Thyrsis Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 Alamy was founded in 1999 but the first images were uploaded second half of 2000. So sometime around now is the 20th anniversary of that event. Our first upload of 20 images( posted in on CD!) was on 30th October 2000, there must be someone here earlier than that? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Standfast Posted August 9, 2020 Share Posted August 9, 2020 Newbie here, first upload Nov 2007. SRGB Jpegs upsized to 48Mb from a 6 Mpix Konica Minolta 5D, what could go wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inchiquin Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 I wish I had! Letters in the BFP newsletter kept saying how impossibly hard it was to pass Alamy QC so I put it off until 2008 Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 16 minutes ago, Inchiquin said: I wish I had! Letters in the BFP newsletter kept saying how impossibly hard it was to pass Alamy QC so I put it off until 2008 Alan Indeed, the returns in the early years were incredible by today's standards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gvallee Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 First uploads on CDs with labels on them in 2002. Then Alamy told us not to use labels because they couldn't read most CDs. Erm... it was THEIR instructions... Oh yes, license prices in those days... Why did I keep my boring day job?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Robinson Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 2004 for me - scanned slides on a CD, mostly now deleted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 2005 for me. So happy we don’t need to send CDs anymore! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Myford Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 5 hours ago, Inchiquin said: I wish I had! Letters in the BFP newsletter kept saying how impossibly hard it was to pass Alamy QC so I put it off until 2008 Alan I passed on my first attempt (17th Jan 2001), so it couldn't have been that hard. If I could get in, surely anyone could: perhaps some tactics to limit the competition? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Standfast Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 Bigger licences but also a $250 payment threshold, people would not wear that these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gvallee Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 34 minutes ago, Mr Standfast said: Bigger licences but also a $250 payment threshold, people would not wear that these days. In those days, it was easier to get to $250 than it is to reach $50 now. A couple of sales and presto! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted August 10, 2020 Share Posted August 10, 2020 (edited) I signed up in 2003 but then made the mistake of not submitting images until 2007 as I was busy with other things and with another stock agency, so I missed the halcyon days of the early 2000's. However, prices in 2007 were still a lot better than they are now. My first submission -- via CD -- was a mixture of scans and images captured with a Sony 10 MP DSLR. An image from that initial batch was just zoomed over the weekend. Those oldies have surprisingly good legs on Alamy. Edited August 10, 2020 by John Mitchell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StanRohrer Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 My first submission was in early 2003. My first sale was $420 (Alamy price) as I recall. I had dreams of making money. I wish I saw $420 sales today! That $420 might actually be my highest sale of all time - I'd have to go back for a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB Photography Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 First upload in 2003 from scanned slides posted to Abingdon on CD. There were only 3 million images in the Alamy stock library. Contributor commission was a bit higher and buyers paid more for the images. The revenue for 5 sales in 2003 is equivalent to 30 sales today. Travel images I posted back then have started to become Archive/Historic 🥴 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vpics Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 I think I joined in 2003. My first images were taken on the Minolta Dimage 7. Just one trip to Barcelona paid for the camera twice over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Standfast Posted August 11, 2020 Share Posted August 11, 2020 23 hours ago, gvallee said: In those days, it was easier to get to $250 than it is to reach $50 now. A couple of sales and presto! 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avpics Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 Oh, I so wish I knew about this game back then. I went digital in 2005, and been around the world a few times and all sorts of other things that would have made for a wonderful portfolio. Many of my images do date back through those years as I've been back through the drives helping to pad out my numbers but nothing that was taken with sales in mind, just 'holiday snaps' to show granny upon our return. I'll pull up my rocking chair and listen to more of your stories of the old times please. 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thyrsis Posted August 12, 2020 Author Share Posted August 12, 2020 (edited) On 11/08/2020 at 01:07, StanRohrer said: My first submission was in early 2003. My first sale was $420 (Alamy price) as I recall. I had dreams of making money. I wish I saw $420 sales today! That $420 might actually be my highest sale of all time - I'd have to go back for a look. One of our first sales was still our highest ever, $1100 for this high speed infrared image of palm trees in Marrakech. Edited August 12, 2020 by Thyrsis 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyT Posted August 12, 2020 Share Posted August 12, 2020 I was a former photo buyer, starting in 2000, right from the beginning. We purchased thousands of images for school textbooks. I can tell you we never paid less than about $175/image and we paid based on size - 1/4 page, 1/2 page, etc. back in those days. I retired in 2005, and now shoot and contribute. Prices aren't based on ASMP anymore! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
British Gent Posted September 13, 2020 Share Posted September 13, 2020 ASMP? (Sorry, I really should know more about this industry I partake in.) I do wish I'd cottoned on to what was happening back in the noughties, but I didn't get my first DSLR until 2007 and wasted a couple of years trickling shots onto iStock and feeling ridiculously grateful if I sold one for 10 cents. It took a much more experienced friend to point out the error of my ways. In my time on Alamy I have one $350 sale as the high water mark. I remember it fondly and know I will never see its like again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiskerke Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 ASMP=American Society of Media Photographers (just in case you have no Google) - they had a list of fees as most professional photographer's organizations had. Now outlawed because of antitrust laws. Which started the free fall we're now in. I was invited somewhere in 2003; joined early 2004 and send my first cd in February. wim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Woods Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 7 hours ago, British Gent said: I have one $350 sale as the high water mark. I remember it fondly and know I will never see its like again. Not necessarily - I had a $351 sale in July. Hope springs eternal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 My first sales. Started with my film scanner ( cost over £2000) in Feb 2003, first sale end of October 2003 - the same image sold twice, one for a book, the other or a CD - total over $350 at 65% to me. And this was then relicensed for 50% in 2006 when the initial licence expired. No wonder I took to RM.🤪 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Broad Norfolk Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 This is a good excuse for a bit of nostalgia! I joined in Nov 2005 and in common with lots of others at that time my first submissions were scanned slide images submitted on CD's. I had terrible problems with QC in those days. Looking forward I had to wait until April 2008 for my first sale which was to a newspaper for the princely sum of $172 gross. Most sales were around this mark for me at the time. Some lower and some higher. Contrasts greatly with my latest editorial website sale this month realising $3.18 gross and 'in perpetuity' at that!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thyrsis Posted September 14, 2020 Author Share Posted September 14, 2020 (edited) 13 hours ago, Broad Norfolk said: Contrasts greatly with my latest editorial website sale this month realising $3.18 gross and 'in perpetuity' at that!! 3 sales in the last 3 days, which is unusual. Should be happy but.....just under $14 for all 3... Edited September 15, 2020 by Thyrsis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne Posted September 14, 2020 Share Posted September 14, 2020 (edited) I joined in 2008 upsizing images from my 6MP Nikon D70, the first camera I'd purchased since getting my original Olympus OM-1 back in college in the late 1970's. I had started shooting some images for local publications in 2006 and was excited when I learned that stock photography existed. I wish I had uploaded more in those early years. I spent too much time trying to decide where to upload to - here, where they treated us right, or that other place where, with around 100 images, I was making as much as $1/image per month but realizing that one good license here could earn me as much, I gave Alamy my best shots, but spent most of my time chasing down assignments. My first sale was $38 to "ROW" (Rest of World) which, until someone here put me straight quite recently, I believed (for a good dozen years) was a sale to Russia. (I do know what ASMP is, so at least I"m not clueless about all photography related abbreviations, but then I've been an ASMP member for some years now, so that was an easy one for me, LOL) My best sale here was $450, and I had one for $250 last year, so maybe they aren't gone forever, though post-Covid who know where things will stand? I always dreamed of getting $1K+ license but I doubt that will happen now. At least we don't have to burn CDs anymore. I'd have to use a very old computer to do it since my last 2 laptops haven't had CD drives. Things have changed so much in the past two decades. @Broad Norfolk $172 for a newspaper is not likely to be seen again, I'm afraid. I don't think I've ever earned that much for a newspaper license even when on assignment. (My most recent newspaper sale here was $7.36 - to Turkey). Edited September 14, 2020 by Marianne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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