John Mitchell

I have a feeling that the current pandemic could change a lot of prevailing attitudes in the business world. Capitalism may never be the same again, which is a good thing IMO. The "small [or at least smaller] is beautiful" philosophy may yet prove to be the way of the future.

This has become my approach, spend as little as possible. For instance, I only buy used lenses and do very little travelling. I'm also using free RAW processing software and an ancient version of PS Elements. I recently bought a refurbished DELL tower to replace my Windows 7 machine. It cost so little that I'm embarrassed to say the amount. Of course being cheap by nature helps a lot...

11 sales at mainly low prices for $273 gross (lowest monthly revenue this year) Zooms remain below average, which isn't surprising.

I sometimes have an image that has been gathering dust for years suddenly license. However, I do agree that agencies are now over-stuffed, but volume and crowdsourcing rule the roost now. I contributed to a small editorial stock agency for many years. Unfortunately, they couldn't compete when the online big guys came along, and they had to close. I miss them, but the fact is that I now make many more sales than I used to, even if prices are lower, and it's certainly much easier to submit images and get them on the market quickly. Microstock is another story, though. The business model seems to be built on quicksand. I don't see how it's sustainable. I get dizzy just thinking about it.

Looks like a very nice place. Some cabooses were a lot like rolling hotel rooms. All freight trains had them when I was a kid.

Brilliant idea. I've seen railway cars turned into restaurants but never a hotel. Hopefully guests don't have to sleep sitting upright. Thought I'd try one of these things out...

The SSD certainly is a lot faster, and the new computer boots almost instantly. In addition to the new 2 TB drive that I recently installed (sort of), I have two external HD's. Not sure why I need all that space as I'm not a "volume shooter". However, TB's are relatively cheap now.

This doesn't answer your main question, but you may not need a case for the SSD. A few months ago, I bought a refurbished (looks brand new to me) DELL tower with a 256 MB SSD and lots of RAM. I decided to add a 2 TB conventional HD for storage. When I opened up my computer, I discovered that there was no slot for the new 3.5 inch HD, which is unusual. I spoke to a computer repair guy, and he told me to flip the drive over and just lay it face-down inside the tower. This works fine, so you might be able to do the same with your SSD. Good luck.

That's the word I was thinking of. The policy is a real cash cow as many (perhaps most) never reach the $100 level.

I just read a post on another forum by someone who said that he closed his account at the dreamy place a few months ago with $65 owing, and they won't pay him. There's a word for that kind of thing. It's the main reason I high-tailed it out of there.

Not according to discussions on their forum.

That's small relief when you do the math. Last I checked, the dreamy place had a $100 minimum payout. I put some video clips there, and then took them down because of this, even though one of the clips had actually licensed. It's money that I'll never see because they keep any earnings under $100 that you have if you close your account. Fortunately, it is a piddly amount. Not a fan of them either.

Thanks. I have a clearer picture now.

I see. I hadn't read Chuck's post. Obviously, I'm not a news photographer. It sounds as if some of those news agencies don't exactly have the best interests of photographers in mind. It's a sad state of affairs.

This is not in any way a comment on the quality of your work, but something to keep in mind is that Alamy is primarily an editorial agency. Consequently, just uploading scads of images that do well on the micros won't necessarily result in licenses here. It's a good idea to be selective for Alamy. Best of luck. P.S. It looks as if you might be based in Saint John, NB. Very nice city. I've been there several times,