Did you offer any help to any of these ppl, or you just used them to kinda grace yourself with this video?

Things like this remind me a bit of some of the 'fledgling young photographers' I know who's first shot at being an artist is getting into the face of these poor souls with their dslr's, do a B&W conversion and then an exhibition and walk around like a little peacock trying to establish themselves in the art community. Man if I could I'd just punch them into paralysis. Yeah, and then it's me being negative, not the whole thing...

So what's the moral supposed to be in this?

Ohh whim-whimp the whole world is against poor microstockers, even that super trendy apple... or maybe you should have had a clue before you started giving away your images for pennies en masse so any 10 year old can download it with his pocket money, and of course none of the agencies care much guarding the copyright because the penny product  just doesn't justify the expenses. Don't blame flickr etc... blame yourself. If you don't want this, remove your images from the sites that let it get downloaded 500 times by any goatfarmer, or just shut up and quit whining, face the consequences of your own actions.

How about Losers Bracket?

Absolutely, most ppl are dumb snobs with no idea about aesthetics, and unless you can please them presenting something catchy in their favoured kitshcy style, they gonna very heavily judge you by your equipment. I know several wannabes making ok money -compared to their instantly visible severe lack of any talent- by constantly showing of their 'pro-gear'. Their business card, their opening homepage, etc, is showing them swningin' a big body with the biggest lens, and it works. It has been tested in flickr too, some guy posted shots with original exif, d40 I think, than posted the same shots (decent, but nothing showing real talent) with fake exif telling it was done with the biggest hassy + super-duper lens, got 5-10 times more likes and favourites. Conclusion is the same as always: people are stupid. : )

Those people running that site (and many here) lack analytical thinking, therefore the ability to learn. The result is applying changes for the worse. F.e. istock and many of it's 'exclusives' seem to have a hard time grasping the concept that exclusivity doesn't make much sense in microstock especially in its current state. What is that all about? 'Hey look at my exclusive isolated strawberries?'  "Hey look at my exclusive heavily vignetted shots of my neighbor making weird faces' or  'Look at my exclusive PS girlie montage, fairy wings, clouds an' all?'. Sure, you won't anything like that anywhere else... in 10000 versions : )

Quote from: stockmarketer on December 24, 2011, 12:39
Don't worry about timing of uploads at DP or anywhere else.  If the only way your pictures will sell is if you are at the top of the "Latest Uploads" at the most visited time, then there is something wrong with what you're uploading.  It means that your strategy is to upload "more of the same." 

Instead, focus those energies on planning and creating more unique stuff -- in-demand subject matters that aren't already done to death, a unique style that's all your own -- and buyers will find them.  That approach will lead to much larger sales than playing the guessing game of what's the best moment to upload stuff that would not otherwise stand out.

I upload when it works well for my schedule.  I don't give a second thought to whether it's good timing for reviews and ultimate placement on the sites.  My sales have done just fine.

Timing uploads do matter at some sites. If DP isn't one of those, I'm happy about that, thanks for everyone for the info. I do upload what I process when I'm finished with a series, but this time it's about uploading and submitting my current port of about 2000 pics at-a-go. Btw I still firmly beleive from everything I'v seen that uniqueness has no place in microstock where sales need to pile up. That has proven to be an oxymoron to the business model countless times.

I recently got accepted at DP, started uploading en masse, few hundred shots are up with very few rejections. My question is to anyone who has more experience with them (or the staff): should I wait with further submissons for the holiday season to pass, to make sure my images don't sink, or is DP the kinda place where that doesn't really matter? Other related thing that I couldn't really find any info on is how long do they keep unfinished files?

I heard the rumor that they soon gonna revise the independent percentage tiers too:

15%
15.1%
15.2%
15.3%
15.3% + a happy meal
15.3% + a happy meal + a krispy kreme donut

the inside source said that after some brainstorming they simply figured the current tiers weren't insultive enough

Thanks for the quick response Anglee. Is it fixed now? If the those recent images are lost to the system, the problem is that with no visual reference I kinda lose track of where I'm at with my uploads to the site.

The blueprints of these buildings are generally available... so the rest is just nonsense

Most of my recent uploads to 123rf (jpgs, 30+) seem to be broken when I check the pending folder, no preview just the missing image icon even after 24h. The ones I uploaded today did the same, looks to be a consistent failure. Anyone experiencing something similar? It did happen on 123 before but very rarely and the images that looked broken, were broken and rejected. I use filezilla, no problem whatsoever on any other sites with the same images.

The security guy was asking for an ID? Now that's not tolerable. I ran into this when shooting downtown LA, a the security guy took the time come out of the building and walk thru the little park area to harass me. When I was told that part is private area, I moved about ten inches to the pavement, than he said there are laws to prevent people from taking photos of these tall builings since 911, and just stood around looking dumb so I would leave, of course I didn't, nice job at humiliating himself. The funny part is that a member of my family, lawyer, works in the building, that's why he dropped me ther so I could walk around LA photographing. When he came from work I told him the story and he said it's total b***crap, ther are no such laws, I can shoot just about anything in public places, and he suggested thet if get harassad again, I should just call a cop, thats it.

happy holidays to all

IS does suck.

Quote from: AttilaTheNun on December 05, 2011, 05:42

Quote from: sharpshot on December 04, 2011, 22:59December is usually very slow for me, the worst month of the year.  I don't have many Christmas photos.

I don't think that Xmas shopping brochures, calendars, cards and sites are designed in December. The few Xmas things I have sell latest in November.

Many are designed in december. If you really push it + have experienced graphic artist and a good, longtime partnership with the print shop you can get the whole thing done in 48 hours, from idea to delivering the printed product.

lol @ backpedal

Quote from: CarlssonInc. Stock Imagery Production on December 03, 2011, 07:06

...Photographers are notoriously neurotic, paranoid and prone to mass hysteria...dangerous to feed those feelings...

Nice blanket statement... directly after saying some things should be left unsaid. : )

I'm not having serial nervous breakdowns from being involved in photography. Maybe I'm not doing it right : )

no

Quote from: fotoVoyager on December 08, 2011, 10:50
I think the price slider is a good solution to striking the balance between ...

Yeah, never mind the buyers leaving totally pissed off, it's a good solution, and that's it...   8 )

Can't see submission limit info either, but I did submit more than 30 pics today, which is more than the the limit I remembered to have. Does it mean submissions are unlimited now, like SS?

I just can't wait for Lobo to help me with my bags at walmart.

Quote from: Slovenian on October 28, 2011, 14:28

Quote from: Zerkalo on October 28, 2011, 11:49
In the last couple of days I don't get any download during European working hours. All the downloads happen when Americas start to work and stops on European morning hours. Does anybody else experiencing this pattern?

I'm having most of my sales from Europe, but then again I don't offer fake looking models (absurdly white teeth, tons of silicone etc). Of course it may be something completely different in your case, but it's obviously you don't offer what European buyers need.

you mean you shoot ugly ppl with bad teeth, is that what you'r trying to say? : ))

Quote from: jsnover on October 28, 2011, 02:09

Quote from: jamesbenet on October 28, 2011, 01:39
...In this economy who can really blame any of them for following the corporate road map. In the end its every man/woman for himself in this business.  ...

I don't think a poor economy is an excuse for lapses in ethics...

Actually the lapses in ethic are the reason for the poor economy.

Quote from: collis on October 27, 2011, 07:58

Quote from: Eco on October 27, 2011, 06:37
Sorry Collins I just noticed an error in your message: The sentence "Contributors get their usual commissions on all purchases." should read "Independent contributors get their usual insultingly low commission on all purchases".

lol, it's all in the eye of the beholder Eco!

Thats beauty. Read books. It's nice to see tho that even newcomer agencies can start by ripping microsuckers off. This might just be the most sheeple-loaded industry in the universe.