Quote from: Microstock Posts on June 30, 2011, 12:08

Carmen from Dreamstime estimates that around 20-25% of people use the categories as they are searching.

This is a post about Canstock not Dreamstime and Duncan has said buyers don't search the site using categories and in my experience he's a pretty genuine guy, can't believe he'd make that up. Having said that if a lot of buyers do use categories at Dreamstime as she stated you'd think they'd sort out some decent ones instead of the bizarre sets they've got right now.

Yes you make a good point, I was talking about the subject of categories as a whole and not specifically for CanStockPhoto. However, Duncan's views on the importance of categories seems to be a minority one, I'm not talking about contributors, I'm talking about agencies. Most agencies have categories and most make it obligatory for contributors to choose at least one category, they seem to think it's worth it, they could all make categories optional or scrap them all together. But agencies usually make decisions resulting in benefit to them as any business would, so I can assume that their is no benefit to them by scrapping or making categories optional and there is no loss by keeping them, if anything probably some gain.

And as Carmen says she estimates 20-25% of people use the categories as they are searching. I have as much reason to believe her as I have to believe Duncan. Maybe the estimate for Dreamstime is far greater than for CanStockPhoto. If her estimated figure was 5%, I'm sure dt and the others would say well what's the point, lets just use that space where we list categories for something else. Optional categories is probably the right option, as there will still be contributors who fill them (although may be not so many) and there will be buyers who search through them. If I was a smaller agency, I would never make filling categories mandatory, as I would would want the speediest submission process there is to help attract more contributors, which would increase the database, which in turn is likely to help increase the customer base. However, if there was a service like the OP has offered which categorizes for you, well that's a nice option and entirely the choice of the contributor. BS has something similar, but it's not always too accurate.

Duncan doesn't discredit categories entirely, as they are still there for the buyers and he says he thinks that the addition of categories may also help images be found better in Google.

The boxers will obviously contain something special,for the winning bid 

I completely retract my offer.

No, keep this thread open. I believe that a sizeble proprtion of buyers do search for images from categories. If that was not the case, then the agencies would have abandoned categories a long time back. However, it would probably ony really affect us when our images are new or if they are the most popular.

Just logged into DT . . . so it works for me.

Yup, back online here too.

....Oh and i dont eat curry so whats tasty in india?

     

I can't see it from where I am too. Maybe they are just limiting it to the States. Would be useful though, I spent ages looking for an image elsewhere once, which I could only find on Shutterstock. I really wanted the image but didn't want to pay $49 for 5 downloads. I found it eventually, but it was a lot of time wasted.

Hi All,

The commission will always be 50% nett, either Editorial or RF.

Just had to quote this, maybe for future reference.

This new google toy is really nice...
I discovered (amongst lots of other usages I hadn't seen before) one of my pictures being offered as products on a website. Because I never sold an EL for that picture, I sent them a short message via their contact form on their website asking (politely) if there has been some kind of error or oversight.
Today they called me and told me they contacted their supplier (looks like they are just a re-seller of products produced by someone else) and would take care of the issue.
Later the day I sold an EL for that file on Shutterstock.
That's how I like to see cases like this resolved....

Awesome!

Last week I was on a visa run in Singapore. I met a traveller who showed me his camera equipment, which was all new. He got out one lens and said this is my Varanasi lens. Initially, I thought he said he bought it in Varanasi, but he basically bought it to take photos from afar of the cremations in Varanasi, which is strictly not allowed. I've been to Varanasi and although I've taken photos at the ghats, I didn't attempt to take photos of the cremations. I do like to take photos of people in their natural environment and when they are unaware. I've been doing it since I was 15. I know the limits and if someone clearly doesn't want their picture taken, then all you can do is smile, try to chat etc., if that doesn't work then I think most people have the good sense to move on.

Indian is a dreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeam for people shots. They're not all 'oh no my face is precious like gold don't even look at me' like westerners.  A little smile with the eyes, and the head jiggle, and you're away.  Also, there is no truth here, only debate - so if someone tries to stop you there's always a way around it.

If you're lazy just sit down until a crowd gathers in front of you, then snap away on the portraits as much as you want.

One thing's for sure though, more people will take your photo than you theirs.

Indians will charm you : ) they're so generous and light of spirit.

edit: don't take photos of fishwives! they'll beat you up and be foul-mouthed about it too. but i think that's everywhere in the world?

Haha! I think you just about covered it.

@Anglee This is a great idea.

Quote from: Microstock Posts on June 26, 2011, 13:24

I was in India in March for about a week, luckily when it was Holi festival, which I have never seen before. I did mostly editorial shots. Very good acceptance rate on the sites for the shots and they are selling reasonably well too, especially on Shutterstock. I didn't encounter any problems taking photos of people. Here are some photos from the trip.

http://www.dreamstime.com/india-colldet15760

Not sure why anyone would throw purple paint over each other but.....Thanks for the link though.
travel plans are going ok.Looks like my journey is going to be..Newcastle/Dubia/New Delhi..15 hours !

Great! Well if you haven't flown by Emirates before, get ready to be spoiled.

I don't mind sharing knowledge. Is there something that is really a secret? What make some more succesful than others is experience, hard work and talent.

I agree with that. Except of course.. Edit: On second thoughts, I'd better just keep stum.