Ed Rooney Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 Do you have images of subjects, photos you really like and had thought to be good stock sellers . . . but they have never sold or even been zoomed? My images of St. Peter's Basilica and Piazza are my own mysterious problem like this. Sure, there are a lot of good captures of this subject. Alamy has 30,029 images of this historic, major landmark. That doesn't seem that many to me. I have 25 captures. I checked the first 12 pages and nothing of mine was there. I've never had a sale or even a zoom. Most of the time, when I do a test search, my pics show up on one of the first three pages. I have a lot of nostalgia concerning Rome, so this situation is very frustrating to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 Edo, Buck Up.. I have an image that I shot on assignment for a magazine in the Ukraine (Chernobyl related) in 1990. I was not used in the 12 page story, it has been with several of the major agencies over the years and never was licensed, but I scanned it again in December 19 and Alamy licensed it. That is why I save all chromes with the caption bags, all scanned 16bit TIFF's and all uploaded photos. The day will come for all exceptional images... Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 24, 2020 Author Share Posted January 24, 2020 That sounds a lot more important than my snaps of Saint Pete's, Chuck, but just as mysterious. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 (edited) Edo, No it is just a side bar snap I took while I was outside smoking a cig while working at a hospital in the area. Image ID: 2A8R80R It was just an image that I always loved. Shot with an old Leica M2 and a Canadian 28 f2.8 (hated that lens) on Kodachrome 200 (I was beta testing K-200 for Kodak) Chuck Edited January 24, 2020 by Chuck Nacke addition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 24, 2020 Author Share Posted January 24, 2020 (edited) I favored the M2 over the M3 too. But that was in my 95% B&W days. I hated K200 and hated K64 too. I was a K25 shooter. 😊 Edited January 24, 2020 by Ed Rooney Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Harrison Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 Still got my M2, I adore it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 (edited) Sri Lanka has proved disappointing in sales. I think because I was shooting uncritically along the tourist trail doing much the same as everybody else. Edited January 24, 2020 by geogphotos 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecadet Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 4 hours ago, Ed Rooney said: Do you have images of subjects, photos you really like and had thought to be good stock sellers . . . but they have never sold or even been zoomed? My images of St. Peter's Basilica and Piazza are my own mysterious problem like this. Sure, there are a lot of good captures of this subject. Alamy has 30,029 images of this historic, major landmark. That doesn't seem that many to me. I have 25 captures. I checked the first 12 pages and nothing of mine was there. I've never had a sale or even a zoom. Most of the time, when I do a test search, my pics show up on one of the first three pages. I have a lot of nostalgia concerning Rome, so this situation is very frustrating to me. I have about 9,500 of those.😀 Seriously, I still don't really know what will go, so I just put up images that I can imagine being searched for and be done with it. I have a not-bad rank so I know they'll appear fairly early given a following wind. If they're not that good and there's a lot of competition, I might not bother, but if they're up to scratch I usually reckon it's better to have a dog in the fight than not. The exception might be some particular interest of mine. Even so I come up gratifyingly high in tight searches. In one recent case that may be because I now have 3% of the entire collection of that niche. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 (edited) Yup, Edo, I've got lots of those. That said, I had an image that I quite like of an historical building in Old Montreal license this week. Amazingly, even though it's a popular tourist attraction, there is only a handful of shots of this building on Alamy. It sounds as if you're up against a lot more competition (understatement) for European subjects like St. Peter's Basilica. Edited January 24, 2020 by John Mitchell 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 (edited) 5 hours ago, Ed Rooney said: I favored the M2 over the M3 too. But that was in my 95% B&W days. I hated K200 and hated K64 too. I was a K25 shooter. 😊 Edo, Loved the final versions of the PKL (Kodakchrome 200) in the 1980's and 90's had a lab in San Francisco that I could have it processed and mounted in two hours, unless there was a major earthquake. I actually had two rolls in the machine during the 89 quake... As Per M's the 2's had a better bright frame viewfinder than the 3 and the Canadian produced Elmarit 28 f2.8 was overpriced junk. My $200 28 f2.8 AF NIKKOR beat it in a bench test.... Chuck Edited January 24, 2020 by Chuck Nacke addition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 24, 2020 Author Share Posted January 24, 2020 1 hour ago, John Mitchell said: Yup, Edo, I've got lots of those. That said, I had an image that I quite like of an historical building in Old Montreal license this week. Amazingly, even though it's a popular tourist attraction, there is only a handful of shots of this building on Alamy. It sounds as if you're up against a lot more competition (understatement) for European subjects like St. Peter's Basilica. It's not that simple. I have snaps of Rome's other landmarks (the Forum, the Spanish Steps, Trastevere) that are repeat sellers and there's nothing special about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted January 24, 2020 Share Posted January 24, 2020 I ditched K25 and K64 as soon as Fuji Velvia 100 came out....used Fuji until I switched to digital in 2005. Oh I did use Ektachrome 100 for portraits since Velvia was a bit too red for skin tones when shooting with studio style strobes, IMHO. As for subjects that have not sold...I made a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a few years ago and not one photo has sold yet. All other trips I have made have had some sales, even recent trips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted January 24, 2020 Author Share Posted January 24, 2020 😕 The subject under discussion was unproductive favorite images. Film and cameras are down the hall on the left. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 Took a fabulous trip to Sweden, Iceland, Russia & Estonia in 2011 with a friend specifically to shoot stock. My photos of sunrise in the Stockholm Archipelago, which I absolutely love, and which I got up at 4:30 AM to shoot, have been zoomed countless times, but never a sale here. I have sold fine art prints of the Archipelago and other places from the trip and licensed pix from Iceland & Stockholm itself elsewhere, but I had hoped to do better here since the trip was focused on Europe. Newer photos are now crowding mine out and there are nearly 11,000 of the Stockholm Archipelago alone on Alamy. The first time one of mine shows up is now page 3, and I don't think that particular image is one of the several that have been zoomed. I seem to get a few zooms a year, and sometimes mine have been the only ones zoomed, so I keep hoping for licenses here. They are some of my al -time favorite images. As a quick aside, I actually met my friend Ellen, with whom I took that trip, through this forum and/or SIF (they always seemed the same in my eyes, same great group way back when, many, like the OP (aka Ed), who are still here). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 4 hours ago, Ed Rooney said: It's not that simple. I have snaps of Rome's other landmarks (the Forum, the Spanish Steps, Trastevere) that are repeat sellers and there's nothing special about them. I love most things Italian, Edo, but I have no explanation. Perhaps the Pope has something to do with it. 🤨 More and more, I'm finding that it's the scarce (on Alamy) subjects that are selling. Case in point, today I had two $$$ licenses for book use. Both images were exclusive to Alamy, and I'm lucky enough to have the only images of these two subjects on Alamy. They are both average images that certainly wouldn't win any contests. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Standfast Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 Edo, How about getting your favourite St Peter's picture printed and framed, put it up in the kitchen. If the picture buyers can't see its worth, you'll see it every time you put some pasta on the stove. Cheers. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 18 hours ago, Michael Ventura said: As for subjects that have not sold...I made a trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, a few years ago and not one photo has sold yet. All other trips I have made have had some sales, even recent trips. I guess it all depends on the gods of supply and demand, and they can be unpredictable. Santa Fe is a popular city, so you would think that you would have had some takers by now. I can't afford to travel much these days, but I find that after a trip, I usually end up with a handful of repeat sellers (if I'm lucky), and the rest languish in the dust. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 (edited) I made two trips to St. Croix. The first specifically to take photos. The second with family for pleasure, but still took photos. I’ve sold a couple, but none of the ones I expected to sell. The ones that would have been great for calendars or travel brochures. My best. Oh, well. I still want to go back. Leave the da**ed camera home. Snorkel, snorkel, snorkel. Betty By the way, the ones zoomed are more about people in the images. Seniors on a beach, women walking on beach, etc. There is a strong message there. Relationships. Edited January 25, 2020 by Betty LaRue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobD Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 I've got used to the fact that my favourites will never sell, perhaps I have some kind of perverse appreciation of an image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 19 hours ago, BobD said: I've got used to the fact that my favourites will never sell, perhaps I have some kind of perverse appreciation of an image. I think it was the late Ron Engh, who wrote some very helpful books on marketing stock photos on your own, who said that photo-buyers don't buy what they like but what they need. This of course doesn't mean that photo-buyers won't like some of our personal favourites. They just may not have a use for them. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 I've a photo of a couple in silhouette standing by the shore of a lake, framed by trees and with autumnal colours etc, looks quite romantic and is one of my favourites. Never had a sniff of interest. Keywording problem maybe. or just not the sort of thing people are looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Bell Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 My unproductive favourites. All of them. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_rabe Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 All of my images are unproductive. Not seen a sale here in 3 months now! And I feel I have at least a couple of that deserve some attention I can tell I'm not far off having a "why am I doing this crisis" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 I have always liked this photo, been on Alamy since 2005 and never sold...it may show signs of early digital. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted January 28, 2020 Share Posted January 28, 2020 (edited) Mine hasn’t either, Michael. Yours is better, with the view you showed. Edited January 28, 2020 by Betty LaRue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now