Alamy Contributor Blog

Picture needs - social issues

James Allsworth — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:10:00 GMT

The key to making images of social issues commercially viable, aside from shooting creatively, is obtaining model releases to have available for the client. Without releases, any images depicting difficult social issues will likely be deemed unsuitable for sensitive usages. Having releases should therefore be a priority for you.

'Social issues' is a fairly broad term but some subjects that fit within it would be:

Homelessness
Domestic abuse
Street violence
Drug abuse
Alcoholism, binge drinking, under-age drinking
Teen issues including sex and relationships
Stress
Financial trouble, unemployment
Crime
Protests
Poverty
Loneliness
Discrimination in the work place
Racism
Immigration
Healthcare for the disabled

The list is not exhaustive but should give you a good general idea - remember, releases here are the key in addition to shooting creatively to depict a concept or message.

Happy holidays

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 11:28:00 GMT

© dov makabawWe wanted to let you know that the Alamy Content team will be operating with reduced staff levels over the festive period. Response times on queries sent to Member Services will be longer than usual. QC times will also be longer as per our previous blog.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Here at Alamy we are excited about the future, our News service is growing rapidly and we'll be adding Stock Video in 2012. We continue to grow in an industry that has its challenges but continues to offer up new opportunities for our photographers and picture providers.Thank you for your continued support and for being instrumental in helping us achieve our goals.

We'd like to take this opportunity to wish all of our contributors a very happy holiday season and here's to a great 2012.

Best wishes,

The Alamy Content team

2011 Christmas QC times

Alamy Quality Control team. — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:46:00 GMT

24th - 27th December 2011
31st December - 2nd January 2012

Quality Control (QC) times will take longer than usual. Turnaround times will be back to normal by the 11th January.We apologise for any delays experienced during this period.

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the QC team.

VMRelease™ now accepted at Alamy

James Allsworth - Video Content Executive — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:42:00 GMT

VMRelease™The need to have releases for your content is becoming increasingly important to clients in today's market, but carrying around print outs and pens on top of your camera gear can be an added hassle that you just don't need.

We're therefore happy to announce that we are now accepting releases produced by VMRelease, providing you with a convenient way to add value to your shots via an intuitive iPhone app that lets you produce releases on the go.

Use the app to create your own personal or company profile, capture images of your subject/property, input contact details, obtain signatures, send and store, all in 6 simple steps. Once you transfer your releases from the app, you can upload them to Alamy in the usual way via the "Assign release(s)" tab via image attributes in "Manage Images".

For more information visit the VMRelease website.

Scheduled downtime this weekend

Alan Capel - Head of Content — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:30:00 GMT

We need to undertake some essential maintenance on Saturday the 26th of November. During this time the entire Alamy site will be unavailable including all the contributor facing elements (upload, manage images etc). The work is scheduled to run from 2.30 am (UK time) through to 7.30 am (UK time).

Please note that we will still be able to receive News images via FTP during this downtime.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. We'll be making sure the site is back up and running as soon as possible but we cannot guarantee that it will not take longer.

To avoid any possible complications for any uploads during this time, we recommend for you to not start uploading any images close to 2.30 am (UK time) on the 26th as they may fail to reach us if they are still uploading during the time that the work starts.