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rtimages · Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 545 Location: UK

Wow what an amazing business enterprise, somebody buys a product from a wholesale supplier then repacakages the product and retails it at a higher price to make a profit!!!!!

Is this post for real, this happens every single day in every single industry, if you don't like the industry don't contribute to it.

As far as I can tell from this thread the guy has done nothing wrong, and IMO that doesn't warrant bombarding him with emails.

At the end of the day it's up to everyone here to decide what type of images they upload to what sites, and to check the licenses on each site themselves to establish whether they're happy with it or not.

editorial · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 509 Location: Dublin

riffmax · Joined: 10 Mar 2005 Posts: 3048 Location: Florida, USA

rtimages · Joined: 07 Oct 2006 Posts: 545 Location: UK

debr7k · Joined: 13 Sep 2006 Posts: 997 Location: Vancouver, Canada

Assuming that the terms of the purchase from the ms site were met, I'm okay with this.

Why?

Life is short - you could spend it setting up a website, trolling sites for work you consider to be "art", selling it, packaging it, etc. Or you could spend your time going from gallery to gallery trying to convince them your work is "art" and sometimes hosting your own show (expensive). Or you could concentrate on taking the photos & submitting them to microstock.

I think part of the reason microstock is so popular is that all that annoying stuff - the work stuff - disappears - we just create the work, plug in a few keywords, & hit "submit". No more trying to figure out how we're going to find someone to buy our work (have an artist mom so I've been watching this my whole life). We just do the stuff we like the best.

Laurin, you've talked so many times about a "different" way - (am saying all this with complete respect - feel like I'm throwing your own 'hard hitting' advice back at ya :-) Stop complaining. Do it. Find someone with a talent for websites. Hire a student to do all the packaging stuff. There's 3 million images on this site alone - take the "good" stuff.

I told a friend about microstock once. She was in shock. She bought a one month subscription & downloaded lots of images. Art for her home. Cheap.

That's part of the trick, though, isn't it? What is art? Which photos are the ones that will appeal to people who want them on the walls of their house? (maybe those 2 questions have 2 separate answers). My friend knew her tastes - not everyone does & often people like having galleries & art sites answer this for them. By submitting to microstock we're also avoiding having to answer those questions about our own work (we submit everything, & let the buyer figure it out).

There is another path if your work is "art" - (i.e. the gallery route) but it has its own difficulties. You made your choice - AND (if you want) you can change it :-)

helix7 · Joined: 24 Apr 2007 Posts: 1421 Location: New Jersey

frozenpeas · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:07 am

I blame the internet.

editorial · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 509 Location: Dublin

graphicphoto · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:35 am

I have a card with my frog kitten on it right now all over the country selling for 2.99 from American Greetings. They did a horrible job on it in my opinion and I don't even know how much I got for it as I am on other sites. I will assume the print run is HUGE and they are making quite a large profit. Sure I would like to reap some of those profits but this is my place on the assembly line. I chose it so I can't complain too much. I get bummed too but what other option is there other than just opt out?

felix_casio · Joined: 16 Jul 2006 Posts: 1563 Location: www.felixtm.com

i agree with you about this.

I'm also selling my work as print on cafepress.com and lulu.com.

so this guy is trying to sell your work for a heafty fee but will he actually sell it when a buyer could buy it from you for only a few bucks and print and hang it on their wall?

mandy · Joined: 08 Jul 2005 Posts: 2322

My brother in law saw one of my images on Belgian telly a couple of nights ago. Somebody was being interviewed and behind was a poster of the image shown below. I managed to find it on the internet and it is a huge poster bigger than life size.
It did cross my mind that I may only have been paid 30c for that image but then when thinking about it realized that it is one of my best selling images and has made 0ver 2000$ over all sites so the price paid for that particular copy isn't what is important. I have started to forget about individual sale prices and just concentrate on what I make overall in a month on the whole portfolio.

teekaygee · Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 1074

Dwight Smith · Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 974 Location: Santa Cruz, CA

I don't like this use, Laurin. I would definitely question their right to use your name to add value to their product.

On the license issue it's a matter of how the contract was written of course, and those vary by agency. While I recently agreed to the Shutterstock EL agreement (need more money), I do not like it due to the endless nature of it and the lack of an ability to exclude specific images in my portfolio from the EL.

You're certainly in good company at Lightgate. You might shoot a note over to the Ansel Adams Gallery to get their take about Lightgate selling his prints.

bichon · Joined: 19 Aug 2005 Posts: 11329 Location: Canada

Give me a brek · Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 10:23 am