Professional Photography....

[downfader]

Over a year ago I joined a photo agency (Alamy) to try and sell some images and make a little extra money. I put up over 600 images of varying things from wildlife shots to pics of a chalkboard, lol.

It soon became clear that I was wasting my time trying to do this. I think I'd left it a few years too late, as thesedays EVERYONE and his dog has a digital camera and thinks they can make agency money, LOL!! The market is diluted.

So imagine my shock tonight at logging on and seeing that an image has supposedly sold... but in october last year!? No cheque has been sent out as far as I can tell... just sent them an email, perhaps I have to wait until april? I dont know.

Anyway, what is $57 in sterling? 20 quid?

 

[Night Train]

£38.69
From here.

 

[HLaB]

That's a pleasant surprise, now where's my camera

 

[downfader]

That's a pleasant surprise, now where's my camera

Jesus, what kind of cameras have you been buying for 30 quid

I'm still waiting on £60 from selling some studio/IT racks to a college too.

 

[Maz]

Well done, downfader!
Dare one ask what the 'image' was of? Or is it a bit nudge-nudge-wink-wink-saynomore?

 

[kyuss]

There's no real money to be made in stock photography these days unless you can do press stuff and sell it through the likes of Getty or Corbis, and even then you have to be very very good.

I remember the old days when there were so few stock photography sites a large royalty free photo would cost you upwards of £200 and a CD of 30 images close to £500. These days you can get excellent press quality images for as little as £20 leaving very little in way of profit for photographers.

One thing I'd suggest for improving your chances of selling stuff is getting your photos on a site that designers actually use (graphic designers being the biggest buyers of stock photography). I've never even heard of Alamy let alone used it. iStock is one of the very best and every designer I know, myself included, regularly buys stuff from there.

 

[downfader]

Well done, downfader!
Dare one ask what the 'image' was of? Or is it a bit nudge-nudge-wink-wink-saynomore?

I cant figure out how to link to it

ahh wait type B0AH9C into alamy.com's search engine and you'll see it (false maths)

 

[downfader]

There's no real money to be made in stock photography these days unless you can do press stuff and sell it through the likes of Getty or Corbis, and even then you have to be very very good.

I remember the old days when there were so few stock photography sites a large royalty free photo would cost you upwards of £200 and a CD of 30 images close to £500. These days you can get excellent press quality images for as little as £20 leaving very little in way of profit for photographers.

One thing I'd suggest for improving your chances of selling stuff is getting your photos on a site that designers actually use (graphic designers being the biggest buyers of stock photography). I've never even heard of Alamy let alone used it. iStock is one of the very best and every designer I know, myself included, regularly buys stuff from there.

I started speaking to proper old pros about stock some 5 years back and they've slowly, slowly started to retire from it. A lot were really annoyed of the impact digital cameras have had and they now no longer make the living they once did.

One lady I met on alamy said during the late 70s she bought some high end 5x4 and medium format cameras and lenses, nearly went bust from it but because no one else had the size of negative and the tenacity to take the image she made her money back and then some. From what she was saying she made a bit of a fortune in the 80s.

I had a look into Getty, but holding down a job and trying to produce 3000 photos a month that a relevant and new wouldnt have worked for me. I went down the KISS approach and decided to just stick with alamy. Less to faff around with.

 

[john59]

You have to have cleared funds of a least $250.00 before you are paid out.

http://www.alamy.com/terms.asp

I’m waiting for my last picture sale to clear as they owe me $279.00.

Best of luck with your future sales.

 

[peanut]

So imagine my shock tonight at logging on and seeing that an image has supposedly sold... but in october last year!?

you only log in once a year ?

well done anyway ..first of many.
What online photography forum do you subscribe to?

 

[peanut]

You have to have cleared funds of a least $250.00 before you are paid out.

http://www.alamy.com/terms.asp

I’m waiting for my last picture sale to clear as they owe me $279.00.

Best of luck with your future sales.

thats not a contract ..... that is plain robbery
no better than those other well known internet thieves ebay and paypal

 

[downfader]

You have to have cleared funds of a least $250.00 before you are paid out.

http://www.alamy.com/terms.asp

I’m waiting for my last picture sale to clear as they owe me $279.00.

Best of luck with your future sales.

Ahh right, that explains it!

I do need to get back on there and mess with the keywords a little I think

 

[Maz]

I cant figure out how to link to it

ahh wait type B0AH9C into alamy.com's search engine and you'll see it (false maths)

Seen it now...2+2=5

 

[Shaun]

NSFW?

Having previously dabbled in photography (Canon EOS10 + several lenses) I was interested to see what sort of stock stuff they had.

Imagine my surprise when I searched for Cycling and amongst the results was this one: ARCRJB

"A photograph showing exposure of the testes due to a scrotal injury following a cycling accident. Falling onto the crossbar of a bicycle is a common cause of straddle injury to the genitals."

Ouch ...

PS. Apologies for grossing-out your thread!

 

[kyuss]

I really shouldn't have looked at that while eating my cheese on toast.