Captioning images. The joys of being a professional photographer.

July 31, 2008 | Filed Under Photography | Leave a Comment 

Like all photographers I LOVE taking photographs, but captioning/keywording can be a chore. Unfortunately it’s not a job that can be outsourced. It’s my job and it’s one I like to put off. I sometimes put it off by checking out a cheap flight and jetting off, shooting heaps because memory cards are becoming cheaper and with bigger capacity I end up taking more photos, which need to be captioned. I should be grateful that I have a job, and one I love, and I’d do it even if I weren’t paid, but when you’ve got a 1TB HDD of digital images waiting to be captioned…I’ll check the post. I’m a member of Bureau of Freelance Photographers and the monthly newsletter usually arrives on the first of each month, a day early, it just landed on my doorstep, actually I took it from my postbox but that doesn’t sound as dramatic. Page 2 and Alamy under fire for offering customers the chance to buy images for limited useage for as low as 60p, pence not pounds.That’s 60p to the agency not the photographer. Alamy insists that this is not microstock, because its only for teachers, students and bloggers. Page 5 Getty strikes a deal with photo sharing site Flickr. Getty emphasises this has nothing to do with microstock. Flickr has an estimated 6 billion, not million, images.These days it  seems it’s all about quantity not quality.  Fifty billion photographs a year are taken by amateurs alone in the USA. Receive e-mail from one of my photo agencies www.thecoverstory.com which specialises in photo features. They are marketing many of my features worldwide. They’re just checking territorial restrictions for one of my features on Shinjuku train station in Tokyo, the world’s busiest, as they have a client interested in running the feature. This photo agency, one of hundreds around the world is offering thousands of features everyday, and these are quality images, and most never see publication. These are great stories with fantastic photographs, but whenever I go into a WH Smith’s or equivalent, apart from a handful of mags I’m not interested in the bulk of the magazines, my so-called market. But I really LOVE taking photos, I love the adventure, the challenge, the unknown, the creativity, the fun. Captioning is another story…But if my photos have any chance of selling in competition with 50 billion American images  I better put the effort in to get the captions/ keywording right. While burning the midnight oil to do so I can calculate how many photos at 60p a pop I’ll need to sell to pay for the electricity cost of keeping my computers humming all night. And if British Gas come looking for one of my photos, I’ll just add 35%, but they’re not getting one of my images for less than a pound! Photographers shouldn’t be letting their pictures go for a pittance.

Paul Quayle

Hello World

July 31, 2008 | Filed Under Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

In the true spirit of all explorers my first steps into the world of blogging is a tentative one. The purpose of these blog pages is to pass on news and information we find about the world of photography. You can of course find out much about us both by visiting our personal websites. Paul’s site is here and John’s is here.

John Burton