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Messages - wordplanet

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951
Alamy.com / Re: Alamy sales
« on: January 09, 2014, 22:10 »
My first license of this year was only $32.78, netting me $16.39 - of a photo I licensed on my own last year for $150 (and I kept 100% of that).

On the surface, it seems like it's not much better than the micros, but because it's RM, there is actually a difference between the two. The license alamy sold is for a corporate website and so would only require a regular license - netting me as little as 33 cents on a subscription site to perhaps $7 on DT if not sold as a sub. The license I granted for $150 would require an extended license, netting me $14-28 on one of the micro sites. As the photo is not one that is likely to sell that often - it's a nice travel shot but not of a widely sought-after destination, I'm still way ahead having put it on alamy instead of on the micros.

While alamy's prices have come down drastically since I started there in 2008, at least they give us 50% of what they license photos for instead of 15%, so that's a plus. And there are buyers who specifically search for RM images, knowing they are not widely distributed.

Deciding whether or not to place images there really depends on what type of images you have and whether you do anything else with them.

952
Computer Hardware / Re: Switchng from Windows to Mac
« on: January 09, 2014, 21:52 »
You'll be very happy that you made the switch.

When I switched to a Mac several years ago, I contacted Adobe and they let me get the Mac version of the Creative Suite at the update price, rather than having to purchase it new. That was way back when CS 3 was the newest version, but I guess now with creative cloud they'd no longer give you that option? I do believe you can have CC on two computers and that could be one Mac and one PC if that works for you while you make the transition.
 
Edit:

Guess I misread your last post - at $10/month CC seems like a better deal than the upgrade to the older CS6, so glad that worked out for you. If you're staying with your old PC as well as the Mac, you should be able to put CC on both.

953
Just blogged about the survey too - helping to keep my New Year's resolution to start blogging regularly  8)

http://www.travelstockblog.com/?p=116


954
Thanks for doing this! Shared via twitter and on some forums too.

955
Alamy.com / Re: Alamy sales
« on: January 08, 2014, 01:42 »
I've been with Alamy longer than I've been in microstock and it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that for many files I can earn a lot more licensing them for peanuts hundreds of times on the micros than I can even with a few decent sales at Alamy. As prices at Alamy have come down from $150-250 which was what I'd gotten used to - to mostly <$100 per license (and some RM licenses this past year netting me as little as $13.50), I've started putting more images on the micros and have seen a nice jump in income. But for photos that are unusual or that I just really love, I'd still rather see them as RM at Alamy.

If I just uploaded all my work to the micros based on my RPI there I would definitely make more, but it isn't just about making money now, but also about the potential of some photos. Since I also license RM stock on my own directly, I definitely see the need to have two different portfolios. On sites like imagebrief where they'll offer hundreds and even thousands per photo licensed, you can't upload a photo that anyone can license for a few dollars, so there is more to it than simply the RPI.

956
I was thinking about doing this....so I went to the local hobby store and bought a small quad copter to practice with.  I crashed and broke the first one....then I crashed and broke the second one - both incidents in my front room.  Flying time was about a minute and a half and recharge time was about an hour.  It was frustrating.

Then I saw this....

http://petapixel.com/2013/08/16/photographer-flies-his-drone-camera-into-the-grooms-head-during-a-bridal-shoot/

I decided that I was better off using my stealthy ninja photography skills with both feet on the ground and camera in hand.


Loved the video! I was only kidding about getting one - I don't do weddings  8)

957
Scary thought all those drones flying overhead and it's cheap enough that it could happen - what a bonanza for the paparazzi! Sounds like it would be incredibly fun to own. Much cheaper than hiring a helicopter to get a bird's eye view of a location over time I'd think and a tad more subtle if you're trying to swoop in on a celeb wedding  8)

958
https://www.scoopshot.com/ working fine

I'm disturbed by the way they say things like "Scoopshot has permanent rights for transferring the copyright of the photo or video. Scoopshot will then ensure that you get the agreed compensation for the transferred rights." I don't think they mean that they are actually transferring the copyright since they then seem to be talking about licensing the right to publish the photo to several buyers, but assuming they are not actually transferring the copyright, it shows a woeful misunderstanding IMHO of how it all works.

I've licensed a fair number of iPhone 4S photos on Dreamstime, a few of them have sold multiple times, but it's not a huge market. Nice to make sellable photos though when I'm out and don't have one of my regular cameras with me. Have some uploaded to Alamy News too, though no iPhone sales there yet. All the new smartphones seem to have good cameras.

959
Nice article - love the lighthouse  8)

960
Shutterstock.com / Re: Success at last
« on: January 04, 2014, 16:00 »
Congrats Sue!
I've done okay there with shallow DOF including these recently uploaded images.



961
Newbie Discussion / Re: Shutterstock review process again
« on: January 04, 2014, 15:39 »
Martha, suggestions on sites to approach for wildlife? I'm with the usual micro suspects and Alamy. Alamy's a better bet but not really a winner for wildlife and nature.

I'm just on a few stock sites. SS, DT, and Veer are the only ones I've had any success with. Haven't tried Alamy or any wildlife-specialty sites.

Mostly, that because I spend about half my time on this. The other half of my time is spent writing fiction. Odd combination? Yeah, I know.

Martha, Thanks for the book recommendation - I checked it out on Amazon & it looks very good - I'm a writer too - lifestyle, corporate communications and PR. Seems like a natural combination to me.  8)

Thanks Pete too - sounds like everyone recommends the same book - I used to buy a lot of my reference guides for a few bucks off the remainders table at Border's - got some great stuff and all new too, but after they put the local bookstores out of business, Amazon put them out of business. I miss being able to browse the stacks - there seem to be fewer bookstores all the time. Amazon's convenient but it's not the same.

962
Newbie Discussion / Re: Shutterstock review process again
« on: January 03, 2014, 16:21 »
I'm not Martha, but for US birds, Sibley is highly recommended, by me and many others.

Thanks Sue!

963
General Stock Discussion / Re: 2013 Year Overview
« on: January 03, 2014, 16:13 »
Overall Up 116%

Microstock Up 43%
   Shutterstock Up 15% (Portfolio increased 66.66%)
   Dreamstime Up 77%  (Portfolio increased 30%)
   iStock Up 106% (In support of the google drive protest I decreased my portfolio by 2/3rds, but then saw earnings continue to increase significantly so I later added some new files, increasing my portfolio 53% over 2012)
Fotolia, Bigstock (no new photos added, deleted a bunch from Fotolia)

Percentage of microstock earnings (rounded):
SS - 45%
DT 35%
iS 19%
Fotolia, Bigstock 2%

Traditional Stock Up 167%
   Alamy Down 64%, but direct stock licensing way up to bring total up so high

Percentage of traditional stock earnings:
Alamy 11%
Direct Licensing 89%

Since my portfolio is still quite small (~700 on Alamy and just under 200 on SS & DT; far fewer on the other micros), 2014 goal is to triple it in size and find more RM and direct licensing options. I know the kind of growth I've seen the last two years will be harder to sustain once my portfolio becomes larger, but given my results from a very small portfolio (For the first time reached payout from at least one micro site (often from at least two) every month but February), and from direct licensing, I'm hopeful I can see some decent supplemental income going forward. Im determined to significantly increase my portfolio next year across all sites and to continue to seek out avenues where I can license my work directly. I made more from direct licenses (of stock photos I also do editorial assignments which I dont count as it obviously isnt stock) than from all other sources. Also hoping to find other outlets for my RM work.

Also saw an increase of 123% on FAA but put a lot of effort into marketing there and don't feel the time justified the results, so while I plan to increase my portfolio there, I don't plan to spend as much time on social media, etc as I did this year. Saw some results from social media but saw more improvement from simply increasing my uploads. I think traditional query letters to publishers who may have an interest in my RM stock will be a more productive use of my marketing efforts this year.

Applied to Deposit Photos and Image Brief in December and just got into both so will see what 2014 brings on those two.

964
Newbie Discussion / Re: Shutterstock review process again
« on: January 03, 2014, 14:00 »
I'm always so impressed by how helpful most people on this site are, so I'm popping in to ask a question mostly directed to Martha since I have nothing to add that hasn't already been said and her answer could prove useful to others as well. I too shoot a fair amount of nature and wildlife, especially along the east coast of the US, and while I've built up my reference library I still find that when it come to shorebirds, especially gulls, I spend a lot of time on the internet refining my determination, especially as there is a lot of cross breeding there. Anyway, would you recommend the book you mentioned, The Shorebird Guide (O'Brien, Crossley, Karlson), as your first choice for a reference in this case? And are there any other books you'd recommend for the shorebirds? I've only got the large Petersen's Guide to Eastern North America and the pocket guide to the US, so I have a ways to go.

Any suggestions out there for flora in northern Europe? I'm still struggling to id plants and flowers I shot in Iceland, Sweden and Russia.

Thanks much and wishing Tim and the OP best of luck getting into shutterstock! Follow the advice given here and you'll be on your way.

Martha, suggestions on sites to approach for wildlife? I'm with the usual micro suspects and Alamy. Alamy's a better bet but not really a winner for wildlife and nature.

965
Interesting question. I went through and counted up my US images - US travel, US editorial, and nature images that are site specific. That came to 34% of my portfolio but they account for 65% of my all time sales at shutterstock.
I did not count isolated objects and other still life photos that could have been shot anywhere unless they were of iconic American things, nor did I count abstract backgrounds, since, though many of these were shot in the US, again they could be anywhere.
Since this is the time of year for analyzing sales and deciding what to shoot in 2014, I also went through my payment history and discovered that 51% of my sales come from US sources and 49% from non-US sources, so clearly customers outside the US are purchasing US source images - I've found a lot of my US images - travel and editorial - on South American and European web sites and I often have sales from every single continent showing up on my map at SS. Though my image with the highest number of sales is an abstract background, my highest grossing image there is a US travel image.
Most of my European images (I've only been to North America and Europe) are with traditional agencies or are only available through my own site, but I checked out those stats too. They make up just 3% of my portfolio and account for 0.6% of my sales - with such tiny numbers I don't think the stats are significant, though the percentages are about the same for European images on DT, a European site.
I've sold a lot of US travel photos on Alamy too - many to European clients - in the UK, Italy and Russia.

966
General Stock Discussion / Re: December 2013 earnings
« on: January 02, 2014, 21:13 »
December sales were 1/3rd of what I had in November though they were an improvement over December of 2012 - SS was up 26% over last December, DT was down 17% from last December, and Alamy was up 76% from December of last year - though sales there vary so widely that the percent change really isn't significant.

Overall I'm up 116% over last year, microstock income grew on all sites from small growth of 15% at SS to significant growth of 77% at DT and 106% at iStock, overall micro income increased 43% since SS accounted for 45% of my micro income last year. Though my traditional stock photo sales at Alamy decreased for the second year in a row, down a disheartening 64% from 2012 (my best year there was 2011), overall my traditional stock photo income (primarily RM) increased by 167% thanks to direct stock photo licenses to magazines and calendar publishers. I'm planning to query more publishers in 2014 since I've had a very positive response so far.

For December SS, DT and Alamy were each within $5 of each other, with other sites contributing a miniscule percentage of income.

Though it isn't stock photo income, I saw a 123% increase in sales at Fine Art America this year. I joined there in December of 2011, so this was my second full year there. I also had some very strong local gallery sales this year, something I'm hoping to increase in 2014. Even had sales at redbubble this month so that was nice and I have a photo in a show at the Museum of the City of New York this week so the year ended on a positive note!

967
Glad you have healthy kids - the best gift we all can get - Like Lisa, I too have a Christmastime child - she turns 21 today! and having her home from college for the holidays is always my favorite gift. This year in addition to baking cookies together I taught her how to make a pie crust and we just spent a lot of time hanging out and having fun. She got me a thermos that looks like a zoom lens complete with a tripod collar for a handle and even an "N" for Nikon.

I also got an email right before Christmas from The Museum of the City of New York telling me one of my photos is going to be in a show there this week which was exciting! Here's the link to the show. http://www.mcny.org/event/rising-waters-20

And I got a beautiful pair of cowboy boots.  All in all a very lovely Christmas! Hope it was good for all of you who celebrate and wishing you all a Happy New Year too!

968
iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock PP has started for November
« on: December 30, 2013, 10:04 »
I foolishly waited for the PP reports before requesting my payout. Down 59% in revenue from October despite slightly more downloads  >:( ironically still second BME for PP sales yet WMY for regular sales, so all in all a very disappointing November there - even with last year though I've nearly doubled the size of my portfolio - as a non-exclusive however, most of the work I've added this year hasn't even had a single view - the stuff that's been seen sells. Looking at the year as a whole however, I'm up more than 100% over 2012 so that's encouraging.

969
Shutterstock.com / Re: SS partners with Facebook
« on: December 26, 2013, 16:56 »
I think Scott's answer makes sense IMHO as  they need to carefully walk the line between contributor transparency and protecting the confidential nature of the deals they make since they would not want another site to try to undercut their deal by offering more favorable terms - quite likely at contributor's expense.

It would be helpful of course to know how exactly much we're getting per download since that's the bottom line, but that wasn't the question asked. Scott, can you tell us that please?

970
MicrostockSubmitter / Re: Alamy uploads
« on: December 26, 2013, 16:44 »
Write to member services and explain the problem. I've noticed some bugs on the site lately too - not that one but lots of trouble with uploads and with Manage Images not working at all - but MS are usually good at getting back to you within a day or so - though they've said between now and Jan 6 review times etc will be longer due to holiday vacations - I'd still email them and you should have an answer within a week or so - maybe much sooner. Good luck!

971
General Photography Discussion / Re: 2013 Photo Recap
« on: December 26, 2013, 16:34 »
Congrats Matt and hope you and everyone else had a Merry Christmas!

972
Shutterstock.com / Re: Inconsistent reviewing
« on: December 22, 2013, 15:26 »
I had one entitled "Vintage Christmas cookie cutters" rejected because the title wasn't in English LOL  8)

Guess the reviewer just went eeney, meeney, miney, mo to pick a reason.

973
Site Related / Re: Building the 2013 Survey - Any New Questions?
« on: December 21, 2013, 01:34 »
I think a question about POD sites would be good as well - it's not exactly stock but it is an online outlet for many here and it would be interesting to see how those sales stack up against actual stock.
I'd also like to see some numbers for Alamy if they aren't already part of the survey that way.
Thanks!

974
General Stock Discussion / Re: Getty Images Moments
« on: December 21, 2013, 01:02 »
I've sold some mobile pix on DT - I have a few that have sold 4-7 times, so they won't make me rich but nice to see them selling. Variety of images but my most don't really have a mobile phone feel to them - only one that's really a snapshot type editorial image was purchased a couple times including one large file for 17 credits so again the quality is good enough I guess - I'm expecting it to start selling again when baseball season starts.

I assumed that when people would be searching for iPhone pix they'd either want a certain aesthetic or they'd want fast editorial pix uploaded on the spot - though I'm selling news pix I took with mine a year later because they also work as general editorial, so if the quality is there I guess the fact that it's taken with a phone camera is really irrelevant. I'm betting there are many "phone aesthetic" pix taken with Nikons and Canons that are selling as well.

I love my iPhone but dread the thought of a million amateurs' files competing with ours so perhaps we should all upload more of them, until the next new thing comes along. If I get something good with my phone, I might as well take advantage of it while I can. 8)

I know it's not Getty but thought I'd share how it's working out elsewhere.

975
Haven't had a problem when adding Latin/scientific names in my titles. They often show up as misspelled but I just hit the "Upload" button again & they go through. No trouble on the review end with them rejecting images for non-English titles - maybe you got a new reviewer? Can sympathize with your frustration.

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