marklaing Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 Hi, I'm a Brit living forever in LA and missing London. Looks like there's a lot of great discussions going on here. I'm delighted to have my first batch of pix (Death Valley no less) approved. I'm primarily a wedding and people photographer and videographer but I try and escape to some of the national parks close by when I can like Yosemite, Death Valley and Joshua Tree. I own four Canons of varying specs, a DJI Phantom IV Pro drone and a GoPro, with a 5D Mk.IV at the top. I have six kids! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 Hey Mark, Your Death Valley pictures remind me of Dubai, guess deserts often look similar! Are you new to stock? Wow, LA, do you walk anywhere? 6 kids, oh my gosh.... Photography must be a good escape! Lots of stock opportunities though. Welcome! I'm not sure London is how you remember it at the moment, but the weather's been great here in Blighty since lockdown! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marklaing Posted May 31, 2020 Author Share Posted May 31, 2020 Hi Steve and thanks for the welcome! Yes, Death Valley is unreal. I stayed out so long in the sand dunes that it became dark and I nearly couldn't figure out how to walk back to my car a few miles away (the sun goes out like a lightswitch here not the endless twilight like in England ) but I spotted some car lights and started scrambling for safety! I am new to stock. We hike a lot since there's a good bunch of trails in Simi Valley (within the LA movie zone) but LA central - forget it. The roads are like motorways and you cross\walk them at your peril. I was in London last year for a centenary of my old school and stayed near Harley St. Steve. It seemed kind of empty? This was in May. I'm so used to a million taxis and buses... Best regards, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted May 31, 2020 Share Posted May 31, 2020 (edited) Hi Mark, You wouldn't believe how amazing the sunny days and twilights have been here since lockdown, we've forgotten what rain looks like! Lmao, wow, you thought London was empty, I guess I'm going to miss LA off my to visit list. Wasn't LA the location for the film Falling Down with Michael Douglas? Stock will be quite different to your normal photography. I would suggest you have a poke around the forum now, particularly on the portfolio critiques, because it'll be a total pain in the butt to try to change all your captions and keywords when you have several thousand images up already. There's not a lot of opportunities for getting drone footage in the UK, so much is off limits, and you need to have a license now. You should be able to get some good footage in the national parks near to you, sounds like fun. Cheers, Steve Edited May 31, 2020 by Steve F Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marklaing Posted June 1, 2020 Author Share Posted June 1, 2020 Thanks Steve, National and State Parks are off limits too so few opportunities there. Yes, Falling Down was filmed here! Thanks for the tip about the portfolio critique and keywords - sage words indeed sir! Thanks again! Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 Nice Death Valley images, I'd love to go there some day. I note all of your images appear to be set as RF, which is the default option here. Just mentioning it on the off chance it isn't intentional and you've forgot to change it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marklaing Posted June 2, 2020 Author Share Posted June 2, 2020 Thanks Cal. Yeah, I'm not sure really. Do you think "Editorial" would get more sales? I'm definitely a novice here. Suggestions are welcome Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted June 2, 2020 Share Posted June 2, 2020 2 hours ago, marklaing said: Thanks Cal. Yeah, I'm not sure really. Do you think "Editorial" would get more sales? I'm definitely a novice here. Suggestions are welcome Mark I am far from an expert as well, I just know that RM tends to be favoured over RF here. here is a link: It's also worth having a google "rights managed vs royalty free". I did a fair bit of research before delving into stock around 2 years ago and the conclusion I came to, without rambling on too much, is that despite an industry shift pushing towards RF, the prevailing feeling among established contributors is that it's best to stick to RM for a lot of stock work, particularly that which you value highly and is a situation that is perhaps unique to you. As an example of this, I have been to a few places which are of a more or less unique nature and some of which have now been demolished. If you search these terms on Alamy, maybe half the photos that come up (in one example particularly) are mine. In this case, I would only ever licence these RM as this search term is effectively a USP between me and one or two other people. Licencing these as RF would give the buyer massive freedom to do what they want with an image that is in reality rare and valuable. Don't get me wrong, I think RF does have a place in certain types of image and perhaps for certain types of very generic image might even be favourable, but mostly I stick to RM. I feel like blanket use of RF is underselling yourself, but some may disagree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marklaing Posted June 3, 2020 Author Share Posted June 3, 2020 Fascinating and great explanation - thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve F Posted June 3, 2020 Share Posted June 3, 2020 (edited) Hi Mark, Just to add to the license types, Alamy recommends in its guidance to sell images as RF where possble. A lot of contributors don't like to do this as a purchaser can effectively do what they want with your image forever, whereas with rights managed the client pays for the specific usage. A lot of contributors tend to go for mostly RM with some RF - I'm sure there are a lot of exceptions though. However, these days it doesn't seem to matter so much, Alamy often sell images under a type of hybrid license which mixes elements from RF and RM. Editorial is for images that don't have model or property releases. My understanding is that if you have the image marked as RM license type and complete the boxes on the 'optional' tab that confirm whether or not you have the model or property releases, this is sufficient information and there's no need to additionally tick the editorial box. Steve Edited June 3, 2020 by Steve F 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marklaing Posted June 4, 2020 Author Share Posted June 4, 2020 Great explanation and thank you Steve! Mark On 03/06/2020 at 06:43, Steve F said: Hi Mark, Just to add to the license types, Alamy recommends in its guidance to sell images as RF where possble. A lot of contributors don't like to do this as a purchaser can effectively do what they want with your image forever, whereas with rights managed the client pays for the specific usage. A lot of contributors tend to go for mostly RM with some RF - I'm sure there are a lot of exceptions though. However, these days it doesn't seem to matter so much, Alamy often sell images under a type of hybrid license which mixes elements from RF and RM. Editorial is for images that don't have model or property releases. My understanding is that if you have the image marked as RM license type and complete the boxes on the 'optional' tab that confirm whether or not you have the model or property releases, this is sufficient information and there's no need to additionally tick the editorial box. Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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