.
.

You're a photographer and would like to list your photos with Stone's Throwe? Scroll down, read it all.
Who and what we are.
Stone's Throwe is the on-line stock photography offering representing several Des Moines area photographers, acquaintances, and friends, who each have their own photography business, either full or part time, outside Stone's Throwe. This website is just one of the portfolio listings, and is an additional sales outlet for, each photographer. As of the time of this writing, all work out of private homes and have no free-standing studio.
Submission guidelines.
We don't work for you, and you don't work for us. This is just one more place to hang or display your excellent photos for sale.
We do not solicit outside contributors. This is NOT a solicitation or request of any kind for any further works from anyone. That said, submissions are accepted from interested professional photographers outside the company for listing with us without fee [this may change if we start soliciting for more work, but it's all free for now]. Submissions must be in digital format, see the file guidelines below.
If you are just getting started in photography, are a part time or semi-pro photographer, or just someone who likes to take pictures, we will accept, but do not solicit, your work for our stock files. If you do not regularly work your files in Photoshop or other similar photo pro quality software, or are unfamiliar with digital "workflow" or shooting "raw" image files with your camera, click here for some "basics and recommendations".
If you previously listed images with Murray-Reynolds Photo Files, please contact us by phone or email.
File and Image Quality Guidelines
Digital files submitted should be finished, [including completed date, location, subject, and credit IPTC info], high resolution [260 to 500ppi in jpg], RGB/8, jpg format. The files should be no larger than 9 meg each, and at least 2200 pixels on the shortest side.

If you cannot translate the last sentence, go to the "basics and recommendations" page.
Hard core news photographers/photo journalists will probably find our operation a bit small for their tastes, especially if they've become used to big per image money. Our payouts run between .35 [yes, that's 35 cents] to about $100 per image, depending on the deal. If you're looking for the big bucks, we can't help you much.
We must have a full resolution, high quality file of the image in our possession to display your work to potential customers.
To Make a Submission.
Contact us by phone or email prior to submitting any work. Submissions sent without prior contact with the company are deleted without review.
Digital files submitted should be finished, high resolution, [260 to 500ppi in jpg], RGB/8, jpg format. The files should be no larger than 9 meg each, and at least 2200 pixels on the shortest side. We can, under the right circumstances, accept tif and other format files, also, but ask first.
What YOU guarantee us by submitting work.
By the act of submitting an image for listing, you UNCONDITIONALLY guarantee us that you took the photograph, did not steal it from someone else, and that you have all rights and permissions to display and sell the image to others. You also guarantee that if you have other agents selling the same image for you, your submission of the image to us does not violate or interfere with your terms or agreement with them.
By the act of submitting an image for listing, you UNCONDITIONALLY guarantee that you possess all and any necessary model's releases, permissions, or rights to publicly display or sell that image, especially if it clearly depicts an individual person and that you can provide a signed model's release if one is needed.
You UNCONDITIONALLY guarantee, we [Stone's Throwe] can and may, without further contact with, or further permission from, you, make prints or copies of your image, at any time or in any form, and, in any manner, display them for public viewing and sale. We may also give away, or display, any image you submit, for advertising purposes, without payment to you. [i.e. - you only get paid if the image sells - if we put your image on a greeting card and we give the card away as a sample, you don't get paid, if the same card sells for $2.05 or $2.44, you get a whopping .35 cents.]
And, for our lawyers, you, as the submitter of images or photos, further UNCONDITIONALLY guarantee, you hold Stone's Throwe, its' assigns, its' customers, their assigns, other company or listing photographers, and/or any of their associates, harmless and COMPLETELY without liability or responsibility, either moral or monetary, for any misuse, distortion, improper display, confusion, loss, lawsuit, harm, complaint, misunderstanding, ridicule [public or private], error, loss of income, or embarrassment [public or private], caused to you or anyone else, by the viewing, display, sale, use, listing, or distribution of, the image[s] you submit to us.
What we guarantee you.
We do guarantee you'll get paid the going rate if your image sells as long as we have a correct address to mail the check to.
We guarantee the going rate changes from time to time and without notice or consultation with anyone. As an average figure right now you'll get about .35 cents per 4x5 greeting card and somewhere around $15.00 for an unframed 11x14 print that sells for $35.00. As of the time of this writing, you'd get $100 for a high resolution jpg file, single use, for publication, that we charge $135 for. The less work we have to do the more money you make.
We guarantee we'll try and sell the image at wholesale if the customer is looking at your image and the retail price sounds like too much. [It's better to sell something 5 times at $30 than once at $100, we always say.]
We guarantee we'll try to show your image[s] to any prospective customers we find or contact that seem interested, and, if web space and workloads provide, post low resolution copies of them in applicable sections of the website for public viewing. [i.e. - your image may or may not be prominently displayed on the website or in our hardcopy notebook or catalog books.]
We guarantee Larry runs the website. If you don't like what's on there, notice your work is upside down, or don't like the order it shows on the page, contact him at 515-267-1436. He'll try to flip the pix right side up or explain why he did whatever he did that offended you, but, sadly, it's his website, and things will probably not change all that much.
We will protect the electronic image and print images from thieves to the best of our, our store front display, retailer's, and our web provider's ability. If your image gets hacked or your print gets shoplifted, it's sad, neither of us make any money. We did our best and will try and learn from the loss so it doesn't happen again. Our IT gurus and retail outlets are good, but there are no guarantees against theft, copyright violations, and other such things anywhere in the Western World.
NOTICE: Some things we don't do.
This is just one more place to hang your work so people can look at it, and, hopefully, buy it. We don't work for you. You don't work for us.
This isn't a good place for starving artists. We do NOT pay for images up front. We do NOT guarantee your image[s] will sell, or that potential customers will even briefly consider them.
We do not write checks for .35 cents. You might have to wait for a few sales, if the only product moving is greeting cards, to get enough money to make it worth writing the check, say $5.00 or so.
We don't guarantee our customers will do what they say they will do with your image[s] once it's in their hands. Don't submit images you don't want to see advertising, or connected to, what ever it is you hate most. [Example: a billboard company buys - or worse yet, uses for free with your permission - your image, of your baby, for an ad - you are pro-life and it ends up on a thousand pro-choice billboards, credited to you, by name, in 3 foot high letters visible for 20 miles, in full view of every friend or relative you've ever had.]
A few more asides.
Politics - Keep your politics out of it. Some flag waving and memorial stuff is fine, but art and/or photography with a screaming political agenda isn't our bag. There are plenty of outlets on the 'net and elsewhere for that kind of stuff, so don't bring it here. Red State, Blue State, peacenik or warmonger, pro-choice, pro-life, Republican, Democrat, environmentalist or strip-mining logger, we don't care. If it looks like it has an agenda, activism, politics, or propaganda in it, it probably won't get listed.

Nudes - Nudes are great photographic art when properly done. Quite enjoyable, almost wonderful, actually, we love 'em. We shoot nude sittings, not to brag, but, alas, not for display on this site. We do have one or two art and modelling customers interested in such things, but, sadly, we won't accept nudes from photographers outside the company, and won't display any on the website.

Kids - Too many strange Federal, State, and local laws on kids and how much clothing they have to have on to be decent and far too many droolers surfing the net looking for kicks. Clothes on, completely covered, even babies, no bare chests, bottoms, or such. No exceptions.

News Photos - We'll take 'em if the date/time/place is documented, we also accept work from Combat Camera pro's and other military photog's that have rights to their work.

Freebies - Often we are contacted by official and private publications or government and private entities seeking the use of images for free [no cost to them, absolutely no money for you]. If you are willing to release your images, for free, to government or private publications/entities which might credit the photographer, but do NOT pay ANY money for the image, include that information with your submissions. Be specific about which images may, or may not, be had for free, with credit to the photographer and Stone's Throwe. We don't guarantee they'll do what they promise, only that we'll forward the work you're willing to give away for fame and no money. We will ask for a 'tear sheet' on the free stuff if it's print format, but we, and you, shouldn't ever believe said sheet will really show. If the tear sheet does show up, we'll forward it to you, if your mailing address is correct.

Work or assignment requests - From time to time we send out requests from potential customers looking for specific images. If you gave us an email address you may receive a copy of these requests from time to time. If you submitted something that matched it, give us an email nudge, it might be hidden from us in the system. If you don't have any work on it, don't immediately dash out and start working on it. ["Tempests in a teacup just get everyone burned", to quote a aged photo editor]. Think first, you might just be doing all kinds of work in vain, rushed shoots rarely end up selling. Deadlines are usually mentioned, and some customers have specific ways they want things presented, and have lots of other sources besides us. If you have a lot of work on the subject that isn't listed with us, or want to do a shoot on the subject for submission to the customer, email or call first.

back to about us page
.
.
.
.