Back in the Seventies and Eighties I founded and ran several Fleet Street photo agencies specialising in stock images of celebrities from pop stars to politicians. These were syndicated to the National and International press and Television. These days I am active in the Microstock world and this blog charts my journey as well as, hopefully, providing inspiration and ideas to others. Image buyers should also find this blog useful with links to my portfolios and regular updates on new uploads. Unless otherwise stated all images are my copyright and may not be reproduced or copied. Comments are very welcome but will be reviewed before publication. Enjoy your visit. Regards, David.

Sunday 11 April 2010

March Updates:

March saw a good month on Shutterstock with a total of 71 downloads ($23.81). This took me over the payout threshold for the second time resulting in an $82 payment. I also had my BDE in March with 24 downloads (23 from my 70's pop music archives and 1 of the Hastings "Jack In The Green" festival).
Dreamstime slowed a bit with 10 downloads ($5.56). Yaymicro finally paid out the Third Party royalties from the last quarter 0f 2009 (Euro 10.68). This took me tantalisingly close to their E30 payout level. Just E1.60 to go. One sale could do it!
As posted earlier Picturenation produced 3 sales (£4.80). Since the announcement of the forthcoming General Election (May 6) PN have been using a number of my archive politician shots on their homepage, which I'm hoping might generate further sales.
Bigstock bring up the rear in sales with just 1 (50cents). Mostphotos/Istock/Veer all produced zero sales in March.
Meanwhile at 123RF I continued to upload Editorial images ahead of the launch of their Editorial section. I emailed them about this and they say they are looking at May for launch, though I think that will depend on them having enough images to make a worthwhile offer. My first attempt at getting some non-editorial online there resulted in all 20 being rejected (poor lighting/composition). They'd pretty much all been approved elsewhere.
Finally, still nothing back from Britishimages in response to my letter and the site still has my old contact details (and no way to change them). I'll just leave that one well alone for now. Regards, David.

Sunday 4 April 2010

Britishimages showing signs of life:

Well here is a surprise. British image library http://www.britishimages.co.uk/ seems to have been re-activated (in part anyway). I joined them at launch (2007?) and have 445 images online there. Not a single sale to date. When I tried to update my email and address details over a year ago I just kept getting "internal server error" messages. Soon after that it became impossible to access the site at all and I assumed that was it. However, the site seems to be back up. Still cannot change my details -which is important because their payment method is to post a cheque (remember them?) to the address on file. Emails to the site just get bounced back and a written letter asking them to change my info at their end received no response. I did try uploading a test photo and that worked fine. Plus points of the site? they do have a nice collection of British landscapes and architecture and the commission is high at £25 (hi res) & £10 (low res). Minus points: well no good to me if I can't get paid, no views or sales counts, and most importantly -they do not appear to contactable or responding to post. The site also still states that they are members of BAPLA (British Association of Picture Libraries & Agencies) even though BAPLA told me last year that they (BAPLA) had cancelled their membership. I'm holding off uploading any further images at this stage. Obviously, other photographers may have a different experience of them and I can only speak for myself. Anyone else tried this site or got any sales? Regards, David.