Pure Reviews

So there has been a huge number of updates at iSyndica . First off they have added Zymmetrical to the many list of accounts that you can track and upload using their website. For those that don't know iStyndica is a service that allows you to upload to many stock photography sites via one location. Depending on how much you upload depends on if you want to use their free account or pay to upgrade to the higher class accounts. There tracking of sales is a wonderful tool and does not cost you anything, you might want to check it out. Part two of the iSyndica update is a new feature allowing users to advertise their newly uploaded images to sites like twitter, facebook, flicker, etc. iSyndica continues to become a full access platform for all your stock photography needs. Below is the right up straight from the horses mouth so to speak. Part ONE: We are happy to let you know sales reporting for Zymmetrical is now available on your iSyndica account. Data has now been loaded...

I have a shameless request for everyone. If you like any of the work I have entered into the Tamron USA micro 2009 and American 2009 contest please give me 5 stars and leave a happy go lucky comment. Below are links to each image. Micro 2009 Contest: http://tamron.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-6840 http://tamron.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-6896 http://tamron.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-7009 American 2009 Contest: http://tamron.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-6897

A great feature from Fotolia has arrived. You can import images bought right into Microsoft Office 2007 with a few clicks of a button. Take a gander at the press release below. New Fotolia add-in provides instant image access from Microsoft Office 2007 Get the perfect image at the perfect price without ever leaving a Microsoft Word 2007 document or Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 presentation again. The new Fotolia plug-in allows members to login into their free Fotolia account through Word 2007 or PowerPoint 2007 and instantly access our library of over 7,000,000 royalty-free images. Found only on Fotolia , the free plug-in is available at www.fotolia.com/ribbon . Downloading the Fotolia add-in puts user-friendly tab along the toolbar of Word 2007 or Powe...

I want to take a moment out of my typical photography blogs to share some of my personal thoughts about Joshua Bell's new album "At Home with Friends". For those of you that don't know Joshua, he is a classical arts that is outstanding violinist. He has currently around 6 or 7 albums and this latest one was based off the idea of the several informal musicales he would host at his home with other artists and friends over the years. Each song he wanted to give something different from the last one. You will see a large selection of performers that he works with so if you don't like one skip it and go to the next. My personal thoughts on the album are that if you enjoy classical music then you will enjoy many songs on this CD. I will say I personally like about half of the songs and the other half are just ok, as in they aren't my type of sound. I typically am not huge of opera and I run hot and cold with musical themed peaces and their are a f...

Encase some of you have not logged into iStock in the last few days their new log-in changes are now in effect. The whole point of the log in changes are to make things faster, easier and more secure. They are now using an SSL-enabled iframe window that uses your email address or log-in name. Also another main reason they changed is for new users who find an image that they want. The old system had users navigating away from their image to sign up or log-in, now they can keep that image in the background.

It was just a few days ago that I talked about the coming soon feature of Crestock new WordPress feature. Well today was their official launching day and you can download the program for your blogging right away. This is a pull once again to give away small image while hoping to get improved exposure for higher sales. However with the rate that Crestock accepts images, I doubt this will be a use to many people. Crestock is one of the few stock photography companies that is know for it weird and outrageous rejections. Check out the word for the creators below. Spice up your blog with professional, high quality, free stock photos & images! With an amazingly simple Drag and Drop interface, blogging has never been this easy! Today is huge for us here at Crestock – for months we've been planning, testing and preparing for the launch of our new WordPress plugin called Freebie Images. For years, we've been blessed with a lot of love from the blogosphere, so we figured i...

Well, Albumo closed its doors sometime in September. They have been dieing a long dramatic death as the site was full of spam of users wanting their photo's pulled. Also they stopped reviewing images sometime at the start of the year. My guess is that the site was abandoned and either pulled due to not paying their hosting bills or it was just pulled down by the creators. So far this site falls under the category of not paying out any of the cash that was left in users accounts. I am sure several users took about a $30 hit as several people never came close to the cash out point. As far as the images left on Albumo servers, hopefully they have just deleted them and don't try to do anything illegal by selling them off.

Dreamstime is taking their game to the next level. They will soon be launching a new feature of ordering posters and/or canvases. This is a great addition as several stock sites have third parties that already do this...but I would think you are going to see greater sales. Also, currently many members are part of companies like DeviantART, Redbubble, etc...which do the same thing. It is only a matter of time before Dreamstime becomes a one stop shop. Below is a write up from the guys at DT. Very soon you'll be able to order posters and canvases from our site. This is self-explanatory so I will skip the basics. You all have such prints somewhere decorating your home or office walls. All RF images are eligible for this option (Editorial and Free Photos are excluded). Plus, ordering is fast and easy to use. Similar to image download, prints can be purchased in a matter of seconds. Thanks to our pricing model and a very simple formula, prices are kept minimal: production costs...

Better late then never. I have finally done all the reviews of my September sales and above is the breakdown chart for how each company rates. Once again, if the stock site is not listed then I had no sales on their site for September. To see the chart larger, just click on the image. Top 3 Sites: Dreamstime Shutterstock 123RF

So a major buy out happened while I was out of town. Shutterstock bought out BigStockPhoto. It sounds like the two companies will function as separate sites as Shutterstock was looking for an option of credit based sales to added to their subscription based system. I think this is a great venture and for sure we will see an increase in quality at BigStockPhoto's. This morning I have the pleasure of announcing the acquisition of BigStockPhoto by Shutterstock Images. We are excited to add a credit-based product to our line up of best-in-industry subscription options. Though we studied the possibility of building a credit site from scratch, in the end we decided that acquiring and building upon the momentum of a solid brand like BigStockPhoto is the best way to deliver this new product to our customers. As you all know, Shutterstock has pioneered many products that have been duplicated in the industry: we offered the first and by far the most successful crowdsourced subscription st...

Is it me or does this sound like an infomercial? Below is a new letter from Crestock about the launch of their Word Press plug in. We're incredibly excited to let you know that we're only one week away from launching our biggest, most powerful marketing initiative to date, and this is a special invite for you to join and to receive an additional 5% commission on all credits purchases. If you've been around at Crestock for a while, you know that we've been running some hugely popular Photoshop design contests every year around summer time. The idea has been to provide one of the most dominant demographics among potential buyers, the designers, a chance to get to know Crestock – and to actually try the products. These contests have been shaped as viral campaigns and have, without failure, spread like wildfire in the design community; through blogs and forums, through social media and have even been featured on the Apple and MTVs websites. Throughout the years, thes...

So iStock photo is getting into the logo market. They will be soon launching their logo section that will allow buyers and sellers to tailor unique logos for sale. This seems like a great idea for sellers and buyers who are looking for a brand logo for low costs. I really see this feature being used for small business and no major corporation. Read about the new feature below. We're excited to announce a whole new product coming to the iStock collection. Clients will soon be able to download a unique logo to brand their business or organization right here at iStock. This is a huge opportunity not just for existing iStock contributors, but for our community of designers as well. If you’re a designer, you've probably created hundreds of different logos over the course of your career and we're offering you an outlet to start selling logos to the world’s largest community of creative buyers. Before we start accepting logo designs we want to share what we’ve come up with ...

Cutcaster continues to roll out the ever lasting improvements and updates as they try to become a player in the stock photography community. Several fellow photographers I know have seen an increase in sales, but still are running small for know. I personally have not had luck with them and they remain with double goose eggs on my board. So, here is to great improvements and hopefully even better sales. Check out below what John has to say about the updates. Somebody pinch us. Is summer over and are we really into Fall? It’s amazing how fast the days fly by and what has been accomplished in that short period of time at Cutcaster with your help. We quickly passed 300k uploads to Cutcaster in August but are in need of specific content that our buyers have requested . To see an updated list of images and illustrations that we still need and will be showcased to buyers, please click here . We are attending the PictureHouse tradeshow in New York on October 14th and need your shot...

Moodboard has launched a digital magazine feature some of their photographers best work. It sounds like it will be published once a month, I don't know if they pay the photographers for using their images. My first option was that it was a waste of time as just a typical marketing ploy and not useful to photographers. I however flipped digitally through the magazine I changed my mine of its usefulness. I felt that you can learn a lot just from look at the several stunning images that they published to strive for greater creativity as an artist. http://www.moodboard.com/magazine/issue3b.htm

So as some of you knew or even might have guessed, I was out of the country for a little over two weeks....hence no lovely blog posting. I had a date with the newest ship in the world and went on the inaugural cruise of the Carnival Dream in Italy for 14 days of relaxing pleasures. Italy is a wonderful country with so much to see and of course wonderful photography opportunities. Hopefully in the coming months I will start getting images of my trip posted for everyone to see and comment on. So bad news is that I did however have a memory card crash on me half way through the trip....looks as if I might have lost all my images of Rome, Venice, Dubrovnik, and Termini. As you can image I am not happy about that and I have a date with Micro Center to see what happened with their cards. So far I have tried to recover the image, format the card and recover the image and nothing seems to work....my computer or camera will simply not recognize the card. However, I do have wonderful imag...