Just imagine, bright people with artistic and technical skills get together to
discuss a site they can build together? A site that has "time" value, that will
be fun to work with? What will it be? You are right, of course, a good guess
would be a photography site.
First sketches, discussions, failed trials - the site started to mature only
when the Contributors joined the efforts.
We wanted from the beginning to give as much space as possible for the
Photographers, not for the site itself. Alexey's suggestions - "Only
images, nothing else" - was a little bit too straightforward. Programmers
asked for a little bit of space, at least, for navigation.
"The whole idea of shooting Stock, is to make money, nothing more, nothing less..."
It was the point we wanted to disprove. Photography, whether it is stock or not
stock, is still photography (ART). The point is to tell a story, raise emotional
reactions, and inspire meaningful and sometimes rational thought (or at least an
attempt at it).
So, let's take this typical "stock photo". Should this term be associated with
a nickel per image, a dime??
No, Stock should be aligned with the ability to find the right photograph.
Please don't misunderstand us, we think that the "$1" stock photo industry
is a great business idea, but FeaturePics (tm) is not going to go in this
direction. We are focused on diversity. We started this site for the community
of people who love photography. That wonderful group of people who take their
art seriously, and care more about the image, than the profit derived from it.
Those who believe in making the images meaningful, and give others who don't
know how to push the shutter button, a chance to get involved. Profit is wonderful
and necessary, but we feel that the art should be the focus.
Are we unique? We don't think so. We believe that there are people out there who
appreciate diversity and quality as well, and are willing to pay a little extra
for it if asked. So our primary mission was to build a "home" for quality photographers,
hence "FeaturePics.com".
Being a start-up, means we have to work harder to insure Artists that we are in
this for them. We have to provide them with a safe and comfortable place to store
and display their wares. Do we have a business reason for doing this? Of course,
our time is short, and we are developing our first venue to focus our potential
customers attention on the value of good photography.
Generally, we are advocates of an active market behavior, not a passive one.
We believe that our site should constantly change, with new and better ways
to entertain and excite both our Artists and our Customers. We believe that every
good Artist should have their day in the sun and be exposed to the world
as best as we can help to do it. Change is critical, for as a long lost lover
of Russians once observed, "sameness is next to boredom, and soon forgotten".
In summary, and back to diversity, we want to thank our Artists for taking a
chance on this new venture. We feel that we are in a partnership for the good
of all involved here, always striving for the perfect image, and toward the
perfect stock photo site.
Now, a little "Who's Who" of the FeaturePics Crew:
***Alexey - This guy provided Design of this site. His philosophy has helped
this site to become what it is.
***Oksana - She knows things about the sites out there that no one else does.
She knows different Photographer's styles, and can usually spot a particular
Author's images. She keeps track of all uploads, emails, transactions, and all
of the detail work necessary for the daily maintenance of a high energy system
such as this is.
***Kal - He's the Techie who keeps our hardware and servers up, running, and safe;
handles all updates, hardware/software problems, and keeps the oil can full.
***Greg - Great supporter, english editor, manager, and promoter.
***Elena - responsible for the code architecture and production ("One day I want to take a
picture that can be accepted by FeaturePics") .
FeaturePics.com was built entirely with Microsoft technology, including Visual
Studio, C#, Sql Server, and Windows Server 2003.
