Microstock sees its first major setback in 6 years and here is why

You might have noticed huge amounts of images being removed from micro subscription sites such as Shutterstock.com, Fotolia.com, Dreamstime.com etc.

You might also have noticed that Shutterstock’s stock have dropped more than 12% over the past week. Link.

Perhaps you have also seen the public statement that GettyImages made about Yuri Arcurs and PeopleImages.com going exclusive with Getty/Istock and removing close to 100’000 images from competitors (Shutterstock, Fotolia, Dreamstime, etc)

And if you keep a really close eye on this industry, you might have noticed that on the same day as the Getty announcement (July 16th), I also revealed my involvement in Scoopshot.com through a 1.4mil USD engle investment at a press conference in London. You can read more about it on techcrunch.

To sum up: In one day, microstock saw a public release confirming that Yuri Arcurs (me) and all our 20 photographers (7 of which are on the top 10 in the world) and our entire peopleimages.com production house, would leave and move all images to Istock/Getty. They witnessed an otherwise underestimated industry (mobile photography, scoopshot.com) being granted a seal of trust in a 1.2mil USD investment. Furthermore, and perhaps the most interesting part: most of us would have been in the belief that sites like Shutterstock, Fotolia and others where the disruptive industry, now have to consider if they are in fact being disrupted themselves, by mobile photography.

Holy cow, what a week.

If you are interested in stocks and follow them, you will find it interesting to observe what happened on the morning on July 16-18 to the shutterstocks stocks evaluation. https://www.google.co.uk/finance?cid=289500696993722

Shutterstocks Stocks Dropping

Shutterstocks Stocks Dropping

 

Time for an update

When major business changes are in play, I unfortunately have to be quiet about my involvement until public or commonly known. The amount of speculation expressed on forums and blogs about what actually was going on has not been silent. I tried to read through most of it today, but had to stop after a few hours. I know a response is long overdue, so here comes.

GettyImages and Yuri Arcurs

For a maturing photographer microstock is a great learning platform, but if you mistake “school” for “workplace”, you are in trouble. I did so for years.

I would estimate that for the last three years I tried very hard to convince myself that microstock was in fact the right place for the professional photographer. After all, my photography carrier was born here. Perhaps exactly because of that, I tried so hard to disregard a growing mismatch between microstock and myself, in product refinement, sophistication and budget. As we grew in skills, as our company grew, our distribution partners in microstock did not. Some agencies where ok, but in total, as a mass and as a workplace, the picture was not nice. Sometimes it felt like having a michelin restaurant inside a burger joint and at the same time having to match the prices. At some point the professional gets tired of selling 12 course testing menues at 0300AM at burger prices.

I tried everything I could for three years to inspire our microstock partners to close the gab. I submitted plans, did projection forecasts, showcased examples that worked, presented solutions and had literally hundreds of meetings. I tried every kind of approach I could think of to get the micro agencies to raise prices just a bit and leave place for the kind of photographer both photographers and customers love. I spent literally months in airplanes. No Luck.

Thinking back I must admit, that my chances where low: when 20% of the CEOs where sleeping in the sun, 20% had no clue what the industry was actually about, 15% thought that the only food customers needed was burgers and if they did not eat it for breakfast we just needed to convince them. The 45% rest where paralyzed by the initial success and for all means did not want the change anything.

In joining forces with GettyImages/IstockPhoto we where surprised to find that pretty much all the concerns we had as professional content providers where either already taken care of, or part of upcoming releases. If not, they would be now. The corporate culture at GettyImages and their ambition of constant product refinement was a perfect match with ours. And this is not to say that we don’t want to shoot “junk food” anymore, but simply that if we choose to do so, why not do it great with a partner that understands how to market it!  For the first time in a long 7 years, we where impressed by our partners.

 

Where am I taking PeopleImages.com?

I have relaunched www.peopleimages.com in a v2.0 and we share our content with GettyImages/Istockphoto.

Now that we have removed our entire collection of images from microstock and subscription sites, PeopleImages.com will be the only site in the world with only exclusive images that can’t be bought anywhere else. Since we have pulled our content from distribution partners, our net income from PeopleImages.com has increased with almost 100% per month. The main objective is to address the customer feedback I have collected over the years and create ingenious solutions to the problems they revealed. Problems such as how do I find a “normal looking” person and not overly “model looking” is solved by our looks selector in the model sidebar. If you come from Denmark for example, it is now possible to see what images other people from Denmark think look Danish, by using our country selector. You can drag and drop images into collections and collectively share and discuss them with your colleagues in a chat room like environment by clicking the lightbox. You can save searches you do a lot, you can create alerts for when new images arrive matching things you are interested in. You can request custom retouching on images to extend them, find that extra copy space and get it back in just hours, and as the only site in the world you can get all files in a PNG (transparent background) format. Notice that from all of the above mentioned features, there is not one site in the world that has ANY of these features. Not one. Furthermore, by cutting out the middleman we can keep the same prices but provide a whole new level of service. As of last month, our entire collection of images, now reaching 120’000, can only be found on our own site Peopleimages.com, GettyImages.com and Istockphoto.com.

 

 

Why did I invest in Scoopshot.com?

Early Tuesday Morning in London I had a press conference with the team from mobile press photography app Scoopshot. You can read about it here on techcrunch

About a year ago I did my first task on Scoopshot and when seeing the incoming images from mobile shooters around the world I had one of those jaw dropping experiences. They come rarely, trust me. There is nothing that can really match it, because you have never tried anything like it before. My first task was a simple one. I wanted to get images for a poster in our office showing the different moods of people. I requested photos of how people felt today and for them to express it in a photo of themselves. Less than 10 hours later i had more than 3300 images representing ALL countries in the world, and had to stop the task because too many images where coming in. Now remember, that we are talking 10 hours, not days, not weeks. The images are sorted by the submitters themselves, so good ones go higher. All you have to do is just sit and watch the show of incoming images. If you have the bucks to spend and do a global task, you are in for one of the most impressive experiences in your life as a photography professional. Immediately I knew what this would do to the stock photography industry as we know it today. It had a certain disruptive quality that microstock had back 5-6 years ago.

If somebody believes that technology Regardless of how you look at it, our withdrawal..”  redrawellike Scoopshot is not going to play a major role in how we acquire images in the future, there is just one thing to say. Try it yourself. Do a task. If you find yourself laughing, impressed, or sharing it with your friends…. Well, do no more…I rest my case…

 

Pulling almost 100’000 images from Microstock’s 15mil Images. What’s the impact actually?

Regardless of how you look at it, our redrawel of images from microstock constitutes the first substantial setback in microstock history. Microstock was the underpricing disruptive competitor and has been racing forward since its birth in 2005, but now it loses momentum. Let’s explore.

If we disregard non-images sales on micro sites, the withdrawal of our content, equals to a loss of total downloads in the range of 4-15% depending on the microstock site involved. Now consider why a subscriber to a microstock subscription plan should pay the same per month, if his favorite images are suddenly removed? If he paid 299 USD last month, why should he pay the same when now he/she can download less?

Another thing to consider is, that if industry leaders in sales (me – among others) decide to leave microstock, one has to ask why agencies that have otherwise been happily engaged with us for the last 6 years, somehow are not able to sustain their top content provider. Is it possible to answer this question without concluding that something must have been out of tune? Regardless of how you look at it, the management of the major microstock agencies involved have to answer this question to their boards. And they will.

Another matter to consider is that this announcement changes the balance of who is the mover and who is the follower. For 7 years, microstock has been the acting agent and the traditional agencies have been the re-acting agent. Now, during this past week, the subscription sites and microstock sites became the re-actors. This may not sound important to us photographers, but to investors this is crucial. They thought that Shutterstock and others where the disruptive and successful competitors to a traditional and outdated dinosaur.

  

Mobile photography. A serious threat to stock photography?

On that 16th July morning, Techcrunch, and a vast amount of news blogs, focussed mostly on the potential of a new technology (mobile photography, Scoopshot.com) as a serious competitor that could potentially disrupt the stock industry entirely… again. While such news and similar of its kind about the potential threat in mobile photography to stock photography has been somewhat rejected or undertoned in the past, this announcement arrived with a much more potent seriousness. Backed up with more than a 1.4mil USD investment from Yuri Arcurs Photography Denmark. Additionally, it was showcased in the press release that scoopshot had more than 300’000 mobile photographers ready to shoot for scoopshot.

If you dismissed mobile photography before, it would be hard to do so now.

So is this threat serious? Is mobile photography an actual threat to stock photography and press photography as we know it? I believe it is, and in saying so, we must remind ourselves what was said about microstock and subscription sites back in 2005. Nobody believed in microstock and their ability to compete as a professional solution to image partners against the giants such as GettyImages and Corbis at that time. Now look at the industry today. Was that assumption correct?

Back in 2005 I went directly against the mainstream assumption and put all my chips on microstock. And this next point is important for me. Because however the public perceives me, whatever the media writes and speculates about me (and it has not always been kind), it is impossible to debate that I did in fact invest my career, time, and later money on right stock. I believed fully in microstock at a time when it was very unrefined and very unstable at best. In those days nobody had heard of Istockphoto, and shutterstock was v1.0.

So why did I go all in on microstock back in 2005? Well, to me there was not a thread of doubt that the microstock agencies, the Shutterstock, Fotolia, Istockphoto, Dreamstime of those days would become massive. They were crowdsourced, they reacted to industry demands quickly, they were globally accessible and had lower prices. The competition however, had none of these qualities.

Now consider mobile photography. At it’s current stage it already has more photographers than any one microstock stock agency in the world (more than 300’000), its reaction to customer demands is seconds from sending a request to first images arriving (much faster than microstock, where the shortest is around 4 weeks), it certainly has a lower price point and certainly is easier to access. Through your phone, anywhere. Now ask yourself; you know the history as well I do; why would mobile photography NOT be as big a threat to stock photography as microstock was 6 years ago?

I could say so much more, but words would be easy and not wise. Wise prevails. 

(43) Comments...What do you think?

  1. Thats insanely powerful that one man’s (Yuri) life work can in one day make such a big ripple in the photographic and financial worlds simultaneously.

  2. alistair shankie

    Really enjoyable read.I remain exclusive on Istock.Bring the competition…..

  3. Nick

    The info regarding copyright on the Scoopshot website is very, very vague. It says “Scoopshot has permanent rights for transferring the copyright of the photo or video.” What does that even mean?

  4. Jerry Johnson

    Awesome. Another reason I’ll never buy from iStock again! Way to sell out!

  5. Great great read, thank you.

  6. Kama

    Well, I agree that mobile photography is probably a future, it’s fast and the world is getting faster, but what about photographers, where do You see they place in the future?
    I mean scoopshoot.com to me looks a great place for customers, not for photographers, and in this case we can’t compare situation to the microstock history or maybe I don’t get it right?

  7. Hey Yuri, I think that makes for an awesome read, but as a microstock photographer, where does all this leave us? We all know of your greatness, but we still need to sell our images, and your site is too “upperclass” for us to join surely.

    So whilst I admire your work (and am incredibly jealous of how far you have come! 🙂 )

    This read almost feels like a “salt rubbing in wound” kind of story? Are you telling other stockers to come and submit with you and join the force? or are you just advertising to people that buy stock to try and sway them away from the competition and join up with peopleimages? if so, I am also a customer of shutterstock due mainly to being a a web designer also. I went there because I am not a big company, and shutterstock offered the best value for quality balance a solo artist can afford on a small budget? And now, I admittedly am rather gutted your work has been removed, because I really like your images. But I dont know if I have even used one yet, so with that in mind?…

    It all feels a little “let’s sit and see what comes of it all”. I’m certain it is big news, if the biggest microstock supplier does ANYTHING, it would be big news, but still wondering exactly how it will affect me?

    Take it easy man!

    Paul.

  8. steve haasman

    As the market grows his % ownership drops… soon enough he won’t be what he is.. hopefully he doesn’t let it go to his head.
    I’m excited he’s leaving, give me more $ potential to make, he won’t be taking all the buyers with him, that’s for sure. People don’t just buy his stuff, or we all wouldn’t be doing this.

  9. Don

    Microstock was disruptive because it was cheaper. That was its only innovation. It copied macrostock imagery and provided it for peanuts. Now the entire stock industry has been driven down we have the proclamation that microstock pricing was too cheap so it’s time to leave.

    How will mobile phone photography be the next big thing? Not quality. So you’ve got price or speed, which means undercut micros or news only. Crowd-sourced response to a tweet is custom-stock, won’t pay, and why shoot it with the limitations of a phone?

    Crowd-sourced reportage. Great. I can’t wait.

    Each needs to decide where they stand on the Quality vs Quantity divide.

  10. Thrilled to have you on Istock! Hopefully having you (Yuri) will bring our customers back where they belong! I’m exclusive with Istock and glad you are now part of the Istockphoto team.

  11. Great read, very interesting information. Although I have yet to adventure into the world of stock photography, it’s always good to keep tabs on what’s going on.
    I wish I was 10 or 15 years younger to get on one of Yuri’s courses as his photography work is stunning. However, I think he should look at employing someone who can spell and use the “where” “were” and “we’re” in the right context.
    All the best to all for the future…wherever it takes us.

  12. hurricanehank

    Wise desicion, Mr.Arcurs!
    Everybody has a mobile phone with a camera. It is only a matter of time when this cameras will produce DSLR like images (Nokia already has 41mp camera as I know) and the advantage of having such tool in your pocket can’t be overrated!

  13. Yodosan The Master

    Remember Yuri is no more a Photographer. He’s mainly a proprietor of a company. He’s always been educated as a philosopher and a psychologist. Never forget about it. And now he’s also an investor.
    This is not a move happened all of a sudden: it was a gradual process. This is only the final (and public) move. He’s a great entrepreneur.
    And he’s now using his charm to frighten us. He’s (not) saying: leave the competition: we’re too strong for you… and there are billions of cellular phones around you … with a camera! (while he’s using a 50mpx Hasselblad)
    What about release and privacy? what about tax treaties around the world and bureaucracy? What about image quality? Please, look at instagram and other sites: the only really-good photographs are shoot using real cameras. The other ones are pretty good edits (all the same edits) of lousy photographs. And most of them are good because of the human subject. They work because they are “social” … but what happens when you start using them in a business contest such a newspaper or a website? Maybe the mobile-photographer would be happy… and the subject presses charges against him, while the “mobile-stock” agencies washing their hands of it.

    Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like Yuri tends to discourage us … and encourage to shoot with a mobile for his company.

    But I agree with Yuri if he’s saying that crowdsourcing is going to disrupt (and to destroy, in a long term) the work of a professional individual.

    Sad times for photography, said by a photographer. But, you know, who cares? 🙂 We’re going to see mobile-quality photograps in TV, Cinema, websites and newspaper. Great.

  14. HI Yuri -btw, you have a great coffee shop below your studios in Cape Town – East City Eatery, lucky! My studio in Maitland’s closest coffee shop is 3km away!!

    On the topic at hand:

    I don’t get why people get all up in arms about anything. Your business is ultimately your business, and so are your opinions. I’m inclined to think along the lines you do, especially towards mobile. I’ve been shooting RM for a lot longer than RF Micro, but I can see that these industries will still be around for a while.

    I think the need for imagery remains big and is growing. I think the microstock industry is probably levelling out and finding its balance of contributor to product. New ways of submission and sourcing imagery, ie mobile, is only to be expected, and each of these will settle with a niche in the market eventually. The size of their market share will probably determine where the biggest discussions will be had!

    Ironic that you should have gone exclusive now, as Imagebrief used one of your images to punt their “exclusive” image punt!

    Ultimately: I follow the stock market (as in shares) and I can totally understand that a move like yours will send ripples through a very sensitive, sentimental industry like investors.

    Well done, and all the best with your work ahead. Regardless of the public opinion, you’ve probably managed something that won’t be managed again soon. Or ever.

  15. Interesting to read, and thanks for sharing.
    I just left istock exclusivity at the same time you made the change at different direction , since I felt I don’t have enough control for my images.Now trying different agencies with different approaches, that also will give me more control for my work 🙂
    Definitely interesting time for microstock, with many players and changes and different customers and needs. Also Scoopshot concept looks interesting. I played with it at the past.Since I also work with newspapers and know the needs, it looks very promising for journalists.
    Good Luck!!!

  16. Olaf

    I just wait for the next phone camera you can take pictures in RAW format then my DSL remains on the shelf for good,,,,,,?

  17. i strongly agree with some of the comments here, like:
    The quantity and speed is going to destroy the real Photography, then Yodosan is totally right in his analyze of this Blog nothing more to add (unfortunately).
    The time has come billions of smartphones everybody will be doing a phone photography and Yuri has made a clever business move (while we are talking about money)

    it reminds me to one song! money money money always funny 🙂 good luck people 😉

  18. Mihai

    Did a quick search, Yuri Arcurs photos still available for sale on Dreamstime: http://www.dreamstime.com/yuri_arcurs_info. Still 35.000 photos for sale, so what exactly did you pull out?? I would so love to see the exclusivity terms you have with Istock, that they allow this:)

  19. Im not sure if you wrote this blog or one of your “staff” did the honors, but it looks like you need to reel in your inner Justin Bieber. 3 years ago I decided against your post of going with multiple agencies and signed with Getty/Istockphoto, so does that make me ahead of your curve? I think this all could have been stated in a few short paragraphs about the decision on going exclusive with Getty. Instead you decide to show us your clout by showing you actually made a stock drop by removing your images from agencies you have a problem with, sounds like a personal grudge to me. The reason I follow your blog is to get factual information on the directions of Microstock and the insights that you can give. We all know you are the top shooter in the world with an exclusive website of top photographers, and you have millions of dollars to invest.

    Keep it real.

  20. Gregory

    O.K. Reality check.
    Yuri Arcurs is only famous to microstock agencies and photographers. Image buyers don’t give a crap about some microstock king from Denmark. They just want a good picture for as cheap as possible.

  21. Why can Fotolia still use your photos for ad? If you go to the homepage today you will find it.

  22. dbltapp

    Stock/microstock has been cannibalizing itself for decades. This move is just fanning the flames under the soup cauldron…

  23. I’m one download away from becoming an iStock exclusive contributor… so as a relatively new iStock and Shutter stock contributor. This is a weekend gig for me in hopes that I can build it enough to contribute to my retirement in a dozen or so years.
    I may be naive but I’m not too worried about phone photography just yet. Shooting on the fly as one usually does with an iPhone or other mobile phone devices don’t garner the quality images that I think most of the industry will require. As a long time television station General Manager, the only use I can see of images of mobile quality is for journalism. However, most television stations ask for viewers to upload images for possible use on air and on their web sites of news as it happens or the cutest dog or baby pictures, etc. The viewer gets nothing in return except the honor of seeing their stuff on TV or web… So from a journalist standpoint I don’t see a demand for phone photography other than for news… and when we at TV Stations can get them for free most of the time, I don’t see a demand for phone images outside of news. So where does the demand come from for cheap low quality shots? Companies that will purchase stock images, that have a reputation to protect, I would think would invest in quality images and not those of phone images unless they were really something special. Good luck to all of you… I’m sticking with it!
    Connie

  24. Justin Horrocks

    Yuri,

    I’ve always admired your work and your ability to be so prolific. However, your joining iStockphoto/Getty as an exclusive is a little confusing at this point in the game. I was also a little confused at statements I’ve read here and elsewhere regarding your “exclusivity”, then shocked when I found that you have achieved exclusive status, along with any search benefits that come with that status, while still selling your “exclusive” work on peopleimages.com. Your decision to go exclusive is yours, and nobody has anything to say about that. But rules is rules. If you’re going to call yourself exclusive, then you should play the game accordingly.
    As far as scoopshot is concerned… good luck with that. I agree that mobile photography is a big part of the future of stock photography, but only after sufficient controls have been put in place. It looks as though finding a truly useful shot on scoopshot might be a task of utter futility. Maybe it’s just me.
    Anyway, congratulations and good luck!

  25. István

    Dear Yuri,
    Is this trend modify the plan of boot camp and class?

    Will you start a boot camp in January of 2014?

    Best regards,

    István

  26. ingwio

    Hi Yuri,
    You write that microstock only at times was just the right horse, wo you were wrong. What makes you sure that your new business model is the more successful in the long run? The experience of a few weeks? Remember, the better is the enemy of the good.
    Good luck.

  27. Thanks Yuri. This is very well stated and it provokes a lot of though – and comments on blogs/forums. 🙂

    I especially liked your analogy of a “school” to learn photography, or a “workplace” to sell photography. I started in microstock in 2006, and wanted to make USD$100-$200 a month. This industry allowed me to blow by that – to a smaller degree than it has for you I understand.

    Break the rules, and seek out and embrace the changing technology brother. I will be watching.

    Good Luck Yuri. I enjoy your thoughts.

    Chad

  28. Maaaan… I was just reading the thread on microstockgroup.com…
    I saw how everybody jumped upon Yuri, like he is not the messenger, but the reason why microstock agencies are on decay. Don’t kill the messenger, people!
    And thanks, Yuri, for your thoughts! They are very well appreciated here. I know you could have skipped the haters by just saying nothing. Yet you took it upon you by telling how you see things.
    Just know that there are a lot of us, who appreciate this. We just don’t have time to waste in forums.

  29. Best of luck!! I am pulling out of this myself. Been a member in the Getty RM/RF since 93 and I now feel thats where my stuff is going.
    Got no time for this micro anymore. Their external/internal politics is so destructive that its bound to bite the dust. Quality is replaced by quantity, intelligence by stupidity and photographers by geeks.

  30. Kevin

    Yuri used to be special but now there are thousands of photographers as good or better. Word of advice to stock contributors is to strive toward getting 35 thousand images in your personal portfolio!

  31. I believe you are certainly pushing the boundaries of stock photography a step further now as those who didn’t listen to you earlier are probably in deep trouble now by their shareholders and will probably add services that match those you describe here. As for Scoopshot you ‘ve now given them more attention which they needed it and also giving yourself a push to the future (with every popular mobile handset having at least 8 MP camera of course mobile photography is the best). Not sure about Scoopshot’s success but there definitely going to be similar services out there too and soon! Anyway, I think this “shake” of yours is for the best of the photography world. Of course I don’t think mobile photography will replace microstock entirely but it will certainly make things quicker, for the buyer at least! 🙂 Kudos!

  32. from the early beginng of microstock i would know
    you can’t produce good images for this less income.
    of coures clients enjoy favourable prices, but now they find out more and more that all there adds look the same…..:)

  33. Dear Yuri, I remain exclusively on Dreamstime.
    You are famous, so i want your honest opinion about something:What do you think about my portfolio?
    What must I do to have more sales?And you think that social networking help increase sales?Because I don’t think.Thank you!

  34. Pingback: phone sex

  35. Pingback: see post

  36. Pingback: inquiry

  37. Nitorphoto

    Interesting read, thanks for sharing.
    Anyway, I think you pullout is a question of stategy. Microstock sites don’t want to sell images for 100$ because it is a different business model. You can’t blame them for this!
    If you work for microstock you need to keep your expenses low. But you are that kind of guy who always tries to reach further, which is not bad or good but a kind of stategy. If you cost that much to a session as you told many tmes it is clear that miscorstock is not your marketplace anymore.
    If your product does not fit the marketplace for what you are leaving it… it doesn’t neccessary mean that the marketplace is bad or is dying.

  38. It’s interesting to note the Shutterstock share price graph again a few months later: https://www.google.co.uk/finance?cid=289500696993722

    Set it at year to date. Sure, the share price dropped a bit – but it seems pretty stable now – even recovering and on its way back to former highs. Your move didn’t exactly pull the plug on the value of Shutterstock’s overall business model and contributor base.

    Well done on your impressive growth – regardless of what the rest of us may think about Getty and iStock. Guess you must have a very different view about their future than those of us who are abandoning what is perceived elsewhere as a sinking ship.

  39. i started on Dreamstime as buyer when I own an advertisement agency and today I am a photographer that contribute with my own images, so I know the both sides of this coin.
    I think that microstock is not made of Yuri’s but by many small contributors. Here in Brazil is very comom see Yuri’s blonde girl photo everywhere and it’s not nice because it means that brazilians don’t provide enough photos of brazilian people on those microstocks, then I can presume that mobile photo could solve that, BUT I think that people would have to upload too many to have money enough to continue and if they are on that though they would have a DSLR camera. I belive on Mobile photo for news, not for advertisement, art or presentations. I think that there is yet an ENTIRE WORLD of oportunities on micro stock and if Sir Yuri across the ocean to explore other cultures he would, for sure, increase his sells.
    But who I am to try teach him anything about photography on microstock? The guy is a genius on that!!!
    But I just can say that there is yet big black holes on this planet where there is the need of photos of normal LOCAL people to be explored and mobile photography won’t solve that. On my humble opinion.

  40. ben

    The scoopshot idea is very interesting. I can see it working, for example, for those agencies that need the latest images of the middle east unrest. Phone cameras are getting much better, and sooner with the metamaterials advancements cellphones will totally erode the consumer point-n-shoot market.

    However there will always be a market for DSLR quality shots, because one thing cellphones can’t do is work with the total photo system (using or controlling remote flashes, accessories, and the list goes on). Much of quality photography deals with shaping or working with light.

    Since Yuri cut the cord on a few microstocks, he left some room for advancement for other photographers. For most buyers, iStock prices are way out-of-line. The microstock sites are ripped apart here. On one hand they know they need to sustain prices low, and on the other hand they are getting scolded by photographers for not getting paid well.

  41. Thanks a bunch for sharing this with all folks you actually understand what you’re speaking approximately! Bookmarked. Please also visit my site =). We will have a hyperlink trade agreement among us

  42. I don’t think mobile photography is a threat to stock photography. But maybe free and public domain websites offering free photos do.

  43. Beautiful image. Merry Christmas to you and your wonderful failmy. I pray Santa brings you all a love filled holiday and a New Year full of blessings and joy.~ Christmas Carol ~

What do you think? Join the discussion...

*