imageplotter

I care zilch what the old male Alamy forum anoraks have to say: It's degrading, it's sexist and it has absolutely no place in 2020 photo journalism or news photography. It's disgusting to see people being proud of getting print with these shitty shots. If you can't see what's wrong with them, then you cannot see what is wrong with the British newspaper landscape and has been for decades. Needless to say that many other countries have moved on from the women in bikini shots a long time ago, but Britain is stuck in this degrading excuse for 'news' images when all it really is, is to provide a cheap way for old bald blokes to get off on images of semi naked women. Well done, togs, hope you're proud of yourselves. Pathetic. I feel sorry for photographers who chase the mostly low value online (and occasional higher value print) sales to tabloids by sitting somewhere, preferably with a 600m, pointing their cams at women's arses and feeling that's totally fine because there is 'demand' for it and there has always been 'demand' for it and that it's just harmless fun. You're creating a demand, you are part of the problem. And you're proud of it. Again - I feel sorry for the lot of you. The decline of the Brit newspaper industry is making even some of the former broadsheets desperate enough to fill their pages with the lowest common denominator - sex sells, as 'they' say. and 'they' are happy to continue down that line. The only comforting thought is that most of those 'news' papers will be gone not too far in the future, a few are already simply propped up by ownership funds to serve as political platforms and little else. The rest will follow. You may need to find other things to snap on the beach then. I will not re-visit this threat.

I still have more than $500 net sales uncleared between October and Feb. That October one particularly annoys me. The only reaction I had from Alamy so far was an acknowledgement of my email and the usual 'sales can take a while to be cleared'. It's been 8 months and counting.

Hobbyist 2-days a week "photographers" who can barely crop a decent image repeatedly going out in central London spreading a virus because they fancy themselves important are the real danger. Shame on all of them. Hope the lives of others were worth the tiny amount you'll earn from that sh*t. Rant over. Don't care what you think. It's wrong on every level.

It depends on your port. A lot of the traditional 'stocky' stock side I should think still does well. Unlucky for me that apart from the news images, there are lots of travel pics in mine. They're normally doing ok, but obviously not now, and the travel sector is likely to be down for more than just this year. Taken a real hit for me. Happy to accept that, nobody's fault. As for the cleared balance...not so good. Tried to contact alamy, but only had the generic ' Temporarily, we’re unlikely to be able to answer your email due to a reduction in team size', which isn't very helpful. 29th now, so that cleared balance is it for this month I presume. Won't be rushing to work on the port after this. Especially not when I see how much effort I often put in the edits, and how much, shall we say, 'less carefully edited' stuff is rushed through in bulk via the news feed by certain togs and, even more so, certain agencies. That's very depressing to see and just tells me nobody is after quality, it's just a numbers game now. Not my cuppa.

I've still got an uncleared sale from October. Gross value $191.32, a news usage. Quite a few uncleared from Jan and Feb. One uncleared Feb sale at gross value $300.

The sales are still doing ok, though pretty low (lots of ever decreasing low value sales for online editorial pics), but the balance clearance is not. My current cleared balance is so pathetic that I'm no longer motivated to submit pics, even though thousands are still sitting on my hard drives. I'm a full time photographer and almost all of my client work has been cancelled since late February. Some of the larger clients have kindly already re-booked for late autumn/winter which is lovely, but many don't know if they can commit to dates yet. So in theory, I have a lot of time to shoot and edit stock (I'm not really doing any news at the moment as I don't consider much of what is being distributed as 'key worker' worthy and do not want to contribute to the spread of this virus). In practice, clearance is so low that it is absolutely not worth even using the equipment risking more wear and tear daily, paying for fast upload speed internet, paying my photographer's insurances, etc. The nearly 25k Alamy images are sitting there idly or are being sold for peanuts. It makes more financial sense to ride it out doing non-photography paying work which pays well, and return to decent-pay client photography work as and when I can later in the year, sadly. In terms of the pricing trend, let's face it this will not reverse, it's bargain basement and only really makes sense as a little hobby on the side to supplement travel plans etc.

Yes, I also still have quite a lot of uncleared sales from January onwards. That in itself is not unusual, but in combination with the almost non existent pay out this month, it worries me deeply. I look forward to getting some background on that announced thread. (hopefully)

Ian, I think he just spotted those trainers with the hole in them and thought they looked suspicious! 😀 I guess I've just discover what is possibly the only advantage of being a female in this business (and there are many, many disadvantages in a 90%+ male environment). Despite running around those same Westminster haunts most days with 2 camera bodies dangling off me, I've not been questioned by Police (yet) and only really have to show the NUJ card at the Downing Street gates (where the officers are always faultlessly friendly and professional). I probably just look too innocent. Common misconception.

Absolutely agree. And a lot of harm can be done with false allegations, as we all know. But it's never a good idea to create these worshipped, larger-than-life figures. Just imho.

Yes I do that, too. My comment was more regarding direct sales on the news side.

Journalism is about the full picture. And it serves as a timely reminder not to put anyone on a pedestal, as tempting as that may be in these dark times.

Agree. They're effectively buying market share in editorial/stock.

Yep. Agree on all of the above. This doesn't surprise me though, to be honest, it looked like the business was being beefed up and prepared for a sale for some time now. Direct sales may well be the way forward. I've already further reduced the amount of time I spend doing news in favour of other photography work, which was a financial necessity for me. The news bit is so small and likely not or not very profitable, I'm not optimistic that they'd want to keep running it. I'll wait and see for a while, not looking forward to potentially having to make a large number of stock pics non-exclusive and do loads of work on them to sell elsewhere. But if needs must... I hope they'll keep the stock brand at least, my worst fear would be for the library to gradually be dumped into a microstock environment.

Geographically, it will always remain 'in Europe'. Unless the island suddenly drifts off and docks on to Iceland, Greenland or Newfoundland (get your coats and mittens out, folks), or drifts a bit further and joins Florida (they may turn us into an exclusive gated golf resort called England-al-Lago), or it drifts even further and docks on to the coast of Venezuela (they may turn us into a Corbyn-al-Lago work camp). But a quick look at any map tells me that Ireland may act as a bit of a bumper to any 'drifting of'. 😋

Ditto. Image numbers up, sales volume up, revenue slowed considerably. I've adjusted accordingly. Neither stock nor news have ever been a dominant part of my overall photo business or revenue, but they were a reliable add-on, and enjoyable for some time. They no longer are, other types of photography are more profitable, enjoyable and more rewarding overall. They may carry more risks (dealing with clients directly is not always fun) I suppose that's how it goes, the trend is hard to ignore unless you put your blinkers on and pretend it's not happening. Shame, really. But life goes on. Elsewhere.