... they don't have the same high return per download that (for example) iStock does, ...

You mean those 9-12 cent dls? : D

I bet they are referring e.g. to Photodune, since they never seemed to be interested in DT's or IS's pricing.
If it is really so and they don't refer to other big sites, I think this is the right move.

All you muppets supplying Photodune and selling ELs for 5 USD x 25%, did you really think this would have no consequences?
How old are you? 10? You really thought they would not mind if you demand 100 USD for an EL at FT and happily sell the same elsewhere for 5 USD? Wait for more! In fact you guys are lucky that I'm not the CEO of FT because I would degrade your rank to "transparent" and pay you 1% because by selling at Photodune you have announced publicly that you will lick any peanuts off the floor anywhere where peanuts are to be found. You undercut yourselves, you undercut everybody else, you should not expect a fair treatment. You are cheapos, period....

+1000

Firstly. Please show a good tone in this thread. I know this is a forum, but don't drag this thread down to the lowest level. You may feel this is a threat or that somebody is getting chances you never got, but again.... How many educational programs for young people offer them three years of photography education, traveling the world and to get paid while doing it...? This is unique and it deserves to be acknowledged.
Travel expenses will be paid fully - all three years. The idea is that the candidates we choose will be able to pay 50% for the education through work with real clients and on real shoots. This will off cause not be the case at first where we will have a lot of expenses on this (first year or so). In my eyes, the best practice is in doing. In my opinion, schools have a tendency to become very distant to the real world practice of the subject they are teaching. I spent five years studying psychology and found that i knew nothing of what it meant to be a good psychologist. In this program we try to break with this.

I will address some questions.
Q. Will I be Offered a job after graduation? After graduation of the boot camp or after graduation of the three years? Is the �job� paid?
A. There are two questions here. Yes and yes. The education program is set up in such a way that if you pass the bootcamp you get offered a student position which will be paid (very low). We can pay you because you quite fast will have to work with real clients and real projects.

Q. Is there a specific place we have to stay while we�re in Cape Town?
A. You can stay anywhere in Cape Town. You must just be able to show up at our headquarter every day for classes. The headquarter is located at 79 Roeland Street.

Q. I�d be totally cool with traveling for half the year, but how would the six months be divided? Would it allow for us to have a part-time job for the time we�re not traveling?
A. At LEAST half a year. And those six months you might be in Denmark for three of them, in Australia for two, in Japan for one, etc. But you will be all over the place and must be able to do this.

Q. How many people do you expect to sign up for the boot camp?! 10 or 100? Is there a cap on how many you will let into the boot camp?
A. We expect about 500 applications and will select 100 for bootcamp. Out of those we expect 10-20 to pass for the class. This is elite. Only the best of the best, but don�t let this stop you. The adventure of the bootcamp will be a thing in itself.

Q. It's a 3 years course with no dates defined? Being one semester of classes per year all in random events?
A. This is full time. About 4 weeks of vacation each year. Classes and exams are not ordered in semesters. Some take four weeks, some take a year..some require you to be in another country and do a project.

Q. Will we be shooting stock photography only?
A. Absolutely not. You will be shooting for clients and work on other projects when you are ready.

So you are reasonably charitable person, and one who thinks running a business should come with a sense of social responsibility, that besides making profit, you should be part of building to a long - term upholdable society?

pigeons? exciting! : )

imho it's not about them being 'professional', it's just that one of Yuri's greatest and most important skill is picking models, it's spot on all the time, whether they are pro or not. Notice how altho being very-very attractive they are seldom the glamourous type, or at least they aren't presented that way.

I think the most important aspect of hiring payed pro models is that you can go on shooting forever, treating the whole thing as job. If they are just ppl you know, you are usually restricted to 'when they have some spare time for this'

" I can't work out where the money is coming from for Yuri."

From this, for example. It doesn't say it's free.... and there's plenty of other oppurtonities here, like getting the shots of talented attendees, which means more shooters working for you for almost free? But thats all speculation of course, he can clear this all up if he intends to.

Quote from: lthn on September 21, 2011, 06:38

checking several of these out at full res makes me regret that I take great care for producing sharp, clean and clear stuf... : /

You've cetainly got a point there. One I clicked on at random from the Dreamstime collection is blurry and has really bad CA. That would never have been accepted at iStock even when I started there. Actually it was so bad, I wondered if the poster had bought a small size from DT and uprezzed it, but even uprezzing say 20% isn't usually that bad, nor does it introduce CA.
Astonished that the poster would actually leave the Dreamstime name and number as the caption. Do you think it's possible that it's their own image and they imagine that people will eschew downloading it for free from Flickr and go and buy it from DT?
If they've stolen it, they're a stupid theif, and if it's their own, they're crazy.

It's just someone who doesn't have a clue about whats what. Maybe 'confused' too. I don't think these were purchased, theres too many, probably got them from a rapidshare or torrent package.

Theres too much of everything. Time for WWIII

" For someone who is producing 250 a week, and has a proven sales record, such low upload limit is extremely unfair"

Wah.  The rules are the rules.  I'm glad this is how it is at IS. 

So what's cool about 18/week?

Quote from: cclapper on September 19, 2011, 16:03

But if he were in a position to make a deal with istock, and that was his thought, the quote made (makes) perfect sense.

What really surprises me is that Yuri doesn't have a special deal with Istock. Look, here is a guy (ok a company) who consistently outselling all others, even on Istock with just - what, 1/5th of his current portfolio? - and they wouldn't even allow him better upload limits (judging by the size of his portfolio there). That buffles me. They are in this business to make money, right? So they  can easily add few hundred thousand in profit *a month* just by hosting his entire portfolio...  this just doesn't make any common sense to me...

When I registered on IS as contributor (I was familiar with it for years before that as a buyer) I wondered around the forums quite a lot to get the feel of the site... when I ran into some interactions between Yuri and the staff, it just looked like they don't like him too much to say the least. Almost hostile sometimes, I found that weird... weird little ppl at istock, they just don't seem to know what they are doing

Response to Yuri: Posted by:lthn
No sorry, not because of you or this post at all, but because I want to keep my 'speech free' about the agencies, and I do have an amount of not nice things to say about them. I think they deserve it. I also do know that they take retribution just for people stating their opinion.

A truly pathetic excuse. In the name (if I may) of many others here on this forum who do not hide behind anonymity in any shape or form, and still state what they believe, think and without fear of consequence - post it.

Grow up or grow a backbone. Or maybe better still, don't make comments at all if you don't have the guts to state who you are.

(PS) sorry, I could help but correct your spelling and grammar in the pasted section.

Are you Mr. Cogent? A son to Mr. and Mrs. Marketing?

Quote from: lthn on September 19, 2011, 06:50

I remember Yuri saying in a recent interview that other agencies have been check-mated by istock years ago, that IS just does everything better, they are way ahead, and ceos' of other agencies are just amateur photogs... quite outspoken which is much appriciated imho. How does all that look now?

I personally don't think it's the economic situation yet. (it will be) Altho it's heading for a collapse, it works in weird way (thats one of the reasons it's likely to be a total collapse): despite being buried in debt, the western, developed world still has money to burn, loans on top of loans, untill everything implodes. The empty space from entities that have gone bankrupt and stopped buying, is likely getting filled up by the ones who are only on their way to becoming bankrupt and seek cheaper alternatives... so imho it's oversupply, maybe for different reasons. Oversupply on IS because they lost customers. Oversupply un SS simply because they have so much stuff, and they have a lot more high volume, high rate contributors. Almost 17 million shots as I remeber? vs. IS with about 10 mill.

Please don't hide. Tell us who you are especially when making such bold quotes on my behalf.

No sry, not becasue of you or this post at all, but because I want to keep my 'speech free' about the agencies, and I do have an amount of un-nice things to say about them. I think they deserve it. I also do know that they take retribution just for ppl stating their opinion. Wouldn't know me anyway I'm not a household name in 'micro', I'm an art director turned photographer. I see a potential of having an ok side income from micro by building an ok portfolio, thats how I got involved. Thats all. The interview is the one by John Lund on his blog, anyone can find it.