Bob Wick

I was notified this morning that I've been approved for Reportage and Archive. So the question is answered, how long that process takes. 🙂

Well the news story had a big resurgence, the whole "justice for" angle, along with a search for the suspects. Meanwhile I'm still blocked from uploading anything to Reportage. You'd think they'd want to see the photos first, before denying or approving the application. How long does it normally take to get accepted for Reportage/Archive uploads? And is it safe to assume there will be another delay as they approve the actual uploads? The thing is, I was following Alamy's specific instructions to bypass the standard process and instead receive a "temporary approval": Since I still cannot select the News box on the upload page, it seems I remain in queue for approval. So even if I took different breaking news photos today, I'd have to repeat the same process of emailing back and forth trying to secure temporary approval before the 24hr deadline... I wonder if when LiveNews rejected the last temporary approval request offhand because of the deadline, and directed me instead to Reportage, did they know I would be stuck in limbo for days and days?

In the meantime I'm preparing a collection of standard stock photos, emphasizing landscapes and nature. In particular I have photographed certain regional and national parks that appear to not have any stock photos available. I've been planning to do that for a long time.

Thank you Stokie, I'll be ready next time. After 30 hours I did receive a reply from Alamy Contributor Relations this morning, only informing me I cannot upload anything to Reportage/ Archival until my application is reviewed. The photos are now 60 hours old and probably have no value or interest as current news. I bypassed Alamy already, reaching out directly to a regional paper where I've had news photos published before. So maybe I'll get a bite there. And I still intend to upload them as stock photos. CSI stuff is quite popular now, and I don't see an abundance of similar authentic materials on Alamy.

I think you're absolutely right. It was so fast and relatively easy to sign up, but then hit a speed bump. But they do market the LiveNews angle pretty heavily. I doubt many people have several days' notice they're going to photograph a news event. Tuesday morning here now, I still can't upload any news photos but at least the forum post has been approved. 🙂 It's very nice to 'meet' you, by the way. Have a good day!

I want to walk through my experience so far. If someone could indicate whether this is typical, or Alamy is being stressed due to the epidemic. Because I'm not sure this is going to work out for me: Late Saturday night I took some local news photos that might have been of regional and local interest. I was hoping to have the photos available for licensing by Monday morning. On Sunday I began investigating Alamy, reading the contracts, etc. I completed the application process to become a member, and at 6:50 pm received an automated Welcome email. I immediately went through the Live News application process to meet the 24-hr news window, and prepared the photos with the requested metadata. At 8:28 I received an email confirming the LiveNews application, but stating they are very busy and requesting that I contact news@alamy.com for temporary LiveNews access, which I promptly did at 8:33 pm. At 2am I received a reply from news@alamy.com with instructions on how to prepare the images, which I had already done. A couple of emails back-and-forth, and I was informed the photos are now outside the 24hr window and no longer eligible for Live News. They said I should contact contributors@alamy.com and upload them as Reportage. As it turns out, I had already applied for both Reportage and Archival uploads but the functions weren't approved yet. As suggested, I sent contributors@alamy.com an email at 2:17 am asking them to please check on my Reportage status. I immediately received an automated reply saying if my question wasn't answered in the following info, I would get a real reply within 24 hours. It also suggested some questions might be answered in the community forums.... So I signed up for the discussion forum this morning and posted some simple questions related to the Portfolio page. Now it is 9pm Monday evening. Any interest in the photos is probably gone now, but I still cannot select the LiveNews or Reportage boxes on the uploads page. My first forum post has been awaiting moderator approval for nine hours. And I have yet to receive an actual reply from contributors@alamy.com (The times listed are United States Mountain Time Zone) This all is very frustrating to me. Is this just how the system works? How does anyone ever get approved for LiveNews within an hour, as they suggest, or even meet the 24hr cutoff period?

Good morning! I was unable to get an account set up and temporary Live News status approved within the 24hr "news window." So now I await the account to be approved for "Reportage" content. In the meantime I'm exploring the website and setting up a Portfolio page. I have two questions, should be rather quick for someone who's been around Alamy: Will all of my submitted images appear on the Portfolio page? I'd rather not have that, especially certain news photos. Second, there are very intuitive buttons for the profile photo and title, but there is no "Edit Image" button to add a cover photo. Is that correct, or I'm overlooking it?