[Leica] Stock Photography

[tedgrant at shaw.ca (tedgrant at shaw.ca)]

Nathan offered:
Subject: Re: [Leica] Stock Photography


> Nicolas,
> 
> If you are thinking of uploading 10-12 images a month to Alamy, forget  
> it. I have several hundred images there, many quite good, but I have  
> come to realize that if you want to make real money (i.e. enough to  
> pay for an M lens or body and not just a dinner now and again) then  
> you must upload hundreds of images every month (or every week). And  
> you must invest the time to keyword them properly etc. etc. In other  
> words, yes, it is possible to make a living from sites like Alamy but  
> you need to work more or less full time at it. As in most other areas  
> of life, there is no free lunch here.
 
Hi Nathan,
Absolutely correct! A few pictures a month to any stock agency isn't going 
to put anything on the table but empty plates. You are quite correct in 
comment.

So to give the folks a perspective on what real stock photography is about.

To be even considered by MASTERFILE to look at your material to become one 
of their regular contract photographers. One had to offer a minimum of 5000 
in sleeve slides!!! That was just to have them decide whether you you and 
your work were good enough, regardless of whatever you may or may not have 
had published or your string of clients!
Now that's a tidy sum of images for anyone, let alone you had to sign a 
contract that you would supply a set number of "KEEPER" images every 6 
months.......... that is, they had to be thousands of  "KEEPERS FOR THE 
STOCK IN HOUSE FILES!" Film/processing costs for some memberes was in the 
$30,000-$40,000 a year!

 Now think about that for a number and imagine how many frames and how much 
film you had to shoot for that kind of production. Your numbers may vary 
with other agencies! But with MASTERFILE you were under contract to supply a 
minumum of images a month or they'd just shuffle you out the door.

So the guys making the $250,000 a year after all expenses were really 
humping their butts producing. Trust me not your "Happy snap camera club" 
material but mind blowing the best commercial images you can imagine. Many 
of them would know a certain set of images were not in the files so they'd 
hire models, fly them to the right looking areas of the world and do a 
massive shoot. Don't forget this material still was submitted to pass the 
eagle eyes of photo editors for "KEEPER" selection. So you sure cover your 
butt with every possible angle you can because the more selected, the 
possiblities of more income and the paying off the shoot costs. Sometimes in 
six figure costs before they got any money in return.

So a dozen frames a month isn't going to get you anywhere!
More to come here and there.
Dr. ted