This Week on Microstock: World Cup Photos from Shutterstock, Stocksy – Call to Artists, Big Prizes for Corbis Photographers, Photo Gear Reviews with Crappy Sample Images, and more

Exclusive World Cup Photos from Shutterstock

Shutterstock is providing exclusive editorial images of the World Cup from Brazilian photographers Jefferson Bernardes and AGIF who just signed with the stock photography agency for global licensing of their World Cup content outside Brazil.

Shutterstock updates their image collections daily and features new images within 12 hours of game play. It also includes photographs from their numerous contributors who are in Brazil at the moment. You can view all World Cup 2014 editorial images by simply searching their site with the keyword WorldCupEditorial2014.

Stocksy – Call to Artists

Stocksy United has recently announced the re-opening of their Call to Artist page and they are ready to accept photographer applications for 2014. However, Stocksy accepts only 500 photographers every year. This is because Stocksy wants to “maintain highly focused curatorial standards, beautiful search results and specialized one on one care with our buyers and photographers.”

This year, they are focused on looking for new talent, topics and diverse processing techniques and on finding photographers specifically outside of North America. Stocksy is looking for a wide variety of styles from different photographers and Michael Jay Foto's thoughts on how and why to apply to Stocksy United  might increase your chances in being selected for the limited slots.

Big Prizes for Corbis Photographers

Corbis Images contributors Bryan Denton, Volker Möhrke, Cameron Davidson and Tim Tadder were recently awarded by some of the most respected global photography competitions.

A stunning series of soccer-moments by Tim Tadder and an aerial image of suburbia in a natural landscape by Cameron Davidson were selected by Photo District News as some of The Best Images of the Year in the Stock Photography for the 2014 Photo Annual. Communication Arts will also feature Cameron’s image in the For Sale Category of their 55^th Photography Annual.

Images of ants by Volker Möhrke were selected by Applied Arts Photography & Illustration Awards as winning images in their Photo illustration category.

Applied Arts also selected Bryan Denton’s story on Egypt – Crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood as a winner in the Photojournalism Story category. Denton has also been recognized by World Press Photo as a talented young visual storyteller and invited him to be among the 12 photographers who will be attending the World Press Joop Swart Masterclass later this year.

Photo Gear Reviews with Crappy Sample Images

Allen Murabayashi, CEO of PhotoShelter, has recently published an article regarding a question, Why Do Photo Gear Reviews Have Crappy Sample Images?

Murabayashi is into camera gear reviews much more than his purchasing. But what irks him is that it seems like all gear review sites have the crappiest sample photos.

The reality is that camera gear reviewers take pictures with limited factors specially that they have only few days to get acquainted with the camera and they are not hired for their ability to take good shots. However, Murabayashi has few requests for taking few nicer photos.

 

Allen Murabayashi

• More than a few photographers have mentioned this “golden hour” concept to me. Now I’m no astrophysicist, but it seems like the golden hour happens not at noon when the bulk of camera review photos seem to be taken.
• I am biased, but I like photos of people. Could we possibly have more photos of people and less flowers?
• The backlit image of a beer glass in a bar isn’t really showing me low light capabilities. Help a brother out. Take a photo of a person in a dark corner of the bar instead.
• If you have a $7,000 camera that shoots 14 fps, maybe you should take it to a sporting event and let us know how it goes.

 

You can continue reading his requests here.

11 Essential Tips for Freelance Photographers

Last week, Allen Murabayashi of PhotoShelter chatted with advertising and editorial photographer Robert Seale. Seale shared 11 essential tips all photographers must know before going freelance. Seale took the plunge into freelancing after 11 years as a staff shooter for Sporting News and various newspapers. He now works with clients such as Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Fortune 500 companies and more.

Watch the video as Murabayashi and Seale discuss the challenges about being a freelancer and how to overcome them.

Photos for Father’s Day

Father’s Day may not be celebrated on the same day but it is being recognized throughout the world and for this, Fotolia put together a “Father’s Day” gallery that will cater for all your Dad design and creative briefs. In 2014 for the US, UK, France, Turkey, Chile, India, Japan, Netherlands, and many other countries, Father’s Day is celebrated on June 15th (always the third Sunday in June). It is a day of celebration to honor fatherhood and the importance of fathers.

TEN Contest Winners for May

For this contest, Fotolia tasked Graphic Designers in creating a PSD based on the theme “Helath 2.0” and Photographers were asked to match Lucia Giacani’s picture with their own based on the same theme. There were a lot of impressive works but judges have to choose two winners, and they are Toni López Enrique for PSD Design Contest and Anuska Palacio Garcia for her stunning picture in the Photography Contest.

Toni wins a fabulous selection of prizes from Fotolia’s partners including:

• 1 x Wacom Intuos Pro M tablet
• 1 x Adobe Creative Cloud three month subscription
• 1 x Roland VersaStudio BN-20 printer
• 1 x Exaprint 200 € voucher
• 1 x Template Monster template + 300 USD worth of customization services
• 1 x Fotolia subscription of 25 downloads per month, for one year

 

And Anuska wins an equally awesome selection of prizes including:

• 1 x Adobe Creative Cloud three month subscription
• 1 x Westcott 43” Octogonal Apollo Orb
• 1 x Exaprint 200 € voucher
• 300 x Fotolia credits, cashable on Fotolia.com

 

The next TEN creative contest will be launching on July 12^th.

 Other Interesting News on Microstock

• Fake Chuck Westfall Unmasked!: Photographer Behind Controversial Canon Blog Reveals Why He’s Calling It Quits
• Fuji X-T1 is the newest addition to the rapidly growing Fuji X-Series lineup. But does this new mirrorless camera the best Fuji X-Series camera? Find out here.
• Stock Photography Sales Statistic for the month of May 2014.