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Topics - Allen

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1
Dreamstime.com / Most searched for with fewest results
« on: December 12, 2009, 00:12 »
Below is a recent post from Tangie @ Dreamstime.  The keywords are kinda sloshed together but make more sense at the site if you hover your mouse over them, because each set is a hyperlink.  Might be pretty useful.

It would be nice to see more sites do this and hopefully it's not a one shot deal for DT.


http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_19777


"You will find below top searches that generated few or no results. The list includes keywords that were most searched for but returned very or no results at all in the recent weeks. Most are multiple-keyword searches, which means the image should be relevant for all keywords below.
This list can be used as guide to give you hints of what people were interested in and what subjects you might approach. In case you have such images online, you can edit the files and add missing keywords, IF the case. Please add the keywords only if relevant - do not spam!. You will also notice that there are some misspellings.
If you already have such images but have not uploaded them yet, you might consider uploading them now.

Most searched for with few results only

closeup industrial metal old rivets texture, gears old rust texture, background drain grate metal texture, backgrounds patterns rendered shapes, abstract drips grunge ink splat splatter texture, licenses, abstract cracks glass macro texture, hubble space telescope, 3d landscape rendered terrain, monschau, 12 christmas days, cracked detail grain old textures wood, female reproductive system, asphalt close cracks texture, closeup gel liquid texture, beauty colorado denver landscape mountain nature, asphalt macro street tar texture, miley, most wanted, lighteffects, brussels griffon, bills coins currency finance money us, gstring, mediavel, thalia, short skirts, pauli st, sanserif, possum, kitt st, dordrecht, whitehouse, grinch, background closeup metal texture vent, background closeup rock texture volcanic, jlo, puerto rico vieques, germany hamburg pauli st, cyst, desk girl school stare, branches limbs oak tree, christmas days twelve, dario, daddy yankee, eastern philadelphia prison state, coyotes, bloom center flower macro orange petals yellow, decay garbage junk, foreskin, beavers, background feminine flower girly petals pink rose, oberhausen, bernhardiner, flying squirrel, close metal rivets rust texture, background brick crumbling red wall, humanoids, anacondas, asphalt cracked pavement texture, diorama, aishwarya rai, blue effect light mesh spiral swirl, mediterenean, tonsils, close cracked grain stump texture wood, seo, animal shelters, indian musician native, fall forest orange pennsylvania tree woods, esophagus, close cracks rings stump texture tree, concrete paved texture

Most searched for with no results

korral, kottenforst, rolandsbogen, bonn germany kottenforst, floors paths pavements, image metapixel mosaic, bonn germany rolandsbogen, bonn gemany, bonn germany rheinaue, africa chipengali namibia south umfolozi, bright brown egg food light orange shell, istanbul kozyatagi turkey, angle colorful game glass marbles toy, aquarium bite fish leech menace mouth, 2006 february germantown storm winter, arjan hamberg merwesteinpark, clouds mountain puget rainer sound sunrise tacoma, course delaware golf landscape water, humanparts, driving ny to, focus montage rail tunnel, arc colors fan pantone rainbow spectrum stripes, gamebirds habitat native natural their wild, crane dramatic origami paper peace shadow white, babies baby fairmount geese park, center eilat sealife, egg potential shell texture warm, blacksburg lake tech va virginia, aerialphotography, 16 ball bowling number, cut fresh fruit khiwi sliced slices tropical"

2
When i type in "istockphoto.com" the website shows up and then it flashes over to this page.  Is anybody else having this problem?

3
I'm not sure if you all get the infomercial for the Tobi Steam Cleaner, which derwinkles fabrics with "ease".

Well, I went to my local Walmart today in search for a steam cleaner to dewrinkle my backdrops and found this Tobi there.  It was more than some of the cleaners so I thought it must be good.  

When I got home I set up my wrinkled backdrop and went took the Tobi out of the box.  Putting it together wasn't too bad, but some things I noticed right away was the wand hose was pretty short, and so was the cord.  When I took it to the backdrop, it wouldn't reach the top, unless you took it off it's stand which you are supposed to do.  So a couple minutes later the top half was totally dewrinkled.  It worked really well and I was impressed.  I proceeded to do the bottom, but as soon as you bend over, the "water proof" jug spilled on the backdrop.  ugh!  

So, I needed to wipe up the spill and here I am holding a shoulder strapped Tobi with one arm and a Steaming Hot wand in the other.  The off switch is on the back of the Tobi, so I guess you are supposed to be a contortionist to turn it off without burning yourself.  You aren't supposed to put the hose down, because condensation will build up and go back into the machine.  

I finally did get the whole backdrop dewrinkled, but now it came time to put this contraption away.  I quickly realized as I was putting it together that it would not be realistic to take it apart and put it together every time you needed it.  You are supposed to do what they say and leave it on their stand and store it in a closet.  Oh yeah, I have lots of empty closets in my house.  No problem!

So, all in all -  Yes the Tobi works, but I find it unstable and potentially dangerous.  And who has the room for one of these things?  I guess I need to buy and bigger house to accommodate my Tobi. jk :).  It's going back to Walmart tomorrow.

Anyways, I was wondering what you guys use to dewrinkled your backdrops.  Do the smaller hand held steamers work well?  

If you are curious to see what the Tobi looks like, here is a link.
http://shoptvcanada.com/mclient/474/tobisteamer

4
For the most part, dreamstime is one of my favorite microstock sites for many reasons.  The only trouble is with their approval rating system which I try to keep above 80%, but then get a whole batch rejected because I included a po box in the model release instead of a house address. 

I know it's my fault, as I've had this problem before and I thought I got all my model releases fixed, but I guess I missed one. 

The other problem is I always find it a guessing game when to upload a model release if you can't see the model's face.  I couldn't see the models face so didn't include a release and was told to upload one becuase the model is the main subject of the image.  The problem is I've uploaded model releases in the past with models who you can't see the face and receive a rejection stating that the model release isn't needed for this image.

Yes very irksome.  Like I said though, it's MAINLY ;) my fault.


5
Off Topic / Do you need glasses? I got mine CHEAP!
« on: June 24, 2009, 22:38 »
I've been putting off buying new glasses for myself and my wife for quite a while now.  I really didn't want to pay $1000 for new glasses for both of us.  ($500 each aprox.)  Anyways, some co-workers were talking about where they got theirs and I became interested.  They told me that they buy theirs from http://zennioptical.com  I did a bunch of review checking and didn't find many bad reviews so I figured I would give them a try since I had the glasses prescription.

Well, after some measuring, $150 after shipping and currency conversion, and 2 weeks later, I got all 3 pairs of glasses in the mail.  All I can say is I am pleasantly surprised at my initial thoughts and we have no complaints.

I thought I would share this tip to save money on glasses especially since soo many people are having financial troubles.  Anyways if you order some and you don't like them...... don't blame me. ;D

p.s. if you have any money saving tips or great deals (not related to photography), post them here.  I am sure many would find it interesting.

Thanks, Rick  ;)

6
I have been wondering this for a long time and still can't figure this out.

In the google search I can find my images using search terms such as "dragon_fang fotolia" or "richard nelson dreamtime" and on those sites I have sold far less than on shutterstock. 

When I type "dragon_fang or dragonfan or dragon fang or richard nelson + shutterstock" I don't get 1 result with a picture of mine in use.  In theory I should have tons!  What gives?  Do you know?  Is it just me?   ???

Please let me know if you have useful search terms for finding your work with shutterstock.  Myabe you use a different search engine.

Thank you,

Rick  ;D

7
Off Topic / How Long Is Your Commute To Work?
« on: May 22, 2009, 07:18 »
As I was driving home from work yesterday, I thought it would be interesting to see who has the longest total commute to/from work.  This means you must add up the time it takes to get to work and again the time to get home. 

My commute time is 80 minutes everyday, going 100 kilometers per hour driving 95% on the highway.

8
Background info
I discovered microstock when I was browsing the internet looking for ways to make money online. Nothing seemed like it would work.  Finally I decided to be more specific and look for ways to make money with something I enjoyed doing anyways (photography).  After a quick search, I came across this website http://www.photosecrets.com/sell.microstock.html and uploaded about 10 snapshots (pictures not geared toward microstock) to places like 123rf, bigstockphoto and dreamstime. 

I kept checking periodically and after about a month, I seen a sale.  I thought to myself, "Hey, maybe this isn't a scam."  I uploaded a few more and seen more sales.  It was soon realized that perhaps if I upload even more I can make a substantial amount of money.  Well the rest is history, even though I might not be a top player, I can happily say that Microstock easily pays for my fun hobby.

*Interesting Fact*
It took me 4 tries to get accepted @ Shutterstock
1 try @ Istock
5 tries @ Stockxpert



9
Off Topic / 15 Images That Look Photoshopped That Aren't
« on: May 20, 2009, 09:09 »
http://weburbanist.com/2009/05/17/faux-photoshop-15-incredible-images-that-look-altered-but-arent/

I thought everyone might like to take a look if you haven't seen this before.  Kinda neat.  :)

10
Shutterstock.com / Cat With A Model Release
« on: April 24, 2009, 15:48 »
Did anyone notice the cat (a featured image) has a model release attached?  I wonder why iofoto attached one.  Maybe he/she is a celebrity cat and I just don't recognize him.  Here is the link http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-2832570.html

I hereby rate my topic as 3/10 on the interesting index, what says you? lol

11
Dreamstime.com / New Statistics Page
« on: March 17, 2009, 10:18 »
Dreamstime updated their statistics page, so check it out.

I'm not sure if I like it though.  I typically don't like charts with lots of colors to figure out which is for what.  Let me know what you think.

12
I just got this email from Keith at zymmetrical.com

***
Hi Richard,

You have an abnormally high rejection rate, and you seem to just have us on auto-FTP, sending more of the same each month -  our reviewers pay careful attention to each review, and we expect the participating artists to heed those comments.

I am sorry if this may come off harsh but it costs large sums of money to be rejecting your files when that money could be put into growing the business. We have no upload limits, very high commissions, and generally relaxed terms - we rely on the artists to play fair and participate in good faith: just uploading whatever thousands of shots you've made each month is unsustainable. The 150 or so you have approved are marketable, but since rejection rates affect search positioning to a degree, you are shooting yourself in the foot by just carpet-bombing the uploads. We are completely open to help you not have to spend too much time on deciding what to upload, you just have to ask - in the meantime, it cannot continue with this rejection ratio.

Best Regards,
Keith Tuomi

***

It is true, it must cost a lot of money to reject my pics.  So far I have 1593 pictures rejected there and only 154 approved. 

I have a 78.5% acceptance rate at dreamstime which is climbing as it was the first months that brought the average down.  The last 5 months there I have maintained more than 90% acceptance average with about 200 pictures added every month.

Istock, Shutterstock, Fotolia are all very similar.  I haven't seen a rejection from Stockxpert in ages.

Heck, even Crestock accepts more of my images.

All is not lost though,  the most popular rejection reason given is composition and lighting.  Although I'm not too sure how an isolated object on white gets a composition rejection.  Anyways, if all the sites had similar complaints about me, then perhaps I would pay more heed to this email. 

I know I am not a top seller, but I do try and learn.  But with rejections like this and from only the one website, it makes it difficult. 

Thanks for listening, and any comments or criticism about my post or portfolio not a problem.

p.s.  Keith will not have to worry about paying people to reject my pictures for a while.  I won't say that I am done with them, but surely I will take a break and ask him to delete all my photos in the pending queue, to be sure he gets only my best and newest.

13
General Photography Discussion / 70-300mm VR lens for Nikon
« on: February 25, 2009, 16:47 »
Hi I was wondering if anyone has this lens and what they think of it for microstock.

I have the Tamron 70-300 and find it soft.

I would like a better lens than the Tamron for wildlife, but not sure how soft the Nikon gets at 300mm.  If you have something better you would recommend that is under $800 than please fire it off. 

The problem with most of the sites reviewing lenses is it is hard to find a 100% crop.

14
Dreamstime.com / Am I Starting To Keyword Spam?
« on: February 18, 2009, 12:03 »
I got a rejection for this image, and the only reason given was that the term "pickpocket" was not relevant.

I don't really care that it got rejected there, but was just wondering if "pickpocket" really was just spam or what.

I should also note that this is the very first "keyword rejection" I have received from any stock agency.

15
iStockPhoto.com / 1st Time Istock Ticks Me Off
« on: February 14, 2009, 18:04 »
Well usually I am pretty patient and don't care when files get rejected for whatever reason.  I have learned that it's no big deal.  But today, after all that hard work.... Istock rejected 11 of my 15 photos for what reason?  I had included the PO box as part of the models address.  All the other info is their including their home address, but they still rejected it.  (Even though they have accepted these model releases for months already!)

I was going to email scout.... but then I get an error telling me one of the fields isn't filled in even though all of them are.  Frustrating it is, and I will forget about it. 

Do you guys think I really need to get a model release filled out again without a PO Box as part of the address?  That's ridiculous!   >:( 

(Maybe I'm just whining..... take it with a grain of salt.)

16
Photo Critique / Is this dust, or lighting problems?
« on: February 04, 2009, 12:32 »
Hey guys/gals ;),

Please take a look at this photo and tell me what's up with the lightened spot on the shirt.  Is it dust, a reflection or what?  I haven't noticed it anywhere except in studio, but I may just not be observant.

Thanks for looking, and if it isn't dust, any idea how I can change my light setup so it doesn't do this?


17
General Stock Discussion / First Year of Microstock Revenue
« on: January 22, 2009, 22:46 »
This is a one time deal I am doing here.  Sure I enjoy seeing what others are making, but I do NOT like sharing my earnings with everyone.  However.... I am going to break my rule this one and only time.

My grand total for ALL of the year 2008 from Jan - Dec is a whopping $2,442.72

I really only started in Jan 2008 so this is a pretty good reflection of one year of work.  Now keep in mind that as I learn more techniques and what reviewers want, my photography skills have developed (or at least I hope they have! ;D), and most of this money has been made in the last few months.

I know many of you are like me and don't share revenue, but if you would like to share the revenue you made on your very FIRST year of doing microstock, that would be interesting to see. 

As for now..... it's Photoshop time!

18
Site Related / New Logo Poll
« on: January 21, 2009, 15:34 »
Leaf and Kngkyle have both posted logo ideas at http://www.microstockgroup.com/index.php?topic=6862.30

While both are good, I am curious to see which one everyone thinks would suit microstockgroup.com better.  I hope I'm not stepping out of line by doing this. 

Remember, it is ultimately up to Leaf what he uses as a logo!  This poll is for curiousity sakes.
(Plus this is the first poll I've done here and wanted to try one! ;D)

Leaf's Logos are Orange

edit: edited to add another logo

19
General Stock Discussion / Are you allowed to use swear words?
« on: January 16, 2009, 15:38 »
Sorry to start another "Are you allowed" thread, and by no means am I criticizing the photographer/illustrator. But I would like to know if this is normally allowed, as I don't see it often.  In fact I think this is the first time I've seen it.

Here is the image in question.  http://www.bigstockphoto.com/photo/view/3518746

20
I found this magazine http://issuu.com/wesbenn/docs/gaytimesmag , with one of Yuri's models.  It is a gay magazine and Yuri's model is on the cover.  Some people would take offense at this and others wouldn't.   

What's your view if you seen one of your models in a gay/lesbian magazine?

21
General Stock Discussion / Should I try and change my username?
« on: December 17, 2008, 00:05 »
When I first started microstock I decided on the username that first came to mind (the name in my email address I have used for years).  I didn't really believe you could make money with Microstock so I didn't give it much thought.  But as time has passed I wonder. 

Surely buyers wouldn't bypass my images based on my name, but is dragon_fang too unprofessional?  If I used my real name, Richard Nelson, I would be competing with Richard Nelson Bolles (a famous author) among many others and I would never find any of my pictures in use on google.

So let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions on a new name for me, fire them at me.  I've been called every name in the book, so let them fly! :D ;D

*just don't try too many rhymes with Ricky, as it can get dirty pretty quickly ;)

22
Dreamstime.com / Files from ftp not showing again??
« on: December 09, 2008, 16:34 »
I uploaded a batch by ftp this morning and they still aren't in the "unfinished files" section.  I thought maybe I skipped Dreamstime when I was uploading to all the sites so I tried again this afternoon and they still aren't there.

Is it just me?

23
General Stock Discussion / Yuri's Girlfriend is single!?!?!
« on: December 08, 2008, 11:34 »
You smart guys and gals probably know this already, but I just found out Yuri's girlfriend is single!

Here is a picture that proves it.
It must be true.  The internet never lies.  I already signed up! ;)

24
I just noticed I didn't have to delete my description in fotolia for each uploaded image.  The system now retrieves the title correctly.  ;D

25
General Stock Discussion / Got Paid From Inmagine?!
« on: November 13, 2008, 10:04 »
I logged into my paypal account and noticed I received a payment for $58.78 from the company www.inmagine.com

I've never sent pictures to them so I was really shocked.  I realize that they are affiliated with 123rf, but I also thought that any sales made by them would show up in my 123rf account, sort of like stockxpert and photos.com

Anyone else have this experience?  I'm sure there must be.

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