unfortunately it was not one of mine   

I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to show it.

I'm sorry, I'm not allowed to show it.

Oh... there must have been more that one sale?   

just to let you guys know that I have just retired 

There was a fish market image (unreleased) that sold a few years ago for 5 figures if I remember right.  I don't have a link to the image though. 

I've heard about this $100,000 image but I don't know which one it was....I think that was about 5 or 6 years ago.

Wasn't it by that man that takes photos of elephants anhd/or piglets? Gosh this mush inside my skull can't remember if that's the same bloke, or if that was an Alamy sale or from somewhere else.

i think it was taken with a phone camera...

Quote from: ShadySue on April 13, 2012, 15:55

Wasn't it by that man that takes photos of elephants anhd/or piglets? Gosh this mush inside my skull can't remember if that's the same bloke, or if that was an Alamy sale or from somewhere else.

Bob Elsdale and he sold the one you're thinking of on Getty for $60k.

The fish market shot was sold on Alamy to an American bank for $65k if memory serves me correctly and the big one the OP is talking about was a photo of a can of Tuna I believe.

Oh that would explain the flood of "Can of Tuna" shots by some people who follow the trends and copy what was selling last month or last year. And yes I'm serious! Like a dog chasing their tail or a car, and what will they do when they catch it?

They look at the Alamy data and see what sold, then they produce the same thing.

Here's the flaw in their game plan. If someone just bought seven photos of Tahiti, they probably completed that project, don't need more and the chances of someone else doing the same, are slim. This isn't microstock! LOL Many subjects, if you look at the last sales on Alamy, are very specific, like someone is doing a pamphlet or travel book. In a month many of the best selling and most selling images, have disappeared as searches and sales.

So Mr. Copy-That sees can of tuna made a killing, he going out and creates about 80 can of tuna shots. Original art work on the cans, including one that's "James West" brand tuna. Really!  

All I can say is Sorry Charlie

In my recent interview to Alan Capel, Head of Content of Alamy, one question is
what's highest price a photo has alamy ever sold.

Alan said: We can�t show you but we have sold one image for over $100,000.

In contrast to that, my own startling news is that (with a portfolio of more than 1000 photos) my last Alamy sale was for $1.50 (one dollar and fifty cents), and that was more than two months ago.   If you want to get $100,000, your odds are much better through buying lottery tickets than submitting photos to Alamy.  javascript:void(0)   

I have photos at Alamy and five microstock agencies.  In terms of earnings per hour invested in uploading, Alamy ranks right at the bottom.

Quote from: williamju on April 13, 2012, 10:35

In my recent interview to Alan Capel, Head of Content of Alamy, one question is
what's highest price a photo has alamy ever sold.

Alan said: We can�t show you but we have sold one image for over $100,000.

In contrast to that, my own startling news is that (with a portfolio of more than 1000 photos) my last Alamy sale was for $1.50 (one dollar and fifty cents), and that was more than two months ago.   If you want to get $100,000, your odds are much better through buying lottery tickets than submitting photos to Alamy.  javascript:void(0)   

I have photos at Alamy and five microstock agencies.  In terms of earnings per hour invested in uploading, Alamy ranks right at the bottom.

While what you write is essentially factual and true, there's a big part of this being "what is the photo!"

If it's the SOS that everyone else uploads and there are 18,000 competing images, or 18 million in the case of microstock, well of course the value will be low.

If it's a one of a kind shot or some big agency wants to license EXCLUSIVE for their ad campaign, then it's going to bring in much more.

I'm still averaging $80 commission per download on Alamy, but I don't upload Microstock shots there and I don't have much RF, I think one sold by accident, once.  My RF on Alamy is almost exclusivly "if micro refused it for LCV, but it's a nice clean, big image... it becomes Alamy RF." Kind of simple? I like it and I'm hoping some buyer will need it.

People are always comparing RF to RM and how much sold and values and all that, but it's the same thing. Photos of WHAT and how unique are they?

Alamy will never be micro style, I hope not, and what you wrote about sales, is generally true, the volume isn't there. The buyers are different. The needs and demands and content are different.

The line from the commercial with the investment kid covers it. Very funny: "You have the same chances of that happening as being attacked by a polar bear and a grizzle bear, in the same day."

Yes, someone sold a license for six figures, however... your results may vary. I might average $80 a download and someone else with common RF images, identical to what they sell on 50 other sites, may average $1.50 a download. It's not all about averages or hypothetical numbers as much as it is the content that we are selling. Also what I have on Alamy is one of a kind, moment in time material, that in some cases, no one else will ever have. In others, there will be similar images, also just as unique, but from other people. Nothing is staged or ever going to happen again. Editorial News shots.

That what I chose to shoot. To each our own.

I can't remember exactly but I think the record is around $200,000  for the Windows splash screen.

As a matter of fact, I also don't have any RF at Alamy.   The one to which I was referring was an RM "novel use" sale.  (I just checked, and it turns out, it wasn't $1.50, but $1.25.)   In the past several months, most sales have been novel use ones in the $4 to $10 range, all RM photos.   In 2010, I did have a couple of individual sales over $200, but in the past 12 months only one over $100.  For me at least Alamy has been going downhill fast, and I have stopped uploading to them.  

And quite surprisingly, iStock has plummeted so fast this month for me that at this stage of the month, I've made more from Alamy.

Swings and roundabouts, probably. (I'm not in the NU scheme).

No, the grassy field, tree, sky shot.

wasn't it sold on Corbis ?