I've recently started selling footage through Shutterstock. I am Canadian. Group A2. No taxes should be withheld/applied to earnings, however, my recent payout indicated that $30+ US dollars were deducted. I enquired and the response was that the deductions were applied to footage sales.....This is the only agency that I'm aware of that deducts from A2 contributors for footage sales. Am I wrong? Your response would be appreciated. Thanks.

Brilliant Thomas! Thanks so much. One quick note that I could add....the technique works with Chrome but not with older versions (at least not for me).....

The topic is: "Selling my oldest,oldest image"....in my case, my oldest,oldest image
is 9 months. In YOUR case, if you've been around for years with SS it's not old....regardless of the interpretation, my first submissions have always sold well since day one. Recent images are sporadic. In the case of video clips.....my initial submissions , my new submissions all sell...

- it also gives other agencies a good indication that they can follow suit.

Agreed. If 123RF is successful, you can bet other agencies will soon follow. Unfortunately, without Unions or strong, well-represented organizations, we are collectively on our own. As an individual contributor I factor in the amount of time and effort I dedicate to an agency versus the amount I'm paid. 123RF was, before the reductions, borderline at best.

98% of my video clips are accepted yet ALL of my still images have been rejected recently (last 4 months) because of focus issues. I use the same equipment to capture video as I do with still images. .

Do videographers have a lesser standard? Do they tolerate video that is slightly out of focus?

I just had an image rejected because of "focus". I sent it in for a second opinion and the SS reviewer asked that I resubmit and include a comment that I copy and paste in the "notes to reviewer" box. I did that....and guess what? The image was rejected again because of "focus" issues. Did the reviewer miss the comments included with the resubmission? Is it an automated system? Who knows. I've resubmitted the image a third time with the same note hoping the reviewer will see it this time around. Very frustrating. I submit no more than 2 images at a time now. Almost all are rejected for focus problems and almost all are accepted after a second reviewer checks it out. This has been going on for months.

There are a lot of factors that could have contributed to this tragedy. I've taken a lot of train/railway shots standing on the tracks. Sound can be deceiving and the direction it's coming from. Speed too. When you face a train head on its much more difficult to judge the speed until it's passing you. She may have been aware of the train behind her but her focus was on the train in front of her. A quick look over the shoulder and she could have  assumed she had more time.  Always treat trains with the utmost respect and caution especially when dealing with double/triple tracks.

...everbody know that if you are not exclusive you virtually CAN'T even sell, but at least they let you know that (low upload limit, images that appear on the 145th page and so on).

Thanks Minerva. I have to admit your statement provides clarity to my experiences with DT. After dropping exclusivety with DT my images dropped out of sight. You'll find them but only with a pick, shovel, flashlight with long lasting batteries and oh...don't forget a canary in a cage!

I really wish people who respond to "how are you doing" topics
would end their reply with a quick rundown of what they specialize in.
This constant "I'm doing great - I'm doing lousy" is totally useless
dribble unless we know what kind of catagory you fall into. Studio?
People? Landscape? Product? Information is only good when it includes
detail.

I had a problem loading a video clip using FTP (WinSCP).
It never appeared in the submit quee so I wrote support.

They replied and asked me to rename the clip. I did with
the same results.

Undaunted, I recompressed the clip (using the same compression),
renamed and resubmitted and it went through. First and only time
I've had problems submitting to SS using WinSCP. 

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  I have many things for which to be thankful. 

Could never understand why you Yanks celebrate Thanksgiving so close to Christmas.  We Canucks across the border do it during the last week of October. And for all of you who are asking what gives with Thanksgiving, as I always understood it, the day originated with farmers giving thanks to God for their bountiful harvests. 

 

Like hell its dead!  take this weekend for example which are notrmally flat. DT, was the only one producing large and juicy sales. Not dead but very much alive!.
DT, is the only agency which reminds me of a trad-agency, good pricing and well run. You just have to supply them with what sell and of good commercial value and thats it.

Must be why DT has fallen 10 points on the Microstock Pole Results in the past six months. Not all contributors are suffering from DTs downturn but I bet the vast majority are.

I have a standard set of five or six images that sell everyday. For the first few days this week sales were generated from images I had never sold before with SS and the "daily sales" images stopped selling. Today its back to normal.

A very good month by the way but I've always felt "how are your sales" topics are much like comparing apples to oranges. My portfolio is probably very different from yours. I almost think "Microstock Group" should include a short subject description under everybody's pseudonym. "Landscapes", "Portrait", "Commercial", etc. That way if someone has a similar category I can make a more accurate comparison.