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Messages - hatman12
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876
« on: August 28, 2007, 01:11 »
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?
877
« on: August 28, 2007, 00:08 »
Looks like Corbis has blown it with this venture - no news for three or four weeks, site full of bugs, reputation going down the drain, complete misunderstanding of the market etc etc.
I suppose when they called it Snapvillage that was a sign that they were barking up the wrong tree.
878
« on: August 27, 2007, 20:58 »
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?
879
« on: August 27, 2007, 20:57 »
Good analysis and good advice.
880
« on: August 27, 2007, 15:20 »
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.
881
« on: August 27, 2007, 04:04 »
At a guess I'd say she would have been far worse off my not being exclusive; the other sites do not have the customer base to be able to sell in such volume.
It's an easy calculation - IS has 2 million customers, DT has 350,000 of which 14,000 are photographers.
For comparison, have a look at lisafx - last time I looked she'd sold 90,000 at istock and 11,000 at DT.
882
« on: August 25, 2007, 22:05 »
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.
883
« on: August 25, 2007, 21:35 »
Rejections for me at iStock are reasonably rare thank goodness (83% acceptance rate) and those that ARE rejected usually raise my eyebrows. I send them all to scout. Scout has subsequently accepted all of them except one file.
I have had a couple that have made me wonder whether the inspector is either a super human being or is just being bloody minded; the only way of drawing this to iStock's attention is to make scout aware of a rejection 'that seems to be excessive'.
To be fair to iStock, there is usually a good reason for rejection (I had two recently for a background not quite white, and when I went to investigate I had to blow the things up to 200% to find the odd pixel or two that were not quite RGB 255), but I do get the impression that one or two of their inspectors demand a level of perfection that is beyond anyone.
884
« on: August 24, 2007, 17:03 »
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!
885
« on: August 24, 2007, 17:02 »
Bonjour et bienvenue notre groupe. Bonne chance avec toutes vos ventes de photo.
Alsace est trs belle. J'ai visit Strasbourg et la rgion de vin plusieurs fois.
David Franklin (Australia)
886
« on: August 23, 2007, 19:36 »
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.
887
« on: August 23, 2007, 19:24 »
I really am astonished at the declining trend in page views at BigStock. The lastest Alexa charts show page view activity at only a third of what it was a year ago; BigStock appears to be in a vicious downwards trend and is breaching new lows almost every day.
I know some posters here have had success with BigStock. My own experience is that they are easily the worst return per image of all the agencies, and getting worse with each passing week.
I'm surprised that an established agency like them hasn't done more to invest and grow the business, instead of apparently sitting back and watching as page view activity gets demolished.
Assuming page views translate into actual business, I would guess that customers are deserting and going elsewhere (see my comments on other thread).
Not good.
888
« on: August 23, 2007, 17:45 »
Number of contributing photographers has jumped from about 3,000 to about 3,200 since I last looked about a month ago.
889
« on: August 23, 2007, 17:41 »
See DPreview. The new G9 thing has a 12mp CMOS sensor, so does the new A640 (or something).
The G9 looks like a good thing to tuck in a pocket. I'd like to see a detailed review first.
890
« on: August 23, 2007, 04:23 »
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?
891
« on: August 23, 2007, 03:47 »
Wonderful technological marvels launched today. However, 12.3mp is not enough to get to XXL at iStock so I see little point in buying a D3 over a D300.
The D300 represents such a significant improvement over my D200 that I'll try to place an advance order tomorrow for possible delivery before the end of the year.
Given the specs of this new machine I suspect there will be long waiting lists well into 2008.
892
« on: August 21, 2007, 20:29 »
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.
893
« on: August 21, 2007, 20:17 »
36,000 contributing photographers, of which 2,300 are exclusive.
$100,000 was for exclusive sales only.
894
« on: August 21, 2007, 17:05 »
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?
895
« on: August 20, 2007, 17:13 »
Yep - that is a great, great image Jan - a classic of all time.
896
« on: August 20, 2007, 17:09 »
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.
897
« on: August 20, 2007, 15:37 »
Perhaps Steve-Oh could help fill in the recent numbers for StockXpert.......
898
« on: August 20, 2007, 15:35 »
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.
899
« on: August 19, 2007, 23:51 »
Well, Canon have made their official announcements, and mighty impressive it is too, with a whole new range of pocket cameras, lenses and of course the 40D and 22mp monster.
Two of the new pocket cameras have CMOS 12mp sensors.
As I indicated earlier, 10mp is now very much 'consumer' and if I want my pics to shout 'professional' I am going to have to make a jump to 16mp pretty soon.
Let's see what Nikon have to say later this week.
Just three or four years ago, 3mp was 'consumer' and 4mp to 6mp was the professional end of the market. How times change.
With Shutterstock and Fotolia specifying 4mp minimum, how long will it be before 'stock' agencies up the minimum to 6mp or even 8mp?
900
« on: August 19, 2007, 21:58 »
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!"
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