Phil Robinson

Ah, it was that title that confused me.

(Described where?)

Some here from the British Museum from Ian Dagnall, Shaun Daley, Malcolm Park Editorial, Ukartpics (and one of mine) https://www.airtahitinui.com/uk-en/oceanic-art-my-private-cultural-orgy-british-museum

Quite a few Alamy credits in this book, including BETTINA STRENSKE GUY CORBISHLY PAUL DOYLE DAVID ROWE GUY BELL https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=oVjGDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT380&lpg=PT380&dq=alamy+pjrnews+-alamy.com&source=bl&ots=SR2WOqLFfF&sig=ACfU3U3l8voC4qrpDiNURo4_c5IUAfKFhw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZuePKhZznAhXHNcAKHWNiAywQ6AEwEHoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=alamy pjrnews -alamy.com&f=false

I don't think 'the press pack' can seen as one body. I spend a lot of time in Westminster and the photographers there - though competitive - are generally a friendly and well-behaved bunch (with the exception of Ian, above, who is a nightmare). The other week I found myself outside the BBC waiting for someone called Harry Styles to turn up and some of the camera-carriers there were appalling, pushing each other (me) and even upsetting young fans in wheelchairs while trying to get a better view. I felt really uncomfortable and thought I was going to get lynched when I told one of them to 'be nice'. I also do a lot of street photography, buy I never shove a camera in anyone's face, even celebs I pass who are off duty. 'Observers or intruders'? Both.

Number of sales up a little under 10% (though images on file increased by more) Actual income down fractionally, due to the reduction to 40% for non-exclusive - gross sales also up 10%. I expect next (sorry this) year to go up again.

For converting to RAW I use Capture NX-D - a free download from the Nikon website. Elements can do it too. https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/products/162/Capture_NX-D.html

You can certainly do cutouts and work with layers - in 8bit only but I've never seen that as a problem. Most of my recent mineral pics are more or less straight shots with a very bright background, but cutouts are pretty easy with a good choice of selection tools. I don't know grownup PS very well but I'd be surprised if Elements didn't give you everything you need. (I've just Googled Pen Tool and no, it doesn't have one of those).

Unfortunately editing and keywording are probably more important on here than photo quality. To sell on Alamy your images have to get seen by customers - among the 185million other images here. To make sure than happens, your captioning and keywording have to be done well and consistently. There are endless photographers who can take a good photo - a lot fewer who spend the time (or have the inclination) to do all the boring work that comes after uploading.

I have always used Photoshop Elements (poor man's Photoshop). It's a LOT cheaper than the full program and can be bought outright with a once only payment, not monthly. Unless you want to get into serious image manipulation - which it seems you don't - it is everything you need.

Just sold 11 pics of Euro coins to a Polish newspaper. I wonder if they noticed I'd changed this one a bit. I sort of hope they didn't.....

I thought it was about irrelevant results - images of ferrous metal coming up in searches for a domestic activity.

Computer translation can never work for single words. Especially for English which has SO MANY synonyms. Iron is one example. How about 'tip?' Is it a piece of advice? the point of a pencil? a rubbish dump? a gratuity you leave for your waiter in a restaurant? If you go on the German site and do a search for "Trinkgeld" ('drink money' - the money you leave for your waiter) the first results are a felt-tip pen, a white tipped shark, an orange tip butterfly, ........ These results are quite understandable to an English-speaker, and a new search with other words to clarify will bring up the subject you want. But if you are a German who doesn't speak good English (and I believe there are a handful) these results are meaningless and thoroughly confusing. Imagine doing a search for 'dragon' and getting loads of pic of children flying kites. Irrelevant, yes? But the same word in German (Drachen) Thankfully most Germans do speak pretty good English and will either search in English or be able to work out why they got the weird results in German, and have a good laugh at them.

The submission in QC was there for about 10 minutes before passing. The one I've just uploaded went straight through.

After several submissions passing immediately, the one I have just sent is now 'in QC'. It looks like the policy has moved from checking one or two images each time to checking random submissions.

Sold these yesterday. I assumed they were for use on invites to the Labour Party Karaoke Night tomorrow evening but it turns out they were used by Fullfact.org The weird thing is that though the pics come up in Google searches on links to the articles, they are nowhere to be seen in the actual articles. But I got paid so I'm not too bothered.

Thanks for spotting that. I saw it had been zoomed - good to know I'll be getting my $4 soon...!

I don't do many food photos but I did sell this one once. What I still don't understand to this day is what made me decide to stop eating and take the photo at this point.....

Two shots and a bit of Photoshopping?

I am careful about which countries I upload - not British or US for example - and mark them all as editorial only, but I was wondering about Alamy's view of what constitutes a 'work of art'.

I have a lot of photos of stamps. Do they count as 'artworks'?

I did this years ago and it took AGES. Finally all that hard work has paid off and I got $7!

Putting your home address in the keywords is cheating!

Today equaled the number of sales I made last year - over a month to go. Money received isn't as high yet, but given the change in commission that's not surprising - not that far short and still hoping to beat last year's total.

I tried diversifying into video - which meant looking for a new agent. When I found one I discovered they sell short clips of music as well. So I bought a cheap manuscript composing software program, dusted off my O Level harmonising skills and started writing string quartets and piano duets. There's half an idea to link them with suitable video footage one day to make a complete package - if I ever write anything suitable. I do it at weekends mostly, so I don't feel like it's getting in the way of doing something that might actually make some money one day.