critique for my wildlife portfolio

[phils wildlife]

Hello there!

 

I'm quite new to alamy and don't have a big portfolio yet.
Nonetheless I would be very grateful to get a few tips/advices on what I could do better to present my pictures in the best way.
I focus mainly on wildlife photography and am aware that these are not the best seller overall.

https://www.alamy.de/portfolio/philswildlife

 

Thank you!!

[John Gaffen]

I think the images  you have are perfectly saleable,  perhaps putting more keywords on them would help their visibility in the search engine. There are a few too many "similars" in you collection.  As you probably know, stock photography is a bit of a numbers game and your portfolio is very small,  presently. I have found that a large and varied portfolio helps with sales volume.  So you might struggle with wildlife only,  here on Alamy.  Certainly finding a niche or specialization can be a good thing, particularly if you  subject is underrepresented in the collection, but  sticking mainly to one main area or subject,  may hamper you  when it comes to sales. 

Edited June 8, 2021 by John Gaffen

[gvallee]

You obviously enjoy wildlife photography, so do I, and you have some good images.

 

However, we have chosen one of the most competitive fields. I only looked at page 1 of your portfolio, and one thing struck me straight away: not many, if at all, Latin names. They should be both in caption and tags. Without them, you stand very little chance.

 

Also, I see you partly keyword in German. Alamy asked us to only tag in English. They translate in other languages for us.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

[phils wildlife]

52 minutes ago, gvallee said:

You obviously enjoy wildlife photography, so do I, and you have some good images.

 

However, we have chosen one of the most competitive fields. I only looked at page 1 of your portfolio, and one thing struck me straight away: not many, if at all, Latin names. They should be both in caption and tags. Without them, you stand very little chance.

 

Also, I see you partly keyword in German. Alamy asked us to only tag in English. They translate in other languages for us.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

Thanks a lot for your response! Adding the latin names is a great Idea, I will add them. Appreciate it a lot!

[phils wildlife]

1 hour ago, John Gaffen said:

I think the images  you have are perfectly saleable,  perhaps putting more keywords on them would help their visibility in the search engine. There are a few too many "similars" in you collection.  As you probably know, stock photography is a bit of a numbers game and your portfolio is very small,  presently. I have found that a large and varied portfolio helps with sales volume.  So you might struggle with wildlife only,  here on Alamy.  Certainly finding a niche or specialization can be a good thing, particularly if you  subject is underrepresented in the collection, but  sticking mainly to one main area or subject,  may hamper you  when it comes to sales. 

Hello and thank you for your response! The variety iny portfolio is indeed a problem but sadly i am kinda restricted by the location I live (wildlife wise). Maybe I should think about photographing some other things as Well! Thanks a lot!

[NYCat]

I can't comment on your captions and keywords because they are not in English. I would be more selective about what you upload. You have some really nice squirrels in good light but also a lot in very poor light. Those will only hurt you. We have no power to choose which of our photos show up first in a search so every one has to be your "best". Some of your images are really good. Don't pull down your rank with inferior ones.

 

Paulette

 

Edit: I see that if I use the link you provided the keywords and captions are not in English but they are if I click the blue number under your avatar. You need to be much more thorough in keywording. Do a search for once of your subjects and check out a few of the images and look at the keywords. Don't copy, but it will give you ideas.

Edited June 8, 2021 by NYCat

[Ed Rooney]

Phil, I have one point to add to the comments. Closeups are good but it seems that almost all your images are closeups. Buyers would be interested in the beauty of a swan, not just its head. 

 

Good luck.

[Mr Standfast]

Hello Phil, 

 

I enjoyed looking at your pictures, I thought you had caught a strong anthropromorphic charm.

However the Alamy wldlife market is very crowded, for instance there are 415 pages of red Squirrel pictures.  Your task is to get your images on pages 1 and 2. 

With so many good quality images to choose from the buyers will not need to look much further than the first pages, if your pictures are on page 207; they will not be seen.

The above advice on captions will help.

If these were mine I might consider trying to market them directly to a greetings card publisher.

 

Good luck!

[Joseph Clemson]

Had a quick scan of your portfolio and I felt overall the images look a little dark, leaning towards under-exposed. I know some of them are shot in the shadows but I think your main subjects would benefit from more colour, vibrancy and contrast. If you are able to it might be worth checking the calibration of your monitor.

[meanderingemu]

17 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

Hello Phil, 

 

I enjoyed looking at your pictures, I thought you had caught a strong anthropromorphic charm.

However the Alamy wldlife market is very crowded, for instance there are 415 pages of red Squirrel pictures.  Your task is to get your images on pages 1 and 2. 

With so many good quality images to choose from the buyers will not need to look much further than the first pages, if your pictures are on page 207; they will not be seen.

The above advice on captions will help.

If these were mine I might consider trying to market them directly to a greetings card publisher.

 

Good luck!

 

 

one of the other problem with many of the UK based common wildlife is the you get competition from the Live news feed that later trickle into Stock.  For example if you search "Starlings UK News" you get 38 pages of entries, and that doesn't include those that would have changed captions later. 

[CAROL SAUNDERS]

Agree with the above.  You have some lovely images of red squirrel but in this respect I agree you need to be more selective, in particular I would not have used 2C8A3BB - yes it's very cute but the white above it's ears in the b/ground does not enhance and you have nicer ones.  Also as said some look too dark, I know forests are dark but you could perhaps adjust in post processing.  I've done a great deal of wildlife photography over the years and it's very easy to get carried away and upload everything but over time I've learned to be very selective.  Keep clicking and enjoy your wildlife.

 

Carol

[ROC]

Hi, 

Beautiful photos. Wildlife photography is my passion, but I've just had a quick look at the images I have sold and worked out wildlife accounts for only about 10% of sales. If you think about how often you might see an article in a magazine about red squirrels for example, compared with how often you see one about gardening, travel or DIY. My advice would be to submit your wildlife images, but if you want to increase your chance of sales in stock photography, widen the subject matter of your submissions. Also submit the your wildlife images that are a bit different, I sold a mistle thrush nest image where Mum was feeding the fledglings whereas a single mistle thrush on a branch wouldn't have had the same interest. I sold mute swans forming a beautiful heart shape during the courtship ritual, whereas a single swan swimming may not have had much saleable value. Hope that helps. 

[phils wildlife]

Thank you all for your very kind comments. They are a great help for me. I deleted some of my squirrel pictures now and added latin names to most species i could identify. 

So glad that you helped me!! Thanks a lot.