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Messages - FD
Pages: [1] 2 3 4 5 6 ... 82
1
« on: February 13, 2012, 10:11 »
Yes, congrats FD! Please let us know how it affects your sales. The name sounds familiar. I missed the fun apparently since my net broke down for a week and no time to repair since I needed to be abroad for some days. Geez...
2
« on: February 01, 2012, 09:10 »
We can allow your files to be deactivated (not on sale) and then deactivate your account. However, we have had instances when photographers literally told us that it's a crime to keep even a backup copy of their files when they leave. So which is which? To make things simple we just made a rule when you go, we'll delete all your files, it's much cleaner and simpler to explain in this manner.
So which is it now? Do advise! Hey Alex. I was very happy about 123RF since 2005. I didn't upload though since a year because I was a bit scared about the automated inspection process, outsourced to India or Timbuktu, but that's not so important. After an average of 30$/mo, in January I got barely 9$ on 123RF (less than 100$ in total on all sites) and that was the limit I was drawing to myself to throw all my stuff for free full size on Flickr and leave microstock. Or I will have m own site, also fr free. I will decide end of February but if you keep a backup or not, I don't really care then. Under 10$/mo is too low to stay.
3
« on: February 01, 2012, 08:27 »
@Karimala and @Lagereek and @FD - thank you guys. But that's exactly the thing I am frustrated about - shouldn't reviewers be able to tell the difference between someone who submits 20 images of a pizza slice on white shot from different angles and someone who submits a series of images that actually tell a story? My expectations were that a reviewer should. I actually had very reasonable reviews when Ellen Boughn was DTs creative director, was sad to see her leave.
I wonder how much of these ridiculous reviews we are seeing is Achilles' original idea and how much of it is just reviewers not understanding what he wants them to do. A guy who founded such successful agency should be able to see that they are shooting themselves in the foot here. Well Achilles is pretty stubborn about it. It's a person I personally admire the most over all other agencies but I think he is wrong on this one. I feel (but not sure of course) it has to do with the unbiased search engine, as far as everybody is rotated on front in due time. Over 10M is just not feasible with a linear search engine based on 1, 2 words. It's pure math. With this kind of unbiased search engine only relying on keywords you will find similars in rows on the first pages of the search engine. There are solutions for that but to apply those to a database of 11M+ images is a daunting task. Probably the agencies don't think it's worth the time and the resources since they make their money anyhow, whether it's a fantastic shot or a good enough shot.
4
« on: January 28, 2012, 14:18 »
I never considered a barrel roll of a cruise ship. Easy enough on many plane types, but a cruise ship? That would have made him truly legendary. Well as you are a flier, I used to be a diver. We all have our stories. I have dived a lot on shipwrecks in the Red Sea and in the Mediterranean. Must be over 600 when I stopped logging. One of the guys always made a round-up of the wrecks and how it happened. The stupidity of the captains was always amazing. Either they were drunk or asleep but they never saw the obvious marks (or whatever you call those in English). They all ran into reefs or rocks near the coast and they should know better (if sober). As I told Pete (Racephoto) my ex burned all my slides and I had many hundreds on Fuji-chrome film, best for underwater photography. The limit was 36 per dive so you had to think. When I finally made it to dive-instructor I got bored of teaching newbies and I tried to escape as much as I could to the Red Sea from Sharm to Sudan with a military diver (a major) on one of those cheap Egyptian flights (400$ all in, flight, live-aboard boat, food, lead and tanks) in those days. I got kilometers of video too from those days but as it is 13 years ago, it's not HD and not "stock worthy". Oh well, to stay on topic, I don't care about IS. H&F will sell them anyways in 2012.
5
« on: January 28, 2012, 13:36 »
Trust me, it's not tougher, it's just stupid. When I say a "batch" I don't mean it's all same series. I shoot anything from landscape and food to studio portraits to concepts and still lives. The images I submit are diverse in content and well as style, and they are the highest technical quality. When I submit to macros, most of my stuff is getting accepted (and sells). Nobody will contradict you Elena since most of us know your portfolio as one of the monuments of stock. The "similars" policy of DT is pretty stubborn but Achilles swears by it and it's his site. He is a nice guy but he hasn't the monopoly on stock-truth. By coincidence I had a look at DT this evening with another IP/browser and not logged in. I was shocked to see them use the argument too of "cheapest in the industry" (sic). Hey sorry, I don't want to be the "cheapest" since I have to pay my equipment and bus rides to the studio and if a customer wants it "cheap", he can go to heroturko. Flickr or shoot it himself. There are 2 possible attitudes one can have. One is to scorn the agency, and the other one is to just take it as it is. Other sites will sell it, and by Jove, nobody is married to one single site except exclusives that sold their soul. Dammit those rules of exclusivity, they wouldn't stand any trial at a decent labor court. They own your total personality, especially DT with their very strict exclusivity rules. At iStock, you can still sell RM. Even if a DT exclusive earns 4x more than me with a comparable port (I got evidence) I'd rather throw all my stuff for free on Flickr than give my soul away for peanuts and I don't care other people will step in to copy good sellers. One of my current focuses is to shoot tribal folks in the Philippines. I know it isn't stock but I don't care. Of the last series they started rejecting after just 4 because of "similars". But is was a story. I will soon delete those 4 shots they accepted since they aren't worth it. They even took the worst shots. I had an editor of a German travel magazine that site-emailed me if I had more of the Intha leg-rowing people in Myanmar of which there are a couple exclusive on DT. I said sure, but DT won't accept them since they are "similars". Send them all, said the editor and I made more on those shots than 3 months regular income on DT. If DT would have accepted all those "similar" shots I wouldn't even be bothered to sell those privately. That's how they miss business by the taboo "similars" hangup but I have no critique at all since it's their business. I just don't want to go exclusive there any more. Unless they sponsor my camera and my time.
6
« on: January 28, 2012, 12:07 »
There's a Captain Francesco Schettino without a boat at the present time who might fill in. Mr. Schettino is currently in between jobs and pondering offers, but it seems he's at liberty (pun intended) to consider some consultancy assignments. His wardens actually allow him to do some teleconferencing from the sick bay for a decent fee. This guy really rocks. To have a good idea of his skills just type "askew" in Google or even better "do a barrel roll" 
7
« on: January 28, 2012, 12:02 »
Can't offer an explanation but have noticed that the trend is cyclical. Many people on this forum had this observation before you. Feast and famine. Some months start really bad, then there is suddenly a rush in credit sales. It's much more than ebb and flow and statistically spoken it makes no sense unless ... (there are only 2 possibilities).
8
« on: January 28, 2012, 11:52 »
your kindly feed back is really appreciated. I don't need to see your illustrations full size if they're vectors. They look great to me. But why waste time on an ailing business like iStock. Soon enough the will recycle/mirror you in their garbage bin called Stinkstock for 0.25$. Don't you think your work is worth more? Just a thought. Great stuff you have!
9
« on: January 28, 2012, 11:43 »
10
« on: January 28, 2012, 03:13 »
Looking at my last 20 sales I have 8 credit sales (of which 2 level 0, none exclusive) and 12 subscriptions. The credit sales were in total 40 with a total revenue of 10.72$ = 0.268% assuming 1 credit = 1$. Especially a level 0 TIFF sale at 11 credits (15 credits level 1) bringing a whopping 2.38$ in the piggy bank felt a bit weird.
In general my income on DT peaked end 2008 then slowly started to go down till now (accelerating) despite regular uploads. The impact of the commission reduction from 50% to 30$ a couple of years ago has taken full impact and a credit isn't a dollar because of the volume packs, discounts, partner sites, referrals. I figure DT stands with its back against the wall since all vested sites reduced commissions and people still seem to upload there.
11
« on: January 27, 2012, 00:58 »
Can't they get anything right? I'm back down to 15% with 0 Credits. I never liked this kind of board games where you're suddenly at square one near the end when you're almost canistering your grandfather.
12
« on: January 26, 2012, 20:59 »
How come the photographer says he never knew the man's name and yet, according to Getty, it has a signed model release? Privacy? I would say exactly the same.
13
« on: January 26, 2012, 18:54 »
Glad to meet you, Hugo! I read many of your posts and understand - you are smart and good man only angry to postsoviet peoples, especially russians, who i`m not... Let me correct that. There are things I can't touch here because I'm also involved in politics albeit on the back-benchers number-crunching side for now. More than 2/3 of our criminality is imported from "there" but in this professional forum we should avoid politics and religion. Let's just say that stereotyping is never good and I'm sorry I gave that impression. I have been working online with a group from St.Petersburg the 2nd half of last year and those people are darn good, very good. Before I worked with an Indian company and although they were very good technically, they totally missed any cultural empathy, and that reflected in their usability, design and content. Last but not least, the company we're talking about here and I'm defending (and why not, admiring) is from the other side of the ex-iron curtain fence while XYZ originated in France. There might be some truth in stereotypes (living in the Far East I'm confronted every minute with that) but gifted individuals (like everybody here on this forum is) can easily excel some tendencies in any society. If not, we would still be living in the threes with the other apes. I begin with DT on 2006 (it was too late...), became exclusive, sales were growing, but slow, very slow! I remowed my exclusivity on 2008, submit with the same portfolio on different sites and only on Shutterstock i get regular everyday sales. I regret the lost years, incomes on DT decrease month by month, especially after beginning subscription, very often errors, mistakes, long pending line. DT is doing ''negative things'', but nobody may write about them! If you critique DT, your sales decrease or stop to some time ( manipulating with search engine). All it is, why i am angry to DT. It can be better site, earn more, but they are doing nothing... Well your story is as valid as anyone else's. Point taken but it serves no purpose to vent that anger on their forum. It creates bad vibes. Maybe things will change one day (we witnessed quite some drastic changes in this industry) and it's useless to burn bridges. I know since I did it myself a few times to often.  P.S. for example, this months i have on SS - 85 sales/ $38 but on DT- 9 sales/ $5.80, with approximately the same small portfolio. Why must i love DT?! Aaah, love! That multi-splendorous thing! I feel we shouldn't mix it up with business. As Buddha says : emotions and longings are the source of unhappiness.
14
« on: January 26, 2012, 18:19 »
I've had around 150 images on canstock for a few months now and I've had hardly any view and no sales. I have the same collection across other sites and have seen sales and good views on them. FYI: 1065 online at CanStockPhoto, on average 10 sales per month with now and then an EL of 24$+. Views are low but I wonder how they count them. For instance they might filter random and Google traffic that could inflate view count on other sites. One thing is true and that is that CanStockPhoto sells totally different pictures than other sites. Like stockastic said before, they probably cater for a different kind of customers. Wondering if anyone finds them to be slow, or maybe its just my images? They seem to be slow for everybody, and certainly for me. But it's so easy to upload and attribute releases, and Duncan has always been such a nice guy that it doesn't matter timewise. CanStockPhoto is drama-free and has always been on the forefront programming-wise. Did anybody notice their series-editor (with a blanket image for the series) that could be a fundamental solution for DT's similars problem? If this is an invitation for some portfolio critique of your images, I would consider that only 1/3 is really stock material (the glass for instance). Landscapes and cobblestone backgrounds hardly sell anywhere in stock, unless they are stunning and iconic.
15
« on: January 26, 2012, 07:49 »
It has to be fake since it's going to be destroyed, I'm looking for Euros and $. And I don't have a lot of time, it's going to be part of a shoot on Saturday. I don't want to sound harsh but what do you expect? Somebody is going to Fedex you (a competitor) some fiat money by Saturday on a priority rate?
16
« on: January 26, 2012, 05:28 »
Sometimes after critique DT in forum, i receive from Achilles/Serban comment for one of my images:
Your posts on the forums are full of negative things about Dreamstime or the stock photo industry overall. Please stop doing that.
After such ''comments'' everybody will lock his/her topic... Come on Viesturs, I'm sure you're a very nice guy in real but I have to admit that one of your latest posts on DT was a trifle grumpy, if I may say so Achilles is very possessive and caring about his brainchild he started at a time and a place that wasn't that obvious. I smell ambition and total dedication, also to his photographers. Sometimes the porcupine put its spines up when it feels threatened, even if it's a very cuddly little animal. You have to know the people you are dealing with. Did you ever see somebody of XYZ stand up for his case? They let the dirty work do by retards like Lobo and despise you deep down counting their "revenue". Specimens like Lobo will soon be gone, Achilles will stand on his ship till the last man (or woman). Now cheer up and enjoy life 
17
« on: January 25, 2012, 08:06 »
On the forum at DT many are complaining about the lack of sales these last weeks. Guess what? Thread is CLOSED...... Please, don't spread around un-truth. That topic ("Sad") : This topic was locked by its author.http://www.dreamstime.com/thread_30241
18
« on: January 25, 2012, 08:02 »
Except, of course, for my negatives. My ex-wife burnt all my negatives and slides I kept since I was 14, included the color slides of my dad of post-war Germany and the building of the Brussels Atomium. I wish I had backed up her on a drive and then thrown that drive from the Atomium. Remember, there are only two things in life that are sure.
19
« on: January 25, 2012, 07:48 »
At least the dialogue is on-going. What dialog? All I see is an infallible papal bill proclaiming why they can't explain the doctrine to the peasants, immediately followed by an announcement from the attention queen of the inquisition that he will excommunicate anybody of the clergy that doesn't stand up and cheer. And by Jove, they all cheered, bowing, their tiny tinplate crowns deep in the dust . I prefer Monty Python but that forums seems like a decent imitation.
20
« on: January 24, 2012, 20:51 »
A third possibility: You don't know everything.  That's all too true. In fact, the longer I live, the less I know. I had all my forum posts deleted on iStock in 2006 and one in 2010 had the lifetime of a quark. That's why I stopped reading it but people report here that it's policed by somebody I would qualify as a low-life sociopath. I take your word for the deletion of one (your) thread on DT but isn't it a generalization to state that "DT is the worst or as bad as XYZ"? Since you don't like to tell what's it about (canceling the 1 week subs plan? there was a very grumpy nickels & dimes "designer" that complained about it a few weeks ago), it's hard to comment. Peace
21
« on: January 24, 2012, 20:40 »
Anyway, I'm sure my 14 years old daughter with her P&S will be more successful than me on DT.(no similars). Sign her up then and make sure she uses my referral
22
« on: January 24, 2012, 20:27 »
Maybe most here no longer bother with DT's forums, that's why no one talks about it. "Happy people have no history". There is nothing wrong with the DT forum but of course it's a site forum read by some buyers too. Most of all, it's a company forum and it serves also as a front for them. There is one taboo on the DT : rejections and similars as a special case of it. No other taboos and I have seen some very straightforward discussions lately (if you sift through the noise of woohoo I got my first 100$). Achilles himself suggested on the forum that the MSG was the place to talk about rejections to get a second opinion. The censorship there is very high. I'm sorry but that's simply not true. What happens occasionally is that Achilles intervenes at the end with a roundup, then closes the thread pointing to other (non-closed) threads that dealt with the issue before. Often also the author locks the thread. (Perhaps someone can say which board has the most censorship: DT or FT? What sky object gives the most light? The sun or the moon? You must be kidding. On the FT forum you feel like walking on eggs and threads often vanish. iStock, well... you know. A couple of years ago I had a clash with Achilles but I never felt anything sales-wise. On XYZ at the other hand, there have been cases reported here. Also read what happened to Baldrickstrousers on XYZ. As far as I can recall, they both tend to be very heavy-handed and quick to delete posts as well as entire threads.) You must be mixing up agencies or have false memories, at least concerning DT Back on topic: after a splendid November, December was barely 1/2 of it and it doesn't recover in January. I had the same trend on 123RF and FT so it must be industry-wide. There are some nasty things going on in Europe, economy-wise, and it feels worse than in 2008.
23
« on: January 24, 2012, 04:05 »
Is it really an unfix-able "bug"? Yes. iStuck doesn't have bugs. It is a bug.
24
« on: December 22, 2011, 08:42 »
Attila, I'm so sorry for what you and your country are going through. Things like this have a way of putting many things into perspective. I wish you safety and healing. My dear blue, I have many lives. it's not even my country. I don't even believe in countries or races any more. In the end, we will get all united by bashing iStock. But thanks for your concern. It feels nice.
25
« on: December 22, 2011, 08:22 »
Short term goal : get some drinking water. In our city the water system collapsed totally by sheer incompetence. Go to the funerals of one of my colleagues (professor Spanish) and of one of my dear models that drowned in their houses by the flash flood or were dismembered by the debris. In my city ( Cagayan de Oro, Mindanao, Phils) 700+ people died last Sunday. We have Internet back but not water. I didn't shoot any Editorial at all since it would make me feel dirty. The beggar kids sleeping under the Carmen bridge where gone. I noticed some pillows in the trees nearby. The stench is unbearable in the quarters affected. In the city proper, the malls are full with happy people shopping for Xmas. I told you so. Her little sisters were over at my door at 5am last Monday. " If she was with me?". (She used to sleep over sometimes). She wasn't. In loving memory. She was pregnant.  Long term goal : start my own stock agency for all the lonely people. Eleanor Rigby promised to send a CD. (sorry for the off-topic and my stalkers can eat their heart out - back to my old nick)
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