October Sales Updates:

 A steady month in October with no great surprises -good or bad.

WW2 ration book -sold on Dreamstime

A well deserved first place for Alamy with 3 downloads. a high $$ magazine sale of my archive shot of Jimmy Knapp (then General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen) and a couple of small travel image sales to web site The Culture Trip. There are sometimes grumblings on the Alamy forum about low value sales to this travel site but you only have to look at it to see the vast number of Alamy images they download. Hardly a mystery why they have a good (for them) bulk deal in place. I just take the view that the higher value sales elsewhere more than make up for the odd low ones. No different really to how it has always been in stock. Back in the seventies/eighties you could easily be seeing £40 sales from a National Daily newspaper whilst some of the Regional ones thought they were being generous paying £5. It all adds up.

Second place went to Shutterstock with a good sprinkling of On Demand sales pulling up the total.

Istock took third place with 31 downloads. As always here travel and music festival images were well to the fore - a sure sign that some degree of normality is starting to return.

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 2 product sales (both throw pillows featuring the Greek island of

Small boat on Halki island, Greece

Symi). I'm hoping there will be a late Christmas gift rush here as in previous years.

Adobe took fifth place with 5 downloads including two editorial ones - a Shell petrol station and my image of a Government letter giving information on Covid.

In sixth place were Dreamstime with 6 downloads. I was pleased to see that one of them was from my recent set of WW2 ration books/identity cards. These are starting to gain some traction with several downloads of late.

Finally we had Bigstock with just 2 downloads. Still, as I always say, my images just go there automatically after being accepted at Shutterstock so there is zero effort involved. Whether or not they keep that scheme going forever remains to be seen. I doubt that I would bother with Bigstock if I had to upload directly.

Bar sign at Mikro Chorio on Tilos island, Greece

Recent uploading had me firing up my Epsom film scanner again to work on some London buildings from 1991. These archive images have done well on Alamy. They also do well on Shutterstock but in this case they all just got rejected for being grainy. Really? Archive film images with grain? Who would have thought that? Their loss.

In the absence of new travel I also revisited my back catalogue for some new images from my trips to the Greek islands of Halki and Tilos. These included a little fishing boat which always seems to be moored in the same place on Halki and a sign pointing to the late night music bar in the mainly abandoned village of Mikro Chorio on Tilos.

November hasn't got off to a stellar start but we'll see how the rest of the month pans out. Regards, David.

December Sales Updates:

Ferry boat Prevelis at Halki island, Greece

An uninspiring month in December as you might expect in a year of pandemic and lockdowns combined with the usual lengthy Christmas and New Year holidays. However, it is what it is and my own plan is just to carry on until we get to better times - hopefully later in 2021.

In top place were Alamy with 2 downloads both from my archives. John Major, former Prime Minister and the late Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop retail chain. Both decent $$ sales.

Redbubble were just behind in second place with 7 product sales. The usual mix of products and images here from prints through to T shirts.

Third place was the best Shutterstock could manage with a low number of downloads overall, no Single

Quality but short lived Sunday Correspondent

sales at all and a limited number of On Demand sales. On a more positive note my short lived Level 4 status brought me a sub sale paying $1.16 - the highest I have seen yet. Obviously we all crash back to level 1 from the start of January. Happy New Year SS!

Fourth place went to Istock with 19 downloads and a poor RPD. What I am really noticing here (as everywhere) is the lack of sales of my music and food festival images which previously sold on a daily basis. The cancellation of almost all events in 2020 meant little demand to illustrate forthcoming outdoor events. This may not improve much in 2021 as Summer events (on this side of the World) are needing to be planned and booked right now and it is a brave person who lays out money without any certainty.

Historic old White Lion, Tenterden

Fifth place went to Dreamstime with 6 downloads. On the plus side, reviews at DT are lightning fast -often just a few minutes after submission.

Finally in sixth place was a welcome back to Bigstock with 5 downloads. No idea why sales just stopped there for months and then suddenly restarted again. 

Nothing from Adobe at all in December which was disappointing after my first three illustrative editorial sales in November. I had hoped to see that continue.

Uploading recently saw me going back to my 2016 Halki island trip for a set of ferry boat Prevelis as well as a more recent images of my local Oasis fashion store (now closed down for good) and the historic old White Lion Hotel. My main emphasis was, as before, getting my back catalogue up to Pond 5 and filling in gaps in my Picfair and print on demand sites at the same time. These included images of the short lived Sunday Correspondent which was an excellent quality UK Sunday newspaper. Launched in 1989 it closed down in 1990. I still have the first issue.

January has started off slowly for myself and others on the forums are reporting the same but, as the month goes on I'm detecting a small glimmer of an upturn. More next month. Regards, David.  

February Sales Updates:

Sold at Alamy: 1978 animal rights demonstration

A steady (and short) month in February with a mix of highs and lows.

Still up in the usual first place were Shutterstock. No Single sales this month but a worthwhile increase in On Demand sales pushing the income up.

In a surprise second place were FineArtAmerica with first a high value print sale of Margaret Thatcher and then four separate postcard sales of the Greek island of Paxos. I have had Paxos images bought as postcards before and I am guessing these are to the same buyer.

Alamy took third place with a single good price $$ of a 1978 anti seal hunting demonstration in Trafalgar Square, London. This archive image gets used on quite a regular basis across the various sites that have it. Not bad for a fourty two year old image.

In fourth place were a disappointing Istock with just 16 downloads -less than half of what I normally

T shirt sale at Redbubble: Monarch jet landing at Skiathos

get. A low RPD didn't help matters here either. Can only hope for an improvement in March.

Also disappointing in fifth place were Redbubble with just a single product sale. In this case a T shirt of a Monarch jet coming in to land on the Greek island of Skiathos. Taken in 2012 it is a reminder that Monarch, sadly, no longer exist.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 6 downloads. Nothing to get excited about but an improvement on recent results.

Seventh place was taken by Adobe with 2 downloads. I had some fun recently by going into my portfolio here and forming two galleries (Majorca and Halki islands). These get featured on your profile at Adobe as well as being published on an Adobe Portfolio page. Whether it helps sales in any way at all I couldn't say but the customisable Portfolio pages look good at least!

Halki island chapel, Greece

Finally, down in eighth place we had Dreamstime with just 2 downloads. 35c subscription sales at that :( With around 2.6k images on Dreamstime that really is a sorrowful result. I've said many times before that I really like DT and can only hope for a turnaround there.

Personal circumstances meant not much time for uploading recently but I did revisit my 2017 trip to the Greek island of Halki including an image of a small chapel on the seafront at Emborio. I've uploaded images of this chapel before but like this more distant view framing the chapel with trees.


Too early to judge how March will go but past experience suggests things should take an upturn from here. More next month. Regards, David.

February Sales Updates:

From photo to watercolour art -Cala Carbo in Majorca

A strong month in February with a surprise at the top and a new direction in my images as I started uploading some "illustrations".

Straight to first place (again)were FineArtAmerica with three sales. A large framed canvas print and two separate T shirt sales. It's starting to look that after my long drought there sales are starting to come in again.

Relegated to second place were Shutterstock with a strong performance in subscription sales with one or more buyers buying a large batch of Greek island images. On Demand and Single sales played a smaller part this month.

Redbubble were in third place with four product sales ranging from stickers to a photographic print.

Fourth place saw Istock with just 28 downloads. Far from their best here.

Fifth place went to a slightly perked up Dreamstime with 7 downloads. Far from the glory days but better than some recent months. A credit sale of footballer George Best helped push up the income here.

In sixth place Alamy disappointed with just one sale (another of my archive politician images). A low

Crusader Knights castle on Halki island, Greece

two figure sale which became my first one at the new reduced 40% commission rate bringing my cut to single figures. That said, that was still higher than most microstock sales produce.

Bigstock took seventh place with 13 downloads. These were mainly all sub sales so dropped them down the income rankings.

Bringing up the rear in eighth place were Adobe Stock (formerly listed here as Fotolia) with 2 downloads. With the Fotolia site now closed to new uploads I have had to transition to Adobe. A few issues initially as I got used to it but I think I now have the grasp of it. The main issue was their auto keyword suggestion which I thought I had eliminated but managed to end up with Greek island images tagged as Jordan and Turkey! Thankfully you can edit images after acceptance so I was able to remove those. I now remember to click Remove Keywords to take out the auto suggestions.

Beach launched fishing boats at Dungeness, Kent

As for those illustrations, a post in Steve Heap's excellent blog Backyard Silver put me on to the Jixipix Watercolour Studio software. This worked out at about £28 (UK price) and is an application that allows you to import a photo and render it in the style of a watercolour painting. There are a number of templates to choose from and various sliders for fine tuning the results. I was mainly thinking of art sites as the market for these but have had some success (as in getting accepted) uploading them to micro sites under the illustrations category. Uploading as photographs just got rejections for overfiltered etc. Whether or not any of these will sell I have no idea but for a fairly low investment I thought it worth trying! I will report back on that in the future. One thing to say about the software is it either works with an image or it doesn't. Some attempts just looked awful and were abandoned. The skill (such as there is) seems to be choosing the right images to convert.

Other recent uploads included the fishing boats on Dungeness beach in Kent. Like my home town of Hastings there is no harbour at Dungeness and the boats are launched from the beach. Another set were images of the medieval Crusader Knights castle on the Greek island of Halki. I've photographed this a number of times over the years but can never resist capturing this slice of history.
Now to see what March will bring. Kind regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Stone tower at Emborio on Halki island

A pleasing month in November including the surprise return of a long absent market.

By far, Shutterstock held onto first place with a strong showing of On Demand and Single sales (both combined making up some 60% of my monthly total).

In second place were an improved Istock with 51 downloads and an RPD (rate per download) substantially up on October.

Third place was taken by Alamy with 2 downloads (both from my B/W political archives). Two developments at Alamy pleased and dismayed in various ways. On the plus side they introduced new Portfolio pages coupled with the ability to create individual Galleries (sets). These can both be easily shared on social media to help direct buyers to your images. I've already created a good number of galleries along obvious lines such as Aviation, Barcelona, Majorca etc. You can view my portfolio here My Alamy Portfolio .
The second news was the far less welcome cutting of commission from next February. This drops from an equitable 50/50 split on direct sales to 60/40 ( a drop of 20% in income). They claim this is needed to help fund and develop their business with the usual "you'll benefit from more sales" placebo thrown in. Regular readers will know that I put a lot of time and faith in recent months building up my Alamy portfolio so this comes as a blow. As expected the negative comments on the Alamy forum now run to many pages with a hope that they might re-consider this move and find other ways of funding their business rather than making contributors pay for it. We'll see what happens next.

Redbubble came in fourth place with 3 product sales (I know what someone's getting for

Cap de Barcelona, Port Vell

Christmas!

Fifth place saw the surprise return from the dead of FineArtAmerica with 2 product sales (a mug and a towel). My first sales there since December 2015 so not quite three years. Whether this was a one off event or I shall start seeing more sales will be interesting.

Bigstock were in sixth place with 7 downloads.

Sadly, after a couple of strong months Dreamstime fell to seventh place with 7 downloads (mainly sub sales). Obviously the buyer who had been hitting my port in September and October was absent this month.

Dead rat on Paxos island

In eighth place were Fotolia with just a single download.

Recent uploads included a mixed bunch ranging from a tower of stones on the Greek island of Halki through to the Roy Lichtenstein sculpture Head of Barcelona on the harbour front of Port Vell. For something a bit different I also uploaded images of a dead rat found on the Greek island of Paxos. A good image for pest control/vermin features. I can also envisage this ending up on a T shirt at some point :) Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

Protestor climbing a comms mast in Barcelona

A steady month in May with  no major surprises or dramas.

The usual top of the tree placing went to Shutterstock though a decreased number of On Demand downloads pulled the dollars down here.

Making a welcome return into second place were Alamy with 2 downloads. One fairly modest one and one substantial one. These were both from my B/W archive collection from the 80s/90s. I now have approaching 2.5k images there and still have some older digital images to upload.

Istock took third place with 40 downloads. They would have been second but for the Alamy sales and are still, in general, my second best site for sales and income.

Redbubble came in fourth place with 3 product sales (bag, T shirt, poster). One of the things I really like about Redbubble is they pay out any cleared earnings on a monthly basis - no waiting to hit a fixed payout level like with most microstock sites. Equally, it's one of the things I don't like about Redbubble because I never get to a substantial amount (I'm sure some do!). It might be nice to have the option of letting it build up a bit.

Fifth place went to Dreamstime with 7 downloads. There are certainly more signs of life at DT these

Lidl supermarket, retail success in the UK

days and the bad old days of rejecting similar images are long gone.

Bigstock came in sixth place with 9 downloads. The ever popular Tenterden food and Drink festival images still continuing to sell here. May saw the second year of this event so I have some fresh images ready and waiting.

Seventh place saw the (leaving when I get payout) 123rf with a paltry 4 downloads. Just four dollars left to payout now. Except for April when the Stephen Hawking effect kicked in, 123 have delivered exactly 4 downloads every month this year!

Finally in eight place we have (still waiting for editorial) Fotolia with a single download. In common with most other sites FT seem to be rejecting little these days so my portfolio is gradually growing there - but still only about 200 images.

Medieval Crusader castle on Halki island, Greece

As well as covering the food and drink festival in May I also took a series of my local Lidl supermarket. Retailing (and in particular food retailing) are big ongoing media stories in the UK so I plan to start adding more storefront type images to my portfolio. I also shot my local Esso petrol station (it's next door to Lidl so silly to miss it). One of the interesting (for me) by products of stock photography is the amount of (sometimes useless) knowledge you pick up when researching for caption information. Esso, it turns out, is an acronym for Eastern States Standard Oil. Who knew? Not me that's for sure.

Other uploading in May included more shots of my April trip to Barcelona including the dramatic moment when a protestor climbed a communications tower to unfurl a banner. He was cheered and clapped by the thousands in the Placa Espanya below. Another series uploaded was of the medieval Crusader Knights castle on the Greek island of Halki. Regards, David.

June Sales Updates:

The Markellos Tower on Aegina island, Greece

Another steady month in June with a number of my smaller agencies making it into my sales report as well as a continuing good run at Istock.
As ever, well out in front were Shutterstock with another strong month and income circa double of my second place site.

Second place went to Istock with another impressive month of 45 downloads -down from May but much higher than I had been seeing in previous years (and that's with limited uploading in 2017). As previously there were some very low paying subscription sales but others paying much higher than the old $0.28 fixed rate. I said I would see how the new percentage rates worked out in practise and I think it is fair to say that while I am seeing results like these I will be sticking with them.

Picfair took third place with another single sale. Looks like things are picking up here.

Fourth place was for Redbubble with a further three product sales (T shirt, Baby clothes, Sticker).

Bigstock saw fifth place with 13 downloads.

In sixth place were Dreamstime with 9 downloads with all being subscription sales.

Tourist rides in Aegina Town, Greece

123rf slipped to seventh place with 13 downloads (no big sales like last month sadly).

Alamy were in eighth place with a further single sale. Good to see no further refunds and my first sales are starting to show as cleared funds.

Ninth place went to Fotolia with 3 downloads.

Canstock had a single download to put them in tenth place.

Finally we have Mostphotos with two small subscription downloads.

Rhodes Cup yacht race, Tilos island, Greece

June saw little uploading due to spending (yet again) two weeks on the little Greek island of Halki. Whilst there I also took a day trip to Tilos island where I concentrated on photographing the abandoned village of Gera. Last years Tilos images have done well so I hope to continue that success with these. June also saw a General Election in Britain and I received a number of sales of Amber Rudd (Home Secretary) and Damien Green (newly promoted to Deputy Prime Minister). Recent uploads have concentrated on my 2016 images of the Rhodes Cup yacht race on Tilos (rejected by Istock as they deemed them "professional sport") and the famous landmark of the Markellos Tower from my April visit to Aegina. This interesting old building was once the seat of the Greek government during their War of Independence (from Turkey) when Aegina itself was the temporary Capital of Greece.

July looks like it will prove, as expected, the start of the Summer Slowdown with fairly low sales on most sites so far. Updates will follow in due course. Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Nissos Halki ferry arriving at Rhodes island

Another unspectacular month in November with one notable highlight and one negative low point.

As always, leading the pack was Shutterstock but a month of just four On demand sales and no Single sales saw me barely making payout. As I posted last month I haven't uploaded much in recent weeks but I am now attempting to make up for that so, hopefully, 2017 will see some increases.

Dreamstime delighted by coming in at second place with 7 downloads. What boosted things here was the return of high paying credit sales ($9.47 and $6.98 commissions). This is much more like the DT of old and very welcome.

Istock took third place with 5 credit sales and 27 sub and partner sales. Reporting here is slightly

Collecting pine resin on Alonissos island. Bring on the Retsina

complicated here because of the current transition to a new reporting system. November saw both PP sales for October credited and (semi) real time sales for November. We are now moving to the new royalty structure which potentially has sub sales paying out a (worse case) $0.02 per download. Obviously, that's an appalling prospect which has seen a number of contributors closing their accounts. That scenario will only apply where a buyer downloads their entire allowance of images. Shutterstock will tell you that the subscriptions model works because most buyers do not do that and only download what they need. It may well be that income from sub sales actually increases after the change but who knows? The option to close my account is always there so I will wait and assess the situation next year.

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 3 product sales. This has really proved a site worth joining for me. The key is in setting a profit margin high enough to make a worthwhile amount but not so high as to deter buyers.

Female music fans at the Tentertainment music festival

Bigstock came in fifth place with 8 downloads. Never a site that produces any great excitement but ticks away in the background. Obviously, being in the (now closed) Bridge to Bigstock programme helps here. My Shutterstock images just get mirrored at BS automatically so there is no effort on my part.

Fotolia made sixth place with just 2 downloads. I still have hopes that at some point they will start accepting editorial images especially now they have a deal for editorial with Reuters (?). Currently this is not an option for ordinary contributors.

And the low point was 123rf in seventh place with just 3 downloads. Echoes of July when I had just two sales there. Not at all sure what is going on at 123 with such variations (by contrast I have already had 17 downloads so far in December!).

Uploading in November saw further images from my 2016 trip to the Greek island of Halki and then backtracking to 2012 for some images of pine resin collecting on Alonissos island and female fans at the Tentertainment music festival. As it is nearly Christmas day I'll end by wishing all readers a great Christmas and brilliant 2017! Regards, David.

October Sales Updates:

Prevelis ferry docking at Emborio, Halki island

My apologies for a late posting this month for October updates.

Of course, in first place were Shutterstock but with dissapointing sales overall. Only a handful of On Demand sales and no Single downloads dragged the results down further.

Second place went to Istock with 2 credit downloads and 24 sub/Partner sales.

Dreamstime came just behind in third place with a 13 downloads. Certainly seeing more signs of life here recently.

Looking to Nissos island from Halki, Greece

Fourth place went to Redbubble with two product sales - a laptop case and a sticker.

Bigstock made fifth place with 13 downloads.

Sixth place for 123rf with 15 downloads. These were nearly all sub sales -made worse by my languishing in the low paying level 1. November results have been dire so my move back up to level 2 could be a while coming.

Fotolia brought up the rear in seventh place with just a single download.

Church of the Holy Trinity, Halki island

Not a spectacular month on any level and probaly a combination of the continuing influx of masses of images to all sites and fairly limited uploading on my part. Personal circumstances in recent months have limited my time available for uploading.


What I did upload concentrated on my last two trips (2015/2016) to the Greek island of Halki. Hopefully my November updates will follow soon though I can say that, if anything, November has been a tough month. Regards, David.

September Sales Updates:

The abandoned village of Mikro Chorio on Tilos island

A routine month in September without any signs of a big uplift as the Summer period comes to an end.

Starting with Shutterstock, things were slow here with a number of zero sales days through the month including a weekday. I cannot remember the last time that happened and is far from encouraging. A good crop of On Demand sales made up over 50% of sales, along with one modest Single sale.

In second place were Redbubble with four product sales. T shirts, poster and phone case were the products this month. Redbubble has certainly proved to be a site worth uploading to.

Istock took third place with 3 credit sales and a further 32 sub/pp downloads. Images continue to be readily

Pondamos beach on Halki island

accepted here though with a slow review time for non editorials.

Dreamstime managed fourth place with a welcome 10 downloads. Three of these related to media tycoon Robert Maxwell whose death 25 years ago was a subject of a Dreamtime blog I wrote. It's not unreasonable to think that the blog post helped get those sales though it can't be proved, of course.

123rf came in at fifth place with 14 downloads -pretty much all sub sales. Review problems seem to have returned here with several images pending for weeks now.

Bigstock dissappointed with just 2 downloads putting them in sixth place. This was way less than my usual sales with them so I am not sure what happened there

The restored chapel in the Crusader Knights castle on Halki

Bringing up the bottom with just one download each were Canstock, Mostphotos and Fotolia (in that order).

Uploading in September saw me continuing with images from my July trip to the Greek island of Halki. Whilst there I took a daytrip to the nearby island of Tilos where I got some photos of the abandoned village of Mikro Chorio. I was pleased to get two sales of this image within days of uploading to Shutterstock. My images of Amber Rudd also continued to sell following her promotion to Home Secretary and  would expect that to be ongoing given her high profile. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

BBMF takes off at Bigstock

August saw a steady month with one surprise re-appearance from a long dry source.
Obviously Shutterstock was way out in front by a huge margin with a good crop of On Demand sales and one worthwhile Single Download.

Second place this month went to Istock with 4 credit sales and 20 PP/sub downloads. August also saw the deadline pass where you can no longer delete individual images without good reason. This was billed as a move to improve customer experience with images they had bookmarked not having dissappeared. Cynics suggest that this was a precursor to a major change that would lead to contributors deleting images in protest. I expect we'll see soon enough -especially as Istock have form for announcing major changes in September.

Third place went to Dreamstime with 4 downloads. It was a tense month with no sales at all until the 18th

Nikos Express arrives on Halki island

when I had one 35c sub followed by another long gap right to the last few days of the month. Like July, a higher paying credit sale turned things around -a bit.

In fourth place 123RF recovered from my WME in July to get 12 downloads. It's still a puzzle why I only got 2 downloads the previous month.

Fifth place went to Bigstock with 11 downloads. My various images of the BBMF (Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) did well with 7 downloads over several days - presumably to the same buyer.

Sixth place was taken by Fotolia with 2 downloads -both paying reasonable amounts.

Redbubble dropped to seventh place with just one sale of a sticker. I had hoped my July run of sales would continue but sadly not.

Livadia harbour on Tilos island

The surprise came in eighth place with Yaymicro producing their first sale of the year. In fact the first sale on the Yay site itself (rather than Partners) since 2014. Strangely, the sale was dated from May but has only just appeared. I recently took the sad decision to drop Yay for my new uploads because, frankly, there was little point in continuing. It will take more than one sale to change my mind though especially as editorial uploads are not even being placed for sale on their site - reviewed and accepted yes but not for sale.

Finally in ninth place were Mostphotos with one very small sub sale. I'd probaly drop them too but they do provide another form of back up with the ability to download your own images there.

Limited uploading in August saw me working on images from my July trip to the Greek island of Halki with uploads of the Nikos Express ferry arriving at Emborio harbour and also some of Livadia harbour from my day trip to Tilos island. Hopefully, September will see the end of the slow Summer months though, as yet, I haven't seen any signs of that. We'll see. Regards, David.

June Sales Updates:

Soon to go: British Home Stores in Hastings

As promised a prompter posting for my sales updates for June.

In first place, no prizes for guessing that Shutterstock came top with around double the earnings of my second place site. A good crop of On Demand sales in June but only one small Single sale.

A strong second place for Istock with 9 credit sales and a further 27 PP and sub downloads. Interesting to note that of the latter only one was from the PP. Is Thinkstock being run down in favour of promoting sub sales at Istock? Trying to predict what Getty will do next is a near impossible task - so I'll just await developments.

Dragon Lily seed heads on Halki island

Third place went to Redbubble with 6 sales. A good mix of products including mugs,T shirts, stickers. In a new move they have just announced the scrapping of their minimum payout level. Commission on any sales will just be paid out by the 15th of the following month regardless of amount. Good news for those that do not sell much and have been sitting on a balance in their account.

Fourth place went to an improved Dreamstime with 16 downloads. Good to see a bit more action here but a
long way from where they were for me.

Fifth place saw Bigstock also with 16 downloads. My music festival images were the best seller here.

123rf managed sixth place with 18 downloads. Most of these were sub sales which pulled the income down. It's been a while since I saw some large credit sales at 123.

Fotolia were in seventh place with 3 downloads.

At eighth place were MostPhotos which for the second month running saw 2 subscription downloads.

Agioi Anargyroi church on Agistri island

No sales over at Picfair (still stuck on just 2 sales ever). My experiment with their bulk price adjuster came to an end when I reverted all my images back to £10 per license. My test to see if a £5 level would generate more sales suggested to me that pricing isn't the issue. I really want Picfair to work and intend to keep uploading.

Recent uploads included some shots of the Hastings branch of British Home Stores (BHS). Founded in 1928, the Department Store chain of 163 UK shops is now closing down for good -with no viable buyer for the business found. Sad to see a long standing part of the High Street going but, if I'm honest, I cannot remember the last time I even went in the store let alone bought anything. Other uploads included shots of Dragon Lily seed heads taken on the Greek island of Halki last year. These proved hard to ID but I put out requests for help on several forums resulting in several suggestions but Dragon Lily came in as the most credible -based on a lot of research. Google reverse image search didn't help at all -just returning lots of images of green olives! Finally, I continued with my uploads from my May trip to Athens including the church of Agioi Anargyroi on the little island of Agistri. Regards, David.

April Sales Updates:

RAF parachute team The Falcons

A fairly average month for April with the usual dominance of one agency, ticking over from some of the rest and no action at all from a number of sites.

As ever, Shutterstock was way, way out in front of the rest. A strong comeback for On Demand sales made up around half of the total and just a couple of small Single and Other Downloads. No Enhanced Downloads at all in April.

Istock performed well to make second place with 5 credit sales and a very strong 45 sub/partner sales (in fact, a record month for those).

Dreamstime was some way behind in third place with 9 downloads. With a portfolio there approaching 2000 images I would really expect to see a much better performance from Dreamstime - a view that seems to be echoed in the forum there. Their levels system (where images with more downloads move up in price) seems to be working against them -at least in my case - as I rarely see those big sales anymore. Just lots of 35cent sub sales.

Peaceful harbour scene on Halki island

Close behind in fourth place were Bigstock with 10 downloads. As usual mainly sub sales. At least I don't have to do any work for them as all my accepted images on Shutterstock automatically get added there as part of the old Bridge to Bigstock program - I consider myself lucky to have got on that.

Fifth place went to 123rf with 10 downloads. The problems with not getting uploads reviewed seem to have been resolved for now with both commercial and editorial images being looked at within a day or two. Editorial continues to do well here and that might explain where my Dreamstime sales have gone.

One for the art sites, an inverted colour forest

Finally in sixth place were Fotolia with just a single subscription sale. Though I only have around 150 images in my port there I would expect a top ranking agency to be making more regular sales than this. I'm waiting and hoping for an announcement that they will start taking editorial images - seems like a logical move as they are the only large site not to accept editorials.

Uploading in April saw me continuing with my images from the Greek island of Halki including one of small boats moored in the harbour. I also revisited my airshow files for some images of the RAF parachute team The Falcons in action. For something a bit different I experimented with some inverted colour images. These weren't very well received by the main agencies but I'm hoping they might get some interest on the art sites like Redbubble. We'll see. May has been a busy month so far for shooting with more images of our newly opened pier, the Jack In The Green festival and then a last minute trip to Athens for good measure! More in due course. Regards, David.

March Sales Updates:

Tony Blair -notebook sale on Redbubble

March proved a mixed month with strong sales from one agency (guess) and a slow performance elsewhere.

As always, in first place were Shutterstock with above average subscription sales. An Enhanced Download (this time down to just $16 compared to the old $28 rate) and a couple of Single Downloads added to the mix. The month saw a big fall in On Demand Downloads which often make up to 50% or more of my monthly totals. Hopefully, April will see a come back for these. Uploading continued to be a pleasure here with quick review times and high acceptance rates (what happened to all those poor lighting/wrong colour balance/out of focus rejections?) Obviously, I must suddenly have become a brilliant photographer in the last few weeks :)

Stunning volcano crater on Nisyros island, Greece

Second place went to Istock with (sadly) just 2 credit sales but 35 sub/pp downloads.

Dreamstime was in third place with 6 downloads. Back to business as usual then with no repeat of my
record month in February.

123rf took fourth place with 14 downloads. There are still some issues with slow reviews but I have, at least, had some looked at without having to send them a begging email -so some improvement there.

Fifth place went to Bigstock with 10 downloads.

Redbubble were in sixth place with 3 products sales. Two stickers of a Greek goat and a notebook with my 1991 image of Tony Blair (former Prime Minister) on the cover.

Tarpon Springs Boulevard, Halki island

Bringing up the rear in seventh place were Fotolia with just one small sale. That Adobe effect really is slow in kicking in for me though others have reported a big jump in sales this year.

Uploading of new images was concentrated on my trip to the Greek island of Halki last year. Among my favourites were an image of the surprisingly named Tarpon Springs Boulevard. So named because it was funded by the Greek community of Tarpon Springs in Florida -which has close ties with the island (when the sponge fishing industry died out on Halki many citizens moved to Florida). I also uploaded the first image of one of my favourite places - the still active volcano on the island of Nisyros. It truly is a spectacular place and not to be missed if you are ever in the Dodecanese region of Greece. Regards, David.

January sales updates:

Avro Vulcan XH588 -sadly flying no more

An interesting month in January with the holiday season still in full swing for the first part of it. The diversity between my best sites and the bottom ones seemed more pronounced than ever.

Shutterstock made first place as ever with earnings greatly exceeding my other agencies. A fair number of On Demand sales and a worthwhile Single download for nearly $20 kept my sales up here. The holiday effect led to no less than Seven zero sales days in January. What was also heartening here was a noticable increase in acceptance rate for my new uploads. At one point I was wondering if I was going to get any rejections at all -until I did :) A pleasant change from being told all my images are out of focus, wrong colour balance, poor lighting et al. It remains to be seen if this will last.

Second place was taken by Redbubble with two products sales. A framed print of cruise liner Norwegian Jade and a T Shirt featuring one of my Poll Tax Riots images. It looks like my images are starting to get some traction here (I already have more sales in February).

Hastings Pier - set to re-open in April 2016

Third place was taken by Istock with five credit sales and a further 19 sub/PP downloads. Editorial images continue to figure highly here.

Fotolia took fourth place with four downloads. Several of these paid larger than usual (for me) royalties which helped push them up my rankings here.

Fifth place went to Bigstock with eleven downloads. Several of my archive celeb images (Alan Alda, Leslie Nielsen etc) sold there.

Sixth place was taken by 123RF with eleven downloads -mainly subscription sales. Reviews continue to be an issue for them with many images just sitting in pending week after week. I do hope I am not going to have to email them yet again asking them to review my uploads. To add to the fun, 123 also had over a week in which their uploader failed to work. You could go through the usual process but at the end the files just weren't there. Waiting for them to turn up didn't work -they never did. At least that did get fixed in the end although it disrupted my workflow by having to backtrack to the missing images and re-uploading.

Halki island - the stunning view from my apartment in 2015

In a sad Seventh (and bottom) place were Dreamstime with just 4 downloads making under $3 in commission. I do not think there is anything I can do about Dreamstime other than keep uploading and hoping things improve there.

New uploads saw a variety of images including a set of the re-construction work on the Victorian pier here in Hastings (now scheduled to re-open in April). As work nears completion, this seemed a good time to get them out there. Other new images included my last photographs of Avro Vulcan bomber XH588 appearing at the Dunsfold airshow in 2014. Sadly, XH588 had her last flight in October 2015 and there are now no more flying Vulcans. I just feel priviliged to have seen this iconic aircraft in flight several times. Finally, I continued to upload images from my 2015 trip to the little Greek island of Halki. This utterly charming small island is right up there in my favourites list and I have now booked again for 2016. Hopefully, I'll still find something new to photograph when I make, what will be, my fourth visit there! Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Navy patrol ship Antipliarchos Mykonios departs Halki island

A steady month in November with neither great excitements or big disappointments. Starting in first place we, of course, find Shutterstock (by the usual huge margin). A good flow of On Demand sales and a couple of modest Single downloads contributing to the totals here. Shutterstock recently caused some comment when they changed their entry exam requirements -you now only have to get one image approved out of your initial ten sample images to be accepted (it was previously seven of of the ten). I do not see this move as especially good or bad -individual images uploaded will still get reviewed and either accepted/rejected (rightly or wrongly). The prediction by some that this will lead to a poorer quality collection of images doesn't work for me as Shutterstock have stated that they are not lowering their review standards. What probaly will not change either is the inconsistency in reviewing -where perfectly good stock images (accepted elsewhere) get rejected for spurious focus/lighting/white balance issues. For me, that is the most depressing thing about uploading to SS. It's the top selling agency and to have a good image rejected is just money lost -for me and them.

Nissos Halki ferry in Emborio harbour, Halki island

Climbing to second place were 123rf with a strong month of 15 (mainly editorial) downloads. Also, on a positive note, my backlog of pending images finally got reviewed and accepted. I have posted previously that some of these dated back to August. Once again, it took an email to support to get them reviewed. I really shouldn't have had to do that but there it is.

Istock came in at third place with 2 credit sales but a healthy 28 sub/PP downloads.

Stone pile on Ftenagia beach, Halki

In fourth place were Dreamstime with 13 (mainly sub) downloads. As one of the major agencies, they really should be performing better than this. What I am not seeing much of recently are the big credit sales on higher level images which used to push up the sales at DT.

Bigstock took fifth place with 10 downloads -again pretty much all subs.

Finally in sixth place were Fotolia with 2 downloads.

Recent uploading concentrated on my June trip to the Greek island of Halki. The Nissos Halki is one of several ferries making the crossing between the island and Rhodes. This image was taken on the morning of my departure. The stone piles I found on Ftenagia beach were a great photo opportunity and provided a host of images. This one cried out for a B/W version which, luckily most agencies (even Shutterstock!) accepted.  The Hellenic Navy warship Antipliarchos Mykonios took me by surprise when I opened my shutters one morning to find it moored in Emborio harbour. They later gave tours round the ship for groups of locals. I'm told that last year a submarine turned up and did the same. You never know what you will find in the Greek islands :) Regards, David.

Shutterstock Galleries - The Joy Of Sets:

From Set: Margaret Thatcher and Beyond

For any contributors not familiar with Shutterstocks excellent Gallery (or Sets) feature or those that have seen them but are unsure how to set them up and make use of them this post will attempt to give you a basic overview and guide. Obviously, if you only have a handful of images accepted there or your portfolio is of totally diverse subjects these are something you will not need at this point.

Setting up your Sets:
Starting from the Contributor Home page of Shutterstock hover over the "Portfolio" tab (upper left of the page) to reveal the drop down menu. Click on "Catalog Manager". This will take you to thumbnails of all your images which you can sort by Most Popular/Newest First/Oldest First. Now click on one or more images which you wish to make a set from (for example, images of New York). Now click on "Add To Set" (top right of your screen). This will bring up a box with a drop down menu of your existing sets (once you have them) and a "Create New Set" button. Using this gives you the prompt to type in the name of your new set New York and then add your selected images.

From set: Halki and Nisyros islands

Congratulations! You now have your first Set up and running -well almost. Your set/s will now be listed on the left of the screen -click on the word "Sets" to reveal the list. After the name of your set you will see the number of images it contains in brackets. Now click on the name of your set to view it. The full catalogue of images on screen will be replaced by just images from your chosen set. Next click on the "Actions" link (top right of screen). This gives you three options: Show Stats (gives you total downloads and total income for each image in the set. Edit Set Name (you may wish to change or refine the name of your set). Publish/Unpublish This Set (this is the important one -your new set must be Published before it is visible to buyers so click on that. Once a set is published the button will change to Unpublish -should you later wish to have it hidden. Obviously, if you just wish to use the Sets for your own personal organisation of images, you can leave it Unpublished.

From Set: Aviation and Airshows

Choosing a cover image for your set:
By default one of your Set images will become the cover image. To change this first click on the existing cover image and you will receive a prompt to click on another image of your choice. Just do that and it will automatically become your cover image. You can change and update this whenever you want.

Adding new images to your sets:
Now you have some Sets established you'll want to add further images to them. There are several ways of doing this. You can, if you want, just go through each page of your portfolio (in the Catalog Manager) clicking on each image you wish to add to a Set then use the Add To Set link (top right) as before. You can add as many as you want in one go. Don't worry about accidentally adding the same image more than once to a set (it will not let you!).
If you have a big portfolio there is a much quicker way, however. In the Catalog Manager use the "Filter By Keyword" boxes (top left of the screen). Type in the relevant keyword for your set e.g. New York and hit Filter. Now only images with the keywords New York will be visible. Just click on all of them and then Add To Set. For new images recently accepted change the sort order in the Catalogue Manager to Newest First then just click and add as before. Should you wish to remove an image from a set just click on it and an X will appear in the top right. Just click that to remove. This will not delete your image from Shutterstock -only remove from that set!

From Set: Seventies Bands

Now I have sets, what do I do with them?
This is the fun part. The part where you get to encourage potential buyers to view your sets and, hopefully, give you a sale. Even if not purchasing right away they may well remember your images for future reference. To do this you need to select a set from your list in the Catalog Manager. In the top right of the screen (next to Actions) is another link for "Share". Clicking this gives you several options. Click the Twitter logo to automatically post a Tweet linking to your set. You can also "recommend" your set on Facebook (this one is a bit disappointing as it doesn't put it slap on your timeline for all to see but tucks it away over on the left of your Timeline along with the Friends/Likes etc lists. The third option is to copy and paste the displayed link to the set. Use this for posting on Google+, your own blog, anywhere you like really -without spamming, obviously.

Anything else useful about my sets?
Now that you have Sets you'll now notice that you can add five of them to your Contributor Home page under Track Your Sets. This will give you an, at a glance, view of the stats for each set (number of images, total downloads, total sales in $). Change these five at any time by clicking on Select Sets.

Finally, a couple of things in conclusion. Firstly do NOT overdo the sharing thing. A link to a great set of images that people may enjoy looking at soon becomes spam if you constantly bombard them with the same links. Be considerate. Secondly, what to put in each set? Every image you have of a particular subject? Or just a selection of your best images to serve as an appetiser to search your entire portfolio? I think everyone will have different views on that and that's the great thing -it's entirely up to you. Personally, I now include everything I have. Good luck with setting up a promoting your own Sets. Regards, David.