[IainMc]

Commandment 7 can be a challenge to obey at times. Especially if you encounter these “security guards” who think they have the power to stop people taking photographs of “their” building from a public street. I’ve never had to use it yet but my trump card is to politely explain to them that I know my rights, if they think they have the power to stop me, I’m going to carry on shooting regardless and they should call the police. I live in hope that one day I will see one of these jobsworths charged with wasting police time.

[IainMc]

Any thoughts on my latest shoot (apart from pointing out lens flares on the street lamps in a couple of them)?

http://dunmaglas.photoshelter.com/gallery/2013-12-11-Glasgow/G0000h7CHyH0GiAg/C0000RJnjDQFX1dg

[IainMc]

^^^^

 

Please can you be more specific? The images on the main page or in the archive (which I’ve still to edit)?

 

[IainMc]

I’ve made some major changes to my website. I still have more to do content-wise with the structure and editing of the galleries but would welcome any feedback.

[IainMc]

Thanks for the feedback folks and after consideration I have identified a number of actions to take:

Reduce the number of galleries / gallery groups on the site
Reduce the number of images, duplicates and cull older images where the lighting/composition doesn’t work too well
Focus on more specific niche areas of photography to develop – taking account of my strengths and weaknesses and where I am based (location wise) architecture and the urban environment is the most opportune area.
Restructure the galleries and since most of my work is location-specific I should also have primarily location-specific rather than subject-based galleries. This may also help SEO.
Look at ways to segregate prints sales from licence sales given the different customer profiles for these

Any more tips would be appreciated.

[IainMc]

Just a couple of examples, which I don’t consider my best work by a long shot, but these are my top sellers in terms of volume and highest licence price respectively.

This has sold over 300 times on Shutterstock alone (Enhanced licence twice) since 2009. My only regret is that I put it on RF to start with instead of RM on Alamy – http://bit.ly/1aPDTxN

This one licenced a few months ago (RM non-exclusive) to a book publisher for $900 – http://bit.ly/17lZbX1

I’d be very interested to know what you think of these images because on another day I might have culled both of them.

[IainMc]

It was drizzle on that day rather than humidity.  I think the rain had stopped by the time of the demolition but I’d stood about 90 minutes waiting and holding an umbrella over the camera for much of the time! Plus the focal length was 200mm so that obviously added to haze, being about a mile from the site, but it was the closest unobstructed vantage point I could find outside the evacuation zone.

If you’re curious to see the buildings on a clear day- putting this reference in Google Maps search will bring up the location (Google Earth has 3D models in arial view) :  55.879925,-4.208462

Personally I think its a pity they’re blowing them all down instead of renovating into luxury flats because there is something iconic about them (they were the tallest residential structures in Europe when they were built) and I’ve seen uglier listed buildings from the same era (listed in the UK generally means its illegal to demolish because of historic or architectural interest unless in danger of collapse).

I have to admit I quite like haze in images sometimes, especially in vistas where it has a graduated effect leading into the distance like in these examples (I had to run to escape a torrential thunder and lightning storm about 5 mins after taking the second one):

http://bit.ly/1bNW9wj

http://bit.ly/17Jmln3

 

As regards PS I will look more into what other photographers who use it are doing as I haven’t done so for a while. Quite a lot seem to have prints and licence sales on the the same site (though not necessarily the same images) but I gather a lot of Photoshelter users tend to use it as a download facility for clients and those they’ve contacted on spec rather than being solely a vehicle to bring in sales per se.  I understand PS are looking at ways to overcome that though and drive more traffic to users sites.  So with that in mind, plus the fact I’ve only just upgraded to a Nikon D7000, it seems a good time for some major curating.

As regards duplicating archives I just think it a bit inefficient compared with running multiple sites off a single back-end but I may look into Graph Paper Press (or Beam once its out of Beta test).

[IainMc]

Thanks for the feedback folks I will certainly take this on board and consider the points you have raised.

One or two points I would like to respond with.

CC the green file is not damaged it was rendered that way as I was experimenting with tinted monochrome images.

As regards the adjusted image you posted,  to my eye it looks a little over saturated/contrast (albeit artistic) and the colours are deeper than those buildings actually appear in good light (they’re pretty drab which is why they’re all coming down over the next few years even though there’s nothing structural wrong with them, just a failed experiment of 1960s urban planning). These images were taken primarily with editorial usage in mind and it my understanding that manipulation of editorial images tends to be frowned upon. I understand World Press Photo has changed its competition rules as this year’s winning image was disputed because of the amount of post production.

Alas cloudy, poor visibility days are not something we are short of in the UK and I have to say I’ve seen duller images in newspapers.

The issue you raised with the title “Boats” this is the gallery name displayed here and not the title of the image – confusing perhaps but that is the way Photoshelter’s default gallery display is configured – maybe something that should redesigned in light of your comment.

For what it’s worth I do have about 1,400 images on Shutterstock (I stopped submitting a while ago because I’m not doing RF for pennies any more and also pulled about 300+ images from iStock) and about 5,000 (mostly RM) on Alamy.

 

I admit I do have concerns about having stock/prints in the same basket so to speak, for the most part because the markets for these are completely different – something PS is yet to offer a convenient solution to other than setting up two accounts which would involve considerable duplication of archiving.  On the other hand it seems a waste not to use all of the sales tools they have on offer. Nevertheless a strategic review is certainly in order.

 

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