I think it goes back to the days when microstock was hugely profitable. Some of the people feeling down about the industry have seen huge reductions in their income because of te changes. Like you, I choose to be positive about the future and just keep working to improve and build my portfolios, but I understand why some people are negative about things now.

Take the good info here and try not to get caught up in the BS. Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of stock photography.

Thanks Mat.

Sent from my K1 using Tapatalk 2

How come my rank shows a negative number? -147 till the next level? Am I missing something or is this a hyphen not a minus sign?

Will this include a Mac version too? I tried to get into the forum over there to touch base but alas, I haven't log in since we beta tested the Mac software and can't remember my login and stuff.... Anyway, If you are doing a Mac version, I will definitely donate and keep on using this software.

Thanks for the heads up Mat!

They are reporting downtime on Twitter. Say they are working on it right now. 

It is completely hosed here. Internal server errors coming up when I try and load the page.

When you plan the weeks menu around the foods you want to shoot so you can use and profit from your groceries.

When everyone is at the table waiting to eat while you get "just one more shot".

When you consider how to photoshop the brand off just about every item in your home because it could become a useable prop.

I have been using LR since the first beta and switched to the subscription with LR5 because Adobe has started adding features to CC that do not get added to the Stand Alone but here is the thing, for 10 bucks a month, I get LR AND PS and all the latests upgrades. For me, I would rather spend the $10 each month than to keep buying upgrades every year of software that may or may not have the same features in it. Plus, I spend more than that in coffee a week. For me it works.

That being said, I upgraded yesterday and they hit it out of the park with the upgrades on this version.

Crap. I haven't seen anything yet. Hope that is not a sign of where this month is going. Sigh...

Quote from: pixel8 on March 16, 2015, 07:59

Quote from: SLStudios on March 16, 2015, 00:10
I live in Charlotte and lived in Florida for many years. I would recommend Florida long before Charlotte. Simply put, Charlotte is crime ridden and there is so little work here that the crime just keeps going up. It WAS a beautiful old southern city. Now it is a crime infested, gangland. I am not kidding. There are parts of this city the cops won't even go into because of the gangs here.

Go to Florida and enjoy the sun, surf, and seafood. I personally am leaving this cesspool as soon as I can. If you drive through Charlotte, don't stop... If you do, lock your doors. Seriously, I am not just being a jerk, I live here and the city is really gone to hell.

As for Florida, I lived in Cocoa Beach for awhile and got to watch the rockets launch from the beach... The bank industry here in Charlotte is only helpful if you have a degree and want to work in that industry (which is a very small part of the population). And the tornados, yeah. Do worry about them as they are on the rise. Season after season they have been getting more and more common.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

What about surrounding towns 20 min to an hour out? Like Kings Mountain?

They are better but spend a little time reading the news for those areas before you decide. I wish I could say Charlotte is still that old southern city that it was 20 years ago, but it just isn't. NC in general very spread out too. To go to the beach from here it is four hours. To go to the mountains is three. If you are into racing, charlotte, Concord, and Kannapolis are close but if you are just coming to live and shoot stock, there is nothing particularly better here than Orlando or any other city.

I live in Charlotte and lived in Florida for many years. I would recommend Florida long before Charlotte. Simply put, Charlotte is crime ridden and there is so little work here that the crime just keeps going up. It WAS a beautiful old southern city. Now it is a crime infested, gangland. I am not kidding. There are parts of this city the cops won't even go into because of the gangs here.

Go to Florida and enjoy the sun, surf, and seafood. I personally am leaving this cesspool as soon as I can. If you drive through Charlotte, don't stop... If you do, lock your doors. Seriously, I am not just being a jerk, I live here and the city is really gone to hell.

As for Florida, I lived in Cocoa Beach for awhile and got to watch the rockets launch from the beach... The bank industry here in Charlotte is only helpful if you have a degree and want to work in that industry (which is a very small part of the population). And the tornados, yeah. Do worry about them as they are on the rise. Season after season they have been getting more and more common.

Just my thoughts on the subject.

Last week was good for me with a slight slow down on Fri and Sat but it has picked back up since. I don't know what others are seeing but I am up from this time last year on SS, FT, and DT. iStock, well do we even need to talk about that?

I don't care what color that dress is. I officially hate that dress. Stupid dress is all over my social feeds and frankly, it is not even a good looking dress. 

Going back to work now.

I upload them across about 12 sites and have good sales that way. Some sell better on one site than on another but since I have no way to predict which will do better where, they all go everywhere.

Quote from: cascoly on January 27, 2015, 19:07
my 2 symbiostock sites are working fine, though like ,most others, sales are minimal

the global search is still active and I add new sites as they are announced
http://cascoly.com/symbio/symbiostock-network.asp

I'm mostly using sym now as a feeder to my non-photo website, providing galleries and contact sheets for those pages.  the galleries are large, watermarked pages of images 2 across:

http://cascoly.com/symbio/list.asp?list=129&w=4&word=horse&site=http://cascoly-images.com

any sym site is welcome to use these features

====================
Leo has licensed me to distribute both the PRO and the sitemap plugins which I offer at reduced price for members of the co-op I host, or for sym sites that use my installation service.

I'm leaving for 5 wks in southeast asia later this week, so won't be as quickly available, but will continue to maintain the global search and add further functions as needed

I would like to get some info about the pro plugin and that cost... Could you shoot me some details or email me at [email protected] with the info?

Thanks for all the great information everyone. Clearly there are mixed feelings about where things stand with Symbiostock... I am working on trying to find a solution to market some of my personal work that doesn't fit the SS or IS style and thought maybe this would be an option. I am not sure if it is or not yet but it seems to be the best system for the indie operator right now...

Again, lots of food for thought. Thanks all!!

I have been playing with symbiostock for a self hosted site but it looks like many of the forums associated with it are slow or dead. Are people still using this theme/script to sell images? I am also wondering if the "Pro" version or plugin is still available anywhere?

Quote from: Elenathewise on January 21, 2015, 17:49
I sell from my personal site: www.elenaphoto.com
This makes more money than many "low earners" agencies. I don't advertise at all though, so if you do you can do much better.

What are you using for your site? I know there are some wordpress add ons or sites from KTools and a few others. Are you using one of these? Looks decent.

It is harder to get the sales now too because of the new premium level they added. For about $60 a month, you can be a preferred photographer and I am convinced they push images from those people first. I, like others here, have been shortlisted a number of times but the brief was either abandoned, closed or someone else's image was selected. The rates look great but it is a hard place to make a buck. I feel like it is becoming more of a "shoot on spec" agency these days.

That is odd. When does iStock switch to the auto payments anyway? This month or next? The request system is still in place right now from what I see in my dashboard......

Done.

Quote from: ana on November 22, 2014, 18:22
Lee my FTP don´t work!!!    can you take a look please!

Every weekend lately. Mine is down too!

Me too. No answer at all. Atlas tell me no if you don't want my images..... geez.

BME for me at SS and several other sites showed increases too. IS crashed and burned and I am pretty sure I am going to have to use a defibrillator to revive that one, assuming it is not too far gone...lol. Good month over all though considering my small ports.