Are you contributing?

[geogphotos]

Not trying to influence anybody one way or the other. 

 

How is your level of motivation these days and are you still contributing stock images to Alamy?

 

DO NOT MENTION ANY OTHER AGENCY OR THEIR EXISTENCE

 

 

Edited September 17, 2021 by geogphotos

[Broad Norfolk]

My level of motivation has dropped considerably these days. As regards contributing to Alamy it is about 50% of what it was but I am still submitting in a smaller way. I do not want 16 years of work to go to waste.

I run a small business and am now winding down in the way I do things. At 76 years of age I don't have to do stock but I love photography and this was all part of it and provided some income as part of my business and in a very small way it still does. 

One thing I would add is that in terms of the love of photography is that I enjoy submitting entries into National and International Salons and am now doing more of this. This part of my work has never been submitted as stock and I think most would know why. If any of my images are accepted in these Salons the thought that, these days, if I submitted any as stock the likely hood is a sale may be achieved but at what a price? The thought that an Internationally recognised image may sell for less than the price of a cup of coffee horrifies me. But there we are, they are two different things.

At least I am spending more time at a more leisurely pace in areas that I really enjoy.

Jim 😉  

[Brian Yarvin]

Ian, it's the key question today. I no longer produce images just for stock, but I continue to upload a few times a year.

[Jill Morgan]

My motivation has fallen.  I have a few hundred images sitting on SD cards ready to be culled, developed and keyworded, but haven't had the urge to do any of it.  There are a few other things keeping me busy, but giving the time to all the images that is required, seems pointless these days to get some pennies.

 

Might get around to it later today, maybe while I watch the baseball game tonight, but hey, bought a new sublimation printer and I'm anxious to get it set up and running.  It will end up making me money, so has a higher priority.

 

Jill

[Joseph Clemson]

It's hard to feel motivated by lower sales, lower income and when your agency makes you feel unloved by cutting your income from whatever sales you do make.

 

I have about two thousand images stretching back nearly three years waiting to be processed and uploaded to Alamy. I think they will have to wait a while as my motivation to work on video clips which are homed elsewhere  is just slightly greater. 

[John Morrison]

The change in Alamy commission has made me re-think my priorities. With a big book to finish, I’m letting sunny days go by. Though it’s a shame to miss those days out with my camera, I feel energised by the writing… and I’m on track to finish the book by the end of October. I’ll carry on shooting and uploading pix, but at a lower level. From now on, its plan B…

[geogphotos]

A project such as a book sounds a great idea. I don't have that but I am continuing with my Suffolk churches photography. But without the end point of uploading to Alamy I'm like Jill with masses of RAW files to be done, and masses of finished JPEGs that I just can't get around to adding metadata to. I suppose I am just waiting for something to turn up. 

[Inchiquin]

I'm still contributing. I finally got round to joining the archival scheme so I'm busy ploughing through my thousands of trannies from the 70s and 80s. Three or four single-$ sales dented my enthusiasm a bit but today I got a $$$ so there's life in the old dog yet.

 

Alan

[Michael Ventura]

I haven’t shot anything strictly for the sake of stock but will upload photos that can be stock worthy, from assignment shoots.  

[Phil Robinson]

I'm sending in as many as ever - after a brief time away to concentrate on video for a while. 
I find the number of sales is going up and despite a lot of smaller $2-8 sales, the average is increasing slightly and I seem to be getting more in the $30-50 range.
If I suddenly start making a fortune with the slow motion dragonfly videos I may switch to that. Till then I'll be continuing with stock.

[M.Chapman]

I haven't contributed anything to Alamy since the contract change. I've been submitting to a POD site instead. I'm still waiting to see if I get any (or even hear of any) infringement revenue being generated by Alamy exclusive images. If not I'll be swapping my largely exclusive collection on Alamy to non-exclusive.

 

Mark

[BobD]

Still adding a few here and there but images for some reason I never got around to adding before. Nothing new yet. Contemplating having a go at print sales. 

edit.

I am finding that I am getting more sales of late, although average price hasn't changed much.

A $1 sale today has disappointed me. I opted out of novel use because I didn't want these type of sales but as it is only one of an image that has never sold, I just shrug my shoulders. If it happens too often I will consider my position.

I think if Alamy want to make these kind of sales they should at least give us the chance to opt out.

Edited September 16, 2021 by BobD

[John Mitchell]

I haven't been adding many images -- a small batch yesterday was the first submission in awhile. My motivation has definitely been flagging since the contract changes, so I've been concentrating on spreading more of my existing images around (not to micros, though). However, Alamy continues to work the best for me by far, and I don't expect that to change. I've had two $$$ figure sales invoiced this week, which has improved my mood somewhat.

 

 

Edited September 16, 2021 by John Mitchell

[Avpics]

Yes. I've too much time invested in Alamy to give up, and despite a few quiet periods and those now sadly common penny sales it's generally returning a welcome monthly figure. I've chosen to reduce the costs and effort in travel etc rather than quantity of images. If I do ever catch up with the backlog of photos then I'd ...

Quote

DO NOT MENTION ANY OTHER AGENCY OR THEIR EXISTENCE

 

[Colblimp]

I submit pics almost daily.  I really have no choice as photography is my full time job.  I still travel up to two hours from home for a story and I work pretty much seven days a week.  The number of sales are going up, but fees are going right down, which is totally unacceptable from A***y.  Its 'bulk discount' deals are great for the client and A***y, but not for us, the contributors, who keep this company going.  And now I'm going to stop because I'm getting really, really angry...😡😡😡

[sb photos]

5 hours ago, Avpics said:

Yes. I've too much time invested in Alamy to give up, and despite a few quiet periods and those now sadly common penny sales it's generally returning a welcome monthly figure. I've chosen to reduce the costs and effort in travel etc rather than quantity of images. If I do ever catch up with the backlog of photos then I'd ...

 

 

I travel less too, but often deviate up to 10 miles to shoot when driving. I've been going through hard drives, it's surprising what I have found. Tonight I uploaded a single image shot last weekend, deviated 2 miles from a trip visiting a few villages that interested me. Need to keep it up now. Likely into London this Saturday, first for a long time, train to Marylebone then walking.

[Betty LaRue]

I find myself shooting what is easy and close. Getting in my car, using gasoline that has gone sky high to pursue images for small sales doesn’t excite me. I did get shots of a Viceroy butterfly the other day, one I had never come across before. It mimics the colors of the Monarch. Something like that excites me, but that's photography & nature. When I saw it, I didn’t think “stock”.

[Panthera tigris]

I have not uploaded since the new contract. I had a rash of small prices and when I actually calculated my cut rather than the reported sales price I got quite despondent about the whole shebang. I am still photographing in my chosen genre but not submitting anything for stock. The new contract is not my issue its just the whole decline of the sector financially for the contributor, its just not worth the effort for me anymore.

[FocusUno]

2020-2021 emphasis = reworking proven sellers

as evidence overwhelming that future licenses

come from past-licensed images & if a license is

first time seller.....it gets reworked;

this strategy is chased due to unwillingness of

wifey to travel until destination hospitals are

back to normal, because one never knows...

Edited September 17, 2021 by FocusUno

[AlexH]

15 hours ago, BobD said:

 

I think if Alamy want to make these kind of sales they should at least give us the chance to opt out.

I couldn't agree with this more. Ideally I would like the ability to set a minimum acceptable sale price level. While that might be dreaming I did think the whole point of opt in/out of novel use was to allow contributors the choice of being involved in the sort of deals with publishers that are likely to lead to very low individual fees but perhaps greater volume. However despite being opted out of novel use I (and it sounds like many others) am increasingly being drawn into these deals with the end result of piddling license fees. I would really like to see the distinction and definition of novel  use reasserted so that contributors who decline to be involved are not subjected to paltry fees.

 

Alamy's twitter is consistently filled with posts about the specific image needs  and 'motivational' bumph about shooting creative work. Unfortunately my response in recent times is now why would I bother with anything specific and or creative for Alamy, when my realistic expectation of rewards will be literally pennies? I might be shooting myself in the foot but at the moment what I consider my better images are going where I can control the pricing.   

[illuyas]

My last 8 sales have netted me 70c, 68c, 1.77c, 72c, 72c, 72c, 70c, 70c,

 

So at the moment I don't have the motivation to get my camera out of the bag 😒

[VbFolly]

I'm still uploading. I enjoy photography as much as ever, and Alamy still seems the best place for stock. I do sometimes feel a bit demotivated when I get a string of low price sales though, and it might take me a while to get on with image processing and uploading. I have started putting a few images on a POD site as well, and I might spend more time on that during the winter.

[John Gaffen]

Yes, I'm contributing on a regularly basis, both in my SLR photography and Drone photography too. In fact, I'm on course for a record breaking year both in terms of number of sales  and earnings too, not that its exactly masking me a rich man! But,  I still have a passion for photography,  plus the fact that I'm  semi-retired now.  So,  If I wasn't doing something I considered meaningful,  creative and productive I would probably  go a bit crazy! 

 

I'm opted in to Alamy''s  "Addition revenue options"  so I have to expect some of my sales  to yield  low prices. But I am, in general, disappointed in the general downward movement in sales price I've experienced over the last few years. I do still sometimes get a sale which  commands, what I consider to be a  reasonable price though.

Edited September 17, 2021 by John Gaffen

[DJ Myford]

I haven't uploaded anything for years, and the fact that next year my cut will be halved doesn't provide any incentive to resume. Unless I do it in a way that places the maximum burden on QC and subsequently just consumes storage space with no chance of monetary gain for Alamy. I haven't become that petty yet, but it may not be far off.

[Ed Rooney]

 

Digital stock has never been a way to earn real money; it takes a Herculean effort to do so. In the long-gone film era, I could live comfortably off my stock income. 

 

I've not felt the pain of 40% yet. In fact my sales have slightly increased. I'm too old to start over elsewhere. When I stop contributing to Alamy, I will stop shooting stock. 

 

Good luck to all of you.

 

Edo

 

 

[geogphotos]

This is from the Alamy homepage:

 

 Greater choice from Alamy, the world’s most diverse stock photo collection

 

Alamy has always celebrated its encyclopaedic coverage. It is not relying on offering pure volume in the way that micro stock sites offer volume. It does offer that but its USM is the obscure, unusual, little known, highly specialist content that buyers can't find anywhere else. 

 

The question that is being raised time and time again by contributors is how can they make that work with lower commissions and ever lower average fees? Even for the generic micro stock type of content Alamy can't offer the volume that other places can. 

 

Maybe it is time for division into low priced volume content available for those who need it and those who want to supply it ( probably non-exclusively) 

 

And then a specialist collection at higher price points ( and probably exclusive).

 

I would have thought ( but who knows) that Alamy does need to maintain supply from its more experienced editorial contributors who have been contributing for a long time and know what they are doing. I would see myself in a sort of middle-rank, average position in that respect but I do think that I know what I am doing after all these years, and a relatively large number of total sales ( c 4500). And clearly there are loads of much better, more successful contributors than myself. 

 

Maybe there needs to be more nuance and fine-tuning rather than these blanket fee reductions and extreme commission thresholds which are deterring contributors or at least making them very hesitant. 

 

 

Summary for 01 September 2021 to 17 September 2021 ( 36 item(s) 

Edited September 17, 2021 by geogphotos