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Messages - a.k.a.-tom
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926
« on: February 18, 2007, 12:46 »
Well... this one's got the afterburners kicking in.....  I don't know the man personally. I posed a couple questions about studio lighting on an LO blog (He does upload to LO) The guy took the time to send me some advice personally via emal. The advice was sound, it was useful to me and... I appreciated it. He offered to answer any questions I mailed him. Advice/opinions.... like noses, everybody has one. You take advice, or you can leave it. In Rinder's case, it was of value to me. And based on that and his offer, I'd respectfully listen to what he had to say to me.... and... I'd take it or ......leave it. A lot of folks "wear many hats'. I'm a musician too, I played professionally as a kid in the late 60's... If I wasn't drafted to go play in Vietnam, I might have become 'accomplished', the next Jim Morrison or whoever. so what? I write science fiction novels and short stories too... so what? I'm sure there are plenty of folks right here on this site that can say the same.... they're wearing far more than one hat. As for his gallery, pick any gallery you want on the web.. odds are, you won't like everything on the site. Some you'll think is great, some you'll think is garbage... again, so what? I've seen his work, some I thought was really good, other of his work, ...didn't move me at all. That's natural. For that matter, when I look at my own stuff on any of the microsites. Some I'm really proud of.... and some of it I have no emotional feel for at all, it's just crap that I shot speciifically for micro sales. I wouldn't blow it up, frame it and hang it in my den. On the other hand, art is so very subjective. I'm sure there's someone out there that would do just that, blow up and frame a picture of an electrical adapter and say "WHOA, dude, far our, is this great or what!!" When my brain says it's trash. .....Unless there's something devious about this guy I don't know?  ? :'(Maybe I should be brought up to speed. Why's the general opinion of him so negative?  - tom[/colo]
927
« on: February 17, 2007, 08:31 »
RF+ with business extension... at $4.00 with sizing... only have about a dozen pix there and only on for about a month. No sales, highest view, 19. All National Park landscape material. Not expecting FP to provide for the purchase of my vacation home.  [ I know that the general admonition is that landscape doesn't sell. But I have to say, SS is having no problem moving them for me ] I will continue to build my 'folio at FP and I will branch out from the landscape material. My impression from you guys on other threads is that you think the site will grow. So I'm in for awhile. -tom
928
« on: February 16, 2007, 20:27 »
I miss a lot of good work around here due to rain... that feature would be very important to me. -tom
929
« on: February 16, 2007, 09:15 »
I have no intention of pulling out of LO. I like the site, bryan and the admins are helpful and very supportive. I'm hoping to eventually see sales like I experience eslewhere.. The Zazzle thing is a personal matter. I am literally competing with myself when someone else on Zazzle sells a tee with my picture on it. I'd hate to opt-out on EL for that reason alone... but... On the other hand, until I see one of my pix there, I suppose I'll stick with it in the hopes someone will buy a legitimate El someday... Kind of like going to Vegas... big gamble. -tom
930
« on: February 16, 2007, 09:08 »
Have had 27 pix in review for 10 days now..... even DT is faster than that. I will say this, if there isn't a reasonable acceptance of those pix (they are all on SS)..... I'll probably pull out of 123. Of course, that's contingent on them ever being reviewed. -tom
931
« on: February 15, 2007, 23:42 »
I just went with FP a few weeks ago, only have a handful of pix there. I haven't noticed so many views... However, I was pleased to see everyone of my pictures show up on page one of multiple pages of the subjects.
I will continue to upload there, understanding that sales will not be typical of microsites. Then again, when/if I make any, they'll be nicer sales.
Price-wise, I went with the advice I received here, all priced at $4.00 with sizing options.. I've got one pic priced higher. I like the shot, if someone else likes it, maybe they'll pay the extra bucks. If not, no loss to me. Heck, truth is, it's selling for a quarter elsewhere.... now I think I sound like I'm 'whoring' my pix.......
932
« on: February 15, 2007, 22:19 »
This will be my entire annual bonus.
......funny how that bonus kind of is 'now you see it, now you don't"...  Mine was respectable as well. But instead of a sweet MK II, mine's going to these $1,000 a month gas & electric bills I'm getting every month this winter.  -tom
933
« on: February 15, 2007, 16:45 »
MK II.... must be nice!! dude, I hate you.... -tom
934
« on: February 15, 2007, 16:44 »
welcome to the gang, sharply!! -tom
935
« on: February 14, 2007, 17:37 »
Well that'll teach me to read the fine print with more attention!! My wife has a Zazzle site where she sells all those products with her and my pix attached. Many of those pix on LO. That's just great... now someone can pick up one of my pix, paste it on a t-shirt and compete against me with my own picture! And all I get is $25... and the guy could sell a gazillion t-shirts? Speaking of pictures, what's wrong with this one. I have to rethink this stuff. -tom On the other hand... with only 7 sales since September, I guess I don't have too much to worry about anyway..... funny, the stinken pictures sell well on my wife's t-shirts for $20, but I can't sell 'em for 33 cents...  go figure.
936
« on: February 14, 2007, 17:11 »
eendicott - Sweet!! Times sure are tough out there in Colorado!! What a life!! My wife, son and his wife want to relocate out there, somewhere on the other side of the divide!! I think the entire day we went thru on the Zephyr, once we passed the Moffat, all we saw were folks REALLY enjoying just about every outdoors activity created! Seemed like the whole state on that side was some kind of park ...all the way out to Grand Junction. If it's done in the outdoors, we do it!!  Well be shooting thru again May of 2008. Watch out, you might find a group of New Jerseyites knocking on you door looking to be 4-wheeled into the high country! LOL -tombtw --- some great shots!!! What's your weapon (camera) of choice?
937
« on: February 14, 2007, 17:00 »
.......did a search on my name and LO did show up....I am in it for the money, not the vanity.
....not sure i like the idea of them telling everyone they can sell our stuff on zazzle either.
Name-wise, some days I'll come up with a dozen or more LO hits on Google. I also come up on Alta vista, MSN, Dogpile, Yahoo and others with multiple hits. Also, multiple hits when I 'google' the name of a picture.... But then again, I get hits on my name for BigStock, DT, FT and StockXpert. Sadly, I get the most hits on my name for LO, but no sales, just views racking up. I'm still hoping things will break loose soon at LO. The bulk of what I have at LO is selling like crazy at SS and others, so I kind of ..dont' think it's me or my work. Void --- what's this Zazzle thing? I must have missed something!! Was this on the blog or... where'd did you get that info. PLEASE, fill me in. -tom
938
« on: February 14, 2007, 16:31 »
I am trying to look for a free or low cost forum or website like "My Family" for a group of people I know to come together to chat and keep each other updated, any one has any idea?
Peiling, I've had a MyFamily site for 5-6 years now that is used by my extended family (spread out across half the u.s.). There are well over 100 folks on it. I have never had any problems with it. It is private, not open to the public, password, passname protected. Never had a problem there either. We have well over 2,000 pictures on the site, we write articles, share news, ........ has it's own private chat function.... your own email yourpassname@the name of your site.com all kinds of options. I've never even came close to hitting the bandwidth limit... not even close... usually only 1-3% a day. .......... I think it's great. I think I'm paying around $115 US for the year and it is a 5 gig site. I've yet to come even near using 50% of it. The group is very active, upwards of 22 hours a day.. we average around 30 family visit every day. Some of the folks are 'on' all day long. We have had a lot of fun on the site, used it for mass communication to the group.. I honestly cannot say anything negative about it or my experience with it. Maybe 3 or 4 times a year, I've seen it down for maintenance and that only for a couple hours. And no, I do not work for them or have stock in the company...LOL However, I'd be happy to be used by them as a reference or testimony. I really can't say anything bad about them at all. I'll try to post a link to our public homepage if I can figure out how to do it here. - tomhttp://www.dogonianmagazine.com/isapi.dll?c=h&htx=page I was successful with the link. Please excuse the fact that I have not had the time to update the homepage (December issue still showing-actually it IS up to date, that's the lastest one we published). Dogonian Magazine is something my brothers and I have been publishing since the mid-70's. It is designed for our extended outdoors family and relates to family business, trips and activities and things of interest to them specifically. It is not available to the public. Lately we have not been able to keep up with it in our 'spare' time. We are trying to get another up for March.... but, we'll see Right now, I have 3 pending shoots for a 'legitimate' publisher... ha ha ha ha... no time for the homespun magazine. In it's prime in the 90's the magazine was full color and usually about 70 pages, and quarterly. But to the point. I would highly reccomned MyFamily.com
939
« on: February 13, 2007, 17:13 »
Big congrats to Leaf and many thanks. Not only have I learned so much about the business here.... I'm having a lot of fun too!. -tom
940
« on: February 12, 2007, 21:30 »
ah.... thanks Geopappas.... regardless of my 'full member" status, I guess I'm still a newbie Maybe that should be spelled 'Fool" member in my case... LOL Apologies to litifeta! I'm guessing litifeta is also saying that his total rejection is noise related? Surprisingly, I haven't had a noise rejection at SS in some time. I had 2 out of a 10 batch rejected today for "lighting".. but SS was right. I'm still having trouble with my "isolated on white" shots. This 'little box" photography, as my daughter calls it, is still all new to me, still learning. I really don't have any problem with SS rejections unlike some other sites, SS, at least for me, has the problems nailed. I've been able to correct some and resubmit and have them accepted. But to litifeta's point, when I first started with them, I was running 50-70% rejection at SS for noise too. Personally, I'm selling more on SS daily than all my other sites put together. I have a lot of respect for the reviewers at SS. In my case they seem to have an eye for what will sell, seeing as SS has sold upwards of 80% of the pix I have uploaded there. Hang in there, litifeta. SS is a top player. In a short time you'll be seeing your acceptance rate go up. -tom
941
« on: February 12, 2007, 19:12 »
litifeta --- Who/where? You forgot to tell us which outfit is rejecting you..... -tom
942
« on: February 11, 2007, 18:14 »
come on people. cheer up today i hat 10/14 rejected (all approved on some other site). - should i cry for this? no... ...take our cameras, get a nice smile on our faces, and..... ....let's work
Dr Bouz... I kind of get the impression that you think a few of us are "crying" over the rejections... No offense intended, my friend, but you do understand that the terms 'LOL' and 'ROFLOL' stand for "laughing out loud" and "rolling on the floor laughing out loud". Guys like db and void and myself, to name a few, do laugh at the majority of the rejection craziness. Personally, I couldn't care less. The only time it does have an affect on me is if I experience a mass rejection of proven pics and the reason..... I still do not do mass uploads, I do them one at a time. It get briefly disturbed at the waste of time.. that's all. The reality is, my wife and I often get a laugh out of some rejections. Hope I haven't offended you in my assumption. Fact is, I agree with you whole-heartedly. Grab the camera and go shoot another 300 pix, tomorrow's another day! 8)Peace, bro, --tom
943
« on: February 11, 2007, 18:00 »
I like their high rejection rate. It makes them stand out from some sites that are filling up with low quality images. I am amazed what some of the sites will accept. .
High rejection rate is fine, when the product should be rejected. And I agree with sharpshot that some take anything. But, I think that what many are saying here and related threads is that too often, the StockXpert reason for rejection doesn't make sense. And I tend to agree. I had a picture of Half Dome in Yosemite NP rejected by StockXpert for keyword spamming... words in question? "Half and Dome". Others, Destination & Vacation. Half Dome is the name of the mountain that is the subject of the picture. That kind of rejection can't help but make folks wonder. Now if they didn't want another 'landscape' shot, which I know are not overly welcomed, that's fine. Reject it as such, I can take it! SS is my barometer testing the worthiness of a picture as stock material. I don't think many would argue with that logic. If a pic is accepted by SS and it sells there, I have always felt comfortable uploading it to others. I run roughly a 60% rejection with StockXpert. And that with pictures already accepted by SS & DT. SS sells the largest percentage of my portfolio and is accounting for 84% of my sales. DT is my second in sales. ( I haven't tried istock yet ) The majority of my rejections from StockXpert are not for techincal reasons. So.. when I get them, I again, tend to wonder. When you have established photogs, with superb sales, like many of the folks here on MSG, when they get entire batches rejected for "no thanks, too many or... not stock material" ...... .. maybe I'm wrong, but I have a hard time thinking that it was a legitimate rejection... rather, perhaps, someone on the night shift didn't feel like looking at them all. Just for the record, I will be continuing to upload to StockXpert, it is my 4th in sales. I just tire of doing all that work and having 60% of proven work rejected for non-tech reasons. If they don't want to sell it or they can't sell it to their clients, no problem, it isn't a loss to me. SS , DT & BigStock are doing just fine with them. No sweat! No hard feelings, ....just wonderment. Peace -- tom
944
« on: February 11, 2007, 00:58 »
Well, 3 months after my excited comments above... It isn't doing so hot for me. My rejection rate is the highest on StockXpert. Most frequent rejection, "not commercial material" or their equivelant of that statement. Second most rejection, "too dark". And we're talking about pix that are up and selling well on others. SS started out slow for me when I first started micro. Now, it's my biggest seller. Truth is, I'm getting lazy about uploading to some of these other sites...
StockXpert, I hesitate to upload there due to the rejection rate.
945
« on: February 10, 2007, 12:18 »
I had an entire upload of 22 rejected today for a new reason "please stop re-uploading these images"
Void -- Hey, that's a new one!! I never got that one!! You must be one of the elite!! The VIP Photogs!!! LOL So where'd the original 22 get to if you sent them in earlier like they claimed? Perhaps you were caught up in a 'time vortex'... maybe you forgot being shot into the past, uploading the 22 and wisked back to the here-and-now with no memory recall and then subsequently uploading them again..... Yeah, that's got to be it...that's the only reasonable explanation... ha ha haha ha.... afterall, a reviewer couldn't be wrong... could they? ROFLOL!! Maybe someone should start writing a book about rejection experiences.... probably bring in more money than stockphoto.. LOL -tom
946
« on: February 10, 2007, 12:05 »
.... i've been told here that the only way to get off USPS is to delete one picture at a time... who's has the time to do that? I keep racking up the hits there, but ...... 6 sales... (and the 1st one was me just testing to see if the sale registered for me- so I legitimately only sold 5)
Even the top seller, who was online when I first went to USPS in June '06, has only sold 180 from a 1460 portfolio.
I counted 394 photogs on the photographers page. I recognized a few names from the MSG family. The top uploader with 3515 pix has only sold 99.
I haven't uploaded since the fiasco last fall when they were down for... whatever, a few weeks, wasn't it? I kept hoping it would ''take off' when they came back up with the revised website... but alas.... nada.
Live and learn.
947
« on: February 09, 2007, 18:53 »
XenaII... I'm sorry, but you had me laughing out loud!!!! I can identify with your frustration. Seems sometimes the harder you try the behinder you get!! Hang in there!! And keep plugging away at it!! You will win!! -tom Oh, by the way, there is a Berlin, New Jersey, USA....... but I doubt anyone in Europe has ever heard of it.
948
« on: February 09, 2007, 18:42 »
I came thru Denver on the California Zephyr... Absolutely LOVED the area up near, I think it was, Tollinsville and Rollins, on the way to the Moffat Tunnel. It's like an alpine valley.. plenty of pines and a-frame homes on a dirt road along a raging white-water stream all backgrounded by the snow-capped peaks of the continetal divide!! Talk about a sportsman's & photog's paradise!!! I'm imagine your portfolio is loaded with great four-season shots!! It was one of the greatest rides of my life, I liked it better than touring the Swiss or Austrian Alps. I have to say, it was pretty much equaled by the ride thru the Sierra-Nevadas though. Problem is, you can't take a decent shot out a train window. I shot over 1,200 pix that trip. Don't think I got a dozen out the train window that were worth the digital memory. I just paused and popped into your website! Some great shots!! Tell me, is that your slide-in camper?? -tom
949
« on: February 09, 2007, 18:25 »
I'm not all that fond of winter myself, well, let me correct that... I'm not fond of winter when there's no snow. I hate the short daylight and dreay grays and flat browns of winter. However, when it snows, I do a complete flip and love the winter. Then, it's bright, cheerful, happy, clean...I like that! Problem is, it hasn't snowed any appreciable amount yet this winter in New Jersey, not even enough to cover the grass. This year that is especially disappointing to me. I have a job to shoot a photo essay for a quaterly magazine, the winter 2007-08 issue. They specifically want " snow shots" of Bucks County, PA. ........ain't no snow.  Win some, lose some, but I sure would like to complete this photo shoot. Anyone here in the snow-making business? -tomp.s. ianhlnd... from these pix.. I can see you are " desperate for crew", I'm really feeling bad for you, partner...... ... can't wait for the rest of the series.
950
« on: February 09, 2007, 17:41 »
I can only laugh as I read this thread... with only 7 sales on 6 pictures since early September... I won't be worrying about paypal or moneybookers for a looooooooooooooooong time. I sure hope my sales pick up on LO soon... I sure am racking up views, but no sales. Got some nice comments but no sales... I may need some personal advice from bryan... either I'm doing something wrong, or, my pix just suck... LOL Either way, I'm hanging on in LO. If I don't sell my pix, maybe they'll feel pity for me and give me a job... that'd be sweet.. ha ha ha ha ha. Does that sound pathetic? yeah, it does... --tom
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