Brian Yarvin

Ian, even though I was there, it's hard for me to recall how vivid and energetic the stock photo industry was before all this consolidation. It was a time when there were always more vendors and always more buyers. I can't help but wish for a re-emergence of boutique agencies, even though I can't imagine what sorts of images they'd host or who they might offer those images to.

Cartier, if you love that image, it isn't a waste. It's just that it costs Alamy money to set up your account and one image isn't going to justify it - no matter what it's of or how cool it is.

Cartier-Bresson hated stock photography! He made some really nasty comments when Getty was taking over a major French journalism agency.

Dave, I'd reject this idea if it were for any agency except Alamy. They at least have a sales force in place that understands what we're talking about. Alamy could do it, but it would require some serious motivation on their part. As for your scenario of pros being replaced by amateurs, that happened long ago.

Hiding in plain sight!! You've got to love those tweets and blogs.

Okay Ian, where did you source this?

Good luck with the camera club! Look at it this way - when you learn all this stuff and find out how easy it really is, you'll look back on this thread and laugh.

If this is your goal, then I have nothing more to add. Join a camera club, learn the basics, read some books, learn the techniques you need to know in order to swim in the very deep and dangerous pool called stock photography, and then take your place among the contributors. I for one am cheering for you.

Mark, my workflow is really different than yours! I set (and re-set) color spaces in Capture1. FastStone is for sorting, evaluating and re-editing. (in my world)

Mark, there's lots more out there that's free or really inexpensive and that easily meets the requirements of Alamy and other professional photography sales platforms. It just takes a bit of knowledge to spot. FastStone Image Viewer will do a better job (in many ways) than bridge and is free. Of course, the list of alternate editing programs is long and has been repeated too many times here. Flo and Paul really need to learn the basics first though! They write "megabits" for (probably) "megabytes" and don't seem to understand basic file structures. The solution to that is free - some quality time with a few library books. It's not like they're in deep water without knowing how to swim, it's more like being in deep water without realizing that there's a technique called "swimming" that can help them cope with and eventually master that deep water. In addition, their expectation of being excused from learning the basics because of their age is disturbing to other photographers who have been educated later in life. They've asked for help and we can do it. Can we next suggest some book titles for them?

Good grief! I took a nice walk and had some lunch too and this is still going on!

Indeed, the irony is there in heaps, Ian. The genre that made this business boom for decades is now reduced to rubble.

Mark, it's one of the strangest I've ever seen and I can't keep away from it.

Ian, not a new method to the world, but a new chance to place images that once sold well and have now stopped selling with a new agency - a new chance at the marketplace.

Geo, it isn't one or the other for most of us. It's a willingness to try new methods when they appear and the opening up of new possibilities after the old ones have run their course. ... and yes ... I do detect some anger out there, just not from me.