Perspective from the Pinnacle of Microstock - Yuri Arcurs
25 November 2008

All this might make you wonder what he is doing in the featured photographer section. With looks that could easily be mistaken for one of the models in his shoots rather than the photographer, Yuri Arcurs is not just a photographer but the world's top selling microstock photographer. For those who are not readily impressed with this title, consider how he earned it. Yuri sells over 1.1 million images per year, the equivalent of selling an image every 30 seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, nonstop. It also earned him more than 1.3 million US dollars per year and that's impressive by any means. We are very pleased to have interviewed him and got his perspective on microstock photography today as well as his latest news.

What is microstock?
If you are unfamiliar with the term "microstock", it's those low priced images that are available in stock photos site. Hence to be successful at these lower rates, successful conversions in large numbers is the key. It isn't easy and that makes Yuri all the more special. His secret? A well organised system, a keen eye for what sells and above all, a dedication to details. The list of clients that have bought and used his pictures, include MTV, Time Magazine, MSN.com, Sony, Apple Samsung, Vodafone, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Tyra Banks Show and many, many more.

The New Microstock is the Old Macrostock?
Talking to Yuri, it was obvious that the trends of stock photos have changed significantly in the last five years. From the view that microstock was not possible as an income channel for pros, who used to stick to macrostock exclusively, microstock has come a long way in both its demand and quality. Yuri points out that level of quality required for microstock today may be likened to that of macrostock five years ago. This has in effect also pushed up the requirements of macrostock.

Microstock versus Macrostock - Just a Difference in Price Tags?
With the obvious difference in price between the two types of stock photos, we were keen to know what justifies the difference and how Yuri approaches it as someone who is involved in both lines of stock photos. The simple stripped down answer for the difference is that macrostock are artistically superior while microstock requires a higher technical correctness. You could come up with a successful macrostock photo with a point and shoot camera given that you have the correct mind set to breathe personality and creativeness into your photos. This is without a doubt something that is constantly challenging to even the very best photographers. While microstock is easier to achieve given that you are technically apt in the art of photography and have the right models and location.

However, good models and locations will cost you a fair bit of money and here we've found a very interesting factor. It actually cost less to do macrostock then microstock. Obviously, the numbers of shots you are likely to be able to sell both in qualifying shots as well as purchased shots are equally disproportionate.

Technical Excellence and Hasselblad
Yuri is officially sponsored by Hasselblad and uses the H3D-II-39. While this sounds great as an achievement on its own (Hasselblad don't give away their equipment at a whim), this has a bigger impact on his microstock production then we first expected. Compared to the Canon 1Ds Mark IIIs used by his second shooters, the Hasselblad gives him the flawless images that are vital to microstock. With the Canon, every image has to be corrected in terms of moiré, artefacts as well as fringing. Such is the requirement of modern day microstock and so it's no surprise that Yuri has a team of people working with him to ensure each image submitted would meet those standards.

Approaching Microstock - Starting Smart
Starting out in microstock may be easy but succeeding in it is altogether a different issue. Yuri's success was largely due to his ambition and rapid learning curve. His willingness to carry out his hunches and taking calculated risks, which paid off in most cases, helped build the blocks of his foundations in microstock. Taking it up initially while still a student, Yuri only wanted to keep exercising his passion for photography. His success obviously turned it into more after it managed to pay for all his student expenses in just a few months. His key decision to go it full time was when he reached his then thought-to-be-impossible target of making US$20,000 a month. He has obviously moved a long way since then but he believes the approach to success in microstock is the same.

His advice now for those thinking of taking it up microstock as a career would be to take your opportunities and follow your hunches. Be willing to try out new ideas and see how you can make it work. You'd have to be careful when analysing them of course, as even success stories like Yuri's have had a few photo shoots that didn't work out. He wouldn't name any examples but it's obvious that he remembers them clearly as a lesson learnt.

Ideas aside, the major factor to success has got to be resource management. Anyone venturing into microstock has to handle this carefully and should budget no more than a quarter on their equipment and about two-thirds on models and location. Not a flat rule of course but Yuri is keen to warn against disproportional spending which will affect income and limited your ongoing development.

Microstock - Making it Big
As far as Microstock is concern, Yuri has definitely climbed to the upper echelons of microstock, if not the very summit. So we were very interested in what contributed to this success beyond his great start to this industry. Scale, it seems was the answer. Unlike Yuri, most of his competitors are based on the production of one or two individuals and thereby restricted in the output they can achieve as well as the size of the shoots they may take on. Obviously, bringing in more people and becoming more corporate heaps concerns of mounting cost but Yuri is clear that his success in microstock is in many parts due to his success in making this work out and making the most effective use of his available resources. Yuri currently employs a total of 21 staff with 5 of them in Denmark, 1 in the US and 15 in India.

Moving on to New Heights?
Given the Success that Yuri has already achieved, we are keen to see what his current targets and future plans are. Currently, he is expanding his distribution network which attracts many quality stock photographers. They can focus on their composition while depending on Yuri's extremely successful process of taking the photographed image through to the final submitted image with quality check, correction and keywording optimization. Besides this, he is also getting more involved with macrostock. Still steadily producing about 800 photos a month, Yuri has also set his sights on doing more high class RM (Rights Managed) photography in the future as his Microstock Empire cements its place in the market.

All images copyright © Yuri Arcurs (www.arcurs.com)
See more of Yuri's photos at iStockphoto, Fotolia, Shutterstock, 123RF, BigStockPhoto, Crestock, SnapVillage