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Single life

Permalink Comments (19)15 March 2007 at 16:13 by Alexandra Bortkiewicz
Posted under Picture needs

Senior sports - Image ATKWH8 © Stockbyte Platinum
© Stockbyte PlatinumWe are pleased to introduce our eagerly awaited new version of picture needs, researched and compiled by our picture research department. Instead of focusing on broad chunks of subject matter, the idea is to target specific areas, provide more detail and indicate the mood required for different situations. Lightboxes showing example images further complete the picture.

Our first topic, Single life, reflects the trend of more people living on their own due to lifestyle choices and longevity. This subject provides lots of opportunities to be creative about individual lifestyles and encourages the development of narrative in these type of situations. Realistic senarios are important, so consider using actors for certain situations where more gritty realism is required. As always, obtaining a signed model release will greatly increase the sales potential of your shoot and appeal to more markets.

There is more advice on shooting different subject matter in Photographer tips.

Top

Young woman with umbrella standing at a lake - Image AMXXF4 © Westend 61Loss of partner

  • Contemporary mourning images: funeral, home alone and practical difficulties.
  • Devastation: Sorrow, sadness, tears of lose. All generations, genders and cultures.
  • Memories: photographs, clothes, special places, past experiences.
  • Coping alone: paying bills, maintaining car, learning to cook, washing.
  • Concepts: Isolation, loneliness, helplessness, ‘living in the past’.
  • Example images of loss
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Woman looking down at pieces of gravel held on palm of hand - Image A1R6EG © PhotoAltoRenewal

  • Rediscovering yourself: life, self image and the opposite sex.
  • Awakening: Seeing, smelling and touching again: nature, food, relationships.
  • Hobbies: singles holidays, lunch with friends, yoga.
  • New possibilities: flirting, dating, sexual encounters.
  • Concepts: Discovery, growth, renewal, ‘it’s never too late’.
  • Example images of renewal
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Girlfriends - Image A96362 © Janine Wiedel PhotolibrarySingle lifestyle

  • Modern day: work, home and social activities.
  • Career: Work late/weekends, laptop culture, office flirt.
  • No sharing: personal playroom, plants in bath, champaign bath-times.
  • Leisure: friends and alone: partying, city breaks, cultural: theatre, galleries, gigs.
  • Concepts: Freedom, individuality, personal choices, ‘no compromise’.
  • Example images of single lifestyle
Top

Add your own commentComments (19)

  1. 15 March 2007 at 17:42 Steven May

    Great - thanks for this, it's got me thinking.

    I certainly have little material in this subject area - time for me to put my thinking hat on. Some great simple examples among those lightboxes.

    Regards

    Steven May

  2. 15 March 2007 at 17:47 Simon Stanmore

    Anyone wishing to investigate this trend a little further should check out the recently published MAP Report. The 'One Life' section is available FOC.

  3. 15 March 2007 at 20:58 Jeff Greenberg

    Am unclear as to whether or not the lightbox examples actually sold after being found in a search using the specific words with which they are associated in this thread. regards jg

  4. 15 March 2007 at 21:58 Ian murray

    I agree that this is a very useful and informative collection of images and thought provoking as Steven says. My obvious potential models are my family and friends. But I recall that the default Alamy MR is assumed to cover Sensitive Issues and that one needs to add an exclusion if required - so that they are not used in relation to Sex, Drugs, Mental Illness etc. Just thought this was worth raising before we all go snappy happy on our nearest and dearest. Obviously MR is not such a vital issue with RM but is essential for RF.

  5. 16 March 2007 at 00:41 Ian M Butterfield

    Those wishing to discuss this blog entry in a forum may do so here:

    http://forum.iphotos.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=4932

  6. 16 March 2007 at 09:43 Christine webb

    I am happy for any suggestions as I live in an area that tends to restrict me to Travel Photography, an already swamped area. Now I can think of how I can place family and friends in the area of Single Travel and re-view and keyword existing photos that might fit this area and set up new shots that fit the profile.

  7. 16 March 2007 at 12:50 Paul mayall

    RE: 4 Ian murray.

    Yes Ian and others, be very careful in this area especially with family and friends, above all CHILDREN, we all know that when our images are online there is very little control MR and all kind of rights that you may put on your images are only for the honest and respectable buyers, ( of which most are , there would be nothing worse than having a family member or friend in a publishing that defamed them, I personally only deal directly with such images knowing that I have a certain amount of control. Cheeeers all, Paul.

  8. 18 March 2007 at 11:58 Christine webb

    James, perhaps a blog on model releases and the problems of photographing people in public would make a good topic. Many of my sales have had people in the frame, but if you shoved a MR under the nose of an Italian where I work, they'd seriously get annoyed. I'd be interested on how others get around this problem.
    More on this when you set up the blog.
    kind regards
    Christine

  9. 18 March 2007 at 16:01 Paul mayall

    I cannot see how a Blog on MR is going to help, there may be a few tipps that will help some photographers, but generally it's near impossible to photograph many scenes without people being in them.
    OK there are rules that differ from country to country but generally if you have 3 or more reconizable people in a image then there should not be a problem most of us know that, however as Christine webb said, try waving a MR under anybody's nose in a public area and you will soon find yourself in a please explain situation or worse. It's a hard one but that is the challenge in our bussines when it comes to taking photos with people in them in public places.

    Never the less Christine has a good point in perhaps starting a blog on MR, one never knows it all, and perhaps together we can find an easier way, Cheeers All, Paul.

  10. 19 March 2007 at 10:47 Chris elsdale

    Christine, Paul,

    Alamy's guidelines on release's are laid out clearly in the "Manage Images" section.
    The criteria is 'can the person recognise themselves' which is not necessarily their face.

    If you are selling RF images they are mandatory.

    An article on the importance of RM's can be found in the SAA pubilcation "Keywords".

    Download pdf from here:
    http://www.stockartistsalliance.org/

    Regards
    Chris Elsdale
    www.bobelsdale.com

  11. 20 March 2007 at 09:26 Dennis

    Excellent. Good, in-depth article.

    To add breadth, How about access to client/buyer searches? :-)

  12. 20 March 2007 at 09:30 Christine Webb

    Thanks for that Chris. The SAA Publication and the link contained therein to the Getty Model Release form in Italian. It all contains wise advice that I am going to go through thoroughly, I have been dabbling in the editorial market and not really getting anywhere.

    I suppose here in Italy the fact that several Papparazzi have just been jailed for bribbing personalities and politicians for NOT publishing incriminating photos and the whole intrusion into privacy matter coupled with the pedophile scare has hit the media in a big way, I felt really compromised as a photographer in public.

    Thanks Christine

  13. 20 March 2007 at 11:29 Tony Lilley

    Thanks Alamy for the new picture needs.
    It will be a great help to see whats needed and inspire new ideas.

  14. 23 March 2007 at 16:28 Xristin

    Thanks Alamy -pucture needs it is great idea :-)
    good luck everyone

  15. 23 March 2007 at 16:44 Xristin

    Thanks Alamy -picture needs it is great idea :-)
    good luck everyone :-)))
    I`m sorry for my bad English.

  16. 10 April 2007 at 00:43 Xof

    Great feature!! All we need is a JPEG upload system (hopefully FTP based) to streamline the process in real time!!

  17. 16 April 2007 at 18:29 gary were

    I have always avoided making images where people are prominent due to the issue of MR's. However, I recently did a shoot for the tourism dept. of a local organisation where signed MR's were required. My approach was to explain what I was at and ask for a signature. Success every time, and only one person (jokingly?) enquired about a payment. It does slow you down though and sometimes destroys spontaneity.

  18. 27 July 2007 at 14:34 tkent

    In the UK there is no automatic right to privacy for any person who is in a public place. But they do have certain rights under the Data Protection Act (a photograph can be considered "data" for the purposes of the Act), including the right not to have their photograph taken or published without their express consent if they can be identified from such. But there is an important exemption in the case of a photograph taken for journalistic or artistic purposes. These do not normally require consent prior to publication.

    However, it is the photographer's responsibility to ensure that the picture is fair and lawful and not defamatory in any way. Paparazzi-style telephoto shots of people on private property (even when taken from a public area) is a definite no-no, unless there is a real public-interest angle.

  19. 16 February 2008 at 16:04 microstockwankers

    microstockwankers,,,,,,,

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