Hey all, short post here today on something I’ve been noticing for a while.
Over the past 6 years of regularly uploading to Alamy, I’ve started to notice a pattern of Alamy buyers loving to pick up images taken within museums / art exhibitions, etc. Such as today, the following image captured at Florence’s iconic Uffizi Galleries, which sold for $184 gross.
In this blog post I’ll discuss why you should also think about uploading your museum / exhibition pics to Alamy.
How many such images have sold at Alamy?
I’ve gone through my sales since the beginning and indeed, out of the 366 sales, 13 fit such description.
This many not seem like a large amount but proportionally from all the images of everything, it’s certainly a lot as I don’t tend to visit museums/exhibitions all that often as not a fan of waiting hours in line and/or paying expensive entrance fees.
Alamy attractive prices
Going deeper into the analysis as I always like to do, the 13 images netted an average of $40 gross. Since I upload these types of images Rights-Managed and exclusive (the majority of the time), this would earn me a rather nice $20net. This is double the average earned for all the other images.
Unfortunately, it seems that Alamy have got rid of this benefit of uploading exclusively as per their new contributor contract in favour of a flat 40% commission for most contributors.
Which are the 12 others that have sold at Alamy?
Well, you’re probably wondering which have sold, so happy to list them but won’t go into detail on the prices. Suffice to say that visiting the Uffizi has been a great investment!
Follow the rules (or else…)
Or else nothing…
If you can get away with shooting at these places and uploading on Alamy, well done. The risk is small, as long as you’re licensing as editorials.
At Madrid’s Prado Museum, they were onto me like a hawk and only managed one book cover before jobsworths demanded that I not shoot.
Nevertheless, I prefer to upload these images exclusively to Alamy and not the micros (otherwise book covers ideally).
Have you had some luck with these types of images, please comments below. In any case, good luck with your museum / exhibition images!
I’ll be back in 2 weeks with the usual monthly earnings report and perhaps an interview in the meantime.
About Alex
I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Madrid, Spain, on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage, when things go back to normal (Late-2021??). I’ve devoted eight years to making it as a travel photographer / videographer and freelance writer (however, had recently go back into full-time office work to make ends meet). I hope to inspire others by showing an unique insight into a fascinating business model.
I’m proud to have written a book about my adventures which includes tips on making it as a stock travel photographer – Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography
Alexandre Rotenberg's Brutally Honest Guide to Stock Photography & Footage 
That’s great thanks. I went into a local gallery with printed photographs on display and they said I could take any photos I liked. I didn’t because wasn’t sure about copyright so just photoed the gardens. It was great as they had an old outhouse where I used to go for pottery classes near 40 years ago.
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I don’t have too many of those. Not easy to get permission in the us museums I’df the west.
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Never asked for permission, stealth mode
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That’s not how it goes. You come to the museum and at the door a sign says no photos.
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Yes, I’m well aware that I’m breaking their rules. I look at it as risk/reward. Not for everyone to do. Putting it out there that there is $ to be made in this niche but comes with some risk, however remote
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That’s why I keep a day job, don’t need to go about breaking rules for 200 bucks.
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There is info about the author’s day job in this blog. I think you are making premature assumptions.
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I am not making any assumptions. I work, I said, I work a day job, so I don’t have do break regulations to earn a couple hundred bucks. What other people do is their business.
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Of course, you do make them.
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I’m a brutally honest guy, why would I lie about breaking rules! :))) so far I’ve not got myself into any trouble 😈
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Many museums have a proviso when you get your ticket to not use any images for professional purposes, much like zoos.
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Yup, that’s right
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Thanks, as always, for the great tips! On the topic of Alamy, I’ve been meaning to ask you…how often do you take photographs based on their “What to Shoot” list?
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I’ve glanced over a few times but never actually went out of my way to shoot what is on the list.
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I actually had the Iolani Palace in Honolulu email Alamy and demand that some of the pics I took on the grounds be removed. Not really a big deal frankly. I agree with Alex on this one. No point getting worked up.
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Hi Alex, I really like your site and appreciate the sales reports. On this subject I took similar images to yours taken in the National Portrait Gallery in London. I took the pictures with the permission of an attendant and then uploaded some to Alamy, for editorial use. Shortly after Alamy contacted me to say they were taking the images down as the NPG had complained about them being on their site for sale. I’m just putting this out there to let you know these places seem to be either checking for themselves or were told my images were up for sale.
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Thanks for your comment, Steve. Seems like some museums are cracking down but still hasn’t happened to me that they’ve asked me to remove images.
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