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.

Wednesday 11 May 2011

Portfolios hit 1000 at Shutterstock and Dreamstime:



Quantity isn't everything I know but I'm pleased to say that my portfolios at Shutterstock and Dreamstime both reached 1000 in the last week. Dreamstime slightly overshot when a batch of six images took me to 1003 there. I was at 999 at Shutterstock so just submitted one image of John Major, former British prime Minister, to neatly take me to a precise 1000.



It was really just chance they they both reached this point at the same time as many images have only been accepted at one or other of the agencies. Now I have to get working on the next 1000! Regards, David.

Wednesday 4 May 2011

April Updates:

April saw a Royal Wedding and continuing Summer like weather here in the UK. Both driving sales of my Westminster Abbey images and the Tentertainment music festival throughout the month.
At Shutterstock it was another BME with 84 downloads ($30.78) of which six were welcome On Demand sales paying $1.88 each. I passed the payout level again in April and continue to progress towards $500 total earings when my commission rate will go up.

Dreamstime also had a good month with 16 downloads ($19.87). This figure was buoyed up by several Level 2 and 3 sales paying a good amount of commission.

123RF produced a BME there with 25 downloads ($10.91) many of which were subscription sales of my archive pop music images. I am experimenting with making a handful of images available for their free (web resolution) download section. The beauty with 123 is that you can donate them for as little as just one day and it is not a permanent arrangement. I took a selection from across my portfolio(e.g. politics, pop music, travel, etc) and am viewing this as an advertisement for all my images. By donating for a day at a time you also ensure that the images rise to the front page as they reach expiry. In a new development, parent company Inmagine.com are now also including Editorial as well as Commercial images from 123 on their site.

Istockphoto, as previously posted, also had a BME with 8 dowloads ($7.26) and three Partner Program sales ($0.84). Editorial images continue to attract interest (and sales) there.

Bigstock looked like being a slow month until right at the last it produced 7 downloads ($4.50). All Editorial this time (mainly of the annual Jack In The Green festival in Hastings).

Yaymicro had no site sales but finally posted the Third Party sales for the last quarter of 2010. At 6.71 euros it was a bit dissapointing compared to previous ones but, netherless, enough to bring me my second payout from Yay.

Uploading in April saw a return to my Editorial archives with a number of negatives being scanned and submitted. These got pretty much 100% acceptance at most sites but I got unlucky at Bigstock when I got the inspector that doesn't like grainy B/W photos. Three batches rejected 100% despite all having been accepted within a few hours at parent company Shutterstock. So it goes... Regards, David.