Quote from: Brasilnut on November 24, 2022, 07:16

Quote from: mike123 on November 24, 2022, 06:54

Great article, thanks!!

Any chance you have any tips on how to get a permission to fly in Lisbon (since you've got some drone shots from Lisbon)? I applied for a permission when I was in Lisbon in July 2022 and wanted to grab some sunrise shots over Alfama, but the aviation office (I think it is ANAC) declined mine with the reason being "sensitive installations" or something similar

Hi, thanks.

Indeed ANAC / AAN are often-times overzealous in their approach relating to security - I've had some bizarre rejections.

My tip is try to keep the GPS parameters quite narrow and max altitude quite low at 30/60 metres. If they do reject your submission, try again with an even smaller parameter. Once you have their OK then even if you "break the rules a bit", at least you have the authorization document to protect you if you get stopped by authorities.

I had no issues getting authorizations to close to fly in at Commercial Square and Belem next to the Tower and Patrimonio, as well as close to Palacio da Pena in Sintra.

Hope this helps!

Alex

Thanks a lot Alex, your answer is immensely helpful!!
Now I know how to approach the authorization process and will definitely try it in future!

Michael

Good luck! Otherwise, just go out into the countryside in the middle of nowhere and can risk not involving authorities...as you know, Portugal has a beautiful and extensive coastline.

All the best - Alex

Quote from: Brasilnut on November 15, 2022, 11:19

I wouldn't share so openly my best-sellers from a place but it's been so long that it doesn't matter anymore.

So, I lived in Rotterdam, Netherlands between 2011-2014 and these were/are my best-sellers from that time.

At the time, Rotterdam was growing a lot with new buildings/infrastructure, so buyers picked up on those kinds of shots. Rotterdam Central station and Markthal come to mind.

I shot regularly in Amsterdam but very few sales from there with exception of inside Schiphol terminal and airplanes.

I'm keen to go back there in the spring and shoot the tulip fields with my drone.

Thanks for sharing. I forgot to say before that I am a follower of your website, and find it very helpful and inspiring.
I used to live in Breda till July 2022, had a boring job for a chinese company, working in excel, and spent countless hours reading your posts and thinking about stock instead of working.

Looks like you got into some building to have a good view on Rotterdam central station. I have been there so many times (and will be there tomorrow again on the way to a metal concert) but always thought there are too many distracting elements in the composition, and didnt take any photos.
I got a discount pass for dutch trains which allows me to travel for free at the weekends, and in combination with bike it is a great way to explore and cover many places. Nothing like cycling the whole day, shooting stock, and then ending in some pub drinking special beer to finish the day off!

Tulips with the drone sounds good.
I got this idea of capturing dutch tulips together with dutch train and rental bike also from dutch railways.
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lisse-south-holland-netherlands-0105-ovfiets-1969662391
Sold few times, but nothing crazy.

My best-seller is one of the first, if not the very first photo that I have uploaded to stock sites
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/lighthouse-breda-by-sunset-540095644
all about that sky, which was really spectacular that moment.

followed by this one
https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/scenery-traditional-dutch-windmill-called-de-1736017865
despite that bland sky

Hi Devotio,

Cool you follow my blog! I was probably at my boring corporate job in Madrid while writing some of the posts so we were both dreaming of freedom haha

Yes, the view of Rotterdam Central was taken from my ex-office so was priviledged to have this view point. From down below it's not as interesting.

These are three pretty shots but probably difficult to have 100s of sales as still too generic. For instance the sheep with windmills, soon we'll have AI that can create almost infinite variations of this type of scene with a query-search - many threads about this here alerady.

That's why I suggested the drone perspective but not as easy as buying a drone and taking off as there are lots of rules as you've mentioned. I still think it's worth getting all the qualifications / authorizations. Much of the NL is still OK to fly without major issues, including the tulip fields.

Trying out for the first time and created two clips.

TikTok is apparently all the hype now with Gen Z, so may be a good way to reach out, even to promote POD for instance or talk about the photo industry developments like AI.

Or perhaps just a giant waste of time, not sure yet but willing to experiment. Anybody having success?

Wrote a blog post on it which shamelessly includes a link to my channel on there.

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/11/09/tiktok-is-it-worth-uploading-content/

I'll give it 6 months promoting my travel photos/videos and if that fails I'll put on my dancing shoes!

All the best - Alex

I can see the climate change protestor stuff selling and hopefully you're also putting them up on other agencies, including Alamy.

Terrestrial timelapses and videos are OK but nowadays would highly recommend you get a drone + qualifications now as will give you an edge on the competition.

Last weekend I invested on an old green suitcase at a flea market and using Dalle2.

Finding it very useful to brainstorm various concepts for book covers.

From brainstorming -> final execution -> acceptance at Arcangel. Useful tool!

Dear colleagues,

Happy to share with you my results for the major agencies since 2017.

As you'll see, the future looks bleak for images in micros (at least for me) if I don't change my ways...

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/10/18/comparing-earnings-stats-since-2017-at-largest-microstock-agencies/

Alex

Freefall...

Stills only.

Last weekend I invested on an old green suitcase at a flea market and using Dalle2.

Finding it very useful to brainstorm various concepts for book covers.

Quote from: Brasilnut on September 21, 2022, 08:02

Only makes sense to advertise Print on Demand ports, imo

Why do you say that?

Steve Heap writes about this lots. I don't promote too much of my POD port as he does.

https://backyardsilver.com/new-activity-on-twitter-for-promoting-our-portfolios/

Only makes sense to advertise Print on Demand ports, imo

I've uploaded this particular AI image created by DALLE2 throughout and testing the results.

Quality is pretty bad (particularly after up-sizing) so I suspect that it will be rejected by all, but interesting to see either way.

Quote from: Brasilnut on September 12, 2022, 07:42

I miss the SS forum, until today I still can't understand why they took it down

Hi brasilnut!
I think it was for too much negative comments when SSTK start with the reset button in January and new levels system. But to be honest i don't miss it.

Um abra�o from Portugal

Yea, and all that posts about blatant thieving going on. You'd think that an IPO-listed company would have enough resources to go after them.

Abs!

Interesting analysis from Fabio Nodari here:

https://www.fabionodariphoto.com/en/how-sell-ai-generated-images-art/