The importance of updating ?

[Bryan]

Over the relatively brief period that I have been reporting photos used in the papers I have noticed that some of the contributors who once regularly appeared have faded away and new names have come to the fore.  I'm not thinking of News pictures where immediacy is all, but rather lifestyle, townscapes  and even landscapes.  

 

Of course some older photos are timeless and continue to sell, but I guess that many photo buyers click on New when searching to ensure that images illustrating their publications are up to date. 

 

Is it worth, therefore, replicating old images with newly acquired photos, and, if so, should the older shots be discarded?

 

 

 

 

[Colblimp]

4 minutes ago, Bryan said:

Over the relatively brief period that I have been reporting photos used in the papers I have noticed that some of the contributors who once regularly appeared have faded away and new names have come to the fore.  I'm not thinking of News pictures where immediacy is all, but rather lifestyle, townscapes  and even landscapes.  

 

Of course some older photos are timeless and continue to sell, but I guess that many photo buyers click on New when searching to ensure that images illustrating their publications are up to date. 

 

Is it worth, therefore, replicating old images with newly acquired photos, and, if so, should the older shots be discarded?

 

 

 

 

Why not?  You've given me an idea... 😇😉

[Vitor from Portugal]

Great point of view 👍

[Malcolm Park]

2 hours ago, Bryan said:

Over the relatively brief period that I have been reporting photos used in the papers I have noticed that some of the contributors who once regularly appeared have faded away and new names have come to the fore.  I'm not thinking of News pictures where immediacy is all, but rather lifestyle, townscapes  and even landscapes.  

 

Of course some older photos are timeless and continue to sell, but I guess that many photo buyers click on New when searching to ensure that images illustrating their publications are up to date. 

 

Is it worth, therefore, replicating old images with newly acquired photos, and, if so, should the older shots be discarded?

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve sold the occasional image of the City of London skyline (which is continually changing) searched with a specific month and year (sometimes 10 years back) so I don’t discard the older shots. I do keep updating the same subject though.

[Phil Robinson]

I've just been back to Canterbury for the first time in years. I got some new shots but also re-took old ones.
Firstly, I now have better equipment and probably technique, so the photos are better.

Secondly, places - shopfronts etc - change and new things appear.

Thirdly, while captioning the new ones I discovered that all the pics I had of the Marlowe Theatre were misspelled Marlow, a possible reason why they haven't sold.

[Steve F]

I agree with all 3 of Phil's points!

If I go somewhere I've photographed in the past, I've got a better camera now and I can probably take better pictures. Or I might find a viewpoint I didn't investigate before, or there's different light etc.. The cityscape or technology may have updated. Same for people in landscapes, you can often judge the decade by what they're wearing. Maybe selfie sticks will become incredibly outdated in the future...

I wouldn't ever delete older pictures, they're a historical record.

Edited April 18, 2021 by Steve F

[geogphotos]

Yes, I have just been thinking about this. It is amazing how fast time goes by.  Sometimes I'm realising that places that I thought I had covered and my pics are from 2009 or something ridiculous. Aldeburgh is an example for me as a place that I thought I had 'done'.

 

As it turns out most of my pics are 2014-2015, many around 2009-2010. Only my ones of the church are more recent. 

 

Not going there today though. A sunny Sunday will be hell.

 

 

[spacecadet]

41 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

Aldeburgh

 

41 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

sunny Sunday will be hell.

 .........and try getting any chips........😮........Even the Scallop was covered in sproglets....they went away eventually, wonder if they got any chips........

 

I submit more images if I revisit somewhere, but I try to deepen the coverage rather than duplicate it, unless something is improved- light, vehicles, people.

I certainly don't delete old stuff because it still sells.. I don't notice many DTs in searches, but I suppose I wouldn't if I'm being bypassed, would I!

I even have one digital image of a building since demolished. Of course it's now properly archival and captioned as such..

Edited April 18, 2021 by spacecadet

[sb photos]

1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

Aldeburgh is an example for me as a place that I thought I had 'done'. ......A sunny Sunday will be hell.

 

Early May I'll be staying overnight on the Aldeburgh side of Leiston, and Aldeburgh is likely to be first stop around late morning on Saturday. An area I've not visited before, hopefully it won't be hell.

[Robert M Estall]

Aldeburgh is never "hell" like packed out beaches of Brighton or Southend, but the queues for Fish & Chips do get ridiculous. I'm more for a sandwich & cold beer down by the water's edge myself.  There is a good sandwich shop but on a week-end I would bring my own.

Even the seagulls are a bit upmarket and don't dive-bomb visitors a lot. Mostly they are Terns rather than Herring Gulls so more acrobatic and less greedy.

Edited April 19, 2021 by Robert M Estall

[Betty LaRue]

For me to get to a beach, I would need to board a plane or travel 2 days by car east or west. I could get to a Texas beach in a day if I wanted to drive 15 or so hours straight.

But ohhhhh, the photo ops on the way, which would turn it into a much longer trip.

[geogphotos]

If the queues are too long in Aldeburgh there's good fish and chips in Leiston. Then drive down to Sizewell beach to eat them.

 

Aldeburgh and Leiston are like chalk and cheese.

[John Mitchell]

Alamy is a bit like quicksand, so I think it is important to update images, especially subjects that actually license. I generally don't discard older versions even though I know they will probably continue to sink into the depths of no return. This is probably out of superstition more than anything else, but hey you never know.

 

As far as older "timeless" images go. Those are the ones that are keeping me afloat (sort of) these days. The only bright spot for me this month is a $$$ sale of an image that I took over ten years ago in a small town in Central America. It has licensed many times, usually for good prices. Chances are I'll never be able to update it, though.

[Joseph Clemson]

Our local newspaper runs picture features on a regular basis featuring local photos from their archives of maybe 20, 30, 50 or 100 years ago. They are always popular and people love looking for places, events and people they have known. Of course these photos are from the newspaper's own archives, from the days when local papers actuallt employed real photographers. Old photos have value.

 

On that basis I will never discard an old photo, even if I take new versions of the location or subject. Eventually these old pictures will be the ancient archive which become a treasure trove of memories for a future generation, a snapshot of particular places and points in time. It could be argued that, with so many images now being created, when every person, cat and dog has a camera phone to hand, any collection here, or even Alamy as a whole,  is an insignificant drop in the ocean. However, the difference between the ocean of created imagery in the world, and the collection of photos lodged here at Alamy, is that ours are carefully (for the most part) captioned and keyworded and can be found by the diligent searcher. Alamy also differs from microstock in general in being such a varied and uncurated collection of people, events and locations, with a smaller proportion being staged and carefully edited imagery often typical of microstock.  

 

Even if I never sold an older image, though I'm sure I will, I'd still count it as worth keeping for its value in future years as an historical reference which may be easily available to anyone with the incentive to look for it and a few pennies to licence it.

[John Mitchell]

Another thing to consider is that when you click on "New" and then on one of your own images in the search results, there is usually a link to "Stock photos by the same contributor" that can bring up older images of the same or similar subjects -- i.e. uploading new images can sometimes bring older ones back to the surface (albeit briefly). 

[IanDavidson]

Because I mainly shoot news a constant reworking is necessary.  I have many shots of Boris Johnson but it is, generally the new shots that sell.   I recall that while standing in the press pen in Downing Street, Priti Patel, then International Development Secretary, came over to us and asked why we kept taking her photo.  We tried to explain that she was a cabinet minister so “in demand” and secondly that demand was for up-to-date pictures.  As Home Secretary, she is IMHO the most difficult minister to photograph.  She uses the “back door” when going to 10 Downing Street and generally makes sure she is behind her protection officers when using the front.  Mind you, last week outside the Cabinet Office with another tog, Brandon Lewis, the NI secretary came out, one of his protection officers made a bee line at us almost completely blocking us from getting photos so it’s not just Patel, and this at a time when there are few cabinet ministers around.  In comparison I shot Liz Truss the same day who was just walking in Whitehall with a couple of officials.  
 

I don’t delete old pictures because you never know when a current or ex cabinet minister (David Cameron anyone) will be back in the news....

[spacecadet]

16 hours ago, geogphotos said:

If the queues are too long in Aldeburgh there's good fish and chips in Leiston. Then drive down to Sizewell beach to eat them.

 

Aldeburgh and Leiston are like chalk and cheese.

I too prefer cheese.

The Crown is wonderfully cheesy.

[Ed Rooney]

The trouble with updating subjects and deleting older versions is that we are all moving forward on guess work; we don’t know what might sell. We only know what has sold. But we must have a plan to move forward, right?

 

Unless there’s a specific reason for me to delete a specific image, I no longer delete any. I’ve been trying to be more selective with what I upload. I upload too many pasta pics. I’d like to stop doing that, but it’s become an obsession. I have over 250 pasta images on Alamy. Basta with the pasta!

 

Signs are not exactly a photo art subject, and there’s nothing fun about

capturing them. But I shoot a lot of them ‘cause they sell.

[Betty LaRue]

Good to see you’re back to processing images. Your breakfast, eggs, etc just made me hungry.

Ed, is it my eyes or are there artifacts around the edges of the building’s roof in 2F9AKCD?  Please don’t take it as a criticism. I just know how discerning you are about your images. Plus I could be all wet! I often am.

[Jill Morgan]

On 18/04/2021 at 12:26, Betty LaRue said:

For me to get to a beach, I would need to board a plane or travel 2 days by car east or west. I could get to a Texas beach in a day if I wanted to drive 15 or so hours straight.

But ohhhhh, the photo ops on the way, which would turn it into a much longer trip.

 

Funny Betty, I had just been thinking (once Covid is over as it is a mess here in Ontario) of taking a photo trip.  Pick a destination and stop and shoot along the way.  Now retired, there are no time constraints unless I put them on myself.  Would be a fun trip and probably find some new and interesting places I had never seen before.  Both my sons have moved to Calgary, so maybe next spring or summer, take a photo trip.  No hurry, just drive, relax and shoot.

 

Jill

[Colblimp]

8 hours ago, IanDavidson said:

 I recall that while standing in the press pen in Downing Street, Priti Patel, then International Development Secretary, came over to us and asked why we kept taking her photo.  We tried to explain that she was a cabinet minister so “in demand” and secondly that demand was for up-to-date pictures.  As Home Secretary, she is IMHO the most difficult minister to photograph.

To quote a certain Basil Fawlty, she's a rancorous old sow - the most useless human being to ever walk this earth.  I would have included the word coiffured, but she simply isn't. 😡

[Betty LaRue]

2 hours ago, Jill Morgan said:

 

Funny Betty, I had just been thinking (once Covid is over as it is a mess here in Ontario) of taking a photo trip.  Pick a destination and stop and shoot along the way.  Now retired, there are no time constraints unless I put them on myself.  Would be a fun trip and probably find some new and interesting places I had never seen before.  Both my sons have moved to Calgary, so maybe next spring or summer, take a photo trip.  No hurry, just drive, relax and shoot.

 

Jill

My favorite trips were ones seeing pretty sights and photographing. You’re not wandering aimlessly, but with a purpose, getting high on nature. We always had a destination in mind, but followed our noses with anything that looked or sounded interesting on the way. The only timetable we had was when we needed to get back home for Hub’s work. We made no reservations.
We had a conversion van, and often slept in it or a popup tent in state parks or KOAs. 
The east coast trip was made in a used motor home we bought for $11,000.  We camped three times in it. Two camps in our state, one a fishing trip to Arkansas, then the east coast trip.  Sold it for what we paid later. So expenses were mainly park or camp fees, no hotel/motel fees.

I made an automobile trip to the coast of Texas where I joined a friend for a 5-day bird shoot in Texas and Louisiana. That was fun.

[geogphotos]

On 18/04/2021 at 14:07, sb photos said:

 

Early May I'll be staying overnight on the Aldeburgh side of Leiston, and Aldeburgh is likely to be first stop around late morning on Saturday. An area I've not visited before, hopefully it won't be hell.

 

The parking can get tight. It's a lovely place to wander around and breath some sea air. All a bit upmarket. Half the buildings seem to have scaffolding on them. Yes, I went today - twice. Morning for west facing, home for lunch, then back in the afternoon for the east. 

 

Also had a nose around Thorpeness today which you should definitely have a look at on your way from Leiston down to Aldeburgh or vice versa. It's getting hard to find much of a view of the House in the Clouds now with the trees growing up, 

Edited April 19, 2021 by geogphotos

[spacecadet]

Southwold is a nice cycle from Leiston, maybe a bit far from Aldeburgh. You cross Westleton Heath (where we saw an adder), then over the Blyth on the rowing boat ferry (which takes two bicycles-quite expensive per mile!) and fish and chips at the black sheds. You can save the return fare by taking the Bailey bridge.

Might just have sorted our our holidays.

Edited April 20, 2021 by spacecadet

[Michael Ventura]

I am all for updating and adding to a subject, I have only seen good things from doing this!