When we started to envision The PhotoShelter Collection in early 2007, we went out and conducted research to understand the needs of photo buyers. We consistently heard from a myriad of sources that they ...

There you have it! I hope there's a little inspiration for everyone. Please do drop a comment and share your own tips, we'd love to hear them!
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It's soccer season, and boy I'm busy! I'm in the middle of shooting about 600 kids and when I'm not shooting it's editing or sorting out prints or making receipts for the 3rd week of June. I thought I had a very well planned season, but there's been so many rain delays I'm a little behind and now have little time for much else. So.... it was the wee hours of this morning that I finally managed to whip together an invitation to my son's birthday party. The little bugger wouldn't change his clothes for the photos earlier, so this is what I got. The street scene was a free photo from SXU. (With recognizable faces a-plenty and no "editorial" restriction!) I used a combination of TopazLabs Adjust and Simplify filters, a few masks, layer blends and voilà! Gosh, he almost looks hung over with those bags under his eyes, and I hope the other 8 year olds don't notice that his shadow is going the wrong direction - but we'll keep that little detail between you and me. He saw this this morning and said "Do I have to be a giant?" Too bad kid, I ROES'd them to the lab at 3:30 AM, and quite honestly - the creative juices ain't exactly flowing with all the lack of sleep. Next year we'll start them in February. |
Can you tell that I prefer SanDisk? I've had just one corrupt photo that came from an Extreme III - and I think that the photo was actually fine, but... duh, I was editing straight from the card at the time so we'll never know. I've heard good things about Lexar, but never used them. I've heard not so good things about many economy brands. For me I need a card that will write fairly fast. I switch between Extreme's for action and Ultras for affordability. They both actually write faster than my speedlights recycle for posed team photos and that keeps me sane.
| Many of my colleagues have had photos removed, and today I was notified that one of my own files is getting it's pink slip. This file includes content that may be subject to copyright or trademark protection.Certain uses of this file may be problematic. We regret that it must be deactivated. Comments from Administration: |
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Dude, there's 3 e's in Deere. Get your trademarks straight.
But, they may be right. John Deere's green and yellow colour scheme is trademarked. I wonder if I applied "Massey Ferguson Red" over the yellow stripe and applied some "New Holland Blue" to the wheel wells if it could remain in the collection?
For 30 cents a download, who cares? This shot was downloaded 49 times, once I was paid $25, but most of the remaining sales were 30 cent subs. So I'm estimating I made $50 bucks with this shot. Imagine if it had sold 49 times on a site like Zymmetrical, it would have netted between $500 and $1900. If they were only small size sales, that would be 1000% more!
It may be just a mediocre photo of a tractor, but it reminds me of this whole 30 cent subs crisis and it makes me consider cutting loose from SXP. They didn't sell subs when I joined them, yet now it appears SXP is nothing but a source of content for Photos.com and JI.
Maybe I should just be thankful for any source of income. Just 29,996 sales and I can get a D3X!
| Don't you just love to see those flames appear on Istock? If you have no idea what I am talking about, Istock Photo adds an orange flame to a photo once it has reached 100 downloads. It turns red when it reaches 500, and blue when it reaches - hmmm, 1000? I'm no where near blue, but my best selling photo is pushing 500 with download #467 today. This microstock photo of a farmer in a durum wheat field is my fourth photo to reach 100 sales at Istock; so, burn baby burn! Do the flames have any relevance other than to give photographers a cheap thrill? I doubt it, but maybe I'll know when I've hit the big time in this biz... when I stop blogging about little milestones. Find a shot below of this microstock photo in action. |
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| This photo was added to the front page sometime after midnight this morning. It had only 11 downloads in 3 weeks online. Funny thing is, it had 3 paid downloads today. My sales today were quite high*, I must be benefiting from increased visitors to my portfolio. I enjoyed both increased subs and on-demand downloads. *Note: when I say "quite high" I mean back to levels of the good old days; my first 6 months on SS. The number of free downloads do not appear anywhere in my account, so unless they inform me at the end of the week, I will have no idea how many freebies have been issued. Yes, I'm looking forward my overall numbers at the end of this. Hopefully there will be an afterglow effect! |
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# 10 is really the core of my goals for 2009. Just Have Fun (and get rich make some income doing it.) Perhaps I can learn a few things from my son's hockey coach. Stick to a schedule, hone my skills, and keep it fun. I don't want to enter the next decade burnt out and resenting my Nikon.
Extra info that really doesn't belong here, but I'll add it anyway...
A first post of the year wouldn't be a first post of the year if it didn't have a pie-chart. I've slapped down a chart that displays how my 08 microstock income was split last year. The agency legend is on the bottom. My top three (Shutterstock, Istock, Dreamstime) are still the same position as last year, but in the last months of 08 Dreamstime and Fotolia really gained momentum. I wonder what the pie will look like in a year? 
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Here's a quick little visual quiz for you: Which background is brown and which one is orange? Or - are these two backgrounds so close that you can't see a difference? Which one would YOU buy? Or how about this: Would anyone who isn't colour blind have any use for an orange background???? |
| Today, I was saddened to learn of the passing of Robert Mizerek on September 29. The Miz was a microstock legend of sorts who possessed a unique style and acerbic wit. I first noticed "Rjmiz" a couple years back and bookmarked his Dreamstime portfolio as a source of inspiration and awe. His work was bold and unusual. Strong concepts with beautifully saturated colours, with graphic silhouettes, numbers, hands, time pieces, anything but ordinary. He once said he could take a picture of any old thing lying around his house and squeeze a concept out of it. And to top my hat to the guy, it would likely become a best seller too. |
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| This prairie wakeboarding girl actually sold last night. The buyer used the keyword "ski" to find this forgotten (rarely downloaded) shot from last summer. I like the photo; parallel lines pull attention to a pretty surfer girl in the middle of the prairie with no water in sight. But of what use is a photo like this to a microstock buyer? There is certainly no concept here other than "out of place" perhaps. Youth? Adventure? Maybe all she needs is a suitcase by her side to signify the beginning of a journey. Looking back, this shot would have been a better fit with Alamay or the now-defunct PhotoShelter than with the micros. It's just a little too "artsy" (if you can call it that) to be useful to designers. |
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| Shutterstock | 1 month | $249 | 25 downloads per day | Pays .25-.36 per image sold |
| Dreamstime | 30 days | $99 | 10 downloads per day | Pays .35 per image sold |
| Fotolia | 1 month | $249 | 25 downloads per day | Pays .31 per image sold |
| StockXpert | 1 month | $219.95 | 25 downloads per day | Pays .30 per image sold |
| 123rf | 1 month | $209 | 26 downloads per day | Pays .36 per image sold |
| Istock | 3 months | $909 | 10 credits per day. | Calculation based on credits and % of daily limit used. |
It's time to post an update about Zymmetrical who I first wrote about in March. I am especially motivated by 3 sales last month at this mid-priced agency that have earned me a commission of $49.70. (Only my top 3 sites earned more than that last month).
Keith Tuomi sent me a nice note to let me know that each inspector hand picked a favourite submission for the homepage, and Keith picked this shot of a typical Canadian grain farmer.
I must note at this point that one of my 3 sales was for the shot on the screen capture below. Did I receive a sale because a buyer liked it, or did Zym pay everyone who has a photo on their front page? I expect the latter, but in March I didn't receive payment for a front page photo (perhaps they've changed this policy).
(more after image)
Some quick updates since my last post.
Yes, there seems to be room for a midstock agency in this market. Out of all the new microstock sites that have appeared recently, it seems that Zymmetrical is getting a lot of things right. Hopefully they don't deploy recent tactics of the microstock agencies by introducing subs or forging bad partnerships.