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Why use a pseudonym as a opposed to your real name? I can see certain cases where you may not want your real name associated with your stock, or secondary images. Or if maybe you are a Rabbi, but spend your spare time photographing canned ham. Or maybe if you don't want your real name coming up in web searches. But other than that, why not just use your real name? I currently just use my real name, but have noticed that many other photographers use one or multiple pseudonyms.

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My real name is Ed Rooney.  I've always used Ed for Edward on my photo credits. But If you do a search for Ed Rooney, most of the results will point to the Jeffrey Jones character in the film Ferris Bueller's Day Off

 

I live in NYC, and I know a lot of Jewish people. Can't think of any Rabbi who spends time photographing canned ham. Hmm. 

 

https://www.amazon.com/Nikon-Image-Ed-Rooney/dp/B00185WPUE

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If you sell all your images under the same name, it might as well be your own.

A lot of photographers (myself included) like to split their collections by subject matter. It can be interesting to see how they compare with views, zooms and sales. 

I use 7 (I think) and I find it really useful to compare the statistics between the different subjects.

Also, if your are using a search engine to hunt down your pics, being called John Smith or Tom Jones might bring up some images that aren't necessarily yours.

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I have two reasons for not using my real name.

  1. I chose a made up word for my pseudonym which (at the time) gave no hits at all on Google. This makes it much easier for me to find usages online when searching the Alamy found images thread, or doing a general Google search for Alamy/Psuedo credit line. Useful for spotting usages that haven't been paid for and when preparing DACs claims.
  2. A chap with the same real name as me shot John Lennon - so a general search for my name is drowned out by links to articles about him.

Mark

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53 minutes ago, Phil Robinson said:

If you sell all your images under the same name, it might as well be your own.

A lot of photographers (myself included) like to split their collections by subject matter. It can be interesting to see how they compare with views, zooms and sales. 

I use 7 (I think) and I find it really useful to compare the statistics between the different subjects.

Also, if your are using a search engine to hunt down your pics, being called John Smith or Tom Jones might bring up some images that aren't necessarily yours.

 

That sounds good, Phil. But I have no trouble seeing what sells and what gets zoomed with the one name. 

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2 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

That sounds good, Phil. But I have no trouble seeing what sells and what gets zoomed with the one name. 

True, but when you can easily see that your studio shots regularly get the same number of zooms and sales as your travel shots, of which you 8 times as many, that's worth knowing.

And it's much easier to confirm (as if I needed it) that photographing stained glass windows is much more profitable than tennis.

Of course you can work that out, but seeing it all on a daily / weekly / monthly basis on one page is useful.

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