So, after all the trauma, questions, reflections and conversations spurred by the events at election night and ensuing reactions on the social media (or should I say the bully media, where the loudest, most obnoxious people make the greater impact), I’m back to business. Before I do, just one last comment: if you start feeling afraid or disgusted while watching or reading the news, get up, go create something, go hug your significant other or go walk the dogs. Get back in touch with your own, personal humanity. Otherwise, you’re being manipulated, distracted and changed at a level so deep that it defines the current social reality. It all greatly hinders personal freedom of thought and expression, and certainly any hope of getting organized enough to ever change the system. But why would we want to change it when we’re fed hope that it can work for every single one of us? It’s 1984 in full swing folks… go read Orwell again.
So erm, back to business, then. Did you know that Istock now added a function to let you pay instantly by credit card? That’s right, the option to bypass the old credit system (which is still there if you buy a lot and want cheaper rates) is live. So for all of you who aren’t professionals in the image/design business, that means you can go download that one, favorite shot of yours you saw on this blog, pay directly and enjoy the file without any hassle or waste. Sean Locke explains how it works here. We all hope this will help everyone access the materials simply and efficiently.
The launch was a bit chaotic, and done on a weekday (!), but things mostly are functional again today. There are still a few things being worked at, such as a possible updates on the rather old-fashioned zoom function and ratings system, the add to lightbox on the product pages is missing and reporting on the contributor side is a bit wonky with some missing data. Things have been efficiently fixed so far, so I’m impressed. Much better than some of the other updates we’ve had these past few years.
I’ve been working diligently at a new farm-to-fork series, which you can view on my New this month photoshelter page (links to purchase at Istock are below the photographs) and I’m already well into a new batch of Berlin shots. I’m leaving for Switzerland in a month and I’d like to finish the Berlin Lypse material before I leave.. so go, go, go!
McComber Photo 