Aaron_H wrote:
wow, you can't be serious if you think that's even remotely similar!

Would the site exist without the images? Are you being paid for your images being on the site?

Mayanlee wrote:
I'm looking for stock photos ... c'mon... I know some of you shoot them. Where's your stuff distributed? Give me an alternative to www.istock.com and getty .... royalty-free style ... no, no one's going to get famous ... simply for presentations and intra-house use ....

Corbis?  My Google search gave 133000000 hits.    Give that a shot.

Aaron_H wrote:
wow, you can't be serious if you think that's even remotely similar!

Everyone is free to determine how best to market their own work and through which venue. Some ascribe to the notion of preference for the "nimble nickle rather than a slow dollar" ... which gave rise to the other capitalistic notion of "volume marketing."

Quality and service will still be the prevailing factor in determining ultimate pricing. If I can't obtain images within my company's budget, the alternative is to not use images at all. And while that might lead to a less "professional" product on my end, in my case, the use of images in my media content is secondary to informational content, especially since it's used in an in-house capacity, not a national advertising blitz. Pretty .... adds some visual interest ... but ultimately something my Powerpoints can do without. I still have the option of using graphics for providing visual interest.

And if I'm planning an industry-wide or national advertising campaign, I would obviously be looking to create the best overal package possible. Which means budgets would have been allocated commensurate to the level of professionalism sought.  Getty and Corbis appear to be in no danger of going under. Demand is apparently out there. If I want a quality response, I'm going to go with a quality product and will expect, as is anyone in an end-user position situation, to pay for that quality. I'm going to assume that if a photographer produces a really outstanding image, s/he is not going to upload it to istock first; s/he is going to try to shop it to the outlet that can best market it for the greatest profit.

My intermediate post was merely attempting to address a lack I found on the general market. Y'all being photographers ... I WOULD have thought you'd welcome information that COULD be relevant to you. Money IS there ... or do you think SAP and Oracle go to istock for their advertising images...? I suppose Accenture, IBM and KPMG (top consulting companies) are too miserly to allocate any of the millions they spend on their own advertising that they'd hijack images from sites like MM.  So how much time do you spend around the marketing or advertising industry? It's not Getty's problem, or the end-user's problem if a photographer can't figure out how to market his/her images to his or her best advantage. We in marketing and advertising departments want the images; we need the images. We will acquire the best product we can within our budgets. That's our job.

I agree with a previous poster's contention -- Motel 6 might leave their lights on, but if I have the money, I'm staying at the Four Seasons.

This post was intended for research to increase my database of available options. If you don't like that, you needn't participate.

Mayanlee wrote:
My thanks to everyone else for providing possible options.

Mayan, sent you a note and I have started ground work on the project...might you know of any offices or office like settings?

I quite understand your point in the post above.

aye provide wrote:
Mayan, sent you a note and I have started ground work on the project...might you know of any offices or office like settings?

I quite understand your point in the post above.

Good lord... I know more offices than I care to .... but none that I know would be willing to allow access to shoot in...

It's always something, isn't it?

Aaron_H wrote:

Gosh, you're right, it's up to 3 bucks for print ready and 5 bucks for full page ready! woo hooooooooo! As for the licensing, I don't have time to read it all now, but in looking at it briefly it seems that you're wrong, looking under permitted uses they spell out all sorts of advertising and editorial uses without mentioning any restrictions on print runs or time periods. It seems that most of the prohibited uses are related to using the shots on reproducable retail goods like t-shirts and mugs.... who cares? What does that have to do with the bulk of commercial and advertising photography or even editorial photography? We're talking about permitted advertising uses that previously had established market values in the hundreds minimum for minor uses on up into the thousands, tens of thousands and even hundreds of thousands. There are already several examples of giant multinationals such as Coke and others using Isuck work in advertising, essentially for free!!!! And the fools that get exploited that way and help speed the profession ever faster toward extinction are proud of it!!!!

Aaron,
What's with all the hostility towards micro-stock? Is the amateur photographer taking away your industry? It's Darwinism at it's finest - adapt and survive, or cling to the old ways and end up a fossil!
I personally love "Isuck", their $100 checks spend just as good as the ones I get from my daytime job! "Cha-ching" - hear that? I think heard a quarter dropping in my jar........."Cha-ching" - oh wait, there is another one....I think I'm being exploited here, someone better do something about it........"Cha-ching" -uh, nevermind, I'm not drowning, just waving.....hehehehehehehehehehe!

Mayanlee wrote:
Thanks everyone for the resources. I was looking for readily available resources, not seeking to commission stock work as my project deadline was essentially yesterday (ain't it always).

But, now that I'm an end-user, I'm noticing a woeful lack of ethnic representation for the tech solutions consulting/corporate genre, specifically in the use of Indian (as in India), Middle-Eastern and Asian models (well, plenty of those, but not together with the aforementioned) to be featured in shots with white and black models. (Hint, hint)

The tech solutions (ie. Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Peoplesoft) software and service providers get an inordinate number of employees from the above-mentioned ethnic groups (I think someone once mentioned that India produces some 1,000,000+ engineers per year vs. 70,000 annually in the USA). Most of my company consultants are Turkish. We have one token white guy.

Characteristics sought for consultant-types: clean cut (we ARE geeks, after all), mid-20's to 30's, fairly conservative but polished, and professional (tired of the rumpled look but that's a personal beef).

Also, looking for interesting angles and perspectives, polished backgrounds and surroundings.  This is high tech, after all. And the customers of said tech solutions and providers include Fortune 100 companies. (Does anyone know that SAP AG's annual revenue alone is over $10 billion? There's money in them thar hills....) I'm looking for images to reflect these numbers and the countless images of the guy-in-the-suit-in-front-of-white-seamless need to be rethought. I'm sure other marketing people in the field are looking for the same thing.

Just thought I'd put that out there.

these are things that you need to clarify when you make a announcement. Otherwise, you'll just go in a circle. Clarify the specifics that you are looking for to narrow thngs down. And if you can't get what isn't available, get someone to shoot it for you. sometimes yu are going to be in that position too. Stock companies do sometimes reuest a certain type of image to shoot that they know does exist with an establihed photographer. As someone have addressed, this is a niche market image that you are seeking for.