MicrostockGroup

1

General Stock Discussion / minimum age to submit photos?

« on: August 30, 2015, 00:02 »

I quit microstock a couple of years ago but my son has shown some interest. He is just 16. Does any one know if there is a minimum age to submit to stock agencies? I have about $10k worth of equipment sitting around picking up dust. Someone might as well be using it. I would, of course spend some time teaching him the technical aspects. He is very artistic (more so than me) and has more time than I do to invest.

thanks,
John

2

General Photography Discussion / Large peel and stick prints

« on: March 06, 2013, 19:41 »

My wife wants to decorate the walls of her business with some stock photos I recently purchased. I was thinking of getting large peel and stick prints. Does anyone have any experience with these. Do they stay stuck or eventually peel off and any issues installing them. I'm looking at 30x40 approx.

Thanks

3

Alamy.com / release for body parts (e.g. hands)

« on: September 10, 2012, 11:39 »

A few weeks ago, I recieved an email from Alamy informing me that a handful

of my images with hands (typicall holding something) were improperly identified as having 0 people. The images remained on sale but were moved to the "need more information" box. I made the change as suggested and confirmed that I have the release (they're my hands).

Thinking about it now, this means that any image I take of any body part will require a release on Alamy. I think the intent was to make our images easier to find in the search but there are consequences. Has anyone else had the same experience? In all fairness, I haven't put this question to Alamy yet and I will. Just curious to see if anyone else had this happen.

4

General Stock Discussion / European trip

« on: May 26, 2011, 11:59 »

I'm planning a European trip next month (3 weeks). Will be in Italy, France, Germany and Switzerland. Is it worth taking city scapes and "travel" style photos for microstock (wondering if I should bring my 5d Mark II along). My North American travel photos don't sell that well so I am considering just bringing a point and shoot for the memories...

Thanks,

5

Computer Hardware / New macbook pro

« on: April 01, 2011, 11:35 »

I bought my first mac (after over 25 years as PC user). I must say, I'm really impressed by the engineering, quality and portability of the computer (its a 2011 13" macbook pro). Portability was my main concern. It took about 15 minutes to get used to the new operating system. Really user friendly.

Can any mac users recommend useful photo related software (other than photoshop and aperture). Anyone shooting tethered on a mac - what software do you use?

Thanks,

6

Newbie Discussion / Tax question for fellow Canadians

« on: January 26, 2011, 13:02 »

This applies to Canadians only.

I've been filing my taxes on paper for the past 3 or 4 years despite using Quicktax. Quicktax has an error in it that prevents me from filing electronically. It's a bit of a pain because I also have to include a letter to Revenue Canada explaining why I have to override a field in the software. I discussed the issue with people at Quicktax the past two years but they just tell me their software is compliant with Canadian legislation (and this after I sent them the correct information from Revenue Canada's website). Is someone able to netfile using other software?

The issue is related to the T5 we get from IS. Revenue Canada allows you to include the income on a different line if you have associated expenses but Quicktax doesn't (which means you can't have any tax deductions if you use the software). I have to override the software. I would like to avoid this seeing that the software is costing me close to 100$.

7

General Stock Discussion / Alamy Rocks!

« on: January 25, 2011, 17:31 »

Alamy just made my day - one of my images sold for over 1300$! I just get 40% of that but, hey, 550$ isn't bad. Most I had made on a single sale was just over 200$ after commissions.

Looking forward to my next payout.

8

General Stock Discussion / Yuri's site

« on: December 03, 2009, 22:23 »

Yuri's site is no longer available (I've tried for a couple of days now). Did I miss something? Anyone have suggestions for other keywording options?

thanks,

9

General Stock Discussion / How Canadians can get Paypal to pay in US dollars

« on: October 29, 2009, 11:41 »

For those of you who are Canadian and want to leave your Paypal earnings in US dollars, there is a simple solution. You can open a RBC Bank account (from any RBC branch in Canada). The account is in a US bank so you can request payment in US dollars (instead of paypal converting to Canadian dollars). This is not the same as having a US dollar account in a Canadian bank (I don't believe these work because paypal would recognize the transit numbers as Canadian). I travel to the US often and this is the perfect solution for me. I have a bank card and can access my US dollars at any time. I also opened a Canadian US currency RBC account so I could transfer funds back and forth (through PC banking). The US account is called a Centura account if anyone's interested.

You should be aware that there is a $3.50/month charge on the Centura account if your balance is less than 700$ (this may have changed - you should confirm). I selected the pay per use account in Canada since I don't expect to have many transactions.

10

Cameras / Lenses / Tamron f2.8 SP 70-200 for Canon

« on: October 13, 2009, 11:54 »

Has anyone looked at the Tamron SP f2.8 70-200 as an alternate for the Canon 70-200 f2.8? I don't believe its IS but I've read the quality is pretty good. Has anyone ever tried it?

Regards,

John

11

General Stock Discussion / Anyone in Ottawa Ontario?

« on: June 05, 2009, 11:26 »

Anyone in the Ottawa area interested in having local meetings and maybe pooling resources (to hire models, sharing equipment to do more elaborate shoots, etc). Please PM or post here!

Or, feel free to just say hi!

Regards,

John

12

General Stock Discussion / any easy programs to create banners?

« on: April 27, 2009, 22:08 »

I want to create banners to link to other photos in lightboxes. Are there any ready made templates or software that can create these easily. Don't want to spend alot of time on it.

Thanks,

john

13

General Stock Discussion / tax return info (Canada) and T5 income

« on: April 26, 2009, 10:05 »

In case anyone in Canada is wondering how to declare their T5 income from istockphoto so that their expenses are taken into consideration, please see the following CRA page: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/rprtng-ncm/lns101-170/104/rylts-eng.html

My tax software adds the income from istockphoto's T5 under line 104 so it gets added to the income from my day job. I caught this just before filing as it wasn't showing up in the income summary in Quicktax but does show up in the final return. We are supposed to declare the income on line 135 as self-employed income if we have expenses to declare.

I wasn't able to respond to the thread on istock as the system kept asking me to login so I posted here. Thought it might be helpful to others who do their own taxes.

Regards,

John

14

General Photography Discussion / Camera insurance in Canada

« on: April 15, 2009, 22:24 »

Can anyone recommend an insurance company in Canada for camera equipment. I don't think I can use my home insurance since I sell images. I've done a few searches on the net and find mostly US based info.

Thanks,

15

General Stock Discussion / fotolia sales stopped after upload

« on: March 03, 2008, 20:27 »

This could be just a coincidence but my sales at fotolia stopped all of a sudden after a large (for my standards) upload. I was getting sales daily before the upload and pretty much nothing since the 23rd of feb. My 7 day ranking was around 1900 before the upload and is now >5200. What happened? I know...ebb and flow - but I've had that bad of a dry spell on fotolia.

This is my first post but I've lurking in the background for a while...

John