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Messages - Anyka

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101
It sounds a bit like the DACS payment we get every year from Alamy ?

102
Here are the figures of an "oldie" : 


Compared to 2019 :

DOWN :   
CST -6%
IS -20%
SS -17% (I assume this is half sales decrease and half compensation decrease)
BIG -30%
123rf -32%
DP -12%

MINOR UP :
DST +9%
ADOBE +1%
AL +4%

BIG UP (due to the doubling of the March sales) :   CANVA +180%

Bottom line :  Canva saved the whole year.   I ended up with a +4% in total  (in dollars).
I did the numbers again, this time without the 8 month Canva upgrade (so only including the real rise in Canva sales) :  Canva went up with 55% !
Without the Canva effect, the overall loss would have been -8%.
This is MUCH better than I expected and even hoped for, considering that I hardly put any effort in creating stock imagery or growing my port.
For my photo studio, Covid19 meant the closing of the studio during 2 lockdowns already (1,5 and 1 month), but the Belgian government is very supporting, so the studio did survive up till today. 

103
Canva / Re: Canva, what's the plan now?
« on: December 28, 2020, 04:23 »
Yes, I got the extended payment of the double-of-March.  It was paid on 16th December.

104
Canva / Re: Canva, what's the plan now?
« on: December 02, 2020, 03:38 »
Look what I got in my mail today : 


Contributor Updates December 2020 Extended guarantee We bring you great news! After seeing the response of Canva users in having your amazing content included in the Canva Pro subscription package, we are extending the double earnings guarantee until December 2020![/color][/color]The double earnings guarantee was originally planned to run from March to September 2020. Weve done this to show how much we appreciate our contributors, particularly with everything thats been going on in the world in 2020. We have already applied this to your October earnings which is reflected on your November payment.[/size][/color]
   
  [/color]NOTE: Guarantee only applies if you do not remove any photos or elements from your portfolio. During the guarantee period, your total earnings will be at least double your March 2020 earnings, or your actual earnings for the month; whichever is higher. The extended guarantee period lasts for 3 more months (Oct 2020 to Dec 2020 inclusive).[/size][/i][/color]
 [/t]   [/color]As before, Canva users who are not subscribed to Canva Pro will continue to pay for a license to use your content in their designs. [/size][/color][/size][/color]That's all there is to it! Watch out for more updates![/size][/color][/size]

105
Site Related / Re: Where is Everybody?
« on: December 01, 2020, 03:40 »
I read the top posts every day, but I'm not a very chatty person, certainly not when wearing a face mask ...
Also, we're about to end the second lockdown here in Belgium.  And my experience up till now is that lockdowns SEEM to give us plenty extra private time, but in reality, it kills all creativity.  I've been following the news (on Covid) every day, cleaning up, editing for clients, buying Christmas presents etc etc,  but I have NOT touched my camera once during the lockdown periods.  Weird but true.

106
General Stock Discussion / Re: Need opinion for computer update
« on: October 27, 2020, 03:23 »
I don't know anything about Macs, but I do know about windows computers designed for Adobe products.  I always have them built from scratch, and I follow Adobe's recommendations by the letter.  This means :
- 1 SSD for Windows + programs (C-drive) - 1 Tb is enough for that
- 1 SSD for editing work :  here you should put your SCRATCH disks on, preferably on a separate partition.  A 100Gb scratch disk for photoshop on a disk that is NOT your windows-drive speeds up all Adobe products that work with scratch disks.  The rest of this drive is for the files you are actually working on, so "work in progress".
- 1 HDD, a huge one, for storage of finished work.
- external disks for backup


This should be combined with a graphics card that is NOT on Adobe's blacklist.  With every new photoshop and LR release, the graphics card gets more important, so you should really check if you went for the right one.


This is just a summary, you should really read about the ideal configuration on the Adobe website.

107
123RF / Re: Sudden decrease in sales mid-October
« on: October 24, 2020, 02:40 »
same here - 6 days in a row NO sales at all - yesterday 1 mini-sale ...

108
Selling Stock Direct / Re: Google images licensable tag
« on: September 02, 2020, 05:16 »
Is that a new image or an oldie?  I did the test with a 3 year old photo.  I assume it takes quite some time to tag 300 million images ...

109
Selling Stock Direct / Re: Google images licensable tag
« on: September 02, 2020, 02:48 »
As Jo Ann said, at this moment, only Depositphotos and Dreamstime have the licensable tag, and 123rf and Canstock show the Product tag.
This means that Adobe and Shutterstock are running far behind those 4.
Shutterstock now tries to solve this problem quickly by teaming up with Google, but this ONLY has effect on THEIR FUTURE searches.  Every image sold before today, sold by Shutterstock, showing up in a search on a buyer's website, will NOT have a tag.  And when you do a search in future, images on SS + those 4 agencies will show up, not just SS, plus all tag-less images of past sales.  At least that's how I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong.


Now what I don't understand is why a search on my (bestseller) images ONLY shows stock agency results, and no "images in use".  Why is that?   Are the agencies stripping them of metadata on download? 

110
Canva / Re: Canva announcement
« on: August 17, 2020, 03:49 »
Same here, I found out they paid JUNE real amounts, not July, and not double March.

111
Cameras / Lenses / Re: add bmpc 6k or sell 5div and buy r5?
« on: August 15, 2020, 02:02 »
I am the proud owner of the R5 now (just 1 week) and I LOVE it, but I use it for photography only.  As for video, I'm sure it can produce mouthwatering quality, but have you read all the news about the overheating of the R5 while shooting video?  If you only shoot a few short video clips per day, by all means buy it, but if you want to shoot longer than 15 minutes, you really should read this :
https://www.dpreview.com/articles/8653213690/canon-r5-r6-overheat-claims-tested-stills-shooting-setup-quickly-cut-into-promised-capture-times

112
General Stock Discussion / Re: Photographing Families Again
« on: July 22, 2020, 01:19 »
I'm in Belgium, where photographers don't use contracts (but people don't sue businesses here), so to protect myself and my clients against the visur, I do MORE than legally needed.  If you do everything your state/country tells you to do, and MORE, they will feel safe.  I am a pregnancy and newborn photographer and I do touch the newborn babies all the time.  Mothers are covid tested at the time of delivery and no visitors are allowed in hospital, so there's not much chance that a 7 day old baby has covid.  Pregnant women and their partners are a bigger danger for me.


These are my precautions :



1. In my private life, I avoid contact as much as possible (like I order food online and collect it at the supermarket), no parties, no restaurant visits, no travelling ...
2. As the virus does not live longer than 24h on textiles (furniture, clothing, carpet), I will leave 1 full day between every session.  This way I avoid that client A infects client B.
3. I bought 5 liter jugs of 80% alcohol for cleaning after every session.  Alcohol is the only liquid that kills within 30 seconds (lysol needs 5 minutes!).  Bleach too, but bleach ruins the materials.
4. I wear a mask during the whole session, and I keep it on while cleaning.
5. I provide my clients with masks and alcogel at the entrance of the studio and they're only allowed to put them off for drinking and posing. 
6. To avoid that clients scatter their masks all over my studio, I introduced the "red box", covered with a fresh plastic bag, which is the only place they can put their masks in when not in use. 
7. Lots of things have been replaced by disposable materials, like towels, drinking glasses, gloves and an apron for me ...
8. I use gloves while cleaning, but not during sessions, because it is recommended not to.  Gloves give a false feeling of protection, but I constantly use alcohol gel during sessions and encourage clients to use it too.
9. The window stays open during the entire session.
10. I send an email to clients before the session asking NOT to come with symptoms or fever, and I take their temperature on arrival.  For this I have a no-touch thermometer, plus an ordinary thermometer (which is used when the first one gives a doubtful result).  I haven't had a client with a temperature yet, but I WILL send them home if some one goes over 37.3.
11. When viewing photos :  I'm at my desk 7 meters away from clients, and they are viewing on a separate screen on a side table.
12. Husband helps Mom getting dressed.  I sometimes have to help, but we both wear masks then.  When being close together is needed (like Dad is sitting close to baby for safety), then I give Dad an extra face shield (a cheap plastic one).
13. Lots more investments like a larger and safer garbage bin, a UVC sterilizer for headbands etc.  This has cost quite a lot and I ask clients to pay 8 euros per adult per session
extra for "Corona investments".  This money also covers package and postage, so they don't have to come to the studio again for collecting photo books or dvd.
14. I stopped letting clients touch all my baby stuff.  They can still look with their eyes, but no longer with their hands.
15. Worst point of all :  the siblings are no longer allowed in the studio.  This has cost me bookings, but toddlers don't wear masks, touch everything, sneeze and cough on everything etc. so I cannot keep them or myself safe.


Hope this helps.  Belgium had very low Corona figures since mid May, but since this week, they're rising again, so it might be possible that I'm adding more points to my list.  It's not that I'm super scared to get Covid19, but if the contact tracing center calls me and tells me "I have been in contact with the virus" I will be forced to close for 2 weeks or more.  THAT's what is scary!  My business was closed for two months in March/April, so I'll do everything possible to keep safe.


113
Nice feature, but as long as Lightroom puts all my keywords back into alphabetical order, there's no way I'll be using LR AFTER keywording ...

114
Canva / Re: June 2020 Subs are posted
« on: July 21, 2020, 00:18 »
Also, the subscription numbers of April and May that disappeared :  they're back!   But when you click on Payments, it's still negative ...  They do pay the correct amount though.

115
Canva / Re: Canva announcement
« on: July 07, 2020, 02:07 »
Same here.  I asked Canva to fix it - no reply for several weeks.  This week I got an e-mail "we want to close this topic, please notify if you have more questions about it".  Hahaha, of course I have more questions about it, they did not even reply, let alone fix it!  So I just repeated the request and the wait starts again ...

116
Selling Stock Direct / Re: Digital downloads on Etsy
« on: June 30, 2020, 00:34 »
I sell digital downloads on Etsy for a few years now, but it's not purely images.  I sell templates to be used by professional baby photographers, so they can photoshop babies into it.  As a baby photographer myself, I show the finished product (with baby) on Etsy and sell the empty PSD or JPG as a digital download for a price between 16 and 23 dollars (gross).  With 48 templates active this gives me a net annual income of about 450 USD.  Not much, I know, but I made these templates for my own studio, so no extra work except submitting them to Etsy.  I have had not a single problem with client payments or infringements up till today.
(for the curious ones, this is my Etsy shop :  [size=78%]https://www.etsy.com/shop/AnykaPhotography[/size])

117
Canva / Re: Negative earnings anyone
« on: June 15, 2020, 06:53 »
I just got paid the exact same amount as March and April.  The negative earnings are still there, but the correct amount was paid, so no worry ...

118
Canva / Re: Negative earnings anyone
« on: June 12, 2020, 01:29 »
I'm having negative earnings too, and I think it's because ALL subscription earnings of April, March, Feb etc etc etc have been put back to ZERO.
????????
Did any one receive an explanation from them?

119
Canva / Re: Canva announcement
« on: May 19, 2020, 01:44 »
I just received my payment, and it was the EXACT double of my March earnings (My real earnings were about 60% above March)


They kept their promise.

120
As far as I know, copyright expires 75 years after the death of the artist ?   WWII was not THAT long ago ...  If the photographer was 30 years old during WWII and died at 70, then you would still need a long wait.  On the other hand, if you are the heir of the photographer, you might have inherited copyright ... 

121
Canva / Re: Canva announcement
« on: April 06, 2020, 14:04 »
Sorry guys, but I really think they talk about subscription revenue only, and MARCH subscriptions have not been published yet !

122
Canva / Re: Canva announcement
« on: April 06, 2020, 11:04 »
Double earnings yes, but only for subscriptions.  So if the general sales go down and subscriptions go up ... ?

123
Canva / Re: Canva Subscriptions
« on: March 09, 2020, 02:41 »
Did anyone have subscription income from February?  Are they just late or did I miss an announcement?

124
I started microstock in 2006.  I felt the first start of the decline in 2013, which was exactly 1 year after quitting my day job.  But as a true pessimist, I added a portrait studio to my stock photography work, "just in case" stock would go down.  The biggest falls happened in 2016 and 2019.  I am now at 40% of my best year (which was 2012).  But the portrait studio is going excellent and has grown to be 2x my stock income, so no worry.  I have specialized in a maternity studio (belly/newborns) and love what I do.
I stopped shooting stock, or better said :  since starting the portrait studio I don't do typical "stock shoots" anymore, but I do submit images shot during my holidays/travels and sometimes newborn baby images if I want to offer parents a free session with Model Release.
The future?  I expect my stock income to become non-existant by 2024, but still "no worry" because I'll be retired by then  :)
It's not just the agencies that ruined our market share by accepting too many images, I'm sure I am also guilty because I stopped shooting FOR the market.  However, I can see that my income is mainly coming from older images, so I can only conclude that the drowning of new photos is the absolute no.1 reason why stock has returned to the hobby-status and can no longer be a fulltime job.

125
MicrostockSubmitter / Re: Shutterstock sign in issues
« on: February 10, 2020, 01:52 »
I have passed the photo test multiple times and verified it each time. Though I still can't place a tick on the 'I am not a robot' option.


Have you tried another browser ?

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