Quote from: jonbull on November 02, 2019, 14:24

Quote from: Zero Talent on November 02, 2019, 13:13

Quote from: jonbull on November 01, 2019, 12:45

most of andorra are russian...

yeas miha most are from russian...good trial from new york city..but is legal to shoot those? i know you can0't fly your drone in new york city...flyijng lawless makes trouble soon for less...

Yes, I know all that.
What I didn't know is that most of that beautiful Andorra is Russian. 

Just so you feel better, it's not. jonbull makes up his facts and hasn't produced any evidence except, "well don't have data but is pretty easy to see the influence of russia ukraine and serbia in  the database.. zillions of file...just search any lifestyle idea you will see the predominance of house of production born in eastern europe", it's easy to see?

Just like, there's something going on with sales because the agency controls them, it's a game, it's rigged, the search favors everyone else. (except everyone here of course?)  Because everyone can see it, or it's easy to see, that's obvious. Sorry that's not proof or evidence. People make up factoids to bolster their beliefs. Problem is, others believe them, without asking for any evidence or proof.

I'll repeat this so it's not lost in the paragraph. "To date, there are 516 Russians in Andorra." and Andorra has population of approximately 77,281 What struck me was 168 SS artists registered their location as Andorra. I don't really believe that's accurate, I don't know, I have no way of checking. I think it's just something that's unreliable and not checked by SS during registration. Add that many contributors have no location listed.

If I open an account, I might use Tierra del Fuego next time. That sounds exotic, even if it's windy with a cool moderate climate? I have cousins in Argentina.

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 03, 2019, 06:50

Quote from: Zero Talent on November 02, 2019, 23:49

Quote from: jonbull on November 02, 2019, 14:24

Quote from: Zero Talent on November 02, 2019, 13:13

Quote from: jonbull on November 01, 2019, 12:45

most of andorra are russian...

yeas miha most are from russian...good trial from new york city..but is legal to shoot those? i know you can0't fly your drone in new york city...flyijng lawless makes trouble soon for less...

Yes, I know all that.
What I didn't know is that most of that beautiful Andorra is Russian. 

I'll repeat this so it's not lost in the paragraph. "To date, there are 516 Russians in Andorra." and Andorra has population of approximately 77,281 What struck me was 168 SS artists registered their location as Andorra. I don't really believe that's accurate, I don't know, I have no way of checking. I think it's just something that's unreliable and not checked by SS during registration. Add that many contributors have no location listed.

If I open an account, I might use Tierra del Fuego next time. That sounds exotic, even if it's windy with a cool moderate climate? I have cousins in Argentina.

I think it has to do something with Andorra being the first on the list of countries...
Actually for a while my SS account was set to Andorra, I didn't know how it happened, just noticed it one day.  And after that for months I actually couldn't care to change it

I always it was for some obscure tax reason or similar but your explanation is simpler and makes more sense ;-)

Quote from: Desintegrator on November 03, 2019, 08:11

I think it has to do something with Andorra being the first on the list of countries...
Actually for a while my SS account was set to Andorra, I didn't know how it happened, just noticed it one day.  And after that for months I actually couldn't care to change it

It's 4th behind Afghanistan, Algeria, and Albania, but it makes sense that it's just an accident.

Anyway, silly me..., for a moment I was afraid that Putin had occupied lovely Andorra too, and now most of Andorra is Russian.
 

True, it's not the first. Could be something with the listbox... I haven't think it through well with the alphbetical order of counties. I just remember that some time after SS introduced this new kind of profile page thing i discovered that my location was set to Andorra somehow

I don't think buyers check our profiles anyways. For a while SS used to have a counter for profile views. I was getting 1 or 2 per week while selling 500-600 photos weekly

Quote from: jonbull on November 02, 2019, 12:27

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 02, 2019, 10:16

Quote from: jonbull on November 01, 2019, 12:52

the list is pretty old, in 2 years everything has changed...actually since 2017 ss open the gate an flooding of images has began...f

https://www.fotolia.com/p/206713618


this is house poe production born after 2017, in less than 2 years and a bunch of months they added half million images, there are much more from serbia and russia....the scheme is simple ,saturated all market, take idea and copycat them using many photographer paid penny,m and good model paid 10 dollar hours maximum. light field has a fully functional studio with lot of room, you can rent for 10 dollar hour if you go kiev to produce.

i have seen many house of production lately are copycatting especially the style and idea of jacob lund.

Show me your data collection for 2019? You know, locations, number of artists, image totals for top 20 maybe?

Thanks for the filler on Andorra I never would have known. Here's some things I found which I'd say I still don't know much about Andorra. Andorra, according to the World Bank, is among top 15 countries with the highest GDP per capita. ... According to International living index, Andorra is a 12-th position in the world in terms of level and quality of life. Andorra is often considered as one of the safest countries in the world, and Andorra La Vella one of the safest European cities. The most used language is English, 38.8% of the Andorran population speak Catalan. To date, there are 516 Russians in Andorra. The immigration policy of the Principality is under control, and the number of immigrants is strictly quoted according to demands of the economy.

The link for "house poe production born after 2017" whatever that means, doesn't show anything. Got a link that works? 

Reminder, true the location could be a lie and many accounts list no location. We don't know. This is simple the best information to indicate who has the largest accounts and where they are from. I don't know if SS actually checks the listed location. What I mean is, this is the best data available, if someone has better, please show us.

The data used for artists location was the 18,000 accounts that had over 1,000 images on SS at the time. Of course that could have changed, but the selection was designed to represent active contributors, not 300,000 accounts registered. (as an example, the number is now over 500,000)

But the question remains, show me your data, numbers and proof?

well don't have data but is pretty easy to see the influence of russia ukraine and serbia in  the database.. zillions of file...just search any lifestyle idea you will see the predominance of house of production born in eastern europe

the link is light field fotolia google it...it's from kiev in ukraine...450000 file in less than 2 years...they have many people working salary less than 600 dollar....model super cheap...try replicate it in usa. in serbia there is

https://shootset.com/search?p=22&sort=recommended&country=Serbia&radius=10

is a stock model agency...if you ever have browsed lifestyle content in fotolia with model release you will recognize thousand of photos with the same 10 20 model of this agency....
it's not that they love doing photos more than us...it's their cost areas cheap is still good to shoot lifestyle content....in italy good model cost 10 times the price i pay in ukraine....where i pay 10 dollarr hour and it's already much more than what many stocker from kiev pay.

In Serbia you pay 30$ for an average model but no model works for less than 20$ these days. Some with more experience have a wage as high as 65$/hr. So its pretty easy to see that an average set with 7-8 models will cost you around 1k. Not very expensive but not darn cheap either.

in serbia cost of life is one 4 of the rest of world...renting space is one tenth...model cost 30 dollar but you can find pretty darn good for 10 15 dollar.... it's not you or other serbian have more wish to shot is that you have cost 23 4 times inferior to the rest of the world...it's like producing cheap items in america or in china, it's not competitive for usa because cost are higher is the same....that'0s why most of house of production are in serbia russia and ukraine.
you have a portfolio that would have cost 5 times more than what you paid and you did in less than 2 3 year, try to work and produce such a portfolio in uk or italy ,, then you will see how much you would have earned and if you would have shot micro stock for living.....anyway next year i will move to belagreade for 2 months...already contacted many models from that agency and 30 dollar are for top notch model , other are happy with much less.

.
Good point.

I mean... the cost for the people that live there is 0. Just an internet connection and a camera.

Quote from: jonbull on November 03, 2019, 12:11

Quote from: nd3000 on November 03, 2019, 02:46

Quote from: jonbull on November 02, 2019, 12:27

Quote from: Uncle Pete on November 02, 2019, 10:16

Quote from: jonbull on November 01, 2019, 12:52

the list is pretty old, in 2 years everything has changed...actually since 2017 ss open the gate an flooding of images has began...f

https://www.fotolia.com/p/206713618


this is house poe production born after 2017, in less than 2 years and a bunch of months they added half million images, there are much more from serbia and russia....the scheme is simple ,saturated all market, take idea and copycat them using many photographer paid penny,m and good model paid 10 dollar hours maximum. light field has a fully functional studio with lot of room, you can rent for 10 dollar hour if you go kiev to produce.

i have seen many house of production lately are copycatting especially the style and idea of jacob lund.

Show me your data collection for 2019? You know, locations, number of artists, image totals for top 20 maybe?

Thanks for the filler on Andorra I never would have known. Here's some things I found which I'd say I still don't know much about Andorra. Andorra, according to the World Bank, is among top 15 countries with the highest GDP per capita. ... According to International living index, Andorra is a 12-th position in the world in terms of level and quality of life. Andorra is often considered as one of the safest countries in the world, and Andorra La Vella one of the safest European cities. The most used language is English, 38.8% of the Andorran population speak Catalan. To date, there are 516 Russians in Andorra. The immigration policy of the Principality is under control, and the number of immigrants is strictly quoted according to demands of the economy.

The link for "house poe production born after 2017" whatever that means, doesn't show anything. Got a link that works? 

Reminder, true the location could be a lie and many accounts list no location. We don't know. This is simple the best information to indicate who has the largest accounts and where they are from. I don't know if SS actually checks the listed location. What I mean is, this is the best data available, if someone has better, please show us.

The data used for artists location was the 18,000 accounts that had over 1,000 images on SS at the time. Of course that could have changed, but the selection was designed to represent active contributors, not 300,000 accounts registered. (as an example, the number is now over 500,000)

But the question remains, show me your data, numbers and proof?

well don't have data but is pretty easy to see the influence of russia ukraine and serbia in  the database.. zillions of file...just search any lifestyle idea you will see the predominance of house of production born in eastern europe

the link is light field fotolia google it...it's from kiev in ukraine...450000 file in less than 2 years...they have many people working salary less than 600 dollar....model super cheap...try replicate it in usa. in serbia there is

https://shootset.com/search?p=22&sort=recommended&country=Serbia&radius=10

is a stock model agency...if you ever have browsed lifestyle content in fotolia with model release you will recognize thousand of photos with the same 10 20 model of this agency....
it's not that they love doing photos more than us...it's their cost areas cheap is still good to shoot lifestyle content....in italy good model cost 10 times the price i pay in ukraine....where i pay 10 dollarr hour and it's already much more than what many stocker from kiev pay.

In Serbia you pay 30$ for an average model but no model works for less than 20$ these days. Some with more experience have a wage as high as 65$/hr. So its pretty easy to see that an average set with 7-8 models will cost you around 1k. Not very expensive but not darn cheap either.

in serbia cost of life is one 4 of the rest of world...renting space is one tenth...model cost 30 dollar but you can find pretty darn good for 10 15 dollar.... it's not you or other serbian have more wish to shot is that you have cost 23 4 times inferior to the rest of the world...it's like producing cheap items in america or in china, it's not competitive for usa because cost are higher is the same....that'0s why most of house of production are in serbia russia and ukraine.
you have a portfolio that would have cost 5 times more than what you paid and you did in less than 2 3 year, try to work and produce such a portfolio in uk or italy ,, then you will see how much you would have earned and if you would have shot micro stock for living.....anyway next year i will move to belagreade for 2 months...already contacted many models from that agency and 30 dollar are for top notch model , other are happy with much less.

Its not that I am not aware of the costs of living in other countries as I live in an EU country with costs of life being a lot higher compared to Serbia. That is the exact reason I go to shoot there. I just wanted to clarify the costs of a set over there. What used to be 15 usd 2-3 years ago, its 30-50 today.  But hating people for living in 3rd world countries just because they can produce content for less is like hating people paying low taxes in Virgin Islands. Btw living in a 3rd world country isnt necessarily great in some other aspects.

Im not here to argue, I justposted facts but Im out.

nobody is hating...is just explanation why people in western world probably won't succeed in living put of micro stock...there is simply too much competition and too high cost in western world.

Well, it depends on the type of microstock you're doing. I'm based in Southeastern Europe, mainly shooting editorial and travel.

The demand for southeastern Europe in these fields is actually incredibly low. So, shooting more or less the same topics, I get some significantly different performance.

In average, my RPI for a picture taken in the Balkans is almost three times lower than for a file taken in Germany, and between 5 to 6 times lower than for a Canadian picture. If I check my photos taken in Ukraine, it's even worse: the RPI is half the one of Balkans...

In the end, depending on what you shoot, there may still be a potential for you, even in a developed country, due to the much bigger demand.

the problem is no the rip is cost of life...in balkans you can live and not bad with 1000 dollar..in kiev the cost of life is even lower...in eurpope you need to run a business at least 6 70 k dollar, and at the end you not earn a lot....that's why if you want live a normal life with micro you better move to a country with that cost of life...7k dollar of files per month at this point are not a joke i tell you.

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=France&country2=Serbia&city1=Paris&city2=Belgrade&tracking=getDispatchComparison

just an easy comparison...considering the fact this data is not perfect...

the salary comparison is 2100 euro against 400 euro, in ukraine is even worst probably like 250 euro. and in russia outside moscow is comparable to belagrade...you understand that even if you earn 700 dollar is not bad in belgrade, thats why there are thousand contributor, it's still better to shoot micro than works macdonald....in the rest of the world is better mcdonald:)...by the way a mcdonald employer in kiev earn less than 200 dollar. it's fact. than there will be some isolated cases who can earn a lot even in western world, but for example lifestyle portfolio are completely coming in these days from those country, just make a search or look at the new files in fotolia, most are russian. so move there if you like shooting lifestyle,

Quote from: jonbull on November 04, 2019, 08:18

Quote from: BalkanskiMacak on November 04, 2019, 07:36

Well, it depends on the type of microstock you're doing. I'm based in Southeastern Europe, mainly shooting editorial and travel.

The demand for southeastern Europe in these fields is actually incredibly low. So, shooting more or less the same topics, I get some significantly different performance.

In average, my RPI for a picture taken in the Balkans is almost three times lower than for a file taken in Germany, and between 5 to 6 times lower than for a Canadian picture. If I check my photos taken in Ukraine, it's even worse: the RPI is half the one of Balkans...

In the end, depending on what you shoot, there may still be a potential for you, even in a developed country, due to the much bigger demand.

the problem is no the rip is cost of life...in balkans you can live and not bad with 1000 dollar..in kiev the cost of life is even lower...in eurpope you need to run a business at least 6 70 k dollar, and at the end you not earn a lot....that's why if you want live a normal life with micro you better move to a country with that cost of life...7k dollar of files per month at this point are not a joke i tell you.

With 1000$ a month from stock you are the king in Serbia, firstly you don't have to deal with half-literate bosses and that's a major life improvement. People manage with 300$ a month, pretty decent, with a lot of pressure but still decent. But you have to have a balkan mentality sort of, so no classy restaurants everyday, no new V6 car, not the latest pro camera gear etc. With that, 1000$ makes your life easy, you get to buy stuff, travel and not worry about life in general all while doing what you love and not double shifts for your greedy boss. Avoid Belgrade, where everything is more expensive for no reason and where you throw you time in a black hole called public transport or looking for parking spot - and you are golden.

novi sad is very good...next year will move permanently between russia ukraine and belgrade, in winter warm place like colombia and thailand...litterally thousand model, cheap, production cost very low....yeterday a girl know in street asked me 300 euro for a shooting of 2 hours...i laugh at her. but reallyy the problem is that where i live or you go agency or there is no point in finding model....when i walk in kiev i literally know 20 girl each day who are super happy to do shooting mostly for free...and as i said they are naturally blessed with a super attitude in front of camera. but time to stop talking or next year we will see thousand of stockers moving to kiev or belgrade

Uploaded almost 1500 pictures during last two weeks. One picture was sold:)
New stuff not selling at all. Only old ones. It looks like smth is broken and we are drowning in similars.

Well something is definitely different. I've been uploading photos and already had sales from those batches in all agencies, including the lowest earners, but nothing on SS.

That is a first in 14 years of stock for me.

It looks like "somebody" accept all and new files instantly drowning in newly uploaded ones.

just to say one run in taxi in center cost 1 dollar at the moment with uber...in paris when the taxi arrived you have already spent 8 euro.then 3 km and 15 euro gone forever....that's easy to understand why living with stock in paris rome london is pretty impossible att the moment.

but why would you use a taxi when metro is so good?