Brian Yarvin

If you view keywording as a "hassle," Alamy won't be worth it for you. If your fascinated by what your pictures are of and represent, then you'll find the keywording interesting and Alamy a good place to be.

Young: let's clarify here. Alamy is an agency site that does well with journalism, but it does just as well with commercial work. When we speak of a journalistic approach here on this board, we mean that you have to think like a journalist when you upload your images. Accurate keywording, succinct captions, and proper descriptions. In the sense we mean here, you can upload the most commercial stock images that you can imagine, but in order to make them earn their keep, you'll have to act like a journalist when you're entering your data.

Don't forget that no matter how beautiful, stylish, and personal your images are, they'll still need great keywording. Buyers - no matter what sort of taste in images they have - start their searches the same way.

Yes indeed. I do my best with moderately tight editing and images that make commercial or editorial sense. If I can't imagine it competing with the images I see in publications that I myself read, I would hesitate to post it. I don't know what it's like in the rest of the world, but here in Pennsylvania, USA, glamour photos almost seem archaic. I am old enough to remember when they were an important part of the market, but most of the rest of us aren't.

Steve, this in itself is an issue. Each image you post has an effect on your Alamy rank and those glam images will certainly drag it down. At minimum, move them to a separate pseudonym so they don't ruin the sales potential of the rest of your collection.

May I also suggest that images of farming also have great commercial appeal. Don't overlook that beautiful and/or powerfully symbolic shot.

I am delighted to see the direction this thread is going in. There are some very interesting comments.

James, I am going to begin the discussion with a comment that I believe should be made more often; try to make at least a small part of your portfolio reflect a specialty. We all do found photos, but they're not what makes portfolios stick out. Find a specialty and sprinkle those images into your collection. That way, people can more easily describe you and search for you. Others here are really great at pointing out issues with captioning and keywording. Pay attention to their comments!

What interests me the most about this thread is that it doesn't look at agency financials at all. Signs of life and death are based solely on the experiences of a handful of photographers. While we can't see the books of several formidable stock agents, it would be possible to see enough to get a real sense of industry direction. What's the story? Jim Pickerell is good at checking numbers and who else? What we really need to know is if the revenue flowing towards photographers is increasing or decreasing and the small group of us that posts here doesn't really offer a solid foundation of data. The state of the industry and its major players is the real question and we need some way to answer it.

I told you so, Laura! Colin's comments are the first tiny step in a very long journey.

Allan, I'd never heard of either and I haven't the slightest interest in Musical Theater. When I first saw the names in this forum, I assumed they were British MP's, perhaps from the nineteenth century. As is usual, I was wrong.

You've found the perfect answer to your question! The captioning, tagging, and pseudonym creation that a successful Alamy experience requires will keep you busy for decades. Keyword for a decade or two and your vocabulary will become spectacular too.

I once had an alleged captioning mistake reported to me by member services. That caption turned out to be correct in the first place and left me with a strange feeling. While they admitted that another contributor reported it, they wouldn't say who it was or report back to that individual when things were checked out. On one hand, I felt like I had been denounced and on the other, I understood that all large collections must have an error or two. I urge you to think carefully and be absolutely sure.

Thank you, but the real thanks should go to Bill and his very interesting photos.

That's "New photos from old archive photos on a cold cloudy winter day" for those of you who flunked Russian back in grade school and/or don't have inline translation.