April Sales Updates:

 

Red Arrows - still flying out at bigstock

An uncommon line up in the rankings in April due to some (one off) variations in sales.

Istock improved to take first place with 23 downloads and an increased RPD. Music festival images started to make a comeback as some of the World starts to head back to normal life due to the Covid vaccination rollout.

Second place went to Shutterstock but a scarcity of On Demand and Single sales pulled them down in dollar earnings.

Third place went to Bigstock with a staggering 50 downloads -all of RAF aerobatic team The Red Arrows (as I mentioned last month). This run did eventually come to a halt but only, I suspect, because I didn't have any more Red Arrows images to download! Probaly one of those events that I'll never have an explanation for. At least there have been no refunds to date. Anyway that was a BME for Bigstock.

Alamy took fourth place  with 2 downloads. Fairly modest $$ sales which were both from my B/W

Stan Newens - archive sale at Alamy

archives (Bill McCall, trade unionist and the late Labour MP Stan Newens. The latter was used in obituary reports in both The Guardian and Daily Telegraph newspapers, though only one of those sales has been reported as yet).

Fifth place went to Redbubble with 3 product sales. Two greetings cards and a mug. Things are a bit slow there recently.

Adobe came in at sixth place with 4 downloads. These included another Illustrative Editorial sale of an Esso petrol station. Actually starting to see a bit more activity here now though I still only have just over 400 images online.

Esso - Illustrative Editorial sale at Adobe

Dreamstime finishes off the rankings with seventh place with 3 downloads (all subs).

I am still awaiting my first sale from Pond 5 and have taken a bit of a break from uploading my back portfolio there. Even a single sale would be some encouragement.

Not a lot to report on the shooting front this month as the UK weather took a downturn (snow in April?!) but I did get out to do a set of a local Electric Vehicle charging point which is an ongoing story in the media. Still, it looks like (some) overseas travel restrictions will be lifted in the coming weeks and I have already started researching a few destinations. We will see. Regards, David.

March Sales Updates:

Tesco: largest supermarket in the UK

 As Spring starts to arrive (though we saw a bit of snow here this week!), vaccines continue to roll out and outdoor events and travel start to seem more possible, I'm hoping to see an upturn in the stock photograph market - especially for my kind of travel/editorial portfolio. March wasn't it, however :(

Back in their old first place were Shutterstock. A good number of On Demand and Single sales made up most of the income here and with the plethora of 10c subscription sales I expect this to be the pattern for the future. Months where it is mainly subs will be poor and months where the non subs prevail will do better. The new normal.

Redbubble took second place with 4 product sales from a T shirt, a mug and two greeting cards featuring the Greek island of Tilos.

Pleasingly, Adobe moved up to third place with 5 downloads. It was good to see that four of these came

Donkey track on Symi island, Greece

from my recent Illustrative Editorial uploads. My port here may be tiny but these editorials seem to be gaining a bit of traction.

Fourth place went to Alamy with 2 modest fee downloads. On the plus side I did spot a couple of uses in Daily newspapers which have yet to be officially reported as sales.

Istock made a disappointing fifth place with 14 (poor RPD) downloads. Still awaiting a return to form here.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with an improved 9 downloads. Interesting that five of these were of the RAF aerobatic team The Red Arrows. This was just the start as throughout the early days of April I have had a further 46 (yes 46!) downloads of the Reds. Multiple downloads every day (even Sunday). No idea why the buyer wants all these but unless they all get refunded for some reason April promises to be a BME on  Bigstock. The phrase Too Good To Be True comes to mind. We'll see.

Red Arrows flying high at Bigstock

Dreamstime completes the line up in seventh place with 6 downloads. All subs.

Lack of travel opportunity meant Staying Local (as per Government guidance) so I took the chance to get shots of rows of Tesco supermarket trolleys (good for financial reports) and a closed down branch of fashion chain Monsoon (decline of the High Street). Delving back into my older files I found a few to upload of my 2011 trip to the Greek island of Symi including the steep Kataraktis donkey track which leads from the harbour up to the village of Chorio above.

More on April results (including Red Arrows updates) next month. Regards, David. 

October Sales Updates:

The Red arrows display over Hastings

A positive month in October with some good sales and the end of the long running 123rf saga.

Returning to form were Shutterstock in first place with a pleasing number of On demand sales (making up over 50% of my total income here).

Second place went to Alamy with 2 downloads and a welcome and unexpected DACS payment added to the total. What's DACS? Find out here www.dacs.org.uk but essentially it's a pool of money collected for secondary use of images (e.g. where a university photocopies a text book containing your image). This is then distributed to registered artists. In my case I was happy for Alamy to make this claim for me (they keep 50%) though some who know what they are doing make the claim directly. Worth noting that Alamy would have been #2 even without this payment.

Third place went to Istock with 50 downloads. The RPD (rate per download) was disappointing this month - dropping slightly below the old fixed $0.28 for subscription sales. That's a first as it has usually been substantially higher.

Fourth place was taken by Dreamstime with 29 downloads. Nothing like the huge surge of September

Rough seas at Cala San Vicente, Majorca

but, once again, there was a single buyer who scooped up twenty images of Majorca in one hit. Can't help but think this was the same buyer though - possibly a travel website of some kind. Ironically at the time of writing I have yet to have a single sale for November there!

Redbubble disappointed with just 2 product sales ( a sticker and a baby outfit) to give them fifth place.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 8 downloads of a mixed bunch of images.

Finally Fotolia made seventh place with just a single subscription sale. Adobe (owners of Fotolia) have recently announced that the Fotolia site will close next year leaving just the Adobe Stock site running. A good time then to register at Adobe and "synch" your Fotolia account as from next February all uploading will be done through the Adobe portal. I'd been putting this off but, in fact, was much simpler than I imagined. That said, I'm continuing to upload via Fotolia while I can. For clarity all images uploaded to either are currently mirrored on both sites.

Llibertat Presos Politics march, Barcelona

So where is 123rf you may wonder? Gone. Consigned to history as far as I am concerned. Once I'd hit payout AND received my payment I set about manually deleting my 2300 images. Remove. Confirm. I did it in stages throughout the course of a single day before emailing them to close my account. I'm sure they would have deleted the images for me anyway but I didn't want to chance having my account closed and the images still there.  In fact, they responded promptly and gave me the correct legal terminology to use to close the account. This done I got confirmation of closure within a couple of hours. Rather sweetly they thanked me for my past contributions and wished me well for the future. At least we ended things on a nice note. They were once a good, fair paying site (they even had a contributors forum at one point). But then the credit sales dried up and they introduced varying commission levels which were never going to work well for a mainly editorial portfolio. Lifestyle and model type images may well be a whole different story.

Recent uploading saw a lot from my trip to Majorca last month including a day of rough seas at Cala San Vicente. I also uploaded a set of a Red Arrows display over the Hastings seafront in July (they were marking the 100th Birthday of the RAF). Backtracking, I also returned to my April images of Barcelona including more from the massive Llibertat Presos Politics (Free Political Prisoners) march.

Early results for November are mixed so far so I'll see how the second half of the month goes. 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.

July Sales Updates:

The Red Arrows -Extended License at Istock

Somewhat later than I had hoped here are my updates for July. Expect August updates to follow soon to get things back on track :)

In first place (of course) were Shutterstock. A good number of On Demand downloads and a handful of Single Downloads pushed July over the payout limit. In an interesting move SS announced that the minimum payout is to drop to just $35 (from $75). Just go into your account settings at SS and change the figure. This move prompted some cynical speculation that SS anticipate a drop in sales for contributors. I do not buy that theory. Why would they care if contributors had to wait a bit longer for payout? My belief is that as a public company they simply want to clear all that debt (unpaid commissions) off the balance sheet. It doesn't benefit them to have all that money (which isn't theirs) sitting there. In practise, I usually make the existing payout each month but I will now get the certainty of a monthly payment even if I haven't quite made the old limit.

Tentertainment festival - illustrating festivals, summer, events

In second place came Istock with an excellent month consisting of 5 credit sales (including an EL on one of my Red Arrows images) and a remarkable 46 sub and PP downloads. My mainly Editorial portfolio (which now stands at 983 images) seems to be attracting the interest of the sub package buyers.

Third place went to Dreamstime with 8 downloads boosted heavily by a IEL (Increased usage) and a UEL (multi seat) on my image of the Italian street party in Clerkenwell, London.

123RF made fourth place with 5 downloads. They still seem to be having issues getting new uploads reviewed in a timely manner.

Italian street party - EL at Dreamstime

Bigstock made fifth place with 8 downloads -virtually all subs. As noted before, Hastings related images continue to be downloaded here.

In sixth place came FineArtAmerica with a single greeting card sale of my Tower Bridge and HMS Belfast image.

Bringing up the rear in seventh place were Fotolia with just 2 downloads earning 0.72 credits. On the plus
side I contacted them to increase the prices of my Extended License sales. Bronze level contributors can place these sales at 60 credits rather than the default 30. You can change each one manually but much easier to contact Fotolia support and they will do it for you. Whilst I do not expect that many EL sales it is nice to know that I will get a decent amount of commission for them.

Of note amongst the non sellers was the lack of action from Redbubble which had got off to such a promising start in May/June. Maybe I had benefited from a new contributor bounce and things have now settled down? I have continued to upload and hope for better things in the future. Also notable was that is now a full year since my last sale at Cutcaster. A total of just 8 sales ever on a portfolio of circa 1400 confirms my decision to cease uploading new images to them was the correct one (for me).

Octopuses drying on Nisyros - classic Greek image

Shooting in July mainly centered on the annual St.Leonards Festival -a community arts and music event which yielded excellent crowd and festival images. I have yet to edit and upload these but the images from last year continue to sell steadily. I also covered the Tentertainment music festival once again and have already seen sales from these. This local event has proved to be a constant seller over the last few years as an illustration for festivals/summer/outdoor events etc. A Google search finds these images of Kent being used across the world!  

Other uploading in July included my first images from my June trip to the lovely Greek island of Halki. One of my favourites included one from the nearby island of Nisyros of Octopuses drying on a line. In terms of Greek island images it's a real "classic" image which I have seen used many times. Sadly, until now I had never actually seen any drying Octopi in real life to photograph. I was excited, to say the least, when I spotted these on the seafront at Mandraki. As well as several early sales this image recently got chosen by Picfair for their weekly pick of top images -resulting in hundreds of views. I have high hopes for this image :) Regards, David.

September Sales Updates:

The Red Arrows, Eastbourne

A very late posting for my September sales updates. I have been busy editing and uploading during October with over fourty new images added to many of my portfolios. I am also making a change to my sales updates by no longer including actual royalties earned. Ever since Shutterstock changed their Terms Of Service making it no longer allowed to give out actual sales figures publicly my reports have felt skewed -with no figures for what is my best selling agency (by far).
So to sum up a rather poor September overall here's how the agencies ranked:

Shutterstock -by a huge amount the leader and, most excitingly, I crossed the threshold to take 

Lakka harbour, Paxos

me into the 36cents per download level. That might not sound a lot but on the volume SS achieves this soon adds up. Better still, On Demand sales rise from $2.48 to $2.70 (or $1.07 to $1.17 ).Those are figures I can give out because they published in the rate schedule on the site.

Dreamstime were runners up this month with 11 downloads. Things did seem to be going well until the 25th when sales stopped dead (right through to October 17). Not sure what happened there but it proved to be my longest ever break in sales at DT.

Third were Istock with just 4 regular downloads and 19 PP/Sub downloads. The recent restructuring probaly had a bearing here and I'm pleased to report that sales seem to be improving now.

Anes Lines ferry Proteus docking at Alonissos

123RF were in in 4th place with 11 downloads.

Down among my lower earners Bigstock saw 8 downloads, just 1 at Fotolia and, surprise, my second download of 2014 at Yay (a partner sale). None of my other sites produced any sales in September.

Uploading in September saw further images of the Red Arrows from the 2014 Eastbourne airshow, more from my June trip to Paxos and backtracking to 2013 for a set of the Proteus ferry docking at Alonissos. Seeing Proteus turn up in the Sporades was rather a surprise as it is operated by ANES lines from Symi (Dodecanese) and was the actual ship I travelled on from Rhodes to Symi back in 2011. It was like meeting an old friend -far from home. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

The Red Arrows at Airbourne

August - hopefully the last month of a slow Summer period - proved unexciting to say the least.
Inevitably, Shutterstock was by far the leader with a good number of On Demand sales and a sprinkling of Single Sales pushing the total up.

Istock were runners up with 9 downloads ($7.23) bolstered by 15 PP sales ($4.20) and 8 subs ($2.24). Follow all that? With their strange multi-stage way of reporting sales it's not always easy. Why they cannot just report all sales in real time like other sites do is beyond me (and beyond them it seems). However, the big Istock news is their forthcoming restructuring of their multiple collections into just two -Essentials and Signature. This should all happen circa September 13, when they will also start to charge the same price for any size of download. This is bad news for some but good for others like me. The smaller size downloads that I often sell will now pay out a higher royalty rate and I expect my Istock income to increase overall. Subscription royalties remain unchanged.



Fire damaged Eastbourne Pier

Dreamstime saw some slow periods but finally clocked up 8 downloads ($12.76). Interestingly, while digging around in my stats there I discovered I had received two $5 bonuses when I had two images of this years Jack In The Green festival put in the In The News section. The problem is that I have no idea if I ever got that $10 -I sort of imagine I would have noticed that at the time but really cannot remember seeing my balance jump that amount. I may have to query that in due course.

123rf trickled on with 7 downloads ($6.44). The low Subs rate here really does pull down the figures.

Bigstock saw 15 downloads ($5.94) -again virtually all Subs sales.

Finally from the sellers I had my third sale at FineArtAmerica with $1.50 for a greetings card sale of Margaret Thatcher.

Jack In The Green festival, Hastings

All the other sites were dead in August with not even a Fotolia sale.

Shooting in August centred on the annual Airbourne airshow at Eastbourne where it was great to see the display by two Lancaster bombers. Our own BBMF one and the visiting one from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum which has come over for the Summer airshow season. Recent uploads included the Red Arrows (from Airbourne), Jack In The Green festival and further images of the fire damage at Eastbourne pier. I'm hoping for an upturn in sales as we come out of the slow period although September so far hasn't proved exceptional. Regards, David.

June Sales Updates:

The Red Arrows

A steady month in June reflecting the usual Summer slowdown. As previously posted, I was on the Greek island of Paxos for two weeks and, therefore, new uploading was very limited during the month.

Obviously, Shutterstock came way out on top with a slight drop in download numbers over May but a good number of On Demand sales increasing the total revenue. Just one small Single download this month.

Istock produced 6 regular downloads ($5.72) but then boosted that with a pleasing $5.32 from 19 PP sales (one of my best results ever on the PP -probaly as a result of editorial images now being available) and finally the first of the new subsciption sales netting $0.84 from 3 downloads.

Coco and The Butterfields

Dreamstime saw 15 downloads ($11.82) with a continuing mix of Greek island images and old archive favourites such as Margaret Thatcher.

123rf ticked on with 12 downloads ($6.88). There seems very little variation in sales on 123 each month and at my Level 2 status income remains dissapointingly low -receiving just $0.25 for subscription sales. The days of 50% commission seem a long time ago now.

Fotolia produced just 2 downloads (0.82 credits). Whether or not being opted out of their DPC operation made a difference I don't know. I still only have a very small port there in any case.

Finally, another sale at Mostphotos! OK it was just a subscription sale paying 0.23 Euros but, all the same, still showing some signs of life. The image in question was British band Coco and The Butterfields performing at the annual Tentertainment music festival (pictured).



Al fresco dining, Skiathos

Nothing again from Yaymicro in June making my 0.75Euro sale in February my only sale for 2014 (with over 2k images online there). Not even their many Partner sites seem to be producing any sales -though to be fair most of my port is editorial (which, sadly, they do not send to the Partners). It's a real shame to see how sales have declined there. It was never a top seller but I used to see regular payouts. A check on my uploads for the last year or so just shows zero views on virtually everything to the extent I wondered if the view counter was broken. As an experiment I Tweeted a couple of images and the views count shot up to double fiures on those -so it does work. Shortly after every image suddenly had one view each - I assume Tweeting attracted the attention of a search engine somewhere. Might be worth trying with your own images. Even their Twitter page seems to have vanished -I just got a Page Does Not Exist message. (Edit: The Twitter link on their site doesn't work. However, you can find their account at twitter.com/yayimages ). I really hope they can turn this around.


Recent uploads included a lucky shot of a Gull swallowing a rat in the harbour at Skiathos. I was rather pleased with this image but Shutterstock obviously weren't -Poor Composition/Lighting etc. Luckily it got accepted virtually everywhere else. I also uploaded a couple of new images of The Red Arrows from the 2013 Eastbourne Airshow (Airbourne). Recent news reports that the team might be scrapped as a part of defence spending cuts (though, thankfully, denied) might help get some sales. Regards, David.

First sale at Picfair:

Having only signed up to new British photo agency Picfair just last week, I was delighted to get my very first sale there this week. First sales at a new agency are always exciting as, until then, you have no idea if you are going to get any interest in your images. Certainly there are views (and Picfair marks images clearly with the number of views they have had) but you have no way of knowing if these are serious buyers or just people having a look at your image -often, I am sure,  fellow contributors checking you out.

Anyway, week two of uploading and this image of RAF aerobatic team The Red Arrows performing at the Airbourne airshow in Eastbourne became my first sale. Picfair send you an automated email to let you know when you get a sale, which is always nice to find in your inbox. Better still, Picfair do not have a high payout limit that you have to reach before you can get your money and there is a "cash out" button on your profile page. I'm going to wait until, hopefully, I have a few more sales to claim.

Meanwhile I have been busy uploading and now have approaching 300 images online there. Looking forward to reporting my next sales! Regards, David.

Pirates invade Hastings!

Sunday July 22, 2012 saw thousands of pirates take over my seaside home of Hastings. First started in 2009, Pirates Day forms part of the Old Town Carnival Week. The following year Hastings won the Guinness World Record for the "largest gathering of pirates". Not to be outdone, in 2011 Penzance (where else?) beat the record with nearly 9000 pirates gathered. Fighting back in earnest this year Hastings switched the day from Friday to Sunday to maximise pirate availability and went on to regain the record with a staggering 14, 231 assembled on the beach. It was a fun day for all, rounded off brilliantly by a seafront display by RAF aerobatics team The Red Arrows (making their first appearance in Hastings since the 1980s). Now let's see who can beat that record! Regards, David.

June sales updates:

A mixed set of results in June - but overall pleasing.

Shutterstock excelled with 104 downloads bringing in a BME in earnings of $98.26. This was achieved from two Enhanced Downloads paying $28 each. One was the ever popular Tentertainment music festival (pictured) and the other was an archive B/W image of the 1989 Trades Union Congress in Blackpool. June also saw another milestone as my total earnings at SS crossed the $1000.00 line.

Dreamstime produced 7 downloads ($10.90). Frustratingly their review of editorial images has slowed greatly (I now have three batches going back some 14 days in the queue). According to their forum they have seen a big increase in editorial submissions and are training up extra reviewers to catch up with the backlog.

Bigstock continues to show promise with 5 downloads ($7.70) -all editorial images.

Istock dissapointed in June with just 8 downloads ($4.88) plus a further $3.64 from a BME of 13 Partner Program sales.

123RF also dissapointed with just 7 downloads ($5.04). My worst month there since October 2011. Not sure what's happening there - they were gaining me a growing number of (mainly) editorial sales but that seems to have tailed off in the last few months.

Yaymicro sold one image of media tycoon Robert Maxwell, paying a worthwhile 3.75 euro.

Finally, another nice surprise from Mostphoto when an image of The Red Arrows produced a subscription sale for 5 euros. This took me neatly over the 10 euro payout level so I was able to get my first ever payment from them. Annoyingly I had to pay a 0.70 euro fee to Paypal to get this. An email to Mostphotos received a prompt and friendly reply that this was normal on Paypal. Well, no it's not - not unless you are selling something on Ebay or whatever. This did happen once before with a payment from Yaymicro and they (Yay) promptly apologised and credited my account with the fee amount. Anyone else had this issue with Mostphotos payouts?

Recent shoots saw images of the historic Cinque Port town of Rye in East Sussex (some now online) and coverage of the 2012 Tentertainment music festival (awaiting edit).

July has seen a good start at Shutterstock, so I'll see if this continues before the famous Summer Slowdown kicks in. Regards, David.

April sales updates:

April saw another strong month at Shutterstock with 96 downloads ($52.51) and, as usual, a good number of On Demand sales.

Istock pleased with 11 downloads ($16.54) and three PP sales ($0.84). Editorial images were well to the fore here including two downloads of RAF display team The Red Arrows (pictured). The airshow season is approaching here so I expect to see more sales on Red Arrows images in the coming weeks. Also pleased to see that they are scheduled to do a display here in Hastings on July 22nd - the first time in twenty four years they have been here.

123RF produced 16 downloads ($8.24) , again mainly from my editorial images.

Dreamstime managed 6 downloads ($7.67) -a slow month for them.

A dissapointing single sale at Bigstock produced $0.50 (jumping ahead, May has started off much better for them).

Yaymicro saw one editorial sale (0.75 euros). I had hoped to see a jump in sales at Yay as they signed up with a number of new partner sites. Sadly, for various reasons, they are not currently including editorial images in these arrangements - thus excluding most of my portfolio. They tell me that this might change in the future.

Finally, Mostphotos produced one subscription sale (0.20 euros).

Uploading in April saw a continued push on my archive political images with a near 100% acceptance rate bringing my portfolio numbers up substantially.

Regards, David.

And Another:

Signed up to another new agency last week. 123RF hovers around the bottom of the so called "big six" microstock agencies (according to the rankings on http://www.microstockgroup.com ). I would have gotten around to them at some point but what prompted this now was their announcement that they are going to start taking Editorial images. They are in a gathering stage at the moment with a launch scheduled for the end of February. With my celebrity and political archive images doing well on most other agencies that take Editorial this was too good an opportunity to miss. With 123 you have to submit (a minimum) of 10 images for initial approval before you can contribute freely. I just went for the usual "big guns" from my portfolio (Margaret Thatcher/Boris Yeltsin/Gordon Brown etc) for my initial batch - with a recent shot of The Red Arrows in action at the Eastbourne airshow added (just to prove I know what a colour photograph looks like!). Still waiting for approval nearly a week later but I'm hoping this is because they have been inundated by Editorial images and not because they are not interested in mine. I'll update in due course. Regards, David.