Once I had heard about Alamy I bought a film scanner – that was the start of 2002. It cost around £2000 ( can’t quite remember) : a Minolta Dimage Scan MultiPro. And without bothering spending time learning much about how to use it I started scanning my rather large collection of slides. Alamy coming along was just perfect for me. I had tinkered with stock and some direct sales as early as the late 1980s. But it was hard to find the time with a young family and teaching job. It was also hard to get accepted by a good agency and I didn’t manage to get accepted by a ‘good’ agency. I did get accepted by a mediocre one and sent slides in as and when I could from the photo trips that I have always gone out on but it was all a bit half-hearted. I also took pictures as most old-school geog teachers did to illustrate lessons and just because I was a geography teacher and that’s what we do ( or did). So, the slides piled up in boxes, drawers, filing cabinets. I started scanning in February 2002 and, working most days, had about 1000 done by October of that year when the first one sold – twice at the same time and for two very good fees. All this time I was also out and about taking as many new photos as I could so determined was I to give stock and Alamy 100% commitment.
This was one, which has just been used for a book in South Africa, from that period of going out and about locally looking for stock. I carried on like this for over three years and had scanned about 5000 by then. How exciting it was to buy my first digital camera in 2005 and how much easier things became.
Same trajectory here Ian only I started with digital files – my first submission in 2002 was a set from Gibraltar taken on the Minolta Dimage 7, and they do indeed still sell, though fees are maybe a fifth in real terms today. I still have a Multi Pro and still have many thousands of unscanned slides though half of them are useless as I now have absolutely no idea where they were taken and what they show… and my highest Alamy fee this year, four figure sum, was for a Multi Pro slide scan of an original from the 1980s.
David, Thanks for your comment. Back in 2005 it was you who gave me the advice that led me to buy the Dimage A200. A camera no longer accepted by Alamy but which has paid for itself many times over. Actually, my best Alamy seller this month was a simple shot from this camera. So, once again, many thanks for that!