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Messages - douglas

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51
Adobe Stock / Re: Adobe Stock Contributor Site now live!
« on: October 15, 2016, 06:00 »
Has there been a major change in keywording on the Adobe Stock site?
 
I have some images which a buyer is only likely to be interested in because of the geographical location.  Taking one town name (non-English) and searching on Fotolia returns 10 images with four of mine first.  Searching with the same town name on Adobe Stock returns no images though they are accessible on that site via other keywords.

52
Shutterstock.com / Re: Map is broken?
« on: August 26, 2016, 08:28 »
I don't understand why everyone is upset about that map.

It's fun, but not really useful.  I would be fine with the map vanishing altogether, if everything else was fixed.  Heck, just fix half of everything else.

It's important because it's symptomatic of an IT Department in disarray.  Software breaks, so you roll back to the last working version until you have a fix.  You introduce new features, you try them in a sandbox then a test environment before releasing to the production environment. 

When users see this is not the way an organisation is doing something they righly fear the stability of other parts of the system, is the earnings reporting working correctly, for example? Generally a well run company will take the maximum care with public-facing web applications to avoid crises of user confidence.

53
General Stock Discussion / Re: Fotolia new logo
« on: June 02, 2016, 08:12 »
I am not partially right, I am totally right.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/logo - a more authoritative source on etymology than Wikipedia. You are missing a step in evolution, logo did not come directly from logos but instead from logotype and logogram which themselves used logo- as a loanword. A logo is meant to convey words symbolically: it does not need to be a word itself.

I am more interested, though, on whether it will help sales. Last month Fotolia sales were 5% of SS sales for me and even behind 123RF.

54
General Stock Discussion / Re: Fotolia new logo
« on: June 02, 2016, 07:32 »
That's a good logo actually.
It fits into the Adobe brand, much better than the old one.

By the way a logo doesn't need to be made of a icons and symbols.

Logos made out of typography are timeless. Think about it.

Right.


Logo, from the greek logos: word, speech (so typography, and not icon or symbol)


Wrong.

If it were directly from the greek it would be logos not logo. Logo is the combining form of the word and was first used in the 1930s in logogram or logotyoe, so either symbol or typography, and subsequently abbreviated to logo.

55
I also spend some of my consulting time working on SEO and know that much of what is written on this site on the subject is nonsense and, as increasingdifficulty rightly points out, internal search on a stock site has little to do with Google search (or, at least, I think, that was the point).

However, the if youre so smart do SEO instead argument is unfair and so wide of the mark. I make several hundred times a day more on web consultancy than I do on a bad day for photography but I do photography because I love it and what comes out of Photoshop at the end of the process is mine, all mine, not a compromise with many stakeholders.  Unnonimus is not going to receive a call-up to the diplomatic corps of his or her country but I can empathise with the pain of having personal expression rejected for reasons other than quality.

56
Newbie Discussion / Re: Shooting editorial - any point?
« on: May 23, 2016, 09:25 »
My experience is that Alamy is light years ahead of the others in speed and professionalism: they had someone answering emails in the wee small hours of a Sunday morning when the upload process was broken and got it fixed pretty quickly.  Usually news photos are approved in minutes and available on the news feed for 48 hours from then.  After that they will be searchable in the main body of Alamy but will be flagged as on sale requiring more detail and you will have to move the keywords as you would do with a normal submission and fill in the details on the licence page.  However, as your image has been submitted as news it will always be categorised as Rights Managed (you cannot change that) and, when it is found in the search, will carry a quality warning that it may not be as of as high a technical standard as stock images as it is reportage.

Much as I love how Alamy works, I have not sold anything through the news feed.  Their feed to newspapers seems to be heavily UK-weighted (most of my news pictures have been from Romania) and from the few I have sent in the UK they have been of local interest and, as Sue says, these are covered by the local papers own photographers.

57
123RF / Re: Images in "pending" forever...
« on: May 11, 2016, 14:17 »
Happy to say that although I have several batches of RF images sitting in the queue, my last two sets of editorial submissions were reviewed within 24 hours.

58
Ok, I admit, my bad. I should know that Australia, Barbados, Burundi, China, Dominican republic, Egypt, Ghana, Hong Kong..... are considered "much of Europe".

Grumpy bugger! It was also Easter Monday in the Orthodox calendar so a holiday in Romania, Ukraine, Greece, Russia, Serbia, Macedonia, Cyprus ...

59
The problem is not with Fotolia: it is with the individual reviewer.  It is very rare to find a reviewer who understands either (a) IP law or (b) how a given agency interprets it. (a) and (b) are two very different things and agencies are extremely risk averse. Reviewers seem to be even more so and reject anything they are unsure of.  Most images rejected on IP grounds do not infringe any law but, understandably, an agency wishes no expensive legal argument even if confident of winning.

If a brand is involved there are multiple jurisdictions to consider. For a picture of property I have found Fotolia very reasonable if I include a comment about the applicable law in the country where the property is situated.

For your picture in Germany, the relevant law is Urheberrechtsgesetz 59. I dont think its cut and dried for Meersburg. Yes, it is the outside-only representation of a piece of architecture but, on the other hand, there are access restrictions to the castle which MAY invalidate 59.

Look up the law for yourself and, if you think Panoramafreiheit applies, note that in your description. Alternatively, submit it again next week when another reviewer will look at it with a completely different set of misapprehensions  ;D

60
123RF / Re: 0,14$ download
« on: April 12, 2016, 15:28 »
I got a $0.28 LEL this morning and, not sure what it was, looked back at the old threads here. Back in 2012, when LELs came out, someone no longer on the forum wrote:

Could be big money coming our way...   

Usually I enjoy irony but not in this case.

I still dont quite understand what rights a LEL gives the buyer but any right is too much at that price. Is there a way to opt out of ELs as with DT?

61
IP address is 23.229.213.4 meaning hosted by GoDaddy[dot]com

62
Off Topic / Re: OMG America!!!
« on: March 19, 2016, 05:24 »


I know that this is a stronghold of socialist do-gooders here .... kind of loser thinking ....   from socialist Denmark who said as much in one of his blog posts last year because he's talking from experience he must have gathered back in his home country


And what precisely is wrong with 'socialist do-gooders'? Say, for example in terrible Denmark which you mention? The country which has once again been assesed by those crypto-communists at Forbes Magazine as the best country in the world to do business (with USA falling for the 6th consecutive year to 22nd) http://www.forbes.com/best-countries-for-business/ And it seems to suit the do-gooders as the annual Happiness Index from the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35824033 has it as the happest country in the world followed by four other Nordic countries. 

These seems to be the models Mr Sanders is enthusiastic about, Ridiculous - why would anyone want happiness and economic success, must be a * commie.


@douglas -- I'll tell you what's wrong with socialist do-gooders: it is that they are usually freeloaders and want more free lunches no matter whether society can pay for them or not, just like so many on this nice forum here.

As for your glorifying Denmark, I am asking myself whether you are only regurgitating statistics you learnt  (as most Scandinavians do) or if you actually have any real-life knowledge of your own (as, for example, Yuri Acurs who, quite tellingly, preferred moving his business from  socialist Denmark to South Africa because splendid Denmark does not work out so good in the real world with its darn taxes and big government and 25% moms, or "VAT" -- it did almost the same thing for the same reasons as Arcurs)...

If Sanders is your idea of "happiness and freedom" or if you vote for him out of pity for the old Joe-Biden-style fool then you might as well vote for someone who promotes outlawing gravity :)

Try to make sense of your obscure feelings before participating in the political process.


Perhaps English is not your first language, neither is it mine, but I fail to understand what you mean by obscure feelings. 

Posting a response to an ill-informed rant on a photography forum does not in my book qualify as engaging in the political process.  I will not be voting for any of the candidates in the US election as I am neither a citizen nor a resident.  I did live and work in the US for some years and later founded a company there and this, with having worked in around 30 countries (including Denmark), been a resident and taxpayer in eight and running businesses in four is my real world experience. However, rather than rely on that subjective experience I provided you with independent data from Forbes Magazine and the United Nations.  You have not challenged its validity, merely accused me of memorising statistics which you suggest is a heinous crime characteristic of Scandinavians (with the grasp you appear to have of the world perhaps you classify my birthplace of Scotland within that grouping) and relied on Yuri Arcurs move to encapsulate the countrys entire economic history.

I dont hold up Denmark as an example of anything: I simply pointed out the inaccuracy of your remarks.  Furthermore, Mr Rasmussen, the current prime minister of that country, would likely take umbrage at your remarks about socialism, he being the leader of the centre-right liberals who chose to govern as a minority government after failing to form a right-wing coalition most notably with the extreme right-wing (OK, maybe not in Trump terms) anti-immigration DPP, the parliaments second largest party.

Your objection to VAT is strange. Its a business neutral tax where effectively the company collects tax from consumers for the government whilst being able to claim back the VAT it pays on the goods and services it buys so the rate is irrelevant.

My own real-world experience of Mr Trump is the way he treated the residents of the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland (see the award-winning film Trumped if you want to know the story) where the half-developed golf resort should give you a feel for what to expect from his promises. Further experience came from my attempt to return my post-graduate degree to the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen which foolishly awarded Mr Trump an honorary doctorate.  Many others felt the same as I did and his degree was revoked. 

Were your postings typical of the level of political discourse in the United States then the country probably would deserve President Trump.

63
Off Topic / Re: OMG America!!!
« on: March 17, 2016, 20:49 »


I know that this is a stronghold of socialist do-gooders here .... kind of loser thinking ....   from socialist Denmark who said as much in one of his blog posts last year because he's talking from experience he must have gathered back in his home country


And what precisely is wrong with 'socialist do-gooders'? Say, for example in terrible Denmark which you mention? The country which has once again been assesed by those crypto-communists at Forbes Magazine as the best country in the world to do business (with USA falling for the 6th consecutive year to 22nd) http://www.forbes.com/best-countries-for-business/ And it seems to suit the do-gooders as the annual Happiness Index from the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35824033 has it as the happest country in the world followed by four other Nordic countries. 

These seems to be the models Mr Sanders is enthusiastic about, Ridiculous - why would anyone want happiness and economic success, must be a * commie.


64
General Stock Discussion / Re: 500px beside microstock ?
« on: March 11, 2016, 10:43 »
Beautiful image without doubt.

Same boys, same fish presumably, different photographer name
https://500px.com/photo/143956409/boys-fisherman-by-santi-foto

65
Newbie Discussion / Re: Do you want to make some bucks?
« on: March 09, 2016, 21:10 »
That would be an utterly crazy thing to do - like using a fine paintbrush to sweep up in a concert hall. 

Write a few lines of VBA code to automate it. Googling should give you sample code to do this.

Believe me, you can. I have done this on many projects.

If there is a problem in the quality of extracted embedded images then the first part of the code should save the Word document as a web page (.htm .html). Images are then extracted automatically from the doc and stored in <DocumentNAME>_files in the same location as the saved web page.

If it is that simple why don't you accept the job and get easy money?


Because there are more important things than easy money.

Ronib is a member of this forum and on a personal level I am happy to offer advice in an area in which I work.

To take on the job is to accept a contract. The first message gave a .il  emal address. None of the businesses I run will accept a contract with a business in Israel.  A small and possibly futile gesture, and not a personal judgement on ronib, but more important to me than easy money.

66
Newbie Discussion / Re: Do you want to make some bucks?
« on: March 09, 2016, 11:58 »
Believe me, you can. I have done this on many projects.

If there is a problem in the quality of extracted embedded images then the first part of the code should save the Word document as a web page (.htm .html). Images are then extracted automatically from the doc and stored in <DocumentNAME>_files in the same location as the saved web page.


67
Cant imagine anyone aware of the change not opting out.

They really are the Titanic of agencies, 'iceberg, what iceberg?'
 
The reviewing too seems to have deteriorated in the last few months. Not very picky about image quality but image is too niche is a bit of a joke. Other than reviewers having no clue about important subject areas like architecture, if they are so smart at picking what sells, why are earnings plummeting and why do they have a  hasnt sold in 3 years standard email?

68
Newbie Discussion / Re: Do you want to make some bucks?
« on: March 09, 2016, 11:01 »
That would be an utterly crazy thing to do - like using a fine paintbrush to sweep up in a concert hall. 

Write a few lines of VBA code to automate it. Googling should give you sample code to do this.

69
Shutterstock.com / Re: Adding message to SS in Description field
« on: February 18, 2016, 09:57 »
It probably depends on the reviewer.  I had one image rejected for over sharpening in SS and resubmitted with a trenchant comment in the title. It was accepted second time. Other times. I have asked there if something is considered editorial to classify it as such rather than commercial as there is so much variety between agencies. This has always been ignored and SS rejects even if there is an editorial caption and I have forgotten to tick the editorial box, giving a rejection message of please resubmit.

On the other hand, with an image submitted to DT the other day as editorial they sent an email saying they thought it would sell better as Commercial and had reclassified it.  I thought that was very nice of them.

70
Pond5 / Re: Pond5 - average review time?
« on: January 16, 2016, 18:40 »
Three weeks is not right anymore. Mine have been pending for 5 weeks so far. I have about 100 Christmas clips. Think they will sell now? lol

Definitely.  The way the reviews are going they should be just in time for Christmas 2016.

71
123RF / Re: My balance is 0, however I have some sales
« on: January 16, 2016, 13:57 »
If I have understood you correctly, the Your Balance refers to transactions as a buyer and does not reflect your  transactions as a contributor.

What you have earned is displayed in http://www.123rf.com/submit/commission.php which you clearly have found and what has sold under Download http://www.123rf.com/submit/downloaded_stats.php

It is more than a little confusing that the Sell Images link under Contributors http://www.123rf.com/sellimages.php has a link to My Account http://www.123rf.com/myaccount_v2.php which shows your account activity as a buyer rather than as a contributor!

72
Spreche deutsch, bin aber Schotte und wohne in  Bukarest.

73
Well, I went the other way from product photography to stock thinking it provided some artisitic freedom then discovered most stock photos are product photos at a fraction of the price.

I dont think the size of the city has much to do with what you can charge: its more how difficult the subject is to shoot. There are some items where you are doing your client and yourself a favour by saying, do it yourself with a decent point and click. On the other hand, if you have to go underwater in scuba gear for ten minutes for each picture you can pass that charge on.

You have to think what your good photography is going to add to any product shoot.  If its a used car, probably nothing. If its the factory where something is made, potentially lots. If you can differentiate the product from the clients competitor then, again, lots.

What I can charge is the wrong way to think. You need to allow for your transportation and maybe hire costs and a reasonable allowance for your time (often as an economic opportunity cost weighed against what you would otherwise be doing) and quote that to the customer, If they wont pay that they are either not worth bothering about or you should be doing something better with your time.

74
Pond5 / Re: Pond5 review times
« on: November 18, 2015, 19:12 »

It has been while but they are humans and busy humans and with a ton of uploads and them having to go through each file I can see how things can get bogged down at times...


Puh-leasse. They sub-contract their reviewing to India and a company which, to my mind, makes a complete hash of it. That apart, it is up to Pond5 to put in place a Service Level Agreement with their sub-contractor specifying 97% of contributions evaluated within X days.



Please elaborate on the outsourcing, I can't tell if this is a stab in the dark or based on fact. If this is true then great, I'll just resubmit my rejected files (which sell elsewhere, btw)...


They use an Indian company called V2 for much of the outsourcing http://www.v2solutions.com/ (yes, I know they have a Silicon Valley address but that's not where their cheap labour is). You will see this if you follow the link in the curator response (it's not exclusive, they use other reviewers also). Nothing wrong in outsourcing to India if they have (a) reasonable SLAs in place for turnaround (b) an adequately trained workforce able to make consistent judgements on the assets they review and (c) a management structure able to ensure this is the case and make changes when necessary.

They have none of the above and their response when questioned, 'our curators have the final say' was the last straw for me: I just stopped uploading.  No hissy fit required, plenty other agencies.  Stills weren't selling anyway - one sale in the last three months.

75
Off Topic / Re: More than 27 people died last night in Bucharest
« on: November 11, 2015, 21:05 »
And one of our own who died on Monday 9th, after being transferred to an Israeli hospital, Teo Maftei.

She was to open an exhibition of her photographs of London in the London Street Atelier in Bucharest three days after the terrible fire which took her and, to date, another 50 lives.

In her own words Rock on, love on and shoot people!

#colectiv #coruptiaucide

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