Well, another page turns, Jupiter Images Unlimited, which was in part using the Stockxpert photo library (my largest) to sell images to a majority of subscription buyers, is gone today, repleced by ThinkStock, a new Getty Images venture. They are using the Istock catalogue now. I’m still not sure at the effect this has on my revenues at Istock, but I certainly will miss the JUI income. You see, Stockxpert has accepted many photos over the months that have been refused by other agencies, photos that ended up selling well at SXP and its affiliates (JUI and photos.com). As is the case with many photographers, JUI and photos.com sales were much stronger than actual SXP sales and so the effect on my Stockxpert numbers will probably be devastating.

It is a strange move by Getty. In one move, Istockphoto charges more per photo now. In another, they sell the same collection dirt cheap to subscribers, a market well exploited by Shutterstock. The issue I don’t understand is this: Istockphoto has the tightest restrictions concerning submissions (only 15 a week until you go up in ranks, which can take quite a while, versus 50 per day at other agencies) and inspection process (takes regularly 10 days or more versus 2 days at StockXpert and Shutterstock + Inspectors at Istock seem a lot more picky in regards to things such as fringing and overfiltering). Therefore other agencies’ collections grow a lot faster with new material. That alone would convince me as a buyer to go to Shutterstock. So what’s the logic? I expect the number of submitters more than make up for the uploading restrictions? Or are they assuming that exclusives at Istock will share their older photos through the partner’s collection? Why would they do that? Doesn’t that devaluate the whole exclusive program?

In any case, as a photographer I look at my numbers and wonder what the effect is. Istockphoto has been my biggest earner every single month until… you guessed it… they started sharing the collection with photos.com last year in mid november. Since then… December was disastrous (around 40% of my usual sales) and January slightly better (back to around 75% of my usual sales). It might be seasonal sales though: my port is weak on valentines, Easter and winter shots. On the other hand, Shutterstock sales flourished, culminating in my best month ever in January – this might indicate that the subscription base is moving towards SS. I decided then to block participation to the partner program to all my new studio portrait shots to see if that would make a difference towards more Istock sales. It might be a while until I can judge.

Fotolia has been slow as usual, few sales with insultingly low commissions (20 cents for an extra small? that is way under everyone else’s commissions). And to add injury to the insult, they keep rejecting photos that sell very well at other agencies on the shady grounds of quality. Of course you really can’t tell what the problems are and they give no detail. So you’re caught in a spiraling effect that keeps your acceptance rate dismally low (I have 47% there versus 88% at Dreamstime and about 70-75% at other agencies) and thus views and sales are terrible as well since acceptance rate is part of the search engine algorithm there. I decided to stop uploading anything that doesn’t have a person in it at Fotolia. They rarely accept anything else anyways.

I’ve also stopped uploading at Veer. Enough time wasted. Something is really wrong with their search engine there. View and sales almost halted in December, and have slowly started picking up in January, but not enough to warrant the time it takes to push photos past their clunky submission engine. I’m sure it didn’t help that you had to re-log 100 times a day in December, thanks heaven they fixed that in January. What a pain.

Dreamstime and Stockxpert have performed well both months, with steady growth, although far behind SS and Istock in revenues. I don’t know what will happen this month at Stockxpert, now that it walks alone. I hope they make it through. I love that site.

Add: well, Stockxpert is officially ceasing operations. That’s a huge loss for the community. I’m speechless.

© Photographer: Charlydamart | Agency: Dreamstime.com“>

© Photographer: Charlydamart | Agency: Dreamstime.com“>

© Photographer: Charlydamart | Agency: Dreamstime.com“>

Some people will say it is harder to make money from photography these days. The dominance and accessibility  of digital photography means that everyone can shoot a semi-decent photo. The internet has also provided a global market, more competition yes, but also a bigger cake to share.

Water colours C RayHarris

Can you make money? Yes , but it still demands creativity, imagination,  much hard work and a wider range of skills than before. The skills of finding a market for your particular photographs, the skills of understanding and assessing the market and the skills of using photo manipulation software all have to be added to the traditional photo production skills such as composition and  exposure.

The basics -what is micro stock photography?

Microstock photography   allows amateurs, professional photographers and designers to upload their images and sell to a large audience of buyers. Previously the stock photo market was limited to the more professional photographer with a large portfolio of images. The internet has now provided a much larger market for stock photography, while at the same time increasing the competition. Microstock suggests micropayment, which is true, but more possibilities to earn a little from a lot of images, available for download. With a wide range of useful and practical information on the microstock sites, photographers and other artists can at least improve their skills with the feedback provided through rating and assessment while their images are being approved (or not,of course) . This is a good motivation for starting in microstock – improve your skills then look for higher income from your photography.

There is a growing group of sites which provide photo, video and illustration buyers and sellers with enough opportunities to sell their creative products and easily download the images and video needed for magazines, blogs,websites etc. Although I will describe a few of the most accessable and successful sites, within a few weeks, I am sure there will be a dozen more to review and explore.

Although most sites let you upload for free, and will suggest minimum file sizes (normally at least 3mb) each have their own terms and conditions, particularly in terms of when they will pay out (some after you have earned $30 and some $100).

First the present leaders in microstock :

(note some of this information appears in microstockdiaries)

iStockphoto, is owned by Getty images

Minimum Image Size 1600 x 1200 (approximately 2MP) Vectors Yes Footage Yes Licenses Royalty Free and Extended Licenses: Reproduction limits; Multi seat; Items for resale; Electronic items for resale. Compensation 20% (up to 40% for exclusive photographers) Pricing From $1.20 for Xtra small

While their inspectors are tough, the have a good buying market and sales are high. Their commissions are low compared to many of their competitors, but thanks to relatively higher prices and great sales volume they usually produce more revenue for their contributors. The feedback is particularly helpful as you can learn to correct your images if they have been rejected.

The site has good forums where you can learn a lot, about photography, design and illustration as well as stock image production and marketing.

Shutterstock, Minimum Image Size 2.5 MegaPixels

Vectors Yes      Footage Yes

Licenses Standard and Enhanced Compensation $0.25 per download, or $0.30 if you have more than $500 total earnings

Limit 25 images/day, 750/month.

If you want to sell photos at Shutterstock, the first step is to register and then submit your application.

Fotolia, the only major European based library.

Minimum Image Size – 2 MegaPixels

Vectors Yes   video Footage No

Licenses Standard Royalty Free & Extended License.

Compensation Minimum 33% or minimum 50% for exclusive images

Pricing $1 – $5 for standard license. Contributors can set own prices, within limits.

Shutterpoint -

The downside with Shutterpoint  is that you have to pay a subscription if you want to upload images. This is quite different from the other sites. At first the payout was good as they only sold large size images, but now as times are changing, buyers can download small size images for ‘comping’ which of course brings the price down to as little as 99 cents. In general your subscription ends up being paid for by your sales if you are an average to good photographer.

Handful of Euros Ray Harris

If you are willing to rate other photos on the site you can end up getting your subscription paid for.

Once you have paid your subscription you can upload any photo/illustration up to the maximum that you have paid for (100mb is normal). members can rate your photo (although comments tend to be on the positive side and not rigorous) however you can get useful feedback on how to improve your images.

Dreamstime,

Their commission for photographers is 50%, among the highest in the market, and certainly the highest of the top tier microstock agencies.

Minimum Image Size 3 MegaPixels

Vectors Yes    Footage No

Licenses Royalty Free. Extended Licenses: e.g. Print Usage

Free to start uploading (up to 50 images initially) but they will be subject to assessment by their review team.

Bigstockphoto

Minimum Image Size 800 pixels across

Vectors Yes

Licenses Standard Royalty Free and 14 different Special Licenses.

Compensation $0.50 per 1 credit Pricing $1 – $2

StockXpert

50% pay out off downloads.

• file format: JPEG (RGB)
• maximum file size: 16 megabytes
• minimum dimensions: 800*600 pixels

Just to add to an ever growing list of microstock sites

Canstock 

How to start selling:

1) Create an account

It’s easy, it’s free, and it’s required.

2) Complete an application.

Fill out a simple application and submit 3 images. We will quickly review your application and get back to you – often on the same day.

2) Upload your photos.

Can Stock Photo’s SpeedSubmit™ system allows you to upload files and submit them within just a few minutes.

4) Earn a commission

Every time one of your images is downloaded you will earn a commission. Also, if you refer another photographer to us, you will earn $5 for every 50 photos they sell.

The commission is outlined in more detail here:
Can Stock Photo Payout
Fotosearch Payout

Ten top tips for getting the best out of microstock selling

1. Personal.Your image must be your personal work and you must own the copyright.
2. Quality is of the  utmost importance if you want to sell.Each image should  be sharp, correctly exposed, be well composed,and have little noise.Noise  is often  related to high iso (800+), underexposure, long exposures  and over-processing. Always view your image at 100% to check for imperfections in your image. Image is normally RGB, saved at the highest JPG quality (12)

3. Size matters.Sites vary but normally the image size must be 3 megapixels  or more  (probably a 6mp camera is the minimum)
4. Keywording. Once you have a good image , you then have to ensure that buyers can find it. Relevant keywording is vital for  sales of your images. To be more efficient embed keywords and a description of your image in the image itself (photoshop can be used or other relevant software such as ) . Most sites have a lower limit on keywords normally between 5 and 10  so a good range would be between 10 and 50. Some internationalising may be necessary e.g. flat /apartment,motorway/freeway/autoroute although again some sites can find their international equivalents.. There is a growing interest in concept pictures, relating to moods or metaphors. In your keywording , it is worth including some concept words such as happy,  professional,  romantic, comic, physically challenged,strength, power, love, success, risk, reward.

5. Research the future. Look which season or festival is coming next? For example, some months before  major festivals, images and photos that signify specific  holidays/festivals/ gifts are sought over by many publishers.. Submit such images at least two months in advance. Many sites give suggestions about what they want (e.g. ‘business’ photos) and those subjects where they have too many (e.g. flower photos).

6. Specialize. If you are a generalist, you are competing with many photographers.It pays to specialize and make a niche for what you are good at and what you are interested in, as long as there is a market for what your specialism is.

7. Releases. Get releases for as much as can. The two main releases that you need are model releases and property releases.  You need a signed, no-objection certificate from them (a model release) for using those photos commercially. You can learn about model release at fotolia. Invite your friends and family and ask them to pose for your photos. ‘People’ photographs are the highest selling stock photos.

8. Create. Create a make-shift ’studio’. Use bright lights, but avoid harsh shadows.Diffuse your lighting through greaseproof paper, pair of old tights etc. Put a simple and clean backdrop (e.g. A3 white paper or card, or light coloured cloth). Use a tripod.

9. Terms and conditions. Read carefully the terms and conditions of each stock photography site. Consider the amount and size of images you can upload. Consider the percentage that you will earn off each sale/download (normally between 20 and 50%) and when you can  claim your earnings (when they reach $30,$50 or $100).

10. Be creative, work hard and use anything in your daily life that may be useful in a magazine, website etc. Research by looking at images in the media : -are they close ups? Blurred background? Include people? Whatever catches your eye when you scan an in -flight magazine or surf the web is likely to catch other’s eyes and therefore needed by a publisher.

Stock is something I never really thought about doing. I just don’t consider my photos “stock-ish” LOL, but yesterday I signed up for an account with Dreamstime. I heard about them from friend/hot mama of 3/photog Aimee (if you’re in PA and need an awesome photographer, check her out!), and figured I’d give it a look … seems like it might be a fun new direction to take I still don’t know if I’m going to do anything with it, but right now it’s giving me an excuse to pull through some of my old non-portrait stuff, and I’m really enjoying it. I’ve come across some things I haven’t seen in a long time … like these guys …

These are just some of the “oldies” I’ve found and rediscovered. Today seems the perfect day for reflection Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a great 2009 and will have an even better 2010!

Here’s a link to a great article from SixRevisions.com about places to get free stock images online. I was actually only aware of about half of these, but will definitely check out others for upcoming projects. Typically, I use iStockPhoto.com or Dreamstime.com for microstock photography, but if you have a client that doesn’t even want to pay for microstock — let’s say it’s pro bono work — you might want to give some of these sites a look. The quality of the photography may vary and not be up to Getty Images standards, but for some projects it may work and save you and your client some cash.

Click here to read the article at sixrevisions.com

=M=

Photo by Terex

Christmas time is here. Year 2009 has reached its end. For Pixmac the year 2009 was a huge succes in microstock! And Vitezslav Valka, CEO of the company is glad to explain the most interesting and challenging parts of the story.

First of all: People

Well, I’m a guy that cares about life satisfaction more than money. And I must say that Pixmac gives me more positive energy than any other company before. We have really a great set of people at Pixmac. Various specialities and various nationalities is what gives me a lesson every day. I’m really happy to have those ladies and gentlemen on board, because without that we can’t meet my first requirement for a successful company: A great customer support.

All that is impossible without this bunch of people: Lucie Navratilova, Michal Prynych, Martin Talavasek, Martin Vlcko, Ondrej Valka & Ondrej Raska.

It’s always about relationship. In personal life same as in business. And at Pixmac, we’re doing our best to have same quality of relationship with customers as we have inside the company. We’re open and positive. Hopefully you feel that too.

Second: New features

We’ve started with reselling of Fotolia photos in 2008 along with our collection. That was our first non-conventional idea in microstock. But as we’re trying to be better every day, we weren’t satisfied with one advantage only. So we’ve added Celebrity content. Actually it was first introduction of traditional celebrity photos to microstock pricing. That was late 2008. In the year 2009, we’ve solved a few more thoughts from our wildest microstock dreams. Let’s look into the backstage of Pixmac. We’re proud of:

• One Stop Shopping – the easiest way to purchase photo online
• 10 million photos for one money – the greatest number in the industry
• Dreamstime – joined the collection
• Image Source – first traditional agency at Pixmac
• Yuri Arcurs – joined Pixmac collection

Third: New countries and challenges

But it’s not about features only. In this international world, not everybody speaks English and it’s not just PayPal and Credit Card what rules the world of payments. The world is sliced to many small parts and cultures. And that’s our biggest challenge at Pixmac. To learn those cultures and to serve them in the right way as a local friend. I must say, it’s difficult job. About ten times more difficult, that what I thought in the beginning. But, we made it! We’re successful in finding new territories.

We’ve started with English site in September 2008 at www.pixmac.com and then our beloved Czech version came in beginning of 2009. Right after that we’ve started all the other versions such as Finnish, Russian, Spanish, Brasilian, German, Dutch, Polish and Austrian. We’ve also experimented with French and Italian languages as we’re playing with UK English site. Some of those languages have also their own Twitter account: Finnish, British English and American. Well, that’s a lot of work for the first year. But we made it together with all the great people in the team:

• Merja Leppinen – lady that introduced Corbis to Finland
• Ania Menzel – loving mother from Poland
• Andrej Iurlov – photographer that lives in Prague is doing Russian Pixmac
• Cathy Mason – has left FedEx to join Pixmac US
• Fernando Cortes – our guy in Argentina
• Daniel Wiedemann – skilled microstocker that does Brasilian Pixmac
• Istvan Loerincz – Austrian Territory Manager speaks Hungarian & German
• Kiran Birring – our fresh & skilled representative in United Kingdom
• Frenk Kaufmann and his lady – Dutch version captains

Well and that’s just the beginning. Because we’re already working on few more territories to explore.

Contests & giveaways

We did a lot of contests over the internet and in the offline world. And also a lot of giveaways. Some of them on our site, some  via Twitter and Facebook. And you may bet on us, that we’re going to make it in 2010 too! Watch twitter.com/pixmac and join our Facebook page, because only there you can be informed about what’s happening inside Pixmac.

Prizes

As a proof of our quality assurance we’ve received Internet Effectiveness Awards 09: The Prize For Innovation and we also were silver at WebExpo 2009. And that’s not all. We’re now working on TRUSTe seal on our site and Verisign certification to become a trusted partner to anyone.

Future

For the future we already have few features in the oven. Oh, do you feel the Christmas spirit? Ok, there are some secrets that may be told only in Christmas time. The first one is iSyndica. We’re going to fully support the great service that helps photographers every day. We’re going to enhance all the scripts we have on site, either jQuery or HTML/CSS. All that is fast, but may be even faster. And we know how to do it. And we’re going to support visual similarity search with a great university help.

Thank you!

And for those that are still reading this blog post there is a one last message: “Thank you for being with us, you’re certainly one of those great people that is interested in Pixmac and that helps us become one of the greatest stock photo agency out there.” Thank you and I wish you peaceful Christmas and successful year 2010!

Now, keep in mind that November, December and January are notably the three slowest months of the year for stock photography, probably because of the holidays and everyone thinking about something other than investing in that new web design.

Well,  November was, again and for the third month in a row, my Best Month Ever! That’s right! Not only did I survive the thanksgiving slow down, but my income grew 7% compared to October.  So let’s see what happened at each agency:

My portfolio at Istockphoto did very well,  it was both my most sales and most income ever at that site.  To think that a year ago I was barely selling 30 photos a month — well, this month I sold 118 photos there. Way to grow. The tally was help by 4 photos selling like hot cakes, well on their way to become my next flames, plus a couple of pecan pie photographs. I didn’t know when I shot them, but they seem to be a seasonal delicacy in the states.  If all goes well, I’ll be crossing the 1000 sales mark later this week or early next week at the most.  That’s one nice milestone to reach. Especially with mostly figurative photos shot without much planning. I can only think how sales will explode next year with my freshly honed new skills!

Over at Shutterstock, things were pretty stable. I had my most sales ever, but arrived just a bit short of my best month (October) revenue-wise. Still, not a bad month, and helped near the end by the fast sales of my fog landscape series.

My performance at Fotolia was sucky as usual — what you read is true: bad acceptance ratio means bad search engine exposure, thus lower sales. I wrecked my stats by deleting my portfolio last fall and then putting it back only to find my deleted files became rejected stats-wise. So.. same portfolio (minus the nature shots which are incredibly hard to get past inspection at that site), but poor sales. Don’t know why I still bother with them, really. They’re lucky they have the fastest submission engine or I’d be gone in a jiff.

StockExpert is still surviving but my sales there were lackluster, no doubt because of the collection transfer at photos.com from Stockexpert’s to Istockphoto’s finally went live mid-month. I still like the site enough to submit my photos there, but I wouldn’t recommend it at this stage. The time used to submit versus the amount of returns is not really worth it anymore.

I finished one penny short of my Best Month Ever at Dreamstime, and enjoyed a 100% acceptance rate for the month. That’s right, none of my submissions got rejected.

Finally, at Veer, things are just not picking up. These guys are benefitting from having my most compact collection, but my best, filled with best sellers at other sites… and yet sales are not taking off. I’ve been there for only 2 months, so I don’t really understand how traffic work there, who the buyers are and what they are looking for.  All I know is that every shot featured in this blog get views, but the others generally do not. I’m nonplussed by this, to say the least.

So all in all, November proved to me that two sites are thriving – Istockphoto rules the single sales market and Shutterstock is king of subscriptions, with Dreamstime doing some nice business and the others ending up in the dust. I can’t really benchmark Fotolia, though, since I appear to be at such a disadvantage there. Perhaps you guys are doing better there? Care to share a few tricks?

© Photographer: Littlemacproductions | Agency: Dreamstime.com

Description:
A black sedan sports vehicle drives fast down a leafy rural road. Blur tree background with reflection of trees on car.

START HERE:

Dear Stock Photography Professionals, Amateur Photographers, Illustrators and Graphic Designers

“Success” is relative …

It was just over two years ago I started to research how to sell my photography when I caught “The Bug” to start selling my images online. In September of 2007 I decided to dedicate two years to explore the possibilities of the incredible world of stock photography. I felt that two years would be enough time to give me a chance to sink my teeth into training myself from any and all sources and to get up to speed, starting basically from scratch, on this rapidly expanding and growing industry. At the time I had never even picked up a photography book or taken a photoshop tutorial. It is now two years later, and while I feel I have come very far and achieved many successes, I find that there is always more to learn. I absolutely love this work !

In July of 2007 I relocated to Washington State after accepting a transfer to work at The Boeing Company’s Commercial Airplane Headquarters in Renton, Washington just outside of Seattle, Washington. Analyzing Market Research was my specialty. Driving out to Washington from Colorado during the course of my relocation I captured a few thousands pictures on a Canon SD750 camera. At that time I was interested in seeing if I could market my images by selling prints of them at festivals, art shows and galleries. It was during this period of research that I discovered the world of commercial stock photography.

My first site that I was approved as a contributor at was BigStockPhoto in September of 2007. For that reason alone I will always have a special place in my heart for them. I found that their entry criteria was not as strict as some of the larger sites. The same applies for 123rf so these are both excellent places to get your first exposure to in selling your photography online. That being said you will want to get into Shutterstock and iStockPhoto as soon as possible. This took me many months to achieve as I was starting from nearly complete scratch with the exception of strong information technology background.  FYI: Recently BigStockPhoto was acquired by the subscription based microstock giant Shutterstock .

Stock Photography Sites are often referred to by short abbreviations. It was more than a little confusing to myself when I first started researching microstock on the various forums so I will list a few abbreviations that you may find useful to know your first time encountering them:

• SS = Shutterstock
• IS = iStockPhoto
• DT = Dreamstime
• FT = Fotolia
• BSP = BigStockPhoto
• MP = MostPhotos
• BME = Best Month Ever
• WME = Worst Month Ever
• BDE = Best Day Ever
• MSG = Microstock Group
• EL = Extended License
• RF = Royalty Free
• Glass = Camera Lens for a DSLR Camera ex. Canon 55-250 IS
• IS = Image Stabilization

My first sale came from the second site that I was approved at as a contributor which was Dreamstime. I initially sought out DT during a time when BigStockPhoto was halting uploading over the weekends. This is just one small example of the kind of roadblocks one faces when it comes to trying to build up an approved portfolio at a microstock agency.

At its most basic level, getting started in microstock photography takes just a few basic steps …

• Check-out the various stock photography links on this blog
• Browse the microstock sites and become familiar and get a feel for the photography on them
• Prepare 3-10 of your best images in accordance to the respective standards of the site you wish to join
• Submit your applications to become a contributor (a.k.a photographer) and get approved to contribute
• Shoot Pictures. Post Process Images in Photoshop. Upload Photos to all sites for review. Repeat.
• Collect the revenue from sales made each month across all sites over the years for the life of the image. Large subscription based sites such as Shutterstock will ultimately produce daily sales for you after your portfolio of approved images grows to a modest size of a few hundred images however credit based sale sites such as iStockPhoto will yield higher commissions at a much slower rate. There is constant debate over which is best. Most stock photographers submit all of their work to each of the most profitable microstock sites.
• Receive your payout after reaching a threshold for each respective site. (ex. $50, $75, $100)

I believe a quick recap of where my interest in photography as a child came from will prove insightful to some readers …

Photography had been an interest of mine since I first began taking snapshot photos with “hand me down” cameras from my parents I was about 9 or 10 years old. It was probably around 1979-1981 ish when I first started using 110 film cameras that I usually borrowed from my mother. The first camera that I actually owned was a Polaroid One Step instant camera. I remember having to pay for my own film. Early on I mowed lawns and later on I worked for the family gas station starting at the age of 10 working for $2.00 / hour. At the very least I know I was responsible for paying for the cartridges of film which were very expensive for around ten photos if I remember correctly. This limited my ability to take pictures as I was saving up to pay my way for a $750.00 30-Day bus tour trip across the country with the Boy Scouts to the National Jamboree in Virginia in 1981. Since the film for my instant camera was so expensive my mother allowed me to borrow her Sony Disc Camera. I took both cameras on my 30-day bus tour “Reunion with History” to the Jamboree. The Statue of Liberty was getting a makeover during our tour but it was still amazing and one of my favorite subjects. However, when I went to the top of the “Twin Towers” World Trade Center, that was my favorite scene. The bridges and skyscrapers of New York City fostered my love for architecture and structures which I later studied at length. I plan to dig up a couple of those first photos of mine from that trip, scan them, and post them here as a point-of-reference …

TIMELINE FOR KEY EVENTS THAT HAD AN IMPACT ON MY STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY:

1981 “Reunion With History” 30-Day Bus Tour of various historical sites of United States with Boy Scouts. Kodak Disc Camera borrowed from parents when I was 12 years old.

1985 Exposure to Mac Paint Graphic Programs on first Macintosh which parents bought 1986 Drafting  1,2,3 Architecture & Architecture Classes 1987-1991 Travel the world while serving in the United States Navy taking photos every step of the way. 1991 Leave the Navy to study Architecture at the University of Arizona. Learn AUTOCAD. 1999 First Photoshop and Image Ready exposure working with web design. 2000 Graduate University of Phoenix Bachelor of Science in Business  Major: Information Systems

2005 May Bought Digital Camera: Canon SD750

2007 July: Relocate to Washington State road trip from Colorado. Research Selling Prints / Selling digital files online.  Research Selling digital negative files

2007 September: Accepted into BSP

2007 October: Accepted into DT / Forum participation

2007 November: Thanksgiving Day 2007 was my 1st Microstock Sale at DT Accepted into Fotolia . BME across all sites. Joined Microstock Group Forum (MSG). 1st SS Application Rejected. Read Photography & Photoshop Books. Study free tutorials from The MIZ and many others.

2007 December: Join Featurepics. Make plans to buy my first DSLR camera by April or May 2008. New BME across all sites. Bus Travel  from Seattle Washington to Denver capturing many photos on this journey. Caught severe flu and ear infections after many winter weather related travel delays.  That took me out of action for most of January and the first part of February …

Illness contracted from December / January travel …

2008 January: New BME across all sites. Stock sales happen even when your down and out sick …

2008 February: Joined MostPhotos . Joined Zymmetrical.  BME’s at DT, BSP, SXP, Met stock photographer suwanneeredhead (Stacey Lynn Brown) through interactions as two of the first few Americans on MP . New BME across all sites.

2008 March: set-up first home studio. Continue to improve work for next SS and IS applications as these are the two largest revenue producing sites for a microstock photographer.  BMEs at DT, FT, 123RF, MP . New BME across all sites. 5th BME in a row.

Got my first DSLR …

2008 April: Buy first DSLR:  a used Canon Rebel XTI a.k.a 400D continue to shoot and begin working with fractals for part of my SS applications.  Not a BME … streak broken …

2008 May: Accepted into Shutterstock the last week of the month after to many applications to count.

2008 May: BME at DT.

2008 June: BME’s at SS, BSP, 123RF, MP. First Full month of Revenue from SS. New BME across all sites.

2008 July: BME’s at DT, BSP, FP, FT. WME at 123RF. Begin using Cushy Stock management software

2008 Sep:  September 25th propose marriage to suwanneereadhead (Stacey Lynn Brown)

2008 Oct:  Mark Payne (mwp1969) & Stacey Lynn Brown (suwanneeredhead) married in Seattle, Washington. First Extended License Sale on SS …  it must have been a belated wedding gift

2008 Dec:  Canon 55-250 IS lens received as Christmas gift from my beloved wife

2009 April: Accepted into iStockPhoto

2009 May: Upgrade to DSLR Canon Rebel XSI a.k.a Canon 450D

2009 June: Began doubling and tripling my upload efforts to all of the sites that I was behind on …

2009 September: Achieve my 300th image approval at SS.

2009 October: BME for number of sales at DT. Close to BMEs at SS & IS. Past 400th approval at SS …

2009 Nov: Achieve next level raise at SS . BMEs at both SS & IS. Roll-out initial microstock related blog.

2009 Dec: Achieve 500 & 600 stock images approved at SS.  Passed 1000 images online at MP. BMEs at IS, DT , 123RF, SXP.

2010 Jan: Pass 700th stock image approved at SS. Pass 1200 images approved at 123RF. Achieved 100 approvals in two weeks at SS.  Vector illustration work. Explore PhotomatrixPro3 for HDR images.  1st application as Vector illustration contributor at IS. BME at SS, FT, SXP.

I am always happy to help someone that is new or “a newbie” try to break into stock photography by submitting their own  images or illustrations for approval to be sold online.  This is a painstaking task if you try to figure  it all out on your own. I offer my own  trials and tribulations to you so that you might be able to avoid some of  them yourself along your way. Thank you in advance for checking out my image and design portfolios.

If your interested in submitting your own images and want to try and get started right away  you can do so through the my referral links which I have provided below and elsewhere on this page.  These links will help you get started with some of the very best, most favorable, and profitable microstock photography sites available on the web. The commissions from the sale of your own images will pay you again and again for the rest of the life so start exploring these sites today ! Thank you in advance for visiting them first through my links.  Signing up through someone’s referral link is one way of saying thank you for the helpful information.

For anyone that is approved to sell their images online after visiting through one my links … please be sure to contact me through the site, and I’ll be happy to assist you in anyway I can when it comes to understanding the nuances of that respective site.

Best of Luck !

-Mark

My Referral Links to Top Producing Microstock Photography Websites:

http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery.mhtml?id=144463

http://www.dreamstime.com/Mwp1969_info

http://www.istockphoto.com/mwp1969

http://www.123rf.com/profile_markpayne

http://us.fotolia.com/partner/200479231

http://www.bigstockphoto.com/?refid=HW16kzhvJX

Midstock Photography Sites:

http://www.mostphotos.com/mwp1969

Our Website:

www.PayneImages.com

]]> http://dreamingblue.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/rose-autunali/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:51:20 +0000 artfinephotography http://dreamingblue.wordpress.com/2009/11/24/rose-autunali/

Rosa autunale foto di morgan capasso

 Stampa su tela 50×50

Serie limitata di 5 stampe prezzo €250

La presente stampa può essere acquistata direttamente online inviando una Mail a info@artfinephotography.net , o presso la nostra galleria;

Art Fine Photography

Via Paolo Zacchia 20, oo161 Roma

tell:0695214163

http://www.artfinephotography.net

Foto di Morgan Capasso

 http://www.fotolia.com/id/3006998

© Photographer: Ciprian.d | Agency: Dreamstime.com

WHERE ARE FINISHED PHOTOS?

Description:
Attractive little boy with photo camera.
Photo taken on: May 21st, 2009

© Photographer: Picsvet | Agency: Dreamstime.com

ApertureFNumber: f/4.5
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS 50D
DateTime: 2009:10:18 01:34:03
ExposureTime: 1/250
FNumber: 45/10
ExposureProgram: 2
ISOSpeedRatings: 100
DateTimeOriginal: 2009:05:21 11:18:12
MaxApertureValue: 4/1
MeteringMode: 5
Flash: 16
FocalLength: 149/1

CLOUDS IN THE SKY

Description:
Beautiful blue sky and some clouds
Photo taken on: June 23rd, 2009

© Photographer: Picsvet | Agency: Dreamstime.com

ApertureFNumber: f/7.1
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS 50D
DateTime: 2009:10:11 17:46:58
ExposureTime: 1/3200
FNumber: 71/10
ExposureProgram: 0
ISOSpeedRatings: 200
DateTimeOriginal: 2009:06:23 14:14:17
MaxApertureValue: 375/100
MeteringMode: 2
Flash: 16
FocalLength: 28/1

Gulf with a beach in Sozopol, Bulgaria.
Photo taken on: May 09th, 2008
GREEN BAY.

© Photographer: Picsvet | Agency: Dreamstime.com

ApertureFNumber: f/4.0
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
DateTime: 2009:11:16 23:09:30
ExposureTime: 1/320
FNumber: 4/1
ExposureProgram: 0
ISOSpeedRatings: 100
DateTimeOriginal: 2008:05:09 06:10:43
MaxApertureValue: 3625/1000
MeteringMode: 5
Flash: 16
FocalLength: 18/1