I wouldn't say a dead product.
Personally I try to hit at the target and center of any market for the most stock/stock. But I also really like specific specialty subjects, aiming at holes and lower competition. So if that's your idea to fill a niche with vertical video, why not try and see?
4257
« on: February 01, 2019, 11:26 »
Iv been getting a very similar pattern to sales, though I do get the odd American sale, I believe that this is a deliberate policy to keep the rest of the World out of the US market, while they have access to everywhere else.
Id really like to believe that this was not the case.
Perhaps we could have some Americans on this site let us know if they have a similar sales pattern?
All micro stock Companies should have their Algorithms verified by an independent body that verifies that they are acting fairly, with a bench mark criteria that states exactly how they achieve this, this in my opinion is the only way forward.
Half of my sales are from the East coast in the US, and I'm based in the UK. I don't think there's a policy to keep the rest of the World out of the US market..
Also I think the map tends to plot the US sales in regions or on the coasts. I get some, kind of like the no-dot in the Atlantic, centered in the middle of the USA without a location city. I don't trust the map to be terribly accurate. I'm always surprised at the number of DLs I get from Mexico City and South America. I must be Americacentric somehow?  Four DLs from Melbourne to end the day yesterday. Someone using their subs?
4258
« on: February 01, 2019, 11:20 »
That's probably it. I'll retally. Thanks!
The type for the numbers was so small when I printed the PDF that I thought it was blank.  Someone needs a new drum on the laser printer, I'll be shopping on Monday.
4259
« on: February 01, 2019, 11:18 »
Hi, Im new in stockphotography and Im a contributor of alamy for three months now. I had my first sale there ($11 so $5.5 net) Im wondering which photos sell best in this agency.
Thanks in advance
You'll have to do your own research as we will have no idea what kinds of photos you make.
However you can go look on the Alamy measures on the contributor site to see what sells
Which in most cases is like closing the barn door after the horses have run off. Be careful of recent sales on Alamy as an indication of future sales, except in broad terms and types of images. Specific keywords and specific subjects, by recent activity and downloads, are very much, yesterday's news.
4260
« on: February 01, 2019, 11:15 »
With the Adobe interface, how does one change the order of the keywords after acceptance?
I know how to do it with the Fotolia interface, but can't see how to do it with the Adobe interface.
While in the dashboard section of the portal, select the image you want to update. Scroll down the page and you will see an image preview with the keywords adjacent. Hover your mouse over the keywords and the edit (pencil) icon will appear. Click it and the keyword update interface will appear.
-Mat Hayward
Hey Mat,
As another upgrade, it would be great if there was an option to switch to a text box when editing keywords of already accepted images.
Most websites have this option - we can just copy paste the whole list of keywords and the system splits the keywords automatically at each coma, while retaining the order since it's important for Adobe Stock.
I've tried editing an existing image but when I copied the whole list, it just pasted it all in one keyword field. So I had to manually enter them one by one in each field - which is quite time consuming if you're working on a series.
Really? I never added more than updates and a few better words, maybe removed some. Good Idea! Some way to paste strings of added keywords. I never would have noticed.
4261
« on: February 01, 2019, 11:05 »
It may not be $100 billion for the U.S., but were were going to pay a good part of it over 10 years. With China and India claiming "third world country" status, they didn't have to pay anything. They were getting money. I think you underestimate the amount of effort the U.S. put into clean renewable energy compared to other countries.
I've visited China a couple years ago and they're not even close to being ready for ban of diesel/gas cars. Neither is India, where they can't even keep the Ganges clean. It's all talk and there has been no progress. That's not leadership. We haven't used coal in our daily lives in decades. The world knows that we have about 75 years of oil left and the reduction of reliance on gasoline is on the map for most of the world powers. It needs to figure out solutions and if there isn't any, we're going to be facing a Mad Max scenario.
There will be an energy crisis in the future. Coal and other fossil fuels are used to maintain the power grid. Solar is not nearly as efficient and it takes up land. Wind is also not as efficient and the turbines kill hundreds of thousands of birds per year. Nuclear is dangerous as we've seen in Japan. The world doesn't have any solutions to remove its reliance on fossil fuels, and until it does, neither coal or gasoline are going away.
Right! With some minor disagreements like the birds or fear of nuclear. And there's part of the problem where theory and reality diverge. No matter what technology someone comes up with, an opposition will appear. Nuclear is the least pollution but people fear China Syndrome and other sci fi events. The Japan plant was hit by a tsunami following an earthquake. We aren't likely to have that happen in the US. The latest big news was a metric ton of waste, being stored. A ton and everyone is up in arms? Most cars weigh a ton, start thinking. It's being stored in a huge hole, under a mountain, in the Nevada desert, that was made by nuclear testing blasts. In other words, there's already a big hole that's a sealed glass walled chamber, that's already full of radiation. Wind works, but not as well as it should. Most of those big turbines were built with government money, to make them possible, not because there is a real investment and profit to be made. Some other designs have been tested, birds aside, and when they collect ice, in Iowa, they fling it off and do all kinds of local damage. Solar for individuals is pretty interesting. Sure big investment up front. but the long therm, can produce a payback. Large scale might take land, but honestly aside from losing farm land, there's still a great amount of open space in the US, much of that in places where farming is nearly impossible. There are also claims of birds being "zapped" or fried in flight, by the collectors. Geothermal takes time to pay back, sounds interesting in the long term for new homes and the future. There are places using Earth energy already, Iceland is a prime example. Everything above costs more money than it returns, (except nuclear which has no home application anyway) small wonder people who don't have that money, aren't running to install Sun, Wind or Geo energy for their homes. The US is converting coal power plants and closing others, moving forward. You want to run your electric car, computer, lighting, and everything else? Better consider where that energy comes from, because the demand is always going up. So called third world countries, China for one at 15% of the world economy, India at 6th, are trying to evade making changes and stopping their contributions to pollution. The US doesn't control the world or the climate, but they seem to be making the best effort to change. CNG cars are available, I wanted to get one. Problem is no filling stations in most places and making a home compressor has regulations, permits, where you can have your own and how many thousands it costs to create one. Plus the driving distances, just like electric limits, are too short if there aren't filling locations easily available. However if someone came out with a hybrid CNG/electric I think that would put a huge dent in air pollution and carbon. I'm positive most people don't even know about CNG, except for home heating, or power plants, and how it's potentially a co2 neutral energy source for transportation. https://www.discover-cng.com/en/key-messages/cng_the_sustainable_alternative/Fuel locations won't add anything, until there's a demand. Pretty simple economics. Remember when most gas stations didn't have diesel? Demand and profit. See where this is going? Without some economic payback, or financial incentive, I don't mean government handouts, I mean business, we aren't going to see change, no matter how much anyone wants change. There isn't an unlimited amount of money to pay for ending reliance on fossil fuels. When the alternate fuel and power sources become efficient enough, they will be adopted. Until then, we are forced to be reliant on fossil fuels. I personally think we don't do enough with Natural Gas which is much cleaner than oil, coal, wood or anything else we can burn for energy.
4262
« on: February 01, 2019, 10:07 »
Posting this just in case the people at Flickr monitor. I have a free account and I am a bit over the new 1000 limit. I received notifications that confirm that I can not upload unless I upgrade and that some of my photos will be deleted starting from the oldest. Turns out many of these photos got lots of views and appear in different groups. Not certain at all that its a good business strategy to delete them. Flickr should definately consider giving away pro accounts to selected contributors who produce quality work and generate traffic as an incentive to post....
Give away pro accounts? That's where they make the money for storage and bandwidth. If your earlier photos are getting the most views and are most attractive, consider thinning out the 1000 by removing less attractive images. Not only will you have the free account, but as you curate, your collection will improve in quality, which will make you look better for the quality of work, not just quantity.
4263
« on: February 01, 2019, 10:02 »
Metadata is usually wiped by agencies so buyers don't have access to our information.
Never found one that didn't wipe everything, both on their site and when the buyer downloads and image. If you're looking for gigs, you can always track down the photos you've sold with Google reverse image search, to find where they've been used. Then use that as leverage on social media saying X company used your photo for X article or Ads. Who knows, with the proper tags and hashtags, you might be approached there. 
In a specific market that might work, if the idea is from stock in general, there are about 30,000 other people with the same goals. What I mean is, if someone is going to try to get contracts or outside work, it's better to have a specialty, a style, subject or interest group. Then direct the marketing to that area of expertise.
4264
« on: January 31, 2019, 12:19 »
Yes, that's a hidden blue pencil, to get into the editor. Tricky until you know it.  Then...  ^ moves image to the top, (Caret has a bar over it)  is drag and drop X is remove
4265
« on: January 31, 2019, 12:09 »
Fotolia! I have been trying to delete some photos uploaded but not submitted. Deleted keywords etc like they said--- nothing. Only thing I do like about AS presentation is bigger images. The rest is not user friendly.
Go to Adobe to delete. Do you want a screen shot with instructions? I can do that. Delete image in Uploaded Files https://contributor.stock.adobe.com/en/uploads
4266
« on: January 31, 2019, 11:59 »
I have not read the details, but crypto-payments aside, are they planning to use the block-chain technology to keep track of the way images sold through them are being used, thus enforcing their copyright?
If yes, this can be a break-through worth paying attention to.
Yes that's part of the plan that they are selling us. All sales are tracked and have an ID. Remember Kodak Coin and that place, hasn't ever gone live. Also after watching video, it appears that the guy who started Wemark, may have started Picasa at Lifescape in 2002, Picasa which was sold to Google. The big problem I see there is the volatility of every cryptocurrency, there's a huge risk $1 commission to become 1 cent just in one night.
While true, that's a bit over stated. At the same time, crypto seems to have stabilized after all the whooha and investing. Companies that went into mining for profit have found their projected earnings are falling. It's not the boom it was, and it was a bubble and Tulips. But for our interest, the values have become more stable. And yes, you could have $1 today and 90 cents tomorrow, or $1.10 tomorrow. I don't like playing the market with my earnings.
The other big problem is that there has been no word that I've seen about any sort of marketing of the agency to potential buyers. If this is just a place to host your images with no marketing other than what the contributor does themselves, then I can't see what the attraction is. Marketing and sales generation is the hard part.
I don't see how they have anything to appeal to buyers. Their premium content isn't exclusive and is overpriced. For example, I found a large collection of images from an outfit called Mint Images that is also on Alamy and Dissolve (with the same content). Wemark's prices are much higher than Alamy prices for the same images.
What type of stock imagery buyer would prefer to obtain images where you have to deal with the volatility and hassle of buying tokens? What large corporate buyer is going to put up with this extra hassle?
Home Run - Marketing? Content is same as all the rest. Higher prices on some. Extra hassle for a changeable currency. Fine point and I made the same mistake. These are Tokens, not Coins. On the surface the sell to us looks good, but what about the buyers? I'd say the most positive part would be, it costs us nothing to upload and watch? I'm just going to watch... or if I do upload some content, I'm going to price it for what I think the fair price is, if someone found it on SS, AS or Alamy. I will not compete with myself on price! Here's Etherium for the last year. (and I'm calling this stable?)  After the three peaks, I think we've seen the last of the boom and fad investors. We can all watch for six months and see how that prediction works out. But back to what Jo Ann wrote. Imagine you are a buyer and want photos, you buy some WMK and your $100 is $90 the next week, before you spend it. For us, we get paid and can watch for a peak and cash out to our wallet, or just sit on the money and hope.  Here's an interesting article about Coins and Tokens and how crypto curreny works. https://masterthecrypto.com/differences-between-cryptocurrency-coins-and-tokens/Every time I read something new, I learn more and I still haven't bought into the whole cryptocurrency will be disrupting how the world does business. So far it's just an interesting technology and has some future potential. The theoretical is grand and imaginary, reality is different.
4267
« on: January 30, 2019, 20:04 »
$50 Million for Adwords? No wonder we only get a small cut.
4268
« on: January 30, 2019, 19:59 »
I would rather wait this out and see how it all shakes out before jumping in
Its never too late to join the party
Wemarks, WMK or Wemark Tokens, are tied to Etherium and apparently valued at about 20 cents. That's what I found about the buy in. If we set our own prices, there could still be people who would cut to bare minimum hoping to get more downloads with low prices. I don't think this will compete with subs, no matter what. I'm watching. While coin is the future, it might not be a just over the hill kind of thing.
4269
« on: January 29, 2019, 12:02 »
Thanks for replying. I'm not trying to put in a link - it's the code snippet that shows thumbnails of best selling or latest images. You used to be able to copy the code from somewhere in your catalogue. Possibly under promotion? But nothing's there now.
OK thumbnail gallery not link to newest images on portfolio. I don't know if the code will copy right, inside a message here. It's a shutterstock mini gallery. <div style="width: 400px; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #E0E0E0"> <center> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Sans-Serif"> My latest images for sale at Shutterstock: </span> <script language='javascript'>var shutterstock_table='';</script> <script src=" http://www.shutterstock.com/mini_gallery.js?s=111418&t=l" language='javascript'></script> <script language='javascript'>document.write(shutterstock_table);</script> </center> </div> <p> <div style="width: 400px; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #E0E0E0"> <center> <span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Sans-Serif"> My most popular images for sale at Shutterstock: </span> <script language='javascript'>var shutterstock_table='';</script> <script src=" http://www.shutterstock.com/mini_gallery.js?s=111418&t=p" language='javascript'></script> <script language='javascript'>document.write(shutterstock_table);</script> </center> </div> Or go here, right click, on a blank area, View Page Source. Old cobweb page of mine: http://gizex.com/chinesesportsbar/Copy the section between the <div style=> and </div> for newest and most popular (which isn't anymore, so take your pick), change the ID number to yours, unless you want to show my latest images. I think the code in this message is correct?
4270
« on: January 29, 2019, 11:29 »
After the site changes a while back the images no longer have accessible descriptions. All is sold on the title and the image. It dawns on me they are just trying to make iS more of a "clipart" cheap site. Tomatoes on white. Check. But they don't want images that interfere with other Getty collections.
Got it Stan. I don't know about clipart or descriptions? You mean my file descriptions are not used in the search or just invisible for any purpose.
Just like the rest, my view, my main sites, every one has better and worse sales for different kinds of images. Mine runs like this, SS Photos and Editorial; iStock (after they wiped out 3,657 Editorial images) a mix, but mostly old photos: Adobe illustrations are first, photos come in second. Each place is different for what does best for me. For Me
Not only that, my best selling image on AS, and I haven't been there long as a returning artist, has only one download on SS in the same years. I think it has more sales on iStock also. One of my top images on SS has only 3 DLs on AS.
What I'm getting at, is some of the comments about best site are not about the site but about what we personally make and upload. The same images don't bring the same returns at all sites equally.
ps I don't do vectors, my illustrations are rasters, not the "real thing".
IS is a love hate relationship for me too. I'll take the money but they are one of the least friendly sites in the business.
I don't know if descriptions are used in searches or not. Because of the controlled vocabulary that translates the keyword tags, I suspect the search does not include descriptions. I've not tried to suss this out.
Many of us complained back when iS made the current page layouts that there was no description. I sell some city skylines but a buyer now cannot know the date of the skyline and whether it is no longer current (e.g. with a new building).
I've made a few quick reviews of the data in DeepMeta. I don't have full proof but it certainly appears that editors are adding and removing keywords so they are different than what I submitted. There are now keywords that I know I would have not considered (because I didn't think of them - not because they are necessarily wrong) and there are missing keywords that I'm sure I would have included to describe the image. I used to sell a lot of clipped car images. When iS quit accepting cars they didn't remove those already in the collection. So my good sellers are still there - albeit I'm seeing keywords removed for make and model of the car. So if a buyer is looking for a 1968 Chevrolet 396 Convertible, only keywords 1968 and Convertible appears to exist. Fortunately the search might get them from the title. Unfortunately Convertable is a wrong spelling in the title and I would have to open a ticket to get it fixed. The keywords displayed on site don't even include Red (I will have to go back and see if I included Red when uploaded). So people won't find my image even searching for the generic Red Car.
Yup I've read those problems before and now that I think about it, I made notes when I uploaded there, early on, which sites used which fields for the search and if I remember right, iStock never did, just keywords using the CV. Just checked, name/title and description, are not searched. I went to add a couple words, edit the keywords, not allowed, file is already in ESP. Tough place, isn't it? I guess their theory is, once it's there and they have adjusted the keywords, like I added vintage which is a non-word, I can only have Retro or Old Fashion or a third inappropriate choice. I don't know why they would remove Red! Meanwhile making the search worse and more difficult for buyers is their way to improve the system. They don't care about making images discoverable, which makes me not care about uploading, and I'm sure they don't care a bit about that either.
4271
« on: January 29, 2019, 11:03 »
Review and link to a trial version. If you have a stack of images and don't need this for a long time, maybe get them all ready, download the trial and process. Then see if you are pleased with the results, and buy. If you have an older computer and not much memory and older video card that's not 8GB you might find processing takes some time. http://www.andybellphotography.com/blog/2018/08/22/ai-gigapixel-review-worth-the-cost/
4272
« on: January 29, 2019, 10:48 »
Just going to point out that Mindstorm was first to ask. His code is below.
Thx!
But don't sell yourself short. If you have done video before, then there is certainly a learning curve, just as there is with photos. It can be learned though.
I look at my videos from just a year ago (before I was thinking of stock footage) and cringe... even though I am getting about $200/mo from my clips after only 5 months (which is slightly more than I get from photos after 7 years of submissions and 4500 images...!)
Not selling short, I only have GoPros now, dropped some other cameras, video is not photo, and my access is limited by TV contracts. That means "if we catch you shooting video, you will be asked to leave and never come back" so I don't shoot video at that kind of event. There's much difference in technique and planning a good video shot, while photo is on moment in time. That said, I have a good time, 2 Hero HD, a 4 Black and a Session 5. All kinds of mounts including a hardhat, a headband, a dual HD for 3D, clamps and things. My favorite so far is the magnetic mounts for POV video and a special tripod for time lapse. Working on more places where I can stick up a camera, time lapse, in any weather, and pick it up at the end of the day. Access where there is none... None of those are on stock sites yet, just working on where, how and what testing.
4273
« on: January 28, 2019, 13:43 »
I used your code to sign up. Don't count on ever seeing a cent and I'll be sure to post my code as soon as I get one? I will try some uploads and see how I like the system.
Thx! I got an email saying that you had used the code.
Now that you are a member of BlackBox, you might want to join their Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/blackboxglobal/). It is a closed group, only open to BlackBox members.
It is a very active group, and pretty much every question I have had has been answered there without me even having to post myself. The founder is also making hints about some big improvements that will come out February (next month), including something related to mentoring so the more experienced videographers can help teach the novices. I am guessing that will be in exchange for a percentage of the revenue on sold clips that were part of the mentoring, but I have no inside knowledge to know for sure.
OK and for anyone else now I have a code: JRCL915H which may be the only way I'll make anything from video on Blackbox or anywhere else. https://portal.blackbox.global/register?code=JRCL915HJust going to point out that Mindstorm was first to ask. His code is below.
(BTW, if you do join BB, I'd appreciate if you use my referral code -- JKX5J2D3 ). Doesn't cost you anything, but they then give me a dollar or so each time you make a sale.
4275
« on: January 28, 2019, 09:16 »
Summary of last week (week ending Jan 27):
Total moles identified: 250
Moles wacked (by SS) from Jan 20 - 26: 120
Moles pending: 130+ (new accounts identified today)
https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2019/01/27/update-why-shutterstocks-copyright-infringement-problems-should-concern-you/
Complete list:
https://forums.submit.shutterstock.com/topic/96297-thieves-thread-update-week-ending-jan-27-251-so-far-flagged/
Small victory but huge huge challenges ahead...
You are amazing doing this
Were it not for your persistence and outspokenness, SS would have ignored this whole matter and just carried on status quo
You should be offered some kind of compensation from SS for what youve done and are continuing to do
So many have bitched and complained about this problem, but until you came along SS did nothing about it
You sir, deserve much kudos !
Many of us reported and reported and got back "we'll look into it" or how to file a DMCA if we were the owner. I think bringing the problem to the forum there for everyone to see, not one here and there, but the whole big list of hundreds, got someones attention. Bringing this to the forum was a good way to finally break down the lip service and never actually doing anything. Exposing how large the problem is, did it. As long as there was an email here and there and a complaint on the forum, we got ignored. I doubt that the threats of exposing this or a class action suit had anything to do with the change. Showing everything about how big the problem is, to everyone, anyone can read the forum right? That's what worked. I think it was Alex's big list that did the trick.
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