Pure Reviews

Today's I want to share with you my experience and review of the QLYX smart cellphone mount .  Below is the full video review and screen shots of the app. as of the writing of this blog post. Right now you can pick up a DEAL HERE and use code  QDRIVE The mount is a solid mount for your phone.  The metal backing comes in several great color options that will for sure blend in with your phone back or case.  The mount also held with no issues on the local rough streets.  Overall I could not be more happy with the product when it comes to the mount. As for the app, QLYX has some work to do.  First up it took a few tries before I got signed up, the screen shot below was my first few tries.  After that I was in and smooth sailing. The main screen is straight forward and easy to read as you can see below.  Some tweaks I would like to see here is the ability to move things around.  This is a driving app after all, so I would like to...

I love tech gear and I have had several brands of headphones over the years.  This blog post is about some of the affordable brands you can find on Amazon or the Interwebs.  All these guys are bluetooth headphones and are very comparable to the big extensive name brands in my opinion. First up is the newly released  Senso ActivBuds S-255 Bluetooth Wireless Headphones , which replaces the best selling  Senso ActivBuds S-250 Bluetooth Wireless Headphones  on Amazon. What has changed is improved sound quality and waterproof rating, plus includes bonus accessories.  Headphones a great for working out and running, come with hard stylish carrying case, 30 day money back guarantee and so much more. Here are some specs : SENSO Bluetooth Headphones, Best Wireless Sports Earphones w/ Mic IPX7 Waterproof HD Stereo Sweatproof Earbuds for Gym Running Workout 8 Hour Battery Noise Cancelling Headsets:  - Bluetooth Specification: 4.1+EDR - IPX7 Wat...

                  I am here to take a moment out of our standard blog to talk about a new book by Dr. Harvey Karp called "The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep."  As a new dad I figured this is a must read book as we got Dr. Karp's other book "The Happiest Baby on the Block".  Both books are written for parents to help read the signs of their newborns and on.             A little background on Dr. Harvey Karp, MD.  He a award winning pediatrician and focuses on unparalleled knowledge, experience and insight on solving the number one concern for new parents, which is lack of sleep.  He became a child development specialist and assistant professor of pediatrics at the USC School of Medicine.  He completed med school at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and worked at Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles.  Besides working with thousands of patient...

Press release from Shutterstock that now allows downloading images directly to your tablet or cell phone on apple products.  Check out the release below. We know our contributors are always interested in getting their work seen by as many customers in as many ways as possible. With that in mind, here’s an update on what we’ve been doing to help you promote and license your images on mobile devices — and let you track your results on the go, too. The Shutterstock App for iPhone and iPad — now with downloading! We recently updated our award-winning app to make it available on iPhone as well as iPad. Both versions let users search and explore images, scroll through a seamless mosaic of options, add selections to Lightboxes, and share them with colleagues. The apps have been a huge hit with customers — to date, over 300,000 users have downloaded and begun using them! This month, we released version 2.5 of the app, giving customers the ability to download images straight to thei...

iStock continues to upset their core contributors by devaluing their work and opening their images up for possible free use on Google drive.  This whole ordeal spurred a massive movement of removing images to their site.  This action has spurred a response from the corporation owned by Getty images.  See the report below that basically says they are just working on it, but don't plan on providing changes right away.  Will you close your portfolio on iStock ? Google Drive You may have already read our last update in the forums but once again, we'd like to thank you for your continued patience. To reiterate from previous posts, royalties have been paid in connection with the Google Drive usage based on all consideration received by Getty Images under the licensing agreement. We understand your concerns relating to the deal and we are making progress in a productive dialogue with Google about these concerns and potential solutions. As many...

So Bigstock has announced that they are going to start doing subscription sales this year.  Joining what seems to be a new industry standard they are setting their royalty base at only $0.25.  Sadly this seems to be more and more common ( Fotolia , iStock , 123RF , etc).  The odd part of this announcement is that Bigstock was bought by Shutterstock so they could have pay as you go style site.  So this begs the question of why start moving your site to the SS formula with lower royalties.  How do you feel about the changes, comment below. As you know, we already offer Bigstock customers the flexibility of pre-paying with credits. Next week, we’ll be offering our customers an increasingly popular way to buy images:  subscriptions. How will this affect me? Subscriptions can generate higher download volumes, which can increase your total earnings from Bigstock. Here’s how you will earn royalties from Bigstock subscriptions: Eve...

YAY has added some new distributors so go check them out, link below.  Must give props to YAY for not only showing each distributor, but also shoing their commision rate and price range, etc.  You can also opt out of all or just a few.  Join YAY here . You'll find details and the opt-out option under My Account > Photographer > API details .

I want to talk a little moment away from out typical photography posts to talk about Kylie Minogue's new hit album "The Abbey Road Sessions."  This is a stellar album with a staggering 16 songs including some great classics with some new hits.  It's very rare that I find an CD that has as many good songs as this.  Out of the 16 songs total, I only felt a 4 of them where just ok.  To all my bloggers if you have not enjoyed Kylie's music in that past this is a great album to pick up, after all she was in the Olympics for a reason.  Top classic song hands down on the album is "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" and my favorite new song would have to be "On A Night Like This".  If you are a traditional fan of Kylie you notice a slight shift in her music as she has a lot more slow paced songs compared to her club hits of the 90's.  This is just more of a showing how she can change with the time Her full line up of songs is as follows: 1. A...

I would like to take give a quick shout out to Sonos who is running a great promotion on a Wireless HiFi System at Target.  If you love music and want to stream your whole collection via WiFi then you really need to look into one of these systems as they are very cool and sleek looking.  I am always glad to see a well designed and modern looking item for mass consumers.  Check out the video below which explains the Sonos system.  Also remember fathers day is coming up and this would make a great deal. Right now through June 16th, 2012 at Target you will get a free $30 Target gift card when you by the Play 3 unit or a $40 Target gift card when you by the Play 5 unit.  Happy shopping Disclaimer:  I participated in this campaign as a member of  One2One Network  and I'm eligible for a prize drawing.  All opinions stated in the post are my own.

The Getty family (includes iStock ) will be reviewing portfolios to remove any images of Le Corbusier furniture after a lawsuit was filed in France against Getty images on copy-write violation.  See their notice below on the items in question and its best to check your portfolios on all your sites for any of these furniture items.  These pieces can be found in several public buildings that you might have worked in and could just be in the background and not the center of focus.  Recently we have had to take stricter action regarding images of designer furniture in creative imagery coming in to both iStockphoto and Getty Images, specifically the furniture of french designer Le Corbusier. The owners of these designs are extremely protective of their intellectual property and we need to take a hard line on turning away images that contain this kind of furniture. We will not accept Creative images containing furniture from Le Corbusier. We may also deactivate e...

Mostphotos CEO takes a look at the year 2011 and gives us a peek at what the year 2012 will hold for photographers and buyers alike.  Last year sounded like it was the year of getting things running better and this year will be the year of improving and fine tuning.  If you are new to Mostphotos you can sign up here . 2011 was the year when we started our first marketing campaign, kicking off with the Swedish market. The reception has been great, and our customers are even happier than we could ever have anticipated. This past year, as we entered the market, we decided to put a lot of effort into creating functionalities that would benefit our users. Among other things, we improved the online shopping experience with international invoice support, and introduced more attractive bundle options such as the ‘monthly’ and ‘download’ packages. In addition, we now have organisation support and collections, and we also have the request feature that was created during...

Alamy launched their live new service last month.  Below is a little information about what to expect and how to upload your news worthy images to their site.  Alamy site is located here . Alamy Live News Dear Contributor, Alamy is today launching its Live News service – a revolution in the way Alamy deals with news, sport and entertainment images. For the dedicated photojournalist, the news agency looking to sell into new markets, or the experienced photographer who takes the odd news, sport or entertainment photo, we believe we now have the best service available. And photographers still keep 60 per cent of any news, sport or entertainment images which we sell on their behalf! There are six broad changes we have introduced: • Alamy will now “push” an edited selection of news, sport and entertainment images to its customers directly via FTP. • A fast FTP upload service has been created for committed news photographers and agencies. You can apply for access to the F...

Crestock is boosting royalty rates up to a 40% rate from a 30% rate.  See the chart below to see how things might change for your sales.  Below is the press release directly from the CEO, enjoy. Increasing Royalty Rates & Revenue Channels for Artists To Crestock's Contributing Artists: Since Masterfile Corporation acquired Crestock in July 2010, a lot of changes have taken place. We've added stability to the business and its website, provided you with reliable payments and brought responsive people on board to provide support and answer your questions. But there is still much room for improvement – most importantly in overall sales and the return on investment for you, our contributors. We're working on that too. We're launching two important initiatives that should benefit all of our contributors as outlined below. These changes have been detailed in the revised Crestock Artist Image Upload Agreement . 1. WE ARE INCREASING...

I am taking a moment out of our typical photography related post to tell you about Mat Kearney.  I was recently selected  by the One2One network to review his new album titled "Young Love".  Mat has a great fresh sound that I think many of you would like.  He falls under the catagories rock/alternative, but would fit very well in the top 100 hits.  Currently his hit song is "Hey Mama" which even if you aren't a fan of alternative music, check out the follow link to listen to it for free.  My personal option of his music is its very upbeat and entertaining.  Several of his songs have worth my android music player.  Hey Mama rightfully so is the best song on the album, but I also enjoyed "Down" and "Count on Me".  If you really like his music you will be happy to know that he is going on tour next month. Buy the album on Amazon below: Young Love: 1 Hey Mama 2 Ships In The Night 3 Count On Me 4 Sooner Or Later 5 Chasing Th...

CanStockPhoto hit a big landmark just after they launched a massive re-branding of their site.  They have had their 5 Millionth image uploaded and approved, which gave the lucky photographer a new mac computer.  They re-branded their site around mid June giving it a fresh look, easier to use interface and updated logo.  If you are new to CanStockPhoto then sign up today and check them out.

Fotolia rolled out their new website layout.  Shortly after announcing their price drop in royalties coming with the new site.  The site does have a cleaner and more user friendly look, which several buyers and contributors should both like.  Some of the new features include refined searching, which now lets you search by price point.  Also they have changed their subscription plans for buyers.  So log in and check it out . ...

Depositphoto's is rolling out more marketing features to bag some large profile contributors.  Very similar to when they launched their site they are offering features to help bring over your images to their platform.  One of these feature is getting a $0.10 per image, up to 500 images.  Also something I am not as thrilled about is higher positions in search results for large clients.  This is something I am sure several companies do, its just not something advertised.  If you are interested in joining Depositphotos click here.  Personal ranking of the site for me is between 3rd and 5th when it comes to earnings. Depositphotos offers individualized collaborative terms for those photographers who have a large portfolio and would like to upload it to our site. If you are a skilled and talented photographer or illustrator working with different stock photo agencies, and you have a large portfolio ready to upload to our site but no time to spare, we are ...

Shutterstock is adding the ability to add key words in other languages besides English.  They do require that you to add a note to the review team on what the words mean in English.  Its a great concept for contributors in other countries, but I wonder if it really ends up being helpful if you still have to describe the keywords in English.  Either way, its a nice feature for them to add.  Full write up is below.  Join Shutterstock here . Shutterstock serves customers all over the world, and we need creative images with global appeal. We have a demand for stock images that show text—such as signs and forms—in all major languages. This poses a challenge, since we can only approve images containing text if we know what the words say. Recently, we instructed our reviewers to begin approving more images with international text, as long as the contributor has included a note explaining all non-English text depicted in an image. What this means for you...

iStock did some minor tweaking to their site and added some new features.  First up you can now search by price range.  The fewer the dots the cheaper the images and this will make it easier for buyer to get exactly what they need for the price point they have in their mind.  Second you can now filter out editorial images or creative images...allowing you more tailored licensed content.  Final features, you can refine your searches by color, copyspace and image orientation.  So go checkout the new features and happy searching.  Join iStock here .

123RF if making uploading your editorial shots even easier.  Now instead of make sure they are uploaded via a different link you can upload as normal and all images will be reviewed as editorial potential.  This will increase 123RF editorial contact and keep photographers from accidentally sending the images to the wrong place.  Read the office press release below and sign up for 123RF here . As you may already know, we have implemented a new feature on our site, the Checkbox "If my submissions are unfit for RF, I agree to allow them to be accepted into the Editorial Section provided they are deemed to be newsworthy." is now apparent when you submit images to be processed. We implemented this because we understand that contributors are (at times) unable to obtain/acquire releases for street photography and other images. Therefore, in order to save your time to re-uploading to the Editorial section, we're going to shunt these into Editorials for you. ...