Phil Robinson

But these WOULD be news.

Great Auk in West Cork

One I've just noticed - "Butterflies in Belarus". Ironically, there is a chance they actually are almost newsworthy, as they are Painted Lady butterflies that will have migrated from Africa, and that is a story every year. Shame, therefore, that there is no mention of migration in the caption - or even the species of butterfly. How do these get through???

I do sometimes, especially headshots of people if I have better ones available. I do often go back to files I sent as live news and put more effort into the processing to get better quality images for stock, if I think they are worth it - then delete the news ones.

Report it by all means but don't get your hopes up. I am a big supporter of Alamy but their Unauthorised Use department is consistently the most disappointing part of the business. Expect to get a message in a couple of weeks saying they sent an email but didn't get an answer so there is nothing more they can do.

Thanks for finding that - there's been a lot of interest in photos of my extensive collection of Interrail tickets this week.

That's most of them these days.....

I would totally agree.

I'd agree with that - to a certain extent. Experience shows that spending an hour or two in Downing Street on a Tuesday morning can be worthwhile, even if there are another six of the usual suspects (including Ian) there. Unfortunately, though live news sales can pay for all that standing around, stock sales of the same images (to newspapers for $6 a time) later bring in VERY little these days and shouldn't really be seen as a justification for being there. However, the vast majority of my income still comes from general stock and for me a morning in The Street is usually followed by an afternoon elsewhere in London, taking the sort of stock that brings in most of my sales. If I can get a shot of a cabinet minister that pays the train fare (and more, hopefully) I usually go home with a few dozen more shots that I add to the portfolio.

That's a good average!

Hi Ian - tempted not to try any 'advice' as I'm usually standing next to you trying to sell the same pictures.... Like you I now have a growing collection of the same people walking out of That door (though most of them won't be doing it any more since last week) - and tennis players from my annual trips to Eastbourne. I have been trying to edit them. A lot look VERY similar and, while they get used for live news occasionally, once they become stock I really don't think I need so many. I've been going through, person by person, picking the best ten or so and deleting the rest if they don't offer anything different. Hopefully that will mean the ones potential customers see first are likely to be better and more likely to be picked. At least, that's the plan. Some way to go yet.

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Best month ever for for the number of sales - not so for amount earned but the best for a while, and well above average. I agree with the above about newspaper prices - appalling, if not live news.

and that one! You're doing a great job.

Thanks for finding that