Hello,
I've been invited to bid on a project and I was curious if anyone has any experience with bidding jobs.  The basis of the project would involve the following: an hour driving each way to and from the project site and ten pictures total.  No post-processing, organization or printing is requested.  I figure the job would take me a maximum of three hours including travel time.  I was thinking of charging $25/hour with $0.55 per mile driven.  Please, anybody with experience weigh in on this, I really appreciate it.

Dave

I've never been much to participate in online forums however I now find myself checking into MSG almost every chance I get.  I've learned a lot on here and have enjoyed the camaraderie that exists between fellow photographers.  I'm a newbie, barely over the line from beginner to intermediate, but enjoy it none the less.  I'm working on a PhD and have little time to devote to the time consuming process of editing, key-wording, uploading, categorizing etc. etc., especially when taking pictures is much more fun, but I do enjoy the occasional payout.  One thing I've learned since entering adulthood, some dozen years ago, is that adults, no matter how educated, cultured, experienced, learned or wise they may be, can be no more than older looking versions children. 

With all that said I want to give a great big hand to all those on this forum who feel their special intelligence and ability is not given the credit it is due.  Hopefully you know the types I'm talking about; the smart-assed comments, pontification, soapbox on a pedestal types; I love you all.  While the first reaction of some might be to take offense to your purposefully insulting attempt at wit and humor, I love it.  In fact I feed on it.  That old adage " there are no stupid questions, just stupid answers;"  well bollocks to that, I say screw em' all.  If your superior knowledge and experience surpasses that of another, then the lesser should be brought down another peg or two.  Especially in such a personal and intimate landscape as an online forum.  So I say cheers to you Mr. Know it all and not afraid to tell every one about it, and cheers to you Mrs. (or Ms.) your idiotic post has wasted so much of my time I must write a impudent response to prove what a waste of time it was.  Your devout dedication to the discipline and delightfully insipid remarks make my day.  Long gone are the days of humble and humility, now we must step on the backs of others, and it makes us feel good.

And finally, a sincere cheers to the the vast majority of you on this forum who contribute significantly and selflessly, it is in you that the community exist.

 

I was curious.

When tracing pictures to create silhouettes for vector files do the photos traced have to be yours?  Can you download pictures from free stock sites to use as a model?

Cheers!

I think most white-black mixed people (we have a name for them, mulatos) identify themselves more with blacks, maybe because of dominant facial features, like hair or nose.  It's curious, nevertheless.  I was told that mixed people in South Africa used to be discriminated by both sides during Apartheid.

It's true and still is, In much of Africa a lighter skin color leads to discrimination, especially in areas such as Somalia.

I believe that Obama has "chosen" to be black because in the current political atmosphere of the US being black is actually a leg-up.  The papers tout that history has been made by electing our first black president, but what about Hilary Clinton as the first woman president.  It caries along with it the challenges of fighting against racial oppression.  By aligning himself with black America he is able to capitalize on the underlying guilt felt by whites for the atrocities of slavery ("white guilt").  I just have a hard time buying it.   

We follow the electoral college because contrary to popular belief the United States is a republic not a democracy.  The myriad differences are slight but important.  A democracy implies rule by the majority, while this is possible in the US it requires a majority in the House, the senate and a like minded individual as the president to represent the majority, much as we now have following yesterdays election. 

I believe that the founding fathers realized that a democratic, or majority rule, could potentially be detrimental by neglecting the will of the, in this case, shallowly under-represented minority and as a result put such fail safes in place.  However certain situations in the past years have resulted in a public fervor that is represented as wildly one sided.

Regardless, I now live in a country that is 53% for the new president elect and 46% for the losing candidate, a statistically insignificant (p=.08) difference considering the population size and sampling methods.  At what point will the tyranny of the majority neglect the concerns of the minority at which time the whole system will be turned on it's head once again.

Congratulations to those of you who don't live here and to those of you who celebrate the reportedly lopsided result of our current situation.  While the excitement may be pungent, reality will soon set in: politicians are politicians, they are ambitious and charismatic when needed and crooked and selfish when left to their vices. 

But hey, at least we have some change.   

Keep trying!!
I got in on my third attempt.  The previous two attempts they rejected all ten pictures.  Since I've been accepted I have a 100% acceptance rate including the twenty pictures that were denied in the two initial attempts.  In two months on SS I have made more with (what is now 50 pictures) than I have with my entire portfolio on StockXpert, BigStock and 123 combined.   

So if I'm reading this right, you submit the same RF pictures to Alamy that you do to other sites... do you mean other micro sites or are they other macro sites.  I know with PSC you couldn't sell a picture on their site if it was listed for less than $50 anywhere else.  Is Alamy not the same?

If this is inline with the new shift towards rejecting photos due to non-relevant keywords it should be interesting. 

I just had an isolation of a carabiner rejected for bad keywords.  One of the key words they cited was "carabiner"  I just don't get it.

Hi,
I'm a relative newbie and just noticed that RAW file sells for 12 credits.  I'm wondering if it's worth it to upload RAWs to all of my files or, seeing as I have minimal time for stock, should I just go out and take pictures instead.  Any opinions?

I'm relatively new in micros.  I've been visiting this forum for quite a while and have heard much of the summer slow down.  I've finally got full time internet access at home, a rather nice studio set up, and have just returned from a couple phenomenal photo trips.  Long story short, should I hold off on uploading the 200+ pictures I have ready to go so that they are new and fresh on the sites when sales pick up, or upload them now and hope they don't get lost to obscurity as newer files are uploaded.  I know it's best to slowly upload to SS, which is not a concern to me as I haven't been accepted there yet, but what about the others?  DT seems steady regardless of uploads, but what about IS, StockXpert, 123, and FT?

Thanks!