May Sales Updates:

Rua Augusta Arch, Lisbon

Late posting this month as I have been travelling. One old regular took top place and Alamy went from hero to zero.

First place then was Shutterstock. This placement was down to no less than 9 On Demand sales backed up by 6 modest Single sales. I'll have more of those On Demands please.

Second place went to Istock with 33 downloads. Usual suspects did well here as they do every month.

Redbubble took third place with 2 good T Shirt sales.

Fourth place went to Adobe with 7 downloads including an editorial of a Woolworth store. Two of the downloads were of an electric vehicle charging point sign. This is becoming a regular seller both at Adobe and elsewhere. Nice because it was literally a five minute walk from home to get the picture. I also did images of the charger unit itself and of the icon painted on the tarmac to indicate the space.

Anne Bancroft - new archive scan

Fifth place was taken by FineArtAmerica with another T Shirt sale.

Dreamstime came in sixth place with 3 downloads. Getting very close to payout there so I'm just
willing those sales to come.

Last in seventh place were Bigstock with just a single download. No sign of the Bridge programme returning and various people have reported mixed messages from it being broken to having been discontinued. As I have said many times before, the number of sales on Bigstock doesn't warrant the time involved in uploading them directly so I guess my portfolio there will be static from now on.

As mentioned at the start, I didn't get a single sale at Alamy. I cannot remember the last time that happened as I seem to have been getting some sales every month for a long time now. On the plus side I came top in the monthly forum contest with an image of the poll tax riots and got to set the June challenge choosing the theme of Transport. There have been some great entrants and in July I will have the pleasure/headache of choosing eight finalists for people to vote on. These contests are just a bit of fun really but as the Alamy forum is viewable to the public It's also a bit of extra exposure.

EV charging point - getting regular sales

Uploading in May was a mix of my Lisbon trip plus I have been having another trawl through my archives and came up with a number of images to scan including a different one of actress Anne Bancroft and actress Deborah Barrymore (daughter of Roger Moore).

Back to the travelling (and the late posting) I have just returned from two weeks on the small Greek island of Ithaca. It was great getting back to Greece for the first time since 2019. Contrary to the horror stories on the news of massive queues at the airports, flight cancellations and luggage going missing both my outward and return flights went like clockwork and on time. School holidays are coming up fast and that's when all the trip prices go up in price so I might be leaving a while before my next one. Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

 

Wing Walkers - soaring sales on Bigstock

A different line up in the rankings for May.

First place went to Alamy with 4 downloads. Three from my B/W archives and a Lidl supermarket exterior. Alamy also caused some reaction when they announced forthcoming contract changes. Chief among these was the dropping of the 50% royalty rate for exclusive images down to 40% (which non exclusive such as myself have been on for some time now). Cue a furore in the forums with a thread now running to 105 pages. According to Alamy only around 6% of their image database is exclusive anyway so I don't expect any reversal of that one. New is that anyone not generating $250.00 a year (in gross licensing fees -not in royalties earned) will drop to a new rate of 20% but not until after a year of sales up to July 2022. New contributors will start on 40% and have a year to clock up some sales. I do not expect this to affect me but anyone with a very small portfolio or not very in demand images have cause to worry. Further concerns were raised around changes to the contract wording emphasising that photographers take legal responsibility for the images they upload. This, in reality, was nothing new and I have always assumed this was the case with all agencies. A number of risk adverse contributors have given in their notice at Alamy rather than agree to the new contract - I'll be sorry to see some of them no longer posting in the forum there.

Redbubble took second place with 7 product sales ranging from T shirts to mugs to greeting cards.

Catkins - close to hand

Good to see them pick up after a slower April.

Third place went to Shutterstock. Biggest factor here was the almost total lack of On Demand and Single sales which are crucial to rack up the income.

Fourth place was taken by Istock with 26 downloads. A low RPD pulled them down here. On the plus side it was good to see music festival and travel images selling - a sure sign that some degree of normality is starting to return.

Fifth place was interesting as Bigstock had 17 downloads - all of the Breitling Wing Walking team. This was a smaller scale reprise of the Red Arrows event in April. Day after day somebody downloaded a few more images until they had the lot (sadly I have a much smaller number of images than of the Arrows!).

Adobe made sixth place with 7 downloads including two from my Illustrative Editorial uploads (Tesco shopping trolleys and newsagent WH Smith). Looking forward to getting more of these uploaded going forward.

WH Smith - Editorial sale at Adobe

Seventh place went to Dreamstime with 7 downloads. Interesting that four of these were also of the Wing Walkers which left me wondering if this was the same buyer.

New uploads included some of a John Lewis department store (which, sadly, was permanently closed this year) and some Silver Birch tree catkins which involved the great effort of opening my kitchen window and sticking my camera out :)

Real travel photography is still on the horizon as I now am fully vaccinated and good to go medically. I just need the UK Government to start green lighting more countries. I mean, I am sure the Falkland islands are very interesting but are not exactly a short hop on EasyJet. Portugal was a blow as I had already started researching that when they bounced it back to amber status after just a few short weeks as green.

Lets keep hoping for July. Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

Tom Robinson Band in 1978 -Sold on Alamy

Putting aside the shock Shutterstock announcement at the end of May it was overall a steady month with some good results from Print On Demand sites.

In first place were the excellent Redbubble with 6 product sales. A framed print sale led the way here with the rest a mix of T shirts, posters, stickers. I am also pleased, that in the light of recent events, I didn't have to give Shutterstock their usual top place :)

Shutterstock did manage second place with 60 downloads. A fair number of On Demand and three modest Single sales boosting up the income here. How good all those 36c subscription and $2.70 On demand sales look now.

Third place went to Alamy with 3 downloads. These were all from my B/W archives. We had the Tom Robinson Band and Steel Pulse - both performing at the Rock Against Racism festival held in Hackney, London in 1978. Also sold was the former Conservative Minister Richard Tracey (I spotted this one in the obituary page of the Daily Telegraph newspaper -complete with credit line to myself). I am hoping I might see more of these uses now my images are not available at Shutterstock.

Fourth place went to my other POD site FineArtAmerica with 3 product sales. The same customer

St. Mildred's church in Tenterden

purchased a Tote bag and two carry pouches all featuring the same image. I was a bit surprised that they chose a portrait format image which didn't really work on the products when there was a similar landscape version available. However, as long as they are happy that's fine by me.

Istock made fifth place with a less than stellar 24 downloads. A lower RPD than recently made this a disappointing month from them. Acceptance rate continues to be high with lightening fast approvals of editorials and a few days wait for the rest.

Sixth place went to Dreamstime with 3 downloads. They also announced that from June 1 they were increasing commission by 10%  on new image sales for a time during the pandemic as a help to contributors. Clearly intended as a poke against Shutterstock who slashed their commission on the same date but a very welcome gesture all the same.

Tourists in London before Coronavirus

Bigstock took seventh place with 4 downloads. Not sure what to do about them as my portfolio there is mirrored (via the closed Bridge to Bigstock program) from my Shutterstock uploads (now halted) so there will be no new images on Bigstock either.  Sales at BS certainly wouldn't warrant the time to upload directly. Wait and see on that one.

Finally in eighth place were Adobe with just a single download. A lot of angry Shutterstock contributors are talking of directing buyers towards Adobe but until they open up to general editorial uploads this is not any help to me.

Not much shooting recently due to Coronavirus restrictions ( I should have been on a Greek island as I write this) but I have been out capturing a few images where I live in Tenterden including the 12th century St.Mildred's church. I also uploaded an old image of women tourists in London which I thought might be useful for articles on travel/tourism restrictions.

Stay safe. Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

Skywalk on the Metropol Parasol, Seville

A strong month in May for my bigger agencies and the usual low level results from the weaker ones. May also saw me give up on one agency and delete my portfolio and a routine check on another past agent threw up an unpleasant surprise.

Way out in front in first place were Shutterstock with a good crop of On Demand sales and two double digit Single Downloads boosting the income. Pleased to see editorial review times seem to have speeded up here -to within 24hrs of upload.

Second place was taken by Alamy with 2 downloads. The best one ( a television use of one of my archive Poll Tax Riots images) made a great illustration of their cut to 40% commission for non exclusive images. From a $68 sale they got $41 and I got $27. The difference really becomes obvious on larger sales. That said, I have no plans to make my images exclusive at this time as I prefer the spread of sales across different agencies.

In a strong third place were Istock with an impressive 47 downloads and an improved RPD (helped by a sale via Getty Images).

Redbubble took fourth place with 3 product sales ( two prints and a T shirt). I continue to be impressed by Redbubble and their regular sales.

Fifth place saw Bigstock with 6 downloads. I doubt they are ever going to take off as a high selling agency but the few dollars each month gradually add up.

Dreamstime managed sixth place with 7 downloads -pretty much all subscription sales.

Seventh place saw another sale on FineArtAmerica, this time just a greeting card (of the Houses of

Las Setas de Sevilla (Metropol Parasol)

Parliament). Not much but at least some signs of life there after my several years drought.

Eighth place went to Adobe with just a single download. Maybe one day they will start taking editorial, maybe not.

I finally gave up on Canstockphoto and manually deleted my small 350 odd portfolio and closed my account. They get to keep the $16 I earned over many years but I am happy just to forget about them. Low sales are one thing but picky, silly rejections (property release wanted for public landmarks and weird key word rules that didn't allow the keywords Hastings and Pier for an image of -guess what?)just didn't make them worth my time.

Puenta de la Barqueta, Seville

Meanwhile, over at Yay Micro I stopped uploading some years ago and requested them to close my account. They ignored that but, never mind, I opted out of all sales there including their own Yay Images site. So, no problem then? Sadly not - a routine check showed that they have added Deposit Photos as a partner site and automatically opted me in meaning all my (non editorial) images are now on an agency that I have never wished to sell through. I've opted out of that now as well and made another request for Yay to close my account -so far ignored. Anyone with images still at Yay should make a regular check of their partner list to make sure your images aren't being sent somewhere you don't want them. To be fair, they do at least offer an opt out but I was surprised that they had added a new partner and just included me in that.

Recent uploads have concentrated on my April trip to Seville including the impressive Barqueta bridge (Puente de la Barqueta) and the fabulous Metropol Parasol - more commonly known as Las Setas de Sevilla (Mushrooms of Seville). This was one of the highlights of my trip both for the overall view of the structure but especially for the walkway on the roof which offers great views over the City. I am sure I will be making a return trip to Seville in the future but meanwhile have a Greek island trip on the horizon - bring on the Retsina! 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.

May Sales Updates:

Tentertainment music festival - third sale on Alamy

A much stronger month in May saw some good sales across my main sites and even a surprise re-appearance from a past agency.

As ever Shutterstock were way out in front. Their terms do not allow me to give explicit sales details but just for comparison with the rest I will say this month that downloads were well over the 100 mark. Substantially over half of my earnings came from the higher paying On Demand sales with a few modest Single sales.

Istock took second place with an unprecedented 75 downloads making this, I believe, my BME there. There were, as usual, some paltry $0.02 sub sales but many others paying much more - in one case $9.50 for a sub sale. I'll take that over the previous $0.28 fixed payment.

After a poor run 123rf hit third place with 12 downloads including a $22.50 payout for an image of Votsi harbour on the Greek island of Alonissos. I'm assuming this was some kind of extended license but on their new dashboard I have yet to find out where to see the type of license sold (only that it was XL -Extra Large).

In fourth place were Alamy with my third sale there. My perennial good seller of the Tentertainment music

New upload - Tenterden Food and Drink Festival

festival going for a substantial (compared to microstock) sum. May saw me continuing to pour my back catalogue into Alamy -an investment in time that I consider worthwhile.

Fifth place went to Redbubble with two product sales (another T shirt and a greetings card). My mark up on cards is high (200%) because, as I have posted before, I believe that if someone is choosing an appropriate card for someone price is not a major consideration. I know when I buy a Birthday card I choose the one I think the recipient will like -I don't look at the price.

Bigstock took sixth place with 9 downloads. Mainly subscription sales here.

Seventh place went to Fotolia with 4 credit sales of my images of collecting pine resin (again on the Greek island of Alonissos).  These all occurred over a couple of days so I assume were to the same buyer.

Votsi on Alonissos island - good sale at 123rf

Dreamstime managed  eighth place with just 5 subscription sales. The hoped for turnaround in May never happened there.

Finally a surprise from Yay Images (previously Yay Micro) with 4 small sales reported. These were my first sales there in nearly a year and, as previously posted, I have long stopped uploading there.

Uploading in May, as I said, focused on Alamy but I thought I really ought to show a presence at my other agencies so a set from the first ever Food and Drink Festival at Tenterden in Kent went up. These were Summery images showing people sitting on the grass etc so should prove useful for illustrating outdoor events and the like. Dreamstime excelled here by having them approved almost immediately.   Hopefully June will remain strong before the dreaded Summer Slowdown starts to hit in July. Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

Panagia Tinou ferry listing in Piraeus harbour, Athens

A late update for my sales in May. I was lucky enough to visit the exciting city of Athens for a few days which has put me behind with other things.

The month saw the usual dominating Shutterstock in first place as ever. A good number of One Demand downloads and a reasonable Single Download pushed things higher. Acceptances remain high at the moment and the days of weird lighting/focus/white balance rejections seem to be fading. This, in turn, has encouraged me to start uploading more with my portfolio now standing at 1941 images. I'm looking forward to passing the 2K mark in the not too distant future.

In second place were Istock with 7 credit sales and a further 38 sub and PP downloads. Editorial reviews remain super fast (a few minutes to a few hours) while commercial image reviews have slowed to nearly a month. Hopefully, they will speed this up going forward.

Redbubble made it to third place in May with 4 sales. Three stickers of Greek island subjects and a T Shirt featuring cult Seventies band The Flamin' Groovies. This Print On Demand site has really paid off for me in the year since I joined. By contrast, Fine Art America (for which I pay $30 a year membership) has produced nothing in sales since last December.

In fourth place were Bigstock with 12 downloads.

Skala beach on Agistri island, Greece

Fifth place went to 123RF with 13 downloads. I'm pleased to say that the problem with long review times seems to have been resolved with all taking place in a timely manner.

Sixth place saw Fotolia produce 7 downloads. Possibly a record month (but given it's only 7, not worth checking back to see!).

Almost at the bottom in seventh place were Dreamstime with 7 downloads (all 35c subs). I've said plenty before about Dreamstime, so won't repeat myself here.

Bringing up the bottom in eighth place were Mostphotos with 2 sub sales paying a few (euro) cents each. As ever, the sales were in their home country of Sweden. They just do not seem to have got any traction around the rest of the world -which given that it is an online business is surprising.

Creating a buzz on Hastings pier

Uploading in May mainly concentrated on my Athens trip images. Piraeus harbour provided some interesting shipping images not least the Panagia Tinou ferry boat which was listing badly after taking on water. Research revealed that this once the Folkestone-Boulogne Sealink ferry Hengist which famously beached near Folkestone during the Great Storm of October 1987. I also spent a day on the little island of Agistri which is just under an hour from Piraeus by hydrofoil. This was the very first Greek island I ever visited back in 2001 and it was really interesting to visit it again -this time with a camera. Little had changed there in all those years. You can read about my first visit there on my Greek Islands blog. Back in the UK, I also continued visiting and photographing the newly re-opened Hastings pier and was lucky enough to get an image of a swarm of bees on a life ring -which made for an unusual picture. I'll try and get my June updates posted more promptly next month :) Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

Anti Austerity march, Hastings

Straight into the May sales to bring me up to date before the end of June is upon us :)

May proved a fairly weak month with even my first place agency Shutterstock down from last month and a much lower number of the higher paying On Demand sales and three modest SOD sales.

Istock leapt to second place with 8 credit downloads and an astonishing 42 subscription and PP sales. PP sales came back strongly after their crash last month.

Straight in at third place came Redbubble with a T shirt sale becoming my first sale on the site.

123RF came in fourth with 11 downloads though without the boost from LEL sales that I had last month. They also updated their uploader which from my perspective didn't seem to have any advantages over the old version. On the contrary, the first seven images I uploaded proved tricky as there just seems no way to include punctuation in the caption field. This is important because they require a specific format for editorial captions (which include comma and dash signs). I have put these in dozens of times but when clicking to save they just disappear. I'm fully expecting them to be rejected for this -that is if they ever get around to reviewing them (been three weeks now).

Protest against zero hour contracts at Sports Direct, Hastings

In fifth place were Bigstock with 14 downloads -pretty much all subs again.

Sixth place went to FineArtAmerica with a sale of two greetings cards. These were of the local island bus on the Greek island of Paxos which I visited last year. Not a fortune but a pleasing sale all the same as it is one of my favourite Greek islands.

Now for the big disappointment of the month. In Seventh place were Dreamstime with just 6 downloads. These were all 35c subscription sales bringing a total for the month of just $2.10 -my worst month ever on DT (even my first month there in September 2009 produced nearly £6 in sales). What happened there? Thankfully June is showing improvements but I am at a loss to account for that May dive.

Finally in Eighth place I got one of my irregular sales on Canstock photo - a 30c subscription. If they ever start taking Editorial images this could become a much better seller for me but meanwhile I'll just add non editorials as and when I have them.

Greetings from Paxos: card sales at FineArtAmerica

Much of May was dominated by my signing up to Redbubble.com and learning all about how that works. I'll be posting an article on that soon -but early results are encouraging :)

The other event in May was, of course, a General Election here in Britain when to a lot of peoples surprise the Conservative party won a (small) outright majority. None of the opinion polls had predicted anything of the kind so the result was unexpected. This led to a number of protests and anti austerity marches across the UK, including here in Hastings. I photographed the march and have already had several sales on Shutterstock as a result. Regards, David.

May sales update:

Reversing the usual order here I'll start with some agencies I don't see see that many downloads with but all three produced some action in May.

Fineartamerica, saw my second ever sale -a framed print of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher netting $30.00 and a further $3.22 commission on the print materials. That's my second years paid membership covered in one sale.

Cutcaster sold a recently uploaded image of the Eiffel Tower ($0.46). Just wish this agency could produce more sales.

Over in Sweden, Mostphotos saw three downloads (12.84 euros). Two small value subscription sales and, more interestingly, my first full price single sale for 12.50euros. Yet again, another Margaret Thatcher image. It's starting to look like there may be a bit of a pick up in sales here.

Bigstock continued to get regular sales with 14 downloads ($6.18). A good number of subscription sales with a sprinkling of regular credit sales.

Fotolia only managed two subscription sales netting 0.50 in credits. As previously posted, my images are now opted out of the Dollar Photo Club there so some drop in sales might be expected. A price I am prepared to pay to be out of DPC.

123rf saw 9 downloads ($6.22). Pretty much all subscription sales at $0.25 each.

Istock produced 10 downloads ($7.75) but with a further $3.92 from PP (Thinkstock) sub sales. None of the new Istock subscription sales for me in May -though I have since had my first ones credited during June. For anyone new to Istock -the PP (Partner Program) and Istock subs are paid out the following month en masse (which is when I include them in my sales report). Thus subs sales that occurred in May will be in my June sales report.

Dreamstime had a good month with 14 downloads ($28.47). A lot of Greek island (especially Halki) images sold and the highlight being an I-EL for $13.35). This was for my Italian street party image featured in my last post. I-EL? I had to look it up -the I stands for "Increased" (basically a bigger print run than is allowed with the standard license).

Needless to say, the big one as always was Shutterstock with numerous downloads and a good crop of higher paying On Demand sales as well as one pleasing Single sale.  If only I had a whole bunch of agencies with the mass selling power of Shutterstock!

New uploads in May included, finally, my images of the derelict Lazy Days boat on Symi island. You can read more about this lovely old boat on my Greek island blog ( mysmallgreekislands.blogspot.com ). I also edited and uploaded more images from my Paris trip including the iconic Sacre Coeur cathedral and the Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge in Paris). I'll be posting my June updates soon - a month in which uploads (and blog posts!) came to a halt while I enjoyed a wonderful two weeks on the little Greek island of Paxos. Regards, David.

May sales updates:

May was never going to match the special circumstances of April, however it still proved a strong month.

Inevitably, out in front was Shutterstock with 151 downloads ($97.16). A single sale of the Old Town area of Hastings netted $18.75 helping to push up the income total.

Istock produced 10 downloads ($20.14) with four PP sales adding another $1.40. In a surprise move they recently scrapped their restrictive upload limits and contributors can now submit up to 999 images per week. A welcome move I had always hoped for.  

Dreamstime saw 16 downloads ($17.73). A number of subscription sales helped keep the amount earned down.

Picturenation saw an archive image of Labour MP Chris Smith selling in high resolution which earned a worthwhile £6 in commission. Sadly, not long now till their close down in August but, hopefully, I may pick up a few more sales before then.

123rf continued to get sales with 16 downloads ($7.15). 

Bigstock achieved 9 downloads ($5.02). All of these were editorial images.

Mostphotos pleased with two downloads making Euro 4.09.

Fotolia netted three downloads earning 0.70 in credits.

As previously posted, my first FineArtAmerica sale netted $25.35. A very welcome start.

No sales at Cutcaster but one of my referred contributors had their first sale there netting me $0.06 in commission. It's a start!

Uploads in May saw some archive images of Bruce Kent, Vice President of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and some portrait shots of a Common Barn Owl. 

We are now heading into the famous Summer Slowdown period so it remains to be seen how sales will go in June. Regards, David.

May sales update:

May saw the usual strong performance from Shutterstock with 93 downloads ($38.62).

Dreamstime saw a good increase with 17 downloads ($17.04).

Istock dropped down with 9 downloads ($10.01) plus three PP sales adding $0.84.

123rf produced 11 downloads ($10.67).

Bigstock perked up with 5 downloads ($7.70) plus a $0.60 commission adjustment. All but one sale here were editorial images.

Yaymicro saw 2 downloads (4.05 Euros). Interestingly, one of these was via their Pixmac partner.

Fotalia produced 3 downloads from my small port there (0.75 credits).

And finally, Cutcaster produced my first ever sale there. A small download of the Sudbury Stages Enduro race (pictured) made $0.46. Taken in November 1977, I had only uploaded this set of images a few days before. They have also been getting some early sales at Shutterstock, so I have hopes for these. On a personally pleasing note, some of the images feature my brother and his wife (both keen motorcyclists at the time).

Looking ahead, June seems to have started well (including a $28 Enhanced Download at Shutterstock). I just hope that continues. Regards, David.

May Updates:

May saw another strong month.

Shutterstock had 88 downloads ($29.08) making it another BME for sales, though not quite there on actual revenue.

Dreamstime produced 12 downloads ($10.56) with the usual mix of Editorial and commercial sales.

123RF continued to please with 10 downloads ($6.27).

Istock produced a further 5 regular downloads ($2.84) with 5 partner program sales making an additional $1.40. The regular sales were, again, mainly Editorial and with ten new images accepted my portfolio rose to 198 there.

Picturenation got one medium res sale netting £4.00 in commission. Better still I received my second payout from them -just under £60.

Bigstock proved dissapointing this month after the recent upsurge in sales. Just 2 downloads ($1.50).

Yaymicro came up with a regular sale netting 0.50 euros. June should see them posting the first quarter Third Party sales report.

Nothing in May on Cutcaster, Veer, Canstock or Mostphotos.

Uploading in May saw some more archive political images going online and some new images of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. Comprising a Lancaster bomber flanked by Spitfire and Hurricane fighters the BBMF gave a twenty minute display over the Kent town of Tenterden to tie in with the local steam railway holding a "Fourties" weekend. It was an impressive sight and much enjoyed by the many locals who came out to watch. I went with a monochrome version of one of the images to give a vintage feel. Aircraft images have done well in the past so I have high hopes for these. Regards, David.

May Updates:

A steady, rather than exciting, month in May. Shutterstock, as ever, led the way with 42 downloads ($12.69). Dreamstime produced 11 dls ($7.87). Istock achieved 2 partner programme sales ($0.50) and 1 regular sale ($1.56). 2 dls on Bigstock ($1.00) and as previously posted 1 regular sale at Yaymicro (1 euro) and a further 9.70 euro from their 3rd party seller. Nothing this month at Picturenation, VeerMarketplace and Mostphotos.

123RF went live with their Editorial collection at the start of May. I have around 470 live there with a further 40 pending review (in fact, some have been pending since April -which seems a bit slow by anyones standards!). Sadly, no sales there yet but they are only now just starting to market and promote the Editorial collection. I am also hoping that some editorial might also be added to their parent company site Inmagine.com in time. A note in the FAQ there says that they are considering taking Editorial. Certainly some 123RF commercial images already appear in the Inmagine "value images" section.

May also saw a new bit of photo kit. A Giottos aluminum monopod (Model: MML 3270B). Light enough to carry around easily it provides a really sturdy shooting platform (after a bit of practise). I did look at some cheaper options but decided the £40 price (from Jessops in the UK) was a worthwhile investment. I can also combine it with the pan & tilt head from my Giottos tripod for greater flexibility -for example shooting portrait format images.

Regular readers will notice a new image of the late footballer George Best on the left. This has had a flurry of sales in the last few weeks. I believe there is some sort of football competition going on which may explain that!

Meanwhile the Veer "Dash For Cash" payment for uploads continues. To date I have about 30 accepted (the same low acceptance rate that I have always had at Veer!). The promotion goes on until the end of June so I'll see where I am then. What is interesting (and encouraging) is that my views there have shot up in the past few weeks. Will update further on that later. Regards, David.