FIXED

Yeah I am still around.  My lack of presence the last few weeks are a combination of....

Living in a rural Saskatchewan (Canada) for a few months with ..very......... slow........ internet
Shooting a whole lot
.. taking some summer holidays when I can.

The logo has been done for quite a while but I wasn't super thrilled with the final result so I wasn't in any rush to get it changed. I also felt I would have to do a few more layout changes in combination with the new logo and haven't made time to do it all.  I feel my summer months are 'shooting months' and the fall and winter are more office type work (website upgrades and photo sorting/editing).  Hopefully later this year when I'm back on fast internet and shooting less I'll have time to make some improvements here instead of just keeping the ship sailing.

Hi Jo Ann, Luis,

our prices are not random. We have three price levels, they depend on the sales of the particular image. All images have level one (1,3,4,...) at first, when they are sold, they will get level two (2,6,8,...), if they sell even more, they get level three (3,9,12,...). The idea is that we make the images more expensive if they sell well and we make them cheaper again if they don't sell on the higher price level.

It should be the same with the price of the EL - it depends on the price level the image have (40, 80 or 120 credits). I have forwarded Jo Ann's image to our IT guys to inspect why it has price level one and the EL for 80 credits.

The price of the full size image depends on the size of the high-res, as you have figured out.

Thanks for filling us in

Where was your email shown?  I have the forum set up so emails are not allowed to ever be shown.  It shouldn't have been shown anywhere, or in other words.  It's impossible for you to click a setting to show/hide your email on this site. 

Could they meant on your on personal website or other place?

Here are the links to help you check
Check your profile: http://www.microstockgroup.com/profile/
NB: If your email is in italics that means it is NOT shown.

There should be a button on the top right and bottom right that says 'Unnotify' (or notify if you aren't following the thread yet) .. do you see those?  Try that

My two cents:

Start with TFP or friends, sisters, cousins. Is better to start looking what sells before putting your money on a pro model and find that you dont get the correct pictures or took pictures that dont sell and u waste your money

1000$, seriously? Too much money for micro I guess. Start like Sean told you, no more than 100$ is a so high amount of money to recover your investment

$1000, yes.. at times.  Last week it was 5 models for 4 hrs at $50/hr each.  I could have done the shoot with 2 models but wanted to get more variety and 'looks'.

And it all depends on the shoot.  I fully agree that it is worth your time to use family and friends when starting out.  TFP is also a good option.  Get comfortable with shooting with models and experiment with what sells.  I am only using models at that price on shoots that I know are going to give me a return on my investment.   Generally, the best selling image from a shoot will easily pay for all the modelling fees from that shoot.  If you don't have good models who can pose and make their facial expression like you ask, you may not get that good selling shot. 

I also feel like locations are a bit more of a premium than the models so I book several models to have several variations of the same shot at a shoot.  I could do the shoot with half the models and get half the variations but feel it is the best use of my time to get all the shots in a single shoot, even if half the models have to wait some of the time.  I also feel it is OK for the models to get a little break in the shoot when they aren't being used.  Having multiple models also gives me a little insurance.  If one get's sick the shoot doesn't have to be cancelled - which risks that the location is lost for good.

The Stocksy blog got a bit of a facelift and we've moved the platform.

We're active again using our new Tumblr blog as an extension of our social media campaigns and hopefully more: http://blog.stocksy.com

Thanks for filling us in.

I tend to pay kids $25 flat rate for about an hour.  If it's more like 2 hours, maybe $40.

 I had to respond to a few models while I was waiting for answers and it looks like I picked a pretty 'on par' amount.  I like to give models a higher amount if I've used them before because I then know they are good and worthwhile to shoot. Or, in other words, there is less risk involved.   I decided to pay $20/hr for first time kid models and $30/hr for models I've used before.  My adult rate is $30 for new models $50/hr for models I've used.

I think the term 'New concept' in the press release should be taken loosely.  How many phone agencies have popped up recently.  Anyhow - here is the release.

New concept: InstaStock allows Instagram and smartphone users to earn money with their snapshots


    www.InstaStock.com: The first innovative database in the microstock market which provides most up-to-date authenticphotos
    Smartphone Generation: Everyone can easily share and sell their photos online
    Companies: Purchasing fresh, authentic and unique photos for campaigns and other usage



Win-win-situation for smartphone photographers and companies


Berlin, July 2013 - InstaStock is one of the very first photo databases, which sells authentic, up-to-date images of smartphone photographers, launching in July 2013. Users can easily upload their best pictures via Instagram and smartphones in a few seconds and even when on the go onto their InstaStock gallery. Via InstaStock photographers increase their awareness, earn 50 percent of the selling price but still keep the right of their images. International companies only buy the image license and are able to use them with unlimited creativity for authentic marketing campaigns and editorial contents.


How the idea of InstaStock arose


The idea behind InstaStock arose when the global technology company Fujifilm contacted founder Andr� Lutter with the request to license images from the photo database of yourPainting. The yourPainting GmbH is the primary company of Andr� Lutter, which sells commission paintings. "From my own experience, I know that companies are always searching for emotional and up-to-date images", says Andr� Lutter. "Instagram users upload millions of photos monthly. I�m as well uploading my photos from my iPhone onto my Instagram account everyday. So why not earning money with your hobby?", says Lutter. "Via InstaStock I cannot only sell my photos to big international companies, but I can also make my images famous.�, says the young entrepreneur.

 

Thousands new uploads daily


Two weeks after InstaStock was launched, the portfolio contained photographs of fascinating landscapes, authentic portraits up to emotional snapshots. "Daily thousands of new and unique images are added. It's amazing of what a great quality those smartphone photos are", says Jan Dzulko, Angel Investor of InstaStock. By the end of the year InstaStock plans to offer companies from various industries more than 10 million authentic photos. With an investment of Slam Dunk Capital and other Angel Investors InstaStock releases their stock photo website in July 2013.

Quote from: leaf on July 28, 2013, 10:08

I have found models through model mayhem (mixed results), street casting (some good model finds there), and friends of friends on facebook (great results there recently). 

Can you tell me more about your "facebook model search"?
What exactly did you write, how many fans has your page and what was the answer/results ratio and the like?

Thanks,
Robert

I didn't use a facebook page.  I just wrote to friends of my friends on facebook asking them if they wanted to model for shoot X.  About 30% answered and were interested.  The few that I've used so far turned out to be great models.

It's pretty easy to own a company in Denmark or wherever and do shoots in South Africa and outsource image editing to India.  Where you shoot doesn't need to be connected to where you company is registered.

I can see a concept like this being very useful for people who need pictures of a certain thing, like the telephone directory.  There is an army of photographers that are spread out literally everywhere around the world so if it became as popular as instagram, someone is probably only a few hundred meters away from the location you need.  So, if a message could pop-up ... you are within 100m of a needed photo shoot.. it might be worth your trouble to snap the pic.  Making an effort and going out of my way to create an image that will probably only be purchased one time for $2.50 is certainly not worth my while.

We have also re-enabled our old processing scripts so that when activated it will send the all files in your FTP for processing. You should no longer have any error 404s. This was done to accommodate the automated apps that triggers the processing scripts to us.

Thank you,

Alex.

super, thanks