Stock Photography

Hi,

Sorry if this has already been covered.

I'm looking for a Stock photography company to join. I've searched the web and read reviews. I was considering SnugMug but I read

lots of complaints that most members didn't make enough sales to cover the fees. I was considering ICanStock.

Is anyone here doing well with stock photography and what company do you you use?

Thanks,

RIck

Long Island, NY

<p>Rick, the only places in stock photography where there's enough money to justify the time and effort are the high-end agencies. Forget about the places you mentioned and instead try Alamy and/or Shutterstock. Or you could aim even higher and try for Getty.</p>

<p>Best of luck, it's a very tough business!</p>

<p>I have lots of model released images with Getty and some other partners. (Around 500 images.)<br>

It's a completely dead market unless you are shooting full time for stock and submitting huge amounts of work. I used to make a bit but it has really dried up over the past few years. Not remotely worth the effort.</p>

SmugMug is not a stock agency. It's a site

where photographers post there own images

either for the public to see or clients to orders

prints and downloads. I suppose you could

use it to run your own stock service if you

could drive enough traffic there. But it's

nothing like Getty or shutterstock.

<p>OK, I just looked at CanStock.com. They sell royalty-free photos for one-time payments ranging from $2 to $11. A Large JPEG sells for $7.00. Of that $7, the photographer gets, at most $2.00.</p>

<p>Do you really think this is making money? How many uploads do you have to make before you can sell 100 photos to net $200?</p>

<p>Don't waste your time.</p>

I'm sticking with Getty, but my strategy has changed. First, I need to get my archive up to 2,000-images from under 200 and I've started registering all my images. It turns out that Getty gets my images published in places like Travel & Leisure and the Boston Globe, which makes them magnets for infringement by others. Suing for infringement is more profitable than selling images outright. One fly in the ointment, that I'm dealing with right now, is getting Getty to acknowledge the infringement and indicate that they will not pursue the Claim, giving me full rights to pursue a Claim. My attorney is considering language to give notice and speeds up the process. Right now, Getty is basically giving me the silent treatment, in this regard.

Oh, the reason for Registering my Copyrights is that the statutory damages are greatly increased for registered images.