AlamyPicNeeds again: Wisconsin's first expressway

[wiskerke]

10:30 AM - 27 Jul 2018

#AlamyPicNeeds: Wisconsin's first expressway #stockphotography

 

What were they thinking? Firstly what as the Content Team thinking? Secondly what was the researcher thinking?

 

The only ever search for this was on February 28. It looked like this:

 

Search Term                                    UCO

Wisconsin's first expressway     2
wisconsin's Expressway               1
Wisconsin first expressway        1

 

Clearly the same client, I would say.

 

There is no such thing as The First Expressway in Wisconsin.

Of course there has been a stretch of road that at one point was the first piece of expressway in Wisconsin. It turns out it's a part of the I-94 near Milwaukee.

- An expressway is a notch less than a freeway. On an expressway there are still at grade intersections and people can still have a driveway that allows them to enter the road. With a freeway all intersections are with over or underpasses and people having property on that road do not have the right of access.

Now when was it the first expressway in Wisconsin? Aha it was opened on September 4 in 1958. Almost 60 years ago. So the search will probably have to do with that: it's sixty years ago today or tomorrow it will be.. or this month, year etc.

It's not for a newspaper: they would not go looking before like 2 or 3 weeks in advance. Sometimes even just days before.

If it's for a magazine you may just have time to get that shot. But a shot of what? The Interstate 94 in Waukesha as it looks today? Probably not.

What the researcher was looking for is this lovely image:

Dedication of Wisconsin's First Expressway. From the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.

Description:

Dedication of Wisconsin's first expressway, a seven-mile stretch of Interstate Highway I-94 in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Presiding at the ribbon-cutting ceremony are several government officials and Miss Concrete and Miss Black Top. Holding the large pair of scissors is Governor Vernon Thomson and to his right is Secretary of State Robert Zimmerman. Warren Knowles, who would later become governor, is also in the crowd.

The client could have licensed it here:  https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM1873.

I'm pretty sure it only costs $22.50 for a download and a license (For Commercial or Non-Profit Use).

Because it's very easy to find this image with either the regular Google or Google Images for all the search phrases used on Alamy, I can only think of one reason to come looking here: that $22.50 was too expensive.

The funny thing is that it was not the first modern highway in Wisconsin. They had a piece of freeway before.

 

I wanted to go on about The First Expressway probably going to Lake Wobegon, but you may all google that for yourself.

(Yes I know the i-94 passes the gateway to Lake Wobegon. There may even be a sign. I'll pay more attention next time and ask my wife to drive.)

 

However I got side tracked because there was this new #AlamyPicNeed:

#AlamyPicNeeds: The urban rooftop farm in De Schilde #stockphotography

That's in The Hague. I know where it is. It's 50 minutes by car or 2h50minutes by bike along a beautiful bike path. Funkyworm has just done that two weeks ago.

It was a successful rooftop hangout for a while a couple of years back and I always thought I should visit it especially because they had a great rebuild and looked a lot better.

So I looked it up in AoA and yes there had been quite a lot of searches:  11 no less. All between March 22 - 26. Bummer that's 1 client again. Maybe 2. Maybe more if it had been in the news that week.

However it turned out there have been many more searches for Urban Farm and Rooftop Farm in AoA for the rolling year. On closer inspection a lot of those again were in that same March 22 - 26 period.

There are 271 images for urban farm rooftop on Alamy, but most don't show the rooftop thing (brilliant image that) or it's not a farm.

So I checked the weather for Monday or Tuesday and looked up their phone number.

And found that the Urban Rooftop Farm The Schilde  in the Hague had just gone bankrupt on July 3 three weeks ago.

(more in depth article in dutch)

 

facepalm

 

wim

[Bill Brooks]

The Content Team does not appear to have put much thought into this request. Some thoughtful direction by the content team would be much appreciated by me.

 

Good thing you are thinking about it, before you fly across the Atlantic on an exclusive assignment by Alamy to photograph Interstate 94 in Waukesha.

 

While you are at it, please get a news image of the Second Coming of Christ on the front lawn of a house in Waukesha. Happens on the first Monday of each month. Just ask at the Exxon station for directions to the house.

[Sally]

I had a similar experience recently. One of the Scottish pic needs was for Chalmers Memorial Church which is a lovely Arts and Crafts church a few miles away from where I live. I went to a concert there last September and took a few photos. Indeed, I had just received a sale notice (June 29th) for one of them and when I searched for it, found it in The Times. It was used for a story about the church treasurer who had embezzled over £72,000. But that was published on May 1st.

 

 

In fact, there are only five photos of the church on Alamy and they are all mine. Presumably the Alamy team thought more were needed even though apparently the need had passed. I suppose I should have gone back and taken some more exterior shots, since the Times has just rehashed their article, using a different image (not from Alamy) because the person concerned was just let off a prison sentence, having paid all the money back. If I had known that she was appealing the sentence, I might have done.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/son-sells-house-to-repay-70-000-his-mother-stole-from-church-tjlhd2539

 

The moral of this story - you just never know when a need for a particular image will arise.

 

[Cryptoprocta]

12 hours ago, Bill Brooks said:

The Content Team does not appear to have put much thought into this request.

Aren't the requests just pulled from searches which don't have (many) hits, in case a future buyer might want them? Maybe a lot of automation and not much thought in the process.

[losdemas]

1 hour ago, Cryptoprocta said:

Aren't the requests just pulled from searches which don't have (many) hits, in case a future buyer might want them? Maybe a lot of automation and not must thoight in the process.

 

Sadly, often seems to be the case, yes. Another request for Haynes owner's workshop manuals, which I'll respond to at some point by uploading some images, as there are surprisingly few images here. But I'll be in no rush as these 'requests' are clearly rarely such in reality.

...and with the decreasing returns, it seems like such an agonisingly long way to the bookcase. 

[Allan Bell]

10 minutes ago, losdemas said:

 

Sadly, often seems to be the case, yes. Another request for Haynes owner's workshop manuals, which I'll respond to at some point by uploading some images, as there are surprisingly few images here. But I'll be in no rush as these 'requests' are clearly rarely such in reality.

...and with the decreasing returns, it seems like such an agonisingly long way to the bookcase. 

 

Requests for Haynes owner's workshop manuals!

 

Sounds like someone wanting to buy actual manuals?

 

Allan

 

 

[wiskerke]

1 hour ago, Cryptoprocta said:

Aren't the requests just pulled from searches which don't have (many) hits, in case a future buyer might want them? <>

 

Of course they are and that's fine. However it's something we can and must do ourselves as well.

Inherently they will be searches from the past. But a quick scan will reveal if it has been just one particular moment when there was a need for something specific or whether this is an actual ongoing and preferably growing demand.

You don't have to be a specialist in some field or region. Some basic knowledge will help spotting real demands much quicker. However you're bound to overlook a lot as well. Which is why the Picture Needs can be really helpful. And more is better here.

Unfortunately you'll still have to think for yourself.

 

wim

[losdemas]

6 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Requests for Haynes owner's workshop manuals!

 

Sounds like someone wanting to buy actual manuals?

 

Allan

 

Wouldn't surprise me!

 

Hey, if it's a PU request, I'll happily upload an image of every page I have.  Let's see...£9.99 x ~200 pages - WOW - nearly £2,000 gross per manual!  Beats selling them at car boots!

[Allan Bell]

17 hours ago, losdemas said:

 

Wouldn't surprise me!

 

Hey, if it's a PU request, I'll happily upload an image of every page I have.  Let's see...£9.99 x ~200 pages - WOW - nearly £2,000 gross per manual!  Beats selling them at car boots!

 

 

Allan

 

 

[Brian Yarvin]

I'm sorry Wim, but wasn't Lake Wobegon located in Minnesota? 

 

I will grant you that most people confuse Wisconsin and Minnesota and speaking as a person who's been across both many times, they are doing so with good reason. 

 

For those of you who aren't up on their middle-American popular culture, here's the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon

 

 

[wiskerke]

1 hour ago, Brian Yarvin said:

I'm sorry Wim, but wasn't Lake Wobegon located in Minnesota? 

 

I will grant you that most people confuse Wisconsin and Minnesota and speaking as a person who's been across both many times, they are doing so with good reason. 

 

For those of you who aren't up on their middle-American popular culture, here's the wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Wobegon

 

This is how it sometimes opened:

Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, my hometown, out there on the edge of the prairie.

Here's another.

That's where the actual real Gate to Lake Wobegon is too. And the I-94 runs right past it. So the First Expressway in Wisconsin really does go all the way to Lake Wobegon.

A friend of ours lives 35 miles South of Waukesha where that stretch of First Expressway is.

She has a cabin (with sauna obviously) just off I-94 near here:

Lake Eau Claire WI.

That's a bit over halfway to Wobegon. I didn't get beyond Clearwater MN (on the I-94) though. So Wobegon is still on the list.

You're right it's all Wobegon country out there. A bit more German to the East with Bratwurst in Kenosha and the funny accents (meaning Scandinavian) in Minneapolis and beyond. Though we did meet mainly Fins in Kenosha and Somali in Minneapolis.

A great place. Maybe less so in winter.

 

wim

[TABan]

Actually in the States, the terms expressway and freeway are interchangeable but it varies by geography. In Chicago limited-access highways are called expressways. In L.A. they’re called freeways. The Edens Expressway running north toward Milwaukee from its junction with the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago predates the interstate system, so Interstate 94 was routed along it. When it was built, it was called a “superhighway.”