Hello from Germany

[BeeTee]

Hi all, 
I'm new to Alamy, still about to figure out what subject(s) I should be concentrating. Yes, no cats 😉 
Did some birdwatching over the years but with the current situation I won't be travelling that much. 
And my old pictures won't pass QC, they are called .. uhhmm ..  analog 😞 
Plus, I'm not sure about the new contract, but will give it a shot. 
 

greetz

[Steve F]

Servus Birger,

Wilkommen bei Alamy.

 

New contract is the same as the old contract effectively. But the commission is lower...

 

What to shoot: Every time you see a published stock photo, see what subject / concept it's illustrating (they're everywhere; it should tell you in the photo credits if it's a stock agency). You'll get a better idea about the market if you see what sells.

Stephen

Edited June 29, 2021 by Steve F

[BeeTee]

Hi Stephen, 

thx for the welcome. 
Sounds like I'm gonna start reading online news now or at least checking the credits 🙂 🙂 

greetz

[Steve F]

45 minutes ago, BeeTee said:

Hi Stephen, 

thx for the welcome. 
Sounds like I'm gonna start reading online news now or at least checking the credits 🙂 🙂 

greetz

 

 

[BeeTee]

thx - very helpful 👍

[wiskerke]

You're from Bavaria I see. You're not called Mathias by any chance? Because he does birds and is from Bavaria also.

Better find something that the others here don't have. A niche.

There are 262,559,285 images here by more than 150,000 contributors and 675 agencies from 173 countries (also from the blog).

Now how to find a niche? Searching on this forum for find niche brings up a lot of discussion, but not many subjects 😁. Still useful to have look though.

 

There is a list of what Alamy needs on your dashboard. It's called What should I shoot?

 

And we have this very useful tool: AoA = All of Alamy, is where you can see all searches that clients have been doing. The maximum is the rolling year, which is the current month + 11.

You can just play with the different columns to see which subjects get the most/least searches and which get the most/least views. (Least views=not many images on Alamy yet. Zero views: a possible monopoly for you or a simple/stupid mistake on the buyer's side.)

The other way of using it is to search for one of your own subjects and see how many searches there have been in the past year. No searches: maybe there's no interest or you're just using the wrong keyword.

 

Don't think of pretty images. Taking very beautiful images is practice. After that think of subjects clients are looking for. Then apply what you're learning from making beautiful pictures. And start making really good pictures of things that clients need.

 

wim

[BeeTee]

Hi Wim, 

thanks for the AoA, pretty smart 🙂 

greetz
(not Mathias)

[sb photos]

On 29/06/2021 at 22:07, wiskerke said:

And we have this very useful tool: AoA = All of Alamy, is where you can see all searches that clients have been doing.

 

Yes, very interesting. It generally reflects what the media uses, such as celebrities, politicians, actors, authors etc., many who are now deceased. Spotting sales of Margaret Thatcher reminded me I should pull my finger out and get on with scanning my older B&W negatives. I have negatives of Thatcher before she was Prime Minister, at a time she was being criticised for taking away school milk. Some film strips were dated, some not, I wish I was more organised then.

[PatsyCollins]

Hi.

For now I'm mainly photographing my garden, as COVID restrictions can't stop me and I have a good idea what my subjects are, which helps with keywording! 

[Joseph Clemson]

40 minutes ago, PatsyCollins said:

Hi.

For now I'm mainly photographing my garden, as COVID restrictions can't stop me and I have a good idea what my subjects are, which helps with keywording! 

You might like to start a welcome thread of your own. At the moment the thread title suggests you are based in Germany. While that is no bad thing, its a tad confusing.

[PatsyCollins]

Sorry for any confusion! 

I did post my own thread when I joined. The comment about the type of photos I'm uploading was intended as a response to BeeTee wondering what to concentrate on, rather than an intro to my efforts.

[Joseph Clemson]

Ah. I see. I was confused by the word 'Hi'.🙂 . Carry on....

[Colin Woods]

And don't forget Birger that my dream destination is your local area. Same for me here - people dream of seeing Quebec City, for me its just 8km down the road.  Events in the daily life in your area will be invisible to you yet exotic and different to me, so get out and document life in Bavaria, the streets, villages, people, etc. And look with a new eye at all the images you see everywhere, as well as following the advice given above. On this forum you have unlimited and free access to a group of very talented and helpful photographers who will happily share their knowledge with you. Its a priceless resource.