DCstockphoto Contributors Info

Does it cost anything to be a contributing photographer?

No, there are not costs to join. You receive 70% of each sale of your work.

How many images can I submit?

You are welcome to submit as much as you like, as long as the images meet the technical specifications. But note that not all images will be included on the website, as a major expense of operating the site will be data storage. Also remember you will need to input the keywords and captions for all the photos that do get on the site.

How do I add keywords and captions?

You can either do it before you submit your images, or after they have been uploaded. You will be responsible for this as we will not have staff for this.  Details on this will be provided later.

Will I retain the rights to my images?

Of course; and your name will be on the credit line.

What if I already license my photos elsewhere?

We do not require exclusive representation, so that is not a problem for us.

Will I be able to link to my images from my own website?

Yes, you will able to configure a search link to show your images.

Who determines the pricing?

You will need to decide if you want to list your photos as royalty-free, or rights-managed. As a general rule, if the image and subject is unique then choose rights-managed. For specific pricing of rights-managed images, that will depend on the actual use by the client. We will reference a few sources in calculating the price as to be competitive, but not too cheap.

Should I quit my day job and expect to get rich?

Sorry, no.

We are looking for new contributors to DCstockphoto. Since 2000 the site has been the catalog of Elliott Teel’s Washington photos, but is changing over to a more traditional stock photo agency. The site is still going to feature Washington, D.C. photos, but is now looking expand to offer other photographer’s work.

The site will still be run primarily by Elliott Teel, but since he moved to Portland, Maine he can’t be the only source of images. Which is where you come in. So let us know if you are interested in being a part of the next stage of an established and well known catalog of Washington photos.

It looks like I am going to switch over to Digital Railroad for operation of this site. This is an exciting change, and one worth the extra expense. While I had actually largely built the site using Imagefolio, that product’s support is virtually nonexistant. While it is much cheaper to host the site myself, the features and ease of use overall make moving over to Digital Railroad a worthy investment.

This will delay things a little while, but I should be able to start taking on new images soon!

This is always a difficult thing to figure out. Part of the attraction for some buyers of royalty-free is that they can see the pricing and they don’t need to go contact the agency to get an estimate (which may change if their project changes).

But for the photographer, you don’t want to undersell your images, but at the same time expect too much from an image that is not that unique. Certainly with the Washington, DC images it is a very saturated market, at least with the standard shots of the monuments and federal buildings.

We will base our rights-managed pricing on a number of sources (to be explained later). The first consideration will be the uniqueness of the image - again as there are many Washington images on the market this is an important factor. From there the buyers actual use will be the basis for calculating the price.

Contributing photographers will receive 70% of the sale of their photos. 10% of profits from the site will go to Washington, D.C. youth organizations.

In the past contributions have gone to Sasha Bruce Youthwork, but I am interested in giving to other groups also.

The photos offered on the site will be available either under traditional licensing or royalty-free. The royalty-free images will set at a flat rate and available for immediate downloading. The rights-reserved images will be priced based on usage.

What is DCstockphoto?

The site has gone through several variations since I started it in 2000. Most recently, it has been a section of my website. However, at the end of 2006 I moved to Portland, Maine so I have decided to relaunch the site as a stand alone website.

How will it work?

Anyone will be be able to submit their work to the site, but there will be some basic quality control over submissions (this will be detailed later). Participating photographers will be responsible for preparing the images (color correction, cleaning and sizing).

If you are interested in joining, send us an email at join@dcstockphoto.com