It takes me about five minutes to get from home to the studio. I used to work a lot from home but now we've expanded I seem to spend more and more time at the studio. It's pretty cool place to work so I don't mind at all. Surprised to see so many people working from home.

We reinvest quite a considerable percentage of the earnings back into the business at the moment, maybe up to 60%. This goes to pay for studio rental, new equipment and overseas shoots with good models. We have also just hired a new full-time editor/assistant so even more money for now is going into the business. Hope it pays off in the long-term.

Thanks for all the replies and for everyone who stopped by the Flickr site to see the shots. The lens is the Nikon 400mm f2.8 VRII, the second most expensive lens in the line-up after the 600m f4. Weighing in at 4.6kpgs it's a beast to use and costly too at around US$10,000.

Bemused by the 'out of focus' comment - I can assure you that the images in full size are pin sharp. Yes the DOF is shallow but it's what you would expect shooting at 400mm on D3 at f2.8 or f4. If any Nikon users are impressed with the sharpness and quality of the legendary 70-200mm then this is just as good, if not better.

To me, the lens renders the out of focus areas as well as any lens but that can be individual preference of course.

I had to give the lens back today...there were tears in my eyes....

I'll be surprised if there is a swing towards non-exclusives but if there is, then I will take it after two years of having sales drop away. This month has been great though and would be happy for things to stay the way they are for a while.

I am getting a few a day and it's kept my Shutterstock earnings competitive in the last few months when I've failed to upload much. I've also noticed more ELs recently which might indicate a move to microstock from RM in these difficult economic times. Anyway, it's all good!

I can't say I am thrilled with this latest announcement from Fotolia and it's fair to assume they won't be getting any free images from me, even if they are files that have not sold there in the past. Fact is, they could be on other sites selling quite nicely and the last thing you would want to do is throw them into the freebie pool.

I would prefer a price increase and no decrease in commissions but I don't think I can start jumping up and down in a violent rage when I still accept iStock's 20% commission for non-exclusives, as well as their obvious disdain for non-exclusive photographers.

I've always felt welcomed by Fotolia, have found Chad quick to respond to my personal queries. Some of the things they have done have been handled the wrong way but I can understand the need to cut costs in these difficult times. I guess we have to expect it too.

Unless you use a Mac

Thanks for the info Seren. Yes, if the quality is not great then all is not lost. It just converts the design to a pdf file which I can take to a better quality printer here. I will check out Asuka but since I am in Singapore, it might be an expensive option.

Hopefully the update to Aperture will have a big effect on the quality of the books. Just ten more days to wait and see!

I just bought Aperture 2, primarily for the photo book function. I love the ease at which you can create books, the styles are good and easily customisable. The current update says it fixes some print quality issues with Aperture 2 so I was wondering if anyone else had used it and what the results were like. I have ordered a couple of sample books and can't wait to see them. Makes it very easy to make stock portfolios to show prospective models/clients.

Just email support and they will do it for you - normally takes a few days

Just did some random searches and non-exclusives are really, seriously handicapped in this current best match. 

For anyone who isn't exclusive, it seems kind of pointless to even be discussing what order our portfolios are in.  We aren't going to be getting any downloads there anyway....

I agree Lisa, the non-exclusives are now seriously f**cked. We now have two groups on IS, the 'Exclusives' and the 'Excluded'. I still don't get it though, they make 20% more money from everything that we sell. Aren't they cutting off their nose to spite their face? Maybe that thread congratulating Yuri pushed some buttons....

Anyway, I can't be bothered following the best match saga anymore. Sales are going to drop for us Excluded but what can we do. We have no voice, if we complain we'll just get the standard answer "You are non-exclusive, you can't have your cake and eat it". They still fail to recognise how we DO support IS. But anyway,  I am just grateful that IS is my fourth earner this month anyway.

I am all for this policy, as would any serious microstock photographer who doesn't resort to spam keywords to increase sales. However I have a few slight concerns...

1. I have thousands of files, which I cannot guarantee do not contain the odd inappropriate word. Things got so messed up with the disambiguation fiasco that I am sure some files have not been completely d'aed correctly. I am sure there are many others like me too.

2. Why don't they sort out the default setting so that they are either all on or all off, when there are multiple meanings for a search term. Everyone thinks this is a good idea and would prevent spam so I can't understand why IS won't do this. We are prepared to do our bit, why won't they?!

3. I hope this doesn't give IS a reason/excuse to pick on non-exclusives. I can imagine Sean coming in and slamming me for writing this but given the meagre non-exclusive uploads and the new best match, as a non-exclusive I am NOT feeling the love from iStock anymore.

I hate editing logos off bikes