I was really disappointed with Getty and istock when I read this article. It is a reminder to make sure that we read ALL of the fine print for stock photo and agency contracts. Remember instagram? Photographers beware. We work hard to build up our photography portfolio costing us years and years in development, not to mention the prices of our equipment, gathering model release forms, archiving. We cannot allow these agencies to take our work and sell them for pennies then drop us like we never existed.
No matter how hard it is for us to compete with the cell phone point and shooters, we must hold strong and keep our art at top value.
Reposted from PhotoStockNotes
Lauren Margolis: “Earlier last month, we learned that Getty agreed to license some 5,000 stock photos to Google, and paid the image creators a one-time fee of $12. Many members of the Microstockgroup forums planned to deactivate images on iStockphoto (a counterpart of Getty Images).
Stock photographer Sean Locke - who has contributed more than 12,000 photos to iStockphoto and sold nearly 1 million licenses - criticized the deal early on and now Getty isterminating his account in 30 days.” http://blog.photoshelter.com/2013/02/istockphoto-terminates-top-contributor-in-aftermath-of-gettygoogle-deal/
TAKEAWAY: Photographer Locke has announced that he will migrate to other venues with his microstock photos. The dismissal of Locke (for expressing his opinion) turns out to be a hidden blessing for all microstockers. It’s a reminder that as a microstocker, you can simply migrate your photos from one site to another without missing a beat as they all (all millions of them) seem to come from the same catalog.
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