My Alamy experience – part the sixth

It seems ages since I updated this blog.  I’m now close to completing 10 years with Alamy, have gone through various personal health upheavals which has prevented me adding as many images as I’d have liked, and even switched camera systems to M43 (mostly Olympus) to carry a little less weight as I’ve grown ever older.

Nonetheless I’ve added a lot more sales.  Back in January 2018 (nearly 6 years ago!) I’d reached the dizzy heights of 339 licences with total gross sales of $8,985.  Times have certainly moved on.  The current lifetime statistics are:

·         9257 images now on sale
·         2713 licences, spread among 1598 unique images, 17.26% of my current portfolio
·         Gross earnings of $48,501 from sales plus $1762 nett from DACS and other additional payments
·         Average net return over the last 6 years has averaged $265 a month.  Not a vast amount – but a welcome addition to my pension income.
·         My annual CTR remains at a healthy 1.05, still nearly twice the Alamy average
·         Zooms – customer interest in my images – remains healthy.  Currently 2831 of my images have been zoomed at least once, 30.58% of my total portfolio

Overall, I’m happy with my time with Alamy.  I try to curate my portfolio to only include images that I think have a decent market rather than throwing everything in to see what sticks.  Yes I’m a bit niche, concentrating on plants, gardens and macro nature and wildlife, but it’s what I know and what I love.  To earn from it is a very useful bonus!

I still get magazine front covers.  Here’s the latest:

 

I mentioned above that I’ve switched to M43 cameras and lenses.  That’s a subject for forthcoming posts but suffice it to say that the images generated by the system (see above) are more than good enough to pass Alamy QC and find favour with buyers.  And that one was quite a heavy crop from landscape to portrait.

My Alamy experience - part the fifth

Nearing the end of my fourth year with Alamy and it's time for another round up.  I last published details of my experience with Alamy on 26 August 2016 so what's happened in the sixteen months since I last reported sales?

Firstly, a lot more sales.  And with a lot more sales has come increased revenue.  Through distributor sales I've sold in even more countries worldwide.  My Alamy ranking has considerably improved, with the result that I'm getting a lot more views and zooms.  I'm still without a QC failure since I started with Alamy.  And I've had another magazine front cover, my second.  So, the statistics:

• 339 image sales to date
• I sold 97 image licences in 2016 and vastly exceeded that in 2017 by selling 176.
• Total gross sales have now reached $8,985
• 393 submissions without a single QC failure have resulted in 4912 images on sale
• Average CTR over the last rolling year is 1.05, nearly double the Alamy average
• Monthly views have almost doubled, starting in January 2017 and continuing through the year
• Zooms have also increased, both on a monthly basis, and in coverage.  649, 13.2%,  of my images have been zoomed at least once.

Although most of the image sales have been for plant portraits or garden scenes I have sold a few other subjects.  The shot of Newton Ferrers I showed in the last Alamy experience update sold again in 2017, along with a couple of hoverfly shots and a shot of the False Widow spider.  I also sold a shot of the Admiral McBride pub on Plymouth Barbican.  I think the caption sold that - the pub stands on the site of the original Mayflower steps and very few photographers add that.  Here's the shot:

Devon Life is a glossy monthly UK magazine and they used an Autumn colour image of mine from The Garden House for the front cover of their November 2017 issue.  With the path leading in through the Japanese maples in the Acer glade it was obviously what the Art Editor / Designer wanted to fit the cover page text around.  Very satisfying - and quite lucrative.  I could do with a few more of those!

I mentioned in the last update the importance of a good ranking on Alamy to bring your images to the fore in searches.  With the extra sales and increased zooms has come a quite significant increase in rank.  Even so, I was surprised (and delighted) to see 5 of my images on the first search page (100 images) for garden wildlife after a recent rerank.  Given that 1316 pages of results - 131,583 images - come up in a search that's quite impressive.  I could give lots of similar examples of good search positions for my images.  That sort of increased visibility generates sales and, because it extends to all my images, encourages me to take and submit more photos that aren't plants, gardens or insects.  There's no shortage of opportunity in South West England.

2017 was an excellent year for me on Alamy.  It doesn't generate vast amounts of money but my operating costs are low, I'm doing something I thoroughly enjoy, and I'm able to afford my hobby now I'm fully retired.  2018 should be very interesting.

Canon 70-300mm f4-5.5.6 L IS mini review

Well, I bit the bullet in August and invested £705 of my hard earned Alamy income on a used Canon 70-300mm f4-5.5.6 L IS lens.  It's built like a tank, it's heavier than any other of my lenses, and I already had most of the range covered with my lightweight and pretty good image quality 55-250mm or the combination of my old Sigma 180mm macro with a 1.4x teleconverter.  So, other than Gear Acquisition Syndrome, why get it?

Let's take the 55-250mm.  Great, lightweight lens that's easy to carry and certainly capable of generating saleable photos.  Two problems with it.  Firstly, image quality falls apart much beyond 200mm.  It's not bad - but it's not good enough.  Secondly, and this is more important, Maria has grabbed it for her own use.

Which leaves me the Sigma 180mm macro, naked, or with a Sigma 1.4x teleconverter.  Big and heavy, it's invaluable for tripod work, providing superb image quality at macro and close up distances.  But it's not optimised for longer distances - though it does a good job - and with no image stabilisation it's not one for more general use.

Canon 70-300mm f4-5.5.6 L IS lens mounted on Maria's 600D

Am I pleased with my purchase?  Yes.  I'm used to sharp lenses that deliver a lot of detail in combination with good image sensors.  My macro lenses are particularly good in this respect and form a benchmark. The 70-300mm is nearly up there with them.  Not quite, but the differences are marginal and I'm happy enough that the image quality meets professional requirements.  More to the point, the good image quality is maintained through the zoom range and from closest to infinity focus.  I have a lens that I can actually use at 300mm maximum extension, a failing with the cheaper consumer lenses.

European robin, 300mm and close focus, handheld 1/200sec

100% crop of the Robin's eye and beak.  Click to show at full size.  Standard sharpening for screen only

Image stabilisation (IS) is rated for 4 stops effectiveness.  At 67 years of age
I don't have the steadiest of grips but the ability to handhold at 300mm at 1/50th to 1/100th of a second and get professionally sharp images is a major bonus.  I have a tripod collar and frequently use the lens with it for plant and garden work but, for walking around, it's easier to travel unencumbered with a tripod.  The effectiveness of the IS gives me the confidence to travel with the lens, knowing it will perform in most circumstances.

Dahlia 'Blue Bayou'.  Handheld, 300mm, 1/80sec

It's also a very compact lens, fitting easily into my smaller Crumpler camera bag.  A day out with the 70-300mm and my 15-85mm becomes a very realistic and relatively lightweight option for high quality photography from a good wide angle (24mm equivalent) to extreme telephoto (480mm equivalent). 

The acid test, of course, is how many saleable shots the lens has generated.  Well, since I bought the lens, I've uploaded to Alamy 341 images.  99 have been taken with the 70-300mm.  Allowing for the natural enthusiasm to try out a new piece of equipment that's a pretty reasonable ratio.  My standards are high - they have to be for acceptance at the agency - so a lens that can deliver the technical quality required is a valuable asset and worth the money I paid.  I might not see sales from thjese particular images for a while - but the images are good enough to grace my Alamy portfolio.  Judge for yourselves.

 

Now to try it in winter conditions! Should be interesting,