Post a bad thing that happened in your life today

[meanderingemu]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Hmm. I've not heard of this Alamy Reportage situation. And it would have nothing to do with me, since I have no old photos, no slides to convert, since the fire in my flat on Mulberry St. I've sorted out the QC problem now and I'm moving on. 

 

Reportage would allow you to upload images that would not meet stock QC rules and size guidelines- same as Live News, and get to sale reasonably faster- though the 5Star status removed that advantage for many.   It is intended for current event, and was mainly added for those that lost Live News and had sales under that scheme in the past, so this would be the target market

 

 

Edited December 11, 2021 by meanderingemu

[Bryan]

Here's an example of a Reportage upload, high ISO shot taken on the Sony RX100 and shadows lifted,  marginal for a QC pass, so I elected to play safe.

 

 

Damage caused by storm Arwen, hardly going to make the national newspapers, but maybe Allotment World or whatever.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Bryan

[Ed Rooney]

Double hmm!

 

I'm embarrassed that I didn't know about these things. However, I've said here in the forum many times that digital stock is mostly a game for me. I play that game by digital stock rules, Alamy rules, and my own rules. With film stock I actually could live on my earnings. Now, my Alamy income has become the difference between living on my monthly income of a half Social Security payment and a half pension or dipping into my savings. I spent a lot of those savings when I was moving around living in hotels. 

 

Normally, I pass QC; I do have a 5-star rating. Gaming the system is outside of my own rules of play. The second image that failed QC this month should not have failed. And as I've said, I've moved on from these problems. Basta!

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by Ed Rooney

[Betty LaRue]

On 08/12/2021 at 11:17, Michael Ventura said:

 

They are good! I have a Five Guys just down the road from me and I get a burger once in a while from them.  Very filling, and it fills me with guilt! Love their fries too.

Since getting my air fryer, I’ve been having fries quite often. They are just as good as any you buy, and better than some. My daughter told me this. Warm some Tostitos brand jar cheese in the microwave, put maybe a Tbsp on just a few scattered fries after they come out of the air fryer, add a few pickled slice jalapeños, and pig out. Really yum.

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, Ed Rooney said:

Double hmm!

 

I'm embarrassed that I didn't about these things. However, I've said here in the forum many times that digital stock is mostly a game for me. I play that game by digital stock rules, Alamy rules, and my own rules. With film stock I actually could live on my earnings. Now, my Alamy income has become the difference between living on my monthly income of a half Social Security payment and a half pension or dipping into my savings. I spent a lot of those savings when I was moving around living in hotels. 

 

Normally, I can pass QC; I do have a 5-star rating. Gaming the system is outside of my own rules of play. The second image that failed QC this month should not have failed. And as I've said, I've moved on from these problems. Basta!

Edo, clarify please. Are you saying that when you leave the states, your Social Security amount is reduced by half? If true, that’s horrible.

[Ed Rooney]

 

No, Betty -- where you live makes no difference to SS. Circumstances had me apply early. If I had waited I would be getting twice the amount I get. 

[Bryan]

Just been reading and watching video of the storm damage that has occurred in parts of  the USA.  We had record near 100 mph winds last week, but nothing to compare with what I've just seen., e.g. Amazon warehouse completely flattened etc.

 

I hope our USA dwelling folks here are all OK !

Edited December 11, 2021 by Bryan

[Michael Ventura]

2 hours ago, Bryan said:

Just been reading and watching video of the storm damage that has occurred in parts of  the USA.  We had record near 100 mph winds last week, but nothing to compare with what I've just seen., e.g. Amazon warehouse completely flattened etc.

 

I hope our USA dwelling folks here are all OK !

 

Thanks Bryan for your concern! That same storm system is coming through the DC area, and east coast in general, now...but most of the energy has been greatly diminished.  We may get some strong winds but no tornadoes.  What happened in Kentucky and states around there, is unbelievable!  Especially for December!  Normally the big tornado outbreaks occur in the spring.    I think Betty is safely west of where all the damage and death happened.  The worst spot was a candle factory that had around 100 workers inside, working a night shift, when it collapsed. The weather is getting more and more wicked all over the world.

[Cecile Marion]

Listening to the news reports, I’m feeling very fortunate. Here in North Florida we seem to be mostly south of the storm, though we may get a little rain late tonight. The horrorible news coming out of places like Kentucky is so sad. A terrifying time for those people, and many, many deaths.
I’m glad the storm has lost some of its punch before reaching your area, Michael. 

[sb photos]

On 11/12/2021 at 01:03, meanderingemu said:

 

 

The process requires you to provide image portfolio of reportage images  that are interesting enough to sell, but that the reviewer feel they would fail QC.  If your submission is too technically good you get rejected and told to go fail QC a few times then we will reconsider, so i guess Edo has that going now.  The reasoning is that Contrib support believes the notice of "may include imperfection" reduce sellability, even though many of my submission had sold as stock with said notice since originally submitted as LN

 

 

added note: The reviewer didn't seem aware i had LN access, so that was not part of the considerations. 

 

 

 

 

Re 'notice of "may include imperfection" reduce sellability'. I believe it depends upon what you are shooting. If your subject is the same as uploaded by stock photographers in their thousands, and as their images go through QC, there's every possibility the images that passed QC would be chosen by buyers. Reportage as most of mine is, mainly protests, is usually only covered by news photographers. Then literally all images available are marked 'may include imperfections', and there is a limited number available unlike most stock. I have no issues selling images marked 'may include imperfections' even though they could passed QC.

[meanderingemu]

25 minutes ago, sb photos said:

 

 

Re 'notice of "may include imperfection" reduce sellability'. I believe it depends upon what you are shooting. If your subject is the same as uploaded by stock photographers in their thousands, and as their images go through QC, there's every possibility the images that passed QC would be chosen by buyers. Reportage as most of mine is, mainly protests, is usually only covered by news photographers. Then literally all images available are marked 'may include imperfections', and there is a limited number available unlike most stock. I have no issues selling images marked 'may include imperfections' even though they could passed QC.

 

and this is why i still am baffled by the comment from Contributor support. Things uploaded to Reportage would likely not be affected by the label. 

In fact if their argument was valid, you would think they would send a note to all News contributor to re-upload their best images as stock- as you say majority of the images would pass though QC.

[sb photos]

5 hours ago, meanderingemu said:

as you say majority of the images would pass though QC.

 

True, from any event I usually have more images than I need, so even with reportage anything marginal gets confined to the bin. There can be exceptions, but very rare. Back in September 2019 I was in Westminster photographing a protest, and got in front of Danny Tommo as he is known, while he was being escorted by Met. Police out of the area via the tube. I got off a few shots before he was taken into the tube entrance. Later I wasn't happy with them, they needed extensive editing and didn't look right. I would only have submitted them if he was in a scrap or being carried away.

Edited December 12, 2021 by sb photos

[Allan Bell]

On 06/12/2021 at 12:13, Allan Bell said:

Not really sure wether this should be in "good thing" or "bad thing" but just had an email from EDF to say that they have been appointed by OFGEM to take over my gas supply account as my original supplier has ceased trading. 😭

 

They say the switch will take a few weeks so more hassle I could do without. Then when the switch is complete I will be able (free) to look around for the cheapest supplier of gas.😩

 

Allan

 

 

Well it appears that EDF will be the official supplier of gas to my residence from tomorrow. What narks me is the gas price per Kwh has doubled with EDF as well as the daily standing rate. Instead of paying around £400 a year with my old supplier I will now be paying around £800 a year for the same volume of gas.

 

The worst thing is that with wholesale gas prices going through the roof most, if not all, the gas suppliers have withdrawn their low cost tariffs so switching to a lower tariff with any of the remaining suppliers will impossible.

 

In other words I am stuck with a higher rate. Now if it was a higher rate of net income with Alamy that would help and make me happy.

 

Allan

 

[Betty LaRue]

3 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Well it appears that EDF will be the official supplier of gas to my residence from tomorrow. What narks me is the gas price per Kwh has doubled with EDF as well as the daily standing rate. Instead of paying around £400 a year with my old supplier I will now be paying around £800 a year for the same volume of gas.

 

The worst thing is that with wholesale gas prices going through the roof most, if not all, the gas suppliers have withdrawn their low cost tariffs so switching to a lower tariff with any of the remaining suppliers will impossible.

 

In other words I am stuck with a higher rate. Now if it was a higher rate of net income with Alamy that would help and make me happy.

 

Allan

 

I’m sorry to hear that, Allan.  Are you talking about propane or natural gas?

Here, we will begin paying extra every month on our natural gas heating bill because of the long lasting polar temperatures we suffered last February. It lasted a couple of weeks sub freezing, extreme cold. The gas companies across all of the affected states had to pay exorbitant amounts for gas, and now they are passing it on to us. It will take 10 years to do it.

Propane, for those out of town and not on natural gas lines, will pay a lot more also, just from rising market prices.

[Allan Bell]

12 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

I’m sorry to hear that, Allan.  Are you talking about propane or natural gas?

Here, we will begin paying extra every month on our natural gas heating bill because of the long lasting polar temperatures we suffered last February. It lasted a couple of weeks sub freezing, extreme cold. The gas companies across all of the affected states had to pay exorbitant amounts for gas, and now they are passing it on to us. It will take 10 years to do it.

Propane, for those out of town and not on natural gas lines, will pay a lot more also, just from rising market prices.

 

Natural gas Betty. Burp! S'cuse me.

 

Allan

 

[Bryan]

16 hours ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Well it appears that EDF will be the official supplier of gas to my residence from tomorrow. What narks me is the gas price per Kwh has doubled with EDF as well as the daily standing rate. Instead of paying around £400 a year with my old supplier I will now be paying around £800 a year for the same volume of gas.

 

The worst thing is that with wholesale gas prices going through the roof most, if not all, the gas suppliers have withdrawn their low cost tariffs so switching to a lower tariff with any of the remaining suppliers will impossible.

 

In other words I am stuck with a higher rate. Now if it was a higher rate of net income with Alamy that would help and make me happy.

 

Allan

 

 

We've been with EDF for gas and electric for the last 10 years, and when it came to renew our long term fixed price deal recently  the combined cost went up from £80 to £140 per month ! 😬

 

 I looked for better deals but nothing worth the hassle of switching. I could have gone for the variable rate deal, which would have been cheaper in the short term, but I suspect that energy prices are only going one way.

 

Thankfully we have solar panels, one of the best investments we've ever made.   

[Allan Bell]

1 minute ago, Bryan said:

 

We've been with EDF for gas and electric for the last 10 years, and when it came to renew our long term fixed price deal recently  the combined cost went up from £80 to £140 per month ! 😬

 

 I looked for better deals but nothing worth the hassle of switching. I could have gone for the variable rate deal, which would have been cheaper in the short term, but I suspect that energy prices are only going one way.

 

Thankfully we have solar panels, one of the best investments we've ever made.   

 

Electricity is not a problem as I am with a supplier that only sell me power from sustainable sources.

 

Allan

 

[Bryan]

1 minute ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Electricity is not a problem as I am with a supplier that only sell me power from sustainable sources.

 

Allan

 

That's also an EDF boast Allan, but of course renewable in their context means nuclear.  I'm not entirely comfortable with that, despite the fact it keeps me warm....

[Allan Bell]

4 minutes ago, Bryan said:

That's also an EDF boast Allan, but of course renewable in their context means nuclear.  I'm not entirely comfortable with that, despite the fact it keeps me warm....

 

Mine is wind farm, solar, hydro and biomass.   (SO Energy is the name)

 

Allan

 

 

 

Edited December 15, 2021 by Allan Bell

[Betty LaRue]

Kansas is having a dangerous wind storm today. One town’s airport clocked wind gusts of 100 miles per hour. Dust is thick everywhere, we’ve had no rain for awhile. A tiny line of rain came through just making dirt balls. Trees are down, leaves are whirling around like mini tornadoes. Some power lines are down and sparking wildfires.

Today, I drove my daughter to collect her driver’s license the police somehow kept when she had her car accident. It was noon, and the full brunt of the wind hadn’t hit, yet. It was all I could do to keep my car in my lane from the buffeting wind. I would not want to be driving a high profile vehicle today. A major interstate is closed because of the dust storm causing zero visibility.

I’m very choked up, asthma.

Edited December 15, 2021 by Betty LaRue

[Bryan]

Stay safe Betty !

 

I've whinged about this in the past, but I feel the need to do so again.

 

We had allotment fences blown over during our recent storm. They can be repaired using salvaged posts used as spurs alongside the snapped posts. BUT, people insist upon embedding the posts in concrete, and it is a complete nightmare to remove, while water gathers above it and causes the posts to rot at the base.

 

So I've spent a few unhappy hours armed with a digging spit, sledge hammer and various lethal steel spikes to get rid. There's no need to use concrete when installing fence posts, rammed gravel is far better (water drains through it) and it is easily removed for repair.

 

Grrrrrr !!!

[Allan Bell]

59 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Stay safe Betty !

 

I've whinged about this in the past, but I feel the need to do so again.

 

We had allotment fences blown over during our recent storm. They can be repaired using salvaged posts used as spurs alongside the snapped posts. BUT, people insist upon embedding the posts in concrete, and it is a complete nightmare to remove, while water gathers above it and causes the posts to rot at the base.

 

So I've spent a few unhappy hours armed with a digging spit, sledge hammer and various lethal steel spikes to get rid. There's no need to use concrete when installing fence posts, rammed gravel is far better (water drains through it) and it is easily removed for repair.

 

Grrrrrr !!!

 

Concrete posts?

 

Allan

 

[Bryan]

1 hour ago, Allan Bell said:

 

Concrete posts?

 

Allan

 

 

Money !!  Allotment culture is about make do and mend, plus these are rented plots, we don't own them.  It keeps you busy and involves problem solving, maintains brain activity. Most of the greenhouses and sheds were donated or built from recycled materials.

 

Actually I've noticed different allotment styles on my travels, some pretty opulent mega  barbecues and posh huts  in Germany.  We have inter garden fences, but in France they are often wonderfully open plan - which would be my preferred option, more sociable and less shade.

Edited December 17, 2021 by Bryan

[wiskerke]

18 minutes ago, Bryan said:

 

Money !!  Allotment culture is about make do and mend, plus these are rented plots, we don't own them.  It keeps you busy and involves problem solving, maintains brain activity. Most of the greenhouses and sheds were donated or built from recycled materials.

 

Actually I've noticed different allotment styles on my travels, some pretty opulent mega  barbecues and posh huts  in Germany.  We have inter garden fences, but in France they are often wonderfully open plan - which would be my preferred option, more sociable and less shade.

 

Sounds like a perfect subject.

Allotment culture around the world.

Now that's a book title.

 

These are 10 yr old numbers:

Germany 1.4 million allotments
United Kingdom 330,000
The Netherlands 240,000
Denmark 62,120
Sweden 51,000
Belgium 42,000
Austria 38,000
Switzerland  27,000
France 26,000
Finland  5,000
Norway  2,000
Malta 50

(via http://www.allotmentphotogallery.com/)

 

wim

 

 

[Allan Bell]

2 minutes ago, wiskerke said:

 

Sounds like a perfect subject.

Allotment culture around the world.

Now that's a book title.

 

These are 10 yr old numbers:

Germany 1.4 million allotments
United Kingdom 330,000
The Netherlands 240,000
Denmark 62,120
Sweden 51,000
Belgium 42,000
Austria 38,000
Switzerland  27,000
France 26,000
Finland  5,000
Norway  2,000
Malta 50

(via http://www.allotmentphotogallery.com/)

 

wim

 

 

 

What are USA and Russia figures?

 

Allan