The microstock issue is the one that most people latched on to. My reading of the comments (78 at the time of this writing) is that most people agree that the microstock industry devalues photography. However I'm really surprised by the number of people who follow that concession up with basically "who cares?" They say that all industries change and the internet has spurred on similar changes in many other industries so suck it up, deal with it and move on. Some other people say that selling on microstock sites is just fun for them. No they aren't making a living at it but they aren't trying to, it's just the extension of a hobby and they have no issue with that. Others still say that true professional photographers who are dedicated to their craft and to the industry will always stand out above amateurs with fancy dslrs and thus pro photography will bounce back, survive and excel. It's very much a discussion worth reading if you have an interest in making money from photography.

When I started shooting seriously a couple years ago I signed up with a few microstock sites but never followed through with submitting images to them because I read an article similar to David's that convinced me microstock hurts photographers and photography in general. I wish there was a middle ground so photographers weren't selling for pennies on microstock sites or being rejected by the big houses like Corbis. I think Brandon Stone (creator of photoblogs.org) may be on the right track to creating that middle ground with his still in beta venture Requestock.

A few weeks ago I received an email from someone who wanted to use one of my images on his wedding invitations. The wording in his email let me know immediately that he wanted to use the image for free. Instead of asking how much or even saying "I can't afford to pay much" he said "with your permission I would like to use your picture." The image is a perfect romance and love shot and I'm really a softie at heart so I wrote back saying I'd provide a hi-res digital copy of the image, ready for printing at an extremely reasonable (translation: low) rate. I never heard back from the man. Lesson? He and his partner thought my image was so beautiful they wanted it to be featured on their wedding invitations. But they think so little of photography as an art and a business free is the only price they think is fair to pay for it. If there is a whole industry built around photographers giving away their photography for pennies how can we expect people to think anything else?