Hi Julie,

I really like the collection you put together. The images that didn't work for me were the guy with the snake, the blonde with the grey background, and perhaps some of the images with people looking direct to camera (all mentioned by others).

The images with the baby are probably the best for me, but really they all look great.

I'm still not 100% on what will get approved when I submit images (I've had loads of rejections and even been asked to put forward several images I'd previously discarded).

A few things I've noticed tho, are:
- if you're shooting one person, they should be "in their own world", "doing their own thing"
- multiple people engaging with each other rather than the audience/viewer


I think they're also being quite tight on who gets accepted at the moment to deliberately keep the membership small. There's a finite number to this, so they don't want to hit that too quickly. Your folio may well have the goods (I sure think it does), but just didn't get a green light on this occasion for that reason.

Ben

I believe Mark was in his early 40s.

He was the first 'local' from Melbourne AU to make contact with me back in the early days of istock (he joined shortly after me), and the first other aussie I knew of on the site.

I met the guy on a number of occasions as well as his family, and got to shoot with him a few times as well. There are few I can think of that epitomise generosity of spirit more than he

Quote from: B8 on March 26, 2013, 03:14
I like the look of the images they are offering, but I don't get the feeling it is really a place that commercial photo buyers will find the bread and butter stuff they need on a day in day out basis. At least not from what I have seen on the site so far. I could be wrong, but the type of images I am seeing there are not images I normally see used in advertising, for general corporate use, and etc.

I can see people enjoying browsing through the collection of imagery for the creative and artistic aspects of what is there to be seen, like the way people like to look through a photo sharing site for inspiration and pleasure, but I am not sure how much real buying will be going on for that genre of imagery in general if you are looking to place an image in an ad or a commercial layout.

For commercial use, people generally go for images that portray a clear concept or message, don't seem a bit eluf in their conceptual message, that are cropped in traditional ways showing a more complete subject, that have typical lighting and colors, that offer isolated subjects with crisp edges so perhaps they can be composited with other images, and etc. I am not saying they won't sell images. Of course they will sell some and I truly hope they do becuase there are some nice shots on there, but personally I don't think I would start shooting the style of imagery they are offering as a stock photo career move thinking I am going to make a lot of sales with them on a commercial stock photo site. In fact, I don't even see what they are offering as being competition for most stock sites. So most other stock artists don't have to worry either. And I still tend to think that the images people will buy time and time again are images that are more generic, clear, well in focus, with more depth of field, and the like.

I give them credit for what they are doing and are trying to do, the spirit and style of the site, and for trying to be out of the box. But as a shooter trying to get the highest returns for my efforts, I think I will stick with shooting the type of content most others shooters shoot, and in the way I know that sells in a traditional commercial stock photo market, rather than taking a risk of shooting something in a new genre that is trying to perhaps create a new market and take it in a whole new direction. So I guess it is easier to continue doing what you know already works rather than trying to reinvent the wheel in some way.

I guess if Stocksy-Style is already the way you shoot anyway, then you have nothing to lose. You put up some of your work there and you see if it can sell to a more limited niche commercial market. But most contributors who try and make a real living from their work need the mass photo buyer market to make it work on a day in day out basis rather than trying to appeal to a smaller, niche, artsy wanting buyer market.

So if you have to adjust your shooting style to try and go after a market that we are not sure even really exists in large numbers commercially, whilst pulling away from the style you normally shoot that has a proven track record of selling already, then I would say it is rather more of a risk to go Stocksy than to stick with what you know already works.   

Because it's not artist exclusive, there's no reason photographers can't pursue both. High end work to stocksy, and the low-mid level spread across the micros.

...and I tend to disagree with your belief buyers won't go for this. When I first saw the type of work they were asking for I thought the same as you, but lately I'm seeing it everywhere - especially in the fashion world (urban/youth chains in particular). It'll be a different market to objects isolated on white, but then, it always was.

Quote from: cardmaverick on February 24, 2013, 06:09
I feel like the only way this place can really generate good income for photographers is if they do an image / photo set exclusivity deal - very different from being totally prohibited from selling at other places. The reality is that when you have thousands of photographers tossing images across a ton of sites, all they can really compete on after a while is better pricing. If all the agencies have exclusive images, they don't have to engage in price wars. I'm hoping they have enough sense to figure this out...

As I understand it, that is exactly the approach stocksy is taking. Image exclusivity, but not artist.

Quote from: jsnover on February 11, 2013, 16:58
It's either heads on pikes (scare off the others who might be thinking of leaving so they get compliant and "behave), drive them all out (cull the exclusives to save money on royalty payments) or they're not very bright and haven't a clue what they've just done.

I reckon it's all three.

- They get flush out those who've been wavering
- They get to pay less to all the exclusives dropping their crowns AND distribute their images into darker corners of their network.
- If the above two are true, they might be 'clever', but they're stupid.

I've dropped 290 from my folio. The remaining 'lypse images will go when the newcomer goes live.

Shelved for 2013. Revisiting plans for possibly taking another crack at it in 2014.

I've dropped about 40 files today and kept the deactivation reason simple "Deactivation Day". Will purge more on IS tomorrow when it's actually the 2nd here.

Have set up Pinterest boards for each shooting day. They're broken into location images so people can get an idea of the locations we'll be shooting in, and the concepts (should start to see these develop in the coming week).

I'm starting to get a lock on prices now do have updated the OP a bit to reflect this.

Where in the Amazon did you go? There's supposed to be only a few parts where Malaria is prevalent so I'm guessing maybe Puerto Maldonado or somewhere closer to Brazil?

Swimming in the river may be something we'll do, though I've heard stories of feeling piranhas taking little nips off your feet and legs as you do that Scuba diving is something I wouldn't consider - even the black amazon is tinted with tanin and doesn't provide much visibility - a pink dolphin encounter is on the agenda however.

We'll be in the area just a few weeks after the peak of the dry season, so the jungle should actually be pretty dry.

All 5 stages are now being costed (with some haggling over locations and details still underway) - see the full itinerary day by day - I'll be updating details on that page as locations and activities become confirmed.


The photography streams are now full (from a registration perspective at least) so it's wait list only now, however there will also be a video stream running in parallel if people want to put their names in for that.

A quick update:

We've engaged local fair trade operators for each of the stages that are helping us put together a locally relevant itinerary, and should enable us to visit some areas that are off the beaten trail.

The Iquitos/Amazon leg of the trip is now well into planning. We'll spend 4 days/3 nights at Tahuayo Lodge, 100 miles upstream from Iquitos on the Tahuayo tributary.

Activities will include treks in pristine jungle, canopy zip line shoots, canoeing and photography/cultural exchanges with indigenous groups. An additional shoot may also be organised for some of the barges/trawlers/more colourful water transport moored along the river

There will also be the option to do jungle flyovers in a seaplane (additional cost - may also be only a 4-6 seater).

The Huaraz/Cordillera Blanca leg is also well in plan.

Current planned activities include:
Day trip to a high altitude glacial lake such as Llanganuco, Parón or a high altitude pass such as Portachuelo.
Potentially hiring mountain bikes to "roll" back to the lower valley around Yungay, doing photo/video etc along the way.
Visit the debris field and memorial at Yungay
Shoot in the honeycomb-like road tunnels in the remote Cañon del Pato enroute to Trujillo.

Should have more soon for the Lima/Ica, and Cusco/Sacred Valley stages. Arequipa is also moving along.

Available spaces for photographers are starting to get close to tipping over to a waiting list. Plenty of room left for videographers and illustrators. Registration at least gets you first right of refusal.

When I try to link up my Shutterstock account to my facebook account to do the autoposts about my sales, I get an odd error message:


I've gone through this with SS support and we've exhausted all possible explanations - am wondering if others have had this issue and if so, how they solved it.

I've tried:
1. deauthorising the shutterstock app from publishing to my profile ie: completely deleted it within facebook; then re-connecting it
2. adding it to a different facebook account (same outcome)

I've also tried option 1 whereby I've selectively enabled options for the app, but with no change in the outcome.

Only other option available that I can see is to set up a new SS account and start again, though that seems somewhat drastic...

Registration:
Apologies for that, I did try and create a way for people to register multiple ticket types at once but it's Google Docs - a bit limiting sometimes. Actual ticket purchases will be more specific.


Timing:
November is not as good as June-August, but it's also cheaper and less crowded.
According to a lot of online references, it's the dry season now but I know the Amazon has just had the worst floods on record, so it'll be something of a gamble at any time of year. I've been in the highlands at the start of rainy season and it's generally not too bad most of the time, it just means we have to plan for a bit of wet weather.


Other more general answers have been migrated to the site.

Website is up and registrations are open for those who are interested in getting their names on the list early.


Key changes:

• Event is now being run in stages/segments of 4-8 days to make it possible for people to come for a short period of time
• We have streams in plan for Photography, Video and Illustration with Audio still a possibility, and a tourist stream for those who want to go to see the country
• We'll be running the event during November 2013.

You can join the mailing list to stay up to date on new developments like detailed itinerary, pricing, tickets being on sale etc. (You'll get a confirmation email - click the link in it to confirm subscription)

Well I will be making a few announcements about this shortly, but suffice to say it's been restructured a bit to enable time poor people to attend in one-week blocks (give or take a few days).

The first leg will be Lima the Ica region (including Paracas, Huacachina and Nazca).
Second leg will be Arequipa/Cusco
Third leg Iquitos (and Amazon)
Fourth leg will be Huaraz and Trujillo

So if you've scratched yourself from attending due to time, the revised itinerary may just make it possible

I'm putting the 1st cut of the website (and everything else) together at the moment with the help of a few others. All going well we'll start taking registrations next week.

Firstly, it's now likely this will happen in May/June of 2013.



Photography and Video streams are now in planning - website and other announcements for this soon.

BUT

We're in need of team leaders for the Illustration and Audio streams. Happy to consider all expressions of interest.

The gig is to identify activities and resources required by a team of illustrators or sound designers joining the tour, and then lead that team during the event. I can send a more detailed description to any who are interested (also if anyone can recommend someone who would be suitable, that'd be ace as well).

@Shadysue: I'm in Australia but I have PLI cover that is underwritten by Lloyds of London, so it might be as simple as approaching a broker in the UK.

I only have that for the shooting events I organise though, where other photographers and models etc are all coming together. I try to get them all to sign an indemnity waiver as well.

If it's just for your own business shooting though, it's possible the contents insurance you have for your equipment already as a liability clause in there - best to check with your provider as the laws on what can/can't be included are quite different by jurisdiction.

There used to be a defect with istock's servers that I encountered last year that sometimes sees all the model releases get dumped. Not sure if it's still there as I haven't uploaded for quite a while.

For me, the ability to attach multiple releases to a single image was the main reason to use deep meta, as it cut out the need to create your own stitched release file.

I've been telling myself for the past 2 years that I'd hold off buying a MkII and wait for the MkIII - in the meantime buy lenses and lights if the itch to spend money on gear needs scratching.

Now the MkIII is out, am wondering if it's worth the upgrade - maybe keep the MkI and keep going with lens and light improvements?

I have 2 x 1Tb external drives holding duplicate copies of my images. I also do an online backup to Crashplan.com - quite cheap and really easy to use.

It sounds like your biggest hurdle will be seeding the backup ie: getting that initial upload done. Crashplan doesn't allow you to send a portable drive in IIRC, however once you've got that initial bkacup done, it runs like clockwork.

In Australia, many locations require coverage of $10million or more.

Like Ed says, you can be liable if you've done something to cause their injury. Having them sign a waiver that is endorsed by the insurer can exclude you from liability incurred by the model's actions, but it doesn't protect you for much, as you have a duty of care as the shoot producer/organiser.

Quote from: steheap on February 16, 2012, 14:57
I've always wanted to go to Peru, but can you imagine the results if 20 photographers from this forum all went on the same tour? We would all be uploading the same images to the same stock sites. At least if we go separately the light will be different!  

That's certainly a possibility - however with the shoots I've organised here in AU in the past, I've made an effort to ensure there's a good vairety of setups for each shoot, as well as numerous models and looks. This helps to spread the photographers across many possibilities so they never end up shooting content that's the same.

In Peru, shooting groups will be pairs, and the overall shooting group will be small.

Plus in this group, we'll be making use of a lot of local contacts to get into places you won't even know about visiting on your own

It is at that, but given the time and potential cost, people need a while to prepare for it.