It seems to me that if you happen to be an ex-Istock exclusive 'good old boy' you can get plenty of weak rubbish accepted that in no way conveys the precious 'look'.

Well, that's nonsense. I have never been an IS exclusive, I'm sure the guys from Stocksy saw my name on the monitor for the first time when I applied. If a nowhere man like myself can get accepted it means Stocksy is not a closed club, a clique or anything like this.

I know the Stocksy team only from the webinars and forums. What I can say is that to me they seem to be the most friendly, straightforward and respectful people in this business.

There are different types of agencies, some have non-edited collections (Alamy), others have "inspectors" who mainly check if the images don't have technical flaws. Stocksy, on the other hand has curators, who have a certain vision of the collection. You might be a great photographer, but if your images don't fit into that vision it probably won't work.

When you apply you should more or less understand what kind of images the curators would like to see. If you don't understand it, you probably would get too many rejections later on.

If you're interested Pete, here is the story how I got accepted:

Step 0: I didn't apply immediately. I waited patiently for the site to go online. I thought: "This might be a great opportunity and I don't want to screw up".

Step 1: I browsed the collection very thoroughly and found some people whose style was somewhat similar to mine. That was good. I thought: "If they got accepted, I also might have a chance".

Step 2: I cleaned up my site, remastered some older photos, deleted others.

Step 3: It took me several weeks to create a portfolio at 500px. These were the images that I wanted the curators to see on one page and the type of work that I would like to submit there.

Step 4: It took me hours to write a cover letter in which I presented myself and my work. After it was ready, I didn't send it on the same day. I came back to it on the next day to see if there was something that I would like to change. After all, I didn't want to screw up.


Pete, I think you're a great artist and I really like your images with trees in the fog. I think it will be helpful if you change the attitude a bit. Instead of thinking "I'm a great tog, and my work has been published there and there, how dare they not accept me", I would suggest going to the Stocksy site and analyzing what kind of images get accepted. If needed, spend many hours browsing and analyzing. There is no conspiracy, really.
If you want to have your images in a curated collection it is your job to understand (more or less) what the curators want to see. Simple as that.

Here is one tip from me: I've noticed that some of your images have shadows clipped to blacks. Some people might find it cool, but I would not apply with this kind of images to Stocksy.

I would say you definetely have the skills but you need to do more research and analysis on your own.

If you are an accepted member you have access to the forum where some of the members report sales.
For a young agency I would say the results are very promising. Taking into account that this is not the low-cost segment of the market and the royalty structure, I'd rather say the results are excellent.
My port is very small so the numbers may not be so relevant, but all I can say is that I am pleasantly surprised.

The guys who work behind the scenes are doing an incredible job.
Do I have any reasons to complain? No.  I only wish I had more time to grow my port faster.

Devil's advocate here....

What if G---y said offered ridiculous $$$ for www.symbiostock.com, www.symbiostock.info and www.symbiostock.net websites?

What if they offered Leo ridiculous $$$ for the site and code and sent out an update that broke the network?

Just saying...

It is much more likely that Leo buys Getty only to set up on their site a redirect to the Symbiostock site and to use their office as a venue for snooker and ping-pong tournaments for symbiostock members.

I seem to remember reading a thread about whether a photographer could simultaneously be a member of two legal entities

There is a guy from Denmark who has a clone. Their port was also cloned. So, the guy went exclusive recently but his clone didn't. The clone is doing fine on Dreamstime and at some other places. Obviously, they are two different entities.

Strange, but whenever I see the word "announcement" in a thread title I expect royalty cuts or some new kind of scam.
False alarm 

I have only two suggestions:

1. Clips should be automatically converted so they could be available in all sizes
2. For some reason, the capital letters from all my titles are displayed as normal letters after uploading. So I have to take each image one by one and rewrite the titles. I suppose the metadata is not being read correctly.

+1

"Early next week we will be removing the option for Exclusives to opt in to the Partner Program. This means Exclusive content will no longer be able to add files to the Partner Program (thinkstock.com|photos.com). Any files that are currently apart of the Partner Program will be grandfathered into the Partner Program, but we will also provide you an opportunity to remove these files at any time."

That's hilarious. True masters of the unexpected.

I carry with me these lenses: 16-35, 24-105, 100-400, 17 T-S, 50 1.4.
Most of the time I use 24-105 because of the range and it is sharp enough for 5D Mk II and 6D.

Chill out Ron, you have a good balance, which means most people find your posts valuable or interesting. You got a minus? Move on, man, life is too short to worry about it.

Yuck!!!!!! My eyes hurt
I think this look is unsustainable

Surely there is some way to shut the site down given the weight of the Getty Gorilla?

The simplest and the fastest way would be to actually buy this site and close it
That surely would be a great acquisition... Then Getty would also be able to use their technology and launch a "gettyreseller" platform.

Seoul seems to be a fantastic city to photograph. I would love to go there.
But are you sure about the timing? It is very close to the border with the North. I hope there won't be a war and that they will eventually choose a path similar to Germany's reunification.

I guess I will fly to Japan or Hong Kong instead in about 2 weeks.
 

i just made 6.36 dollars via istock, despite all my images are deactivated.
6.36 is a funny and not important number.
However it is 15% of something.

And istock is making much more out of my deleted images.
How can that be?

Partner Program earnings?