What does Shenk think about all of you?

Interesting article on the rise of Microstock and amateur photogs for everyone out there. Amateur photographers are shaking up the global market for licensed images far quicker than video is for broadcasters, and even Bill Gates's privately held image bank, Corbis, is having to reinvent itself.

Here is the last sentence of the article, ""There will be a shake-out in this space in the coming years but we're happy with what we are doing. We think Corbis has the resources and patience to succeed in the long-term. We will beat them with better [commercial] execution.""

I agree with him about Corbis having the resources (see Bill Gate's pocketbook) and the shakeout (see LO and hearing Albumo up against the ropes) but we will have to wait and see if they can execute better. Up to this point they haven't instilled us with confidence.

Support for SmartFTP and CuteFTP

You can now use both CuteFTP and SmartFTP when uploading to Cutcaster. If you need more directions on uploading via these FTP clients please email us at upload@cutcaster.com.

Thanks

Want more people to see your images and studio profiles?

Here is something very easy to do. Some of you may not use these "share" buttons on your media details page or your studio pages but you should be.

They are a very important form of driving traffic to your studio as well as your images on Cutcaster or your own site and you should use this button to leverage getting more traffic and views/downloads of your content. And they are completely free.



To promote your work or someone else's work (if you like their stuff) on Cutcaster you hover over the "share" button and click on the different networks you want to send the content to. The different sites will allow you to title it and put in a description and then feed it to their millions of users. It is so Easy. From our research and experience, this works in driving traffic and buyers to see your work and translates into sales.

Try it out for yourself and see how the views and traffic will pile up for you. Just click on the share button and send to the networks that you are a member at. My personal favorites are StumbleUpon, Digg, Myspace, technorati, facebook, reddit, twitter and delicious. But there are many places you can derive traffic from and I bet you will be happy that you tried it.

If you need some help understanding how to do this, just email us.

Clipfolders fixed

The Clipfolders have been fixed and moved to the live site. Just wanted to give you a heads-up that you can start using them and organizing your work. If you do see any issues let us know. The public and private Clipfolders will be going live very soon.

Also we are working on setting up the servers so that the website, the database and the upload section all are running off seperate servers at Amazon. This is going to speed the site up a ton. Finalllllyyyyyyyy.

UPDATE- still a couple of issues we are ironing out.

These guys won't be stealing images again

Photographer Gets $12 Million Verdict!!!

Not a bad days work or settlement.

Liz Ordonez-Dawes, an accomplished architectural and interior design photographer, recently was awarded more than $12 million dollars for copyright infringement of seven photographs. In brief, the court found that the defendants distributed Ms. Ordonez-Dawes' photos of high-end houses to various third parties for advertisements to sell the houses without authority and with knowledge that such act constituted copyright infringement. The court's Order provides some background of the case as well as the calculation of damages.

For more details check out the Photo Attorney's blog and Jackie Shumaker, who gave them the headsup.

Even though she has not collected anything yet, this is a great start and a good way to scare other would be thieves once they see that eye popping number. The more publication and press this gets the better it is for everyone even if she doesn't collect the whole sum. I am glad to see she registered her work and the result was that she had some re-course in the court of law. Others should take note. It's the only way to collect a large sum.

More Images we need for the upcoming season's needs

Do you have these images sitting on your hard drive collecting dust or not making you money at other sites. We will pay you more for exclusive content. Please upload content related to the below categories.

1. Back to School, Back to work after summer, career issues/financial
2. Halloween- bring out all the spooks
3. Thanksgiving
4. Holiday Eats/Meals - any type of fall foods
a. Thanksgiving dinner
b. Candied Yams
c. Squash
d. Cranberries
e. warm soups
f. pumpkin pie or pecan if you like that more

5. Preparing your house for winter/Winterizing your home

Let us know if you have any questions.

Exclusive Spotlight on the Homepage

We are going to be introducing a place in the spotlight area for content that has been uploaded to Cutcaster that is exclusive to just our site. We want some of your work just to ourselves so we can feature you. Get your exclusives up there and we will move them to the homepage so people click through to your studios and see your other work.

In addition, we are going to be offering "free images and illustrations" on the homepage to attract more interested buyers to the site. If there are any people who would be willing to offer a few of their files for free please let us know. You can email content@cutcaster.com. We promise to pay you back down the road for your generosity.

Hope everyone had a great day.

Cutcaster is....

Cutcaster is a community based content marketplace to license digital photos, images, illustrations and videos. Cutcaster offers royalty free images, stock photos, stock footage and stock photography for advertising, publishing or web design. The platform helps people who have taken a great photo or captured some amazing video footage to monetize their content through licensing it to someone working in advertising, publishing, filmmaking and graphic design.

A contributor sets their own price and can place the price tag anywhere he wants. For example, Photos, we have seen people price anywhere between $3 to $250 for the price of a RF agreement. You decide where you want to sell it. We will find the buyers for you.

The twist Cutcaster has introduced to licensing is buyers can now license content on demand or they can bid for it by submitting a price to the seller seamlessly over the site, which the seller can accept, decline or resubmit a new offer back to the buyer. In addition, if a publisher from a magazine came to you, they could also bid on extended rights for content like exclusivity in certain markets or over certain periods of time. This bidding platform helps buyers find content within their budget, provides incentives for them to license content at Cutcaster because they can create better deals for themselves than they would find at other sites and highlights for sellers where the demand is at different pricing levels and how to price their content so they don’t lose sales because their content isn’t priced correctly.

Where is your photo business going?

Cutcaster is interested in learning where you see your business changing and what you think will be the focus of your business in the coming years. Where do you see the most room for growth in your business and where will the majority of your time spent? Who will be your biggest customers and how will you reach them?

Places we are planning on marketing and working with!

Are we missing some other ones? These are only some from our research but let us know where else we should be looking for potential image, photo and video buyers and sellers?

Advertising & Design Organizations

AAAA

AAF: American Advertising Federation

American Institute of Graphic Arts

Society of Illustrators Home Page

World Wide Arts Resources


Design & Advertising Magazines & Zines

Adage

Adweek Online

Communication Arts

http://ep.pennnet.com/home.cfm

Print Magazine, Online

Creative resource listings

Design Directory | made by designers for designers


Digital Imaging Magazines & Zines

CreativePro.com


Digital Imaging Magazine

Photo Digital Directory



Graphic Arts & Printing

Advertising Production Club of New York ... because we are in NYC !!!!

The Advertising Production Club of New York is a trade association for professionals and students in the graphic arts/communications industry. Founded in 1931, the Club is dedicated to the educational advancement of its members, focusing on the identification and dissemination of information on emerging technologies.

Graphic Arts Information Network

Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) is the world's largest graphic arts trade association, representing an industry with more than $171.5 billion in revenue and 1.08 million employees.

Specifications for Web Offset Publications (SWOP)

Over the last thirty years SWOP has become a major factor in the success of the Publication Printing Industry in the United States. This has been a result of a combination of attainable goals, dedicated people driving the process and an industry willing to improve itself. The resulting recommended specifications are for the use of all those involved in the production of publications - including the advertiser, publisher, printer, advertising agency and prepress service supplier.



Photography Magazines & Zines

Apogee Photo Magazine

The Internet's Photography Magazine (http://www.apogeephoto.com)
A FREE online magazine designed to inform and entertain photographers of all ages and levels.

CameraArts

CameraArts is specifically aimed toward the medium and small format photographer. Each issue provides in-depth interviews with portfolios produced by respected photographers



Focal Fix


PDN - PHOTO DISTRICT NEWS



Photographic Organizations

ACMP (AU)


ASMP Cutcaster is a member of ASMP.

AOP


Editorial Photo (EP)

EPUK (UK)

International Assoc of Panoramic Photographers


National Press Photographers Association (NPPA)

North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA)


Photo Marketing Association (PMA)

PhotoNewsNetwork

Picture Agency Council of America (PACA)

Professional Photographers of America (PPA)

Society for Photographic Education


And hope to see you at some of these Trade Shows & Workshops

PhotoPlus Expo

Photoworkshop


Seybold Seminars

Database error fixed

We are back up and at full speed again after a night of little sleep and a lot of work. What we encountered were some errors in our database (mostly in the upload section) and our server had wayyyyy too much being stored on it which we fixed and reorganized. No files were lost during the short downtime. I guess having too much content on your upload server is the type of problem that we are happy to have ;-) and better now then when things are really cranking. Thanks for your patience and let us know if you have any questions.

Using photos and videos in templates for advertising

We were approached by a company that creates video ad templates for brands and their customers about using your uploaded images and videos in their templates. I wanted to ask the community how they felt about letting a company like this use your images in templates that others could license and you would be paid when a customer of theirs uses the advertising templates. The company wants to be able to use your images and videos in the previews of these templates and then when someone licenses then you will get paid. Another thing they wanted to try was letting their end users have access to our images and videos (i.e. the raw materials) to create their templates and you would get paid when they licensed the final product. Since Cutcaster never takes ownership of uploaded files I wanted to ask you guys what you thought and I will do what you tell me.

Some ideas i had for this could be:

Give those that have images licensed through the system a higher payout.

Make it opt in for those that wanted to add their images and video.

Can the idea and move on to the next one.


I am throwing the idea out there because I don't want to do anything without asking the community first. I will always let you guys know what types of partnerships approach us and get your input. This is as much yours as it is ours. Please let your voices be heard. How do you fell about partnerships like this.

Are their other partnerships that you think we should pursue which you guys are interested in? Please use us to your advantage and let us work for you.

We Need unique or exclusive images in these three categories

Healthcare, interior décor and eco-friendly shots. Lets see what you can come up with.

Here are some ideas for eco-friendly shots broken down by categories courtesy of our friends at PS.

Green Living Lifestyle images:

* Female/male/families recycling in everyday situations
* Female/Male working in the home vegetable garden
* Female/Male using green household products to clean
* Woman using green beauty products or a man (wink, wink)
* Female/Male mowing a lawn using a hand lawn mower
* Female/Male installing a CFL bulb
* Female/Male weatherproofing doors/windows
* Hanging laundry to dry, doing laundry in a river
* Riding the bike to work
* Filling up the compost pit
* Repurposing objects and clothing
* Charity and recycle bins
* watering the lawn or rain water for shower
* Light bulbs, replacing or blowing up ;-)
* Energy saving appliances
* Anything showing household water use (normal use, saving water, wasting water)
* Mom or dad doubling a kid on the back of a bike with groceries in the basket
* cloth bag, re-usable bag
* using cloth diapers (kinda gross but to each their own)
* Cutting/shearing your lawn with tree clippers
* Working at a food co-op
* Carrying baby in a cloth sling
* Shopping at the farmer's market
* Industry recycling + water conservation


Dramatic/Literal:

* Business person on a skateboard or bike or running
* Vegetable garden on the roof (in an urban environment)
* Person tanning on the roof next to a solar panel or using the solar panel to tan
* Fuel alternatives/hybrid cars as objects, or people driving, in backgrounds/driveways
* Solar panels w/city in background
* Car w/ windmill
* Solar backpack (charging an iphone!)
* Off-the-grid living
* Installing/caring for a green roof
* Waste water or Polluted water


Organic Farming:

* Portraiture of Environmentalists, Organic Farmers, organizations and eco activists
* Slow food movement
* Organic food products
* Farmers planting and harvesting


Energy Alternatives:

* Solar Panels or Hydro power
* Anything to do with alternative energy sources
* Workers/employees in this industry
* Companies that supply alternative energy solutions
* Hydro power


Global Warming:

* Flooding
* Locations where there is the most impact
* Weather impact/severe or inconsistent weather

Let the images flood in and you are not confined to just these. Let us know if you think of any others we can add to the list.

Sites to help you with your Photography business

Below are some sites that can really help you with your photography business. I haven't listed them all obviously but have added the big ones or ones that our users found helpful.

Adobe Systems, Inc., 1585 Charleston Road, P.O. Box 7900, Mountain View, CA 94039. 415-961-4400 voice, 415-961-3769 fax, 206-628-5737 fax on demand
Adobe's Photoshop page,
See Photoshop lists described below.
Agfa Division, Bayer Corp., 100 Challanger Road, Ridgefield Park, NJ 07660. 201-440-2500 voice, 201-440-5733 fax

Agfa photography
Backdrop Outlet, 2215 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL 60616. 800-466-1755 or 312-842-6550 voice, 312-842-6546 fax
Beattie Systems, Inc., 1300 Mt. Read Boulevard, Rochester, NY 14606. 716-647-6287 voice, 716-254-4940 fax
Benbo, The U.S. Distributor is The Saunders Group.
Bencher Inc. Maker of copy stands
Berg, The U.S. Distributor is The Saunders Group.
Beseler, 1600 Lower Road, Linden, NJ 07036. 908-862-7999 voice or 908-862-2464 fax
Billingham, Distributed in the US by Leica Camera Inc.

Bogen Imaging, professional photographic equipment and accessories

Brightscreen, 1905 Beech Cove Drive, Cleveland, TN 37312. 800-235-2451 or 423-478-1451 voice, 423-478-2774 fax

Paul C. Buff, Inc., 2725 Bransford Avenue, Nashville, TN 37204. 800-443-5542 or 615-383-3982 voice, 615-383-0676 fax

B+W Filters, The U.S. Distributor is Schneider
Cachet Paper
Canon U.S.A., Inc., One Canon Plaza, Lake Success, NY 11042. 516-488-6700
Chimera, 1812 Valtec Lane, Boulder, CO 80301. 888-444-1812 or 303-444-8000, 303-444-8303 fax

Cokin Filters, The U.S. Distributor is Minolta.
Contax

Cullman/Titan. The U.S. distributor is Beseler.
Da-Lite Screen Co., Inc., P.O. Box 137, Warsaw, IN 46580. 219-267-8101
Deardorff & Sons, Inc., 312 South Peoria Street, Chicago, IL 60607. 312-829-5655
Denny Manufacturing, P.O. Box 7200, Mobile, AL 36670. 334-457-2388 or 800-844-5616 voice, 334-452-4630 fax

Digital Camera Headquarters Reviews, prices and advice on digital cameras.
Durst - system solutions for image reproduction.
Duracell Photo Batteries
Dyna-Lite, 1050 Commerce Avenue, Union, NJ 07083. 908-687-8800 or 800-722-6638 voice, 908-686-6682 fax

Elinchrome, The U.S. Distributor is Bogen.
Energizer Photo Batteries
Fuji Film USA, 555 Taxter Road, Elmsford, NY 10523. 800-788-3854
Gepe, The U.S. distributor is HP Marketing.
Gitzo,
The U.S. Distributor is Bogen Imaging.
Gossen, The U.S. Distributor is Bogen Imaging.
Graflex

Hasselblad USA Inc., 10 Madison Road, Fairfield, NJ 07004. 973-227-7320 voice, 973-227-7320 fax

Heliopan Filters. The U.S. Distributor is HP Marketing
Hensel Studiotechnik
Horseman

Hoya Filters. The U.S. distributor is THK Photo Products.
Ikelite Underwater Systems, 50 West 33rd Street, Indianapolis, IN 46208. 317-923-4523, 317-924-7988 fax
Ilford Photo, West 70 Century Road, Paramus, NJ 07653. 201-265-6000, 201-265-0894
JOBO Fototechnic, P.O. Box 3721, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. 313-995-4192 or 800-627-5511

Kapture Group Manufacturer
of high speed trigger controls and large format digital camera back adapters

Kinnetronics

Eastman Kodak Co., 343 State Street, Rochester, NY 14650. 716-724-4679

Kodak Pro
Konica, 440 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632. 201-568-3100
Kostiner, Manufactured by The Saunders Group.
Kyocera, 100 Randolph Road, Box 6802, Somerset, NJ 08875. 908-560-0060 x4378(Contax) x4315(Yashica) voice, 908-560-9221 fax Contax and Yashica


Larson Enterprises, Inc., 365 South Mountainway Drive, Orem, UT 84058. 801-225-8088 voice, 801-225-8097 fax

LEE Filters, 2237 North Hollywood Way, Burbank, CA 91505. 800-576-5055 or 818-238-1220 voice, 818-238-1228 fax
Leica Camera Inc., 156 Ludlow Avenue, Northvale, NJ 07647. 800-222-0118 voice, 201-767-8666 fax

Lightform, The U.S. Distributor is Bogen.
Lightware, Inc. (cases), 1329 W. Byers Place, Denver, CO 80223. 303-744-0202

Lindahl Specialties, Inc., 800 West Beardsley Avenue, Elkhart, IN 46514. 800-572-2011 or 219-296-7823 voice, 219-296-7636 fax, email: lindahlinc@lslindahl.com
Linhof Präzisions-Kamera-Werke GmbH, The U.S. Distributor is HP Marketing.
Lowel-Light Manufacturing, 140 58th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11220. 800-334-3426 or 718-921-0600 voice, 718-921-0303 fax
Lowepro USA, 3171 Guerneville Rd., Santa Rosa, CA 95401. 800-800-5693 voice

Lumedyne, Inc., 6010 Wall Street, Port Richey, FL 34668. 813-847-5394 voice, 813-841-0000 fax

LUKSA Instruments, 3150 Innisdale Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5N 7T3. 905-785-9018 voice, 905-785-0292 fax Makes tripod that telescopes to sixty feet
Lumiquest

Lumijet Ink Jet Printing Media
Mamiya America Corp., 8 Westchester Plaza, Elmsford, NY 10523. 914-347-3300 voice, 800-321-2205 or 914-347-3309 fax

Manfrotto,
The U.S. Distributor is Bogen.
Matthews Studio Equipment, Inc
METZ-Werke GmbH & Co. KG, Ritterstraße 5, 90763 Fürth/Bay., Germany. +49-(09 11)-9706-0 voice, +49-(09 11)-9706-340 fax email: metz.werke@t-online.de.

The U.S. Distributor is Bogen.
Minolta Corporation, USA, 101 Williams Drive, Ramsey, NJ 07446-1293. 201-825-4000 voice, 201-934-4631 fax

Minox Cameras
New Seagull Paper Company, P.O. Box 28499, Santa Ana, CA 92799. 714-842-9868
Nikon USA Inc., 1300 Walt Whitman Road, Melville, NY 11747. 516-547-4200 or 800-645-6687 voice, 516-547-0299 fax

Nikon Camera's Pro Web Site

Nikon Customer Service: 800-NIK-ONUS


Nikon Digital: 800-645-6689

Nikon Photo Products Division

Nikon Professional Services: 631-547-4397

Nikon Repair: 800-NIK-ONSV

Norman Enterprises, Inc., 2601 Empire Avenue, Burbank, CA 91504. 818-843-6811 voice, 818-843-5776 fax

Novatron, 8230 Moberly Lane, Dallas, TX 75227. 800-527-1595

NPC Corporation, 1238 Chesnut Street / P.O. Box 245 , Newton Upper Falls, MA 02464. 617-969-3487 voice

Oympus America Inc., 2 Corporate Center
Drive, Melville, NY 11747. 1-800-6-CAMERA

Omega Satter, 191 Shaeffer Avenue, Westminster, MD 21157. 410-857-6353 voice, 410-857-8587 fax

Ontrax Systems, Burns Photography, 439 Wood Street, Johnstown, PA 15902-2013. 800-598-4008 or 814-539-0334 voice, 814-536-3979 fax. Muslin backgrounds and mounting system - muslin backgrounds to studio ceilings. Paterson, The U.S. Distributor is The Saunders Group.
Pelican Products, 23215 Early Avenue, Torrance, CA 90505. 310-326-4700 voice, 310-326-3311 fax

Pentax Corporation, 35 Inverness Drive East, P.O. Box 6509, Englewood, CO 80155-6509. 800-877-0155 or 303-799-8000

Photek, 549 Howe Avenue,
Suite 307, Shelton, CT 06484

800-648-8868

Photoflex, 333 Encinal Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. 800-486-2674 or 408-454-9100 voice, 408-454-9600 fax

Photogenic, 525 McClurg Road, Youngstown, OH 44512. 800-682-7668 or 330-758-6658 voice, 330-758-3667 fax
Polaris, The U.S. Distributor is The Saunders Group.
Polaroid
Prat Paris Presentation Materials
Printfile Archival Storage Systems
Profoto AB, Box 2023, S 12821 Skarpnack, Sweden. +011-468-930-980 voice, +011-468-604-1794 fax

Quantum Instruments, 1075 Stewart Avenue, Garden City, NY 11530. 516-222-6000 voice, 516-222-0569 fax

Reflecta, The U.S. Distributor is Bogen.
Ricoh
Rimowa, The U.S. Distributor is HP Marketing.
Roadwired Bags and Gear
Rodenstock, The U.S. Distributor is HP Marketing.
Rollei Fototechnic GmbH & Co. KG, Salzdahlumer Straße 196, Postfach 3245, 38126 Braunschweig, Germany. +49-531-6800-319 voice, +49-531-6800-243 fax

Romney Publishing, Box 487, Drayton, SC 29333. 864-597-1882 publisher of advanced camera repair manuals.

Saunders (a division of the Tiffen Company), 90 Oser Avenue, Hauppauge, NY 11788. 631-273-2500 voice, 631-273-2557 fax

Schneider KreuznachSchneider Corporation of America, 400 Crossways Park Drive, Woodbury, NY 11797. 516-496-8500 voice, 516-496-7508 fax

Schneider Optics, Inc., 285 Oser Avenue, Hauppauge, NY 11788. 516-761-5000 voice, 516-761-5090 fax

Sekonic,
Sekonic is now a division of Mamiya
Sigma Corporation of America,. 15 Fleetwood Court, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779. 516-585-1144 voice, 516-585-1895 fax

Sinar Bron Imaging, 17 Progress Street, Edison, NJ 08820. 908-754-5800 or 800-456-0203 voice, 908-754-5807 fax. Leaf, Sinar, Broncolor, Foba
Singh-Ray Filters, 2721 SE Highway 31, Arcadia, FL 34266. 800-486-5501 or 941-993-4100 voice, 941-993-4160 fax
Slik,
The U.S. Distributor is Tocad America.
Speedotron, 310 South Racine Avenue, Chicago, IL 60607. 312-421-4050 voice, 312-421-5079 fax
Stroboframe, Manufactured by The Saunders Group.
Sunpak

Superior Specialties
Tamrac, 9420 Jordon Avenue, Chatsworth, CA 91311. +1-818-407-9500 or +1-800-662-0717 voice, +1-818-407-9501 fax
Tamron Industries, Inc., 125 Schmidt Blvd., Farmingdale, NY 11735. +1-516-694-8700 or +1-800-827-8880 voice, +1-516-694-1414 fax
Tenba, 503 Broadway, New York, NY 10012. 212-966-1013 or 800-328-3622 voice, 212-334-0841 fax
Tiffen Manufacturing Corporation, 90 Oser Avenue, Hauppauge, NY 11788. 516-273-2500
ToCAD America Inc., 300 Webro Road, Parsippany, NJ 07054. 973-428-9800 voice, 973-887-2438 fax. Slik, Sunpak, Zero Haliburton
Tokina, The U.S. distributor is THK Photo Products.
Total Training, Inc. - a pioneer in innovative video-based training for leading creative design, digital video, and office productivity software programs.
Toyo a division of Mamiya.
Visual Departures Distributor of Dedolight and Flexfil
Vivitar Corporation, 1280 Rancho Conejo Boulevard, P.O. Box 2559, Newbury Park, CA 91319. 805-498-7008 voice, 805-498-5086 fax
Vue-All, The U.S. Distributor is The Saunders Group.
Wein, The U.S. Distributor is The Saunders Group.
F. J. Westcott Company, 1447 Summit Street, PO Box 1596, Toledo, OH 43603. 419-243-7311 or 800-886-1689
Wisner Classic Manufacturing Co., P.O. Box 21, Marion, MA 02738. 508-748-0975 or 800-848-0448
Wholesalers-Direct; Home of the photography enthusiasts resource directory, and retailer of digital camera equipment and accessories including Kodak, Fuji, Canon, Nikon, Tarsus and more. At near wholesale prices, and everything is brand new!

Yashica
Carl Zeiss Inc., One Zeiss Drive, Thornwood, NY 10594. 914-681-7300 voice, 914-6817485 fax
Zero Haliburton, 200 North 500 West, North Salt Lake City, UT 84054. 801-299-7390 voice, 801-299-7350 fax. The U.S. Distributor is Tocad America.
Zing Designs Zone VI Studios


Let us know if we missed any biggies and thanks to ASMP for helping us organize these.

Free Vectors and Clipart are cool. Find them here.

We found a few free clipart sites that we wanted to share. This is the most accurate free clipart and free vector websites that we found throughout the internet:

Here are some of the best Free Vector Art Websites

1. Vecteezy

Vecteezy. This is a huge index of free vector art that is comprised of vector art submissions from hundreds of designs. They are all available for free download.

2. FreeVectors.net

FreeVectors.net offers a huge collection of vector art with thousands of free vector art submissions available for your free downloading.

3. You the Designer

We like the name. This is a graphic design blog which will releases a few high quality vector art sets every once in a while.

4. Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is one to check out. This blog is one of the largest on the web and is known for it's free download rounds ups and inspirational posts.

5. BittBox

BittBox writers give us another good design blog that often releases free vector graphics, fonts, textures, brushes and more.

6. GoMediaZine

Go Media Zine is the blog of a famous design studio who will create free custom graphics.

7. QVectors

Q Vectors is another great vector art gallery which has many high quality, free vector art downloads.

8. Blog.SpoonGraphics

9. Cool Vectors

Cool Vectors. This is a growing art gallery with vector art downloads you won't find anywhere else!

10. Vector4Free

This vector blog publishes new free vector art finds on a regular basis and has a large collection of posts built up already!

Update: Here are some more.
http://www.vectorart.org
The original free vector art open source site

http://dezignus.com/
http://createsk8.com/
http://benblogged.com/

If you know of any other free vector sites? Link to them in the comments and let the rest of us know!

If you are looking for premium stock images or clipart please visit www.cutcaster.com to download the best photography at affordable prices.

Update on Image file transfers

We have successfully moved your images over to Amazon and have them stored and being delivered from s3. Its a really cool web service if you don't know about it and Amazon lately has been doing some cool things.

Some of the images on the site ended up in a blank studio under Sara Morrison's name. I have been examining the problem and can't figure out why really but the affected files were uploaded in the month of March and some were related to files John helped people upload. If you are missing files please check this studio and let me know which ones are yours.

http://www.cutcaster.com/studio/pub/0

In addition if you have files that have no thumbnails please let us know or delete them and re-upload. I can help you with re-uploading if you need them and the FTP should be working well now. I will release them immediately. For some reason on the transfer, our thumbnail generator didn't like those files and we couldn't create thumbnails for them.

That's about all for now. Hope the day is going well.

Forums at Cutcaster

Do people want us to build forums for the site so we have a message board and a place to all hang out? We have been looking into doing this but only want to do it if people will use the forums and want them. Let us know the level of interest below.

Also there is a ton of good open source forums out there. What do people think is the best one? We can use that as a template.

Thanks

Orphan Works

Call to Action on Orphan Works: Cutcaster urges you to contact your Senator to tell them you are against S.2913, the Senate's version of the Orphan Works bill. For more information and updates go to the ASMP website. We will continue to support the House version, H.R. 5889.

Need help pricing your editorial photos.

Need help pricing your images and photos and not finding resources that can help you. Here is a list of resources to help you price your Editorial photography that I found over on the ASMP webpage.

Editorial Photography Estimator

This program, developed by Ken Richardson, is available at www.fotography.net. There are everal free versions (based on Filemaker, Excel or online service) and commercial editions are offered. The commercial product has additional features that help you justify your price and sell the value of your services.

You guys are lucky. ASMP carefully examined and extensively discussed this program and the author has incorporated several features as a result. It's nice to get someone to act on your feedback. This "fee calculator" is supported by ASMP as a tool for arriving at fair compensation for editorial assignments, and it is the opinion of ASMP that using it for determining minimum fees for editorial assignments would be in the best interests of all photographers. If you are interested in this product visit Ken Richardson's site.

A database of magazines with information including their circulation and advertising rates, which is very useful when using the Editorial Photography Estimator, has been developed by EP and can be found here.

Robin Road Software

As part of its "Full Spectrum" line of business and image management tools for photographers, Robin Road Software offers an estimating app that assists the inventory module (for pricing consumables and personnel), then brings in your terms and conditions to generate a formal estimate, invoice, etc.

It will not tell you what to charge though.

FotoQuote

These guys have an exclusive with a competitor but they are still a product that is useful out in the marketplace. Originally developed for pricing stock licenses, FotoQuote, has a Coach feature that offers help in negotiating a sale and a Usage Tips feature that gives you specific info on each of its 218 categories of image use. That is a lot of categories. The program added similar support for assignment work.

HindSight Ltd.

HindSight's Photo Price Guide is an automated book of prices and guidelines on usage pricing, designed to help you calculate fees and stock license prices. Info is at the HindSight site.

Another cool feature of is they offers the InView office management program, which contains client contact database, scheduler, license generator, accounting package and the StockView image management system, which catalogs your photos, tracks your submissions and license aging.

NPPA Independent Photographer's Toolkit

The National Press Photographers Association offers extensive advice on best practices for the independent photojournalist. What you get is an online toolkit with information about contracts, business forms, negotiating, copyright and pricing help.

PhotoByte

PhotoByte is a shareware program which can be downloaded for free. If you keep it they suggest paying a $100 donation. The program is an integrated back-office system specifically designed for photographers.


We'd like to start to offer Rights Managed content on Cutcaster and are looking for a helpful pricing calculator. Are there any other products you guys know about which could help us and you?

Impact of Microstock felt far and wide in Getty's memo

Daryl Lang at PDN is one of my favorite journalist and reports on some really interesting developments in the photo world. Today, he wrote on Getty's disclosure that showed how Getty believes that microstock customers and usages are the cornerstone for future growth. Bravo for Cutcaster and our contributors!

"Customer research suggests that approximately 40-50% of microstock demand is comprised of entirely new end-uses," the memo says. "As a result of the combination of new customer segments and new end uses, volumes of microstock images are 15-20x greater than traditional stills." Those are numbers that I think could be understated.

This makes one believe that the guys at Hellman & Friedman, who are about to close their deal to buy Getty are banking on microstock being a goose that can lay a golden egg for them. It's clear they are listening to their bankers, Goldman Sachs, who during their pitch to investors to take Getty private outlined some impressive growth for iStockphoto and other microstock sites. See the numbers below to hear what the bankers think.



According to Goldman, it appears that the iStockPhoto business, currently just 14 percent of total revenues, is expected to account for 22 percent in 5 years.

Getty published a graph in the papers that show volumes of traditional stock image licenses on a slippery slope downward since the beginning of 2006, while microstock volumes have nearly tripled. (Getty acquired iStockphoto in early 2006 for 50 million dollars, rather cheap now based on all the projections and performance so far.)



Something that Daryl pointed out that I found interesting but sad for Jupiter, "is that Getty now considers AP Images its second-largest competitor after Corbis. Previously, that distinction belonged to Jupiterimages." Since I am a former stock trader I checked out the price in the markets and it was trading at $1.34, the lowest since 2001. I bet, like others probably, that Jupiter gets taken over. They have great web properties.

Other interesting facts from the memo were:

Looking at the entire market, Getty's top dogs guesstimate the market for imagery is between $7 and $8 billion annually. Around sixty percent (60%) of that is commissioned, the rest is stock.

That would put stock imagery at around a $2.4 to $3.5 billion business, according to Getty.



What does this mean for the market and Cutcaster? I agree that the user base and usages for microstock photos and videos are increasing at an extraordinary pace and the buying market should be growing for everyone. We have always talked about making the pie bigger for everyone without trying to cannibalize one site's earnings. Everyone can prosper because of the new users and new usages creating more demand for microstock images and video. Educational tools and resources will need to be developed to show new buyers how this market can work for them and how to license content securely and legally instead of just taking it. Introducing a new set of buyers to the space as well as usages is exactly what Cutcaster is looking to do and what we have been researching. We don't want to be labeled as just a stock company but an image licensing community which is open to all but still secure for all participants. If a new class of buyers emerges I think the 2 to 3 billion dollar market for stock could easily double. Just ask Dan Heller. That would double or triple contributors' monthly payouts across all the sites they contribute to.

Read the complete story on Getty's disclosure here.

Watch out Google and Getty- There's a new sheriff in town.

We just moved past 150k on Alexa even with the week and a half of downtime and are movvinnnn on up...toooo the east-side....Well higher on Alexa at least. It's a small milestone but one I thought I would share now we're rolling and that the transfer is over we can focus on marketing and sales of the site. Thanks to all our users and lets power on through to break 100k, then into the top 10k sites and all the way to number 1, or as close as we can get. hahaha.

Use your referral links to make some money off the traffic you send to us. I'm really happy at the number of people who have been using it and sending us people who are using the site. You can get more information on the Cutcaster Referral program here and you need to sign up for it through your studio page.

Thanks guys.

Image files in the wrong studios

Another Update: This is getting fixed immediately and we are aware of it. It's only happened in a few cases. Let me know if this happened to you and I will have them moved over. Otherwise we will be moving them over on our own and you shouldn't notice anything wrong.

UPDATE

If you are missing images, please check this studio, http://www.cutcaster.com/studio/pub/0

For some reason images that either i helped people upload or we uploaded directly to our backend and not through the upload system on the site were moved to that folder. Sara Morrison did not steal your images and this was our fault somehow. Still wondering how she ended up with all of them.

John

As Arnold Schwarzenegger famously said in Terminator

"I'll be back" and yes.....Cutcaster is back, minus the accent but we still mean business. And as Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead said, "What a long strange trip its been," and it was only a week and a half in Cutcaster's life. My eyes and fingers are sore but it was well worth the move. Transitioning from one platform to another one is tough work. I am not going to lie and some of your can feel my pain. I couldn't have done it myself and there are a ton of people I have to thank like our programmers who worked their butts off, Victoria who helped me move files and all the contributors who were very, very patient as we made the move. Cutcaster couldn't have done it without both groups working so well together. I am happy and sooo excited that we are back. Moving Cutcaster to s3 and ec2 at Amazon is a great step in our future growth and will allow us to scale and compete now with the big boys. So start uploading again.

However, the battle is only half won. We are not without a few bugs, which the programmers are aware of some of them and we are fixing. Every transition of this size encounters them and we are working to squash them. In addition, during the transfer we declined some files based on a few different reasons and some are still on our old platform and couldn't be moved for some unknown reason. We are still working on ways to get them over and will let you know in the next three days if we need you to re-upload them. There are also still a few bugs in the clipfolders which will be fixed tonight and tomorrow but if you see any please let us know.

If you do see any other bugs around the site, please let us know what the issue is you are experiencing and what browser you are working in. This really helps us out and is sometimes things that we have missed. We aren't always perfect but wanted to get the platform up so people could get back to normal. My cell is 215-688-2751 and my email is john @ cutcaster DOT com if you see anything or want to chat about the change.

Coming up.

So here are some updates we are going to be working on bringing to Cutcaster.

1. We will be introducing new ways to license your content and negotiate with potential buyers which we are really excited about. As we get closer I will be writing more blog entries about how this is very new the to the industry and why we think this will help you make more money and learn a lot at the same time.

2. Public clipfolders will be released.

3. Forums- We are working on them.

4. Marketing effort- We are beginning our campaign on Google, different social and professional networks and researching off-line campaigns we can kick into full gear at the end of August for when the buyers get back from the beach. We are always open to your ideas for how we can get your work in front of buyers' eyes and into their hands so if you have any ideas or want to help out everyone in the community please let us know your thoughts. We have allocated about 40% of our budget just towards marketing the site over the next year.

5. Stock Video. I want to be open about this on the blog and it's a decision we have been considering for a few weeks now as we were transitioning but we are entertaining the thought scaling back our video offering for a number of different reasons. There will be more on that in the future and I need sometime to speak with people and write down my thoughts.

Thats all for now folks. Please post any comments below or shoot me an email. Always love to hear from you.

Cutcaster- Site will be down on Sunday night EST

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up. We are going to be working like crazy over the weekend and will take the site off-line as we re-direct all our feeds to the new servers and move the images back to the marketplace and your studios. We are going to do this change on Sunday night around 8:30PM EST and it will go overnight so don't be alarmed. Monday morning we will have our newwwww sittteeeee ready to roll. Can't wait. Thanks and let me know if you have any questions.

Image Files completely moved to Amazon's s3

I'm happy to report that we moved all the files over to Amazon's s3 yesterday morning and have been working on getting the feeds to the live site pointing to the right places so they show up on the site and in your studios. This shouldn't take too long and your images will be back up and ready for viewing. Thanks for your patience and I'll keep updating.

John

Cutcaster not experienced enough yet for ASPP

Just got this email in reference to applying for my membership into ASPP. Who else is a member here?


ASPP membership
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 2:25 PM
From:
"Cathy Sachs"
To:
john@cutcaster.com
Cc:
'Silver, Christie'
Dear John,

I am sorry to tell you that your application for membership in ASPP has not been approved. The membership director does not feel that you have enough experience in our profession to qualify you for our peer network.

We wish you well with your new business, however, and invite you to perhaps re apply for membership once you have had a few more years in the industry.


Cathy D-P Sachs
Executive Director
American Society of Picture Professionals
Building Community Among Image Professionals


My thoughts:
Let me start off by saying I respect their decision and understand they can choose who they want to let into their association and who they want to keep out. I appreciate the well wishes for Cutcaster. I thought they would want new members but from the last line "Building Community Among Image Professionals," it doesn't look like they want any younger members in their community. When I first went to their website, I saw this message, “We are a community of image experts committed to sharing our experience and knowledge throughout the industry. We provide professional networking and educational opportunities. If you create, edit, research, license, manage or publish pictures, ASPP is the place for you. Join us.”

Too bad they didn't let us "Join them." I am not an expert and never claimed to be one. I never read on their site that I needed a certain number of years in the industry. If they can show me that I think that would help. I am learning like the rest of us and wanted to use the Association to help educate me and put me in an environment around people who are smart in the field so I could learn and also share my own experience of building a company in the space I have worked in. I do work in the stock agency world which it says 20% of its' members do. It's funny because the ASPP's homepage message says if you create, edit, research, license, manage or publish pictures, ASPP is the place for you. Well I do all of the above. Maybe I don't "create" pictures as well as some of the other experts. I can live with that. I definitely research, license and manage a large amount of photos and see first hand the licensing field. Plus, I think Cutcaster brings a new fresh approach to image licensing. I guess Christie Silver dissed us for being too wet behind the ears. I wonder if she can point out the rule in the membership requirements that spells out the correct number of years experience needed?

Maybe next year ;-) or the year after.

How can I buy stock photos and stock footage at Cutcaster?

Here are 4 Easy steps to help you buy stock photography and stock footage on Cutcaster.

Anyone can buy and all are welcome. Buying stock photography and footage on the Cutcaster website is very simple however some new users have been asking about the best way to buy stock images and videos on Cutcaster. I'll explain a little more.


* Step 1. Create a Free account. That is step number one. The first thing to buy images and stock video from Cutcaster is to create a free account. Simply click here or visit www.cutcaster.com and click on the Join Now button on the Cutcaster homepage. It takes only a few seconds to put in your user name, password, and contact information.

* Step 2. Browse our premium and newly uploaded collection at Cutcaster. We are growing by leaps and bounds and have many exclusives that you cannot find on other stock photo agency sites or stock footage sites.

* Step 3. Now that you have your account, you can add an image or clip of footage to your shopping cart or ClipFolder, which is our version of a lightbox. (I recommend adding the images to the ClipFolder if you are not ready to purchase the photograph or video. You can send these to colleagues or clients.)

* Step 4. Select the images and video that you need and click the checkout button at the top of the screen. The next page will display different image and video files you have chosen. Checking out is a breeze and we accept all major credit cards.


That is it, just 4 easy steps!

If you still have questions please contact John or Victoria at 215-688-2751, call us on skype at johnnywgriffin or email us at john @ Cutcaster.com.

The Cutcaster Algorithm- Helping you get the most out of your photos and videos

I'm adding some additional information on how the pricing algorithm can help you get the most value out of your photographs, still images, stock videos and archival footage. I have an interview that we posted a while back which was done by Photopreneur which explains in detail what variables we look at when pricing content and how the algorithm can help people find the correct market price for photos and videos.

What is the Cutcaster Pricing Algorithm?
Cutcaster’s proprietary pricing algorithm takes the work out of determining and maximizing your content’s revenue by changing its price to match the demand in the marketplace. All you have to do is set an initial price or allow us and then let the algorithm do the rest – the price of your stock footage or hi-res image will then fluctuate based on a set of market variables.

How does it add value?
Just like how the price of a stock on an exchange is set through the interaction of buyers and sellers, we wanted to create a similar effect for a photograph or stock video. If you set the price too high and nobody buys or views your content, well, the price will come down. If there is a high level of demand for your content, you as the seller should be able to charge a higher price for it, so the price will move up. What the algorithm tries to do is automate this process across your entire inventory of content, so with very little effort you can feel confident that your work is being sold at the right price while still being very secure. At Cutcaster, we want our content producers to spend their energy being creative, not managing digital inventory.

How does it work?
It’s actually pretty simple. First, you need to determine the starting price for your content. We don’t really want to tell you this because you the best at determining the cost that went into the production of the photo or video and in addition you know how valuable your time is. You can either set the start price yourself or use the algorithm which will start the initial price at $75 for videos and $20 for images. The formula is flexible and can be modified, so feel free to let us know if you think there’s room for improvement or other variables we should consider when evaluating your prices.

Update on Image Transfer

From one of our programmers.

"Currently we are still transferring the files that were not fully transferred to S3 from MPS (our old platform) during the bulk transfer. We are about 75% of the way done and hopefully we could get things done within the week so we could make the updates on the site and put the image files back up. I've already implemented the change on the uploader app for it to upload files directly to S3 if they are images and to MPS if they are videos.

With regards to the Clipfolder functionalities, I will be making a new one later. Thanks. I'll keep you posted for updates."

-Lope

Wow. It's been a ton of work but we are making some good progress. We are focusing solely on this for the next week and will be making minor site updates as we see them. We have a few big projects we are going to be rolling out in June and excited to get this server transfer behind us.

John

Image file transfer going as planned

I still have around 4,000 images that have to be moved to the new server and working my butt off to get that done as fast as possible. I have heard from a few of you that you are missing your images in your portfolio but rest assured that it is not lost, rejected, voted off the site or gone but that it is moved to a new server at Amazon and will be back in your studio and the marketplace by Thursday or so. I will keep you all updated. Our sleepless programmers have been working 24/7 as well to get this transition complete which will allow us to really grow and scale the business plus make the site a ton faster. I am really excited about it and have been a big fan of Amazon's web services for a while. If anyone has any questions or wants to get a hold of me my email is john @ cutcaster.com and my cell is 2156882751. Cheers