For those who don't know, I recently (last November) started a Photography gear blog at http://www.togtech.com

In an effort hopefully drum up a little traffic and have some fun, I'm giving away a pair of PocketWizard Plus III's.
http://www.togtech.com/pocketwizard-plus-iii-giveaway/

good luck!

Not sure how many people are using PocketWizards here, but the the Plus III units have just been announced and they really look great.  I was never a big fan of the TT5 units.  They seemed to have a lot of features that just made them complicated and not working very well.  The Plus III's seem to run with the good 'ol Plus II style and simplicity while adding a bucket of features.

Here's a vid from Fstoppers which seems to be the best overview so far

Fstoppers Pocket Wizard Plus III Review.mp4

http://www.togtech.com/pocketwizard-plus-iii/

Not to defend copy cats.. but here is a very interesting look at copying and creativity throughout history

Luis Alvarez is organizing a GTG in Berlin in April so I'd thought I'd mention it here.  I doubt if I'll make it but I wish I could, I'm guessing it'll be a great time.

Here is some info

Here we go again with a cool meetup in Berlin! For this event, the main focus is social, sharing and learning. We will have no group photoshooting, instead the program will have
* Great chats each evening at nice restaurants and bars
* A small photoshop exchange session, where we bring our laptops and images and share tips and tricks to improve our imagery
* A meetup with Dittmar Frohmann, director iStockphoto Europe, to have a friendly and open discussion about photographer issues directly with iStockphoto's man in Europe
* Assistance from me to organize your own photoshoot while you are here
* Sunday evening contest where we will see the coolest pictures with a beamer at a nice bar and choose the best pictures taken during the weekend. The winner will get a small prize!

And you can express your interest and vote on which weekend works best for you here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dG1nbDQ5WFl1eVZJeVVTUC03QWZCMEE6MQ

There is a fun little story recently about some scientists who figured out that a Jumping Spider determines depth and focus by a special way their eye works and focuses / refocuses certain wave lengths of light.  Possible new camera tech?  We can only hope.

http://www.togtech.com/new-focusing-technology-courtesy-of-the-jumping-spider/

Essentially every cell phone these days has a camera.. however, I can't think of any cameras that has a cell phone.. not yet anyhow

Polaroid just created a camera however that has Android as the OS.  It still doesn't have any cell phone connectivity but it sounds like they are looking into getting a carrier contract and if so, perhaps it will at least have 3G internet.  It would certainly make sense.  If there was a nice P&S camera that was also a phone, I think they may just get my business.

http://www.togtech.com/polaroid-sc1630-worlds-first-android-powered-hd-digital-camera/

lol, I don't know where they got their 'stock photo' from for the background but the joke is on them ...  This is a serious news piece about Seniors getting a new surgery to help cataracts etc...

OMG NRK got PWN3D

two thoughts.
I sure hope they are paying for their stock photos
I sure hope they didn't pay for that stock photo

last month of the year.. how was it for you?
Here is the monthly poll
www.microstockgroup.com/pollsvote/

...and here is the thread for the entire year earnings discussion




Interesting notes:
Dreamstime is down to 6% this month
Alamy grew nicely to 6%
Shutterstock dropped a little, but I didn't upload as much this month.

Overall earnings were down 7.5% on Nov 2011 (to be expected)

I also sent this out in an email, but for those who didn't get it...

Another year has come to an end and it is again time for the annual Microstock Survey.  This will be the fourth year of running the survey. Last year's survey had well over 600 responses (thanks everyone!!).  The survey follows a very similar format to previous years with a little more breakdown for media type (photo, illustration, video, audio).  If you have your numbers ready, the entire survey shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to answer.  I have tried to keep the survey as short as possible while still gathering enough information for it to be interesting to everyone.
Survey Link
http://microstocksurvey.com/index.php?sid=55748

Please share the link with others.  The more answers we get, the better and more interesting the data will be.

To see what was done with previous surveys, do a search for survey on the MicrostockGroup blog
http://blog.microstockgroup.com/?s=survey

As a thanks for everyone who filled out the survey, I'll be making a radom draw (at the end of January) and giving away a ColorChecker Passport (something I've found useful while shooting the past couple years).  Make sure you sign up to the mailing list at the end of the survey to enter the draw. If the winner isn't a photographer they can substitute the prize for something else of equal value.

Ok, first let me say I'm a big fan of MicrostockAnalytics.

Second let me say I think the 'projections' seem a little off.

For example, the 2 year projected income seem to be off.
I have one shoot that has been online for 6 months and I have made $X over those 6 months
The 2 year projected income is .93*X .. that is to say, it is 93% of what I have already made.  By a simple calculation I would say a 2yr projected income should be 4x what I made in 6 months, not 0.93x

Trailing Revenue also seems to be off
It seems that trailing revenue calculates months where the images weren't live... so if it is a 6month trailing revenue and the images have been online for 1 month that means 0 for 5 months in the calculation.  Is i possible to adjust the months to include only the ones where images are online?

PantherMedia Stockagency relaunches platform with 13 million royalty free images, new design, unique extended search functions and new products
The microstockagency PantherMedia unveils its new platform with more than 13 million images and a completely new face. All new images can be purchased on invoice, per credits or within a subscription. Thus, PantherMedia becomes one of the largest providers of royalty free images and image subscriptions worldwide.
In November 2011, the platform panthermedia.net had a massive re-launch. In addition to the image upgrade of 10 million new images, the design and navigation was revamped. Finding an image in this larg archive is quite a challenge, so the guys from PantherMedia improved their image search quite substantially, they now also offer vectors and illustrations in eps-format. Last but not least, new extended rights are now available on PantherMedia.net.

So we thought it is a good idea to take a closer look at their new website.
If you would like to test PantherMedia, you can download 3 free images until 31th January 2012.
How does it work?
1. Register at www.panthermedia.net
2. Please go to www.panthermedia.net?code and type in this voucher code: G03JG-J5SQN
3. Search and download your images (please mind: choose �subscription� on the extended search bar on the left)

Impressively fresh design � the new homepage of PantherMedia:
The website of PantherMedia got a complete facelift and new functions to find the perfect image faster in an even greater archive. The new design focuses on the essential information for the user, e.g. the current special offer, the free image of the week, registration and their toll free number.
Clear and easy navigation:
 
The navigation has been completely restructured, giving the customer a clear overview of his account. In the upper right corner, the customer sees his purchased credits, the subscription downloads and the amount of images in his shopping cart and in the lightboxes.
The image preview has been redesigned to help the customer to proceed his search or to download the image instantly. There are many integrated search functions, e.g. similar images, search for the same model and the like.

At the bottom of the website the customer finds a more comprehensive navigation for all relevant information about the products and the company.

Faster image search with extended search functions

The extended search is now on the left hand side of the screen to give faster access to extended search filters, e.g. by colour, number of people and brand new, the ethnicity filter enabling to search for people of different ethnicities. Ethnicities are especially important for international customers, who need to have specified images in different countries.
Our conclusion: The new facelift of PantherMedia is a great success!
New: Vectors and illustrations at PantherMedia
The customer can now also purchase vectors and illustrations in eps-format at PantherMedia. To speed up the search, the customer can filter search results by vectors and illustrations only.

New extended rights

The extended licence model has been rebuilt. Instead of paying too much for rights he does not need the customer can now pick & mix from four extended rights for every individual purpose of use which is not covered by the standard licence. These four different extended rights are: the press release licence, the corporate licence, the merchandising licence the template licence. He has also the opportunity to simply buy the all-in-one package for all extended rights.These are the four different extended rights:

Press release licence
As you can image when reading the name, the customer purchases the right to distribute images as part of press releases.

Corporate licence
The corporate licence gives customers the right to use the images in multiple, but affiliated companies of a corporation.

Merchandising licence
The merchandising licence contains the right to use images on commercial merchandising products of all kinds in particular interactive and multimedia products such as computer games for example.

Template licence
With the template licence the customer has the right to use images within templates, such as web- or email-templates.

All-in-one licence
This is a special offer that includes all extended rights at a special rate.

Subscription Xmas Special at PantherMedia

PantherMedia has a special gift for all customers who buy an annual subscription:
Buy an annual subscription, get one month for free! That is one extra month for free! That offer is only valid until the 31st of December.

Here are my numbers and a pretty graph


DepositPhotos and PhotoDune are sneaking up fast on BigStock and 123RF.  They are all still only around 3-4% of my total income but they are certainly all battling for 5th place.

Don't forget to vote, I'm interested to see how PhotoDune changes this month.
www.microstockgroup.com/pollsvote/

I tweeted about it while at the Microstock Expo but the full details have just been released

Shutterstock Footage is pleased to tell you about an exciting increase in commissions for all stock footage sales expected in December of this year.

In order to attract the best available footage content, we're raising our prices. We're also moving away from a royalty structure that mixes a percentage-based earnings model (30%) and fixed payouts ($2.50 USD, $8.00, $13.25) to a consistent percentage-based model (30%) for all commissions.

Taken together with the price increase, this means all commissions will go up. You can now earn up to $23.70 USD per HD clip download! In addition, we're increasing our marketing efforts to introduce more customers to your great work.