Pixart Design

My favourite time of year. Right between hockey and soccer, it's dance season!

Another stock photographer recently explained another way to find our licensed photos - a search on Google - drilling down to books and if the books list photographer credits and in a few documents the page is visible. Lots of text books! Here's a few photos that I found from a quick search. Love seeing the photos in action.

Stock Photos in Action. The designer changed the boy's jersey colours again... and, uhm.... the pink skate laces are actually on a 10 year old boy, but woman's hockey doesn't need to know that :)

Love my most recent photo sales graphic on my Shutterstock account. What a mishmash. Hockey in America, Line Dancing in Brazil, Ballet in Africa, and Beer in UK! I wish I could go all the places my photos do!

My favourite time of year. Right between hockey and soccer, it's dance season!

Another stock photographer recently explained another way to find our licensed photos - a search on Google - drilling down to books and if the books list photographer credits and in a few documents the page is visible. Lots of text books! Here's a few photos that I found from a quick search. Love seeing the photos in action.

I know a little more about this story than the Government of Ontario has disclosed and I am outraged by the actions of the "tech startup" 500px, but then again,... "money isn't supposed to be what makes us happy", right? Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Province of Ontario are patting themselves on the back because a Chinese media group has invested $14 million into Toronto's 500px. As a photographer who uses agents like 500px to sell my photographs, I can tell you that all similar agencies are built on the backbone of the artists. Without our creative they have nothing but a website. They do not manufacture products, they do not warehouse inventory, they do not have physical locations - they don't wholly own anything that they sell - all they do is host, market and license digital art, photographs, video and graphic content. This digital content is available to buyers under a rights managed or royalty free license, and when a digital file is transferred they keep a portion of the payment while dispersing a royalty to the artist who created the property. Sounds fair right? No warehouse staff, no inventory, a simple act as an agent or a distributor. What the announcement by the Government of Ontario fails to mention is that in the same week Kelly Thompson of 500px announced unilaterally slashing it's artists commissions from 70% royalty to 30%. For every $10 an artist earns, 500 px is taking another $4, keeping $7 (even after a $14M cash injection). Brick by brick, the artists built 500px and were enticed by and promised a fair compensation by sharing their own creative. It's very convenient that the press release by the Province of Ontario fails to mention that the artists of Ontario have been stabbed in the back. Maybe it doesn't matter to Ms Wynne and the Province because overall 500px collection of artists are drawn from a large pool of other Canadians and creatives from around the globe. ***edited to clarify above - a reduction in royalties from 70% to 30% is mathematically a decrease of 57%. Kelly K Thompson's statement to artists earlier this week explains the royalty cut : "With expanding technology development, legal management and marketing efforts, we incur costs to showcase the marketplace and attract new buyers. While we want to give photographers the best possible royalty rate, and so launched with the 70% commission, we've learned that the reality of running a stock marketplace requires a different structure. We still believe it is important to reward the creators, which is why we will continue to give you an industry-leading royalty rate of 60% on images exclusive to 500px, while moving to a 30% rate for non-exclusive images". I guess that 14 million isn't enough to do that. This is the same Kelly K. Thompson, former executive at Istock who made drastic royalty cuts to artists earlier this decade and satisfied his position by saying "Money isn't going to be what makes us happy". Really? My kids are pretty happy when they have food in their lunch bag every day. Incidentally, Istock was sold to Getty Images which has been repeatedly bought and sold by investment groups (who ironically are only made happy by money) and eroded artist commissions and have chipped away at the price of creative. If history is any indication, within 2 years the Chinese Media group will cash in on their investment, sell out, and once again the company will chip away at the artists earnings. Without our art, 500px does not exist. If you are fine with a 14 million dollar foreign investment while feeling good and doing your part by swallowing a (edited to correct maths) 57% cut in wages, celebrate! But also take a moment to to consider what you can do about it. Spread the word. Many artists are pulling their content and closing their accounts. #boycott500px You can find a lengthy discussion at http://www.microstockgroup.com//500px-kelly-th/msg450066/

Stock Photos in Action. The designer changed the boy's jersey colours again... and, uhm.... the pink skate laces are actually on a 10 year old boy, but woman's hockey doesn't need to know that :)

Love my most recent photo sales graphic on my Shutterstock account. What a mishmash. Hockey in America, Line Dancing in Brazil, Ballet in Africa, and Beer in UK! I wish I could go all the places my photos do!