You are at netAirspace : Forum : Spotting and Photography Forums : General Photography

Hey,

I am not a "photographer." I'm just a guy who saves his memories online and clicks a button on a magical box when I'm hiking and see pretty things.

Recently 500px licensing people (researchers and the 'manager of creative services') have been asking me if I'd be willing to sell photos because people have contacted them wanting them.

Is this legit? They say they split the money 70/30 and honestly whatevs, since I really just share to encourage people to explore America's beautiful wildlands.

Anyway, scam or not?

Turns out that it isn't. Question answered. Someone bought one of my crappiest photos that I didn't even have available for licensing. Sweet deal.

Lucas wrote:Turns out that it isn't.

Isn't legit or isn't a scam?

If there's a way you can find out who wants to buy them, and contact them directly, that'd be my preference.

Just make sure you are still in control of the copyright.

Nope, not a scam, totally legit. I do not have them up on 500px under a license that makes them purchasable, but they've contacted me a few times now saying that people have asked for X or Y image and then told me what sort of license/purchase that the buyer was looking for.

One today allowed me to keep all the rights and everything for a picture that I don't care for too much (kinda plain) and no one else has ever liked, and which I'd forgotten about. So I said, shoot, why not, completed the form with 2 clicks, and got $105 of the $150 that 500px sold it for. I am fine with them taking that much, too, b/c I didn't do a thing. If they want to research images and find buyers, let 'em have at it.

But then of course they won't let you know any of the buyers. They've been contacting me a lot for various photos (either the research team or the creative team) and this was the first I said yes, because it was literally just free money at no loss.

Anyway, makes me wonder if I made them appear as buyable (I do not have them listed as being for any sort of purchase) if I could get more easy $$$.

But TBH, I'm in it mainly for the memories, and also to encourage people to get outside. Finis Mitchell mentality.

Also, some of the offers have had varying prices based on what sort of use I'd allow and what I'd do with the copyright.

Lucky dog. I've licensed most of mine as exclusive but haven't heard a peep. Guess I need to try harder.

I have had them up for... Well a while. But it's all come pretty recently. Once I said that I'd consider it, the various teams started emailing me with basically speculation, and not that I've said yes they've been very personal. I suspect that the one big, original, unsolicited offer that I got (I said no, they wanted me to give up rights) triggered one of their mechanisms It's been unique each time. one offer was commercial at 37usd/use for up to 3400 uses.

BTW, posting this from phone thanks to work and the comment box cuts off thus why it's jacked up. Anyways, TLDR: random luck and nothing else.

I'm afraid I don't keep up on the online aspects of photography much. I put some of mine on there after seeing this, its a cool site at the very least, thanks for the thread. Looking through them 1/2 of them seem to be overdone HDR that looks as though they were airbrushed, but this is the state of modern photography. There are some real incredible photographers on there though.

Fumanchewd wrote:I'm afraid I don't keep up on the online aspects of photography much. I put some of mine on there after seeing this, its a cool site at the very least, thanks for the thread. Looking through them 1/2 of them seem to be overdone HDR that looks as though they were airbrushed, but this is the state of modern photography. There are some real incredible photographers on there though.

The site itself is cool, and some of my friends were on it, so that's why I joined.

But I haven't uploaded anything to the actual marketplace...the widgets that run the site have "selected" some of mine by some other method, so more like private sales.

Anyway, pretty interesting operation that they've got going. I'd love to know how it all works behind the scenes.

Some of the photography of the ladies on that site....