Extended license on Shutterstock - NYC

This is probably going to be my best selling image after another extended license sold today.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="NYC"][/caption]

I have noticed that this image was used on Amazon.com for Sylvania SYTAB10MT 10-Inch Magni Tablet

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Sylvania SYTAB10MT 10-Inch Magni Tablet"][/caption]

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Extended license on Shutterstock - San Jose City Hall

First day of the month brought me nice surprise, extended license sale on Shutterstock. I have been selling quite a few images from San Jose, California recently so it must by something going on :-)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="San Jose City Hall"][/caption]

The current City Hall of San José California was opened to the public on October 15, 2005, and is located at 200 East Santa Clara Street, San José, California. It was designed by Richard Meier.

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First extended lincense sold on Veer

After long time of no activity I finally I got 3 sales on one image. Two of them where extended license. Apparently somebody bought image first for normal price then purchased additional licenses: Unlimited reproduction and Multi-user.

It was one of my travel shots I took in Balboa Park in San Diego.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Balboa Park"][/caption]

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Another extended license on Carlsbad Caverns photo

I sold EL for this photo in March and now I got another one.  Surprising development because usually nature photos are not big sellers.

Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park located in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico.The primary attraction of the park for most visitors is the show cave, Carlsbad Caverns. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance, or take the elevator (the exit for everyone) directly to the Underground Lunchroom some 750 feet (230 m) below.

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First extended license in March

A little surprise at the end of month was selling one of my oldest photos on Shutterstock.  In 2005 I spent a week in New Mexico and one of the places I visited was Carlsbad Caverns.  It is a biggest cave I have ever seen.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Carlsbad Caverns"][/caption]

Carlsbad Caverns National Park is a United States National Park located in the Guadalupe Mountains in southeastern New Mexico.The primary attraction of the park for most visitors is the show cave, Carlsbad Caverns. Visitors to the cave can hike in on their own via the natural entrance, or take the elevator (the exit for everyone) directly to the Underground Lunchroom some 750 feet (230 m) below.

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Third extended license this month.

This time it is a picture of my daughter playing on the beach. I wonder who/where it going to be used.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Playing on the beach"][/caption]

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Sold HD Video on CanStockPhoto

Can Stock Photo rarely sells anything for me so it was big surprise to see that they sold my footage. Hopefully it will start a trend. Check out my portfolio there.



Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California


Can Stock Photo is one of the world's largest microstock photography agencies, home to thousands of photographers, and tens of thousands of active members from around the world. Representing some of the most talented photographers online, and service clients from small businesses to major television networks.

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New contributor page on Shutterstock - Beta

This "closed beta" test of new landing page packed full of new statistics, a new header and footer and a messaging center. I have been invited to participate in this beta I feel great about this page and new improvements.

Lets take a a quick look at what new.

Pros:
1. Latest Downloads with geographic location of image buyers.
2. Earning statistics
3. Current earning and number of downloads on a top of the page
4. Expandable Message Center below page header


Cons:
1. Page does not fit one screen in resolution 1600x1200
2. According to feedback survey we can see Acceptance Rate, I do not see it.
3. Smallest period for stats is 3 months, I wish to see monthly stats.
4. I wish for more statistics like Return per Download.

[caption id="attachment_769" align="aligncenter" width="214" caption="New Shutterstock Contributor Page"][/caption]

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5D Mark II Firmware 2.0.8 Available

This firmware update (Version 2.0.8) incorporates the following changes and fixes.

• Fixes a phenomenon in which movies are not taken at the shooting mode registered in the user’s settings if a shooting mode Aperture priority (or Shutter priority) is registered in any of the camera’s user settings (C1, C2, C3) and the user attempts to shoot a movie.


• Fixes a phenomenon in which the shutter will not release when pressing the shutter button when the auto power off function is set to “on”.


• Fixes a phenomenon in which overexposure occurs when shooting a Live View shooting simulation with the ISO speed set to L.


• Fixes a phenomenon in which the settings of the Speedlite transmitter ST-E2 revert to the default settings when both the camera and the ST-E2 are set to auto power off.


• Fixes a phenomenon in which the Macro Ring Lite (MR-14EX, MT-24EX) and slave flash do not sync while shooting wirelessly.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="5Dmk2 firmware update"][/caption]

The Version 2.0.8 firmware being released this time is for cameras with firmware up to Version 2.0.7. If the camera's firmware is already Version 2.0.8, it is not necessary to update the firmware.[ad#adsense-1]

Finally, 3rd party 5dmk2/7d batteries

I took a while to reverse engineer Canon batteries. LC-E6 is expensive and sometimes hard to find in stores. The Series 7 SL-E6 is a 7.4v, 1800mAh Lithium Ion battery pack which can charge on the Canon LC-E6. The SL-E6 battery also communicates with the EOS 5D Mark II and 7D digital cameras, allowing you to check the remaining capacity on the camera's power source info screen. The SL-E6 does not have the data chip necessary to provide storeable information on the Canon 5D/7D's battery registry screen.


[caption id="attachment_646" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="SL-E6"][/caption]

It is available on Amazon from $56.49.

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Extended lincense sold

First EL this month: underworld :-)

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Shasta Lake Caverns"][/caption]

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April 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall better than month ago but far from BME. Good news is that SS made new record and dominated results this month. Second time this year I got BME form SS which is really good start. Let's look at other top 5 guys. 123RF came second. Great result in comparison to last year but after BME in January it cannot repeat its success and it is going slightly down every month. Still much better than others. Fotolia grows, slowly but steadily. It is enough be be third. Surprising result form CSP due to one Fotosearch Medium Regular sales. It happened after a month of no activity. DT is really down. Something is going on there, I got unusually high rejection rates and almost no growth in sales. IS on the other hand seems to grow. It is still 1/15th of what SS does but it is way better that last year. I wish ThinkStock result were posted faster cause it is now almost half of normal IS sales.


Apr Apr/mar
SS 63.91% 135.89%
123RF 10.12% 76.13%
FT 8.71% 159.99%
CSP 5.10% 4700.00%
DT 5.09% 50.32%
IS 5.08% 84.18%
BS 1.45% 80.00%
CS 0.54% 120.00%
108.13%


[caption id="attachment_618" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="April 2010 Microstock"][/caption]

Let's look at 2010 trends:
[caption id="attachment_619" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="April 2010 Microstock Trends"][/caption]

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Three extended licenses sold in one day

Never happened to me before. It looks like somebody needed photos of California missions :-)


[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Mission San Luis Rey de Francia"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Mission San Luis Rey de Francia"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Mission San Francisco de Asis"][/caption]

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Zoonar and Polylooks content offer

The first 200,000 images to be uploaded to Zoonar and then also accepted as image content for Polylooks will receive 0.15€ per image! Your images are provided on a non-exclusive basis, that means you can still make them available through other channels/platforms There’s only one condition to get your cash is: The photographer details that you give to Zoonar will be passed onto Polylooks image portal. Also the images are to be sold on a royalty free basis. The offer will end as soon as 200,000 images are accepted by Polylooks. You will be able to follow the daily update of the running total by visiting the Zoonar website.

Here’s how it works:

1. Register with Zoonar


2. In your Profile area, click to accept the partner "Polylooks"


3. Upload your images with the cost-free Media Manager from Zoonar


4. Activate ‘Royalty Free Licence’ for all your images


5. Assign clearance to your images that have successfully passed the Zoonar editorial check

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March 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall it was 14% less than previous month in which I got two BMEs established. First think you may noticed is no data from StockXpert. They are gone. Images are left in void. No time-line is given on when images are going to be transferred to Getty's new site ThinkStock. We got new top 5 now. IS takes missing spot which means that 10% of my income has gone and is going to be replaced by site that generates 3%. On a bright side, 123RF and DT seem to be growing slowly so maybe over time they would compensate for a loss of SXP. FT is dormant and IS is low as usual. Surprise on this month chart was created by YAY. They accumulated all third-party sales from last year and put it as one big sale on a random picture. Very bad, no information which images were sold or how many times. All others are dead or barely alive.


Mar Mar/Feb
SS 52.24% 79.69%
123RF 14.77% 93.05%
DT 11.22% 206.50%
YM 8.96%
FT 6.05% 132.54%
IS 3.99% 66.89%
BS 2.01% 111.11%[ad#adsense-1]
CS 0.50%
Veer 0.14%
CSP 0.12% 10.71%
Total 96.67%


[caption id="attachment_584" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Microstock 2010-03"][/caption]

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My first customer refund

It hasn't happened to me so far in almost two years of selling images on internet. Maybe some agencies would not even bother notifying contributors, but I got this email this morning from Dreamstime:

Dear Mariusz,

Due to reasons which are beyond our control, we are sorry to let you know that [some $$$] have been removed from your earnings as result of a refund for file IDs 5327340.

Possible refund reasons:
- Accidental download;
- Credit card fraud with mandatory refund issued at request to real card holder;
- Duplicate download;
- Incorrect size/format/license purchased;
- License update;
- Performance issues (misspellings in texts, quality);


Due to the high volume of daily transactions, we cannot provide additional clarification on the refund performed. Measures are always taken for the licenses to be withdrawn and images deleted. Any subsequent unlicensed usage is liable to legal action and penalties.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

I understand that my images were not good enough or not popular enough in the past so maybe that's why it did not happen before. Agency admits they cannot protect my images from stealing. I wonder if somebody steals Sony TV from a store it would ask Sony to give them money back. Normal stores at least got some security to prevent such loss. Microstock agency does not care, they ask contributor to cover their loss. If it was fraud store should take the hit.

Now let's thing about refunding money for digital media download. I am sorry but image download is not a software download. You can somehow deactivate software if you issue refund. You cannot do that with digital image. If somebody downloads a file accidentally it will not be returned when money is refunded. I wonder how enforceable is requirement to delete image if you got refund? There are no tools to track image usage on internet. Unless somebody gets caught with thousands of images acquired this way it is not worth any legal actions. Also because we contributors cover losses agency does not have any incentive to make any actions. All similar reasons are just perfect excuse for stealing image. All downloads should be final. I am sorry but we are not
talking about accidentally spending $100 per image it's usually close to $1.

Have you seen this image somewhere?


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5D Mark II Firmware 2.0.4 Available

That was quick. A day after announcing bugs in latest firmware Canon releases update. I did not have time to really try previous one but I will probably upgrade to this version and next time wait couple more days before jumping on freshly released update ;-)

[caption id="attachment_562" align="alignnone" width="722" caption="Firmware 2.0.4 Release"][/caption]

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Canon confirms problems with latest firmware upgrade

A day after its release of the firmware 2.0.3, there are lot of reports about issue with audio functionality Custom modes. Canon is working on update to address it. They recommend to register your camera so you notified via e-mail when future firmware updates become available for download.

[caption id="attachment_556" align="alignnone" width="561" caption="Firmaware 2.0.3 bug"][/caption]

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EOS 5D Mark II Firmware Upgrade 2.0.3

Canon today pre-announces the release of a firmware update for the multiple award-winning EOS 5D Mark II. Originally announced in late 2009, the update adds 24 and 25 frames per second (fps) recording to the camera’s EOS MOVIE video function, and will be available as a free download from the middle of March.



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February 2010 earnings breakdown

This was a good month overall. Slightly less (-16%) than previous month which was BME if you look at total revenue. It happened because 123RF did extremely well. This time it did very good so it grabs second place but it was half of what was in January. I am happy to announce new record from SS after 18 months from the last BME. Also I am observing increase from IS. It's very slow but they keep growing few percent every month and this month it gives them 3rd place. It is mostly because my other top 5 performers did not increase contributions very much. For DT and FT it was OK month so they have to do better than that. SXP stop contributing at the beginning of month so in result they dropped from top 5. It does look like transition to ThinkStock has happened yet. I am keeping my fingers crossed, it is good start of the year but you cannot tell if this trend will last.


Feb Feb/Jan
SS 63.37% 123.86% BME
123RF 15.34% 40.42%
IS 5.77% 157.75% BME
DT 5.25% 116.42%
FT 4.41% 118.93%
SXP 3.03% 50.98%
BS 1.75% 150.00%
CSP 1.09% 254.55%
Total 83.88%




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