Nodvandigtid Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 What is a photography portfolio review and how can it help you? - Alamy Blog 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ognyan Yosifov Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 59 minutes ago, Alexander Hog said: I got an E-mail about this this morning and wondered the same about how it can help It'll help only the organizer ... 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geogphotos Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 Not for me thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ognyan Yosifov Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 5 hours ago, Ognyan Yosifov said: It'll help only the organizer ... I meant the third party, not Alamy ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca Ore Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 I went and looked at the subscription fees just out of cynical curiosity. Science Fiction Writers of America once sold its mailing list to some dodgy thing and had a whole lot of protests and promised never to do that again. This wasn't that bad in that photographers have to volunteer to give up their emails. Emerging photographers is a nice way of saying wannabees. I may resemble that, but I'd rather take a class with Don Gaitan whose work I do know and who is in and out of Managua. Or ask you guys for another portfolio review where you're not paid by stringing me along. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 3 hours ago, Rebecca Ore said: Emerging photographers is a nice way of saying wannabees. Wow! That hurts. There are lots of people out there who actually are emerging photographers. People who've got a few solid clients, a couple of good publications, or perhaps work experience in a high-end, big market studio. For them, reviews like this one can give clarity - a sense that the few mentors or instructors they've had were right or wrong. These reviews are valuable for another group too - photographers who've been working insolation for years or even decades, know they need a mid-course correction, but need somebody to turn to. On the other hand, we are all "wannabees." Every time we upload a photo - there's an implied message ... an announcement to the photo buyer/editor world that says "look what I've done! what do you think?" Indeed, the think I love the most about stock photography is that in a very real sense, each upload is a fresh start and a new chance to engage the photography world. We can all be better and Alamy is doing this small thing to help a few. I see it as okay and wish all of those emerging photographers my very best. 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca Ore Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 2 hours ago, Brian Yarvin said: Wow! That hurts. There are lots of people out there who actually are emerging photographers. People who've got a few solid clients, a couple of good publications, or perhaps work experience in a high-end, big market studio. For them, reviews like this one can give clarity - a sense that the few mentors or instructors they've had were right or wrong. These reviews are valuable for another group too - photographers who've been working insolation for years or even decades, know they need a mid-course correction, but need somebody to turn to. On the other hand, we are all "wannabees." Every time we upload a photo - there's an implied message ... an announcement to the photo buyer/editor world that says "look what I've done! what do you think?" Indeed, the think I love the most about stock photography is that in a very real sense, each upload is a fresh start and a new chance to engage the photography world. We can all be better and Alamy is doing this small thing to help a few. I see it as okay and wish all of those emerging photographers my very best. Check the prices for joining that organization. The thing is that I've been in academia and SF and have heard enough about people who make more money for weekend seminars that are "so encouraging" than the people have ever made from being professionals. I've been a second reader (unpaid) on a senior writing project where NOBODY taught the woman what Point of View was and how to effectively use it. The person who set me up for that wanted me to encourage her former student. But what I saw in the student was a budding journalist, not a budding fantasy writer. I find it cruel to play with people's ambitions if I'm not convinced they're realistic. Alamy was probably paid to offer this opportunity to harvest emails. Science Fiction Writers of America was paid to sell its email and address list of its members. We jumped down their throat for that. SWFA's website has a "Writer Beware" section publicly readable about all the scams that try to fleece wannabes. If I'm remembering correctly, this was some sort of scam website that would promote fiction to movie people. I had an agent for that, and had some nibbles, but no options. Many of us have problems with "imposter syndrome." Many wannabes of the more exploitable sort have wildly inflated self-opinions. Fearing you're doing a crap job and trying to do better is a good thing. Believing you're an unrecognized genius, pretty useless. Anyone I listen to needs to be someone I recognize as having done a better job than I'm doing, or someone paying me if I do the work they want. I can look at y'all's portfolios. I can figure out whose advice to take seriously even if it cuts and whose to ignore because it flatters. If I'm wrong in that, then that's my limitation. Maybe Alamy paid for the portfolio reviews. Nicaragua has some photographers that top me quite handily, and some of them offer classes that are bus rides away. The photographers also have a Facebook group, if I want to rejoin that. Given the Internet, none of us are working in the sort of isolation any of us not in metropolitan areas would have been working in when I was 20. I moved to NYC at that age to be in a community of poets, writers, painters, and performance groups. Here is not as isolated as Clemson, SC, was. The Nicaraguan photographer's group includes someone who was the set stills photographer for Miami Vice. I've run into a visiting woman pro when I was photographing in Leon. The SF world makes a distinction between people who self-publish and don't go further to people who have some commercial successes to people who have so much commercial success that other people are frothing at the mouth jealous of them. If someone is actually selling work in the arts, they're ahead of 99% of the people who don't. And before I submitted to Alamy the first go round, I had to ask myself if I wanted to spoil a pleasant hobby by trying to turn even semi-pro. Mheh. Still don't know. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted April 8, 2022 Share Posted April 8, 2022 Rebecca, as far as I could tell, there was no charge for that portfolio review. You applied and were either accepted or not. Review or not, the combination of stock photography and science fiction writing is one of the most unique and interesting I've ever encountered. People like me - who write recipes and photograph food - are a dime a dozen. People who write science fiction and shoot stock photos are a much rarer breed. Sorry to change the topic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca Ore Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 They're going to be collecting the email addresses of those who apply. It's like making a donation to Amnesty International, who also sells addresses to a range of other similar (sort of) organizations eager for donations. But AI made zero effort to connect me with a local Amnesty group while selecting me to donate even more to them. At least Alamy isn't selling all of our email addresses (it isn't spam when you have established you have an interest in the organization). Did poetry for around a decade, made some money from giving readings and worked in publishing, then worked for a weekly newspaper in rural Virginia, then started writing SF. Now, I'm working on a non-s.f. novel that's flavored with tech research. Taught some, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 Very interesting! Thanks for sharing, our lives can have their own internal structures that somehow come to make sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meanderingemu Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 22 hours ago, Ognyan Yosifov said: I meant the third party, not Alamy ... i am assuming there has to be something in it for Alamy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 Emu, there's a mountain of good PR with the emerging and commercial photography crowds - groups that Alamy is anxious to charm. It also fits in with their efforts to reach out to photography students. I'm also pretty sure that Alamy would argue that portfolio reviews would improve the quality of images coming in. In my experience, every time I've sat down with a knowledgeable person for a portfolio review, my work has gotten better - it's something I recommend to all who want to improve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meanderingemu Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 47 minutes ago, Brian Yarvin said: Emu, there's a mountain of good PR with the emerging and commercial photography crowds - groups that Alamy is anxious to charm. It also fits in with their efforts to reach out to photography students. I'm also pretty sure that Alamy would argue that portfolio reviews would improve the quality of images coming in. In my experience, every time I've sat down with a knowledgeable person for a portfolio review, my work has gotten better - it's something I recommend to all who want to improve. I guess on this one they failed to convince me they had any expertise in regards to Stock, which is why i pretty much dismissed it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Yarvin Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 Exactly Emu, this isn't about people who are only doing stock photography, it's about bringing in photographers in other specialties and niches. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca Ore Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 2 hours ago, Brian Yarvin said: I've sat down with a knowledgeable person for a portfolio review... The trick is finding someone knowledgeable. I suspect that the best portfolio reviews would be from long experienced photo editors. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca Ore Posted April 9, 2022 Share Posted April 9, 2022 (edited) 11 hours ago, meanderingemu said: I guess on this one they failed to convince me they had any expertise in regards to Stock, which is why i pretty much dismissed it. Three photographers getting portfolio reviews is a tiny drop in the Alamy's photographers pool. The cost for a portfolio review otherwise is 40 pounds. Membership is almost 100 pounds and includes a free portfolio review annually. And that organization is strongly UK focused. One of Alamy's partner in Mexico has different styles of photos for Latin America than what's common from the Anglo Saxon eyes. If I'm trying to see people instead of "locals," I need to be following what people here are doing, and that's over on Facebook, should I decide to rejoin that. Edited April 10, 2022 by Rebecca Ore More and less information Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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