So, stock photography...

[NYCat]

48 minutes ago, Martin Carlsson said:

 

I know it can be hard to get back up in terms of rank if you sunk too low, but there is always the option to start a-fresh with a median ranking by starting up a new pseudo. There are also different theories about the pros and cons of using several pseudos.

 

Also, if I remember correctly - "stacking of similars" have been on the cards/mentioned previously, which I think is a great idea giving the buyer more options without the downside of clogging up the search or being detrimental to your Alamy Rank.

 

 

 

NO NO NO. You have been here longer than I have so may have blocked out the nightmare of STACKING. All of our best images hidden by some randomly chosen image that didn't represent the subject well. If you are thinking of a system in which we can voluntarily stack our own similars that would, perhaps, be OK but when Alamy did it there was much moaning and groaning until they saw the error of their ways.

 

Paulette

[Martin Carlsson]

53 minutes ago, NYCat said:

 

NO NO NO. You have been here longer than I have so may have blocked out the nightmare of STACKING. All of our best images hidden by some randomly chosen image that didn't represent the subject well. If you are thinking of a system in which we can voluntarily stack our own similars that would, perhaps, be OK but when Alamy did it there was much moaning and groaning until they saw the error of their ways.

 

Paulette

 

You're right, I completely forgot, my memory is really bad, hopefully to not early signs of things to come!

 

Anyway, of course a contributor chosen main image and control of the stacking and what goes into it. We need to tame the beast that this 100million+ thing has become.

[NYCat]

The word "stacking" still gives me shivers. I figured you must have forgotten.

 

Paulette

[christian58]

Chris!  I had a look at your port and I like the interiors and the editorial feel of towns and streetmarkets BUT you know there are billions of this content!...you really want to start aiming the camera at more commercial subjects, hope you understand what I mean!

[chris_rabe]

31 minutes ago, christian58 said:

Chris!  I had a look at your port and I like the interiors and the editorial feel of towns and streetmarkets BUT you know there are billions of this content!...you really want to start aiming the camera at more commercial subjects, hope you understand what I mean!

 

As I have said to others, my Alamy port is a lot of holiday snaps and stuff I shot purely for here (and not stuff I normally shoot)

 

My main focus is wildlife, and currently attempting to work on my landscapes - https://www.chrisrabe.co.uk/-/galleries/portfolio

 

Even on my main site for wildlife, I am still massively behind on processing my backlog.

 

I will, in time, shift to more commercial stuff, but my main aim is going to be wildlife - and even that I still don't have the strongest portfolio. Majority of everything I have listed is only about two or three years old at most. It's not something I have been perusing for all that long

 

I'm working hard at it - been out the last 6 weekends in godawful weather, taking chance and trying to get familiar with some of the birds I am after - a primary focus right now is Marsh Harrier. Have now seen many, but not close.

 

Also after owls, and after years of searching I finally found a reliable place for at least Little Owl this year - I will visit them again Sunday if I get some sunlight

 

But, yes,  I know I won't be able to live on that, so I will try and find some more commercial aspect I'd like to pursue.

[Starsphinx]

16 minutes ago, chris_rabe said:

 

As I have said to others, my Alamy port is a lot of holiday snaps and stuff I shot purely for here (and not stuff I normally shoot)

 

My main focus is wildlife, and currently attempting to work on my landscapes - https://www.chrisrabe.co.uk/-/galleries/portfolio

 

Even on my main site for wildlife, I am still massively behind on processing my backlog.

 

I will, in time, shift to more commercial stuff, but my main aim is going to be wildlife - and even that I still don't have the strongest portfolio. Majority of everything I have listed is only about two or three years old at most. It's not something I have been perusing for all that long

 

I'm working hard at it - been out the last 6 weekends in godawful weather, taking chance and trying to get familiar with some of the birds I am after - a primary focus right now is Marsh Harrier. Have now seen many, but not close.

 

Also after owls, and after years of searching I finally found a reliable place for at least Little Owl this year - I will visit them again Sunday if I get some sunlight

 

But, yes,  I know I won't be able to live on that, so I will try and find some more commercial aspect I'd like to pursue.

My experience with wildlife is they all know exactly what a camera is and exactly who the wildlife photographers are

 

- and make sure to either give you glimpse so you know they were there before disappearing, get into a direct line between you and the sun, or pose beautifully for any length of time while you compose the shot check the settings etc - then move just as you press the shutter leaving you with yet another one to add to collection of perfectly focused rocks branches and patches of grass. Mind you I was chuffed to get this shot - been trying for a while to get the whole focus thing right

[chris_rabe]

1 minute ago, Starsphinx said:

My experience with wildlife is they all know exactly what a camera is and exactly who the wildlife photographers are

 

- and make sure to either give you glimpse so you know they were there before disappearing, get into a direct line between you and the sun, or pose beautifully for any length of time while you compose the shot check the settings etc - then move just as you press the shutter leaving you with yet another one to add to collection of perfectly focused rocks branches and patches of grass. Mind you I was chuffed to get this shot - been trying for a while to get the whole focus thing right

Yes, if only they'd follow instructions or stay where you tell them. 

 

Though on that last point, was reading a successful wildlife photographer blog, and he went on about 'wildlife photographers' who rent trained animals to pose in natural surroundings - what the 😂

 

Everything I do is completely natural. No zoos. No trained animals. There are loads of workshops I could have been on where I could have gotten close to raptors for great shots. I'm doing it the hard way 😊

[Starsphinx]

I guess the seagull was sort of semi trained - people feed the ducks from the bridge it was taken from - they are encouraged to do that rather than from the bank to reduce encouragement for rats - so the gulls are very very used to flying up in front of people to try and catch the bread before it hits the water.  Then again it had not be trained for photographic purposes so I claim natural lol.

Where one of my sons work there are perches used regularly by both buzzards and kestrels - they are fine with cars parked next to them I am just working on getting them to accept the car parked with the camera pointing at them - as they will wait until they see the camera and fly off (or if they want to annoy move to 3 or 4 different perches moving just as I get them back in focus.  Close to that there are red kites.  I should have more time in the new year to go and just sit.

 

[chris_rabe]

1 minute ago, Starsphinx said:

I guess the seagull was sort of semi trained - people feed the ducks from the bridge it was taken from - they are encouraged to do that rather than from the bank to reduce encouragement for rats - so the gulls are very very used to flying up in front of people to try and catch the bread before it hits the water.  Then again it had not be trained for photographic purposes so I claim natural lol.

Where one of my sons work there are perches used regularly by both buzzards and kestrels - they are fine with cars parked next to them I am just working on getting them to accept the car parked with the camera pointing at them - as they will wait until they see the camera and fly off (or if they want to annoy move to 3 or 4 different perches moving just as I get them back in focus.  Close to that there are red kites.  I should have more time in the new year to go and just sit.

 

You are lucky a) having car, having so much close by. 

Kestrel I get many of, and while there is the odd Buzzard very occasionally, it is always way high up. Kites and everything else I generally have to travel hours for by train ☺️

[Starsphinx]

1 minute ago, chris_rabe said:

You are lucky a) having car, having so much close by. 

Kestrel I get many of, and while there is the odd Buzzard very occasionally, it is always way high up. Kites and everything else I generally have to travel hours for by train ☺️

I am lucky - towns are so close together in the area most wildlife becomes so acclimatized to humans, but with plenty of nice rural settings.  Mind you growing up buzzards were a rarity and kites just a dream - it is amazing how the variety and populations have changed over the years.  Kestrels are now rarer than buzzards around here.  Sparrows far less common, I would have to go looking to find starlings - but long-tailed tits are everywhere and I never saw one of those as a child. 

[andremichel]

19 hours ago, spacecadet said:

I'm just coming up to 100 for 2018 as well and I'm only on Alamy. So you're quite a bit above average.

Using Alamy's turnover figures and my current average sales price, Alamy make approx. 1 million sales per year. 

 

Divide by 40,000 subscribers puts the average at 25 sales a year. 

[Inchiquin]

21 hours ago, Brasilnut said:

 

I think my relatively poor results have to do with my extremely low CTR caused by bad keywording in my early days

 

 

Or it could possibly be because the same images are available on microstock for a fraction of the cost.

 

Alan

[Steve Valentia]

If your market is truly "niche", then there is scope for you to become your own agent and cut out the middle man. Build up your portfolio - with quality images, and a good number of them. Then (and I suggest you do the photography first) research your niche markets. I've gone into more details about this another thread, but there are publications and organizations out there that are geared for this sort of work. Find your markets and target them directly.

[chris_rabe]

So, upon reading upon more reading about the two midstocks that accepted me, I am very surprised by the one. Just the fact that am through the door already has thinking about certain things I could try for them I kind of mis-judged their market initially.

 

The other also seems like a solid place, but their split is 60/40 in their favour. That's not necessarily a bad thing, if they aren't giving away for pennies.

[Brasilnut]

2 hours ago, Inchiquin said:

 

Or it could possibly be because the same images are available on microstock for a fraction of the cost.

 

Alan

 

Perhaps. Difficult to say for sure. 

 

But we're going round in circles here since I mentioned earlier that those 7,000 duplicated images earn me on average 3-4x what they do here on any given month. So if they sell there, instead of here, it's still a sale nevertheless...could be lower priced on average but in the grand scheme of things it's still hugely ++ for me (probably because volumes make up for it)...although I would need data to work with which is pretty much impossible to obtain on buyers' habits/intentions.   

 

I do have some 2,000 RM exclusive images on here which mainly just take up some obscure server space with no benefit to me, sadly. Mainly Live News stuff that I never duplicated but also some interesting shots from Dubai and Israel. Experiment gone wrong. Frustrating. 

 

Also did a series on refugees in Milan, Italy of about 30 images about a year ago and put them all up as RM exclusive and not even zooms.