robko photography Posted September 15, 2020 Share Posted September 15, 2020 Hello everyone, This is my first post on the forums. I'm looking for a critique of my small portfolio. Comments on keywording, etc would also be welcome. https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/robkophotography Thanks very much, I've been learning a lot here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawel Piotr Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Hi, I am quite new here myself but I hope I can put few words of appreciation. Your collection is small but very diverse. Specious frames with good poetical for buyers to put some writing etc. I personally love that kind of minimalist imagery with plenty space. Dramatic landscapes are just great, double rainbow is my favourite from you collection. Lucky you. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Rooney Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 (edited) Welcome to Alamy, Robert. Usually, I would take the position that your portfolio is too small to comment on, but you seem to get it as to what is needed here. Your images are good and you touch on a variety of subjects. Your tagging is pretty good also—very good for a beginner. I would suggest that you go for a brighter, upbeat look with exposure and editing most of the time; there should be a real reason for going dark and dreary, which you sometimes do. To succeed at Alamy you need to keep shooting and uploading and be patient. Don't wait for sales before you continue. Good luck. . . . and Pawel, your landscapes are wonderful. 🙂 Edo Edited September 16, 2020 by Ed Rooney 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtNeli Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 (edited) . Edited September 16, 2020 by ArtNeli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Morrison Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 Picture quality - and variety - looks good to me. Keywording thoughts… Add ‘Canada’ to the end of every caption (and maybe ‘Canadian’ as a tag, where appropriate). If you have ‘wetland’ as a tag, add ‘wetlands’. When you have lots of ‘empty’ space in an image (ie T9A2R7 and T8496K), I’d add ‘copy space’ and ‘copyspace’ as tags. ‘Industry’, ‘industrial’ for gas plant pic. ‘Frozen’ for snowy pix. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robko photography Posted September 16, 2020 Author Share Posted September 16, 2020 Thanks everyone for your feedback. I truly appreciate it. I'll take your comments and pointers to heart and keep on uploading. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pawel Piotr Posted September 16, 2020 Share Posted September 16, 2020 No worries Robert. I think the most important is to take a pleasure from photography. If you only enjoy it you will be only better with time. Alamy or similar stocks should be seen only as a addition but not the goal itself. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexG Posted September 29, 2020 Share Posted September 29, 2020 On 15/09/2020 at 10:52, robko photography said: Hi Rob, I really like your gallery and especially your nature abstracts. It's the kind of photos I post on Flickr/IG. Given time, they will be discovered and will sell for sure. I recommend adding a few more tags that are more generic that often can get missed. T9A2R7 - great photo, very clean with attention on the animal. I would suggest including other general terms like frozen, freezing, chilly, mammal, herbivore. 2CT7HJ3 - really amazing light! Consider adding tags trunks, branches, woodland, forest, foliage (maybe). I've noticed on Alamy that photos of people doing things, or editorial content, street, city, action, events, recreation, occupation usually tend to do well. Artistic pictures sell as well, but much less than these. Good luck Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robko photography Posted September 30, 2020 Author Share Posted September 30, 2020 Thank you, Alex, I appreciate your comments. I admit it's taken a while for me to figure out what's meant by 'editorial stock,' and what is in demand here. I plan on sticking around and increasing my port size considerably, before I worry about sales. Thanks again! On 29/09/2020 at 00:25, AlexG said: Hi Rob, I really like your gallery and especially your nature abstracts. It's the kind of photos I post on Flickr/IG. Given time, they will be discovered and will sell for sure. I recommend adding a few more tags that are more generic that often can get missed. T9A2R7 - great photo, very clean with attention on the animal. I would suggest including other general terms like frozen, freezing, chilly, mammal, herbivore. 2CT7HJ3 - really amazing light! Consider adding tags trunks, branches, woodland, forest, foliage (maybe). I've noticed on Alamy that photos of people doing things, or editorial content, street, city, action, events, recreation, occupation usually tend to do well. Artistic pictures sell as well, but much less than these. Good luck Alex Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexG Posted September 30, 2020 Share Posted September 30, 2020 Yes, in an year and a half I've had 4 sales, though very pleased that 2 of them came this September. And I have a little over 500 photos, so I've been told to expect just that, a few a year. Some of the people with several thousand photos get a few a month. 1 hour ago, robko photography said: Thank you, Alex, I appreciate your comments. I admit it's taken a while for me to figure out what's meant by 'editorial stock,' and what is in demand here. I plan on sticking around and increasing my port size considerably, before I worry about sales. Thanks again! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blinking Eye Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 On 30/09/2020 at 12:58, AlexG said: Yes, in an year and a half I've had 4 sales, though very pleased that 2 of them came this September. And I have a little over 500 photos, so I've been told to expect just that, a few a year. Some of the people with several thousand photos get a few a month. I'm up to seven sales! And been getting a zoom a couple times per week for the last couple of months. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexG Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 On 06/11/2020 at 13:55, The Blinking Eye said: I'm up to seven sales! And been getting a zoom a couple times per week for the last couple of months. Awesome! I've seen an uptick in zooms too last couple of months, not quite the rate you have. I am total of 6, 2 in Sep and 2 in Oct! 😃 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blinking Eye Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 2 minutes ago, AlexG said: Awesome! I've seen an uptick in zooms too last couple of months, not quite the rate you have. I am total of 6, 2 in Sep and 2 in Oct! 😃 I have like 37 zooms total. They've just shot up in the past couple of months. Fourteen just since September 1 on all kinds of unrelated photos. Five zooms on a single George Floyd mural. One on a Breonna Taylor mural and one on a BLM shrine. I guess the zooms on the George Floyd mural bring all my other photos to higher placement in other searches too, so they get clicks. I notice it helps to follow current events. Zooms obviously don't translate into sales though. I'm kind of amazed how hard this is. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlexG Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 59 minutes ago, The Blinking Eye said: I have like 37 zooms total. They've just shot up in the past couple of months. Fourteen just since September 1 on all kinds of unrelated photos. Five zooms on a single George Floyd mural. One on a Breonna Taylor mural and one on a BLM shrine. I guess the zooms on the George Floyd mural bring all my other photos to higher placement in other searches too, so they get clicks. I notice it helps to follow current events. Zooms obviously don't translate into sales though. I'm kind of amazed how hard this is. Definitely zooms help, that's what I am seeing out of this too. I am paying more attention to relevant things, everyday things. But you're definitely catching important stuff like marches and protests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blinking Eye Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 4 minutes ago, AlexG said: Definitely zooms help, that's what I am seeing out of this too. I am paying more attention to relevant things, everyday things. But you're definitely catching important stuff like marches and protests. I live near lots and lots of protests. I miss so many of them. I got a few great photos of tonight's celebrations in Oakland, but Alamy News seems to have blocked my email address. I was hoping to submit them to Live News. I did once before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blinking Eye Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 On 15/09/2020 at 10:52, robko photography said: Hello everyone, This is my first post on the forums. I'm looking for a critique of my small portfolio. Comments on keywording, etc would also be welcome. https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/robkophotography Thanks very much, I've been learning a lot here. I love the simplicity of many of your images and that you leave large empty spaces in the frame that would be good for copy space. The leaf on the water is exquisite. I like the one way sign and the little green bird on the wire. I hear nature shots are hard to sell, but wooohooo that RAINBOW! Wow. I've notice with myself, the more I submit, the better my submissions get. I get more discriminating and I am developing a better sense of how to tell a story with a single photo. Plus I zero in more easily now on what I want to shoot, and avoiding more mediocre shots than I used to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 15 hours ago, The Blinking Eye said: I have like 37 zooms total. They've just shot up in the past couple of months. Fourteen just since September 1 on all kinds of unrelated photos. Five zooms on a single George Floyd mural. One on a Breonna Taylor mural and one on a BLM shrine. I guess the zooms on the George Floyd mural bring all my other photos to higher placement in other searches too, so they get clicks. I notice it helps to follow current events. Zooms obviously don't translate into sales though. I'm kind of amazed how hard this is. Good job, your port looks nice. Do you submit most of what I see in there as stock or live news? Like you I've had trouble with a live news submission and have given up and had to simply submit it as stock. I'm just hoping that while the event was obviously time specific that the subject and content of the photos has some reuse factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blinking Eye Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 (edited) 46 minutes ago, Cal said: Good job, your port looks nice. Do you submit most of what I see in there as stock or live news? Like you I've had trouble with a live news submission and have given up and had to simply submit it as stock. I'm just hoping that while the event was obviously time specific that the subject and content of the photos has some reuse factor. Thank you. I finally did get through to live news last night. That was only the second time I have uploaded through that portal. All my other photos have been uploaded as stock and sold years after they were taken. The one I sold a couple days ago was from the Women's March in January 2017. I haven't uploaded more to Live News because I wasn't so familiar with the process and not actually very quick (no laptop etc). But after going through the process again last night, maybe I can try to do it more often. Edited November 8, 2020 by The Blinking Eye Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 28 minutes ago, The Blinking Eye said: Thank you. I finally did get through to live news last night. That was only the second time I have uploaded through that portal. All my other photos have been uploaded as stock and sold years after they were taken. The one I sold a couple days ago was from the Women's March in January 2017. I haven't uploaded more to Live News because I wasn't so familiar with the process and not actually very quick (no laptop etc). But after going through the process again last night, maybe I can try to do it more often. What was the process you used? Did you contact them via email (which one?) and just ask to have permission to upload as live news? I sent an application via the form but they ask you to submit a scan of a previous successful news publication which I don't yet have... chicken and egg scenario. Though the fact that I couldn't get through via phone wasn't encouraging as to the reliability of the process for a future endeavour. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chuck Nacke Posted November 9, 2020 Share Posted November 9, 2020 On 15/09/2020 at 13:52, robko photography said: Hello everyone, This is my first post on the forums. I'm looking for a critique of my small portfolio. Comments on keywording, etc would also be welcome. https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/robkophotography Thanks very much, I've been learning a lot here. Rob, I just looked at the first page of you images, in my opinion they are very good, but in this day, 11/2020," very good" is not enough. When I am selecting images to upload to Alamy or any of the agencies or libraries that I contribute to. The first question I ask myself is what does this image add to the library? What is the images value to the story that I am trying to tell? Good Luck, Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robko photography Posted November 13, 2020 Author Share Posted November 13, 2020 On 08/11/2020 at 00:50, The Blinking Eye said: I love the simplicity of many of your images and that you leave large empty spaces in the frame that would be good for copy space. The leaf on the water is exquisite. I like the one way sign and the little green bird on the wire. I hear nature shots are hard to sell, but wooohooo that RAINBOW! Wow. I've notice with myself, the more I submit, the better my submissions get. I get more discriminating and I am developing a better sense of how to tell a story with a single photo. Plus I zero in more easily now on what I want to shoot, and avoiding more mediocre shots than I used to. Thank you for the comments. some great things to keep in mind! 👍 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robko photography Posted November 13, 2020 Author Share Posted November 13, 2020 On 08/11/2020 at 22:58, Chuck Nacke said: Rob, I just looked at the first page of you images, in my opinion they are very good, but in this day, 11/2020," very good" is not enough. When I am selecting images to upload to Alamy or any of the agencies or libraries that I contribute to. The first question I ask myself is what does this image add to the library? What is the images value to the story that I am trying to tell? Good Luck, Chuck Thank you for taking time to look. Very helpful and honest feedback here on the forum. Much appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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