I think I was better before I found microstock.  Quite often now I am thinking about how much a photo will make, instead of just trying to take the best photo I can.  Sometimes I don't take a photo of a subject because I think it wont make money.  That is really annoying and I am trying to get out of that habit.

Agreed.

I used to enjoy just taking pictures and posting them on photo.net for S&G's.  Now before I ever push the shutter I always think will this photo get rejected, does this convey a necessary commercial purpose, what about CA, what about noise?  I was actually more liberal taking pictures with film than I am now with digital...

If you know anybody attending a University, or are yourself, you can often get an educational license for insanely cheap.  I attend Oregon State University and I bought Photoshop CS3 last year for $120 and just got Illustrator CS4 for $140.  I could have bought the whole Creative Suite for $300 if I'd been smart.  You just usually need a University ID.

is there a "Yuri" in vector art who commands as much as photographers in micro?

While not on the same production level as Yuri I've always admired (read: envied) nico_blue's vectors on iStock.  One of his floral backgrounds has earned him ~$25K since December of '06.  It's a beautiful and pleasing design but not necessarily complex.  With a couple custom brushes it could probably be recreated in about 10 minutes.

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-illustration-2621328-spring-in-pink.php

These are the things that people (such as myself) see and go "holy $h!t, I could do that!"  Unfortunately the market is so incredibly over saturated with such vectors that unless they are of the highest quality they fall super low in the search results.  I spend a lot of time looking at the newest vectors on IS and am just blown away by the quality and originality of the art work submitted.  While some of the concepts are cliched and tired like much of micro photography, I can't help but feel that IS vectors pick up in the artistic area where micro photography has sadly left it way behind.

Regarding the statement that I've seen Whatalife make before regarding the software being only a tool, I agree with you completely, however I think that it's easy to marginalize the importance of the software once you have a respectable command of it's functions.  I've drawn (poorly) all of my life and I'll be damned if I can get the friggin' pen tool to make a line like I want, plus a lot of the really cool vectors you see utilize a tool in AI that takes a lot of practice to get good at.  Further more you are so limited to what you can create by the AI8 compatibility issue that I spend more time trying to figure out how to fake a transparency than actually drawing.

What if it took Van Gogh years to learn how to simply grasp a paint brush?

SS is a weird creature, they're really picky about the initial test submission but after that they'll accept virtually every thing you throw at them, including pictures they declined in the initial application.

On your DT home page, the nine most popular images would probably be a good place to start.  I'm not sure how the RV camping, masonic pin, and stop sign would do.  I also remember hearing not to submit isolated objects for the initial test.

I got in on my fourth try, the previous three tries all ten files were refused.  On the fourth attempt I made a point of writing a note to the reviewer explaining that this was my fourth attempt, and that I had submitted photos that were selling very well at other sites... all ten photos were accepted.  I'm not sure the impact the note had, but it was advice given on another post on MSG, I followed it and got accepted.

Good luck!

Wait until you have to add categories, now that's freaking confusing.

Once you upload a picture, under the my files section, click on the blue and white arrow next to the image, scroll down, there will be two side by side boxes.  Type your keywords into the one on the left, seperated by commas, and then click the add button between the two boxes.

Yeah, I saw one where someone copied my cute receptionist with a headset photo, and my happy business men shaking hands one too.

I remember back in the time I was at university and we were still under military government, although milder than in the 70s, and any politically engaged student had to have a Che t-shirt.  Given the quality of the t-shirts, I believe they were produced very cheaply and the sales earnings were converted in propaganda material.

I believe it would be acceptable to make profit if your product is aimed at such market (people who support Che's ideals), but it would not be acceptable to have some artist make a high-priced canvas based on this image to be sold for a few thousand dollars to some yuppie.  THAT would make Che roll in his grave for sure. 

Adelaide,
It's interesting to hear about your time in college, what a different place that must have been from the college that I went to. 

Here in the states Che-wear has become a fashion statement.  You can find t-shirts, hats, coffee mugs, stickers etc. etc. in corner shops, book stores and at four or five stores in every mall across the country.  A lot of young kids (future yuppies) wear this stuff bought at some off-set store of some mega-corp and have no idea what the man stood for, they just know it's popular.  The biography of Che was a best seller and I haven't been able to find if any of the proceeds were donated nor with the film about his life.  Boat-loads of money have been made on the back of a revolutionary and IMO all with a purpose entirely opposite to Che's beliefs.

But hey, that's what we do here 

Not sure how I feel about the new system.  I uploaded five pictures yesterday and only two of them made it through, and that was after waiting several hours for them to show up in the unfinished files section.  On the other hand it says only 45 hours ETR, at least this is better than the old standard 127 hours.

The cup of cappuccino is under exposed and the bright reflection for the table or whatever in the top of the photo is distracting as well as the slightly out of focus subject right behind the cup. 

Honestly, I couldn't do any better but there is too much going on in this picture besides the main subject (cappuccino).

that's a pain, cutting and pasting's a real chore when your uploading to multiple sites. I was hoping FT would take the opportunity to get that sorted.

I agree.  I'm no IT whiz but if their system can pull that info from regular photo jpegs why not thumbnail previews for vectors.  And to mirror the above, it would have been nice if they would have told someone/anyone that this was happening.  But this is FT after all...

what? when did that happen? i just submitted svg file a few days ago.... [sarcasm] did they send any communication about that change? i must have missed it... [/sarcasm]

Actually, I just realized they must still accept SVG because right after I uploaded this batch that was declined en masse, I uploaded and Inkscape SVG that was accepted.  I have no idea what's going on.  But it's all EPS and AI now, zipped with a jpeg preview.

Ow, my frontal cortex...
It's hard to assimilate all of that information.  Why would we want to compare message board posts on the same graph with sales and downloads, there is no correlation.  At least you can "customize" the graph, but I liked the old stats page better.

you have to apply to get into DT now?