Are Alamy stock photographers all ages?

[geogphotos]

I get the impression that our community here on the forum is a little long in the tooth.🙂

 

I have suggested doing stock to my children - all three are quite arty -  and they just laugh at the idea of all the hard work, the low fees, and the essential 'squareness' of it. They will happily share pics on social media and seem to spend half their time taking photos on their devices.

 

Are we an ageing bunch - are youngsters arriving on the scene or not bothering?

 

I'm 63

Edited September 15, 2019 by geogphotos

[sb photos]

1 hour ago, Bryan said:

Another 69 years to add to the list of aged persons.  Joined a photo society at school aged 12 and learned how to develop and print, been messing around with cameras since then. Like others I regret not joining Alamy earlier, the fees were comparatively mega back then.

 

Same here, but our school darkroom wasn't setup until 1965, but had already been using my fathers darkroom for a long time. I often use manual focus for static subjects, but need fast autofocus for when I'm photographing while walking backwards with people walking towards me. As it's brightening up here just about to nip out to shoot some stock locally, but am finishing off captioning  and tagging a batch from yesterday first. Light was far too harsh yesterday and in the wrong direction early on, but I had no choice.

[spacecadet]

On 15/09/2019 at 10:53, geogphotos said:

 our community here on the forum is a little long in the tooth.🙂

 

 

Yes, but we weren't when we started!

[Matt Ashmore]

On 20/09/2019 at 18:34, John Mitchell said:

P.S. Is an XBox anything like a LunchBox? I had one of those when I was a kid. 😄

 

I hear rumours that you can find them in a supermarket full of eggs. They often come in different sizes containing 6 or 12 eggs normally. 😆

[Allan Bell]

7 hours ago, Matt Ashmore said:

 

I hear rumours that you can find them in a supermarket full of eggs. They often come in different sizes containing 6 or 12 eggs normally. 😆

 

Sometimes even 10.🙄

 

Allan

 

[Avpics]

Approaching mid fifties in earth years, not yet at infant school in photo-journo years. Regretting not learning about stock photography and even DACS so many moons ago. The idea that even just an hour's work a week over a few decades could have resulted in £££ or even ££££ monthly at this later age is why I've put so much effort into that blue number now under my cats picture in the hope that it'll help in such a way towards the next half century or so.......

[Doc]

On 18/09/2019 at 22:21, Michael Ventura said:

I am sort of a hybrid of many of you.  I am a "people person" but do love being alone at my home office, I keep myself pretty occupied.  But my assignment work is 90% people shoots and I like that.  I do love interacting with people I don't know and meeting people of all walks of life....from the famous and wealthy to the average "Joe".  I think my success with people photography has been putting anyone at ease (or at least most people)...the more cantankerous, the more of a challenge...a little be like lion taming.  Another thing that helps, in an odd way, is that I HATE being photographed so get the people, who I need to photograph, who feel the same way.   I try to make a sometimes difficult process as painless as possible.  I feel like a traveling dentist at times.  Once shoots are over, I love to retreat to my humble home and not answer the phone or door!  Photo editing is my therapy!

 

Yup - thats quite  like me too - people person but happy in my own space when doing the computer stuff. Always try and have people in my images if possible and happier in a city than the countryside as far as stock-photography is concerned. 

First SLR was a Zenit-E in 1975; started contributing to stock 2004; now 62 going on 45 . 😉

 

Kumar

[Betty LaRue]

On 07/10/2019 at 12:25, Doc said:

 

Yup - thats quite  like me too - people person but happy in my own space when doing the computer stuff. Always try and have people in my images if possible and happier in a city than the countryside as far as stock-photography is concerned. 

First SLR was a Zenit-E in 1975; started contributing to stock 2004; now 62 going on 45 . 😉

 

Kumar

Oh, well. Got you beat. I’m going on 22.😉 I wish.

[Colin Woods]

On 07/10/2019 at 13:25, Doc said:

First SLR was a Zenit-E in 1975

Same here, 1979. I'm 55 but, in the words of the matchless PG Wodehouse, I have the mental outlook of an inebriated undergraduate.

[Allan Bell]

13 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

It's Flu Jab time of year. Quite important when you've had as many birthdays as some of us have had...

 

Got mine 28th September. That is last month not last year.

 

Allan

 

[Stokie]

13 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

It's Flu Jab time of year. Quite important when you've had as many birthdays as some of us have had...

 

Yes, got mine on 3rd. October. The doctor's had a drop in session without an appointment and people were queuing out of the door!

 

John.

[mickfly]

I am about the average age of the rest of you old buggers, I'm 61.

Started shooting in the late 1970's mainly with Yashica 35mm cameras and BW film like FP4, HP5 Tri X etc and developing my own prints, I also loaded my own film stumbling around in the dark with film canisters and lengths of film which, when stretched from my nose to finger tips in my outstretched arms would give me about 36 frames.

In the late 1980's in my wisdom I decided to dump thousands of prints to clear some space and  kept only pictures with family and friends on, thereby losing great archive of my home town, for which I'm still kicking myself, although I did find one biscuit tin a few years back which still had some of my 'proper' photography prints in it.

 

Since doing stock the main difference I have found when shooting scenes is that when I was younger I would wait patiently for people to get out of the frame.... now I wait for them to come into the frame instead.

Edited October 14, 2019 by mickfly
missed a word out

[William Caram]

On 15/09/2019 at 19:53, geogphotos said:

I get the impression that our community here on the forum is a little long in the tooth.🙂

 

I have suggested doing stock to my children - all three are quite arty -  and they just laugh at the idea of all the hard work, the low fees, and the essential 'squareness' of it. They will happily share pics on social media and seem to spend half their time taking photos on their devices.

 

Are we an ageing bunch - are youngsters arriving on the scene or not bothering?

 

I'm 63

 

Like others have said Ian, i'm sure there are younger photographers dabbling in stock...but maybe using phone cameras more so and most likely doing it for a giggle, and the chance to get some easy cash...as they have not invested lots of $$$ buying full camera kits ( SLRS or Mirrorless kits with good glass ) It's their choice of course, but long term commitment?  well they maybe more interested in crypto currency speculation... Crowdsourcing is the buzzword for attracting large numbers of people...even if they only contribute in a small way, it adds to the total collective.....The one thing that is certain is things change....and when you have been around for a bit..i'm going on 67 and seen things have changed since i picked up a camera in 79.

 

Made a living out of it, and started shooting stock in 85 as a supplement income to commissioned work...( you got more $$$ for less then..Ha I`m now retired and still enjoy taking images but not driven to chase the $$$...well i have my moments but i don't know any better...i'm happy that i still enjoy taking pictures...and being part of the Old timers group!

[Stan Pritchard]

On 16/09/2019 at 16:52, Ed Rooney said:

You "old" dudes seems so young to me. It's less than two months till my 85th birthday. It could be that I'm the oldest contributor with Alamy. ???

 

I'll remind you all that I never had photography as a hobby and never owned a camera until I traded a guitar for one. I sold images from my first roll of B&W film so I was  instantly a pro. That was in 1959 or '60.  

 

Edo

 No, Ed, I can beat you. I will be 86 in January 2020. Been photographing for nearly 60 years. Started with a folding Kodak 620, which I still have.  How equipment has changed over the decades is amazing.