Meowgli opened this issue on Feb 28, 2009 · 19 posts
Meowgli posted Thu, 16 April 2009 at 7:06 AM
interesting... I'll surely have a browse a little later on when I have a few minutes to spare. I'm pretty familiar with your aerial views tho and always thought they might do pretty well as stock, offering a viewpoint not many people will be able to...
in my experience the stock agencies are much stricter with their quality control until you vaguely impress them with your initial submission... once the foot's in the door I think you can 'get away' with submitting shots which might not have passed initial QC but you know would be useful to someone... true, they seem to care more about a lack of noise/blemishes than they do about artistic integrity but then again that depends on the site.... I don't take rejections as saying 'this was a bad photo', merely that they don't see a potential use or market for it.... I pretty much thought they would be, but my last 6 submissions to dreamstime were rejected solely on the grounds their library already had enough of that subject (clouds, trees, flowers etc).... that itself is fair enough to me, but I get a little irritated when I see a shot online being given the chance which I think is similar but technically no better than mine, which wasn't given the opportunity.
it's no longer about just uploading the 'chancers' that happen to have found their way into your archive over the years I feel..... these days technical excellence is expected, and with archives that cover pretty much every subject, the agencies are looking for innovative types of shots which, personally, I probably wouldn't shoot unless I had this final destination in mind. I guess what I'm saying is that to get ahead it seems you have to have a large archive already then treat the process like a job, adding new files to your online archive each week....
you have the advantage of having a USP for your stock - the aerial viewpoints - I can see how this might work nicely from your own personal site as long as enough people knew of it.... I mean, if someone needs an aerial shot of, say, Scotland, then find your site, I'd say you have a good chance of repeated sales....
my 2p's worth ;)