My AR is horrible, and I have been studying hard to get it better. The last few weeks I have gone from technical rejection reasons (light, focus, composition), to "this is not what we want", "this is not a stock photo", "we have to many of these".

For the early problems it was easy to find books and manuals, and correct the mistakes. Now I'm a bit more frustrated. If I try to take the same type of pictures as the best sellers, I get the "to many"-reject, when I try to find a niche (science), I get a "not what we want"-reject.

I guess one solution could be to try more than one agency, to see if they all agree that my pictures are not fitted for stock. Are there some other micro stock sites that are more fond of scientific photos?

Also, my editorials sell quite badly, should I upload them somewhere else?

if you have your office in a seperate room that is only used as your office you can deduct a % of the heating, house rent, electricity etc.  The % you can deduct is the % of the house your office takes up.[freelanchswitch.com]

Not completely correct for Norway. Not anymore. According to the new rules you have to find out how much your entire house/flat would cost if you rented it. Then you have to figure out how much your office would cost to rent on the open marked. Then you calculate a percentage. This percentage is what you use to deduct heating, electricity, external maintenance (e.g. painting the house), property tax, water bills, and so on.

John,

It is very difficult to show other people something that is so incredible clear to you. It is like another picture I tried to do, from a fossil dig in Africa. To other people it just looked like a pile of rocks, while I saw evidence of several different species.

It is a choice whether to publish pictures of those who can't decide for themselves. I would not upload an unflattering picture of the kids, or put them in uncomfortable positions. But I don't think there is a large difference between taking a photo of my oldest, compared to my youngest.

The good thing is, that even though I might not get good stock pictures, I get some quite decent family pictures for the grandparents.

all the best,
gaja

hi Gaja

Thank you for broaching this issue ..
I too struggle with lighting and am the parent of a disabled child.

and have been trying to figure out if and what kind of "place" (for lack of a better word) this has in my microstock portfolio ..

our son is severely autistic .. he is 15 .. 5'11 .. 250 lb and functions at about an 18 month old level (to oversimplify) ..

with the prevalence of autism I would guess there may be enough of a market for images on that topic .. but I am not sure about my desire or ability to really capture the essence of it (for microstock) ... how I feel about doing a model release for my son given his functioning level etc.

I have taken some baby steps using my daughters to do some really common symptoms and themes .. but I haven't really gotten what I want out of that ..

anyway thanks for going down this path.

take care,

John

I think I'll send this picture and the rejection reason to her physical therapist, she will enjoy it as much as I'm beginning to.

Erb's palsy is quite common, and it is getting more common in the western world as the birth weights are rising. Both Stalin and Queen Victoria apparantly had this injury.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erb%27s_palsy

Here is another picture that got accepted: http://www.dreamstime.com/child-with-erbs-palsy-playing-in-pool-image7657849

You who have fresh eyes; Why is that a better illustration than the one that got rejected?

Can't you see it? I tried this [img]-thing. It shows here?

Quote from: litifeta on June 07, 2008, 16:49

It certainly has increased my skills as a photographer.

Same for me.  The kind of image I produce for microstock was new to me, and I've learnt a lot about photographing objects, isolations, etc.  Things I never had to think about when shooting landscape, nature and architecture, which are my "normal" photography subjects.

Regards,
Adelaide

I'm at the beginning of this learning curve, and am into stock because it gives me motivation to learn more about photography. I'm not good enough to earn real money, but I get some good photos of my kids in the process.

Thank you very much for the help Stormchaser!

I have no hope of getting it back, and the loss is not so terrible, since I have a travel insurance and double backup of all the pictures. It is mainly annoying. The replacement camera will be bought second hand, and I sure wouldn't like to buy someone elses stolen property. Strange that the insurance agencies haven't made a registry.

I got my kids MRs through, with me signing as both photographer and guardian, and my husband signing as witness. They have a different last name than me, maybe the reviewers got confused.

I was looking for some pictures from Nuuk, Greenland, when I came across this cute little penguin;

http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-1059955-a-cute-penguin-walking-on-thin-ice.html

Maybe someone ought to tell him that the penguins live in the southern hemisphere only?  Unless there is a zoo on the North Pole and Greenland that I don't know about?