In the US they have the Labor Day national holiday next Monday Sept 3rd - some peeps will take the whole week off as their final chance of a summer holiday.

In Europe everyone goes back to work in the first week of September.  There is a National Holiday in the UK this week.

Children return to school in Europe about 5th to 7th September, and in the US sometime in the week of Sept 3rd.

I hear it's been cold down there in Canberra.  Never been there but am up for a trip sometime.  Might do a drive down from Brisbane to Sydney, across to Canberra, then on to Melbourne via the Coast Road.  Does that sound feasible?  Do you know if the Parliament Buildings in Canberra require a property release?

You've been exclusive there for about a month now YY.  Can you tell us anything about it - increased sales etc etc - perhaps on a separate thread?

That's not correct KR - Yuri holds the daily record at SS at 1190 downloads.

Hidesey sells 300 a day at IS at an average of $1.20, that's equivalent to 1,200 a day at SS.

I asked her whether she had ever considered spreading her portfolio to other agencies, and she said she is being approached all the time but will never stop being exclusive at iStock.

Besides, if she wants to broaden out she now has access to Getty.

Being exclusive at IS and broadening out to RM agencies and other specialist fields would make a lot of sense and be a good economic strategy.

Yes I agree with that - there is at least one inspector there who rejects for artifacts that do not exist.. Very frustrating.  I never have artifacts or noise in my images - EVER - and to receive a rejection notice saying 'artifacts at 100%' is enough to make me want to commit murder.

The file goes straight to scout, which is useful if somewhat lengthy, but frankly those files should never be rejected in the first place.

This is relatively new (last couple of months) so presumably the inspector is new and cutting his/her teeth.

Excellent idea Leaf.  Well done.

Unfortunately I do not have a single nature image in my portfolio!  I'm afraid trees, flowers and scenics just aren't my thing.

Good luck to all!

As more and more agencies get launched, many would think that the competition would start to knock iStock off it's pedestal.

In fact, the OPPOSITE might be happening.

I have seen a few comments on the iStock forums from designers who say that they have visited other agencies and are simply fed up with seeing the same images over and over again.  One designer actually said he'd cancelled his accounts with all other agencies because 'he can get all those pictures at iStock AND get the exclusive stuff as well'.

It's summer, and the wrong time of year to draw any conclusions.  But I look at the weekly decline in page views for DT and BigStock and wonder if in fact those secondary agencies are feeling the pinch from competition more than iStock or SS.

I see a market where 80% of the business goes one way and where the remaining 20% is churned around by all the newer agencies desperate to get business.

And as more agencies are launched the RISK is NOT that iStock and SS get hurt, but in fact the opposite.

In my own case I see increasing sales at IS and SS, a little progress at StockXpert but everywhere else stagnating or declining.  And as I upload more pictures my $/image declines even further.

It will be interesting to see how things develop over the next six months, which should be more buoyant times for sales.  I suspect that the gap between IS and SS and the others will get wider.

Interestingly, the one agency that might escape is FT, simply because so much of its customer base is in Europe.

Number of contributing photographers has jumped from about 3,000 to about 3,200 since I last looked about a month ago.

The way these things are developing I can see the medium format firms going out of business in a few year's time.

Yes, I know there are differences, but would you choose a Hasselblad over a Canon 1DSiii or whatever 35mp beast they launch in a couple of year's time?

Thanks for all the comments.  Alexa charts for last year show a dip in early Sept for both SS and IS, but that might represent the week before Labor Day.

Nonetheless I think I'll store up my usual uploads and commence again once Labor Day has passed.

Oh - SS was a BDE for me today.  Nice to see in the summer.

Following a drop in sales around the time of Memorial Day back in May, I made a mental note to avoid uploading to Shutterstock during holiday weeks; I recall that my uploads during the weeks of Memorial Day and Independence Day tended to 'get lost' and not derive the intial sales usually expected.

Labor Day falls on Monday Sept 3rd.  Presumably there will be many peeps in the US who will take the whole week off as their last chance of summer hols.  But this is only a guess on my part.

To our US friends out there: what is your view of the Labor Day week please?  Do most people take the week off?

All of my sales at FT seem to be to European customers.  August is prime holiday season in Europe; some countries (France, for instance) take almost all of August off; factories close for the month and everyone heads for the beach.  In the UK there is a long public holiday at the end of the month and many people time their summer holiday either side of those dates.

August stats for FT should be ignored.  If things don't pick up in September, well there is clearly a problem, but I suspect sales at FT will play catch-up after September 5th/7th when everyone has to be back from hols because the children go back to school.

I buy my camera bodies brand new.

But all my lenses I buy used from eBay.  I tend to use prime lenses which have lost their popularity as everyone seems to want to use zooms nowadays.  Personally I've found that prime lenses give me much better results than zoom lenses, and, as everyone seems to want to get rid of their primes, I am a willing buyer at knock down prices.

A few months ago I bought a Nikkor 35mm F2 AF for about $250.  Wow, what a great lens - I use it almost every day.

I'm just waiting delivery of a Nikkor 20mm F2.8 AF, bought last week for AUD $320 (about US $270).

I always buy full frame lenses, just in case I ever feel the need to upgrade to a Nikon FF DSLR if and when they launch one.

This has been posted on DCResource today:

"Blockbuster week for new cameras ahead
If you like big camera announcements, then you'll want to keep your eyes fixed on the DCRP homepage over the next 10 days or so. Leaks have spoiled some of the surprises (we're don't violate our NDAs), but there are plenty more to come!"