I almost hijacked another thread

[IanGibson]

Forgive this newbie question. I do not understand some of the acronyms. Bog? PoD? Is that Purchase on Demand?

 

Bog standard is an English colloquialism. It means ordinary, or everyday.  

 

POD is Print on Demand, a service where you would upload image files and others (or yourself) can order prints to hang on the wall.

[Sunshine Superman]

 

Forgive this newbie question. I do not understand some of the acronyms. Bog? PoD? Is that Purchase on Demand?

 

Bog standard is an English colloquialism. It means ordinary, or everyday.  

 

POD is Print on Demand, a service%

Thanks.

[Betty LaRue]

It might be pointed out that stock photography has moved away from its literalist beginnings.  Bog standard images sell, but not for much and in relation to numbers, not very often.  I would guess that most sticking to the bog standard agenda are earning around $1 per image, many much less.  Divide Alamy's  annual revenue by number of images and see what you get.  Allow an image an average shelf life of 10 years, then you would have to be producing about 100 images a week in order to be scratching a living.  Some say it was all different in the days Tony Stone used to send his chauffer round delivering the weekly cheque along with the usual bottle of Bolliger La Grande.  Well it was: there was actually a world shortage of bog standard images depicting all sorts of things: buildings, places, people, events.  Things moved on.  The shortage then became one of concepts and issues.  Then it became one of concepts and issues for a much more visually intelligent generation.  It doesn’t mean there isn’t a huge demand for all the usual stock material, but you have to be producing it by the silo load.

 

This is a long way from saying that ‘artsy’ or ‘arty’ (whatever that is) will sell, or there is a market demand for such stuff, other than PoD.  It is the case, however, that all the best agencies offering the best routes to serious earnings are either very open to experimentation, or actually demand it.  However, you do need to work with editors/CDs who understand the market and your possible relation to the it.  This is one big stumbling block to using Alamy as a ‘creative’ outlet (for want of a better word), other than slightly edgy editorial production.  And iPhone photography, of course.

+1

[Allan Bell]

 

Forgive this newbie question. I do not understand some of the acronyms. Bog? PoD? Is that Purchase on Demand?

 

Bog standard is an English colloquialism. It means ordinary, or everyday.  

 

POD is Print on Demand, a service where you would upload image files and others (or yourself) can order prints to hang on the wall.

 

 

Actually "Bog standard" is a derived term in modern day use.

 

The original term, which is not used so much these days, was "Box standard" meaning something that was straight out of the box. Not altered or modified in any way.

 

Allan

[dustydingo]

 

 

Forgive this newbie question. I do not understand some of the acronyms. Bog? PoD? Is that Purchase on Demand?

 

Bog standard is an English colloquialism. It means ordinary, or everyday.  

 

POD is Print on Demand, a service where you would upload image files and others (or yourself) can order prints to hang on the wall.

 

 

Actually "Bog standard" is a derived term in modern day use.

 

The original term, which is not used so much these days, was "Box standard" meaning something that was straight out of the box. Not altered or modified in any way.

 

Allan

 

 

OT I know, but it's sorta interesting: there has been much erudite discussion on this for some time, and the consensus seems to be that the origins of the phrase "bog standard" cannot be authoritatively stated . . . i.e. no one knows.

 

I tend to prefer more down-to-earth guesses

 

dd

[Robert Brook]

Don't believe everything on Stephen Fry tells you:   http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Box+Deluxe

 

The BBC researchers might have come up with that one to discredit the other contender, harking back to the days when they regarded commercial TV with fear and loathing:

 

Low grade>Lew Grade>Loo grade>bog grade>bog standard

 

Which is about, after a lofty start, where this thread is heading.  What was the question?

 

Betty is asking why Alamy doesn’t have a creative section.  The closest they came to that was when they introduced creative searches, and initially hired an editing team to sift through the collection.  But that was a long way short of using editors to assess new subs.  Maybe because they are a tech company, rather than being run by photographers, they then came up with a tech solution and ran with it: Stockimo. 

 

So called ‘creative photography’ is a very competitive area, because it is what most of the schools teach, or claim to teach, and it’s what most photography graduates aspire to, as well as those who have studied other visual arts at the same schools who turn their hand to photography.  Where they got to know the photography students who later become designers, ADs, curators etc, who will give them their first break. Small world (well ... that’s how it used to be.  Maybe it has all changed now). 

 

Pete Davis here, who taught at Newport (founded by David Hurn), thinks* that there is a lot of unrecognised talent in evidence here, and he is probably right.  But it is not Alamy’s job to promote talent.  The bit of promoting they do is for people who already have a reputation. 

 

*(http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/3899-the-reality-of-supply-and-demand/)

 

*some text removed by admin - please adhere to forum rules*

[Marianne]

Good discussion Betty - I've had some chosen for creative and they sell here but they are mostly concept and travel images that meet alamy's sharpness standards. Did get a few more "creative" images past QC a whilte back but they were also mostly sharp albeit filtered composites. I'd welcome an alternative to Stockimo especialy since despite back and forth with member services trying to help, I can't get the Stockimo app to work on my iPhone.

 

Thanks Robert B. for the list of alternative outlets. It can be time-consuming to try out many agencies but also rewarding to have other outlets for your work. Good luck with other outlets Betty - love your creative and painterly stuff and there are outlets for it besides POD, though here on alamy it seems straight photography is the best seller and it's really nice to have an outlet for good serviceable photography here as well.

 

This thread is really a wake-up call/reminder to me that I have thousands of sharp serviceable images of locations across the US and Europe and as the weather gets colder in a couple of months, it will behoove me to get them uploaded here. I can't even count the number of times I've looked on the "Have you found any alamy images for ..." thread over the years and kicked myself that my images from a location featured are languishing on my hard drive. Stock is a time-consuming mistress!

[Betty LaRue]

Don't believe everything on Stephen Fry tells you:   http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Box+Deluxe

 

The BBC researchers might have come up with that one to discredit the other contender, harking back to the days when they regarded commercial TV with fear and loathing:

 

Low grade>Lew Grade>Loo grade>bog grade>bog standard

 

Which is about, after a lofty start, where this thread is heading.  What was the question?

 

Betty is asking why Alamy doesn’t have a creative section.  The closest they came to that was when they introduced creative searches, and initially hired an editing team to sift through the collection.  But that was a long way short of using editors to assess new subs.  Maybe because they are a tech company, rather than being run by photographers, they then came up with a tech solution and ran with it: Stockimo. 

 

So called ‘creative photography’ is a very competitive area, because it is what most of the schools teach, or claim to teach, and it’s what most photography graduates aspire to, as well as those who have studied other visual arts at the same schools who turn their hand to photography.  Where they got to know the photography students who later become designers, ADs, curators etc, who will give them their first break. Small world (well ... that’s how it used to be.  Maybe it has all changed now). 

 

Pete Davis here, who taught at Newport (founded by David Hurn), thinks* that there is a lot of unrecognised talent in evidence here, and he is probably right.  But it is not Alamy’s job to promote talent.  The bit of promoting they do is for people who already have a reputation. 

 

*(http://discussion.alamy.com/index.php?/topic/3899-the-reality-of-supply-and-demand/)

Thank you so much, Robert. My list is growing. And yes, you are right about the creative attempt here that did not approach what I'm seeking.

[Betty LaRue]

Good discussion Betty - I've had some chosen for creative and they sell here but they are mostly concept and travel images that meet alamy's sharpness standards. Did get a few more "creative" images past QC a whilte back but they were also mostly sharp albeit filtered composites. I'd welcome an alternative to Stockimo especialy since despite back and forth with member services trying to help, I can't get the Stockimo app to work on my iPhone.

 

Thanks Robert B. for the list of alternative outlets. It can be time-consuming to try out many agencies but also rewarding to have other outlets for your work. Good luck with other outlets Betty - love your creative and painterly stuff and there are outlets for it besides POD, though here on alamy it seems straight photography is the best seller and it's really nice to have an outlet for good serviceable photography here as well.

 

This thread is really a wake-up call/reminder to me that I have thousands of sharp serviceable images of locations across the US and Europe and as the weather gets colder in a couple of months, it will behoove me to get them uploaded here. I can't even count the number of times I've looked on the "Have you found any alamy images for ..." thread over the years and kicked myself that my images from a location featured are languishing on my hard drive. Stock is a time-consuming mistress!

Yes, I had some approved a few years ago, too. I think whomever passed those had an artistic bent and wasn't the one who got my latest batch. What I recently submitted was artistic backgrounds, which to my mind shouldn't require sharpness. Think of a photographic background, (and other uses) many of those are soft swirls of color.

Betty

[Sultanpepa]

 

I have a portfolio elsewhere--no images there are here, and vice versa. Every one of my top sellers there (I'm talking four-figure sums . . . NETT)

 

 

Oh Dusty you tease.

[dustydingo]

I have a portfolio elsewhere--no images there are here, and vice versa. Every one of my top sellers there (I'm talking four-figure sums . . . NETT)

 

 

Oh Dusty you tease.

 

Indeed :-)

 

Demonstrably is it true that sales of this size are still more than possible for the right images in the right place--in fact, I believe that choosing where to park is just as important as choosing what to shoot. I'm finding that having several outlets for my work encourages different approaches to my work, which I think is exactly the path Betty has found her way to.

 

And all my images are exclusive to where ever they go, I really don't like the idea of competing against myself by having the same image/s in different places.

 

dd