I started the move toward Mirrorless with the OM-D E-M5 2 years ago. I wrote a post after 4 months using it for almost every kind of shoots. You can read it here: http://www.mirrorlessjourney.com/blog/2014/9/four-months-with-the-om-d

Last year, I bought a Panasonic GX7 and I love this camera so much. It just feels right in my hands. The Micro 4/3 lenses are awesome. My first year with the GX7: http://www.mirrorlessjourney.com/blog/2014/9/panasonic-lumix-dmc-gx7

Someone mentioned adapted lenses: I bought a focal reducer not long ago and I'm using it with the 35mm f/1.4 I still had from my full frame and the results are great. http://www.mirrorlessjourney.com/blog/2014/9/focal-reducer

Last July, I finished my transition. I sold the last 5D Mark II I had and all the rest of my lenses (besides the 35 f/1.4) and I have no regret at all. I now shoot with a GX7 and a GH4 (which is awesome in video) and I will soon buy a Panasonic LX100 as a walk about camera.

That said, Olympus, Panasonic, Fuji and Sony all make great and innovative cameras at the moment. Nikon and Canon are boring and lagging behind in the R&D.

Really slow on iStock here.

I canceled in march and no regret either.

Quote from: MicrostockExp on May 30, 2013, 10:01
Son blog est actif : http://blog.ericcote.net/ pas de probleme

Merci Laurent pour l'update du lien. Je viens de le changer dans le message original. C'est pas récent comme post mais oui, le blog est toujours actif

What timezone are they? I thought there was an announcement/preview tonight at 19:00

It is a coop. To become a member, once you are accepted, you need to buy a share for 1$.

Your Stocksy application was declined. Our editors felt that your images weren't what we were looking for in our collection. It was a difficult decision, but we only have room for a small group of contributors. We wish you the best in your future endeavours and we would be happy to look at your portfolio again next year.

Quote from: Paulfleet on March 22, 2013, 13:25
I just got tis e-mail from offset.
"Hi Paul, 
We have received your request for Offset – thank you!   
We are continuously adding imagery from top artists around the world and are striving to build the most comprehensive collection of unique images available through simplified licensing.   
We look forward to inviting you in soon. 

—The Offset Team "

Same email here

I'm always shooting RAW and I try to do a custom white balance before my shoots. But I'm using daylight balance fluorescent so by using the sunny white balance on your camera, it should be very close to a correct color. You might have to add a bit of magenta.

Really interesting. I've been building a food photo portfolio that I did not start submitting yet so I think I will wait a few weeks to have details (exclusive images?) before submitting them to other agencies

Hi everyone,

I wrote a piece on continuous lighting last month so I thought it could be interesting for some people. It's in french but there is a lot of pictures and there is a translator on the left side of the blog.

All opinions are welcome

Here is the link: http://blog.ericcote.net/2013/02/eclairage-continu/

and here is the type of pictures I produce with it


It can be used for video too (the video in the post is light with that).

Most sites have fixed prices

March is really horrible at iStock here too. I decided to drop exclusivity. The annoying part is I'll have to upload my portfolio all over the place from scratch but it's not like I have 5k photos to upload, just a bit under 1k. The problem now is trying to decide to which agencies I will upload. SS, DT, FT and 123RF for sure but don't know if it's worth uploading elsewhere... maybe DepositPhotos...

Congrats Yuri. Great job!

Actually, I agree with some of the changes they propose. It's a good way for new talented peoples to get better earning faster. And I also think it's faire that the more you bring money, the higher your commission should be.

BUT! I can't agree with a commission lower than 20%. Even 20% was very low and I can't believe they want to go lower than that. IMO, they should have kept the independant at a fixed 20%. From a PR perspective, there would be a LOT less screaming.

As for the credit levels, the numbers are not realistic. They should tone that down to more fair levels. For someone to generate 2 million dollars in revenue to get to the highest level is ridiculous. I'm pretty sure they will readjust that to try to make peace with the exclusives but unfortunately, I think the damage is done. With the news expanding everywhere, iStock's reputation is going down the drain. That's sad! I miss Bruce!

Quote from: adijr on September 08, 2010, 02:35

Quote from: Talanis on September 08, 2010, 02:32
@adijr - the lowest commission for exclusives stays at 25%

Thanks alot for the answer! are you guessing this from what you've read, or did you see this somewhere specific? I'd like to give it a read and re-consider this whole exclusivity thing.

Thanks again!

Well, there is not commissions below 25% on the list so it's pretty safe to say that the lowest commision for exclusives is 25%

It really looks like they want to get rid of the non-exclusive contributors. For the exclusives, Vetta and Exc+ sales help a lot to get higher on the redeemed credit totals but for non-exclusive, with the lower credit pricing on photos, I can see that as almost impossible to get to the top tier. So droping the non-exclusive royalties to 15% (and they were already one of the lowest)? Looks clear to me that they want non-exclusive to either leave or turn exclusive (which I'm not sure many will do).

For me, as a low level exclusive (since 2 months), it doesn't change a thing. I'll stay at 25% next year and might get to 30% the next year but probably never go above that.

@adijr - the lowest commission for exclusives stays at 25%

On my MR, for photographer info, I also have the full address, email and phone number. Check iStock's MR and correct yours to have the same info as them.

A MR is a contract between you and the model so it should have those infos anyway.

BME at iStock and 2nd best month this year overall.

I've been exclusive for 2 months now and I'm already back to my average earnings.

Quote from: holgs on August 27, 2010, 07:29
Its been a bumpy few weeks on IS. I'd mainly attribute this to the changes made to the site. I think until everything is settled again we'll see a few more weeks where sales will be inconsistent, though hopefully the worst is behind us.

I made the switch last month to exclusivity after 4+ years as an independent. I've now started to use my upload quota to try to build my IS portfolio to the numbers that the other sites had, so in a sense its really early days. This month it looks like I'll get to about 75% of my total pre-exclusive income. Bearing in mind that I still only have less than 50% of my old SS portfolio on IS, so far I'm not unhappy with the switch. 

I did the same at the end of july so it's only my 2nd month as exclusive and I'm heading for my 2nd best month of the year for earnings. I did not have much time to upload with the new quotas with the new baby born 3 weeks ago but I intend to grow my portfolio more this fall.

As for the summer slump, earning per download is a LOT higher but the number of downloads is still a bit slow. Way better this week though as someone pointed out. Let's hope it will pick up with the autumn rush.

Great news, Congrats

No drop in sales for me either. It looks about the same as july so far

Thanks everyone

@donding: very proud indeed
@gaja: 7 lbs 12 oz and 20" (or 3,5 kg and 50 cm)
@Phil: Thanks for the info

Not related to anything but I just wanted to show you my new baby born on august 4th. He has 3 days on those pictures.

It's my first month as an exclusive at IS and I'm happy so far. My july earning is better than what I had hoped for. I did not have time to submit a lot of photo (3rd baby is due this week) but my revenues on IS were more than 3 times what they were in june for about the same number of sales. My total earnings are on par with what I had in april and may this year when I was still with all the major agencies but it's at 65% of what I made in july 09. The biggest difference is my RPD who shot up to 3.41$.