Please critique my portfolio - 1 sale in 2 years

[AaronP]

I have been adding to my portfolio for about two years. I made 1 sale in 2022. That is it. 

 

I see that I need to increase my content. Do I need to change the content? 

 

Thank you for your observations.

 

https://www.alamy.com/portfolio/elchele

Edited November 3 by AaronP

[Sultanpepa]

Definitely more images and more variety. No more images of cattle or horses and you'll do fine. You'll probably need 1 or 2000 images before you see regular sales.

[Steve F]

Hi Aaron,

Good news is you have a good eye for composition and colour and you have some interesting photos. I agree with Sultanpepa, you need a lot more images in your portfolio, and generic images of horses and cows are not going to sell well. Please don't take the following in a negative sense, this is just to try to get you asking the right questions when you're shooting images.

 

You need to be much much more commercial with what you're shooting. You should be asking yourself, what would a client use my image for? What theme, concept or location is your image trying to illustrate? To get an idea of what sells, look at the monthly threads:

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/18110-images-licensed-in-november/

 

But more importantly, keep a look out in books, magazines, newspapers, online for stock photos. You can see if the images are stock in the photo credits. These are the winners. Look at how an image is used to illustrate e.g. a newspaper story. Compare the images you are taking to these 'winners'.

 

Your captions are too short. They are also searchable by clients as well as your keywords. Clients on Alamy are usually after editorial images, and want specific subjects and locations. Nice enough image, but where is it? You're competing with 35,000 images of 'people kayaking' on Alamy. You're extremely unlikely to sell generic images that are not specific. Should have location in your caption and in the optional information in AIM (Alamy Image Manager). Imagine you're a client on a page of search results looking for kayaking in a certain location. You're maybe going to look at 3 or 4 pages of results so 300-400 images and they hover over your image - they will move swiftly on as the caption doesn't say much.

People kayaking on a sunny day - Image ID: 2KAB1EK

 

Some advice on Captions:

https://www.alamy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Captions-and-Tags-checklist.pdf

https://www.alamy.com/blog/tips-for-your-captions-from-the-sales-team

https://www.alamy.com/blog/captions-and-tags

 

Same for this one. Nice classic composition looking down railway tracks. But what is someone going to use it for? Where is it??? And you should be describing what's in the image, e.g. Looking down railway tracks in xxx town with a disused water tower, Illinois, USA. Concept: rust belt, typical small town, unemployment (I'm just spit balling on the concept stuff, but you get the idea). Try to use all 150 characters available to you.

Downtown in a small Central Illinois town - Image ID: 2JM5FGF

 

This is completely the wrong angle if you're trying to take a picture of someone posing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You need the tower in the background as context and preferably the person taking the picture - i.e. you need the photographer, person posing and the subject that they are posing in front of, all in your picture. And if it's just a generic location, see above. Highly unlikely to license for you:

Woman posing in Pisa - Image ID: 2MF9YBG

You should have tried getting a decent image of the leaning tower of Pisa. Yes, there are many thousands. But when you upload yours, it will be the latest image for a short time - some clients are always on the lookout for the very latest imagery. It is distinctly possible to sell images of saturated subjects.

 

Where is it? Which country?? Bad lighting, backlit subject, unlikely to license.

Agua Clara control tower - Image ID: 2WW9Y0W

 

Why would someone license this image? What theme could it represent? What are grass fields used for in Panama?

An open grass field in the Panama countryside - Image ID: 2Y5DJ85

 

This is never going to license, it could be anywhere. No archaeological dig shown, no monument or piece of history in the image. No people in the image.

San Andrés Archaeological Park in El Salvador - Image ID: 2WN777F

 

I hope this helps, best of luck.

Steve

 

Edited November 5 by Steve F

[AaronP]

20 minutes ago, Steve F said:

Hi Aaron,

Good news is you have a good eye for composition and colour and you have some interesting photos. I agree with Sultanpepa, you need a lot more images in your portfolio, and generic images of horses and cows are not going to sell well. Please don't take the following in a negative sense, this is just to try to get you asking the right questions when you're shooting images.

 

You need to be much much more commercial with what you're shooting. You should be asking yourself, what would a client use my image for? What theme, concept or location is your image trying to illustrate? To get an idea of what sells, look at the monthly threads:

https://discussion.alamy.com/topic/18110-images-licensed-in-november/

 

But more importantly, keep a look out in books, magazines, newspapers, online for stock photos. You can see if the images are stock in the photo credits. These are the winners. Look at how an image is used to illustrate e.g. a newspaper story. Compare the images you are taking to these 'winners'.

 

Your captions are too short. They are also searchable by clients as well as your keywords. Clients on Alamy are usually after editorial images, and want specific subjects and locations. Nice enough image, but where is it? You're competing with 35,000 images of 'people kayaking' on Alamy. You're extremely unlikely to sell generic images that are not specific. Should have location in your caption and in the optional information in AIM (Alamy Image Manager). Imagine you're a client on a page of search results looking for kayaking in a certain location. You're maybe going to look at 3 or 4 pages of results so 300-400 images and they hover over your image - they will move swiftly on as the caption doesn't say much.

People kayaking on a sunny day - Image ID: 2KAB1EK

 

Some advice on Captions:

https://www.alamy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Captions-and-Tags-checklist.pdf

https://www.alamy.com/blog/tips-for-your-captions-from-the-sales-team

https://www.alamy.com/blog/captions-and-tags

 

Same for this one. Nice classic composition looking down railway tracks. But what is someone going to use it for? Where is it??? And you should be describing what's in the image, e.g. Looking down railway tracks in xxx town with a disused water tower, Illinois, USA. Concept: rust belt, typical small town, unemployment (I'm just spit balling on the concept stuff, but you get the idea). Try to use all 150 characters available to you.

Downtown in a small Central Illinois town - Image ID: 2JM5FGF

 

This is completely the wrong angle if you're trying to take a picture of someone posing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. You need the tower in the background as context and preferably the person taking the picture - i.e. you need the photographer, person posing and the subject that they are posing in front of, all in your picture. And if it's just a generic location, see above. Highly unlikely to license for you:

Woman posing in Pisa - Image ID: 2MF9YBG

You should have tried getting a decent image of the leaning tower of Pisa. Yes, there are many thousands. But when you upload yours, it will be the latest image for a short time - some clients are always on the lookout for the very latest imagery. It is distinctly possible to sell images of saturated subjects.

 

Where is it? Which country?? Bad lighting, backlit subject, unlikely to license.

Agua Clara control tower - Image ID: 2WW9Y0W

 

Why would someone license this image? What theme could it represent? What are grass fields used for in Panama?

An open grass field in the Panama countryside - Image ID: 2Y5DJ85

 

This is never going to license, it could be anywhere. No archaeological dig shown, no monument or piece of history in the image. No people in the image.

San Andrés Archaeological Park in El Salvador - Image ID: 2WN777F

 

I hope this helps, best of luck.

Steve

 

Thank you so much, Steve. Your constructive criticism is well-received and needed. You have given me a lot to work on, and I am grateful! Thanks again!