Jeancliclac, I would like to collaborate, but I have just one image with a windmill..

hmm.. somehow the inserting of the image does not work.. So here is the link..

http://www.stockxpert.com/browse.phtml?f=view&id=2254831

In this year  I never heard of anyone who got accepted at SS without being rejected prior. Probabably thats policy at SS to tell the photographers what high standart they have. I do not think the standard is as high when you submit images. Makes me wonder if they rejected Iofoto the first time he applied
So take it lightely, be patiend and try again.

Thanks,  he is in the trunk

Yes a union
Well, I think it allways depends how big the union is. I am convinced for start-up agencies you probably can make such a special deal just for union photographers. I want to say it must not be a big investment for the start-up agency. Just make the descicion to give the photographers 50% instead of 30%. As an agency I would prefer having twice as much images because of union photographers and giving them 50% instead of having half the amount of photographers and give them 30%. The first payouts will take a while anyway.
For the big agencies it cannot do much unless the union is really big.
Why should photographers join, if there wont be any special deals for union members? Maybe joint interest? But you probably would not get enough photographers in the beginning. After you have a certain number people you will gain momentum and probably more start to join the union I guess. You are right there must be something more to attract photographers.
Well to withdraw images is a  boarderline action I would say. Probably you wont find much photographers who will do that if you have a good income ther.  But you can build up pressure by hundrets of photographers stopping to upload images and instead keep uploading to other agencies.
Was just a thought.

Thanks again! Yes I will take two bodies with me. I have the 30D and still my old D60. The D60 is not working with a flash, but it is only a backup anyway. I also have an external Sigma EF 500 Flash. If it wont rain we will have the shooting outsite. I am just doing the formal pictures.  Yes I know my lens is slow. I will try to use the 50/1.8 EF II as well, which is pretty fast :-)
I am not sure yet about the raw thing, from the storage, it would not be a problem, because I have the Digimate with me too (40 Gigs space).  Maybe I will just go save and put the settings on raw and JPG at the same time.

Welcome in this forum French Fries, uhhm.. sorry.. Freedomefries As sharpshot said, Getty shares are not necessarily the best idea.
What if Istock stops being so successful as well as Getty. Not only you will earn less on Istock you will also loose money with your shares.

If you are in Germany you can easily open an account for buying shares, with some banks you even can open such an account online, if you allready have a normal account with them. Ordering shares is pretty simple here, however I would not buy any shares without knowing exactly what you are doing. Thats why I invested some money in Fonds which are much more save, being managed by people who most likely know what they are doing.

Wow, cool image! I like it! It deserves to be in the top 50!

Yes great tips! Thanx! I have done the test shooting. I am happy the couple are friends and easy going people. So we worked it out together. They both knew I was doing it the first time and I told them beforehand, that they first should check my images before the decide if they will take me. They like my images and are happy with me so I am doing the wedding. But the test shooting was a really good idea for me. I learned a lot. You really have to take care that the white dress is not blown out, especially when you are in the sun. But actually there where only 5 or so images where this was a problem. It was really cloudy and almost too dark. When we left the park it started to rain.
But apart from darkness it was a good light regarding the shadows. I worked with about up to ISO 800. At the end I made images with ISO 3200, because we wanted to do an image where the couple jumped in the air and the groom was running away carrying the bride in his arms.
What I need to do is to write down a lot of different poses what the couple should do and where to look, which expressions and so on. I am not so experienced that I can just come up with them. They liked it, when I directed them. But often we together had to come up with a new pose.  That took time.  And I realized I need more variety.

 Images against the green background of the park looked quite good while images with sky in it did not looked as good.

I was disappointed that a lot of images where slightly blurry. Probably not too bad, but they would not have been accepted at the major stock agencies in there original size. I think I really have to try out the 50mm lens and should not take the 28 300 lens too often. Or buy the 24 105L lense

Thanks a lot for all the tips! I am doing just the bride and the groom, I am not doing the photos at the ceremony or reception. An idea I have for my shooting I want to share for the others with upcoming weddings. Try to do natural pictures. Very often a forced smile does not look very good.  My favorite people shots are those where people do not expected that I took a picture. Like, let them pose and smile take the picture and pretend this pose is done, half a second later take another unexpected shot and probably you will have much less tensed faces. In addition it will surprise them and then they start to laugh, thats the time for you to take the real good pictures  . So goes my theory, and it worked on some people for me. I will try it out tomorrow. Probably you can use it just once or twice then the surprise effect will be away. But I hope it will loosen the tension and gives it all a funny atmosphere.
Oh and then we all do know that word cheese, when the people should smile. Well try this out stick real cheese in your pocket. And then while saying cheese pull the cheese out and hold it up. I did it once on a picknick. It was one of my best people shots. I got them all laughing. But they were a funny crowd anyway, i do not know if it works with everyone. But otherwise I am not a good joke teller we will see how it works out. Well Pixart, at least we can share what we want to do better on our next wedding ;-) All the best for your shooting.

Probably I am going to shoot a wedding this August and tomorrow we will have a test shooting. Since I never have done this I would like to ask if you guys have any suggestions. I will just do the photos where the couple poses without any guests. For the ceremony and the reception they have someone else. The place most likely will be in a park. I will use my 30D and probably the 28-300 Tamron lense. If I do  not use the full range especially 200-300mm the quality should be ok. I will try out the flash too.
 

I don't know if these things rotate on snapvillage or not, but freezingpics has one of the top 3 "snappiest" photos as well as an editor's choice on the browse page.  Freezing, they love you.  (I do love that iceberg too.)  Any sales yet?

Thanxs pixart :-) I haven't seen that until I got on there after reading your post. I do not have any sales yet. But 700 something views on the iceberg image. At least people are looking at that site. Probably all photographers .

About the snappyness from the FAQs:  "Every image in the SnapVillage catalog has a living, breathing �snappyness� score based on a sophisticated and proprietary algorithm. �Snappyness� is a dynamic rating that is driven by multiple measures of a picture�s popularity, including the number of times it has been viewed, downloaded, favorited, commented upon, shared and purchased. The Snappyness rating ensures that SnapVillage searches yield the freshest, best images."
I uploaded 80+ images, but stopped uploading except for one or two, when I hope they will be an editors choice to get publicity as early as possible.
I will upload as well more, if they improve their features.

More lucrative agencies then shutterstock? Is there something like this?