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Free-Stock-Photos.co.uk offering web resolution images for free
A UK-based company has taken the micro-stock model to an extreme even beyond what many consider to be the extremely low prices of most micro-stock companies. Free-Stock-Photos.co.uk (FSP) offers use of its images free of charge. Well, not exactly. The web-resolution files can be used only in exchange for crediting and providing a link to FSP. Uses of larger files do cost a fee, comparable to micro-stock fees for equivalent sizes.
The logic behind this offer, one can assume, is that the lure of “free” images will entice enough buyers to the site that licenses of the higher-resolution files will more than make up for the lack of revenue for the web-resolution uses. The plan might work, but the site seems to have a long way to go to build a data-base compelling enough to inspire return visits. The keyword “couple” retrieves zero images. The same goes for the keywords “man” and “woman.” The keyword “wind” brings up twenty images, though one can hardly tell why, except for the fact that they are all outdoor scenes where, one supposes, wind must blow sometimes. The keyword “city” retrieves twenty images also, many of which overlap the “wind” results.
According to a press-release from the company, “Free Stock Photos is a collaboration between 5 professional photographers and designers who realised that in the world of digital sharing, photography need not be left out.” The contact name on the release is Richard Hawley, a UK photographer with a graphic design background. Three days ago, Hawley made the following post on a digital photo blog.
Hi all,
New here.
I recently bought a new Nikon D80 and have been shooting like a mad man!
I had so much that I thought I’d set up a site to ‘show’ my work and a friend told me about this forum that people can give great ‘feedback’ good or bad on your shots!!
Anyway, all my shots are at [FSP.com] and I’d love to hear any comments!
Also, I have set the site up so that photographers can join and upload their shots and if anyone does happen to buy a shot I share the pennies 50/50.
As you can probably tell I work in the web industry so hopefully I’ll be able to build this site to be pretty popular in the search engines and get some good traffic.
Anyway, would love to hear comments and it would be great if any fellow budding photographers want to join in - I can also set the site up so you can be ‘featured’ photographers so you’ll have an area on the site to showcase your shots too if you like.
All the best and look forward to hearing from fellow addictees!
The coincidence of the distribution of a company press-release and this “aw-shucks, just little old me looking for feedback on my images” blog post raises questions about Mr. Hawley’s sincerity. Nonetheless, the idea may take hold. Micro-stock contributors, who don’t usually have exclusive agreements with their distributors, have nothing to lose by posting their already keyworded images on this new site. FSP may even pick up refugees from the soon shuttered LuckyOliver. A viable collection of images might give this business a fighting chance. Experience tells us that, these days, we can’t count any new business model out, no matter how improbable it may seem at first glance.
Web-site: Free-Stock-Photos.co.uk - Click here to view the featured image.
Posted in: Micropayment Stock Photography, News
