Winter

[Ed Rooney]

Do you think ordinary subjects captured in winter sell? I'm not asking about extreme weather as the subject. 

 

[spacecadet]

I don't know, but it took me a minute to work out what it was. I thought sea foam at first.

[Betty LaRue]

I’ve only sold two in all these years. One was a closeup of part of an outdoor artificial Christmas tree with icycles hanging off, the other was a landscape of trees with light snow.

One other with snow and dog, one with bird and snow.

[spacecadet]

36 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

I’ve only sold two in all these years. One was a closeup of part of an outdoor artificial Christmas tree with icycles hanging off, the other was a landscape of trees with light snow.

One other with snow and dog, one with bird and snow.

I-cycles? Don't Apple make those?

[Ed Rooney]

The illustration I used is misleading. I would delete it, but it's been comment on, so 'll leave it. Sorry. That's what I'm NOT talking about. 

 

And it happens in winter, of course, but Christmas is an event, hardly an "ordinary subject." Below is what I posted this thread about. Here we have a young lady window shopping and she's wearing winter clothing. The subject is "window shopping." 

 

[Bryan]

I generally add the keyword Winter if the subject is at all seasonal. I've seen searches for winter related topics, e.g. icicles on buildings etc. I've sold a photo of people looking into a Xmas shop display, but I guess that isn't what you are asking. Snow scenes, not necessarily extreme weather, sell.

[Betty LaRue]

1 hour ago, spacecadet said:

I-cycles? Don't Apple make those?

yeah, yeah.  I had a brain f**t and couldn't remember the spelling! 

[wiskerke]

With 83 pages of searches for %winter% in AoA surely there must be some of those that are being converted into sales?

 

- Of course there are. I have some each year. The search usually looks something like: <Your City> winter. Which is different from <Your City>ice or <Your City>snow.

It can be quite specific too: cycling London winter; Park lane London winter; brownstone New York winter.

To put it into perspective: Christmas is 99 pages; snow 84.

As always: AoA is your friend.

 

wim

[John Mitchell]

The only wintery sales that I've had were images of the Vancouver skyline showing snow-covered mountains in the background, none of ordinary subjects.

 

The image below was one of my highest sales ever on Alamy. It was shot during the 2010 Winter Olympics, but I don't know if you would really call it a "winter" image.

 

 

 

[John Mitchell]

38 minutes ago, funkyworm said:

In the winter in temperate zones trees without their leaves dont obscure subject matter.

 

That's true. Winter can be a good time for architectural photography -- i.e. less foliage hiding buildings.

[fotoDogue]

Looking back, only seven photos shot in the winter have sold, and out of that, two probably had nothing to do with the weather.

[losdemas]

Interesting thread, Edo, but may only lead to me finding even more excuses to stay inside in the warm, as it seems that - excepting festivals and weather - stock buyers prefer other seasons! 

I do have a couple of sales including this one. Never found the usage, but I suspect it had more to do with traffic than the slightly foggy weather. 

I do wish I had a bit more oomph to get out and get more pictures like this: I just know that Keith Morris is out there now taking pictures of the heavy fog rolling in just now across many parts of the UK ready for tomorrow's papers!

One other winter sale:

 

EDIT: OK, yes, only just seen wim's post, I take it all back! 

[Rick Lewis]

Interesting topic.  I've been thinking the same thing and, of course, wim, sets us straight, again.    Here in south/central Alabama, everything is an ugly brown.  We don't get snow (well, rarely).  Winter images here are quite uninspiring but I'm off now to take a look at the searches in AoA!

 

Thanks @wiskerke. 

 

Rick

[wiskerke]

My guess is that the ugly winter stuff is only good for newspapers. However they will prefer real news not stock. So they will only use stock if there are no news images (in time).

While I can think of some scenarios where negative winter stuff could be in demand, the over all tendency of searches is positive or neutral. A couple of years back I did a quick count and came to around 1 percent or less of negativity in searches.

(Try trawling through a whole week of AoA with no search term.)

 

So: positive vibes only.

 

wim

 

 

[Ed Rooney]

Wim, are you saying that piles of dirty snow do not attract tourists? Really? Consider the exercise and adventure they would be missing. 

 

Oh, and I'm sorry to have posted that tiny pile of snow earlier. Here you go!

 

[Foreign Export]

Unfortunately winter in Sydney doesn't look a lot different to the rest of the year- just wetter

I have sold a handful of winter scenes from London though

[Robert M Estall]

It's hard to think of many things more ugly and a nuisance than a pile of grubby snow by the side of a city street. Well, piles of plastic waste are worse, and they don't melt away, but that's a separate subject

 

I do have a reasonable supply of winter landscapes but they don't sell well. To my mind, winter shots of Hadrian's wall work far better than summer versions but the green landscapes outsell the white ones. Calendars, of course, need a few winter shots. but I wouldn't want to depend on that market. 

[Ed Rooney]

On 1/10/2018 at 20:07, wiskerke said:

My guess is that the ugly winter stuff is only good for newspapers. However they will prefer real news not stock. So they will only use stock if there are no news images (in time).

While I can think of some scenarios where negative winter stuff could be in demand, the over all tendency of searches is positive or neutral. A couple of years back I did a quick count and came to around 1 percent or less of negativity in searches.

(Try trawling through a whole week of AoA with no search term.)

 

So: positive vibes only.

 

wim

 

 

 

For editorial stock, I think positive is better than negative. (I don't do News.) But, Wim, unless you ski or skate, winter is mostly negative. This recent snap is not really negative, but wouldn't the scene look better in Spring?

 

[Matt Ashmore]

There might be more of a market for pictures taken outside of winter but I think winter shots will still sell. For example, a company printing a calendar would want winter shots like the one above for December or January in the calendar.

[Jill Morgan]

I have sold a number of winter shots, but usually with people in them.  There are a few:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four of these were from the same shoot.  So winter images do sell.

 

Jill

[wiskerke]

We may need to make a distinction between images shot in winter and ones that depict winter.

Like Funky said, no leaves can sometimes help:

 

 

But sometimes you just wouldn't know from the image:

  

However it can be really helpful that many lights are on at sunset, because the sun sets early. This is mainly with shops and offices though.

Or in the case of the Memorial, that someone had drained the pool because it leaked.

There was ice now, so one could have repeated it.

 

Depicting winter:

   

 

(all sold, but not all for huge amounts)

 

wim

[John Mitchell]

Here's one that licensed not long ago. I'd say that it depicts winter, where I live anyway. Obviously it wouldn't have worked with leaves on the trees.

 

[Ed Rooney]

Here's something I happened upon:  https://weather.com/photos/news/2017-12-15-photos-of-the-year

[Betty LaRue]

The winter weather we’ve been having this year is a b**ch, isn’t it Ed? East, Midwest, north, south. More coming for us, today.  

C’mon April.

Betty

[Bill Brooks]

We also get an ugly winter in Toronto, however sometimes you can turn a winter negative into a positive.

 

The hoarfrost in this shot is created by humid conditions created by a sewage lagoon. Guaranteed hoarfrost in the immediate vicinity of the sewage lagoon, when none exists elsewhere. Hold your nose.

The sea smoke in this shot of overwintering Canada Geese is caused by the water warming effect of the nuclear power station just outside the image. Guaranteed sea smoke close to shore on a very cold day.