Alamy images for Google

I've now arranged for all my Alamy images to be viewable in a Google friendly set of pages, here. I'm hoping for an improvement in the visibility of my Alamy images on Google Images.

Sea Kayaking

Another set spilling out from the Swanage weekend. Around Old Harry Rocks (National Trust) there are guided sea kayak tours, great spot to look out on them.

Aviva Grand Prix indoor athletics

A set from the Aviva Grand Prix indoors athletics at the NIA Birmingham came up in my backlog this week.



BBC Presenters aplenty since the meet was broadcast live, that's Iwan Thomas roaming the floor. Always interesting to see it from the other side of the camera, here's the starter's gun(s)!



It's actually much smaller than you'd think from the TV coverage which makes for great viewing, and there's so much going on it's a great event.

British Summer Holiday

This week I processed some stock of Swanage Bay in Dorset. Probably one of the most photographed stretches of coast in the UK, but nevertheless worthwhile.


Highlights are Old Harry Rocks, and a the arch and stacks of the Pinnacles, returning to the bay at Swanage itself.



The rest of the set's here

Four figure Alamy Update

It's been a long while since I posted an update on Alamy, but yesterday there was cause for celebration - I've passed the $1,000 mark for images sold. I'm sure there's many contributors who hit it far more quickly - after all it took me the best part of three years - but nevertheless I feel that it is an achievement given the low production quality of my images. Of course, the image that tipped me into four figures is predictably boring, but that is the nature of editorial, you just don't know which image will sell - this one's coming to a guidebook near you soon!

Typical Japanese street vending machine

Food Photography Test Shots

Good looking food!

Getting rid of fingerprints
Half the battle with food photos is getting rid of dust, dirt, drips, condensation or fingerprints. Here the picture of the strawberries was a test shot for a dessert shoot and the lesson learnt was not to hold the spoon handle with your fingers but to hold it with a cloth.

More to come...
Discount licence
If you want to license the images directly at a discount, contact the photographer at sales@smyrnoff.com.

More backyard garden, backyard garden, berries, berries, berry, berry, blue, blue, breakfast, breakfast, close up, close up, closeup, closeup, close-up, close-up, colors, colors, cookery, cookery, cooking, cooking, cream, cream, dessert, dessert, eat, eat, eating, eating, fine art, fine art, food, food, foods, foods, fresh strawberries, fresh strawberries, fruit, fruit, fruits, fruits, garden, garden, gardening, gardening, gardens, gardens, home, home, home cooked, home cooked, homely, homely, kitchen, kitchen, kitchen art, kitchen art, kitchen decor, kitchen decor, kitchens, kitchens, love food, love food, nobody, nobody, nutrition, nutrition, recipe, recipe, red, red, red fruit, red fruit, spoon, spoon, still life, still life, stilllife, stilllife, strawberries, strawberries, strawberry, strawberry, summer, summer, sweet, sweet, valentine, valentine, warm colors, warm colors.

Fake One Pound £1 Coins

More common than you'd think!

Fake British 2004 Scottish one pound £1 coin with Forth Bridge showing poor quality strike

Looks OK on the face of it
Fake coins often look normal from a quick glance but on closer inspection you often find that the pattern is "soapy"

Stamped like on plasticine
The kind of flaws you spot are to do with the press that they use. The edges of the coin are often uneven from one side to another, with a double edge where there shuld be a clean single edge.

Fake British 2004 Scottish one pound £1 coin with poorly struck lettering and diagonal striations

Nicks the wrong way up
You also see all kinds of striations and nicks but the tell-tale factor is that they are embossed not indented on the face - they are imperfections in the stamp not nicks from wear and tear.

Fake UK one pound coin reverse showing three lions passant guardant with obvious flaws.
This coin was found in circulation in 2010. It shows poor quality casting with cracks in the cast. It has been photographed at its natural angle i. e. the reverse is rotated from the obverse. Request a larger version from the photographer to inspect the detail.

On the flip side
The other tell-tale sign is when the obverse and reverse of the coin (heads and tails) are not aligned when you flip the coin. They should line up if you rotate the coin around the vertical axis through the Queen's head.

Fake UK 2002 one pound coin obverse showing third portrait with obvious flaws

The killer tell though is that the edge stamping is always wrong. This alone is enough for the photographer to have collected five coins in three months simply by checking his change. More pictures available on request.

Discount licence
If you want to license the images directly at a discount, contact the photographer at sales@smyrnoff.com otherwise use the links above to license through Alamy.

Spain 2010

Costa Del Sol during the World Cup

Spanish flag depicting the silhouette of a bull

Flags everywhere!
The small town of Nerja was awash with flags when we were there during the World Cup. Little did we know that Spain would go on to win!

BBQ at the beach
One of the things the Spanish do so well, along with siestas, is beach-front restaurants, and this little gem is down on the Torrecillia beach, one of Nerja's town beaches.

Skewered fish cooking on a wood-fired grill/ BBQ in a beach restaurant

Mediterannean at its best
You can't see a picture like this without thinking of the Mediterannean coast, from Gibraltar round to Greece it is an unmistakable meeting of rock and blue sea that you don't find in the Carribean or on the large oceans, the Med is a passive influence which keeps holiday-makers coming back for more.

The crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean on the coast of Spain, Nerja, Costa del Sol

Discount license
If you want to license the images directly at a discount, contact the photographer at sales@smyrnoff.com otherwise use the links above to license through Alamy.

Hop Farm Festival 2010

Weather perfect..Bob Dylan a disaster!

Laura Marling entertaining the audience at The Hop Farm Festival 2010, Kent, UK

Laura Marling and Ray Davies
This summer's highlight was undoubtably the Hop Farm Festival. We spent a chilled out day in the blazing hot sun listening to the cool vibes of Laura Marling and later Ray Davies. The latter was new to me but I was surprised to find I knew a few of the songs.

Mumford & Sons, Seasick Steve and Pete Doherty
Best set of the day was Mumford and Sons who got everyone on their feet. I was interested to see Pete Doherty live but he didn't live up to expectations. Seasick Steve was cool, having seen a little of him on Jonathan Ross and Jools Holland it was great to see him live..a proper character.

Bob Dylan
*Sigh* what a dissappointment. In the picture above you can see how big Laura Marling was from where we were sat, now imagine the screens switched off and you can see how much of Bob Dylan we saw...zilch. We eventually pushed our way forward but at no time could I resolve the features of his face, and together with a mumbled and lack lustre performance it was a waste of time going to see him. Never-ending tour my ar...

Click here to buy the image through Alamy.com

Bad organisation!
Of course the day was marred by the crap management of the festival. Huge queues for the loos are normal, huge queues for beer aren't, not when they're charging london rates and have the cheek to charge a deposit for glasses. And the site ran out of bottled water, what a joke! Unless it's a stunning line-up next year, we'll give it a miss.

Discount license
If you want to license the image directly at a discount, contact the photographer at sales@smyrnoff.com otherwise use the link above to license through Alamy.

Kansai International Airport (KIX)

Kansai International Airport with Skygate bridge from Rinku junction, Osaka Bay, Japan
When I visit an airport now I spend very little time in the terminal. We have our arrival time down to a fine art and usually barely pause from check-in to passport to boarding...just enough to buy the obligatory bottle of water that got confiscated on the way. But our journey through Kansai International Airport was not quite so ordinary.

We checked-in at the end of two weeks in Japan, in September and it had been very hot. We took advantage of the airport lounge which was very civilised, there's nothing like having refrigerated beer glasses and free Kirin on tap! And it's lucky we had a lounge...the terminal is pretty sparse once you're through security.

After a couple of hours of our flight being delayed it became clear through muddled english that our plane had been struck by lightning on arriving at Kansai and they were not able to fly us out that day. They eventually, after a couple more hours, asked us to reclaim our baggage and board coaches to local hotels. We were lucky and ended up in the Ana Gate Tower.

The next morning we were greeted with a fabulous view of the airport from the top of the tower and I took these pictures. One of these has recently been bought for a calendar. I'd love to know who bought it, my current hunch is that it was Arup, the company who did the engineering for the island airport.

Seacle Rinku Pleasure Town Outlet Mall with ferris wheel with coloured capsules and Ana Tower Gate Hotel, Osaka, Japan

Rinku General Medical Center, Izumisano Municipal Hospital, Rinku Orai-Kita, Izumisano, Osaka, Japan

Rinku Town looking north from the Rinku Gate Tower, including the Izumisano Gyokyo Aozora Market, and Hanshin Expressway, Japan


Rinku Pleasuretown Beach, Osaka Bay, Japan


Discount license
If you want to license the images directly at a discount, contact the photographer at sales@smyrnoff.com otherwise use the links above to license through Alamy.

Alamy Measures Stats January 2009

It's been a quiet month punctuated by a snowboarding holiday where I shot a few Facebook pictures for my friends, and promptly received news of my work situation changing...for the worse. The credit crunch has bitten and I am now looking for my next contract. You'd think that this would give me an opportunity to go out and shoot some pictures but actually I'd rather practice the guitar in the warmth of my living room and finally finish keywording the last handful of pictures of Japan. I pleased to say that my portfolio on Alamy is getting a healthy number of views, a nice level of zooms and my pseudonyms are settling in nicely. The surprise statistic is that my travel image pseudonym has the best CTR at 3.20% - I was expecting it to be terrible in face of the competition but perhaps they are my best photos after all. Here is my view of Alamy for the month of January: Proportion of searches for: 1 word = 18% , average of 13.04 pages viewed 2 words = 44% , average of 9.57 pages viewed 3 words = 27% , average of 8.57 pages viewed 4 words = 9% , average of 4.45 pages viewed 5+ words = 3% , average of 8.38 pages viewed Total number of pictures at end of month: 512 Proportion of views to pictures: 131.84% Number of sales for month: 0 Average number of my pictures viewed matching query: 2.27 Total average CTR for searches in which my images appeared: 1.27% My CTR: 1.18%

Ema (wishes) on display at Meiji Shrine, Yoyogi Park, Tokyo, Japan

Proportion of searches for: 5 letter words 18.07% 4 letter words 16.47% 3 letter words 15.66% 6 letter words 13.52% 7 letter words 12.45% 8 letter words 6.96% 9 letter words 5.62% 2 letter words 5.09% 10 letter words 4.28% 11 letter words 1.34% 15 letter words 0.40% 12 letter words 0.13% Most popular words (top 5 in each position ignoring "and"): First word: READING off shell green Hiroshima asda Second word: berkshire shop license UK airport amsterdam car town a drink wheel japan festival petrol you Third word: UK south japan not manger Fourth word: africa UK town book is Womad england Fifth word: UK Any position: UK and READING book japan shop berkshire Most popular variations: cape town: (table mountain OR south africa) reading festival: NOT (book OR womad) grand union: (canal OR narrow boat) woman: (money OR drink alcohol)! buckinghamshire: (crime OR police OR public) blue: (recycling OR wheelie bin) book: (pages OR store) recycling: (bin OR facility) beer: (shop OR crates) green: (bins OR management) shell: (station OR petrol) train: (japan OR arriva) castle: (battle OR coombe) In contrast to the stats that I can gather from my own Measures data, here is what the whole of Alamy is searching for: Most popular Alamy searches (top 5 in each position ignoring "alamy" as a search): by number of unique customers searching: cat laptop london "piggy bank" dog by number of sales: "new york lights" handshake barcelona "brooklyn bridge, new york" iphone by number of zooms: "punjab india" mirrorpix dubai baltic "Jurassic Coast"

Japan Photobook

I've finished the photobook and it has arrived. I am a little dissappointed with the finish but not so much as to complain to Cewe-Photoworld who produced it. Some pages show faint magenta and green banding across the whole page and the amount of sharpening they have used is more than I would have liked (my images are unsharpened for Alamy and Cewe don't give you control over it - rightly, as you can't judge it unless you know the printer they are using)

Before I archived the original files I took screenshots of the book layout in order to show a preview of it to my friends. Here are some highlights (below - or watch the slideshow)...the real thing runs to 84 pages! Most of the full page bleeds are available on Alamy in my portfolio, here.

I chose the XL Picture Hardcover book and so these double-page spreads are 60cm wide, the quality of the D300 images is fabulous, and it especially shines in some of the night shots which were all shot handheld at up to 1600 ISO with the wonderful 16-85 Nikkor VR lens (except for the A-bomb dome which was one of only two occasions that the tripod got used).

P.S. I'm still keywording the Japan images, but as of this afternoon, I will have 500 images live on Alamy, hooray!

Alamy Measures Stats December 2008

So I'm *still* keywording those damned Japan pictures on Alamy but at least I've finished a photo book of the best 404 pictures that I brought back. I'm off on my next assignment soon so there'll be some new pictures to show you of winter scenes! This last month was still lacking in sales but my CTR has bounced back nicely. Here is my view of Alamy for the month of December: Proportion of searches for: 1 word = 22% , average of 12.36 pages viewed 2 words = 44% , average of 8.67 pages viewed 3 words = 25% , average of 8.23 pages viewed 4 words = 9% , average of 5.27 pages viewed 5+ words = 0% , average of 0.41 pages viewed Total number of pictures at end of month: 467 Number of sales for month: 0 Average number of my pictures viewed matching query: 2.14 Total average CTR for searches in which my images appeared: 1.29% My CTR: 0.93%

Traditional shop fronts in modern Japanese street scene, Miyajima Island, Japan

Proportion of searches for: 5 letter words 16.41% 6 letter words 15.44% 3 letter words 14.86% 4 letter words 13.32% 7 letter words 11.39% 9 letter words 9.07% 8 letter words 9.07% 10 letter words 4.05% 2 letter words 3.86% 11 letter words 0.77% 13 letter words 0.77% 15 letter words 0.58% Most popular words (top 5 in each position ignoring "and"): First word: marlow tinsel reading christmas uk mardi Second word: Berkshire uk house bin not gras Third word: uk edinburgh bags beads man money office cut-out landfill africa Fourth word: uk edinburgh bin town london rubbish Any position: marlow tinsel Chrismas brunel capsules Most popular variations: environmental health: (bin OR rubbish) uk: (construction site OR taxi OR bank reflection) reading: (berkshire OR abbey) recycling: (bin OR box) woman: (rucksack OR umbrella) scotland: (yard OR hotel) disabled: (uk OR parking) silver: (tinsel OR presents) In contrast to the stats that I can gather from my own Measures data, here is what the whole of Alamy is searching for: Most popular Alamy searches (top 5 in each position ignoring "alamy" as a search): by number of unique customers searching: Christmas "christmas tree" "christmas dinner" ipod hospital by number of sales: "san andreas colombia" parrots "leeds sculpture" "leeds kenneth" "madrasa pakistan" by number of zooms: lobina mallorca "Frank Lloyd Wright" "nassau bahamas" "World Cup"