Lost all interest

[Reimar]

On 14/02/2023 at 12:03, Reimar said:

I can commiserate with the loss of interest.  Today I had two refunds never paid from May 5, 2022.  My total so far this month: -$0.01

OK, those two $45 cancelled sales were paid today at $7.  So at least I'm up $14, $3 to me.  Forty times less than one other stock site for the month.

Edited February 15, 2023 by Reimar

[gvallee]

7 hours ago, Inchiquin said:

 

At least he's active and still the same old Philippe on that social media group we know about.

 

Alan

 

Absolutely. Same bantering. Good old Philippe.

[Martin Carlsson]

On 15/02/2023 at 01:31, Phillip said:

As a newbie, I have been wondering how you guys managed to find the time to upload hundreds if not thousands of photos with keywords.  I am struggling and on Alamy, I have a measly 60 photos with a lot of time-consuming waiting for QC to approve which sometimes takes days.

 

Definitely not a good business model.

 

For me, it has been a huge learning curve and still is, it saddens me to think that in reality, Photographers are only cannon fodder to be exploited by stock libraries.

 

On their "What should I shoot" list, I can do a fair few and I have chosen one to be a lot of fun, so watch this space, it will have satirical titles and will be included when I am able in most if not all of the shots I submit from now on.

There is an Alamy Lightroom plugin that I find extremely useful. Well worth the money IMHO. Good luck! /M

https://www.lightroom-plugins.com/AlamyIndex.php

[Phillip]

5 hours ago, Martin Carlsson said:

There is an Alamy Lightroom plugin that I find extremely useful. Well worth the money IMHO. Good luck! /M

https://www.lightroom-plugins.com/AlamyIndex.php

Thanks for the heads up, I have to find room on my hard drive to fit it in. My next purchase has to be an external hard drive to store all my images.

[tonyworldtravels]

Great read as for sure the party is over and thanks all for your input.

[wilkopix]

On 13/01/2023 at 21:38, Travelshots said:

Having been contributing for almost over 20 years I have now completely lost interest in selling stock images. My returns from images on Alamy (and others) are earning a pittance and I really dont know why I bother to look at the websites.

You and me both. My returns from Alamy have plummeted. The number of sales so far this year are extreamly poor too. I think when I started the comission split was 70/30% and now its 40/60 which has also had a negative impact on earnings too. Does anyone actually earn enough to make a basic living from Alamy or is it now just a hobby for many?

[Michael Ventura]

16 minutes ago, wilkopix said:

Does anyone actually earn enough to make a basic living from Alamy or is it now just a hobby for many?

 

I would suspect very very few earn an actual living just from stock photography anymore.  Back in the golden years of stock, I was earning more than half of my overall income in photography, from stock.   Now, it is a small fraction but still make the rest of my living through assignment and commissioned photography.  The assignment and commissioned work is still going pretty strong, thank goodness!!  Without that, I am not sure what I would be doing.  I haven't lost ALL interest but most of what I put on Alamy, these days, are photos that were taken for paid shoots and happen to work okay for stock.  I rarely shoot anything just for the sake of stock anymore, especially travel...just no way you will recoup your investment.  Sure if I take a trip, I will still shoot photos but that is more because I like to shoot photos, not because it will pay for the trip.

[geogphotos]

I don't suppose that there has ever been a time when a large number of people made a living purely (or even mainly) from stock photography.  

 

I don't think that is the point, or realistic purpose or ambition, for most of us.

 

For me being a stock photographer itself was an ambition and the internet and Alamy made that possible.

 

It also made it possible for everybody else. 

 

I can just about make it work but having 80,000 images in the bank helps.

[Brian Yarvin]

Ian, I can recall a time when many thousands of people made their entire livings from stock photography. Thirty years ago, the average annual stock photographer income (according to Jim Pickerell) was $119,000 per year and a piker like me lived comfortably in New York City. In the mid to late nineties, there was a commercial stock photo bubble with many sales in the fifty thousand dollar range. That bubble burst in a price war that only stopped when the free photo sites started dominating.

 

Sadly, for many, it IS the point. They heard about income possibilities and missed the part about the fact that it hasn't been done in a quarter of a century. 

[wilkopix]

1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said:

 

I would suspect very very few earn an actual living just from stock photography anymore.  Back in the golden years of stock, I was earning more than half of my overall income in photography, from stock.   Now, it is a small fraction but still make the rest of my living through assignment and commissioned photography.  The assignment and commissioned work is still going pretty strong, thank goodness!!  Without that, I am not sure what I would be doing.  I haven't lost ALL interest but most of what I put on Alamy, these days, are photos that were taken for paid shoots and happen to work okay for stock.  I rarely shoot anything just for the sake of stock anymore, especially travel...just no way you will recoup your investment.  Sure if I take a trip, I will still shoot photos but that is more because I like to shoot photos, not because it will pay for the trip.

Very similar here. Stock has always been a bit of an 'add on' to the revenue stream when the commissioned work gets quiet or 'out takes' from assignment work. Having said that I was hoping to reach the 180k club but at this rate it won't be this year (Over the twenty years I've been supplying Alamy I guess that isn't actually a very impressive target!). I was interested if any individual photographers were reaching the elusive 25k per annum that Alamy now require to get the 50/50 split.

[geogphotos]

34 minutes ago, Brian Yarvin said:

Ian, I can recall a time when many thousands of people made their entire livings from stock photography. Thirty years ago, the average annual stock photographer income (according to Jim Pickerell) was $119,000 per year and a piker like me lived comfortably in New York City. In the mid to late nineties, there was a commercial stock photo bubble with many sales in the fifty thousand dollar range. That bubble burst in a price war that only stopped when the free photo sites started dominating.

 

Sadly, for many, it IS the point. They heard about income possibilities and missed the part about the fact that it hasn't been done in a quarter of a century. 

 

 

I would not consider 'many thousands' to be a significant number as a global figure.

 

What has happned is that number has been flattened out and spread out because so many more of us have been able to become stock photographers. 

[kimba]

I haven't been very inspired to go out and shoot random things - even though I have my own stock site as well as Alamy - I just haven't been feeling it.  

 

I'd love to be doing some arty studio work, but I don't have a studio.

[Brian Yarvin]

Ian, I think there's more to it than that - but I agree

1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

What has happned is that number has been flattened out and spread out because so many more of us have been able to become stock photographers. 

 

Ian, this strikes me as a huge part of it. There may have been more, but I'm so out of touch with the people I knew back then that I can't ask. 

[John Mitchell]

I shall continue to upload images willy-nilly as I'm still making some needed extra income. Plus I enjoy photography for its own sake. However, when it comes to "stock," I fear that eventually I might even lose interest in losing interest. 🙃

 

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by John Mitchell