Microstock Infos

Graphic Leftovers is Now GL Stock Images

2012-01-25T09:48:00.000-08:00

They have got a new look and a new name!

They are excited to announce that Graphic Leftovers is now GL Stock Images. The newly redesigned site has many new features! Here are just a few:

New Tiered Pricing and Image Sizes

In addition to their large images, they will be offering two new image sizes: small and medium. These smaller sizes are perfect for website or blog projects, and prices start at just $1.

New Pricing Categories

Vectors: $6, $10, $15
Large Jpeg: $6, $10, $15
Medium Jpeg: $3, $5, $7
Small Jpeg: $1, $2, $3

Image Buying Made Easier

They have made some changes to help make buying images and managing your account easier. Here are a few new features:

New organized Dashboard for easy account management
Detailed transaction history with image thumbnails and size/license information
Upgrade licensing or image size easily on previously purchased images
Redownload purchased images and print purchase receipts for your records
Add images to your Favorites quickly by rolling over the image
New site messaging system for immediate help
Improved search with options to view 24, 48 or 96 images per page
20% Cash bonus on deposits of $100 or more
And much, much more.

GL Galleries

GL Stock Images newest collection, GL Galleries, consists of hand-selected themed images to help you find the perfect group or series of images quickly.

German search functionality expands reach of Photokore, Asia's fastest growing stock photography website

2012-01-22T10:13:00.000-08:00

Asian stock photo agency, Photokore, continues expansion beyond Asia with addition of German image search function. Visitors can now search for images on Photokore in 6 Asian languages and 4 European languages.

January 2012 - Photokore, Asia's most dynamic stock photo site, announces the addition of German to their list of online search languages. Visitors to www.photokore.com can now search for stock images in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian, Thai, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and German.

The continued addition of non-Asian search languages highlights Photokore's commitment to expanding the reach of their images beyond Asia. Non-Asian images buyers gain access to the images created by Photokore's Asian artists, most which have previously never been available outside Asia.

In addition to the multiple search languages offered, Photokore also provides landing pages in additional languages - Filipino, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Arabic and Russian.

The introduction of non-Asian search functionality, is an integral part of Photokore's plans to give their Asian artists exposure beyond Asia.

According to Sean Mooney, president and CEO of Photokore, there is a wealth of creative imagery created in Asia that has not been exposed outside the region. The addition of search functionality in non-Asian languages allows image buyers from around the world to access our collection of unique photos and illustrations."

Photokore is a royalty-free stock photography site dedicated to offering the best Asian images to the world, and high quality global images to the Asian market.

Visitors to photokore.com can also search for images in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Thai, Hindi, English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. Landing pages are also available in Arabic, Filipino, Russian, Vietnamese, and German.

All photos and illustrations on photokore.com can be licensed for creative use - whether on a personal website, or in a global marketing campaign - at prices ranging from US$2 - US$40.

For more information, contact help ( @ ) photokore dot com

• Follow Photokore on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Photokore
• Follow Photokore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photokore.international
• Follow Photokore on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PhotokoreAsia
• Photokore:s Blog: http://en.blog.photokore.com

picWorkflow 2011 - 2012

2012-01-19T14:46:00.000-08:00

What happened at picWorkflow in 2011, and what are the plans for the year 2012? Lets take a closer look:

What happened in 2011?

picWorkflow:
- added photo keywording and captioning services
- a TON of interface-tweaks, so you can now…
  - Sort your workspace
  - Search your workspace
  - Check for metadata quality
  - Maximise the workspace view
  - Toggle larger thumbnails/previews
  - Set destinations ‘on’ import
  - Buy keywords/captions ‘on’ import
  - Download keyworded/captioned images manually
  - Check metadata quality against agency requirements
  - Copy/paste captions across images
  - Check your images for spelling errors
  - and MANY more
- Export from lightroom to microstock agencies
- Use our photo keywording/captioning API
- Retrieve picNiche-rated highlights for your existing keywords
- Embed image promotion widgets of all your agency portfolios in your website/blog
- Agencies can now set themselves as a free-destination for uploads (Depositphotos took PicWorkFlow first ever sponsor spot
- More free distribution in the ‘free usage’ tier AND free distribution for images with purchased keywords
released the first cross-agency stock photo search mobile app
presented at StockInRussia and posted my presentation about the mature microstock marketplace on youtube
presented at Microstock Expo, the microstock expo presentations are all online here
shared picNiche data into the keyword workflow on Leaf’s excellent microstock keywording tool
Blog highlights:
- Microstock 2011 – an Infographic Review all big the events of 2011 in the Microstock industry and a bunch of data I’ve pulled together throughout the year
- TOP 1000 Stock Photo Buyer’s Searches
- Do microstock agencies violate photographer’s DMCA copyright?
- And others

What’s coming in 2012?

Model release management will be along in January
The picWorkflow retouching service should be along within the first month or two of the year
Review service will be added for agencies to reduce reviewing costs (and provide better and more ‘actionable’ feedback for photographers)
To improve workflow a LOT… picWorkflow will soon have an agency-api so they can ask picWorkflow for data about an image during submission
Free storage (currently 7 days) will be extended significantly (secured backup storage will still be available for additional payment.
Pre-review service for photographers so you can have someone else select which images should go where and provide you feedback on improving your portfolio
Geo-tagging interface is in-development
SEO-friendly portfolio mini-sites will be coming to help increase the search-engine visibility of your images on the microstock agencies.
PicWorkflow is also looking at some social-media stuff, though using it in a non-spammy way is hard as they like to release something genuinely useful (not the spambots most microstock sites are doing already).
‘Social’ and promotion distribution (Flickr, Zazzle, etc etc) with watermarking and promo-metadata
Shoot management and performance metrics (also toying with the idea of putting a model-user type in there too so your TFD models can download their images directly in web-friendly sizes)
PicWorkflow also discussing partnering with the excellent Stock Performer to include microstock earnings stats into picWorkflow to really bring together some useful charts and the like for anyone who also uses their tool. (Soooo glad they’ve built it, and in a very innovative way… best possiblity I’ve seen yet for reliable earnings-stats collection)

Website: http://www.picWorkflow.com

Bigstock Celebrates 10 Million Royalty Free Images

2012-01-18T07:29:00.000-08:00

Doubling its collection over the past 12 months, Bigstock continues its commitment to high-quality photos and illustrations, making it a major player in the stock image space.

NEW YORK, January, 2012 /PRNewswire/ Bigstock announced today that it has added its 10-millionth image to its rapidly growing collection of high-quality stock photos and illustrations, making it one of the largest collections of licensable visual media on the web. This accomplishment enhances the company's recently announced Pay-As-You-Go pricing option, which makes it easy for customers to buy as many or as few images as they need with just one click.

"We're really excited about this accomplishment and believe it makes us the ultimate destination for freelancers and small businesses to purchase high-quality, useful images," said Ben Pfeifer, General Manager of Bigstock. "We remain committed to growing the library and believe this is the first of many milestones, as more and more people need images to communicate marketing or editorial messages," he said.

To celebrate adding its 10 millionth image, Bigstock is giving away a coveted light-field Lytro camera to one lucky customer. Each time users purchase an image from the site during the month of January, they'll be entered to win. Visit www.BigstockPhoto.com for details and rules.

About Bigstock
Bigstock is one of the world's leading royalty-free image companies. Founded in 2004, the company's mission is to provide affordable, high-quality photos, vectors and illustrations that meet the dynamic needs of today's design community, small businesses and freelancers. With over 10 MM images in its library and counting, Bigstock continually seeks out the best content from the brightest contributors around the world, and offers simple credit and Pay-as-you-go pricing options.

Bigstock is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shutterstock (www.shutterstock.com), the world's largest subscription-based stock image company.

Corbis Acquires Norm Marshall Group

2012-01-12T05:49:00.000-08:00

Acquisition of Global Entertainment Marketing and Product Placement Leader Provides Unprecedented Capabilities to Connect Global Brands with Entertainment

SEATTLE & LOS ANGELES (January, 2012) - Corbis, a leading visual content and services providerfor the creative and entertainment communities and parent companyof GreenLight, a global media licensing consultancy, todayannounced it has purchased Norm Marshall & Associates (NMAGroup). The NMA Group is the world-leader in entertainmentmarketing and product placement. The terms of the acquisition werenot disclosed.

"Corbis is committed to helpingglobal brands break through the clutter of today's advertisingmarket by providing the industry's first comprehensive andintegrated approach to connect brands with global entertainment,"said Gary Shenk, chief executive officer of Corbis. "By combiningNMA Group's strengths in product placement and entertainmentmarketing with GreenLight's expertise in celebrity and musicclearances, we now offer unprecedented connectivity between globalbrands and the entertainment community."

Established in 1979, Norm Marshall& Associates (NMA Group) is the leading entertainment marketingagency representing the world's top brands to the entertainmentindustry through product placement, promotions, entertainment mediaoutreach and celebrity seeding. NMA has coordinated thousands oficonic placements in some of the industry's most renowned film andtelevision productions. NMA's roster of clients features theworld's most recognized brands including General Motors, Heineken,Motorola, Puma and Xbox.

"We have been connectingglobal brands with the industry's premiere film and broadcastproductions for over 30 years," said Norm Marshall, chief executiveofficer and founder of the NMA Group. "With the entertainmentindustry model rapidly shifting toward digital and interactivedistribution, Corbis' global footprint and existing relationshipsin the entertainment and creative industries will allow us toexpand our services, increase our global reach and accelerategrowth."

"The full suite of specialtyservices NMA and GreenLight offers is unmatched in the markettoday. We provide global brands and agencies a turnkey solution forall of their entertainment marketing needs including productintegration and entertainment tie-ins, talent negotiations, rightsclearances, music licensing, red carpet events and celebrityseeding to name a few," said Mark Owens who will lead the combinedNMA Group and GreenLight entities.

The NMA Group acquisition is thesecond made by Corbis in the past six months. In July 2011, Corbisacquired Splash News, the global leader for candid celebrityphotography, making Corbis the leading destination forentertainment photography from exclusive portraiture to red carpetto candid celebrity images. Together with GreenLight, Corbis nowoffers the entertainment industry's only complete solution forbrand integration with entertainment across all types of media.

NMA Group will operate underthe Corbis brand as an independent business unit.

# # #

About Corbis
Corbis is a leading digital media company empoweringadvertisers, publishers and other media producers to break throughthe industry clutter through deep access to, and integration withthe world's great creative content. Corbis has offices in NorthAmerica, Europe, Asia and Australia that serve more than 50countries.

About GreenLight

GreenLight, a Corbis company, is a global entertainmentconsultancy providing corporate, advertising and media clientsaccess to music, film, celebrities and all things Hollywood.GreenLight works with the world's leading advertising agencies andbrands to enable innovative advertising, packaging, and products.With the "GreenLight Guarantee", clients secure permissions quicklywith competitive pricing through the firm's deep industryconnections and are protected for the cleared uses.

GreenLight's rights representation group manages the personalityrights of iconic personas including Albert Einstein, The WrightBrothers, Steve McQueen, Thomas Edison, Charlie Chaplin and JohnnyCash. For more information, visit www.greenlightrights.com.

About The NMA Group
Founded in 1979 as Norm Marshall & Associates, Inc., NMA isan originator in the field of corporate representation within theentertainment sector and is widely recognized as a world leaderspecializing in entertainment marketing strategy, product placementand consumer promotions. In 2008, NMA established VanguardEntertainment Media Marketing Group as part of a broader NMA GROUPumbrella, a division that specializes in content partnerships andEntertainment and Lifestyle media relations. Brands represented byThe NMA Group include General Motors, Heineken, Xbox, Luxottica,Puma, Motorola, The American Cancer Society and Dunkin Brands. Theagency is headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, and has affiliateoffices in New York City, New York and London, United Kingdom.Learn more at www.nmagrp.com.

Corbis® Images and The Associated Press Launch their Unparalleled Media Offering to Customers

2012-01-12T05:24:00.000-08:00

Customers have access to the world’s most compelling editorial and creative imagery in the market

Seattle, Washington (January, 2012) - Corbis Images (www.corbisimages.com) andThe Associated Press ( www.ap.org) today launched their Media offering that providescustomers unprecedented access to more than 10 million imagescovering an unparalleled range of breaking news, sports andentertainment, archival and creative images.

This comprehensive cross-distribution partnership combines thestrengths of two of the world's leading organizations forcompelling and authoritative imagery. Corbis has traditionally ledthe industry in advertising, commercial and archival images, whileThe Associated Press is the industry leader in breaking news,sports and entertainment, and an archival news photo collectiondating back more than 90 years. Beginning today, customers haveaccess to the industry's most comprehensive, end-to-end editorialoffering available today across many subjects and industryverticals.

AP Images, the commercial photo licensing division of TheAssociated Press, will make available thousands of breaking news,sports, and entertainment images each day and more than 5 millionarchival photos. AP, a not-for-profit cooperative headquartered inNew York, has won 30 Pulitzer Prizes for its photography.
"With The Associated Press' breaking content and venerablecollection Corbis will provide its customers with the mostdifferentiated editorial offering available in the market today,"said Corbis' SVP of Media Products, Barak Ronen.

"Combining AP's award-winning collection of breaking news andother editorial photography with Corbis' extraordinary collectionof creative and historical imagery provides our customers access tothe most comprehensive content available anywhere," said AP ImagesVice President, Fernando Ferre.
Under the agreement, Corbis images will be available on APImages' portal, www.apimages.com/corbis.aspx,and AP photographs will be available on the Corbis website at www.corbisimages.com. These collections will be available onthe two sites beginning today for customers in the UnitedStates.

See a sample of the comprehensive range of images that will beavailable through AP and Corbis at http://www.ap.org/AP_Corbis/slides/index.html

###

About Corbis Images
Corbis Images is a leading visual media provider foradvertising, marketing and media professionals, providing acomprehensive selection of stock photography and illustrations.Corbis Images has exceptional creative, documentary, archival, fineart, current events, and entertainment images to help the creativecommunity produce distinctive work for web sites, magazines,newspapers, books, television, and films. Corbis Images serves itsglobal customer base through its renowned Sales & Service teamsand its fast, intuitive web site at www.corbisimages.com.Corbis has offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australiathat serve more than 50 countries.

Corbis Social Media
Corbis Blog: Corbis Blog
Corbis on Twitter: @CorbisImages
Corbis Images on Facebook: CorbisImages
Corbis Images on YouTube: CorbisComms
Corbis Contributor website: http://contributor.corbis.com/

About AP
The Associated Press is the essential global news network,delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world toall media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is thelargest and most trusted source of independent news andinformation. On any given day, more than half the world'spopulation sees news from AP.

AP Social Media
AP Images on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ap_images
AP Images on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/APImages

MostPhotos 2011 - 2012

2012-01-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

Today I received a letter from MostPhotos CEO Arian Bahrami that recaps 2011 and gives an overview of what is to come in 2012:

It’sbeen a great start to the New Year. Our image library just passed the ambitiousmilestone of two million photos, and I want to thank all our contributors forthat.

2011 wasthe year when we started our first marketing campaign, kicking off with theSwedish market. The reception has been great, and our customers are evenhappier than we could ever have anticipated.

This past year, as we entered the market, we decided to put a lot of effortinto creating functionalities that would benefit our users. Among other things,we improved the online shopping
experience with international invoice support, and introduced more attractivebundle options such as the ‘monthly’ and ‘download’ packages. In addition, wenow have organisation support and collections, and we also have the requestfeature that was created during the year.

Alongside all this, development during 2011 has revolved primarily aroundinternationalisation, with localisation into different languages, multilingualsearch, and support for different currencies.

Last but definitely not least, we’ve been busy building a brand new, powerfulsearch engine with some unique filtering options. The release date has not yetbeen confirmed, but we expect to launch our new search engine sometime thisSpring.

2012 willbe the year when we take on the remaining Scandinavian markets in order toboost our sales. The focus will still be on selling our monthly bundles, asthat’s where the huge majority of the sales are coming from. As last year wepushed mainly to improve the experience for photo buyers, so 2012 will be theyear when we really improve the experience for our contributors, with new,interesting and useful features.

To summarise, Mostphotos has a plan: to become the biggest by doing stuffdifferently. With that in mind, I want to leave you with a quote fromGandhi:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then youwin.”

I wish you all the very best for 2012.

Photokore Launch of Blogs!

2012-01-04T05:18:00.000-08:00

Photokore announced today the start of new blogs. Many of you have asked when we were going to launch a blog. We’re delighted to announce that we’ve just launched four blogs (English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) to kick-off 2012!

As a start, our blogs contain basic information regarding stock photography, microstock, stock photography terminology (for those of you new to stock photography), as well as access to our tutorials. In addition, we’ll be posting articles on subjects you have asked about.

We hope you’ll find our blog of interest, and let us know what subjects you find of interest. And of course, we welcome any suggestions you have for future postings!

As we continue to develop www.photokore.com, you can expect even more news in the future!

Alamy appoints new VP of Sales for North America

2012-01-04T05:05:00.000-08:00

Alamy kick starts next phase in USA sales strategy with recruitment of new VP of Sales for North America.

Pioneering stock photography agency, Alamy, has recruited Adam Goldberg as vice president of sales for North America. Adam is leaving the post of director of corporate development at Corbis to join the company at the start of January.

Adam Goldberg commented: “Alamy has proven itself a tremendous resource for advertising, marketing and publishing professionals the world over. I'm excited to join the Alamy team and look forward to bringing its combination of amazing photography and client-focused services to the broader North American market.”
Rachel Wakefield, Alamy’s head of sales said “Adam has a high calibre 20 year career in the stock photo industry and brings a wealth of experience which will be vital to our ambitious sales plans for the USA.”
Alamy first opened its Brooklyn office in 2009 and is achieving 30% annual growth in the US market.

About Alamy
Alamy is the world’s largest online stock photo site. It connects thousands of designers, marketing departments, news desks, and publishers with some of the best professional and amateur photographers around.

Alamy does not make editorial judgements on pictures, nothing is rejected providing the quality is acceptable – it lets the customer choose the pictures they want.
Alamy’s revolutionary approach to the stock photography business means 60 percent of each sale is paid to the content owner – the lion’s share of the revenue earned.

Stock Photography Sales Statistic December 2011

2012-01-02T11:03:00.000-08:00

This is my stock photography sales statistic for December 2011. You can find a complete list of stock photography agencies that I work with here.

These are for me the best 4 performing stock agencies for December 2011:

As I was suspecting it (vacation drop), December had a decrease of 20% compared to November and an increase of 21% compared to December 2010. Comparing 2011 to 2010 I had an increase of 26%. It was the best month ever for Pixmac.

(This statistic include referral earning at the different agencies)

Alamy hits 27 million

2011-12-31T06:24:00.000-08:00

* 5 million stock images added to Alamy this year
* Content boosted by upsurge in US contributor numbers
* Alamy now represents 600 picture agencies and archive collections

Alamy finishes 2011 with an amazing 27 million images online and for the first time has added more than 5 million images in a 12 month period. The collection has been boosted by an upsurge in registrations, content from US contributors and increased submissions of news and reportage images.

US contributor recruitment has been led by Alex Bortkiewicz, Director of Photography, who has spent the year targeting US photographers. The content team also attended PACA and Visual Connections which boosted picture agency submissions. Alamy now represents 600 picture agencies and archive collections.

Rachel Wakefield, Alamy’s Head of Sales commented: “Our image collection continues to diversify and we are complementing it with the addition of video clips in 2012. It is important to continue to offer our customers the best choice of content, delivered through the fastest search engine and supported by the most efficient customer service”.

maXx images Introduces living4media.ca

2011-12-21T16:49:00.001-08:00

One of Canada's leading rights managed and royalty free stock photography agencies, www.maxximages.com, introduces living4media.ca - home and living.

VANCOUVER, BC, December 17, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- maXx images, in conjunction with StockFood, is pleased to introduce living4media - a new picture agency specializing in home and living photography. The concept behind living4media is to unite the most outstanding images produced by internationally renowned photographers and well-known niche agencies under one roof.

living4media will offer images covering every aspect of contemporary domestic life: in the interiors section, there will be photographs of unique dream houses, designer villas and city apartments, illustrating examples of contemporary lifestyle trends and offering interior design inspiration. Other subject areas include DIY and renovation as well as creative ideas for craftwork and home decoration. There's also a full range of photographs of outdoor life at living4media.ca, such as stunning gardens, inspirational patio designs and creative ideas for private gardens.

The new premium collection focuses on rights-managed images as well as feature articles. living4media features include up to 50 individual images and comprehensive texts, and are available for exclusive licensing.

The uncompromising quality for which StockFood is already known will provide the model for living4media's own high standards. As maXx images and StockFood Canada's president Dave Maquignaz emphasizes, "Over the past few decades, StockFood and maXx images have worked together to provide our clients with extraordinary stock photography. With living4media, a similar formula will be used ensuring an indispensible image resource in the world of home and living."

The living4media website is also bound to impress thanks to innovative functionality, including one of the first drag-and-drop lightboxes found in the picture agency industry. Cumbersome clicking is now a thing of the past.

The new agency will fill a gap in the range of image providers on the professional photo market. living4media Global Managing Director Martin Skultety points this out clearly: "Numerous professional image users have remarked on the lack of a strong and independent supplier of high quality content in this field, offering a full range of expert services. That vacant niche in the market has now been filled by living4media. The track records of both StockFood and maXx images means customers can rely on living4media for outstanding imagery and exceptional service."

MaXx Images Inc.
StockFood Canada
Living4media
1433 Rupert St., Suite 3A
North Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada, V7J 1G1
p. 604-985-2560
f. 604-985-2590
toll free. 1-888-511-3939
http://www.maxximages.com
http://www.stockfood.ca
http://www.living4media.ca
info@maxximages.com

Background information: maXx images Inc., established in 1994, is a stock photography agency located in Vancouver, Canada. Working closely with our select group of professional photographers and strategic global partners, maXx images represents over 10.5 million rights managed, royalty free and subscription images making us one of North America's leading creative sources for imagery. maXx images also manages StockFood Canada, http://www.stockfood.ca, the world's leading source of food and beverage stock photography.

All You Can Stock

2011-12-20T08:09:00.000-08:00

All You Can Stock is a worldwide marketplace for high quality royalty free stock photography, illustration and art.

The site http://allyoucanstock.com was launched in June, 2011 on the sole purpose of building a community of professional photographers, graphic designers and artists to exhibit and sell their art works on the international market.

We recognize the fact that there are numerous stock photo agencies on the market however we believe that our approach and philosophy make a difference. What are those specialties?

Stock Ordering We believe that even having millions of stocks might not satisfy all needs as consumers' imaginations are infinite. We introduced a functionality for ordering tailor-made stock to optimize supply and demand. Once the order is submitted artists get notified and can contribute.
Free Pricing We provide free pricing as we believe that artists have to have full control over their portfolio. While uploading a stock artists can set the price and also they can adjust it anytime later on. It does not only give freedom to the owner but also follow the free market philosophy.
Art as Stock Besides standard categories like Photo and Illustration we came up with an unusual category called Art. The idea behind it is to sell a e.g. painting as a stock. We are not selling the physical artwork but the photo of the artwork as a stock. We are proud that we already showcase artworks from well known contemporary artists e.g. Reka Somogyi or Igor Eugene Prokop - in our store.
Competitive Royalty Rates We maintain competitive royalty rates which is as of now 75% for all artists.
Advertizing Artists We do take part in advertizing artists' book launches and exhibitions.
Direct Payment Buyers can buy stocks directly with a credit card. All payments go through PayPal.

On 1st of December we announced our existence to the micro-stock world. Since then we are experiencing a steep exponential growth with a daily volume of 200-300 uploads and ~3000 page-views. As of today we have 90 contributors from 15 countries around the world.
Our team is constantly improving the usability and look and feel of the site and announcing latest updates on social media channels.

Please visit us on http://allyoucanstock.com and join! Should you have any quires please send e-mail to: contact@allyoucanstock.com

Dreamstime Reports Record Year with More Than 4.2 Million Customers

2011-12-16T05:52:00.000-08:00

Nashville, TN – December, 2011 – Dreamstime, a leading stock photography community, announced today that it saw consistently strong growth throughout 2011, solidifying its place as a global leader in the stock photography market. Since 2007, Dreamstime’s customer base has grown from 350,000 to the more than 4.2 million customers it boasts today. With this rapid growth, Dreamstime has positioned itself as a major supplier of high quality digital images at incredibly low prices with the second largest community of registered stock image users.

Dreamstime celebrated another milestone this year: the website’s 12 millionth photo uploaded by a contributor. Since its inception in 2004, Dreamstime’s collection of images has grown more than 400 times. This means community members have access to one of the largest stock image collections in the world, including more than 300,000 free images. Unlike other websites, Dreamstime editors carefully review and approve all images submitted by the community’s photographers to ensure every image is risk free for customers to download. With image downloads occurring once every three seconds, it is clear that the variety of images is driving customers to purchase from the website.

“Above all else, Dreamstime respects and supports its members, making a point to be engaged, listen and communicate directly with us. Their customer service is always professional and friendly, and they go the extra mile to ensure any issues or questions are solved quickly,” says Mandy Godbehear, a Dreamstime photographer. “Because of Dreamstime’s dedication to its community, I know, as a photographer, that my portfolio and my interests are in good hands.”

Always looking to leverage new technology for the benefit of its artist contributors, Dreamstime implemented a variety of features dedicated to meeting customer needs and enhancing value over the last year. Recognizing an opportunity to help its large and active community protect their images and also educate customers about image copyright, Dreamstime introduced Infringement Reporter. An industry first, this tool streamlines the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notification process and provides contributors a quick and easy way to notify website owners when they are misusing a photo.

Focusing on the needs of its global customers, Dreamstime also started offering geo-tagged images using Google Maps and Google Earth. Now contributors are able to precisely add a location to images, streamlining the search process for designers creating materials with a certain geographical or tourism focus.

“People across the globe are turning to Dreamstime for their imagery needs and we pride ourselves on providing each customer with a seamless experience,” said Serban Enache, CEO of Dreamstime. “This is an important milestone for Dreamstime, and to serve our fast growing customer base, we remain focused on developing and enhancing offerings and solutions that drive additional value for everyone.”

About Dreamstime

Dreamstime is a distinguished leader in stock photography, a major supplier of high quality digital images to the world’s largest advertising agencies, national and international magazines, and film and television production companies. Today, with more than 12.6 million images, Dreamstime is currently the second leading agency in total customers with over 12 million unique visitors monthly to the site, making it one of the most popular web sites in the world. The acceleration in numbers overall makes it the fastest growing stock photo agency worldwide. In addition to the current 300,000 free images available, Dreamstime’s active gallery is updated by the second with photos from the site’s 127,000-plus contributors. For more information on Dreamstime, please visit: www.Dreamstime.com.

Getty Images Announces Partnership With Zazzle

2011-12-14T08:25:00.000-08:00

Zazzle to Feature Getty Images’ Premium Branded Photographic Collections from a Diverse Range of Content Partners

NEW YORK – Getty Images, Inc., a leading creator and distributor of digital media, today announced a global agreement with Zazzle, the world's leading platform for quality custom products, which merges rich content and digital-to-print service. The partnership provides Zazzle with real-time access to Getty Images’ premium branded imagery collections through the Getty Images’ API, from LIFE to the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) for the creation of print-on-demand (POD) products.

Getty Images is a recognized leader in photographic excellence and the accredited photo supplier to more than 50 international sports leagues and governing bodies housing the most prolific sports collection including Major League Lacrosse (MLL), Major League Soccer (MLS) and Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) among others. For the first time, up-to-the-minute imagery of iconic sports moments from Getty Images’ roster of Sports League content partners will be available for custom publishing.

“Getty Images is delighted to announce our partnership with Zazzle, which enables our content partners to reach a whole new audience through Zazzle’s extensive network,” said Peter Orlowsky, Vice President of Business Development for Getty Images. “With a growing need for compelling editorial and creative imagery in custom publishing, Getty Images’ foray into the print-on-demand marketplace unites our exclusive content partners with Zazzle’s vast array of user-driven merchandise options and distribution channels to make unforgettable moments available in real time for high-volume consumption.”

Getty Images unrivalled sports collection includes over 2,500 commercial sport clients across four continents and partnerships with the world’s most prestigious sports leagues including Major League Lacrosse (MLL), Major League Baseball (MLB), Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and Professional Golf Association (PGA). Getty Images offers 30 years of experience, knowledge and understanding of the creation, monetization and distribution of commercial sports imagery.

"In partnership with Getty, consumers can now access the richest photo inventory from the most important sporting events, scenic landscapes, and iconic moments in our history. Consumers are able to customize Getty images and select amongst millions of framing, sizing, and print material options," said Melanie Sherk, Vice President of Business Affairs for Zazzle. “Together, we are creating a deep library of rich imagery, and enabling our users to easily search, customize, and print photos with the world’s most advanced customization tools.”

The Getty Images full collection on Zazzle and special collection store landing pages can be accessed through www.zazzle.com/prophoto.

# # #

About Zazzle

Zazzle is the world's leading platform for quality custom products. Zazzle's proprietary technology enables individuals, professional artists, and major brands, including Disney and Hallmark, to create and offer billions of unique products for customers worldwide. Zazzle's rapidly expanding product base covers every topic imaginable and includes t-shirts, business cards, invitations, in addition to a variety of custom gifts. Upon creation, products are instantly and accurately visualized on the site and offered in the Zazzle marketplace. When ordered, each product is made on-demand, typically within 24 hours. Launched in 2005 and based in Redwood City, California, Zazzle's vision is to redefine commerce, powered by the world's imagination.

About Getty Images

Getty Images is one of the world's leading creators and distributors of still imagery, footage and multimedia products, as well as a recognized provider of other forms of premium digital content, including music. Getty Images serves business customers in more than 100 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover purchase and manage images and other digital content. Its award-winning photographers and imagery help customers produce inspiring work which appears every day in the world's most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and Web sites. Visit Getty Images at www.gettyimages.com to learn more about how the company is advancing the unique role of digital media in communications and business, and enabling creative ideas to come to life.

New campaign to embed information permanently in digital media

2011-12-14T05:25:00.001-08:00

London(England), 13 December 2011 -- A picture may be worth 1,000 words, butpermanently attached descriptions are worth a lot more as photos travel throughthe digital world. A campaign has been launched now to embed descriptive andrights information in digital media and to retain it during the whole lifecycle.

Theinitiative has been launched by the International Press TelecommunicationsCouncil (IPTC), the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), andthe Association of National Advertisers (ANA), with the support of tradeorganisations representing visual arts and photo agencies. It aims to establishthe practice of applying descriptions and the copyright status of the contentas metadata, and to embed it permanently during the electronic exchange ofdigital photo, text, audio or video files.

Thispractice is based on the principles defined by the Embedded Metadata Manifestoon the web site www.embeddedmetadata.org which invites organisations and individuals tosupport the campaign.

Thecampaign is designed for producers and users of digital media and the hardwareand software vendors who play a key role in enabling interoperability in dataexchange. The business benefits for both producers and users include efficientdelivery, successful retrieval, and improved rights management.

"Metadatais an important driver for business productivity, so it should always be

retained.Too much data is currently lost," said Michael Steidl, managing directorof the IPTC which created the Embedded Metadata Manifesto. "It is time forcontent creators, distributors and software vendors to work together to bringabout conditions where business can make use of metadata to track and preservemedia files, copyright and other rights, as this is critical for the creativeindustries that depend on that for their existence.”

“Embeddingdescriptive information into commercial files, removes manual steps, andduplication of effort, which can save time and money, and forms the foundationfor more efficient operations, measurement, and monetization of advertisingassets. These are the core reasons why the 4A’s and ANA partnered to createAd-ID, the United States standard for identifying Advertising assets across allmedia platforms,” said Harold Geller, Senior Vice President CrossCountry-Industry Workflow for the 4A’s.

The fivekey principles of the Embedded Metadata Manifesto are:

Metadata is essential to describe, identify and track digital media and shouldbe applied to all media items which are exchanged as files or by other meanssuch as data streams.
Mediafile formats should provide the means to embed metadata in ways that can beread and handled by different software systems.
Metadatafields, their semantics (including labels on the user interface) and values,should not be changed across metadata formats.
Copyright management information metadata must never be removed from the files.
Othermetadata should only be removed from files by agreement with their copyrightholders.

Aboutthe IPTC:

The IPTC,based in London, is a consortium of the world's major news agencies, newspublishers and news industry vendors. It develops and maintains technicalstandards for improved news exchange that are used by virtually every majornews organisation in the world. Its standards include the Photo Metadata standardsIPTC Core and Extension, the family of G2-Standards (NewsML-G2, EventsML-G2 andSportsML-G2), NITF, rNews, and the IPTC NewsCodes. Visit the web site is www.iptc.org or follow @IPTC on Twitter.

Aboutthe 4A’s:

The 4A’s(American Association of Advertising Agencies) is the national tradeassociation of the advertising agency business and provides leadership,advocacy and guidance to the industry. The management-oriented associationfounded in 1917 helps its members build their businesses, and acts as theindustry’s spokesperson with government, media, and the public sector. Itsmembership comprises virtually all of the large, multinational agencies andhundreds of small and mid-sized agencies across the country. More than 1,200member agency offices served by the 4A’s employ 65,000 people, offer a widerange of marketing communications services, and place 80 percent of allnational advertising. For more information, visit www.aaaa.org.

Aboutthe ANA:

Founded in1910, the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) leads the marketingcommunity by providing its members with insights, collaboration, and advocacy.ANA's membership includes 400 companies with 10,000 brands that collectivelyspend over $250 billion in marketing communications and advertising. The ANAstrives to communicate marketing best practices, lead industry initiatives,influence industry practices, manage industry affairs, and advance, promote,and protect all advertisers and marketers. For more information, visit www.ana.net, follow @ANAmarketers on Twitter,join us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ANA),or visit our YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/user/ANAmarketers).

Working from Home: A Short Film

2011-12-12T05:20:00.000-08:00

Vimeo Link: http://vimeo.com/shutterstock/ipad

Working from Home: A Short Film from Shutterstock on Vimeo.

Introducing a whimsical little film inspired by Shutterstock for iPad. Shot during 1 day in a studio in NYC, with a Canon 60D and Leica R lenses, a small cast & crew (and an extraordinarily talented young rock band), this film is all about celebrating creativity and bringing beautiful images to life. Read more about it here: bit.ly/u3jRHz and download Shutterstock for iPad here: bit.ly/vG2enI

FOR FULL VIEWING EXPERIENCE, visit our Pro page: vimeopro.com/shutterstock/ipad

Music:
Winter Fear by the Jacobins. Get the track FREE, here: bit.ly/tAFFke

Video Created & Produced By Shutterstock:
Meagan Kirkpatrick, Andreas von Scheele, Catherine Cushman. With special thanks to "Crazy Larry," Mike Fisher, Matthew Smith and Mark Sherrill.

Shutterstock for iPad Created By:
Wyatt Jenkins, Matthew Smith, Mark Sherrill, Johan T. Lindgren and Kris Arnold.

shutterstock.com
blog.shutterstock.com
facebook.com/shutterstock
twitter.com/shutterstock

Microstock Expo Videos Online Available

2011-12-08T05:12:00.001-08:00

The rumors are true! The videos from Microstock Expo 2011 are FINALLY ready! If you couldn’t make it to Berlin this time, this is your chance to see exactly what happened, what was said, and what was shown. If you were there, you can re-live all the action.

Here’s a quick taster video. Turn the volume up loud, set it to full screen, and get inspired!

Want to re-live Microstock Expo 2011? Couldn’t make it but want to see everything that happened?

We’ve got the solution for you in the form of 10 hours of professionally shot HD footage filmed over the full two days of the conference.

Getting access couldn’t be easier. Simply buy access for just €99 and you can watch the videos from all sessions online, as many times as you like. Or if you just want to see one session, they’re available individually for €20 each.

Depositphotos Starts Accepting Editorial Images and Launches Tax Center

2011-12-07T09:34:00.001-08:00

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 7 Dec. 2011 – Depositphotos, the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world, announces that it is now accepting images for “editorial use only”.

Depositphotos has expanded its license policy to accept non-model released and non-property-released images for editorial use as a descriptive visual reference to current events, newsworthy stories, social events, places and/or products. This new image category gives more flexibility to publishing houses, authors, newsrooms editors, journalists and bloggers to illustrate their stories by providing them with hi-quality images and news sensitive photos. The ‘editorial use only’ images will not be available for any commercial or promotional purposes.

“Depositphotos has started accepting editorial images due to strong demand for such content from our existing customer base. With this new submission option Depositphotos contributors will be free to cover important newsworthy events and product developments without being concerned with getting model and property releases,” says Igor Kaliuzhnyi, Head of Depositphotos’ departments in Eastern and Western Europe. “With the launch of our Editorial collection our clients will be more flexible in finding images to accompany their stories at fair prices.”

Among these exciting new developments at Depositphotos is the new Tax Center. This now brings Depositphotos into compliance with the existing U.S. Federal tax law.

Income reporting will be calculated for all purchases made by customers in the U.S., and tax deductions may be applied dependent on the existing U.S. tax treaties for non-U.S. residents. Contributors that are U.S. residents will now be required to fill out Form W-9, whereas contributors from other countries will be required to fill out the appropriate W-8 BEN form.

“A stock agency operating within a firm legal framework is a guarantor of security for you and your money,” says Dmitry Sergiev, Depositphotos founder and CEO. “We believe that the rapid growth of our sales will more than compensate our non-U.S. contributors for these recently introduced tax deductions.”

About Depositphotos Inc.
Depositphotos is the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world. Presently, it offers over 5 million stock photographs and vector images sold under royalty-free licenses. The stock photo
library is increased daily by thousands of images, carefully checked and selected by moderators. The company is headquartered in Florida, USA, and has business offices in Germany, Great Britain and Russia.

iPhone App: VMrelease

2011-12-06T20:31:00.001-08:00

VMrelease from VMRelease on Vimeo.

Tom McGhee, creator of VMRelease introduces the benefits of using his new Model / Property Release App for all image makers on the go.

Designed for pro photographers, producers and filmmakers, Visual Media Release™ creates a truly legal Model / Property Release right there on your mobile device. Moving your shoot forward, never backwards, the intuitive workflow is super fast and accepted by the world leaders in image licensing.

Website: http://www.vmrelease.com/
VMRlease available for download today at the Apple App Store.

Veer Subscriptions is live

2011-12-06T14:08:00.001-08:00

Veer announced today via email to their contributors the start of the Veer subscription plan.

Dear Contributor,

A few months ago, we let you know that we’d be launching a new subscription offering for customers this winter. That time has come, and we’re pleased to announce that Veer Subscriptions, featuring your high-quality commercial images, is now live and open for business.

Veer was already making it easier to be creative by offering customers an uncomplicated shopping experience using cash or prepaid credits. Now buyers also have the option to use convenient monthly or yearly subscription plans to make regular high-volume purchases.

We’ve made it simple for customers to navigate between Veer and Veer Subscriptions, so they can purchase extended licenses for your images when they download as part of their subscription plan. That means a great buying experience for the customer turns into additional royalties for you. We’re also proud of the fact that the standard subscription royalties we’re offering you are some of the highest in the industry. You can see a detailed breakdown of our rates here.

The image upload process remains the same. Your images make their way to Veer Subscriptions simply by existing at Veer, and your subscription royalties will be displayed in your regular dashboard. There’s no fuss, and more opportunities to earn.

For more information about how Veer Subscriptions works, check out our FAQ.
Sincerely,

The Veer Contributor Team

Alamy now accepts VMRelease™

2011-12-06T06:09:00.001-08:00

Alamy announced via an newsletter to their contributors that they now accept VMRelease™ for releases.

Dear Contributor,

The need to have releases for your content is becoming increasingly important to clients in today's market, but carrying around print outs and pens on top of your camera gear can be an added hassle that you just don't need.

We're therefore happy to announce that we are now accepting releases produced by VMRelease, providing you with a convenient way to add value to your shots via an intuitive iPhone app that lets you produce releases on the go.

Use the app to create your own personal or company profile, capture images of your subject/property, input contact details, obtain signatures, send and store, all in 6 simple steps. Once you transfer your releases from the app, you can upload them to Alamy in the usual way via the "Assign release(s)" tab via image attributes in "Manage Images".

For more information visit the VMRelease website.

Kind regards,
Alamy

iStockphoto’s “Team iStache” Raises More Than $40,000 in the Fight Against Prostate Cancer Throughout the Month of Movember

2011-12-05T05:26:00.001-08:00

CALGARY, Alberta: Dec. 1, 2011 — Throughout themonth of November, Team iStache, an 83-member international team of iStockphotoemployees, contributors and customers “just said “no” to razors in an effort toraise money and awareness for prostate cancer. Thanks to a matching donation of$10,000 from iStockphoto, the team was able to raise more than $40,000,shattering last year’s record by a Sam Elliot stache-sized margin.

In addition to raising funds for their own team, iStockphoto helpedraise awareness of the worldwide Movemberinitiative and offered support for other teams through a series of helpfulvideos and PSAs including a wonderful set from ProfessorKnow-it-some about mustache history, culture and maintenance. Acollectionof mustache images was also made available for sale on the iStock website,which generated an additional few thousand dollars, that was also donated tothe cause.

“At this point, Movember has worked its way pretty deeply into ourcompany culture and is something we put a lot of energy into each year,” saidproduct manager, Paul Jeffery, a Team iStache member whose grandfather passedon from prostate cancer. “It can get a little hairy at times, but the teamalways comes out on top and exceeds its money raising goals.”

AtiStock, Movember officially ends on the first business day of December with ashave-off and company-wide celebration. A team of barbers will destashifyanyone who hasn’t grown too attached to his new look and the party will draw toa close with a final passing of the hat for spare dollars and pocket change.iStock also has a presence locally, attending the Movember Calgary Gala anddonating prize giveaways.

AboutiStockphoto

iStockphoto offers easy,affordable inspiration with millions of vetted, royalty-free photos,illustrations, video, audio and Flash^® files. Using the most advancedsearch in the business, customers download a file every second from a collectionof more than ten million files for business, marketing and personal projects.iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography businessmodel, and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generatedcontent sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out more than $1.9 million weeklyin artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images.

Stock Photography Sales Statistic November 2011

2011-12-02T15:39:00.001-08:00

This is my stock photography sales statistic for November 2011. You can find a complete list of stock photography agencies that I work with here.

These are for me the best 4 performing stock agencies for November 2011:

November was a good month with a small decrease of 1% compared to October and an increase of 51% compared to November 2010. Again it was an excellent month for DepositPhotos! It was the best month ever for PhotoDune, Stockfresh, and Superhug (if you sign up, please use referral "hlehnerer").

(This statistic include referral earning at the different agencies)

Depositphotos’ Image Library Hits 5 Million Images

2011-12-01T18:57:00.001-08:00

By adding over 1,000,000 images in 3 months, Depositphotos proves its claim to be the fastest growing stock photo agency in the world.

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1 Dec. 2011 – Depositphotos, the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world, announces the addition of its 5 millionth image. This milestone underscores its steady growth and commitment to be a huge player in the microstock industry.

Depositphotos’ collection of premium, royalty-free images typically grows over 90,000 images each week. This rapid, steady growth ensures that users will consistently turn up fresh images during their searches. Whether you are a web designer, blogger, news editor or art director, Depositphotos makes it very easy, yet affordable, to buy a quality collection of premium, royalty-free stock photos and vector images.

Depositphotos’ 5 millionth image was created by Yuri Arcurs, world’s most successful microstock photographer based in Denmark. He added his newest collection of 17,000 premium images to Depositphotos, and it so happened that his image of a happy family walking on the beach took Depositphotos’ image library to the 5-million mark. Yuri joined Depositphotos as a contributor in March 2010, and his Depositphotos portfolio has been growing constantly. In addition to being a successful microstock artist, Yuri is known for creating free tools for photographers, photography tutorials and guides, and he is a much sought-after speaker at photography-related events.

Depositphotos continues to make significant improvements across the board, offering even more to its users. To communicate better with its customers, Depositphotos will also launch an interactive blog. It will cover the latest Depositphotos news; it will be filled with photography- and microstock-related articles written by Depositphotos staff as well as industry-recognized guest contributors.

“We are very excited to reach 5 million images in the 3 months after Depositphotos’ library exceeded 4 million stock images in September, and this industry record is just a small thing compared to what we have planned. Stay tuned to our news and you’ll be excited by the new features coming in the next months,” says Igor Kaliuzhnyi, Head of Depositphotos’ departments in Eastern and Western Europe.

About Depositphotos Inc.
Depositphotos is the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world. Presently it offers over 5 million stock photographs and vector images sold under royalty-free licenses. The stock photo library is increased daily by thousands of images, carefully checked and selected by moderators. The company is headquartered in Florida, USA, and has business offices in Germany, Great Britain and Russia.

Referral program launched by pan-Asian stock photo company, Photokore

2011-12-01T05:09:00.001-08:00

Photokore, Asia’s fasted growing stock photography company, announcedthe launch today of two Referral Programs for it’s members.

The Artist Referral Program allows members to introduce new artists(photographers and illustrators) to Photokore. If the artist is accepted as aPhotokore member, the referee will receive a payment every time one of the artist’simages are sold. In the Customer Referral Program, members introduce customersto Photokore. For every purchase made by the referred customer, the refereewill receive a payment.

With Photokore’s Referral Programs, when a new artist or customer whohas been referred to Photokore registers on Photokore, they are automatically‘linked’ to the member who referred them.

In addition to the payments that can be earned by referring artistsand customers, the referring member can also earn an additional Referral Bonuswhen their referral earnings reach prescribed amounts.

“Our members are the backbone of our community, and are active inpromoting Photokore. We launched our Referral Programs as a method of rewardingour members for their efforts in promoting www.photokore.com,” said SeanMooney, president and CEO of Photokore.

With the launch of it’s Referral Programs, Photokore has taken yetanother step towards it’s goal of becoming a community-based stock photographysite. With photos and illustrations being uploaded by members from over 130countries, Photokore offers image buyers in Asia, and around the globe, a widevariety of unique images.

To learn more about Photokore’s Referral Program, please visit www.photokore.com/referral/program/main/referral_overview.

# # #

Photokore is a royalty-free stock photography site dedicatedto offering the best Asian images to the world, and high quality global imagesto the Asian market.

Visitors to on photokore.com can search for images in Chinese,Japanese, Korean and English. Landing pages are also available in Arabic,Filipino, Hindi, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, Spanish, and French.

All photos and illustrations on photokore.com can be licensed forcreative use – whether on a personal website, or in a global marketing campaign– at prices ranging from US$2 – US$40.

For moreinformation, contact help@photokore.com

· Follow Photokore on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Photokore (@Photokore).

· Follow Photokore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photokore.international

· Follow Photokore on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PhotokoreAsia

123RF.com to Start Accepting Motion Video Submissions!

2011-12-01T04:52:00.001-08:00

HOUSTON, TX,December, 2011 - Since its humble beginnings in 2005, 123 RF .com hasbeen accepting stock photos from photographers andlicensing them to advertising agencies, graphic designers and businesses undera Royalty-Free license. Today, 123RF.com officially announces the launch of itsvideo submission platform. Keeping in line with the growing needs and demandsfor video and motion graphics in the advertising & media industry, thissignificant evolution for 123RF.com has resoundingly solidified its position asan established player in the Royalty -Free stock photos and digital medialicensing industry.

Recent researchreports by Nielsen^[1] and Gartner^[2] shows the increasingprevalence in the use of video and video based advertisements^[3]especially in mobile devices is rapidly gaining ground over traditional formsof advertising. Stephanie Sitt, C.E.O. of 123RF Limited believes that theavailability of internet bandwidth that enables the streaming of videos is akey driver for the growth in demand for highly creative and yet commerciallyorientated stock videos.

“We’re veryexcited to be able to develop the platform to open yet another income channelfor videographers, agencies and other producers of stock videos. We certainlyhave the platform, the eyeballs and the right audience from the right industry- all that’s left is the right content to meet that demand. Our traffic andinternet reach according to Alexa, Compete and QuantCast has increased morethan fifteen fold over the past 2 years, making 123RF.com the fastest growingRoyalty-Free stock agency.” enthused Sitt.

Sitt goes on toadd, “Our IT team have put together a reliable and fast video submission platform that ensures a stable upload, quick file-encoding and comes completewith a user-friendly interface for keywording and release attachment. To submit videos to 123RF.com, just create a Contributor account, and follow theinstructions to start uploading. We have approximately 30,000 videos in ourdatabases right now but would really welcome more to ensure that our clientswill be spoilt for choice during the launch day, scheduled for January 2012.“

Moreinformation on uploading procedures, commissions, legal documents and end userlicense agreements can be found on www .123 rf .com. Email submission @123 rf .com for details and inquiries on video submission.

^[1] January 2011: Online Video Usage Up 45%

( http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/january-2011-online-video-usage-up-45/ )

^[2] Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Advertising Revenue Forecastto Reach $3.3 Billion in 2011

( http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1726614 )

^[3] Online Video Ad Spending Annual Growth Peaks In 2012

( http://www.reelseo.com/online-video-ad-spending/ )

About123RF.com

Since 2005,123RF.com is a royalty -free stock photo library that offers a variety of inexpensive, impressive and practicalhigh quality stock photos, catering to clients who have a constant need offresh images. 123RF.com hosts over 11.3 million stock photos while 20,000images are added to the website on a daily basis. 123RF.com also givesphotographers, designers and illustrators the opportunity to promote theirphotography and illustrations to a worldwide audience. 123RF.com operates24-hours a day, from Mondays to Fridays. For further details, please visit www.123rf.com.

Earn income by introducing your friends to Photokore!

2011-11-30T05:54:00.001-08:00

Today Photokore announce to their member in a newsletter the new referral program.

With our new Referral Program, you can earn a share of the salesmade by Artists you have introduced, as well as earn a share of the purchasesmade by any customers you introduce to Photokore! This is our way of rewardingyou for introducing either Artists or Customers (or both!) to Photokore.

To find out more about how you can earn from introducing newmembers to Photokore, please visit www.photokore.com/referral/program/main/referral_overview.We hope you’ll take advantage of our Referral Program to add to your earningson Photokore!

The Photokore Team

Follow Photokore on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Photokore (@Photokore).

Follow Photokore on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photokore.international

Follow Photokore on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/PhotokoreAsia

Masterfile Launches New $10 Collection

2011-11-27T07:34:00.001-08:00

Stock photo agency adds 1.5 million low-priced Royalty-Free images to premium website

Toronto, Ontario (PRWEB) November, 2011- Masterfile, a global leader in stock image licensing, has added 1.5 million budget-friendly photos and illustrations to its website at http://www.masterfile.com, complementing its large collection of premium rights-managed and royalty-free images.

The new collection, labeled as “$10 RF”, includes the entire image collection of Crestock – a microstock business acquired by Masterfile in 2010. The $10 Royalty Free images are available in low-resolution for web and mobile applications and are presented under a separate tab in Masterfile’s search interface to make it easier for clients to search for images based on price. The Crestock collection is crowdsourced from amateur and professional photographers and illustrators around the world.

Now any search on the Masterfile website can produce a $10 RF result with a single click. Likewise, Masterfile’s powerful search features like Image Upload, SimSearch™, Visual Pairing and Color Search work beautifully within the budget collection.

Says Masterfile President, Steve Pigeon: “Global demand for quality low-priced images is insatiable. Now, with the launch of this new collection, Masterfile has something for everyone – and all on one platform – from $10 RF to global exclusives!”

About Masterfile
Masterfile Corporation is a global visual content licensor, with an exceptional collection of rights-managed and royalty-free stock images by world-class artists. The images — covering a wide range of subjects — are stored digitally and showcased, licensed and delivered instantly to commercial clients worldwide via the Internet. The company’s reputation is built on fast personal service and premium quality and has recently been augmented with a collection of 1.5 million “microstock” images priced at $10. Masterfile’s revolutionary search interface which was completely updated in 2011 has set a new industry standard, helping clients find the images they need faster than ever. The site is augmented by an iPad/iPhone application. Masterfile has its global headquarters in Toronto, European headquarters in Düsseldorf, sales offices in London, Milan and Paris, and independent agents in 100 countries across six continents. It also offers a collection of 1.5 million budget-priced images at http://www.crestock.com.

iPad, iPhone and iTunes are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Masterfile, SimSearch and Endless Media are trademarks of Masterfile Corporation.

Alamy Reduces Their Payment Threshold

2011-11-24T12:25:00.001-08:00

Alamy anounce today on their blog that they are permanently lowering the payout threshold from $250 to $175.

This lower threshold, coupled with the continued 60% commission contributors earn with each Alamy sale, means that you now have to make even fewer sales before getting paid.

With this new threshold in place Alamy estimate that the number of contributors they pay will increase by 80% in the next pay run.

iStockphoto Unveils Aggressive New Referral Program

2011-11-24T05:41:00.001-08:00

New Program, Among the Highest Paying in theIndustry, Gives Referrers a Choice of $20, 20 Credits or 20% Commission Plus 10Free Credits to Newly Referred Customers

CALGARY, Alberta: November, 2011 — iStockphoto today announced anaggressive new referral program that rewards participants with their choice of$20, 20 credits or 20 percent commission on all first-time purchases bycustomers they generate. Newly referred iStockers are also awarded 10 freecredits just for setting up an account.

Referrals can then be initiatedthrough email, links or banner ads that can be easily added to a blog orwebsite. When a potential customer clicks on a link, email or banner ad and makesa purchase within 30 days, the referring iStock member is credited with thereferral. The program is open to all iStockphoto members and participation is simple.

iStock is providing several plug-and-playemail templates and banner ads or participants can create their own.Participants can also promote the program via social sharing links to Facebook,Twitter and Linkedin found below every iStock image. Any time a participantshares an image, their referral code is automatically embedded. If the share resultsin a new sale, payment is awarded.

“Word of mouth has been a keydriver in the growth of iStock since day one,“ said Nichole Desrosiers, vicepresident of marketing for iStockphoto. “It’s also largely responsible for bringingin new categories of customers and fueling the growth of the industry. This newprogram is our way of thanking those people who continue to serve as evangelistsin a meaningful way.”

Howit Works

Customers who have been participatingin the existing referral program simply have to agree to the new terms andconditions and update their links to continue earning payouts.

The following rules alsoapply:

· To qualify as a referrer, amember must have purchased at least one credit pack or have at least oneapproved upload.

· Participants choose apayout plan at sign up and may switch plans once per month.

· New members must sign upand make a single purchase of at least 26 credits within 30 days of beingreferred in order for the program participant to receive the cash or credit bonus.

· There is no minimum ormaximum credit pack required for the percentage payout option. If a referralcustomer buys a 20,000 credit pack (which sells for $19,000) the referringparticipant gets $3,800.

· 10 free credits are givento referrals upon sign up. This offer is good for 30 days and these creditswill be extended if a purchase is made.

For complete details on theprogram or to enroll, visit:

http://www.istockphoto.com/participate/referral-program/info.

AboutiStockphoto

iStockphoto offers easy,affordable inspiration with millions of vetted, royalty-free photos,illustrations, video, audio and Flash^® files. Using the most advancedsearch in the business, customers download a file every second from a collectionof more than nine million files for business, marketing and personal projects.iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography businessmodel, and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generatedcontent sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out more than $1.9 million weeklyin artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images.

Photokore Now With A Referral Program

2011-11-22T07:33:00.001-08:00

Photokore is a agencies that has it focus on the Asian market, but also is dedicated to offering the best Asian high-quality images to the world.

Many contributor waited for the announcement of their referral program. Photokore’s member referral program consists of two parts:

Artist Referral
Customer Referral

Every time you, a registered Photokore member, successfully refer* a new member to www.photokore.com, you will receive 2.5% of every transaction they make:

For every Artist you refer to Photokore, you'll receive 2.5% of the transaction every time one of their images is downloaded.
For every Customer that you refer to Photokore, you'll receive 2.5% of the transaction every time they download an image.

If you are the referrer of both the Artist and the Customer, you'll receive 5% of the transaction!

* The referred member must be either a New Artist or a New Customer
(i.e. they must not be a current or past member of www.photokore.com).

Your Referral Earnings are added to your Account balance on your Account page. When you Account Balance reaches $100, you have the option of requesting an earnings payout – via PayPal or MoneyBookers.

That’s not all. Our Member Referral Program also offers a Referral Bonus, based on your monthly Referral activities (Referral Earnings). This means that if the total amount of your monthly Referral Earnings exceeds certain goals, you will earn a bonus in addition to that. For more details, refer to the table below.

You can find more information about Photokore at: http://microstockagencies.blogspot.com/2011/04/photokore.html

PhotoDune October - November Statistic And Update

2011-11-22T05:31:00.001-08:00

This is a quote from the PhotoDune forum!

Hey guys, with the non-exclusive rate increase announced, I wanted to stop in with some sales and stats updates as a couple of people have requested!

PhotoDune has continued to zip along and the stats keep getting bigger. I’m still in awe of how many photos are out there in the world of microstock photography!

We now have over 400,000 photos up for sale, with the last three months adding 40k, 70k and 100k new photos respectively. So a good solid trend seems to be occurring with contributions growing very quickly.
We now have around 500 authors with at least one sale, and our top author Yuri has just passed his 5000th sale. In fact, in case you didn’t know we have an author ladder where you can see how different authors are stacking up. It’s quite fun to watch as the sales have been mounting up – http://photodune.net/author/top_authors/?ref=hlehnerer

On the subject of unit sales, the total PhotoDune sales count for our five months is:

July Private Beta – 1,760
August – 4,191
September – 7,369
October – 8,793 + 6,396 bundle sales
November – 14,908

(For November, I’ve divided the current number by the number of days passed and then multiplied by 30. So it’s extrapolated out on a simple base. I think it may actually be higher as we keep getting bigger with each passing week).

We’ve been doing lots of marketing for the new site with a successful photo and graphic bundle in October that sold close to $130,000 worth. We also ran a big series of photo effects tutorials over on our Photoshop blog Psdtuts+ showcasing what you can do with PhotoDune images. And right now we’re running a promotion where buyers get 50% of their November spend back as marketplace credit to spend again in December.

Over on Microstockgroup we’ve gotten some great feedback (as well as some healthy criticism!) and in case you hadn’t seen I thought I’d share a couple of quotes from MSG -based PhotoDune authors:

”... I am very pleased with PDune. They are the most innovative of all the newer sites. They’re creatively and aggressively marketing their image collection.” – LisaFX (Full Comment)

”... PhotoDune has done me proud, especially for a new agency. Thanks to that bundle, they’re my third biggest earner for the year despite having only five months of earnings, and my ninth biggest earner since I started with microstock. Nobody has come out of the gate with numbers like that.” – Disorderly (Full Comment)

So hooray for some kind words from Lisa and Disorderly

Stuff We’re Still Working On

Of course we’re still n00bs in the world of stock photography and we have tons of stuff to learn. Right now some of the things we are working on, or are planning to work on are:

Our reviewers are getting slammed again thanks to the consistent increases in submissions. Just when we thought we were on top of the content, it’s amped up all over again. Our valiant Microstock Solutions team is wrestling with the queue as we speak, and I’m certain we’ll get it back down in short order.
We had a spate of upload problems about a week ago due in part to PhotoDune, but largely due to the rest of the marketplaces growing as well. It’s been another huge year at Envato, and the platform just keeps levelling up in size. Unfortunately the upload and performance problems were timed with an upgrade to our support system which was a case of super bad timing. So while the support team was busy learning our new system, we hit them with a whole bunch of authors wondering what was happening with uploads. Thankfully the problems are mostly resolved and Drew and his support team pulled some big days and are in control of support again.
I’ve been seeing a lot of feedback about the way we handle model releases. This is clearly an area we need to work on and is going to need some attention in the new year.

And of course we’re always working on more marketing to drive the site along and sell our awesome pool of content. Recently one of our team (Fuad, who is actually my Dad!) went to the recent Microstock Expo and polled some of the contributors attending the conference about what was most important for a new agency. The near unanimous response was that marketing of images trumped everything else. This has really cemented in our minds that marketing is the most important thing we can be doing for PhotoDune. Happily it’s one of our strengths.

We’re really proud to have jumped into the big world of stock photography, and we’re extremely excited by the results so far. We hope that this non-exclusive rate bump will reward those of you who have already chosen to upload with PhotoDune and that we’ll be able to continue to deliver good returns to you. Thank you to you guys for giving us a try, we really appreciate your time and input.

Photodune - Non-exclusive Rates Increasing to 33% on December 1st

2011-11-22T05:07:00.001-08:00

Envato Marketplaces have seen three rate rises for their exclusive authors. Today they announce the first upgrade to their non-exclusive rate. Envato is increasing author commissions from 25% up to 33% as of December 1st. This means their non-exclusive authors will earn about a third more on each sale.

This is what many of their contributor for PhotoDune, 3DOcean, AudioJungle, and GraphicRiver were waiting for. These four marketplaces have a much higher rate of non-exclusive then the other channels of Envato.

PantherMedia Stockagency: Re-Launch with 13 million royalty free images, fresh design and new products

2011-11-21T14:47:00.001-08:00

More than 10 million royalty free images added, as single images and within subscriptions
Additional offer of vectors and illustrations in eps-format
New extended rights for templates and merchandising products
Redesign of the homepage, image preview and the navigation to improve usability

Munich, 21st November 2011 – The microstock agency PantherMedia unveils its new platform with more than 13 million images and a completely new face. All new images can be purchased on invoice, per credits or within a subscription. Thus, PantherMedia becomes one of the largest providers of royalty free images and image subscriptions worldwide.

In addition to this massive image upgrade, PantherMedia adds vectors and illustrations in eps-format to the product portfolio.

The extended licence model has been rebuilt. The customer can now pick & mix from four extended rights instead of paying too much for rights he does not need, or simply buy the all-in-one package for all extended rights. These four different extended rights are: the right to distribute images as part of press releases, the right to use the images in multiple, but affiliated companies of a corporation, the right to use images on commercial merchandising products and finally the right to use images within templates, such as web- or email-templates.

The website of PantherMedia got a complete facelift and new functions to find the perfect image faster in an even greater archive. Therefore, the navigation has been completely restructured, giving the customer an clear overview of his account, including the purchased credits, the subscription downloads and the amount of images in his shopping cart and in the lightboxes. The image preview has been restructured helping the customer to proceed his search or downloading the image instantly.

All in all, PantherMedia not only added 10 million new images to the portfolio of 13 million images, but also managed to faciliate and speed-up the search and the download of royalty free images at the same time.

About PantherMedia
panthermedia.net is one of the leading microstock agencies worldwide. More than 40.000 photographers add more than 15.000 images to the portfolio of currently more than 13 million royalty free images. The customers can license and download images in one of the following ways: purchase on invoice, purchase with credits and image subscription. Licenses are charged from less than one Euro. PantherMedia.net is an enterprise of PantherMedia GmbH with headquarters in Munich, Germany and was founded in October 2004.

Getty Images Continues To Drive Innovation With Cutting Edge Creative

2011-11-20T09:42:00.001-08:00

Andrew Saunders is promoted to Senior Vice President, Creative Content

LONDON – 17 November 2011 – Getty Images today announces the promotion of Andrew Saunders to the position of Senior Vice President, Creative Content. The move, as part of Getty Images’ global strategy to further invest and develop its creative businesses, consolidates Saunders’ role in overseeing the development of content and products that Getty Images is continually evolving to provide contemporary imagery, video and music, which engages and inspires communicators around the globe.

Looking to the future, Saunders sees the current growth Getty Images is experiencing in the use of imagery online and on digital platforms, further accelerating as customers focus on increasing their digital presence.

He also predicts that the proliferation of stills, video and the growth of social media has meant a familiarization with a more accessible style of imagery. Getty Images’ own success with its Flickr Collection, a collection which was introduced in 2009 and has recently reached 250,000 images, supports the idea that this more immediate style of imagery will take a stronger industry foothold.

Saunders also says: “Video will grow exponentially as it becomes easier to capture and distribute, which, combined with its power to connect emotionally, will see video becoming a much larger part of communication. We will also increasingly see the combination of stills, video and music, so it’s important that we [Getty Images] showcase that we provide all of the above in one place.”

Saunders has played a key role in expanding Getty Images’ creative offering over the past few years, having introduced Thinkstock and Photos.com, as well as overseeing the evolution of iStockPhoto content within the Getty Images portfolio.

Jonathan Klein, Co-Founder and CEO of Getty Images said, “Andy has overseen the evolution of the Creative Content department through a technology revolution that changed the face of the industry, helping to maintain the best quality content for our customers. In addition to creative stills, he also leads our content strategy for both video and music. His impact on the reputation of our business and our entire industry cannot be overstated.”

Saunders began his career at Tony Stone Images in 1991, following five years as a commercial photographer. Within Tony Stone Images and subsequently Getty Images, he contributed greatly to the evolution of pre-shot imagery away from traditional stock photography, into the approach that Getty Images’ creative team implements today - a global creative team whose practices are more aligned with those of an advertising agency.

The announcement of Saunders’ promotion is testament to Getty Images’ commitment and passion to creating the best content, and continuing to innovate and develop the right products for its customers.

About Getty Images
Getty Images is one of the world’s leading creators and distributors of still imagery, video and multimedia products, as well as a recognized provider of other forms of premium digital content, including music. Getty Images serves business customers in more than 100 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover purchase and manage images and other digital content. Its award-winning photographers and imagery help customers produce inspiring work which appears every day in the world’s most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and websites. Visit Getty Images at www.gettyimages.co.uk to learn more about how the company is advancing the unique role of digital media in communications and business, and enabling creative ideas to come to life.

Shutterstock Launches iPad App

2011-11-20T09:38:00.001-08:00

Shutterstock for iPad Provides an Extraordinary Way for Creative and Design Professionals to Browse Millions of Stock Images, Find Inspiration and Share with Others

November, 2011 - Shutterstock Images LLC, a leading global provider of high-quality stock footage, stock photography, vectors and illustrations to creative professionals around the world, today released its groundbreaking Shutterstock for iPad app, available for free download now in the Apple App Store (to access Shutterstock for iPad App via the App Store, click here.)

Shutterstock for iPad serves as a companion to Shutterstock.com, providing a unique mosaic search experience and access to a library of more than 16 million stock photos, vectors and illustrations.Browsing for images should be the most enjoyable thing creative professionals do all day. Every design decision we made with Shutterstock for iPad uses a simple rule: make the content the interface so users can quickly experience more images in a very tactile way. The App's controls fade into the background, leaving just the user, the imagery and their own creative inspiration,“ said Wyatt Jenkins, VP of Product, Shutterstock.

Users of Shutterstock for iPad app can:

Browse smoothly through the Shutterstock image library with the swipe of a finger
View high-resolution preview images - the most vivid of any imaging app
See unique content curated by Shutterstock editors
Browse by category to see new and popular Shutterstock images
Create, organize, and share lightboxes of images via email, Facebook and Twitter

Shutterstock for iPad’s unique Mosaic View instantly interlocks images of different sizes and aspect ratios. Users see a seamless flow of pictures, making it easy and enjoyable to flip through thousands of beautiful, vivid images.

Shutterstock for iPad is already drawing rave reviews from the creative, digital and design communities, particularly for how sophisticated the images appear on the app, and how efficiently the app allows designers to share these images with clients. Len Small, Art Director, Tablet Magazine, commented, “Shutterstock's iPad app will be fantastic for the busy art director to help get the right photo during a meeting, in transit, or even at lunch. I’m glad there's an app for this!”

Sam Eckerlsey, Partner, Rogers Eckerlsey Design, added, "The interface is extremely quick and the images are much more elegantly displayed on the iPad. I would use this as a presentation tool to show images to the client in a meeting."

Said Thilo Semmelbauer, President, Shutterstock, “Technology has accelerated creativity, and with Shutterstock for iPad, our customers now have an even faster way to access the images they need, when and where they need them.

About Shutterstock Shutterstock Images LLC is a leading global provider of high-quality stock footage, stock photography, vectors and illustrations to creative industry professionals around the world. Shutterstock works closely with its growing contributor community of artists, photographers, videographers and illustrators to curate a global marketplace for royalty-free, top-quality imagery. Shutterstock adds tens of thousands of rights-cleared images and footage clips each week, with more than 16 million files currently available.

Headquartered in New York, Shutterstock also owns Bigstock, the value-oriented stock agency that offers both credit and simple Pay As You Go purchasing options.

For more information, please visit www.shutterstock.com.

Business Wire and iStockphoto Partner to Encourage Newsmakers to Make Smart News Releases Even Smarter Through the Use of Imagery

2011-11-18T17:53:00.001-08:00

NEWYORK, Nov 17, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Business Wire, the global leader in pressrelease distribution, today announced a promotion with iStockphoto that willencourage newsmakers to maximize the impact of their announcements throughimagery. The promotion provides Business Wire customers with a 20% discount ontheir first purchase of 50 or more iStock credits, which can be redeemed forimages that will ensure news releases receive the attention they deserve.

Overthe past decade, the news release has evolved from a text document used byorganizations to convey news to members of the media into a powerfulcommunications tool geared toward a variety of audiences including media,investors, bloggers and customers.

Todayorganizations can take advantage of Business Wire's Smart News Release formatto include product photos, executive headshots, video, audio and other types ofcontent to make it easier than ever for an organization to tell their story andgenerate interest from a variety of audiences around the world. The Smart NewsRelease format also now provides search engine optimization benefits, and makesnews more sharable across a wider variety of channels, broadening its reach andappeal.

"Onaverage, a release that includes even a single compelling image is five timesmore likely to be clicked online to be viewed than one that only includestext," said Laura Sturaitis, Executive Vice President of Media Servicesand Product Strategy for Business Wire. "As a stock industry leader with amassive collection of imagery and multimedia content, iStockphoto provides oneof the simplest and most cost-effective ways to illustrate a concept, punch upa story and make sure it gets seen."

AboutiStockphoto

iStockphotooffers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of vetted, royalty-freephotos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash(R) files. Using the most advancedsearch in the business, customers download a file every second from acollection of more than ten million files for business, marketing and personalprojects. iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photographybusiness model, and has become one of the most successful and profitableuser-generated content sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out more than $1.9million weekly in artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary,Alberta, Canada.

AboutBusiness Wire

BusinessWire, a Berkshire Hathaway company, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2011 asthe global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.Public relations and investor relations professionals rely on Business Wire forboth broad-based and targeted market reach. A recognized disclosure service inthe United States, Canada and a dozen European countries, Business Wire handlesXBRL tagging, document formatting and regulatory filing into EDGAR, SEDAR andother systems. Business Wire provides online newsroom hosting and integrationservices as well as search engine optimization, mobile distribution anddetailed measurement on every press release. Its patented NX delivery platformprovides simultaneous full-text posting of Business Wire content to newssystems and websites in virtually any country or language. With 31 bureausworldwide, Business Wire offers local service and global reach.

www.istockphoto.com

ImageCollect.com Library Grows to More Than 3,000,000 Images

2011-11-15T19:47:00.001-08:00

Micro-StockCelebrity Photo Marketplace Grows 2x in 3 Months

LOSANGELES, Nov.15, 2011 – AudioMicro, Inc., which operates a network of digital contentlicensing marketplaces, announced today that its celebritypicture marketplace, ImageCollect.com, now has more than three and a halfmillion photos available for download. With a robust collection ofarchival imagery and current content being supplied by top entertainmentphotographers, ImageCollect is on pace to become one of the world’s largest celebrity photolibraries, just eight months after launch. ImageCollect.com has alsolaunched a new version of its website, with a revamped user interface, moreaggressive pricing, and a celebrity photo API.

“We’reincredibly excited about this landmark, but it is only a small sign of thingsto come,” said Ryan Born, chief executive officer, ImageCollect. “We’readding new celebritypictures at a rate of approximately 40,000 images per day, with around 1.5million photos still to be added. We’ve simplified our pricing, and APIpartners are now utilizing our technology in unique ways to fulfill a growingdemand for entertainment imagery.”

Celebrity photosin the ImageCollect library range from iconic archival material, such as shotsof a young and exuberant JFK in the oval office, to photos of today’s biggeststars attending red carpet events. ImageCollect aims to disrupt thecelebrity photo market by applying the micro-stock business model of successfulsites like iStockphoto, Shutterstock, and Fotolia to the editorial licensingspace. The company strives to make celebrity imagery available to newmedia buyers and fans under simple pricing and licensing terms. Earlycustomers include People Magazine, US Weekly, Life & Style, Tribune MediaServices, NY Times Magazine, and Star Magazine, among many others.

AboutAudioMicro, Inc.

AudioMicro,Inc. operates a network of digital content licensing marketplaces, eachtargeted at a specific vertical – celebrity pictures, royalty freemusic, soundeffects, and tattoo designs. The company is venture-backed by DFJ Frontier and Fotolia LLC. For moreinformation, visit AudioMicroInc.com.

Aurora Launches myPhone Collection and Easy Rights Managed

2011-11-15T17:06:00.001-08:00

November 14, 2011 — Portland, Maine - Aurora Photos is excited to announce the launch of the myPhone Collection of stock photography, a collection of images taken with iPhones and other mobile devices by some of the world’s top photographers and iPhoneographers, and now made available to pictures buyers for both editorial and commercial licensing. To coincide with the launch of the myPhone Collection, Aurora is also introducing a new modified Rights Managed licensing model called Easy Rights Managed. The model offers simple, quick, broad, and managed rights at reasonable prices.

“Camera phone photography has become such a vital part of our visual culture today. We are excited to be able to offer the finest examples of this kind of imagery to clients and build a collection that will be seen as singular, contemporary and fun.” states Aurora’s President Jose Azel.

To establish the foundation of the collection, Aurora solicited camera phone images from its worldwide base of top editorial and commercial photographers. Aurora then partnered with the Facebook group iPhone Photo Pros, a diverse group of photographers ranging from professionals to amateurs who have an unyielding passion for iPhone capture and application processing. The group includes National Geographic Photographer Dewitt Jones and iPhone photography instructor and guru Teri Lou Dantzler.

“The iPhone is the ultimate digital sketchpad enabling the photographer to create and experiment in any situation,” explains photographer Dewitt Jones, “The astounding quality of the lens and processor and the number of post production apps available allows the photographer unlimited creativity to generate images fully ready for hundreds of professional uses.”

The myPhone Collection will be licensed using Aurora’s new Easy Rights Managed licensing model. Customers simply indicate the industry and territory of the use, and then select one from just a handful of choices that defines the use and duration of license. “Easy Rights Managed is a simple and accessible licensing model that maintains a sales history and still allows for exclusive licensing,” explains Aurora’s Director Karl Schatz. “It’s a perfect fit for a collection of images like myPhone.”

The myPhone collection is open to all photographers who would like to submit their images. A quick and easy online agreement gives any photographer the ability to submit a photo by simply emailing it straight from their phone. Interested photographers can visit: http://www.auroraphotos.com/myphone/submit/
New photographers that sign up and submit by November 30, 2011 will automatically have their photos entered in a myPhone photography contest being judged by the iPhone Photo Pros group.

“Personally I never imagined that my iPhone images would be considered by a stock agency,” says iPhone photography guru Dantzler, “The fact that Aurora realizes the potential of these little jewels is very exciting.”

“Aurora is the first stock agency to offer such a collection,” adds Jones, “The first to realize the impact that iPhone images are making on the country and the world, and the first to understand the multitude of ways they can be used by buyers of stock photography”.

View the myPhone Collection Homepage

Like the myPhone Collection on Facebook
Browse the entire myPhone Collection
More information about Easy Rights Managed
or for more information contact info[at]auroraphotos[dot]com or call 207-828-8787 x111

3D Systems Recognizes The3dStudio.com Anniversary

2011-11-13T07:00:00.001-08:00

3D Systems Recognizes The3dStudio.com Anniversary - The3dStudio.com Marks 15th Year With A New Collection

ROCK HILL, South Carolina, November 10, 2011 – 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) announced today that The3dStudio.com is celebrating its 15th anniversary as a leading digital media on-line exchange with over two million free and priced resources, including 3D models, textures, tutorials, stock photos, stock images and vector images. Printable 3D models are the latest and fastest growing offering to become part of this extensive resource library.

To mark its anniversary, The3dStudio.com is launching the Monkey Business Images stock photo collection. The premium quality, royalty-free, vibrant lifestyle images produced by Cathy Yeulet and company are a welcome addition to this 3D content-to-print marketplace. As always, the customers’ purchase experience is fast and easy without credits, subscriptions or minimums. Content prices start at just $2 with all assets available for instant download after payment by credit card or PayPal.

“The 3dStudio.com has experienced strong growth during its 15 year history. Today, 3D Systems is committed to accelerating the expansion of this vibrant marketplace by responding to members and consumers looking for innovative and printable 3D content. We will continue to develop and deliver the best customer experience available as we provide broader choice and utility of 3D printable content for professionals and consumers alike,” said Rajeev Kulkarni, Vice President and General Manager, Consumer Solutions for 3D Systems.

About 3D Systems Corporation

3D Systems is a leading provider of 3D content-to-print solutions including 3D printers, print materials and on-demand custom parts services for professionals and consumers alike. The company also provides creative content development, design productivity tools and curation services and downloads. Its expertly integrated solutions replace, displace and complement traditional methods and reduce the time and cost of designing new products by printing real parts directly from digital input. These solutions are used to rapidly design, communicate, prototype and produce functional parts, empowering its customers to create with confidence.

More information on the company is available at www.3DSystems.com.

To experience 3D Systems’ entire range of 3D content-to-print products and services please visit www.printin3D.com, www.production3dprinters.com, www.toptobottomdental.com, www.quickparts.com, www.3Dproparts.com, www.alibre.com, www.bitsfrombytes.com, www.botmill.com, www.The3dStudio.com, www.freedomofcreation.com, www.sycode.

Fotosearch Reaches New Milestone with 10 Million Images Available

2011-11-13T06:46:00.001-08:00

PRZOOM - /newswire/ - Waukesha, WI, United States, November 2011 - Fotosearch, one of the world’s largest providers of stock imagery, has just reached the impressive milestone of having over 10 million images available on its website - Fotosearch.com.

While this is a noteworthy achievement for Fotosearch, reaching the milestone directly means that visitors have an even greater selection of stock photography than ever before.

While the sheer quantity of stock images that Fotosearch has available is impressive, the company is very careful to choose only first-class photos to include in it’s immense library. “While we’re quite happy to have reached the 10 million photo milestone, we’re even more pleased that our collection of photos is one of the world’s finest in terms of quality,” said Rick Wintersberger, president of Fotosearch.

Founded in 1998, Fotosearch has firmly established itself as a top choice in stock imagery for creative professionals worldwide by constantly expanding its extensive collection of stock photos with hundreds of thousands of new images every month. With a robust, lightning-fast search engine, visitors are able to quickly search Fotosearch’s massive collection and find the ideal images for their projects.

About Fotosearch®
Publitek, Inc. (fotosearch.com), dba Fotosearch, is one of the largest stock image providers in the world, representing more than 100 royalty free agencies, more than 10 million photos, and over 200,000 stock footage clips. In addition, 6.9 million of Fotosearch’s images can be ordered as posters and prints. Fotosearch’s impressive client list includes international magazines, newspapers, and publishing companies, as well as thousands of major advertising firms in the U.S. and abroad. Visit Fotosearch stock photography to Find the Perfect Photo Fast™.

Corbis Launches New Subscription Service

2011-11-10T05:16:00.001-08:00

Corbis Images, a leading visual media provider for the creative community, today announced a new Royalty Free (RF) subscription service to allow customers to easily access and purchase more than one million RF images. The service, called ‘OnDemand: Royalty Free’ will be available to all customers to help solve their creative storytelling needs.

The new, flexible Corbis OnDemand: Royalty Free subscription service means customers can enter into an agreement based on the number of monthly downloads they require, desired length of contract and whether web resolution or both web and high-resolution images are purchased. Following confirmation of their subscription, customers will be able to access and purchase images from across the RF range, including premium content and Fancy, a versatile and highly art-directed collection.

“Creative professionals typically spend a significant amount of time finding and purchasing the right image, tying up vital resources in the process,” said John Cosley, Vice President of Marketing for Corbis. “Our new subscription service now means creatives can quickly access and download from a large collection of quality images through Corbis’ OnDemand: Royalty Free. With our flexible terms and ability to change packages at any time, we are providing options to fit any budget or customer need.”

Subscribers to Corbis’ OnDemand: Royalty Free service will receive renewal notices and assistance managing their download activity through the new, user-friendly online order history page. Meanwhile, image licenses last one-year from the download date.

About Corbis Images
Corbis Images is a leading visual media provider for advertising, marketing and media professionals, providing a comprehensive selection of stock photography and illustrations. Corbis Images has exceptional creative, documentary, archival, fine art, current events, and entertainment images to help the creative community produce distinctive work for web sites, magazines, newspapers, books, television, and films. Corbis Images serves its global customer base through its renowned Sales & Service teams and its fast, intuitive web site at www.corbisimages.com. Corbis has offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia that serve more than 50 countries.

Alamy announces sales expansion in Australia and the Middle East

2011-11-10T04:58:00.001-08:00

• Ex-Corbis sales professional heads up expansion into the Middle East
• Alamy veteran kicks-off Australian venture

Stock photo pioneer Alamy is expanding its direct sales operations with senior business development and sales staff in Australia and the Middle East.

Sascha Weis, former Senior Sales Manager for North America at Corbis, is relocating to Beirut to target the editorial and commercial markets in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai.

Rachel Wakefield, head of sales at Alamy, commented “Sascha has over 15 years of successful international management and sales experience in our industry and an in-depth knowledge of the Middle East. Sascha will be developing direct sales, increasing brand awareness, and attracting local content in this exciting market which has not been a focus for Alamy before."

Megan Bulmer, a former employee of Alamy UK who recently relocated to Australia, has re-joined the company to spearhead a drive to capture more of the market in the light of the recent Photolibrary acquisition.

Rachel elaborated: “Recent acquisitions in this region have left picture buyers facing less choice and rising prices, so the Australian market is crying out for alternatives. Alamy has the world’s largest collection of stock photography and this, coupled with our first class sales and customer service experience, makes us an obvious first choice for customers."

Alamy is also currently recruiting for a VP of Sales for their New York office to lead the next stage of growth and expansion in the US.

Alamy’s depth and diversity appeals to both the creative and editorial industries. Alamy adds 450,000 images a month and currently has 26 million images online. The company recently launched a news, sport and entertainment service and will be offering video to customers in early 2012.

About Alamy:
Alamy is the world’s largest independent stock photo site. It connects thousands of designers, marketing departments, news desks, and publishers with some of the best professional and amateur photographers around.

Alamy does not make editorial judgements on pictures, nothing is rejected providing the quality is acceptable – it lets the customer choose the pictures they want.

Alamy’s revolutionary approach to the stock photography business means 60 percent of each sale is paid to the content owner – the lion’s share or the revenue earned.

See about Alamy for more information.

Crestock: Increasing Royalty Rates & Revenue Channels for Artists

2011-11-09T16:17:00.000-08:00

Two big changes at Crestock:

1. Increasing Royalty Rates
2. Crestock is adding the Crestock Collection to Masterfile.com

For more information reed the full announcement at the Crestock blog: http://blog.crestock.com/2011/11/09/increasing-royalty-rates-revenue-channels-for-artists/

Stock Photography Sales Statistic October 2011

2011-11-02T21:07:00.000-07:00

This is my stock photography sales statistic for October 2011. You can find a complete list of stock photography agencies that I work with here.

These are for me the best 4 performing stock agencies for October 2011:

October was a good month with an increase of 20% compared to September and an increase of 64% compared to October 2010. Again it was an excellent month for DepositPhotos! It was the best month ever for PhotoDune, Pixmac, and Stockfresh.

(This statistic include referral earning at the different agencies)

Yuri Arcurs International Commercial Photography Academy Boot Camp

2011-11-02T05:51:00.000-07:00

Are you looking for newhorizons, new opportunities; a way to make your mark on the world? Are youdedicated and driven to succeed in the dynamic and vibrant world ofphotography?

The Yuri ArcursInternational Commercial Photography Academy is the perfectopportunity for you!

Boasting an eliteinternational academy program, it hopes to produce the most gifted photographyclass of 2015.

This privately fundedprogram will run for three years, during which the participants will beprovided with a free education that includes food, basicaccommodation, Internet, access to Apple Mac computers and top-of-the-rangecamera equipment, plus the added possibility of earning pocket money based onthe participants performance.

This three yearphotography course will include tuition from some of the industry's foremostexperts and working experience through interactions with real projects, clientsand top models.

The Yuri ArcursInternational Commercial Photography Academy is looking to recruit 10- 15 of the most motivated, ambitious and bright candidates for this tuitioncourse.

Candidates will be begiven the opportunity to prove their mettle during a two-week long photographyboot camp in January 2012. Very little photography knowledge is needed,and Yuri Arcurs Photography will equip you with what you needto know.

Danish-born YuriArcurs is one of the industries leading photographers and shootslifestyle photography at the highest commercial level, as well as being theworld's highest seller of stock photography.

Yuri is also one of thehighest earning photographers in the world and as a testament to this, PDNmagazine voted him one of the most influential photographers of the decade. Heis dedicated to the highest quality of digital photography and was recentlyinducted into a small, select group of photographers sponsored by Hasselbad.Yuri was recently granted one of the largest sponsorship agreements ever madeby Profoto, Sweden.

A quick Google searchgenerates close to 2.1 million hits which is twice as many as the former DanishPrime Minister!

But along with all of theaccolades and success, hard work and determination walked hand in hand.

With the YuriArcurs International Commercial Photography Academy he is offering 10- 15 lucky candidates a chance to get a firm foothold in this competitiveindustry with a practical, highly informative three year education. Candidateswho would otherwise not be able to afford such a notable education will havethe chance to begin a promising career upon a firm and knowledgable foundation.

The Yuri ArcursInternational Commercial Photography Academy is an opportunity thatall fledgling photographers and creatives alike cannot afford to let pass by.
For more information onthe criteria for application visit www.arcurs.com

Applications to be in nolater than 1 DECEMBER 2011.

Getty Images Announces Flickr's 250,000th Image Milestone

2011-10-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

Dynamic Flickr Collection Reflects Passion of Worldwide Community of Photography Enthusiasts

LONDON – October 19, 2011 – Getty Images, a leading creator and distributor of visual content and other media , and Flickr®, a Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) service and one of the world’s largest photo sharing communities, today announced an exciting milestone for the Flickr Collection. Just two years after the debut of this first-of-its-kind collection, the Flickr Collection has grown to 250,000 images, featuring compelling and innovative content from a global community of photography enthusiasts from over 115 countries. Available for licensing exclusively on gettyimages.com, the Flickr Collection reflects the customer’s diverse needs for authentic and regional imagery around the world.

In September 2011 alone, 30,000 new images were available to license from the Flickr Collection and over 1,000 images are typically uploaded on daily basis. There are currently more than 32,316 images submitted from UK-based artists and contributors. The 250,000^th image to be added to the Flickr Collection was “Two little boys,” shot by Sally Anscombe from Ormskirk, Lancashire UK. Sally, a professional photographer, captured the image of her two children, George and James, as they stood on a bed and stared out a window of her Lancashire home.

The growth of the Flickr Collection can be attributed to Getty Images’ dedicated team of photo editors who work with networks around the globe on a daily basis, communicating what is needed at a local level and working with contributors to ensure this is reflected in the imagery that is shot. As a result, Getty Images has been able to not only increase the number of images within the Flickr Collection, but to also ensure that the Collection has an abundance of content from all regions around the world.

“The Flickr collection has proved a massive success for us in our aim to bring a different and a varied range of imagery to the marketplace,” explained Andrew Saunders, Getty Images SVP of Creative. “For us, the 250,000 image milestone emphasizes how dynamic and engaged our Flickr community of contributors truly is and we continue to be thrilled by the imagery being creating for this real life collection.” The Flickr collection features imagery from the highly conceptual to everyday scenes of believable and regionally relevant content, with thousands of new images added each month to meet the evolving needs of Getty Images’ customers.

Distinct trends and common themes from UK-based Flickr contributors feature observational, outdoor life, family life and urban living. Throughout Getty Images’ Flickr Collection, some of the most popular UK subjects have included kids, food, travel and pets.

For more information and to view Getty Images’ Flickr Collection, please visit: www.gettyimages.co.uk/flickr.

Cutcaster translates website into 15 languages

2011-10-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

Recently, Cutcaster team translated Cutcaster into 15 different languages. While it was a large undertaking, translating the site, a lot of the words they had originally used on the English version of Cutcaster lost their meaning when translated into different languages. Some of our translations don’t sound right or lack professionalism when read by someone living or from that country. Cutcaster is asking for your help. If one of the languages below is your “mother tongue” and you would like to earn a little extra money for a few hours of work checking and correctly their pre-translated versions of the site, they would love to speak with you about this project.

Cutcaster can provide you with an excel sheet with the short snippets of English and pre-translated text which needs to be checked and corrected if needed. They also can provide you immediate help if you have any questions.

Most phrases that need to have their pre-existing translations examined and in some cases corrected are 1 to 6 words long. There are around 500 phrases that need to be checked.

Danish, Korean, Greek, Dutch, Russian, French, Norwegian, German, Italian, Polish, Swedish, Czech, Japan, Portugese, Chinese

GD USA Top Stock Websites

2011-10-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was reading the Graphic Design USA Magazine. And I came across the article Top Stock Websites The Jobs Picture. This top agency list is very different compared to my top stock photography list.

GDUSA describes in the megazine each of the agency, but I still like to share the list here (hope that is OK):

Hopefully you will find this list as interesting as I did.

October News Update From Photokore

2011-10-19T05:50:00.000-07:00

New Tutorial: Food Photography

New function: Search is now available in French!

Recent Revisions:

New Image Upload Process:

‘Upload’ and ‘Upload BETA’ - After logging-in, you’ll notice (under the ‘search bar’) ‘Upload’ and ‘Upload BETA’. Clicking on ‘Upload’ will take you to the Upload pages that you have been using since joining Photokore. Clicking on ‘Upload BETA’ will take you to our new upload page (which was developed based on all the input we have received from our Artists during the past several months). We hope you’ll try the new ‘Upload BETA’ and send any feedback you think necessary to help@photokore.com We plan to keep both upload options on the site for about one month, until we’re sure the ‘Upload BETA’ works perfectly. At that time, we will delete the old upload process, and ‘Upload BETA’ will become the default ‘Upload’ process.

Illustration Submission Guidelines

Revised Vector Illustration Guidelines – Due to the request of our Artists (and after consulting with customers) we have lowered the requirements for Adobe Illustrator version from ‘version 9 and above’ to ‘version 8 and above’. We have also changed the requirement to provide ‘both EPS and AI files’ to ‘either EPS and/or AI files.

Search

Artist & Image search - If you know the Username of the artist who's images you'd like to view, or if you know the Image Number of the image you want to view, you can now type them in the Search Bar and find them directly!

New additions:

Create Artist’s Page:

‘Create Artist’s Page’ - After logging-in, click on ‘My Account’ (at the top of the homepage, next to ‘Log Out’). When the ‘My Account’ page opens, on the left side of the page you can click on ‘Create Artist’s Page’ and fill-in information about yourself. This is what people will see when they click on your Username under one of your images, so fee free to promote yourself here!

New ‘Image Preview’ page:

Posting images to Facebook and Twitter - When you click on an image, an ‘Image Preview’ page will pop-up. Under the large Image (on the left side of the page), on the left you will see Facebook and Twitter icons. By clicking on these icons, you can post the image on Facebook and Twitter.
Detailed Image Viewing - To the right of Facebook and Twitter icons, you will see a Magnifying Glass icon. Click on it and wait a few seconds. Then move your cursor over the image and you will be able to see a magnified view!
‘Like this Artist’ – Under the large image (to the right of the Artist’s name) you will see a ‘I like this Artist’. Viewers can click on this if they like your image, and the number of ‘Likes’ will be shown as ‘X people like this artist’.

Alamy hits 26 million

2011-10-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

Collection grows to 26 million stock images, Largest collection of hi-res images online available to purchase, Contributor registrations up by 10%

Independent picture giant Alamy reaches 26 million making it the largest online collection of stock images in the world.

Alamy is proving as popular as ever amongst the photographic community with registrations from photographers up by 10% in the last two months. Recent additions include award winning photojournalist and documentary history and arts filmmaker Frederique Cifuentes and the Lake County Discovery Museum's collection of 355,000 postcards dating from 1890 to 1960 from Universal Images Group.

Alan Capel, head of content at Alamy commented: “Registrations are up showing that the supply of good photography continues. It's also been a great year for signing up contributors from every corner of the globe.”

“We still get subjects like business meetings, tropical beaches, families in autumnal leaves and water droplets because these are clichés for good reason and customers love them. However, Alamy is probably the only place where you will find all of this stuff alongside obscure vintage postcards and award winning photojournalism. ”

Rachel Wakefield, head of sales at Alamy added: “In the early days customers often came to Alamy for images they couldn't find elsewhere. Now, we're their first choice with an unrivalled diversity of high quality and eclectic content.”

Stock Video Gets Real

2011-10-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

Industry Leader iStockphoto SeesDemand for Gritty, Authentic Stock Video, Predicts Trends in CombinedStill/Video Offerings and Mini-Films as iStockvideo Celebrates FifthAnniversary

CALGARY, Alberta: Oct. 17, 2011 — October marks the fifth yeariStockphoto has been in the stock video business. To celebrate, the company is discountingvideo purchases by 15 percent from October 17th to 23rd.

Reduced advertising budgetsand the explosive demand for online video content have allowed the stock videoindustry to evolve at a highly accelerated pace. Today, iStockphoto’s videolibrary contains nearly 400,000 files, to which a team of more than 6,500videographers is adding roughly 2,500 files on a weekly basis.

Today stock videos are used ineverything from national news programs to documentaries, films and web advertising.The biggest current trend in both demand and the offerings at iStockvideo, isauthenticity through the use of models, scenes and lighting that seem real andnot too “ideal.”

“Thanks to reality TV, thesmart phone cameras and social media we’ve quite literally become used toseeing reality unvarnished, “ said Jim Goertz, director of video contentdevelopment at iStockphoto. “Some of the things we used to strive to perfectbecome glaring imperfections in that they seriously undermine credibility. Now,effective art must imitate reality.”

Besides realism, othermajor trends in stock video include:

· The use of modern DSLRcameras to shoot stills and video simultaneously,

· The use of large formathigh-definition video cameras,

· An increased call for morecompletely edited “mini-films.”

StockVideo On the Edge: New Trends:

Here are samplecutting-edge stock videos on iStock that demonstrate new editing techniques,and shooting styles that Goertz believes will be in greater demand over thenext few years.

Zoom Out to Earth fromWireless Phone,by UK-based member multifocus

This is a high-definitionanimation zooming out into space from a city park. Real actors make up thisdifficult to achieve clip. A world surrounded by networks and computer wirelessdata.

Couple Eating Pizza by Oregon, USA-basedmember Uberstock

Note the very real look andlighting of the restaurant and the actors in this piece, which could be easily usedto demonstrate everything from friendship to a quality restaurant experience.

SEQUENCE: CriminalTransactionby UK member benjikat

This clip represents thenew trend of mini-films. A car pulls into a car park and two characterscautiously swap briefcases, one of which has a bundle of cash in it.

FirstiStock Video Ever Sold and The Top Five-Selling Videos Globally

In 2006, the biggestpurchase trends were toward simpler themes such as water or businesspeople,although some conceptual themes were popular, such as this animation of a DNAstrand. To honor its “first-ever” status, is the free video of the monthin October:

The first video ever soldon iStock was created by member geopaul

http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-video-2048508-dna-animation-ntsc.php

Overall, the top videos soldat iStockphoto globally represent themes that can work in many contexts and cultures,such as technology, spirituality, and hectic lifestyles. iStock expects clipslike this to remain in high demand as our global concerns become morehomogenous and more buyers enter the market.

New Stock Photo Agency Stockfresh Adds One Millionth Image

2011-10-13T21:12:00.000-07:00

Budapest, Hungary — Having just launched last year, Dream Group's new online stock photo agency Stockfresh has been showing tremendous growth and now has over 1 million stock photos and vector graphics available for download. Stockfresh is the third stock photography related venture by Dream Group, the Hungarian team behind the popular Stockxpert and stock.xchng (SXC) sites (now operated by Getty Images) which attracted millions of users from all over the world.

The website is rapidly gaining momentum due to its ease of use and growing library of carefully selected images which now includes the work of over 1800 contributors, among them some of the most sought after stock photographers such as Yuri Arcurs, Andres Rodriguez, Irene Kurhan and popular production houses like Monkey Business Images and Candybox Images.

The founders of Stockfresh would like to prove that it is possible to build an agency that's not only customer, but also contributor friendly:

"Our main goal is to build a friendly stock photo service where customers can buy great images for affordable prices through a hassle-free but powerful interface and also where image suppliers are paid properly unlike some agencies who constantly drive commissions down" - said Peter Hamza, one of the co-founders of Stockfresh.

"It's a very exciting challenge to compete in this market once again especially because the bar was raised so high with Stockxpert and stock.xchng. People are expecting a lot from us but fortunately we have over 15 years of online experience and we can build upon that" - added Andras Pfaff, co-founder.

About Dream Group
Dream Group is a Hungary based group of online services including Dream Interactive, one of Hungary's definitive digital agencies; SeeMe, a powerful mobile marketing and mass texting solution and Stockfresh, a rapidly growing royalty free stock photo library.

Depositphotos Stock Photo Agency Introduces New Pay-As-You-Go Pricing

2011-10-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

Pay-as-you-go prices are raised, subscription prices remain the same

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 13 Oct. 2011 – Depositphotos, the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world, introduces a new pricing model.

This scheduled change affects pay-as-you-go pricing, while subscription pricing remains the same. Photographers receive a level rating, based upon their total sales. Image prices, once dependent only on the size of the image, now also increase as the photographer’s level increases. While photographers’ commission rates remain the same, photographers at higher levels will receive increased royalties due to the higher pricing of images at their level.

With the new pay-as-you-go pricing model, Depositphotos expands the list of countries where the pay-by-SMS method works. Panama, Hong Kong and New Zealand have been added to the list; SMS payments in Italy will become available in a few weeks.

The Buyers Menu has received a facelift; the background of opened tabs is shaded, so now it is easier for users to see where they are in the menu structure. Depositphotos also eases the process of purchasing credits and subscriptions; each time a buyer logs in, his welcome screen offers to make a purchase if needed.

“We introduced this new pricing model to stimulate contributors to upload and sell more images. In addition, this change is designed to attract those contributors who had previously dismissed Depositphotos as a low-earning agency,” says Igor Kalyuzhny, Head of Depositphotos’ departments in Eastern and Western Europe.

About Depositphotos Inc.
Depositphotos is the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world. Presently it offers over 4 million stock photographs and vector images sold under royalty-free licenses. The stock photo library is increased daily by thousands of images, carefully checked and selected by moderators. The company is headquartered in Florida, USA, and has business offices in Germany, Great Britain and Russia.

iStockphoto Urges Seven Million Member Global Community to Join Team “iStache,” Stop Shaving and Raise Buckets of Cash for Men’s Health This “Movember”

2011-10-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

iStock to Match up to $10,000 in Funds Raised

CALGARY, Alberta: Oct. 12, 2011 — Nextmonth, iStockphoto’s community of seven million members around the world arebeing urged to help bring awareness to men’s health concerns and prostatecancer by joining the company in support of Movember. Movember is a global initiative that includes a moustache growing charityevent held during November each year to raise funds and awareness for prostatecancer.

iStockers can participate in Movember in many ways and win fun contestsand free stuff while doing something good. iStock will also match up to$10,000 of the funds raised. Here are details of how to get involved:

· Join the iStache Team: Visitwww.Movember.com, register for your country and join Team iStache. Then watch your moustache grow and raise local funds through friendsand family to support awareness of men’s health issues.

How it works: Men register with a clean-shaven face. The Movemberparticipants, known as Mo Bros, then spend the rest of the month growing andgrooming their Mos, raising money along the way. Women can still become MoSisters and raise funds too.

Mo Rules: (From Movember.com):

A Mo is defined according to the Movember rules:

1. There is to be no joining ofthe Mo to side burns – That’s a beard.

2. There is to be no joining ofthe handlebars – That’s a goatee.

3. A small complimentary growth under the bottom lipis allowed (aka a tickler).

· iStock Artists, show us the Mos and Healthy Bros: iStock artists are encouraged to create and submit new photos,illustrations, videos and even audio compositions that celebrate facial hair orreflect men’s health issues and general male well-being. Guidelines for havingyour work included in the iStock Movember 2011 collection are here. Prizes will be awarded for files of each type at the end of themonth.

· Followthe Fun: Follow iStock on Twitter or Facebook throughout Movember to take part in fun contests such as submittingphotos of your mo for swag and prizes, and also look for tips from our very ownMovember Mo Coach on how to grow the perfect stache.

iStockis an official supplier of imagery to the international Movember organization.

About iStockphoto

iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspirationwith millions of vetted, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio andFlash^® files. Using the most advanced search in the business,customers download a file every second from a collection of more than tenmillion files for business, marketing and personal projects. iStockphotostarted in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography business model, andhas become one of the most successful and profitable user-generated contentsites in the world. iStockphoto pays out more than $1.9 million weekly inartist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, andis a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images.

Shutterstock Announces The New Catalog Manager

2011-10-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

Sort. Share. Promote.

Shutterstock is happy to introduce a new tool for Shutterstock contributors that includes some of your most-requested features. It’s called the Catalog Manager, and it makes it easier to organize, track, and share your Shutterstock portfolio. It’s easy:

Sort your images into sets.
Share sets with anyone—and earn referral fees from new customers.
Track your statistics from each of your sets.

When you publish a set of images within the Shutterstock Catalog Manager, you’ll get a unique URL you can use to share the set with anybody. It’s a great way to promote your work and potentially boost your sales. All public set links include your referral code, so if you bring a new customer to Shutterstock, you’ll get paid for the download PLUS 20% of that customer’s first purchase, up to $200!

Once you’ve created sets, you can also keep track of your sales by set and see which types of images are most popular with customers.

You might create sets by subject, or group images together featuring the same model or from the same shoot.

The new Catalog Manager tool is available right now, and we’ll improve upon it based on your feedback. Log in to submit.shutterstock.com and you’ll see the new set tracking tool on the homepage. It’s easy, it’s useful, and you won’t find it on any other stock image site.
Source: Shutterbuzz

iStockphoto Launches “Feast,” a New Online Community Serving Up an Inspired Public Mentorship Between Creatives and Thought Leaders

2011-10-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

CALGARY, Alberta—Oct. 5, 2011--iStockphoto announces Feast, a new online community for creatives. Feast provides abundant helpings of inspiration from a diverse group of designers, photographers, directors, writers, marketing professionals and more. Feast’s centerpiece is a unique public mentorship between cutting-edge leaders in diverse fields such as photojournalist Mario Tama and writer, director and producer Kirby Ferguson, and protégés who apply to work with them online. In pre-launch, 25,000 people registered for Feast and 300 applied to be October protégés.

Each month Feast spotlights a new "Artist in Residence," to work with two to four protégés on a specific topic related to this year’s theme of, “Creating a Better World.” The Artist in Residence will also post guest articles related to the month’s topic. Protégés will meet with their mentor to understand, “The Brief,” a creative challenge issued by the Artist in Residence. The Brief will be posted on Feast, as will subsequent drafts, feedback and final projects. In addition to getting creative direction and feedback from top artists, protégés will be awarded either 500 iStock credits or $500.

“When creatives from different disciplines intermingle, strange and wonderful things happen. In today’s world it is crucial to keep your skills sharp,” said James Leal-Valias, creative director for iStockphoto. “Feast acts as a catalyst, re-energizing people around their artistic talents and those of others.”

James Leal-Valias kicks off Feast in October, focusing on the concept of “The Big Idea.” The first protégés are Jonathan Key, a design student at Billy Blue College of design in Sydney, Australia, and Jennifer Wallace, a freelance designer based in Portland, Oregon.

Future Artists in Residence include:

November: Photojournalist, Mario Tama. Mario is an Emmy-Award nominated staff photographer for Getty Images who has covered the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and other global events to international acclaim. His work on Baghdad’s orphans was exhibited at Visa Pour L’Image, and his images of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina have been featured in Newsweek, National Geographic and papers worldwide.
December: Kirby Ferguson, creator of Everything is a Remix, Ferguson is a writer, director and producer who has created dozens of comedic short films and gotten over four million views on the web. As part of a development deal with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he recently wrote, directed, produced and edited the viral hit “Macs vs. PCs”. He is a prolific comedy writer and has extensive knowledge of video production, executing almost all production roles for his shorts.

About iStockphoto
iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of vetted, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash® files. Using the most advanced search in the business, customers download a file every second from a collection of more than nine million files for business, marketing and personal projects. iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography business model, and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generated content sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out more than $1.9 million weekly in artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images.

Find All Stock Media in One Place – Pond5, The World´s Stock Media Marketplace, Arrives in Europe, Gives Away $10,000 in Content at the Frankfurt Book Fair

2011-10-05T05:39:00.000-07:00

New York, NY, October 5th, 2011. Pond5, the online marketplace for stock media and creative components, announced today that its collection now includes more than 800,000 royalty-free stock video clips (the largest archive on the web), along with millions of other assets, including stock photos, illustrations, music tracks, sound effects, and After Effects motion graphics projects. Recently, Pond5 opened its doors for contributors of 3D models as well; the 3D collection will launch for buyers later this year.

Prices on Pond5 are set by the artists themselves, and start at just $1 for images and illustrations, $2 for sound effects and $5 for stock video and music. Pond5 artists come from all over the world, and earn an industry-leading 50% share of all sales. The agreement with artists is non-exclusive, and sellers on the site retain full ownership and rights to their content.

For buyers, Pond5 provides instant access to a vast media library, with professional quality content that can be be searched, previewed, and downloaded instantly from the website. The royalty-free license allows for in-perpetuity use in virtually any type of production. Pond5 content is regularly used in productions ranging from feature films and television programs to magazines, websites and video games.

“We’re looking to build the most artist-friendly marketplace for stock media on the web,” says Tom Bennett, co-founder and CEO of Pond5, “as well as the go-to creative resource for every media creator in need of raw material”. The artist-friendly approach has worked, says Bennett: “Thousands of contributors from around the world have combined forces to create the most comprehensive collection of stock media anywhere, available at prices that can’t be beat.”

Pond5’s collection has been growing at an accelerating rate, with thousands of new video clips and other assets being added each week. The site now offers:

over 800,000 Royalty-Free Stock Footage Video Clips, most of which are HD
over 6,4 million Stock Photos and Illustrations, soon over 10 million images
over 500,000 Vector Illustrations
over 46,000 Music Tracks
over 78,000 SFX Sound Effects
over 1,000 After Effects Projects

Pond5 at the Frankfurt Book Fair - $10,000 Stock Media Giveaway

Pond5 will be exhibiting at the Frankfurt Book Fair (Hall 3.1, Booth A 118), Oct. 12 - 16, 2011, and will be giving away coupons worth $10,000 of free stock media on the site. Stop by the Pond5 booth early to receive your coupon!

Appointments with staff of Pond5 during the Frankfurt Book Fair can be arranged by emailing fbf@pond5.com.

As part of its broadening international reach, localized versions of the Pond5.com website will be available in German and other major languages in the coming months.

About Pond5
Pond5 is a community-driven marketplace for stock media, featuring the world's largest collection of stock video, as well as millions of photos, illustrations, music tracks, sound effects, motion graphics projects, and 3D models. All media on Pond5 is instantly downloadable, and licensed under a simple royalty-free license. Prices are set by contributors, who earn 50% on each sale - among the highest royalties in the industry.

Pond5.com was launched in 2006, and is based in Brooklyn, NY.

For information visit www.pond5.com and follow Pond5 on Facebook and Twitter.

PhotoDune September Stats and Update

2011-10-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is a quote from the PhotoDune forum!

Last month I got lots of good feedback about posting up some stats and updates, so here goes again!
Things Going Well!

Sales continue to grow. In July (private beta) we had 1700, in August we had 4200 and in September we posted up 7200 sales! I’m sure the big guys will still get a chuckle out of our numbers, but I must admit I’m pretty excited! And we’ve had a lot of good feedback from our buyers about the quality of images which is great!
Last month we had 150 authors with at least 1 sale, this month we’ve almost doubled that number up to 265 authors who’ve had a sale!
New items per day have swelled up into the thousands, and should increase more (see below about the rate limit change!)
Last month I noted reviewing as something that needed more work. Well thanks to the hard work of Jarel our review manager and his fantastic team at MicrostockSolutions (MSS), we have really amped up our review capabilities and team size, and are now getting through three times as many files a day.
We seem to be establishing some early trends on what our buying audience is interested in. Over on the Popular Files page. Solarseven really seems to have nailed our market, and image for image outsells everyone on PhotoDune by an enormous margin! He ranks #10 on our Top Authors for PhotoDune, despite having a portfolio of just 235 images! A good lesson on how to do well on PhotoDune it would appear!

Things We Need to Work/Think On!

Uploading with Model Releases – We’ve had some complaints about our upload process when model releases are involved. We’ve fixed a few bugs, but there are some underlying differences in how we do things on PhotoDune. I need to figure out if it’s a case of getting out better info about our process, or changing it. Either ways – it needs work!
We’ve had quite a bit of discussion about our non-exclusive rates over on the industry forum microstockgroup.com, and as I’ve told them that’s still something on the discussion table here at HQ, so no word just yet!

And Two Big Changes:

(1) Extended License pricing increase

Here on the forums, and also over on Microstockgroup we’ve had a lot of people voice their concern about our Extended License pricing. This is a combination of a low pricing multiple, and a different approach to ext. licensing. Along with that feedback, we contacted a number of top authors to gauge their input before further reviewing it.

As you may have realised we offer extended licenses of different image sizes. This is different from most marketplaces which offer just the largest size with an extended license. Personally I think it’s kind of neat to have many tiers because different customers have different needs. Someone wanting to sell the photo on a postcard for instance needs a large print-ready resolution photo. Whereas someone making an iPhone app will just need a 640×960 size.

For our extended license pricing we apply a multiple to the regular image price. Previously that multiple was 5x, we’ve now revised it upwards to 8x.

This means if you need an extended license on the largest size we offer you are paying around $72 – which is fairly standard for the industry. However if you are a buyer looking for just the small size you are paying upwards of just $8. Of course for that price you get a tiny sized image!

I think that some photographers may still groan at offering any sort of extended license for $8, and of course we still have a simple opt-out for extended licensing. However personally I think with this revision it fits better into the industry standards while continuing to offer something new to buyers.

(2) Increasing from 50 submissions p/day to 250 p/day

As you will have seen from Pete’s announcement last week and our author dashboard notification, we’ve increasing our submission limit! We previously had an artificial submission limit of 50 photos per day to ensure we didn’t crumble under the load of resources and reviewing. Two months in and we’re feeling more confident and we’ve now increased that limit way up to 250 images per day. I imagine this is going to yield a much faster library growth, and of course is a bit more pleasant for photographers as an upload experience!

Of course this also means we are opening the floodgates to some extent, so we’ll be watching closely our review times to make sure we don’t move the bottleneck somewhere new.

In October

In October we kick off a really cool GraphicRiver/PhotoDune bundle which will feature a lot of our current photographers. As you guys know we share revenue on our bundles at a 50-50 split regardless of exclusivity. Bundles are very popular with our buyers and have sold up to $200,000 worth in a matter of days. But primarily they are a way for us to drive new buyers to check out contributor content. So I’m pretty excited about this bundle as it will showcase some of the best PhotoDune content to our massive pool of buyers!

Onwards and upwards!

3D Systems Expands Content On The3dStudio.com

2011-10-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Top Selling Stock Photographer Partners With 3D Systems

ROCK HILL, South Carolina, October 3, 2011 – 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE: DDD), announced today that The3dStudio.com has made available over 21,000 newly released stock photo images from the Yuri Arcurs collection. Yuri Arcurs is often called the world’s top selling microstock photographer and one of the masters of stock photography.

Tracy Eau Claire, Director of Business Development at The3dStudio.com says “Yuri’s latest photos showcase new models and authentic lifestyle images that are perfect for all types of commercial image needs.”

The3dStudio.com is a leading 3D content-to-print on-line marketplace that delivers over 1.9 million free and priced 2D and 3D content files and tools including printable 3D models, textures, stock photos and images. Its resources are used by designers, Makers, architects, ad agencies, game developers, graphic artists, book cover designers, filmmakers and publishers.

About 3D Systems Corporation
3D Systems is a leading provider of 3D content-to-print solutions including 3D printers, print materials and on-demand custom parts services for professionals and consumers alike. The company also provides creative content development, design productivity tools and curation services and downloads. Its expertly integrated solutions replace, displace and complement traditional methods and reduce the time and cost of designing new products by printing real parts directly from digital input. These solutions are used to rapidly design, communicate, prototype and produce functional parts, empowering its customers to create with confidence.

More information on the company is available at www.3DSystems.com.

To experience 3D Systems’ entire range of 3D content-to-print products and services, please visit www.printin3D.com, www.toptobottomdental.com, www.3Dproparts.com, www.quickparts.com, www.alibre.com, www.bitsfrombytes.com, www.The3dStudio.com, www.freedomofcreation.com, blog.3dsystems.com, or via email at moreinfo@3Dsystems.com.

Photojournalist, Mario Tama To Be Featured As Artist in Residence and Mentor for Feast Community

2011-10-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

On October 5th, Feast, a new online community where creative minds from all over the globe come together to share, create and learn. The monthly topics, events, mentor programs, design challenges and more will all rotate around an annual theme like “Create a Better World” for 2011. Each month Feast will spotlight a new "Artist in Residence," to work with two to four protégés on a specific topic related to the theme.

In November, Photojournalist, Mario Tama will be the Artist in Residence.

More about Feast:

Is innovative and one-of-a-kind. No other organization offers a program like it.
Offers a public online environment connecting cutting-edge creative leaders with the design community.
In addition to photojournalist Mario Tama, other well known artists such as writer, director and producer Kirby Ferguson and other industry luminaries who will mentor protégés on a monthly basis.
Features “The Brief,” a creative competition in which protégés receive creative direction and feedback from top artists and are awarded either 500 iStock credits or $500.
Provides inspiration to a fusion of artists—designers, photographers, directors, writers, marketing professionals and more.
Acts as a catalyst for re-energizing people around their artistic talents and those of others.

Pixmac reached 1 million photos directly uploaded by individual photographers

2011-10-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

Leading microstock photography company Pixmac reached 1 million photos directly uploaded by individual photographers. Together with over 10 million photos from other sources Pixmac offers the widest variety of subjects.

The three year old microstock site now boasts over 11 million images and one of the easiest user interfaces in the market.

Viteslav Valka, Pixmac’s CEO states “Today we've reached 1 million photos directly uploaded to Pixmac. It's an important milestone and a proof that we attract contributors by sales not just by promises and talking about how cool we are. I hope that we all share the main target and that's generating revenue to each of you. That's what we're working on every day.”

Pixmac has been focusing on driving sales to its site rather than being active in contributor focused marketing. As Pixmac is also reselling photos from other agencies it already generates earnings to contributors using other agencies.

September 2011 was a ‘BME’ which stands for Best Month Ever in terms of contributors revenue at Pixmac. And we wanted to thank you all for support.

About Pixmac
Pixmac is a leading microstock photography site offering millions of images at budget prices. Photos from $1 with the ability to source, download and buy an image in less than 3 minutes. No registration process. Pixmac offers a fast, time-saving site with great customer service.

Pixmac
Koněvova 141/2660
130 83 Praha 3
Czech Republic, EU

Stock Photography Sales Statistic September 2011

2011-10-01T17:53:00.000-07:00

This is my stock photography sales statistic for September 2011. You can find a complete list of stock photography agencies that I work with here.

These are for me the best 4 performing stock agencies for September 2011:

I am so happy to see that all is back to normal! September had an increase of 30% compared to August and an increase of 14% compared to September 2010. It was the best month ever for PhotoDune and Photokore. Again I have to mention DepositPhotos! Only the those months that they payed for uploading are not better, but I had over a 100% increase at DepostiPhotos compared to the month of August. That is impressive!

(This statistic include referral earning at the different agencies)

Depositphotos Stock Photo Agency Unveils Major Website Update

2011-09-29T06:25:00.000-07:00

Redesigned website, 10 Times Better Performance, Increased Functionality and Improved Navigation

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 29 Sept. 2011 – Depositphotos, the fastest-growing stock photo agency in the world, released a major website update.

Depositphotos’ new website design is modern and attractive, and is created to satisfy customer’s needs and simplify the process of finding and purchasing the appropriate high-quality images.

Search functionality has been extended. Every word from an image title is used to determine image ranking in the search results. The search bar was updated with an easy-to-use filter on the type of image being searched.

The new layout is designed to fit the dimensions of any browsing device. Best fit starts from 1024x768, and higher resolutions are unlimited.

Every image size received its own file type description and separate download button. It has never been easier to purchase any image you need – just one click is required.

Image buyers and image sellers received updated dashboards. The contributor’s interface has been revised and now all basic image information (title, description, keywords, categories, etc.) is available from the files dashboard, and batch operation of file functions are expanded.

The website core has been updated. Customers will receive better navigation and more relevant search results at 10 times faster speeds.

“Depositphotos’ website update is designed to simplify clients’ efforts in finding the images they need. We are open to all feedback, and will constantly continue to improve our service,” says Igor Kalyuzhny, Head of Depositphotos’ departments in Eastern and Western Europe.

About Depositphotos Inc.
Depositphotos is the fastest growing stock photo agency in the world. Presently it offers over 4 million stock photographs and vector images sold under royalty-free licenses. The stock photo library is increased daily by thousands of images, carefully checked and selected by moderators. The company is headquartered in Florida, USA, and has business offices in Germany, Great Britain and Russia.

Shutterstock Introduces Single Image Sales

2011-09-28T20:22:00.000-07:00

Shutterstock announced a new single-image product. They have created the new single-image prduct in response to customer demand, that they think will help Shutterstock contributors to earn more money. Shutterstock is currently testing this product.

Here’s what the contributors need to know:

For the first time, Shutterstock is offering customers in certain markets the option to purchase one Shutterstock image download at a time.
Shutterstock's current packages and their royalty rates will not be impacted by this change.
Shutterstock is using a percentage-based earnings model for this new standard license single-image product, and other products they may test and or launch in the future. This will let them experiment with new offerings in a way that remains fair to contributors.

The Details:

Under the new single-image pricing they are testing, customers can download any Shutterstock image with a standard license for a set price. Shutterstock designed this product to attract new customers who aren’t currently making purchases at Shutterstock.

Royalty rates for this product range from 20% to 30% depending on the contributors lifetime earnings at Shutterstock. They designed these percentages to be very close to what the contributor currently earn for On Demand downloads. You will see these sales recorded in the “Single & Other Downloads” column of your Download Stats page.

For more info take a look at the Shutterbuzz post.

Calling all image buyers in the New York area!

2011-09-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

This event is exclusively for image buyers

Visual Connections (formerly Picturehouse Marketing US) will be hosting its annual Image Expo at the Altman Building in New York City on Thursday, October 20th.

This is a unique one-day event for image buyers, researchers, designers, art directors, and other users of images and footage to discover new sources of imagery. Our 70+ exhibitors are coming from all around the US, Great Britain, Canada, Sweden, Germany, and France to demonstrate what they have to offer, and to learn from the people who use their images.

Visual Connections is excited to welcome thirteen agencies to New York for the first time, including six that have launched only recently: DepositPhotos, In Transit Images, Mother Image, Robana Picture Library, SnapFish Stock Images, and Venus Stock.

As ever, Visual Connections New York is not just about work: complimentary food and drinks are served throughout the day; beer (sponsored by Shutterstock and Brooklyn Brewery) and wine is served from 5pm. For light relief, Bridgeman Art Library is running a Wheel of Fortune, and the ASPP (American Society of Picture Professionals) is providing a Snapshot Photo Booth. And our ever-popular prize drawing has some fantastic prizes, including a bicycle and an iPad 2.

Everyone today needs a good portrait photo for online profiles and the like, so Roux Strategy will be running a Professional Portrait Studio, offering make-up and photography by Nicolett Jakab for just $75.

Entry to the expo is free, but restricted to professional image buyers. For more information or to register go to: http://www.visualconnections.com/NY2010/

About Visual Connections
Visual Connections (formerly Picturehouse Marketing US) is a marketing services company focused on connecting buyers with suppliers of photography, footage, and other visual media. The company owners, Deborah Free and Edward Leigh, have over 40 years combined experience in the industry and have run trade fairs, for Picturehouse then Visual Connections, since 2003. http://www.visualconnections.com/

iStockphoto announces iStockalypse Milan

2011-09-27T07:56:00.000-07:00

–      First iStockalypse in Italy
–      Five days of photography education and shoots
–      Leading industry insight into how to make a living from stock photography
–      iStockalypse Milan to be sponsored by Canon Europe

ITALY, Milan: September 26, 2011— iStockphoto today announced the first Italian iStockalypse, a five-day photography event, 28 September - 2 October 2011 being held in Milan and surrounding villages. The Italian iStockalypse is organized in partnership with Canon, a world leader in imaging products and solutions, which will provide its leading photographic equipment and educational resources as part of this sponsorship.

iStockalypse was born in early 2005, as an official multi-day iStockphoto (iStock) event. Artists and photographers from the international iStock contributor community come together to collaborate, share knowledge, and exchange tricks of the stock photography trade. The events transform hobbyists into knowledgeable photographers, and endow them with the skills for a professional career, as well develop the skills of professional photographers.

Each day iStock sets the stage for participants to launch into high-end photo-shoots —carefully planning and selecting locations, models, wardrobe and fashion designers, hair and make-up professionals, props, professional equipment and mentorship.

Nick King, vice president, international, of iStockphoto, said, “Everything about Italy is beautiful: the language, the architecture, the landscape, the food, the wine and of course there's the exquisite fashion. Add a handful of some of the top photographers in the business working together and you’ve got a recipe for some truly mind-blowing results. We’re delighted to be partnering with Canon to bring the iStockalypse experience to Milan for the first time. ”

Kieran Magee, European Professional Imaging marketing director at Canon Europe, comments: “iStockalypse is a fantastic platform for attendees to push their abilities to new levels, individually and collaboratively. Canon experts will be on hand at the event to offer guidance, equipment and education for photographers of all levels. Everyone from beginners to seasoned pros has the opportunity to share what they know and create brilliant images with old and new friends.”

iStockalypse is organized by official staff, with heavy involvement from community members on the ground in the host cities. Local contributors in each location bring an insider's view of cultural heritage. Since the first event in Las Vegas, iStock has traveled to Boston, Prague, Slovenia, Barcelona, Marseille, Austin, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Seattle, New York, Berlin, Istanbul, Cannes, Tokyo, Calgary, Malta, and London, and there are no plans to slow down. iStockalypse Milan will draw heavily on the experience of its vibrant Italian contributor community, and will also be supported by local on-the-ground staff, including recently appointed Country Manager, Nicola Ghezzi.

Brief Shooting Schedule
On Wednesday September 28th, iStock contributors (photographers) and clients (design and advertising agencies) will gather for a day of educational opportunities and discussions. The various workshops have been designed to enhance all aspects of the artist, in all mediums. iStock will introduce photographers to video in “Getting Started as a Video Contributor,” delve deep into photo lighting skills in the “Photo Lighting workshop”, discuss audio in “one Stop Portfolios” and address vectors in “Illustrations from start to finish.” In addition, iStock will showcase new contributors and discuss buyer’s needs in panel sessions.

From the 29th through 2nd, each day, photographers will embark on a daily shoot in one of four directions. They’ll be tasked with shooting traditional stock concepts, challenged with capturing editorial content in Milan, and adventuring casual lifestyle outdoor concepts in the towns of Bergamo, Como, Lecco and Pavia; all located in the stunning Lombardia region of Italy.

During the editorial shoots, attendees will be challenged with locations and concepts around the City of Milan, in various outdoor non-set locations including:
-       Transportation, Logistics and Commuting
-       Environmental and Green Industry
-       Daily Life in the City
-       Business and Industry

At the Studio shoots, attendees will work on both video and photo concepts in a creative space. The locations and concepts are around the City of Milan, in set studio locations and will address:
-       Video: Human Interaction and Relationships
-       Photo: Innovation, Happiness, Trust, Diversity, Community and Real

Each day a group will also shoot a traditional stock concept in the perfect location where we can capture Italy in style, complete with artistic direction, lights and models.

Locations and concepts around the City of Milan, include shooting locations:
-       Lifestyle at Home & Football/Soccer
-       Aperitivo (Milanese Evening Social Life)
-       Mulino Bianco (Multigenerational Family)
-       Education & Student Lifestyle

Each day a group will take their models, backpacks and inspirations to the surrounding towns and countryside. Groups will venture through enchanting Lombardia for a day to Bergamo, Como, Lecco or Pavia to capture everyday Italian life on the streets, in cafes and around the towns – all in the name of capturing authentic Italy.

As part of the sponsorship agreement with iStock, Canon Europe will be providing equipment and expertise to the gathered photographers and videographers at both studio shoots and on location.

About iStockphoto
iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of vetted, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash® files. Using the most advanced search in the business, customers download a file every second from a collection of more than nine million files for business, marketing and personal projects. iStockphoto started in 2000, pioneering the micropayment photography business model, and has become one of the most successful and profitable user-generated content sites in the world. iStockphoto pays out more than $1.9 million weekly in artist royalties. iStockphoto is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Getty Images.

About Canon Europe
Canon Europe is a subsidiary of Canon Inc. of Japan, a world-leading innovator and provider of imaging solutions for businesses and consumers. Canon Europe currently employs over 11,000 people across 20 local country operations and sells to customers in more than 110 countries in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The main business focus is in two clearly defined markets: Business Imaging (developing IT products, solutions and services for the office and professional print environments) and Consumer Imaging (photo, video, printers, scanners, fax machines and multifunction devices). Canon is the market leader in the Western European digital camera sector.

StockFood launches living4media: the new image agency for home and living

2011-09-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

Sep 25. 2011 12:09 by CEPIC - StockFood, the world’s leading food image agency, introduces living4media: a new picture agency specialising in home and living.

The concept behind www.living4media.com is to unite the most outstanding images produced by internationally renowned photographers and well-known niche agencies under one roof.

The new premium collection focuses on rights-managed images as well as feature articles. living4media features include up to 50 individual images and comprehensive texts, and are available for exclusive licensing.

living4media will offer images covering every aspect of contemporary domestic life: in the interiors section, there will be photographs of unique dream houses, designer villas and city apartments, illustrating examples of contemporary lifestyle trends and offering interior design inspiration. Other subject areas include DIY and renovation as well as creative ideas for craftwork and home decoration. There’s also a full range of photographs of outdoor life at living4media, such as stunning gardens, inspirational patio designs and creative ideas for private gardens.

The new picture agency brings together the work of a host of renowned artists and photographers under one roof, including prestigious names like Simon Upton, Per Magnus Persson, Winfried Heinze, Alexander van Berge, Christine Bauer, Magdalena Björnsdotter, Michael Paul and many more. They are joined by a carefully-chosen selection of specialist agencies from around the world such as Interior Archive, View Pictures and Elizabeth Whiting, with many more to follow in the months to come.

The living4media website is bound to impress thanks to innovative functionality, including one of the first drag-and-drop lightboxes found in the picture agency industry. Cumbersome clicking is now a thing of the past.

The uncompromising quality for which StockFood is already known, and its seemingly inexhaustible supply of images, will provide the model for living4media’s own high standards. As StockFood CEO Pete A. Eising emphasises: ’Over the course of the last thirty years, StockFood has shown how dedication to image quality has helped us to become the market leader. With living4media we can now create its equivalent in the world of home and living.’

The new agency will fill a gap in the range of image providers on the professional photo market. living4media Managing Director Martin Skultety points this out clearly: ‘Numerous professional image users have remarked on the lack of a strong and independent supplier of high quality content in this field, offering a full range of expert services. That vacant niche in the market has now been filled. Our track record means customers can rely on living4media for quality, continuity and consistency.’

About living4media

living4media is a new premium picture agency specialising in home and living images. As an independent division of StockFood, the world’s leading food image agency, living4media benefits from the global leadership position of its parent company. The website www.living4media.com will form an international industry portal to showcase the work of renowned image and content producers from around the world, covering the field of interiors, living, lifestyle and gardens. Alongside its own collection, the site will provide access to existing well-known specialist image agencies in the relevant fields.

StockFood and living4media are part of CulinArts Holding GmbH, a group of businesses led by CEO Pete A. Eising. Thanks to a worldwide network of sales offices and partner agencies, the company operates in over 60 countries across five continents.

We supply images of your choice free of charge for use in any media coverage of living4media. Just get in touch with us.

Alamy expands its global infrastructure to Asia

2011-09-17T07:22:00.000-07:00

World's largest online stock photo site establishes a data center in Chennai, India with Netmagic

Alamy, the world’s largest online stock photo site, has extended its server infrastructure to Netmagic’s co–location center in Chennai, India. The purpose of the partnership is to make searching for images on the site – across Asia – as fast as possible.

The news follows hot-on-the-heels of the recent data center upgrades in the West and East Coasts of America – in New York and Los Angeles respectively.

Rachel Wakefield, head of sales at Alamy said: “Asia presents an exciting market for our brand, and the next logical progression; we’re keen to gain a real foothold. A key part of our service is fast search across all the markets we operate in, so we are delighted to be able to offer this in Asia.”

Alamy already has an established back–office and technical team based at Technopark in Trivandrum, India. The team there is playing a key role in developing the company's global presence.

“Netmagic is excited to partner with Alamy and enable its business in Asia by providing a highly available and redundant datacenter infrastructure. Our carrier–neutral Chennai datacenter with highly redundant burstable internet connectivity will ensure that Alamy customers enjoy low latency levels and high uptimes, thereby improving the overall customer experience.” stated, Sunil Gupta, President & COO, Netmagic Solutions.

Shopartgallery Is Online

2011-09-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

Shopartgallery announce that the Shopartgallery website is online at http://shopartgallery.com.

The site was conceived as a community of professional photographers and illustrators, created in order to promote their work and help them find new customers. Shopartgallery also tries and help buyers to find images they need and to choose where to buy images according to their preference.

A list of agencies is available on each image page to see where that image can be licensed. A counter of visits to each agency, an important statistic parameter, in order to help the artists to know exactly how many times their images were seen in each site is visible as well (only when logged in).

In accordance with membership purchased, authors will be able to promote themselves in different ways.

Shopartgallery invites you to join. All users who will register until the 1-st of November 2011 will have two months of free Premium membership and 10 months with 50% discount. Also to the first 10 users reaching 2000 images in the portfolio will be given three years of Premium Membership for free.

The site is actually in Beta Version and, as you know, this means "not quite ready yet". Because they use sofisticated tools Shopartgallery need a period where you can test it out and help them revise and improve it. In order to do this please give them feedback and please understand and have patience. If you will browse the site and find bugs, bad translations and/or other things not working, please tell them what you like or don't like, what's missing and what you'd like to see on the site. The correction of translations is available only in English, Italian, French, German, Spanish and Romanian. Your comments are very important and hopefully this will help Shopartgallery to build the FAQ part (available in about two weeks) and will help them to provide you a good service and launch the Shopartgallery 1.0.

You can subscript to their Shopartgallery RSS feed in order to receive news and interesting related articles.

Dreamstime Launches Image Subscription Offering for Students

2011-09-14T08:24:00.000-07:00

Five iPad 2s Randomly Given to Those Who Sign Up; Five Additional iPad 2s Awarded to Top Five Student Referrers

NASHVILLE, TN--(Marketwire - September, 2011) - If there's ever a universal commonality among students, it is the fact they could all use more money in their pocket to spend on such "critical" activities as concert tickets, road trips and house parties. Leading stock photography company Dreamstime understands this and in an effort to help students save now and cram later on their scholarly studies, it has launched an exclusive offer and give away for students who require imagery and stock photography for the academic year.

From now through October 6, 2011, any student that registers with the Dreamstime community will immediately receive 25% off all images and image packages. In addition to the savings, each student will be eligible to win one of five iPad 2s.

Dreamstime is also incentivizing students to refer other students to the community, which stands at 4 million registered users. The top-five student referrers will be awarded with an iPad 2.
So, if you're a student in need of high quality digital images for curricular type of activities such as class presentations, projects, student newspapers and newsletters, personal blogs, and websites, go ahead and sign up today.

Or, for the "extra"-curricular activities when you need pictures of clean-cut and respectable looking students to show the parents your new friends, images to jazz up your spring break fundraiser fliers, parent-friendly photos from your study abroad experience, or beach photos for your fraternity luau this weekend, Dreamstime has the student body covered.

For more details and to register, click through to Dreamstime's student registration page.

About Dreamstime
Dreamstime is a distinguished leader in stock photography and a major supplier of high quality digital images to the world's largest advertising agencies, and national and international magazines, and film and television production companies. Today, with more than 12 million images, Dreamstime is currently the second leading agency in total customers with over 12 million unique visitors monthly to the site and is one of the most popular web sites in the world. The acceleration in numbers overall makes it the fastest growing stock photo agency worldwide. In addition to the current 250,000 free images available, Dreamstime's active gallery is updated by the second with photos from the site's 120,000-plus contributors. For more information on Dreamstime, please visit: www.Dreamstime.com.

GlobalEye Photo Stock Agency Announces the Release of Travel Stock Photography Screensaver

2011-09-11T11:27:00.000-07:00

YORKEYS KNOB, AUSTRALIA, September 11, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- GlobalEye is pleased to announce the release of it's new Travel Stock Photography Screensaver, the latest release in it's line of free screensaver downloads, available to all photo buyers and visitors to their stock photo agency website. It will be available for download from 10th September 2011.

Travel Stock Photography Screensaver is a high quality screensaver application for Windows, and offers a sampling fo the great travel digital stock photos available on the GlobalEye library.

Travel Stock Photography Screensaver can be downloaded directly -- no cost, no sign up -- from the GlobalEye website: http://www.globaleyeimages.com/photographers/travelphotographers.asp

Alamy launches ‘100% Royalties’ for students

2011-09-07T05:43:00.000-07:00

Stock photo agency introduces industry-first initiative for students - and gives away all of its commission

In a bid to engage with the next generation of picture professionals, Alamy, the world’s largest online stock photo site, is launching a new initiative called ‘100% Royalties’. The campaign will see Alamy offering photography and design students 100 percent royalties on all sales over a two year period.

Commenting on the scheme James West, Alamy’s CEO, said: “100% Royalties provides the next generation of creative talent with extra financial support without distracting them from their studies – and the response from the colleges has been incredible. It will also provide our customers with a new source of fresh and contemporary imagery – something they’ve told us they need more of.”

Alamy is renowned in the industry for having a photographer friendly approach and has received a lot of interest in the scheme from educational institutions specialising in visual media and design, who are eager to be involved. David Carpenter, Senior Lecturer in Photography, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, added: “This is a brilliant initiative proposed by a forward-thinking company. It should enable the students to realise what’s required of them in the field of professional photography, whilst also offering them the potential to earn some money when starting out in the profession.”

Alamy is offering the scheme to 30 educational institutions in both North America and the United Kingdom, and will launch at the start of the Autumn 2011 term time.

Alamy connects thousands of designers, marketing departments, news desks and publishers with some of the best professional and amateur photographers around the world. Today, the site has 25.34 million images.

About Alamy
Alamy is the world’s largest online stock photo site. It connects thousands of designers, marketing departments, news desks, and publishers with some of the best professional and amateur photographers around.

Alamy does not make editorial judgments on pictures, nothing is rejected providing the quality is acceptable – it lets the customer choose the pictures they want.

Alamy’s revolutionary approach to the stock photography business means 60 percent of each sale is paid to the content owner – the lion’s share or the revenue earned.

See about Alamy for more information.

Depositphotos Stock Photo Agency Received Investment from TMT Investments

2011-09-07T05:34:00.000-07:00

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 7 Sep 2011 – Depositphotos, the fastest growing stock photo agency in the world, announced a significant investment contract with TMT Investments.

Based in Florida (USA), Depositphotos was founded in 2009, and soon established itself as a popular, cost-effective alternative for the acquisition of high-quality stock photo images. It proved itself as a first stock photo agency to offer bonus payments without hidden withdrawal conditions for every single image photographers uploaded for sale. Depositphotos’ image library grows by thousands of photos daily, and its ongoing programming effort strives to ensure site security and robust performance and improve its user interface to respond to users’ needs and desires. The state-of-the-art search engine helps buyers find high-quality images quickly and easily, and flexible pricing policies offer buyers several strategies to minimize cost and maximize quality. High commissions, coupled with special terms and the growing popularity of the service, provide image authors with an unlimited potential for earning.

Continued improvements of Depositphotos’ service together with a successful marketing strategy contributed to the most significant growth in the microstock industry. During the last year the company website traffic increased tenfold and reached 1.8 million visitors per month. The number of images offered by the company exceeded 4 million.

www.depositphotos.com web site traffic history according to www.compete.com

Depositphotos stock photo agency received investment from TMT Investments Page 2
TMT Investments PLC has committed to an investment of up to 3 million dollars (US) in the next year. The amount of investment was fixed in the contract of intents concluded during the preliminary negotiations between the companies in 2010.

“When negotiations began, Depositphotos was just a speculative project. Now, it is a resource on equal footing with its competitors. Investment capital will be directed at incorporating new features, improving the quality and functionality of the service, and increasing the company’s market share. We’re engaged in a serious business and intend to perform serious work,” says Igor Kalyuzhny, Head of Depositphotos’ departments in Eastern and Western Europe.

“This investment provides TMT with exposure to a fast-growing photobank industry, and TMT believes that DepositPhotos is well placed to become one of the leading photobanks in its segment,” according to the TMT press release.

ТМТ Investments is a public company incorporated in, and controlled from Jersey. The company is run by well-known and influential representatives of the media and the banking business in Russia. German Kaplun and Alexander Morgulchik, the founders of RBC, a leading media company in Russia and CIS, serve as valued consultants. It specializes in fast-growing telecommunication and high-tech companies. Its first investment was in the U.S. company Ninua, the developer of NetworkedBlogs, a top application for Facebook.

About Depositphotos Inc.
Depositphotos is the fastest growing stock photo agency in the world. Presently it offers over 4 million stock photographs and vector images sold under royalty-free licenses. The stock photo library is increased daily by thousands of images, carefully checked and selected by moderators. The company is headquartered in Florida, USA, and has business offices in Germany, Great Britain and Russia.

About TMT Investments PLC.
TMT Investments was founded in 2010 for investment activity in media and telecommunications. TMT Investments is focused primarily on companies working in markets that according to the board of directors’ opinion have large growth potential, and those companies which may in the future become multinational business projects.

Cutcaster Makes Stock Photography Search Faster, More Accurate

2011-09-07T05:17:00.000-07:00

Stock photography website adds contextual search engine, industry-leading royalty payments, and pricing improvements to its online marketplace.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 7, 2011 — Cutcaster (http://www.cutcaster.com/), a leading source for royalty-free stock photography and illustrations, re-launched today with several upgrades, which address growing needs in the stock image marketplace for both image buyers and sellers.

“We wanted to make changes that would translate to real improvement for all our users,” said Cutcaster founder John Griffin. “Our search engine now helps buyers find, filter and download relevant images more quickly, and we’ve made it easier for our contributors to sell their images and earn good money doing it.”

Cutcaster has combined an easy-to-use search interface with a highly accurate contextual search engine that disambiguates word meanings. As the user types in keywords, the engine determines their meaning and the intention of the searcher to provide highly accurate image results. As the searcher applies additional filters—for number of people, orientation or dominant color, for example— search results are updated immediately, making it easy to focus and expand results as necessary.

“Faster image search makes a big difference for people. If you’re looking for several images for a flyer or website, finding them can take hours if the search engine isn’t sophisticated. Shaving time off that process is invaluable,” said graphic designer Michael Armenta of Taylor Stitch in San Francisco.

The checkout process has been improved as well with simplified pricing, shown in credits and dollars, and the introduction of PayPal. “Our goal was to make downloading images as seamless as possible for people. Users don’t even have to register to buy, and now they have even more secure payment options,” Griffin said.

For its contributors, Cutcaster has increased its royalty payments to one of the highest rates in the industry. “Our rate for exclusive images went from 50% to 55%,” Griffin said. “We want to continue offering excellent images from great contributors, and our rates help us attract and choose the best. At a time when other sites are reducing their royalty percentages and payouts, we’re increasing them,” Griffin added.

A greatly simplified user interface facilitates how contributors upload their images and view their image stats. “The whole site is optimized for our sellers now,” Griffin said. “There’s no guesswork, from signing up to providing the right tax forms, to getting paid.”

Cutcaster was founded in 2007 to serve the growing market for high-quality royalty-free stock photos and illustrations. With over 1 million images in its ever-expanding library, Cutcaster brings together image buyers and sellers into a relationship that focuses on affordable pricing and ease of use.

GETTY IMAGES ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS OF 2011 GRANTS FOR EDITORIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

2011-09-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

London, UK – 2 September, 2011 – Getty Images has announced that five photojournalists have been selected to each receive a grant of US$20,000, as well as collaborative editorial support from Getty Images, to pursue their documentary photography projects. The winning photojournalists and corresponding projects are:

Alvarro Ybarra Zavala for ‘Colombia, in the eternity of sorrow’
Walter Astrada for ‘Violence against woman in Norway’
Stanley Greene for ‘The E-waste Trail – China/ Pakistan/ Nigeria’
Liz Hingley for ‘The Jones family’
Joan Bardeletti for ‘The KILL (the African Gays) BILL’”

Aidan Sullivan, Vice President of Photo Assignments, Getty Images, commented: “I am thrilled that our editorial photography grants programme continues to empower photojournalists and enable them to bring these important visual essays to the world’s attention. This year’s judging panel carefully considered over 400 applications and proposals received from around the world and we are delighted with the winners selected for 2011. This year’s, projects deal with a range of compelling and complex issues, such as civil war in Colombia and poverty in the United Kingdom.”

The panel of esteemed judges included:

· Tom Stoddart, Photojournalist

· Jean-Francois Leroy, Director General, Visa Pour l’Image

· Jon Jones, Director of Photography, The Sunday Times Magazine

· Cyril Drouhet, Director of Photography, Le Figaro magazine

· Emanuela Mirabelli, Photo Editor, Marie Claire Italy

Click here to view the judges biographies.

Photojournalist and judge for the 2011 programme, Tom Stoddart, commented: “It was a real pleasure to be part of the judging panel for this year’s Grants for Editorial Photography. After spending hours looking at submissions from talented, committed, passionate photographers, I came away with an answer to the age old question - is photojournalism dead? NO - it's alive and kicking!”

The Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography was established in 2004, to enable emerging and established photojournalists to pursue projects of personal and editorial merit, focusing attention on significant social and cultural issues. Since 2005, Getty Images has provided Grants in excess of US$700,000 through the grants programme, demonstrating their commitment to promoting excellence in photojournalism through tangible, positive contributions to the industry.

More information about the judges, the grant recipients and their winning projects, as well as galleries of their portfolio images, can be found at www.gettyimages.com/grants.

ENDS

Notes to Editors – Summary of winning projects:

Walter Astrada, ‘Violence against women in Norway’

Violence against women is the most widespread example of a human rights violation, going largely unpunished. It is a worldwide phenomenon affecting all societies, regardless of their political and economic systems; it affects all cultures, social classes and ethnic groups. The consequences of violence against women are devastating; survivors regularly suffer from emotional disorders and health problems for the rest of their lives, not to mention those who meet their death.

Norway, according to the Global Peace Index, is the safest country in the world; however, between 2000 - 2010, 83 women were murdered by their partner or ex-partner, and in 2008 more than 25,000 women were in contact with a shelter.

Stanley Norman Greene, ‘The E-Waste Trail’

The E-Waste Trail is a photographic documentary that tracks the afterlife of our electronic trash, as corporations and governments make irresponsible, yet lucrative, deals, at enormous injury to the world’s most vulnerable citizens.

The Poison: E-waste is comprised of toxic agents like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), copper, lead, zinc, gold, iron, thallium, mercury etc. Lead is poisonous for the nervous system and progressively attacks the brain’s functions. Very high toxic levels can lead to paralysis. Cadmium is the main component in some batteries and circuit boards and causes cancer.

Liz Hingley, ‘The Jones family’

1.6 million Children across the United Kingdom live their daily lives in severe poverty (30%). This is more than most other European countries, but western poverty is often difficult to understand and to communicate visually in comparison to images of world poverty elsewhere.

The Jones family lives in a three-bedroom council house in the industrial city of Wolverhampton, UK. This is the first house that the family has lived in for three generations; the mother and father were brought up in caravans, as were their parents. The house is precious to the family and holds many memories for them, to the point that despite its extremely limited size they refuse to move into larger council accommodation. The three boys and four girls have high aspirations for their future but they are aware it will be financially difficult for them to ever leave the family home.

Joan Bardeletti, ‘The KILL (the African Gays) BILL’

In Uganda, the ‘kill the Gays’ bill is about to be discussed. If introduced, homosexuals could face the death penalty if they have previous convictions, are HIV positive or have had relations with people under the age of 18.

According to human rights organisations, over 500 000 homosexuals live in Uganda, where current laws already criminalize homosexuality with up to 14 years in jail.

Uganda is today at the frontline of efforts by extremist Christian churches to spread across Africa draconian measures against the homosexual community. During a gathering in Kampala in 2010, American evangelical pastor Lou Engle stated, “In America, we have lost the battle, but in Uganda, this is ground zero”.

Alvaro Ybarra Zavala, ‘Colombia, in the eternity of sorrow’

“Colombia, in the eternity of sorrow” is a personal photographic project that covers ‘the time of President Alvaro Uribe’, one of the most controversial, violent and darkest periods in the history of the Colombian conflict.

The international press experiences the reality of Colombia from the outside. More than forty years of civil war seem excuse enough to not consider the terrible drama of the Colombian people as news. The country is divided, and situations there are very diverse, all of which may be shown.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP), the National Liberation Army (ELN), the paramilitary groups and government forces are fighting in all of these regions with a single aim, the control of resources. And once again, the civilian population is in the midst of it all.

About Getty Images

Getty Images is one of the world’s leading creators and distributors of still imagery, video and multimedia products, as well as a recognized provider of other forms of premium digital content, including music. Getty Images serves business customers in more than 100 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover purchase and manage images and other digital content. Its award-winning photographers and imagery help customers produce inspiring work which appears every day in the world’s most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and websites. Visit Getty Images at www.gettyimages.com to learn more about how the company is advancing the unique role of digital media in communications and business, and enabling creative ideas to come to life.

PhotoDune Statistic for August

2011-09-04T06:44:00.000-07:00

PhotoDune posted in its forum this updated and outlook to the future to keep their contributors in the loop of their planning.

Things Going Well

Sales are climbing, our first month out of private beta saw sales increase more than double, from 1700 sales to 4200 sales for the month. Small still, but a good trajectory!
We’ve passed 150 authors with approved items on the site, you can see the list ordered by sales here: http://photodune.net/author/top_authors – Yuri is still dominating, that guy is a machine!
The library has been growing by about 750 a day which in the wider world of microstock is not much, but for us just starting is lots!
We had some performance problems in the upload queue, but after a lot of hard work, we seem to have solved them making uploads much smoother
We hit 750,000 pageviews last month, almost double the prior month!
Search traffic is zooming upwards with 2000 visits a day flowing in already

Things We Need to Work On

Interestingly extended license sales are super tiny, despite the low pricing. This is interesting because the main driver of the low pricing is higher sales, so as I mentioned above this will go into our retro discussions when we hit the first quarter mark
We’re learning fast about how fast items pile up for review Right now our review queue sits at about 5000 with 2000 being processed per day, meaning an average of about 2.5
We have a bunch of search and interface improvements that are still slowly rolling out. Of course this is something that will continue to the end of time really

And finally we’re starting to ramp up our marketing push slowly but surely, so I hope I’ll be able to stop in next month and report more neat stats!

You can find the original post at the PhotoDune Forum.

Dreamstime Announces New Feature to Report Imagery Copyright Infringement

2011-09-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

First in Stock Photo Industry to Automate the Offender Notification Process

NASHVILLE, TN--(Marketwire - August, 2011) - Today Dreamstime, a leading stock photography community, launched Infringement Reporter, which will enable contributors to notify website owners of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violations. Passed more than ten years ago, the DMCA was developed to address copyright challenges that content owners face in an increasingly digital world.

Dreamstime's new feature is the first in the industry to streamline the DMCA notification process and provide contributors a quick and easy way to notify website owners when they are misusing a photo. This is often an arduous and time-consuming process for photographers and creative professionals to undertake themselves. Dreamstime anticipates this new feature will also educate image-users about copyrights associated with the images they find and download online.

"Though not always intentional, the theft and misuse of images are constant battles for the photo stock industry," said Serban Enache, CEO of Dreamstime. "Search engines have made it easier than ever to find and download digital content, but there is very little information about the copyrights associated with images people find online. Dreamstime is committed to helping our contributors identify stolen or misused images so they can focus on taking great photos instead of worrying about the illegal use of their images."

With Google's new image-recognition search tool and others, it is easy for photographers to find where their images are being used online. However, these tools fail to provide a way for contributors to notify offenders when they are abusing the license associated with an image. Dreamstime recognized this as an opportunity to help its large and active community protect their images and also educate image-users about image rights and the stock photography industry.

When Dreamstime contributors find an image that is being used without the proper license, they simply populate the form on the Dreamstime website and provide the image identification number and a URL to the website misusing the image. Dedicated to the protection and promotion of images, Dreamstime is taking customer service one step further by making this process more efficient for contributors.

About Dreamstime
Dreamstime is a distinguished leader in stock photography, a major supplier of high quality digital images to the world's largest advertising agencies, national and international magazines, and film and television production companies. Today, with more than 11.7 million images, Dreamstime is currently the second leading agency in total customers with over 12 million unique visitors monthly to the site, making it one of the most popular web sites in the world. The acceleration in numbers overall makes it the fastest growing stock photo agency worldwide. In addition to the current 250,000 free images available, Dreamstime's active gallery is updated by the second with photos from the site's 120,000-plus contributors. For more information on Dreamstime, please visit: www.Dreamstime.com.

Stock Photography Sales Statistic August 2011

2011-09-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

This is my stock photography sales statistic for August 2011. You can find a complete list of stock photography agencies that I work with here.

These are for me the best 4 performing stock agencies for August 2011:

I expended to have a drop in August, but the drop was much softer with only 11% compared to July. And an increase of 23% compared to August 2010. It was the best month ever for Dreamstime. At this point I also like to mention DepositPhotos. If I don't take in account the first view month where I received the promotion to get paid for upload, then August 2011 would have been the best month ever for DepositPhotos. DepositPhotos has shown a constant increase of sales for several month.

(This statistic include referral earning at the different agencies)

Alamy US expansion continues with super fast searching for West Coast customers

2011-08-31T07:46:00.000-07:00

World's largest online stock photo site continues its growth strategy, supported by a further infrastructure upgrade by NYI

Alamy today announces that it has extended its server infrastructure to NYI’s data center in Los Angeles, to serve the company’s growing West Coast customer base.

In July 2011, NYI successfully oversaw Alamy’s upgrade for North America, and now the company will manage the West Coast activity. The Alamy servers in the Los Angeles data center will make searching for images on the West Coast as fast as on the East Coast.

Richard Taylor, Head of Production at Alamy, commented: “We continue to sign deals with international companies, and to expand our global footprint.”

“We are also committed to ensuring service levels and speed remain as consistent as possible for our global client base. As such, we will be making further announcements in relation to infrastructure upgrades, underpinning our planned growth.”

Fabienne Read, US Sales Team Manager at Alamy, added: “Our plan is to make Alamy the fastest stock photography site in the US, and we have already seen there is a real appetite from West Coast clients for both the size and eclectic nature of the Alamy collection.”

“What Etsy did for the arts and crafts community, Alamy is doing for photography,” added Phillip Koblence, VP Operations, NYI. “Our team thrives on creating custom infrastructure solutions for such dynamic and disruptive startups.”