Hello from a Sussex farmer

[Crazygoatlady]

Hi everyone,  I have a few images on here, but no sales yet.    I would appreciate any suggestions with my key words?  Or any other constructive criticism  regarding my photos. I love taking photos of my life on the farm, but am very much the amateur photographer. Regards Darrell

[Westshire]

Hi Darrell, I don't have much advice to give since I am new here myself, but I especially love the photos of your cob, they are a favourite breed of mine, but I do think you have some good sellable photos there.

[Allan Bell]

Hello Darrell,

 

Some nice looking images and possibly a niche market. On Alamy to make regular sales though you will need a wide diversity of subjects. Click on the blue number under my, or anyone else's name to have a look at their portfolio. But do not swipe their keywording, a definite no-no.

 

Images of animals, plants, flowers. crops, sea creatures and birds it pays to include in your keywording both the common and latin names.

 

Welcome and good luck.

 

Allan

[Ryan Walters]

Welcome Darrell,

 

It's nice to see i'm not the only farmer here, i just had to reply  . Allan gave me the same advice when I joined and it was very helpful.

 

Good luck,

 

Ryan

[NYCat]

Fairly often clients search for "funny animal" or "funny animals". Also include "baby" and "babies" because they often don't use the proper names for animal babies. Welcome to the forum.

 

Paulette

[Crazygoatlady]

Hi everyone, thank you so much for taking the time to have a look at my images and reply. I have taken all your advice on board. Yes I really must get out and photograph more subjects. With over two hundred animals needing attention 24/7 I tend to be stuck on the farm. All good advice, many thanks.

[Crazygoatlady]

Hi Geoff,   thanks for your reply. I have lots more images ready to add, some are goat selfie's, animals eating, sleeping, jumping. I would love to get pics in the rain but goats don't do rain. One drop of rain and they run inside. I do take plenty of sunsets, but always too busy feeding for sunrise shots. Yes I do have a milking machine so could add that, thanks. Our farm consists of thirty acres of goats, pigs, poultry, ducks, horse, dogs, cats etc. We are very lucky to be in an area of outstanding natural beauty so have fantastic views. We also have every type of wildlife which I really must spend more time getting shots of, Red kites over the goats being my favourite. Yes we have tractors etc. Plenty of challenges for the ultimate shot.

[Allan Bell]

Don't forget to take photos of animals and people interacting together, such as hand milking, feeding, etc. Not necessarily the whole person, sometimes just hands and arms in shot for a close up.

 

Allan

[Betty LaRue]

One of my favorites is of the long-haired goat because you appear to have gotten to near ground level. Do more of that. It easy to stand erect and shoot. Hard to get down low and groan on the way up. But those down low images seem more intimate, somehow.

 

Your images are very good and well developed.

If you look around your place, you might be surprised at what might make a good stock image. Do you bottle goat milk? Get several shots. One bottle, three bottles, a horizontal and a vertical.

 

How about the dirty boots you wear to muck in?

Do you have any old things like butter churns? Broken fences? Goats on top of things, action as they jump. Your horse eating hay or grain? Interaction between the horse and goats, a barn cat with the animals?

Do you have a fireplace? Take a shot with your socked feet on a stool in foreground, fire in background.

Good luck.

On another note, I didn't sell anything until I had around 300-500 images up. At that time, nearly 10 years ago, Alamy had far fewer images than now. I think about the competition now and groan.

[Crazygoatlady]

I'm laid up after surgery at the moment with my leg in a plaster cast. On the good side it means I have time to go through hundreds (hubby says thousands, lol) of my images of the farm. So now taking more interest in my old broken fences, muck heaps, scruffy farmer holding a goat etc, many thanks for pointing those out. If I add people do I need a model release from every single one? Most are friends, so not a problem. But some people in my shots are strangers who I can not contact. Sorry to sound stupid but humans in stock photos is a very grey area for me.

[NYCat]

You improve your opportunities for sales if you get model releases. It's OK if you don't have them but you have to designate them RM. Your feral cats look very healthy. Hunting must be good. I grew up on goat's milk since I was allergic to the cow product. So, naturally, I love everything about goats. We didn't have goat's milk in the stores in those days so I had many happy trips to the goat farm.

 

Paulette

[spacecadet]

I'm laid up after surgery at the moment with my leg in a plaster cast. On the good side it means I have time to go through hundreds (hubby says thousands, lol) of my images of the farm. So now taking more interest in my old broken fences, muck heaps, scruffy farmer holding a goat etc, many thanks for pointing those out. If I add people do I need a model release from every single one? Most are friends, so not a problem. But some people in my shots are strangers who I can not contact. Sorry to sound stupid but humans in stock photos is a very grey area for me.

Glue a ball-and-socket head to it. Instant body brace/tripod.

[Crazygoatlady]

Thanks Paulette, yes very good hunting for our feral cats. They originally lived feral in the East end of London and were taken in by a fantastic cat rescue. Then neutered, wormed, vaccinated and released on our farm. They have been here two years, having a grand life.

I am adding new images daily, including more of people with animals. I have some good ones of haymaking but am wondering if it's okay to include our Land rover?

[Joseph Clemson]

Thanks Paulette, yes very good hunting for our feral cats. They originally lived feral in the East end of London and were taken in by a fantastic cat rescue. Then neutered, wormed, vaccinated and released on our farm. They have been here two years, having a grand life.

I am adding new images daily, including more of people with animals. I have some good ones of haymaking but am wondering if it's okay to include our Land rover?

 

An image containing any recognisable property you can't get a property release for (Land Rover being a prime example) will have to be marked as unreleased and will then be available for use as rights-managed editorial only. If you have unreleased recognisable property in an image, you can't mark it as commercial, even if the people in it have signed model releases. Photos you hope to be commerical, such as your haymaking images might be, have to be carefully composed to avoid including unreleased property (in the case of a Land Rover, including any part of the vehicle would probably exclude it as it is such a recognisable item). 

 

If you can get property releases for animals you are photographing  (very easy if they are your own the animal) I suggest you should provide signed releases for these too. It helps give prospective buyers confidence that the images can be used for commercial purposes with no risk of rights issues down the line.