December Sales Updates:

Hawker Hunter - Chinese sale on Alamy

A slightly delayed update for a fairly low key month in December. Hardly surprising when large chunks of the picture buying world shut down for the lengthy Christmas and New Year holidays. 

Leading the way in first place were Alamy with 7 downloads. Six of these were from my archive political shots with the exception being a distributor sale to China of a 1950s vintage Hawker Hunter. Notwithstanding the later horror of the Shoreham airshow crash when another Hunter caused eleven fatalities after crashing onto a road, this is actually one of my favourite aircraft. For anyone aware of the infamous Chinese sales incident when hundreds (thousands?) of sales were suddenly reported on December 30/31 for a sub microstock price of 15cents each ( paying contributors a whopping 4cents after commission deductions) this wasn't one of those and sold for $9 or so. In fact, I didn't get a single one of the 4cent sales I'm pleased to say. I suspect that this is because the bulk of my Alamy portfolio is Editorial. Alamy have responded to questions about these mass low payments and confirmed they are looking into the whole thing. I rather get the impression that they were as surprised as anyone when these sales came in. Further updates on their forum have been promised.

Second place went to Shutterstock (with only 3 On Demand sales and no Single sales pulling the total

Sa Calobra - sold on Redbubble

down).

Istock took third place with 39 downloads. As is usual, music festival and travel images made up the bulk of these.

In fourth place were Redbubble with 2 product sales (last minute Christmas gifts I imagine). A mug of the famous hairpin road down to Sa Calobra in Majorca (beloved by hardened cyclists) and a pack of postcards featuring the (old) Hastings lifeboat taking part in the annual Old Town Carnival.

Dreamstime scraped fifth place with just 2 downloads. Maybe 2022 will be the year sales will pick up again here?

Finally in sixth place were Bigstock with just a single download. 

Missing from the ranking is Adobe as I didn't get a single sale after the end of November (and still haven't at the time of writing). This was especially disappointing as it looked like sales were increasing there despite my tiny 400 odd portfolio.

Paxos - archives to Pond 5

Shooting and travelling didn't happen in December although I did receive an early Christmas present when my new passport arrived by courier on Christmas Eve. At least I am set to go as and when travel restrictions start to ease and which is already starting to happen.

Uploading in December saw me concentrating on getting more of my back portfolio onto Pond 5 including my images of the Greek island of Paxos. Whether or not I ever see much in the way of sales here remains to be seen but I am determined that it won't be because they are not available. Further any agency that lets you determine your own selling price and pays 50% commission deserves to be supported. That said, some contributors there are quite delusional - setting a price of  hundreds of dollars for routine travel shots. They probably wonder why they don't get any sales.

More next month. Regards, David.

March Sales Updates:

Professor Stephen Hawking 

March was never going to be a normal month because, as regular readers will know, my archives include an  image of British physicist Professor Stephen Hawking who sadly died on the 14th of March. It is in the very nature of shooting editorial images that sometimes they will sell to illustrate a good news story and sometimes the complete opposite....

Way out in front in first place were Shutterstock with something not far off my BME there. My Hawking image was downloaded 58 times alone on the 14th with many more downloads through to the end of the month. That said, image sales at SS were strong all round this month.

Second place went to Dreamstime with 9 downloads. Again the obvious sales including an extended license which pushed up the revenue.

Redbubble took third place with 5 product sales ranging from prints to T Shirts.

Fourth place fell to Istock with 25 downloads. No Hawking effect there as they do not accept celebrity type images (arguing that they would compete with their own Getty Images coverage). I don't get it, but there it is.

Bigstock made fifth place with 21 downloads (obvious sales again).

The Serra de Tramuntana mountains in Majorca

In sixth place were 123rf with 17 downloads (yes, again). In some ways this was unwelcome as I had been poised to walk away from them once I had heard their "good news for contributors" announcement they had promised for the end of March. The announcement never came but I am now so close to payout amount that I may as well hang on now. They've had no new uploads from me for several months now and I plan to keep it that way.

Fotolia took seventh place with 5 downloads (still no editorial from ordinary contributors allowed).

Mostphotos came in eighth place with 4 downloads of Stephen Hawking.

The road down to Sa Calobra in Majorca

Nothing from Alamy again in March so now making two months of no reported sales. Of course, as previously discussed, sales might have taken place but not been reported yet. I'm continuing to build my portfolio there although I'm now starting to run out of back catalogue to upload to them. Obviously, new images go to them in my regular workflow.


Recent uploading had me working on my Majorca images from last year including a cloudy scene on the Serra de Tramuntana mountain range and a series of the famous hairpin bend road down to Sa Calobra - a popular challenge for the thousands of cyclists that visit and train in Majorca each year. Regards, David.

September Sales Updates:

The road to Sa Calobra in Majorca -a famous cycling challenge

September certainly didn't see the hoped for upturn after the Summer Slowdown months with some highs and lows to report.

Once again Shutterstock retained its first place with a solid month helped by a regular On Demand sales and a pleasing Single sale coming right at the end of the month.

Bouncing back into my charts at second place were Alamy with another good paying sale (a B/W archive image of actor Nigel Havers). I certainly feel my effort in uploading my portfolio to Alamy is proving worthwhile. All my archive stuff (pre 1992) is now up (via their Archive and Reportage portal) and I am continuing uploading my portfolio of digital images from 2007 onwards.

Puerto Pollensa beach in Majorca

Istock took third place with some 40 downloads. Once again I used the excellent Today Is 20 site to make sense of my results.

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 4 product sales varying from stickers to mugs.

Fifth place went to 123RF with 9 downloads. I really feel sales should be much higher here given the size of my portfolio (over 2K images). I have the feeling that whilst they accept editorial images they do not perhaps have the buyers for them. On the plus side, recent reviews of new uploads have all been prompt.

In sixth place were Bigstock with 5 downloads. Hastings images to the fore once again.

In a sad seventh place were Dreamstime with just 3 downloads (all subs). Compounded with (to date) no sales at all in October things are not looking good there. I really like Dreamstime and hope that they can get back to near the top where they used to be (for me, if not everyone).

Tram tracks in Port de Soller in Majorca

Bringing up the rear were Fotolia in eighth place with 3 downloads (though in the absence of editorial images my portfolio is tiny there).



Uploading recently has concentrated on my September trip to Puerto Pollensa in Majorca. Though only there for a week I shot a large range of stock images from Roman ruins at Alcudia through to the beauty of the Tramuntana mountains. A world away from the bars and nightclubs of Magaluf which many associate with Majorca.

A return visit in the future is certain to visit some more of the places I couldn't get to this time, hopefully in 2018. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

Greek marine research vessel Aegaeo at Piraeus

August proved another slow summer month with not even the unexpected leap to top place which I saw from Alamy in July (in fact, nothing at all from them in August -though that is the nature of how Alamy works with various billing cycles meaning I could have had sales which are not reported yet).

So, as in a normal month, Shutterstock moved back to first place. A good crop of On Demand sales and several modest single sales helped stabilise things here.

Istock made second place with 37 downloads. Down on recent months but still maintaining higher sales since the Unification process at the start of 2017. I finally got round to signing up for the free Todayis20 site which helps you make sense of the inscrutable sales reports from Getty. Once signed up just upload your Getty sales file to them to have all revealed -including thumbnails of all the sold images. There is a wealth of information available which you can break down in multiple ways. This site was created by a Getty contributor and, though free, donations are welcomed.

In third place were Redbubble with three product sales (including one order of 10 stickers of a CCTV camera image - I suspect they are going up in someones shop or similar!).

Fourth place saw Dreamstime with 7 downloads. Some higher priced subcription sales here but no big credit

Torrent De Pareis on Majorca

sales this month.

123RF perked up with 18 downloads to make fifth place. As seems frequent here the sales started off slowly before picking up towards the end of the month.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 10 downloads. My images of the Tenterden Food and Drink Festival continued to sell here.

Finally in seventh place were Fotolia with 3 downloads (still waiting for them to accept Editorial images so I can really upscale my portfolio. Who knows if this will ever happen but I keep hoping).

Xara gate at Alcudia on Majorca

Recent uploads included some of Greek marine research vessel Aegaeo in Piraeus port, Athens. Operated by the Institute of Oceanography this ship is involved in all sorts of marine research work so I have hopes for some sales there. I'll be honest -this was just a harbour shot made while heading out to Aegina island. I only found out how high profile the vessel was when I researched it at home. You just never know what you might capture by chance.

Recent shooting revolved round my week long trip to Port Pollenca in Majorca during which I covered a lot of ground and added a lot of new images to my portfolio including the stunning gorge of Torrent De Pareis at Sa Calobra and the picturesque Old Town area of Alcudia. It certainly made a change from Greek islands and I am already considering a return visit as there were many more sights to photograph than I could manage in a week. Regards, David.