John Mitchell Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 46 minutes ago, Marianne said: I like the idea of a higher-priced exclusive group of images. I don't think Chuck suggested micro prices, just the usual Alamy mid-to-lower prices we're seeing now. I think Alamy has to realize that thanks to their unique non-edited collection, they have a lot of unique images that you can't find anywhere else and that people are willing to pay for those images. I've licensed work myself from my site from out of the way places - e.g. small towns that are suddenly getting "hot" - and spoken to web designers who said that my photos were the only good ones they could find from that location. Alamy needs to take advantage of that. Those are the kinds of images I keep only on Alamy. For example, Alamy licensed one of mine for $250 from a town near a very popular beach community that does not have a beach front like the others, so it is not as well represented as its neighbors whose photos number in the thousands. They licensed 4 more from that little town for $75-$100+ and I bet they could have gotten $250 for each of them too, because there isn't much competition. These are images that I would not put on the micros because they won't sell that often and when they do, I don't want it to be for a few dollars. I have a lot of images however that could be exclusive (because they are on other boutique macro or midstock sites) that I have not put on micros (although they would do well there) because I expect Alamy to get significantly better prices for them, so I don't want to see non-exclusive images fall into some micro-like category, especially without micro volume and without immediate payment. Is Alamy really going to chase down a $10 unpaid use? It's bad enough to get $10 for an image that could be earning me hundreds each year elsewhere, or even a few hundred here if price was negotiated better, and then have to wait 60 days to be paid. I've been a big Alamy supporter but I'm starting to feel very disillusioned. If Alamy can negotiate higher prices for some exclusive images, then that would be great. However, I think they should be trying to get the best prices possible for non-exclusive images as well -- i.e. they shouldn't be devalued, especially given the new 40% commission. However, a voluntary-participation, lower priced "Alamy Lite" collection for RF images makes some sense. It might (?) help stem the flow of RF images from Alamy to micros that appears to be happening now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 Late due to time wasted having fun in the sun. As reported elsewhere 3 PU sales of the same photo, never previously sold. 15 leases max $61, monthly gross depressingly down on last year's average. Zooms recovered after Xmas period downturn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 I do not believe that I made myself clear so I will try again. NOTE: My own opinion: I come from decades of working with Photo Agencies, still communicate with a few of the surviving ones that I have worked with for more than 25 years, all of which are also not in the U.S. In 2019 and with "libraries" like Alamy the key to success is to produce and deliver finished images ready to be licensed, which is all the work of the contributor. In the old days a Photo agent would do a lot of the work, dupes, captions that were written on the slide mounts, phone calls to editors and walking to offices. Those days are gone along with taking RAW film to an airport and begging a passenger to carry the film to New York or Paris. In any event most of the images on Alamy and Alamy's Live News are not really breaking page 1 news material of the kind that first time publication rights can generate over $100,000 (to do that an agent would need to really be the sole negotiator for a set of images). While I do not expect to be making that kind of images these days, I would be interested in knowing if Alamy has the staff that is experienced in negotiating with that type of material. Now again in my opinion: This idea of creating two, three or four different groups or levels of images within Alamy is not a good idea and it just makes Alamy's job more difficult. The way forward is to make the system (Alamy) flow more smoothly and quickly. Again I will say that it is up to the contributors to Alamy to make images that can be licensed for higher fees and then it is up to Alamy to get those fees. I also believe that it is up to each photographer to educate themselves about what makes a picture valuable and how to make valuable images. I pay very close attention to what is being published, what is breaking news and think constantly about how to illustrate a current news subjects. Lastly, after working as a corporate and magazine photographer for decades, I took 15 years off and am doing corporate work again and can earn more in two days on a corporate shoot than I make in a year from licenses on Alamy. I do hope to get back to scanning old news worthy chromes again and to occasionally shoot an event for Live News, but I just do not see the return in doing too much of that in 2019. Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 On 01/03/2019 at 18:29, Reimar said: wiskerke said: He didn't say it was a good income. It was just as bad as his income here. But with a smaller port, and in a much shorter period of time. _________________ I agree Liz. The average port' size for the month was about half of what I have here. Just starting, I am at the lowest percentage fees, but that will go up in about 3-4 months. My expectation is that longer term I can double my income with two rather than one library. It's a lot of work though - I've hardly shot anything in months. Yeah, and super-tedious: but what's likely to earn you more based on your early experience? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reimar Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 23 minutes ago, Cryptoprocta said: Yeah, and super-tedious: but what's likely to earn you more based on your early experience? You're right, adding hundreds of new images would not compare to adding thousands to a new agent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHA Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 I'm brand-new here, and I don't know if this has been suggested on the forum before, but I'd love to have the option to set reserve prices for certain images, like you can in auctions. I'm just getting started with Alamy, and I'm optimistic about how things will go overall, but I can already say there are certain images I won't be posting because I don't want to see them go for low dollars. I'm not a microstock chick whatsoever. There are certain images I'd like to maintain some control over, and say if the client isn't willing to pay X dollars, they can go find a similar image elsewhere. By setting reserve prices (depending on usage) we would become our own negotiators. I think photographers need to remember there will always be clients who place a premium on uniqueness, just like with couture, or custom cars, or landing a table at an exclusive restaurant, and a photo they'll be seeing every time they click on a site or pick up a publication, because 100 different people have bought it, will be a turn-off to them. I know it would be to me if I were choosing photography for a project. I think photographers need to share the responsibility of keeping our industry viable, and not surrender control to agencies so easily and put all the responsibility on them. That said, I certainly do hope Alamy is negotiating for the best pricing possible, and heartily protecting photographers' rights against client infringements. But so far, Alamy seems pretty cool to me, so we'll see. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Posted March 2, 2019 Share Posted March 2, 2019 1 hour ago, John Mitchell said: If Alamy can negotiate higher prices for some exclusive images, then that would be great. However, I think they should be trying to get the best prices possible for non-exclusive images as well -- i.e. they shouldn't be devalued, especially given the new 40% commission. However, a voluntary-participation, lower priced "Alamy Lite" collection for RF images makes some sense. It might (?) help stem the flow of RF images from Alamy to micros that appears to be happening now. I completely agree John. I was just agreeing with what I though Chuck was saying, that there should be some assurance that Alamy will negotiate for better prices for particularly for exclusive images - but I think they should be negotiating better prices for all - they have licensed some of my images to a particular national magazine for web and print use for $50-100 and yet when that same magazine downloads directly from my site they pay $200 for the same use ( a few times now, starting in 2010 before Alamy ever licensed one of my images to them, and as recently as 2018). Even on the micro sites where you can chose to make an image exclusive, you get a higher price for each tier from subscriptions to actual limited time exclusive use of those photos. I don't want to see a micro priced option here. (If they do that, I'd rather take my chance on a micro site that licenses several of my images daily, not a few a month). Your quoting what I said leads me to believe you thought I was advocating for a tiered system. I am not - I just think that if I'm going to make an image exclusive here, I need to know that it will not be licensed for $10. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 meanwhile, back to the "how was your February" post ......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 16 minutes ago, Ace said: meanwhile, back to the "how was your February" post ......... It sounds like February was a complicated month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 2 hours ago, John Mitchell said: It sounds like February was a complicated month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 My February was a recovery to normal levels of sales and prices from a somewhat weak January. My production level continues at around 100 image submissions a month. Weather-wise I have never experienced a more pleasant winter month than this past one. Normally, they tell me, it rains a lot in Seville in winter. Not this year. Edo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 After two really bad months, February was good - better than average - thanks largely to a surge on the afternoon of the 27th. High hopes for March - lurking around Westminster in the last weeks seems to be paying off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 21 hours ago, Ed Rooney said: My February was a recovery to normal levels of sales and prices from a somewhat weak January. My production level continues at around 100 image submissions a month. Weather-wise I have never experienced a more pleasant winter month than this past one. Normally, they tell me, it rains a lot in Seville in winter. Not this year. Edo Edo, Enjoyed looking at your recent photos, makes my want to visit Spain, Hey you should talk to them about paying you to promote Spain? Think I can get Russia to do that for me..... Hope you are well my friend, it is snowing in New England and school is cancelled tomorrow. Best, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 Thanks, Chuck I like Boston and New England but I'd prefer to be elsewhere in winter. And not in Russia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 4, 2019 Share Posted March 4, 2019 12 hours ago, Ed Rooney said: Thanks, Chuck I like Boston and New England but I'd prefer to be elsewhere in winter. And not in Russia. Teeth are still chattering in Montreal as well. Sounds like you made a good choice both winter and inspiration-wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Woods Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 19 hours ago, John Mitchell said: Teeth are still chattering in Montreal as well. No kidding. In Quebec we had the coldest day of the winter so far last week. -27 and windy, it was -36 with windchill. Can I say that we are looking forward to the spring. Not too quickly though, if the enormous amount of snow we have here melts in a week we will have floods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 42 minutes ago, Colin Woods said: No kidding. In Quebec we had the coldest day of the winter so far last week. -27 and windy, it was -36 with windchill. Can I say that we are looking forward to the spring. Not too quickly though, if the enormous amount of snow we have here melts in a week we will have floods. Did you buy a laughing Trump mask and go out with a camera? Here in Holland we had a record warm February with two warm days of over +20 C. A sort of Malaga on the North Sea. Luckily after that it was back to normal with a huge storm and a fair bit of rain. Now a balmy +9C and sunshine. (Birdwatching in the real Malaga this February) The first peewit egg of the year (het eerste kievietsei) was found on Feb 28. Also a record (Google translate from Dutch). wim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cryptoprocta Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 1 hour ago, wiskerke said: The first peewit egg of the year (het eerste kievietsei) was found on Feb 28. Also a record (Google translate from Dutch). That is amazing; it'll be several weeks before they're even on their breeding sites here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 5, 2019 Share Posted March 5, 2019 2 hours ago, Colin Woods said: No kidding. In Quebec we had the coldest day of the winter so far last week. -27 and windy, it was -36 with windchill. Can I say that we are looking forward to the spring. Not too quickly though, if the enormous amount of snow we have here melts in a week we will have floods. Brrrr... I don't miss those Montreal winters. Loved them when I was a kid there, but at this stage of the game, I'd much rather be shoveling rain. That said, Vancouver has been colder than normal this year. There are still stubborn patches of snow on the ground. Usually the cherry trees are in full bloom by now, but not this year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stokie Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 On 03/03/2019 at 09:37, Phil Robinson said: After two really bad months, February was good - better than average - thanks largely to a surge on the afternoon of the 27th. The same here - 18 sales for $686, possibly my second best ever month for revenue. Zooms and views getting better so hopeful for the future. Not uploaded much so far this year, seemed to have lost interest since the 40% business. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andremichel Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 On 02/03/2019 at 22:41, Reimar said: You're right, adding hundreds of new images would not compare to adding thousands to a new agent. Apparently microstockers use a tool called stocksubmitter is add to many libraries. You may wish to check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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