John Morrison

^^^ A Santa Claus costume makes the perfect shoplifting disguise...

Karl… Though there’s no magic solution to getting your pix higher up Alamy’s ranking, I can recommend a couple of approaches (both best sorted out now… before your portfolio grows any bigger). As already pointed out, you need to weed out the similars. And you need to revisit your captions and tags. For example, a shark surrounded by fish is captioned ‘seagull circling for trash’. The wall was built by ‘Hadrian’, not ‘Hadrien’. Your dog may be called ‘Nelly’… but putting her name in a caption makes no sense! As a caption, ‘Last shot of the day. A seagull came swooped down and stole a chip and I stole a shot’ says both too much and too little. Be more literal… and watch your spelling…

Here, in a nutshell, is the secret of keywording. Good spelling is vital (which immediately puts people at a disadvantage if English is not their first language). The standard of spelling in UK is probably going down rather than up (due to texting, text prediction, abbreviations, etc. We're losing the ability to write, with a pen, on a sheet of paper). And yet... the stock picture business relies on being painstakingly accurate with captions and tags. One word, miss-spelt (mis-spelt? miss-spelled? mis-spelled?), could make the difference between a pic turning up in searches... and never being seen at all. Of course, if a word is commonly miss-spelt - like pavillion/pavilion - then it may be worthwhile to include both as tags...

If we knew the answer, we'd all be page one! 😎

No... but it was a regular port of call... and a great view to wake up to. I seldom spent two consecutive nights in the same place. Wastewater??

These are the questions I asked too, before I ht the road. Only on two occasions did anyone knock on my van: 1) in Kendal to say that if I didn't vacate the car-park sharpish, I'd become part of a fun-fair, and 2) that if I didn't move asap, I'd become part of Bakewell market. I looked for quiet places to park up at night, but not too quiet. People walking by would not have been aware that there was anyone inside, curled up inside a sleeping bag. I avoided street parking, and I was careful not to be in anyone's way. So... no industrial areas... and if I saw half a dozen kids, wearing hoodies and riding bikes, I'd drive somewhere else. My rule was always to get parked up, off-road, for the night, before I had a drink (most car-parks are free after 6pm). The police have better things to do than bother an old guy in a van! Hygiene? Not a problem (unless you really want to shower twice a day). The satnav lady would direct me to local swimming baths, when I needed a shower (there's a leisure centre on the outskirts of all but the smallest towns). Toilets, washing facilities and free wifi: that's what Wetherspoons are for! I carried about six changes of clothes, so I'd stop at a campsite once every three weeks... to wash clothes, shave, edit/upload pix and recharge batteries, etc. While it's not a lifestyle that would suit everyone, I wish I had a pound for everyone who said they'd love to do what I did (including a lot of married women!)...

Yes, I've hung my hat in many different places... though I stuck to UK and Ireland. I 'wild camped' almost every night. After a while I developed a 'sixth sense' about finding a good place to stay; I didn't really think about it. No one seemed to bother an old guy in a small camper. The Romahome is white, which has the strange effect of making the vehicle almost invisible. I installed a solar panel on the roof, which made a big difference in summer (not so much at this time of the year), and charged up electrical stuff while driving: in order of importance: camera battery, laptop, radio, Kindle, shaver, etc. Those five years were fun!...

Well, it suited me. I lived in this miniature motorhome for five years: travelling, writing, taking pictures, getting lost. I only quiit the nomadic life six months ago, but kept the van. As Michel de Montaigne suggested: “One should always have one’s boots on and be ready to leave”...

Found this map online, showing which places in the world have been photographed the most…

Ed... You'll get free BBC TV until May 31st next year. After that, only people over 75 in receipt of pension credit will qualify (and they'll need to turn up for the interview with both parents)...

Wanna see Henri Cartier-Bresson flying a kite? Of course you do...

Ed… at the risk of telling you what you already know, Liverpool are playing Manchester City today (at Anfield, 4.30pm). The pundits reckon it’s the biggest game of the season so far, and there will be plenty of fans, in their ‘colours’, milling around in the city centre. Plenty of photo opportunities. On second thoughts you may not want to get involved with crowds of tribal football fans, singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. And remember: don’t ever call it soccer!…

Voting is voluntary in UK (despite our recent - and ongoing - problems, we're still not quite at the point where the 'dear leader' gets 99.95% of the votes cast!)...

Two words might do the trick... I've always used pix for illustrated articles and books. Stock was the sideline... until recently...

The original?? He might be older than you!!