Giving (and Getting) Credit(s)

iStockphoto.com has a buyer referral program.  When a member refers a new member, and that new member ends up buying credits, the original contributor gets $10.  Not a big deal, but someone did the favor of referring you (and likely gave you a free credit code), so it would be nice to make sure the original member got the bonus.  It is a bit convoluted though, so, let’s take a look at the process of signing up.

First thing, is to make sure your mentor member’s user id is in your referral cookie.  In case you didn’t know, a “cookie” is a bit of information your browser hangs onto that is supplied by a website.  In the following examples, I am using the Firefox browser.  I assume IE is pretty much the same.  When I go to “Tools->Options->Privacy->Show Cookies”, I get a list of all the cookies my browser holds.  In the image below, I’ve filtered on “istock” in the top bar, to show only my cookies coming from iStockphoto.

The cookie “istockreferral” shows the member that will get my credit when I sign up.  Content:  351711 .  That’s my userId, actually.  How did that get there?  Well, I cleared out all my cookies dealing with iStock, and then I went to http://www.istockphoto.com/sjlocke .  And the cookie was set.  I went to other user’s profiles after that, and my userId remained in that cookie.  So, the first profile you go to gets the referral.  If you want someone specific to get your referral, you need to clear out that cookie.  So:

Step 1: Use your browser’s preference box to clear out all iStockphoto cookies .

Step 2: Go to your favorite user’s profile page, like: http://www.istockphoto.com/sjlocke

Ok, now the cookie is set, so the right person gets the $10 bonus.

Now, you might have a 10 free credit code from an iStockphoto member’s MOO business card, the back of which looks like the card here:

To redeem that code, you first need an account.  So go to the signup page:

Step 3: Sign up for a new account here.

Once you click “sign up”, you’ll be presented with a user agreement to read and accept.  Having done that, you get a page with a “Thank You”, and some options, including an area for “Member Code”.  This is where you would enter your Moo card code.

Select your email preferences, enter the Moo code, and hit continue.

Step 4: Enter your Moo card code for 10 credits.

Then, go to the email you supplied, find your password, and comeback to iStockphoto and login with your username and password.  The 10 credits should be in your account.

Step 5: Login with your new username and password.

Say, however, you left that page without noticing the code box for the credits.  Next time you go back to the sign up page after logging in, you’ll be redirected to the front page of the site.  Instead, go here :

Step 4 (alternate) : Login with your new username and password.

Step 5 (alternate) : Go here to enter your Moo card code for 10 free credits.

Viola!  If you hover over “Account” at the top, you’ll see you now have 10 free Pay-As-You-Go credits.  You will need to fill out all the private profile  member information on the current page before you are allowed to run around and play.

Now, feel free to use those credits, but when you run out, you’ll need to purchase some more credits in the iStock store.  It is after you purchase these credits, that your mentor member (from up in Step 2) will get the $10 bonus.  Remember, just using the Moo code is not enough to link your account to your mentor member.  You need to follow Step 1 and 2.  I’m not going to go ahead and do this in my testing here, as I don’t want to get busted for trying to get free cash under my account, but I assume if the above steps are taken, it will work ok.

Step 6: Enter your private profile information.

Step 7: Shop with your free credits, and then purchase more in the iStockphoto store.

To conclude, hopefully, at this point, you will have a pocketful of purchased credits, and your mentor member will get their $10 bonus.

Whew!  BTW, if you need a 10 free credit referral code, just drop me an email.

Food: Jack and Grill

Ok, I will step away from the buyer’s tips and other photography writing for a second and write about another love. Food!

I hardly do any food photography. My kitchen really isn’t that pretty, and all my equipment is down in my studio. So, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about going out and finding good grub.  And my secret little hobby is trying to make it to places I see on TV, either on the Food Network, or on The Travel Channel.  Mostly, because watching TV at night, and seeing this awesome BBQ or greasy cheeseburgers or fine cuisine go by, and not getting to taste it?  Well… can’t let that happen.

My new favorite show is Man Vs. Food, starring Adam Richman.  I just like his sense of humor, and the interesting food challenges he comes upon.   He’s not like some of the other food show hosts, where all they can do is taste things and say “Oh My God”.  He’s actually funny, but he knows what he’s talking about as well.  I think I’d enjoy having a few beers with this guy.

Anyhoo, boy, was I disappointed when a week after I came back from the UGCX conference in San Jose, he did a show… on San Jose.  He also recently did a show on St. Louis, which I will get to eventually (since I live there).

But my luck changed, and he did a show on Denver, and I actually watched it on my DVR, the week before we visited Denver to go skiing.  Unfortunately, Keystone resort is an hour away from the city, so we only managed to do breakfast on the way to the airport.

We visited Jack and Grill, the home of the 7 pound burrito challenge.

Ok, that isn’t the 7 pound burrito.  That’s the regular Breakfast Burrito, and I’d say it was about a pound or so.  That was my choice, with half red chile and half green chile sauce.  Filled with egg, ham, potatoes, cheese and more cheese on top, it was great, and suprisingly spicy.  There was plenty of each type of sauce poured on, and it soaked into the flour tortilla, but there was still lots to scoop onto the filling.  It could have used more egg and less potato, but even with less starch, I doubt I could have finished it.  I only got halfway through before being satisfied.

My wife had the Southwest Hashbrowns, which were regular shredded hashbrowns, with cheese and green chiles on top.  Looked pretty edible from my side of the table.  The kids split a stack of 3 buttermilk pancakes, each was as big as your head.  Very fluffy and tasty, and there was a spice in there, maybe cinnamon or something, that gave it a nice homey taste.  The bacon was a bit overdone, but we saw them make it fresh, though the window in the dining room.  No big pile of pre-made bacon here.

The restaurant interior was fun for the kids to look around.  There are “Jack” things on the wall, from Captain Jack, to boxes of Apple Jacks, to pictures of Jack Nicholson.  One wall is covered with award plaques and articles proclaiming “Best in Denver” for various things.

The server brought coloring books and crayons for the kids while we waited, which was great.  We also got a basket of chips, and salsa.  The salsa tasted homemade and was nice and chunky.  The chips, I’m not sure about their origin.  I like the real lightweight chips we get at Chevy’s.  These were a lot thicker.

On the “Man Vs. Food” theme, we found the “Wall of Fame” with pictures of those that had completed the challenge.  Sadly, Adam was not on the wall since he couldn’t finish.  It’s no wonder, with all the potatoes they put in that thing.  Those carbs would fill you right up.  We did see someone who had finished the monster burrito three times though.

I’d have to say this TV Restaurant visit was no disappointment.

Big Readership Day

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to read my Vimeo rights grab post. Today was the biggest readership day ever for this blog.

I bought an Entrepreneur magazine to read on the plane yesterday and discovered that Vimeo.com is owned by the guys who bring you CollegeHumor.com . Perhaps they see a funny side to this rights grab clause? In their forums, Vimeo posted some legal jumbo jumbo that they need such a ridiculously greedy clause to run their site. Funny how facebook found that wasn’t really necessary.

This Week’s New Stock

Did two fun sessions for my iStockphoto.com portfolio last week.  Fortunately for me, unfortunately for you ( ), I’m going skiing for a few days, so it will be a week or two before a majority get up into my portfolio.

The first was a studio session with a great group of late teen female models.  They were all new to me, but they all had great smiles and attitudes.  We covered some technology, homework and scrapbooking images.  There was also a request on iStockphoto a while back for people with blank t-shirts, so we did some of those with a ring flash, and also on white.

The second session was with two of my regular models, and a new female model.   The theme was an update to two series of construction site photos I did a few years ago.  While they are still popular, I wanted to offer some different faces, and the larger sizes and quality of my Canon 1DS MK3 camera.  The series shows a builder/construction worker, in various scenes in front of a new home.  The other two models played the parts of a real estate agent and an architect, and then a new home buying couple.  Trust Missouri weather, but although it was slightly cold, the partly cloudy sky gave nice light.

You can see more of that series at this link: Construction photos by age

Have a great week!

Vimeo.com Rights Grab?

In a recent thread on iStockphoto.com, a video contributor described how he had been denied iStockphoto’s video exclusivity contract because he currently has content (one video) on Vimeo.com, a video hosting site, sort of like youtube.  People use Vimeo a lot for “how to’s” and “behind the scene demos” as well as experimental and final footage clips.

The rejection for exclusivity from iStockphoto read:

Exclusivity denied as member has files posted at http://www.vimeo.com/user###### which grants that company a royalty free license to your files. Please contact us when the files have been removed and we can then reset your application.

Interesting.  One would think this would be like flickr or facebook, where one uploads and agrees to grants rights for the display and usage on the site, but nothing past that.

From flickr (Yahoo):

the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Yahoo! Services solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available.

Well, it’s easy enough to check out Vimeo’s terms of service.

Hmmm…. Overview… Blah blah… Refunds….  Ahhh, submissions.  Let’s see.  Holy Heck!

By submitting your Submission to VIMEO, you hereby grant VIMEO and its affiliates, successors and assigns a worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, sub-licensable (through multiple tiers) and transferable license (with a right to create derivative works) to use, copy, transmit or otherwise distribute, perform, modify, incorporate into other works, publicly perform and display your Submission or any portion thereof, in or through any medium, whether now known or hereafter created. VIMEO shall be entitled to unrestricted use of any Submission for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to the submitter.

So, you are granting them a license to do whatever they want, including sell or otherwise license your content, worldwide, forever!  Ok, maybe not forever.  That bit about perpetuity was probably just a sloppy lawyer.  A lower bit says:

the licenses granted by you herein shall terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete such Submission from the Site

So, as long as you have content on the site, they are free to do whatever they want with your work wherever and however, without compensating you.  Heck, they can license it themselves, or distribute it to others to license for whatever use.

I wonder what they have to say about their intellectual property rights grab.  You would have thought this kind of thing has been publicized enough that this would have been written out better.

Currently Seeking Models

Normally I post on Craigslist or search through ModelMayhem when I’m looking for new models for my stock photography work, but those have failed me as of late in these two areas of population I’m looking for.  Perhaps a post here might help.

So, if you live in the St. Charles area, to the west of St. Louis, I’m currently looking for:

1. Active Mature – Senior couples – ages anywhere from 40-70 – should have a great smile and have a fit, healthy look .  Even if you haven’t modeled before, if you are able to smile and have a good time in various situations, we can work together.  Themes along the lines of “walking the dog” or “playing with grandchildren”.
2. Married with Children – photogenic parents with child(ren) aged 1-10.  All American type, any ethnicity.  Again, should have nice smiles and be able to thematically play in various situations, like “picnic in the park” or “selling our house”.

I do pay you for your time, and you will get a copy of the images for your personal use.   It’s fun, and your images could show up in magazines or web ads, and your friends will be impressed.  For more information, go to my modeling database site and create a profile with some images.

I’m also looking for some nice homes to use as backdrops for sessions.  Typical suburb, mature trees, higher end exterior, newer construction.  Will pay a small rental fee.

Thanks!

Portfolio Update

Today’s portfolio update shows off my recent shoots with one of my favorite models, and also with a (mostly) happy baby girl.

The first set revolved around “spring cleaning” and a revisit to an early favorite, “customer service”.  I tried to add a little color with some various background papers.

With the baby girl, we did a variety of images with her playing with different objects and toys.

iStockphoto Back Up

Looks like iStockphoto.com is back up (9:00 ish CST)  after whatever security measures were taken.  As far as I can tell from my sales stopping, it was from around 6:23 pm CST – 9:12 pm CST.  Notes from kkthompson here, include:

1. Is my credit card information safe?
   iStockphoto does not store any credit card information, so there is no financial information to breach.
   
2. Is your site secure?
   Our site is secure. We detected this attempted breach within minutes and implemented our security protocol: because we werent sure how far-reaching it was, we took the site down to eliminate further exposure.
   
3. What should I do now?
   Step 1: Please reset your iStock Password
   Step 2: As a precaution, please make sure you reset all your online passwords on other sites if they happen to be the same as the one you use on iStockphoto.

From what I understand, phishing requires you to actually click on a link in a sitemail or forum post to go to the fake site, where you then think you need to login.  See wikipedia for more.  So, unless you did this, you’re probably in the clear.  Best to change passwords anyways.

iStock 503

The iStockphoto.com site is currently down (as of 7pm-ish CST) as they try to deal with some malicious sitemails and forum phishing posts.  kkthompson had posted this on the front page blog:

This afternoon a phishing attack was conducted in the forums and through sitemail. This attack created a fake istockphoto.com login screen, prompting users for a username & password, saved them to a malicious server, then redirected the user back to the iStockphoto main page.

The word is, if you logged in to iStockphoto today, when you are able, you should reset your password.  Unless they come up with a magical reset or something.

No word yet on when the site should be up.

View More Images

In a sort of “Where things are” post yesterday, on iStockphoto.com, COO Kelly Thompson mentioned something interesting for buyers:

We now offer the option of displaying up to 200 image results per page.

Where do you find this option to change your search return results?  Under the “advanced search” link at the top right of every page.  There is a pull down which allows you to set your return results amount.

Makes for speedier searching.  Great!