I think my latest payment, earlier this month, took less than 10 days.

Same here. It's been like that the last three or four times for me.

Congratulations, Lisa! No need to say what a huge acheivement that is, all the more as an "independent one-man-show" which is a term I think you actually invented. Cheers to ya!

But again, are we sure Yuri 'won' this battle? For all we know he just could have bumped into a lenient reviewer; search results show definitely not all similars are rejected (also from other submitters), some reviewers seem to be a lot more strict on this one than others.

I agree. It must depend on the reviewers. Many small fish still have endless series of the same subject. Someone linked a search result with about 50 images of the same pizza here recently (that was nowhere near showing various expressions ) . The DT reviewers do seem to actually look into portfolios - I've had quite a few rejects for "too similar" images that were several batches apart from eachother. It does p me off quite a bit, because I am responsible with similars, as cclapper put it, and I never submit more than 3 of one subject, mostly one horizontal, one vertical, and often one tilted (I shoot food).

Fully agree, cclapper and madeleide. And the promotion thing doesn't work for non-exclusives anyway - never ever will an independent get an IOTW (or anything else special) at istock. So I'm not sure it matters for independents whether they are opted-in or not. But I must say, I even less like the idea of other contributors using images for free in the "steel cage". Can you opt out of that?

Yeah, that's the expression I was trying to find: perceived value! Thanks.

Oh, my mistake then.  Sorry!

Dreamstimes new policy of 'no similars' is driving me crazy.

I shot a series of garden herbs, chives, coriander, basil, etc, etc, different bunches, and they will only accept one shot, so what if someone wants basil, chives, coriander, etc, etc and not mint. They have only let mint in. INSANNNNE! Sorry had to get it off my chest and there appears to be no appeals procedure for dreamstime, is there?

That's a typical case of shots that they would love you to combine to a collage - six or so for the price of one for the buyer! Doesn't it even say so in the reject note?

Go for the lights and bits and bobs.  No, really, I would. Especially if you've realized the limits of the lights you have now. To me, recognizing the limits of my equipment means it's time to move on. Good studio lights and reflectors were the first thing I invested in. Next will be a few good lenses. And after that I'll be thinking about the 5Dmk2. Are you feeling the limitations of your camera as well? Of course it depends on which limitations hurt more.

Geez, so many people shave their heads these days.  They are not skinheads.

Yea, I never gave your username or your profile picture a second thought...

No problem here - mine are being updated immediately and correctly.

Location is very important to many buyers for certain images - problem is they usually need more than just a country, and having a search filled with images that aren't relevant because the category is compulsory for every image makes the feature next to useless. Nice idea at the start, but the implementation is a dogs breakfast.

But buyers would find the location beyond the country (where it's relevant) within the keywords. If you search by country, isn't all you get that map that shows you how many images are from a certain country?

Ich wei� nicht, ob es dann Schwierigkeiten gibt?

Wieso? Solche Vorschl�ge habe ich schon �fter hier gelesen und auch selbst schon gemacht (da ging's aber um Fotolia). Vielleicht gibt es hier gerade einen aktuellen Thread zu 123 oder zu Bigstock, wo Du Dich ranh�ngen kannst. Du k�nntest auch im relota Foto-Talk fragen. Oder Du schickst dem Admin hier (also Leaf) eine Sitemail und fragst um Erlaubnis, das w�re nat�rlich am sichersten.