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Messages - mindstorm
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76
« on: May 28, 2019, 14:22 »
Well, don't expect to just pick up a camera, shoot some video and get rich quick. Just like in photos, you need to understand your craft and know how to produce a quality result before you have a chance to make a dime.
However, if you can do that... I get $30 to $70 PER download on video, while I mostly get 36 cents (Shutterstock) on photos. IOW, one video download pays roughly 100 times more than photos. The volume is much lower (at least for me), but it isn't hard for videos to make more total dollar monthly revenue than photos with it only requires 1/100 as many sales to match them...
I have been selling photos for about 8 years (though only 1 year actually seriously), and have a portfolio of 3500 photos. I started selling videos this past December, have a portfolio of 800 clips, and the revenue of both sides is close. I am currently working through 3000+ raw clips I shot on a recent trip to 6 countries (Thailand, Sri Lanka, Iran, Jordan, Israel and Egypt). I am uploading roughly 50 clips per day, and have had a nearly 100% acceptance rate (blew it on one group of editorial when I forgot to set the editorial flag on submission...). I am expecting my video sales will easily surpass my photo sales by the end of this year. (FWIW, I also have a little over 600 stock-worthy photos from that same trip. Uploading 50 every couple days there too, and again nearly 100% acceptance rate across 12 agencies)
77
« on: May 27, 2019, 21:06 »
I was told directly by a P5 representative at NAB this year that this, indeed, is their policy when a copyright or intellectual property violation is brought to their attention. hmmm... Were you expecting them to say they ignore such reports??? Seriously, that is the standard game answer and I would be very surprised if every agency in the world has not memorized it for use when speaking to "the public" (or likely even shareholders). Realistically... we have seen much different from people here that have tried to get such accounts pulled. Now, you can tilt at windmills all you wish. Personally I am more pragmatic, and look for the pressure point where the minimum effort on my part can create the largest change in the market. Sorry if you have a stick up your tail about BB, but that is where the pressure point exists here. Get them to remove the account, and you instantly remove it from 6 major agencies. Not sure how much it will take to remove the existing stolen media, but you will at least prevent new media moving online through that mechanism. Not sure about you, but I don't wait around and study my navel trying to find "The One Ring To Rule Them All" that will fix everything now and for all time. Rather, I find what I can do (again with minimum effort) to solve a part of the problem. I will then (if it seems important enough) move and try to solve other parts of the problem...
78
« on: May 27, 2019, 21:00 »
should I contact blackbox by https://www.blackbox.global/contact ?
That looks like a good place to start. If you were a BB member, then you would have a special members-only email to use. since you are not though, that is definitely where I would start.
79
« on: May 27, 2019, 16:13 »
Report to Pond5. I hear when they get a report, they freeze the user's entire portfolio to investigate.
I would be extremely surprised to hear Pond5, or any other agency, would freeze the entire BlackBox portfolio if they found a few cases of theft out of the hundreds of thousands of submitted clips. Heck, we have already seen here that it is hard to get them to close down an account when it is a single person whose whole entire portfolio is composed of theft. OTOH, contact BlackBox directly. They are far more likely to close down the account of the thief. In so doing, you cut it off at the source, eliminating all 6 agencies that the thief's media is now being sent to. And FWIW, I was a BB contributor (850+ clips there), but have soured on them. I no longer submit any new media to them, and use StockSubmitter instead for my multiple distribution. Multiple reasons I have left BB, and I don't really want to go into detail on any of them in public. I do, however, heartily support StockSubmitter (or more accurately, MicroStock Plus, which is the cloud version of StockSubmitter, but is now in beta). I am certainly willing to discuss why I like that mechanism -- but in a different thread, not as a sub-thread diversion here...
80
« on: May 27, 2019, 14:06 »
Another excellent video - thx! I always make a point of watching your stuff as soon as I read about it here. (I have a YouTube subscription, but honestly almost never check them for updates...) However... you always talk about using full manual. I have taken that as gospel until last week. A cathedral in the middle of our town (Cuenca, Ecuador) was recently renovated, and has some spectacular lights. Our living room window looks directly over it. I tried doing a time-lapse on full manual, using exposure ramping, etc. Not a decent result among them. I was ready to give up...  Then, I thought "why not break the rules and let the camera figure out what is needed?" I set ISO 100, white balance cloudy (it was, prior to sunset), and manual focus. I then (horror!) set the camera to 'P' mode to let it decide on both aperture and shutter speed. I let it fly for about 3 hours, used LRTimeLapse (an app you turned me onto, and which I now use for each and every time-lapse), and got this result: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ti-15BJBGoE&feature=youtu.bePersonally I love it, and don't think I could have gotten a better result with any amount of manual exposure, or ramping, or any other fooling around. This camera (Sony a7R3) does one heck of a good job in doing auto exposure. I had already come to rely on 'P' for street photog, where I am run-and-gun and light changes dramatically from shot to shot. This was my first attempt at using it for time-lapse, but I suspect it won't be my last.  BTW, we are traveling to Chile for the eclipse in July. I will be testing the VIEW+ (an intervalometer that claims to have ramping controls for eclipses) on one camera. A second camera will be set to 'P' as this sunset shot was done. Haven't decided how to set up the other two cameras. Any specific suggestions? I will have two Sony a7R3, one Canon 5DM3 and one Canon 7DM2 along, with an assortment of lenses. At least one long lens (400mm) will track just the sun, and at least one lens (12-24mm) will do an overall scene view. Still deciding on the last two though... (FWIW, my wife and I will be shooting, which each responsible for 2 cameras. I am not crazy enough to try to run all 4 at once in a one-time event like this!) Oh yes, we have sheets of "eclipse filter material" that will be used to protect the sensors from being burned during the eclipse.
81
« on: May 27, 2019, 13:11 »
This is the BlackBox account. They are an amalgamation of tens of thousands of videographers.
My guess is that someone stole your video, then submitted via BlackBox. I would suggest you identify half a dozen specific videos that you believe are yours, and then contact Blackbox about the problem.
I am pretty certain they will be more responsive than Pond5, and a lot more useful. Pond5 would have the problem of deciding to cancel the entire BB account, and since it is their largest supplier at the moment, that is not likely.
BB, on the other hand, is one Honcho who is very visible on Facebook, and a few minions behind him. Tell him of the problem, and he is likely to track it down fairly quickly. He can then delete the account of the offending member much more effectively than could Pond5.
You say you see it on SS too. Just another manifestation of the same, since BB supplies both. Resolve this with BB, and it will automagically get resolved with all 5 of the largest video agencies.
82
« on: May 27, 2019, 13:01 »
May for Adobe was slow for me, but not zero. Then suddenly today (Memorial Day) I got 11 sales through Adobe. I typically only get one or two a day from that agency.
All 11 of these were scenes from Ecuador (unusual concentration) and all for 33 cents (unusually low payout per sale). My guess is that someone is on a subscription, had some credits left over, and used them up collecting possible images for an article or blog or whatever. Only a guess though...
83
« on: May 23, 2019, 16:15 »
Wish you had put that out about 6 months ago. I had a video I tossed back then because I didn't know this technique.
Well done... as always!
84
« on: May 18, 2019, 02:48 »
I assume you have Lightroom, and a collection for your media...
- Export a CSV file using a third party plugin (I use jbListView).
- Copy the title field to the description field
- In Excel, append a "." to each description, so that they do not match (which would cause rejection).
Or alternatively, use JbSearchReplace. Copy title to description. Add period to end of all descriptions. -- gets the same result for stock agencies.
85
« on: April 29, 2019, 10:10 »
BackBlaze is USELESS IF YOU TRAVEL! I spent 3 months getting a full 4TB of data backed up to BackBlaze. Thought I was in good shape... Then I took our recent trip and discovered just how wrong I was! Because the main disk at home is not traveling with me, it has not connected to the web for 30 days. BB just deletes the disk in that case. No chance to recover it. No chance to flag a disk as "keep it even if off the net for awhile." Just gone. I deleted my BackBlaze account. Totally useless piece of junk if you travel as I do. I am out of the country roughly 3 months of each year. Gone for more than 30 days at a time, and kiss your precious backup goodbye. I will be home in a couple weeks, and then will search for some usable cloud backup that won't just delete a disk because its main computer is roaming...
86
« on: April 10, 2019, 10:43 »
Or use the Gold Standard -- LRTimeLapse.
I have used the Pro version for years, and it has never let me down.
87
« on: March 30, 2019, 10:51 »
Actually - I think the similar images are okay.
If there are only 1-2 images to chose from, then sometimes I am disappointed. But if the model has 30-40 different poses/hand gestures/etc - then many times I can find that
Consider the negative impact on future sales though... If I have 3 or 4 poses (the most I would ever post of "similar"), then all my sales are concentrated on those 3 or 4. I have 40, then they are spread over 40. Assume every photo sells equally (not likely I know, but makes it easier to show the math). Assume also that I sell 100 images a month from this photo shoot. If I have 3 images, that means each image sold 33 times, or roughly once per DAY. If I have 40 images, each images sells a little less than once per MONTH. Identical revenue the first month, but what about 6 months down the line? 6 months later, you can either have 3 images that sell each and every day, or 40 images that sell once every 5 weeks. Which do you expect will be higher in the search results after 6 months? If you have 40 images, they will drop far off the first page. Yes, since they do occasionally sell, they will still (maybe) be on the first dozen pages or so. If you have 3 and they sell every single day, then they will probably show up on the first page (or close to it) -- meaning you will have far higher sales from this photo shoot over the long haul. FWIW, I have one of those "sells every single day" images. I had 3 in the original submission. The other two sold once a month or so initially, and now no sales for the past 6 months. The other continues to sell every single day after 2 years -- it sold 3 times yesterday in fact.
88
« on: March 23, 2019, 11:30 »
I had the same issue. I wrote Pond5 tech support, rather than whining on a user group where nobody can do anything. Novel idea, I know...
Pond5 responded that they changed their logon system to prevent hacking, as has made the news with many other companies recently, to the negative impact on their reputation. Pond5 went on to state they know they need an API for third parties like StockSubmitter and MicroStockr Pro, but they have not yet figured out how to do it in a secure fashion that allows legit third party while preventing hackers. They claim they know how important it is, and that they are working on it.
I responded that I understand their predicament, but that Pond5 sales are not large enough to warrant my separate submission to them, not the separate logging on to track sales. I have put Pond5 in "limbo" and will not be uploading any new media to them until this is resolved.
BTW, to get in, just press the "forgot my password" button, and follow instructions to create a new password. Takes all of 30 seconds -- far shorter than writing a gripe message here.
89
« on: March 12, 2019, 02:56 »
If your new stuff is not selling, then consider why... Are you not putting enough effort into keywords? (poor keywords == not seen == not sold). Are you still producing quality that worked a decade ago? (competition is stiffer now, and buyers more sophisticated. Stuff that sold a decade ago won't rise to the surface now).
Personally a large part of my sales is always stuff that is less than 6 months old. Roughly half is from stuff up less than a year, with the other half being stuff I put up more than a year ago.
I can definitely see a jump in sales when I start submitting again after a lull. I took 6 months off (traveling) and sales were drooping. Added a bunch of new stuff over a 2 month period (from those 6 months travels), and my sales doubled for the next few months.
90
« on: March 11, 2019, 20:24 »
While not specifically a photography trip, there are plenty of opportunities
If not specifically a photo trip, then it does not belong here. We can all search and find good trips to Turkey and beyond. For those interested, I took an excellent PHOTO trip to Turkey a couple years ago. They PHOTO guide was so good that we went with him to Uzbekistan, etc a couple years ago, and will be going to Sri Lanka and Iran starting next week. PLEASE do not turn this into a travel advertising site -- unless it is a true PHOTO tour led by a professional photographer.
91
« on: March 07, 2019, 10:21 »
Both. I have roughly 2500 editorial stock images up on other agencies right now, and roughly 550 editorial videos.
And I am early on a 3 month trip covering 7 countries that will produce hundreds more in each category...
92
« on: March 03, 2019, 05:29 »
And that is a shame because I estimate that close to half of my income comes from editorial content. Mainly photos but some video too. And I'm a full time stock photographer so I know there's a large market for it.
Yep, me too...
93
« on: March 03, 2019, 05:27 »
FWIW, I have used M+ (the beta web version of StockSubmitter) for several hundred videos, more than half editorial. Yes, it works fine for me.
94
« on: February 23, 2019, 17:14 »
DT sales are so tiny (for me) that it hardly matters...
However, I started using StockSubmitter (and am now using the beta version of the web version of it) last October. I now just enter once, and SS takes care of all the agencies, including DT. Thus, DT now quite literally takes me zero time to submit, so I went ahead and did it.
By adding roughly 1000 new images to DT, I now get as many as one new sale per week! (yes, I make about $1/mo with those extra 1000 images -- like I said, so tiny it barely matters...)
95
« on: February 22, 2019, 13:26 »
I wonder what people get for a RPD now on DT and how's that old, for every 1,000 images, people make $$$ - yes I know, neither is for everyone or of any true science value, but when 100 people start to have similar RPDs, we can see an average. Remember when people claimed that a image made on average $2 a year, then it was $1 a year. Now people with 5000 images make about 10 cents a year average, per image. Boy have the times changed.
Yeah, a typo -- I said 5351 downloads. Should have been 5351 uploads. Not sure why the number of images there is so high, unless they have never rejected anything? (I don't really keep count, so not sure). On SS, my portfolio is 3973 images, including 409 uploaded in the past 90 days. Note that on SS, I have 6424 downloads for $4396 revenue in the same period.
96
« on: February 22, 2019, 13:23 »
[5351 downloads may have earned you $3182.60 but $318.26 is not really possible.
One error is that I said "5351 downloads." Actually that is the number of "uploads" or images in my portfolio. But yes, in some 7 or 8 years, that is all I have gotten from DT...
97
« on: February 21, 2019, 17:14 »
Nobody really knows what the algorithms are. If anyone tells you they know, take it with a very large grain of salt.
That said, it is generally believed that steady, frequent uploads help keep your images nearer the top of search results (quality and all other things being equal). When I entered a new agency, I did 10% of my images per month. That way they got them all within a year, and I stayed higher in searches... or so I hope.
Did it work? I have absolutely no idea, since I cannot produce two identical portfolios and submit each at a different rate to find out...
98
« on: February 21, 2019, 17:10 »
I have 5351 images on DT, and only had 11 rejections total. All those rejections were being "to close to an already submitted image," and I think those were actually images that were accidentally submitted twice...
However, even with over 5000 images on DT, I have only had 5351 downloads for a total revenue of $318.26.
If you really have that high a reject rate, then you need to take a close look at what you are doing. Regardless though, DT is not where your money is likely to come from...
99
« on: February 18, 2019, 11:45 »
Only 1 out of my last 10 images was sold in the US (image from a Gay Parade in San Francisco).
Others from Ukraine, UAE, Thailand and Ecuador (where I live, so there are plenty of images relative to the upcoming Carnaval festival).
I have checked every few days for the last couple weeks, since this thread started. My US sales are no more than 10% of total sales on each check, and often 0.
Has SS abandoned the US market, or do they give different search algorithm, burying my images to US buyers? Very curious to know...
100
« on: February 17, 2019, 20:38 »
@obj owl -- I think you are being naive to think more than a small handful of the buyers would even care. From their point of view, they are protected by purchasing from SS. They don't really care beyond that, and are not likely to go very far out of their way to raise a fuss. At most, you might get a few of them to sign a chain letter complaining. That letter better not take more than 30 seconds to handle though, or you have lost them.
Same with SS stockholders. If you cannot show that SS has a large legal risk with a potentially expensive lawsuit, then it is not likely you will get any traction there. Those people want SS to be profitable, and if they can double-sell the same item with no additional cost, well, that is a win in their books.
Though I wish Brasilnut would continue jousting with windmills (every thief removed brings the chance of my making another sale a little higher), but I can certainly understand why s/he is giving up. The windmills keep spinning, and not paying very much attention to the knight with the lance...
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