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.

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. 

February Sales Updates:

Turia river park, Valencia

Not only a short month in February but in most cases short on sales as well.

Shutterstock took first place (even with their new commission structure). A worthwhile Single sale plus an Enhanced download and a number of On Demand sales pushed them into top place. As predicted, I moved onto Level 2 during the month.

Second place went to Alamy with 4 downloads. None of them massive sales but welcome all the same. Three were from my B/W archives and the fourth was another use of my Lidl supermarket images.

Third place went to FineArtAmerica with a T shirt sale.

Dreamstime made fourth place with 5 downloads. 

Istock reached a new low in fifth place with just 8 downloads. How a major agency can sell so few I

Museu de Belle Arts, Valencia

don't know. Of course, these were essentially January sales which was bad all over, so we'll see how the February sales go when we reach the 20th.

Redbubble came in sixth place with just a single sticker sale. A far cry from their usual excellent performance.

Seventh place went to Bigstock with 4 downloads. About average for them.

And finally in eighth place were Adobe with just a single download. On the plus side this was my Illustrative Editorial image of the Covid guidance letter sent out by the UK Government. I fear that Adobe might never open up to normal Editorial (i.e. that have people in them) but, at least, the Illustrative route means I have more images to build my little Adobe portfolio (think I am approaching the dizzy heights of some 400 images soon!).

Obviously, shooting new travel images is out of the question at this time but with vaccines rolling out it's starting to look like foreign travel may be possible later in the year. That said I am building up a target list of UK shots as, all being well, travel restrictions within the UK look like being lifted fairly soon.

Montjuic castle Howitzer, Barcelona

With no choice but to trawl past images recent uploads included some from Valencia including the Museum of Fine Arts and the Turia river park. Barcelona also got revisited for an image of a 1898 vintage Howitzer mounted outside Montjuic castle.

Travel companies are going into overdrive in the UK tempting people to book for later in the year so I hope to see an upturn in image sales as the year goes on as well as my other outdoor images such as music festivals. Let's see how March goes. Regards, David.

January Sales Updates:

Poll Tax Riots - poster sale on Redbubble

A pretty slow month in January overall with some highlights here and there.

Leading the field in first place was Alamy with 3 downloads. Two small sales of a Lidl supermarket and a good $$ for my archive shot of tv mogul Lord Lew Grade. There was also a modest payment for ASCRL (the US counterpart to DACS) fees.

Second place went to good old Redbubble with 4 product sales. Three T shirts and a poster print from the 1990 Poll Tax Riots in London.

Lord Lew Grade - archive sale on Alamy

Shutterstock could only manage third place with only one paltry Single download and one On Demand. Being bounced back to Level 1 didn't help matters here though I expect to be up to Level 2 during February.

Istock had another slow month with 20 downloads and a low RPD.

Fifth place went to Dreamstime with 5 downloads. Their new upload interface went live for me this month and so far I seem to have made it work. It didn't seem to have made the process any easier and the changes seem mainly cosmetic. 

Bigstock scraped into sixth place with 2 downloads.

Back to life (just) were Adobe in seventh place, also with 2 downloads. My hoped for surge of Illustrative Editorial downloads is yet to happen here.

Medieval windmills in Rhodes Old Town

Apart from getting my back portfolio onto Pond 5 (still no sales as yet) uploads were limited to a set from my 2019 trip to the Greek islands Rhodes and Tilos, including the medieval windmills in Rhodes Old Town.

Some early good sign in February but, then again, I said that about January. We'll see. Regards, David.