Pleas be gentle to criticism about my portfolio lol, also how to change pseudonym/profile name?

[Nealj121]

Hello.

 

im looking for some advice on my work. I am 100% self taught. I have never taken a class on photography nor do i know shot types.  I have always been interested in photography but never took it seriously… until I was bored on vacation and bought a drone because I always liked drone shots. Bought a cheap one at first then a DJI. Now I love it.

 

I’ve been at this for 3 months now. I’ve had sales so that’s a good sign. But i don’t know any expert photographers to ask for help. I’d like to buy a hand held camera one day so I can get ground shot’s more often.

 

is it possible to go with a username instead of my name? I’d rather go by my username since that’s who I am elsewhere. Not sure where to change that.

 

if anyone can provide photography or editing tips thanks. I use Lightroom and luminar AI / NEO.

 

## DISCLAIMER- I am behind with my posting of pics. So the content being posted is probably a month old.  Yet I’ll take suggestions.

[Michael Ventura]

Hi James,

 

I didn't know that the DJI cameras were good enough to pass Alamy's QC.  Some nice shots but your caption and tags are lacking in specifics.  You are more likely to sell images here that are identifying exactly where they are taken rather than being vague.  Tags like "vibrant sky" will be of little use.  Think like a reporter who has to get the Who, What, Where, When answers.  Even add in the country, city, state, county, town, region, etc...

 

Not sure about how to change your username.

 

Best of luck.

Edited January 14, 2022 by Michael Ventura

[Harry Harrison]

I was surprised to see how many drone pictures there are on Alamy, search for 'drone aerial' to get some idea, over 500,000 and that won't be all of them, just those captioned that way. Unless the drone is very expensive it will have a camera with a sensor that is considered to be marginal when it comes to passing QC so do look out for excessive noise if the image was taken in low light and sharpness issues particularly if the corners show important detail.

 

Yes, you do need to pay attention to captions and keywords, for example that 'zigzag' river is an actual geographical feature, a meander or meandering river, so you could put that in. However you're in a good place, congratulations for starting from nothing and teaching yourself to use a drone successfully. The next challenge is to use that drone and take it to places where people are doing things, or places where a lot of people like to go, because these are the sort of pictures that sell on Alamy in the main. That has its own challenges because it is less easy to use a drone legally in such areas but you might get some inspiration from the drone shots already on Alamy. 

 

I don't know how to change the profile name either, it may not be possible.

[gvallee]

I like your images.

Just out of curiosity, I presume you have a commercial drone license? I love my drone and have good images but no commercial license, so I don't upload them to Alamy. I do have recreational licenses where needed which gives me the right to fly it but not to sell the images.

Edited January 15, 2022 by gvallee