Jools Elliott

Thanks everyone! In fact, one useful thing it has done is that it's made me go through what I have and see what needs tightening up in terms of keywording etc. I did find some images that didn't even have a caption so at least one good thing has come of this curiosity. As for green bars, I've been waiting for the usual suspects to come along who I know are well placed to offer insight on this. Very appreciated that as usual a feature has been added but no details offered up by Alamy as to how much difference it makes and that contributors are giving the best feedback.

Thanks Betty! I need to properly look at what I have and what I think should be optimized or not. Of course, you never do what someone is likely to be searching for.

Afternoon all For once I have some free time between relentless traveling around the place and so I'm taking a closer look at my Alamy imagery. Have any of you noticed a difference in the overall visibility and sales of your work by pushing that green bar all the way up to optimized? I ask as I have about 5500 images that are classed as being poor discoverability. I'm wondering how much use of my time it is going through these and seeing what I can do to push the bar until the end. Thanks

Copyright in your work is automatic. The only way it is different is that if you have produced the images for someone else. It is highly recommended to register your work at the US Copyright Office. Average wait time to receive the documentation is 9 months but lately things have been done in 3 weeks. Always very useful to add metadata behind the scenes. Watermark: honestly, you can add it but if someone is going to steal your work they will either crop it off; clone it or just keep it in there believing that it gives them the right to use the image.

I went from a 5D Mark II to a Mark IV. Seriously, get it! Got to Hdew Cameras and they have them for £1799 new.

From what I remember of Britain's places where you need to go such as town halls; doctors etc there are a number of leaflets etc in different languages to help people. The UK is very well equipped to deal with ex-pats from other countries. Again, France is pretty diverse with a number of people from a number of countries but you rarely see leaflets etc in any other language apart from at tourist attractions.

Curiosity, have you been an ex-pat? I can absolutely feel the pain that Ed does as living here in France their bureaucracy is a nightmare! The French know it but will do nothing about it. A few years ago I was told by a French worker to read Asterix in Rome. It takes the mickey out of the French administration in the 50s. And it has not changed!!! I'm very sure that the pain and frustration that Ed talks of in Spain is pretty the same as it is here in France. You are often faced with the "it's not my department" line as well as taking a form to an office and it needing about 3 different people to actually get it all signed off. And no, I am not kidding. A couple of years ago I was given a car to use. Great! You go the office in the centre of town to sort out the change of ownership. But it takes one person to make sure you have filled out the form correctly then you are told to wait in another queue to pay the fee. The one good thing the French have is that if you need something like a copy of your birth certificate then it's free unlike the UK.

Maybe some ideas for you Ed: https://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/index/europe Or you could just become a digital nomad. There are a number of YouTubers who do this. Go somewhere for three months. Get an AirBnB so you don't have to worry about local taxes; setting up internet etc.

Reading your tales sounds like it is here in France. Bureaucracy. Endless paperwork. They know it but won't do anything about it! Don't you have access to an Irish passport? Wouldn't it be easier to go to there? I know that's probably easier said than done but it's a thought. Outside of that, how about Italy. In my many travels to the country I have found a good number of people speak English and not just in cafés and restaurants but you also find it in some of the bigger cities town halls.

Careful. Hyperzoom has been trade marked: http://www.geofftompkinson.com/hyperzoom/

I concur with this. I've just started down the road of underwater photography having just completed a level 1 scuba diving course in Martinique. It took four lessons before they allowed me to take a Gopro with me. Even then it wasn't simple and is best mounted on a wrist strap so that your hands are free to communicate with your monitor. As CBIMAGES says just jumping in isn't going to work. From the experience I've just had I found it better to start with a baptism to see if it was something I wanted to continue with then went on to do the level 1 course so that I could learn to stabilize myself in the water. A company in Germany lent me a housing for my DSLR but the reality of that particular brand is that it isn't really suited to scuba diving and as such is better to go for a proper housing. The images and footage from the GoPro look good but you certainly need to understand processing to correct the loss of the various channels in Photoshop etc.

As a rule if I’m composing an image in camera it stays as 3:2. If i am stitching images to create a panorama then it gets cropped as follows: 17x6; 4x1 or 2x1. what dictates the pano crop is the resulting pixels. I try and aim for my panos to be at least 5000 pixels high so that any buyer has a massive image to crop into or use as is.

Yes, in a number of places permission was granted. The high elevations especially.

never say never. Especially where additional incomes streams are concerned Time lapse definitely isn't for you. You would do your brains in trying to sort that lot out!!! In any case, as you like submitting non-exclusively and want RM then it would be a challenge!

If you change your mind let me know as it is very very simple