Jill Morgan Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I am hoping (once I get out of this snow prison I am in) to contribute to the Live News section this year. I was wondering if images outside the UK do very well on live news, with the exception maybe of American sports and celebrities. My fellow Canadians out there, do any of you sell via live news, and if so, have you sold many in relation to the number submitted? Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryBethBueno Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Excellent question, Jill! I would love to know as well. This is intriguing.... wondering about the States as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Jill, I'm not a news photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do occasionally upload "soft news" images of local (Vancouver) events. I've never sold anything directly through the live news feed. However, I have made some good sales after the images were moved to the general collection. For instance, in January, much to my surprise, I leased the same former "live news" photo twice ($175 and $180). It was an image taken at a street festival last summer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted March 2, 2014 Author Share Posted March 2, 2014 Jill, I'm not a news photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do occasionally upload "soft news" images of local (Vancouver) events. I've never sold anything directly through the live news feed. However, I have made some good sales after the images were moved to the general collection. For instance, last month, much to my surprise, I leased the same former "live news" photo twice ($175 and $180). It was an image taken at a street festival last summer. I will be doing that a lot this summer, but I was more thinking of stuff that is more hard news, politics, etc. How does Alamy market its Live News? There really aren't a ton of photos there. I notice the Toronto papers access Getty a lot. Do they even know Alamy exists for live news? Should I contact them directly to let them know? How about the Vancouver Province and Sun, do they have any Alamy photos for the news section? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Jill, I'm not a news photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but I do occasionally upload "soft news" images of local (Vancouver) events. I've never sold anything directly through the live news feed. However, I have made some good sales after the images were moved to the general collection. For instance, last month, much to my surprise, I leased the same former "live news" photo twice ($175 and $180). It was an image taken at a street festival last summer. I will be doing that a lot this summer, but I was more thinking of stuff that is more hard news, politics, etc. How does Alamy market its Live News? There really aren't a ton of photos there. I notice the Toronto papers access Getty a lot. Do they even know Alamy exists for live news? Should I contact them directly to let them know? How about the Vancouver Province and Sun, do they have any Alamy photos for the news section? I've never seen any Alamy news photos in the Van Sun (don't read the Province) or any other Canadian newspaper, but then I don't read newspapers much these days. Hate to say it, but Canadian papers will take the cheapest route possible (preferably free) when it comes to photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Endicott Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I have licensed images via the live news feed and I'm not in the UK. Generally, the types of images that are licensed are events that would make national news. A local car accident, or house on fire won't get licensed....a nationally covered event like a national disaster (tornado devastating a town), a school shooting, etc. may get licensed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 I imagine that Ed is correct. For those of us outside the UK, events have to have some kind of international significance in order to sell via the news feed. Think PM Stephen Harper serenading visiting foreign dignitaries with old Beatles songs. On second thought, forget that one, it's too painful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Not incredibly relevant, but the UK live news sales appear to be dominated by weather photos, not essentially extreme weather, just well thought out and attractive shots, often, but not always, involving people, showing sunshine/sunset/sunrise/rain/wind or whatever. I was surprised to see no Alamy photos of the New York snows, the UK papers did use some shots from other agencies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyMelbourne Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 If you contribute to the live news feed then Alamy news desk does an excellent job of contacting news outlets to actively sell your images on your (and their) behalf. The rates are worth it and any interesting news worthy image will be pushed out. It is one area of Alamy that has impressed me. Also, of course, your images move over to general stock and as John stated you still may make future sales. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 Not incredibly relevant, but the UK live news sales appear to be dominated by weather photos, not essentially extreme weather, just well thought out and attractive shots, often, but not always, involving people, showing sunshine/sunset/sunrise/rain/wind or whatever. I was surprised to see no Alamy photos of the New York snows, the UK papers did use some shots from other agencies. Interesting. In Canada, media outlets tend to depend on weather photos submitted by readers (a.k.a. "citizen journalists"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 2, 2014 Share Posted March 2, 2014 If you contribute to the live news feed then Alamy news desk does an excellent job of contacting news outlets to actively sell your images on your (and their) behalf. The rates are worth it and any interesting news worthy image will be pushed out. It is one area of Alamy that has impressed me. Also, of course, your images move over to general stock and as John stated you still may make future sales. Andy That's good to hear. Be aware, though, that if your images are deemed to be "non-newsworthy," they will be moved to the regular stock photo QC queue (rather than just being deleted), where they could stand a good chance of failing. This doesn't seem fair to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dustydingo Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Anyone contributing to both Alamy news and Demotix/Corbis and is willing to compare, even just in a general sense? dd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 I have submitted to all but not had any Alamy Live News sales reported. Had sales at other agencies but although we grumble about transparency, image theft and prices with Alamy, the problems are wider and worse elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Crean Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Don't do much news but; sold some with Demotix/Corbis. So far none with Alamy news as news, but sales later as stock! Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Todd Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Don't forget that not all the images you see on the Live news feed are sent out to picture desks. I don't use Demotix or Corbis but the only two Alamy Live news licenses I've had took 6 months to be reported despite the fact they emailed me to let me know about the first one at the time and I had to keep chasing MS about them. I haven't used Live News since then because of the problems I have with the flash uploader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paulstw Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Submitting to the news feed can be very addictive and also quite soul destroying. I've sold a few via the Alamy news desk and I know I could do better. However, if you want to do it well you need to totally immerse yourself into it. Keeping your ear to the ground on local events, happenings and trying to think ahead is great in theory but it's sometimes really difficult to do. Sometimes things will just happen in front of you. If you put the work into the submissions you'll get the rewards. Keith Morris is such a great mentor for it. Never seen anyone work so hard at this. I get knackered following him on Twitter with the amount he gets up to. You either need that level of commitment and do really well, or accept that you'll upload the odd thing, hope to sell and if it does, be waiting ages to get paid for it. In order to get a fluid income from it, i'd say eat, sleep and breath stories that will sell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSnapper Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 thanks... km Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Good piece on Keith Morris in the new F2 Freelance Photographer. The first under David K's renewed editorship. Keith is an overnight success; he has only been at it for 33 years F2 will be in WHSmiths etc on Thursday, or better still take out a subscription. https://www.facebook.com/f2FreelancePhotographerMagazine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Morgan Posted March 3, 2014 Author Share Posted March 3, 2014 Submitting to the news feed can be very addictive and also quite soul destroying. I've sold a few via the Alamy news desk and I know I could do better. However, if you want to do it well you need to totally immerse yourself into it. Keeping your ear to the ground on local events, happenings and trying to think ahead is great in theory but it's sometimes really difficult to do. Sometimes things will just happen in front of you. If you put the work into the submissions you'll get the rewards. Keith Morris is such a great mentor for it. Never seen anyone work so hard at this. I get knackered following him on Twitter with the amount he gets up to. You either need that level of commitment and do really well, or accept that you'll upload the odd thing, hope to sell and if it does, be waiting ages to get paid for it. In order to get a fluid income from it, i'd say eat, sleep and breath stories that will sell. I think it would be a great experience to immerse myself in news, but living out here in the back 40, not a lot happens unless the world is interested to know that the horses decided to eat in the north field instead of the east field. And the photo of course wouldn't help as the north field looks pretty much the same as the east field. Well, maybe some of the trees in the background are different. It's a couple of hours for me to downtown Toronto ( not that that bothers me) so maybe one weekend when something newsy is going on, I"ll immerse myself and see what happens. But will Toronto news sell on Alamy? I of course will go to Gay Pride Week (largest LGBT festival in North America) and hopefully get some good stuff there. But country specific news, such as politics, is there much point of that on Alamy? I wouldn't see these type of shots as big stock sellers, basically news then on the back burner. Jill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 There are a lot of things I really like about the Demotix website. Personally -- if I may offer a humble suggestion -- I think that much could be done to jazz up the look of Alamy Live News. At present, it is, well, a wee bit boring, sort of the antithesis of "newsy" looking. All this is easy for me to say, of course... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Jill, I have a similar problem here in provincial Nottingham. Perhaps there is a bit more happening than you have but I have sold (not through Alamy) news images of: Teacher's strike (several sales) - happening nationally,obviously my pictures told the story. A local Nature Reserves 50th celebration, in reality a stock use International F2 powerboat racing in Nottingham (quite a few sales in Italy, Germany), from spectator enclosure. Motorcycle racing (not a local event though) - that was a 3-4 hour drive (I actually stayed for 3 days) But I think Paul is right (and the Keith Morris article suggests similar and he is in Aberystwyth, a modest coastal town in Wales) it is about immersion in what is happening, having the personal connections and working out what the story is. I suspect a lot of day to day opportunities come from celebrity visitors, local slant on national events and the soft news pieces used inside newspapers and at the end of bulletins. I think David K suggested he used to work the back story on news items, he could compete on that as it took more local knowledge, time and access that the hard core press pack don't have. It is an approach I am trying to develop. BTW - good stock comes from it as well. Photographing news forces the photographer to think about how to tell the story; surely the basis of effective stock shooting. BTW, most of the news I have shot did not need any special accreditation (the motorbikes did) or Press passes etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 Submitting to the news feed can be very addictive and also quite soul destroying. I've sold a few via the Alamy news desk and I know I could do better. However, if you want to do it well you need to totally immerse yourself into it. Keeping your ear to the ground on local events, happenings and trying to think ahead is great in theory but it's sometimes really difficult to do. Sometimes things will just happen in front of you. If you put the work into the submissions you'll get the rewards. Keith Morris is such a great mentor for it. Never seen anyone work so hard at this. I get knackered following him on Twitter with the amount he gets up to. You either need that level of commitment and do really well, or accept that you'll upload the odd thing, hope to sell and if it does, be waiting ages to get paid for it. In order to get a fluid income from it, i'd say eat, sleep and breath stories that will sell. I think it would be a great experience to immerse myself in news, but living out here in the back 40, not a lot happens unless the world is interested to know that the horses decided to eat in the north field instead of the east field. And the photo of course wouldn't help as the north field looks pretty much the same as the east field. Well, maybe some of the trees in the background are different. It's a couple of hours for me to downtown Toronto ( not that that bothers me) so maybe one weekend when something newsy is going on, I"ll immerse myself and see what happens. But will Toronto news sell on Alamy? I of course will go to Gay Pride Week (largest LGBT festival in North America) and hopefully get some good stuff there. But country specific news, such as politics, is there much point of that on Alamy? I wouldn't see these type of shots as big stock sellers, basically news then on the back burner. Jill Chances of local festivals selling as "live news" are pretty slim. So when at events, I always try to take shots that will have a longer shelf life and hopefully lease later as regular stock. This strategy has worked quite well for me so far. It's of course a good idea to submit some images to the news feed, though, just in case something does come along. IMO it's best to leave subjects like politics, armed conflicts, etc. to intrepid hard news photographers. They are a breed unto themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 It is an approach I am trying to develop. BTW - good stock comes from it as well. Photographing news forces the photographer to think about how to tell the story; surely the basis of effective stock shooting. Right on. I think if Alamy were to add slide show options to Live News, it would help in this regard. As it is, the presentation of images is too static IMO -- i.e. it is often difficult to discern a clear story line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin P Wilson Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 It is an approach I am trying to develop. BTW - good stock comes from it as well. Photographing news forces the photographer to think about how to tell the story; surely the basis of effective stock shooting. Right on. I think if Alamy were to add slide show options to Live News, it would help in this regard. As it is, the presentation of images is too static IMO -- i.e. it is often difficult to discern a clear story line. I agree. Every so often I ask about Alamy promoting photo stories, complete collection of work, ideally it would also allow for an extended article, a package of words and pictures. Alamy editors have shared my view but they have never been able to take it anywhere. There are agencies that do but they seem to focus on quirky, humour, celebrity etc - not my thing. However I am working towards getting a story together to offer to another major agency that does profess interest in complete stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSnapper Posted March 3, 2014 Share Posted March 3, 2014 The LiveNews website is irrelevant the selling is done off-site, by direct contact between the Alamy news team and the pic desks km Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.