Live news

[BobD 174]

I have just taken a look at the latest live news feed.

There is one group of peach blossom and one group of Arial pictures of Chinese fields. While they mat be great pictures in their own right, how are they live news?

As I have said this doesn't much affect me, but it is the inconsistency of Alamy that I can understand infuriates those that it does affect.

It seams to me it is the way Alamy tries to do everything on the cheap  that causes the problem. If they manually accepted the images put through to the live news feed there would be no need to shut everyone out, just not accept any non-newsworthy images.

[Russell 1,649]

They're Agency pictures. It seems that Alamy make no effort to curate these, they're simply added to the News feed.

[spacecadet 2,463]

2 minutes ago, Russell said:

They're Agency pictures. It seems that Alamy make no effort to curate these, they're simply added to the News feed.

So they've thrown out the baby with the bathwater but they haven't turned off the tap.

[Joseph Clemson 893]

20 minutes ago, Russell said:

They're Agency pictures. It seems that Alamy make no effort to curate these, they're simply added to the News feed.

 

I think they must be doing some curating, possibly conscious of the criticism being levelled at them. When I looked at Live News first thing this morning there was a group of 25 images of bunny rabbits with a wicker basket and small Easter eggs (pure stock fodder). A while after the Alamy office opened, they had gone.

[HenryP 5]

Hi all. I'm also out of the news live. I have covered events such as the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, racing championships, comic-con, etc ... and, soon, the Tennis Open. I have a press card and a letter of recommendation from Alamy for the events. Sometimes I have sent jobs to Alamy only faster than the most powerful News Agencies. I mean agencies that carry five or six people working in the field (Ge ..., Z ..., E ..., etc ... complete the ellipses ;-)) Sending images for news at least three times a month. I know that's not much. A single person will never have the means that a News Agency like the ones we all know. But Alamy has chosen, for the signatures that we can see in the live news, he has chosen those mega-agencies to the detriment of independent photographers. I will not pray. I've never done. So, feeling it a lot, I'm already looking for a better port. A port where my work and effort are rewarded, not with money, but with respect. And forgive everyone for my disastrous English.

Edited April 15 by HenryP

[Russell 1,649]

Quote

I think they must be doing some curating ,

 

Joseph,

 

Did you notice whether the Bunny pics were submitted by an agency or an individual contributor?

[Starsphinx 383]

1 hour ago, HenryP said:

Hi all. I'm also out of the news live. I have covered events such as the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, racing championships, comic-con, etc ... and, soon, the Tennis Open. I have a press card and a letter of recommendation from Alamy for the events. Sometimes I have sent jobs to Alamy only faster than the most powerful News Agencies. I mean agencies that carry five or six people working in the field (Ge ..., Z ..., E ..., etc ... complete the ellipses ;-)) Sending images for news at least three times a month. I know that's not much. A single person will never have the means that a News Agency like the ones we all know. But Alamy has chosen, for the signatures that we can see in the live news, he has chosen those mega-agencies to the detriment of independent photographers. I will not pray. I've never done. So, feeling it a lot, I'm already looking for a better port. A port where my work and effort are rewarded, not with money, but with respect. And forgive everyone for my disastrous English.

Your English may not be letter perfect but it does properly express your feelings on the subject - and you have my regret this has happened as you clearly do not deserve it.  

[Paul Glendell 6]

I haven't read every post here - I do have a life - so can anyone that was taken off the live news list and that has since applied to join has been accepted or declined. I see many people complaining that they have been taken off the list, even those with press cards but have they applied to see if they can join.  I applied last week and am waiting to see the result. 

[Joseph Clemson 893]

16 minutes ago, Paul Glendell said:

I haven't read every post here - I do have a life - so can anyone that was taken off the live news list and that has since applied to join has been accepted or declined. I see many people complaining that they have been taken off the list, even those with press cards but have they applied to see if they can join.  I applied last week and am waiting to see the result. 

 

I applied the same day as I received the initial 'bad news' email and I received another on Saturday declining my new application.

[HenryP 5]

27 minutes ago, Starsphinx said:

Your English may not be letter perfect but it does properly express your feelings on the subject - and you have my regret this has happened as you clearly do not deserve it.  

Thank you very much!

I also applied last week and I'm waiting to see the result.

[Joseph Clemson 893]

1 hour ago, Russell said:

 

Joseph,

 

Did you notice whether the Bunny pics were submitted by an agency or an individual contributor?

 

It was early this morning and I didn't make more than a passing mental note, but I think is was an agency - possibly Xinhua, but I'm not certain of the precise ID.

[andremichel 224]

Any of you elite live news guys submitted the Notre dame on fire yet? 

[LawrensonPhoto 466]

33 minutes ago, andremichel said:

Any of you elite live news guys submitted the Notre dame on fire yet? 

YES!!!

[andremichel 224]

21 minutes ago, LawrensonPhoto said:

YES!!!

Well done. Is this yours? 

T4C0N2

 

I checked the feed a little earlier and I couldn't see any. Now I see there is at least one batch.

 

I was just wondering how effective Alamy really is with proper breaking news. This is happening in a big world city, so there must be some Alamy photographers nearby? 

 

Edit: The only batch I can see is from Stoyan Vassev/TASS 

Edited April 15 by andremichel

[Thyrsis 143]

2 hours in and only 6 live news images on Alamy?  Rubbish.

Mind you, I saw images of the fire on Twitter first and then checked the news programmes to see what was happening.

So people on the ground tweeting are ahead of the news people?

[Niels Quist 585]

15 minutes ago, Thyrsis said:

Mind you, I saw images of the fire on Twitter first and then checked the news programmes to see what was happening.

So people on the ground tweeting are ahead of the news people?

 

The present and future press photos of this sort.

[LawrensonPhoto 466]

31 minutes ago, Thyrsis said:

Mind you, I saw images of the fire on Twitter first and then checked the news programmes to see what was happening.

So people on the ground tweeting are ahead of the news people?

30000 tourists visit the site everyday, it's not rocket science is it to expect twitter to be on the scene first. 🙄

[Shergar 80]

Not sure what its like in Europe now but here in the states every news company would be saying to their viewers , "send us your live photo's and video and we will do our best to feature them on our news report". They would get 100s of free images . 

[piperand 0]

Is it just other agency photos that are coming through the live news feed?

Trying to figure out what has happened. Have they decided to only take on those who can contribute the most?

Edited April 15 by piperand

[Colblimp 1,254]

I can see 26 pics of the fire in 2 sets.  Anyway, it's irrelevant as one of the big agencies has images available within minutes of the fire starting.

[KHA 21]

With something like a fire, and many other news events, it's not all about speed and being the first one on the scene. The most dramatic shots may take place hours after it starts, such as part of the structure giving way.

 

I personally would hate to be off uploading when something like that happened, but I'm planning to do my best to conform to Live News standards. 

 

So go shoot, and do your thing, and don't worry about what other photographers or agencies may or may not already be there. They may be off keywording when you get the money shot. (And I don't mean to be crude in the face of tragedy; just using that as a generic industry term.)

 

But anyway, very sad for Notre Dame. I only visited it once, when I was younger, and didn't have the same appreciation for it I probably would now. I hope they save some of it.

[Colblimp 1,254]

1 hour ago, KHA said:

But anyway, very sad for Notre Dame. I only visited it once, when I was younger, and didn't have the same appreciation for it I probably would now. I hope they save some of it.

I've been speaking to my fire service contact - he says the fire is unstoppable because it's so high.  Heartbreaking.

[KHA 21]

10 minutes ago, Colblimp said:

I've been speaking to my fire service contact - he says the fire is unstoppable because it's so high.  Heartbreaking.

Thanks for the update. It seems weird that height would be a problem. Do they not have a fire plan in place for the Eiffel Tower, for instance?

[Colblimp 1,254]

2 minutes ago, KHA said:

Thanks for the update. It seems weird that height would be a problem. Do they not have a fire plan in place for the Eiffel Tower, for instance?

Who knows...  I'm not sure a fire in any high building can be fought effectively - Twin Towers, Grenfell, that skyscraper in The Towering Inferno.

[Chuck Nacke 701]

Notre Dame is a very sad story,  I have walked past many times and I was in once.

 

On a more important note, I've covered a number of major stories, mostly for the international

media, print at a time, when all was shot on film and many of the most important images that

I did are posted now on Alamy. 

 

If I was working on assignment, via my agent at the time, for a weekly magazine they would

send a courier to pickup my unprocessed film every night or hour depending on the story. 

That was back in the days when even a mobile phone was a big deal.  The major wires had

photographers shooting, couriers picking up and techs at a base to process caption and

upload, on one story back in the 1990's in central Asia AP processed their film without

water (I am not joking) so a tech could "wet scan" no time to dry it and transmit it via satellite uplink.

 

I now think, Just my opinion, I understand what Alamy is attempting to do and once again they did not do it

well.  In my opinion News coverage and accreditation needs to be coordinated. 

 

On a number of large events, I've contacted Alamy in advance and they have been wonderful to work with.

I've found Alamy News extremely professional and efficient to work with, but I've been in the news photo

business for decades.  I also refuse to leave a story to edit and upload.  I would rather have an image

that is licensed for decades than one that makes the front page of the New York Times the next day

and is forgotten.

 

If you would like to see a small example of the type of "Photojounalism" I'm talking about go to

http://chucknacke.com/thezine.html

 

Chuck Nacke