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Can Buyers Contact Us For Freelance Work?


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I get a lot of searches through my portfolio for local (to me) destinations, buildings, museums, etc. but no purchases. 

 

Is it possible for the buyer to put in a request for a specific image, by a specific photographer? I'd be happy to have the work, especially if the subject in question (a building, museum, park, etc.) was close to me. 

 

Has this been discussed? Or is it already a feature that I haven't noticed?

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Every month Alamy posts in their blog photo requests by customers. I have never heard of Alamy contacting a photographer to get a specific image for a specific client. I would think customers being that specific may go looking in that area for photographers to shoot for them if they were interested. You are getting into custom work which should be paid a lot more than Alamy would pay for that image.

 

I know in the live news area a couple of the photographers have been contacted by local papers to go shoot something happening, but the customer is not willing to pay for the time, fuel, etc that photographer has to cough up just to get a certain shot. They only want to pay the cheap news image payment they would pay on a stock site.

 

Jill

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Several years ago Alamy had a "Find A Photographer" page that listed photographers website by location. Unfortunately that seems to have disappeared somewhere along the way.

 

I've been contacted a couple of times by Alamy Live News to shoot certain events on-spec for the UK papers, etc. but never for an assignment. 

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Several years ago Alamy had a "Find A Photographer" page that listed photographers website by location. Unfortunately that seems to have disappeared somewhere along the way.

 

I've been contacted a couple of times by Alamy Live News to shoot certain events on-spec for the UK papers, etc. but never for an assignment. 

 

Yes, exactly what I would have mentioned.

 

I joined this service / page shortly after I joined Alamy. The service must have been active from at least 2009 and a few years more. It suddenly disappeared.

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Agencies I've been with have always split the assignment fee, usually with the photographer getting a larger percentage, plus expenses.

Of course the rate was considerably higher than Alamy charges for stock photos. As Jill pointed out, why would a client, especially a newspaper, assign a photographer if they feel they can pick it up as stock?

 

 

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Yes, I thought I remembered the Find a Photographer page! Now that I remember it, it was actually one of the reasons why I wanted to sign with Alamy. 

 

It's called a Value Added Resource, and it doesn't benefit the company per se, but it helps in bringing in and retaining clients (us photographers), as well as serving the community.  

 

I would actually shoot local stock on request - sometimes I just don't have a clue as to what people are looking for - it would be so much nicer if I had a list of things that I knew would sell. My stock is pretty much point and shoot - I don't think about it much because it's just "extra" editorial shots and not in the realm of what I actually like to work in. So it would be nice to be given specific items.

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In the " Good Old Days " of Assignment Agencies, which Alamy to the best of my knowledge never was nor wished to be, but

I DO NOT speak for Alamy.  The agency was contacted by a client or publication that needed images done on assignment and

that agency contacted their top photographer for the job in that location and if that photographer was not available they went

down their list.  If you took an assignment via the agent the agent got from 20 to 50% of the fee.

 

Those days are mostly gone, there are a few good assignment agencies left in the world and their days are numbered as well.

 

After taking a decade off from accepting assignments I am now doing commissioned photography again and I am not very pleased

by the fees that most clients expect to pay.  Keep in mind that I go out to a corporate shoot with the same 400lbs of lighting equipment

that I did in the late 1980's.  The work as a photographer was a lot more fun twenty years ago when "Post" meant a vodka martini or two....

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"Simply contact our customer service team with your requirements and we will provide a shortlist of photographers working in that location for you to liaise with directly."

 

That way the photographer sells directly and Alamy lose the out, surely?

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They still do make contact with offers. 

 

Unfortunately I was still abroad for this offer, and doubt it would have been worth travelling back for.

 

Hi Michael,

Are you back in the country? We are writing to see if you might want to cover an event for Alamy Live News.

The event is xxxxxxxxxx

We want to see if it possible for you to photograph any of the filming at xxxxxxxxx United Kingdom.

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"Simply contact our customer service team with your requirements and we will provide a shortlist of photographers working in that location for you to liaise with directly."

 

That way the photographer sells directly and Alamy lose the out, surely?

 

 

It was about hiring local photographers for jobs, not for local stringers........

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I remember the find a photographer page too - wish they still had it.

I've had a couple of requests from Live News but I wasn't available unfortunately. I hope they keep me on their list because it would be nice to shoot an event that they feel will sell. 

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Ah, agencies .. The thing about the agency I was with was that our contract stipulated that even if we were approached independently for an assignment, the lovely agency would control it, invoice it and naturally take their 25%. I was naive in those days to do what the contract told me but I know the others just kept quiet and pocketed the whole fee (although they probably bagged a lower day rate).

 

Anyway, by the time I grew up a bit, the agency folded and the assignment market was never the same again.  As someone above said, happy days.

 

Rgds,

Richard.

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Stringing, assignments, whatever!

 

I'd just like to have more work and more sales. 

 

Yes, that was the page I remembered - it's dated 2011.

 

Best way to find work is to go out and actively market yourself. It means 'go sees' and a lot of time in finding out who is wanting to hire.

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I try to do as much of my work online as possible - meet and greats and pounding the pavement will get me work, if I want to work for "exposure". Or, the client is suddenly a friend and wants a friend discount. Years ago I stopped working in photography because everyone expected me to work for free. I just did my own fine art work and left the commercial stuff to people who deal with that mentality better than I. I find that putting a barrier up between me and the client, or working on with a stock site like this is, in the long run, paying me better than what I would get f2f. Sorry to say. 

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