Bagging a Banksy:

I've posted before about picture opportunities on your doorstep. Well there was a good one here this week in St.Leonards-on-Sea when a new mural by cult British street artist "Banksy" appeared overnight on the seafront. I didn't have much trouble finding the location due to the number of people congregating to take photographs of it and photographing their children next to it! It took a bit of patience to get a clear shot of it but the images are now uploaded and awaiting approval (as Editorial images, obviously).

British agency PictureNation got them online within a couple of hours (I emailed them to let them know they were in the approval queue). I have no idea what the sales potential is here, but I do know that, in the art world, Banksy is a big name and new works arouse a lot of interest, so we'll see.

Hastings council have said that despite their zero tolerance policy on graffiti they are regarding this as Art and allowing it to stay. Certainly the interest being shown by the public yesterday would suggest this is the right decision. Edit: Just for clarification -the black lettering at the top isn't part of the mural but everyday graffiti (which I'm sure will be removed by the council).

Regards (from the "centre of the art world" as the local newspaper coined it), David.

July Updates:

July saw Dreamstime powering up to an excellent 26 downloads ($18.29) making this my BME there. My portfolio there also hit the 800 milestone in July. Best of all, I am only $1.45 short of my first $100 payout so that should happen very soon.

Over at Shutterstock I had 57 downloads ($16.44) and I am on course to hit my third $75 payout in August.

British agency Picturenation did well with two high res sales (archive shots of Margaret Thatcher and Lord Peter Mandelson) netting £6.00 each in commission.

Bigstock produced 1 editorial sale ($2) and bringing up the rear Istock with one regular sale ($0.29) and 3 partner program sales ($0.75).

Nothing in July at Yay, Most, Veer or 123.

On a more positive note at Istock, I had 11 new images accepted (all from my recent Greek trip). That might not sound a lot, but for me very unusual. I've finally managed to produce some images they couldn't find any artifacts in, it seems! Also announced in July, their basic upload limit is raised from 15 a week to 18, giving a better chance of building a reasonable sized portfolio there.

Finally a bit of Summer success. My images of the crowd at the 2009 "Tentertainment" local music festival (in Tenterden, Kent) seem to have become my current best sellers. Almost daily downloads at Shutterstock and a rise to Level 2 on Dreamstime. One buyer at DT searched for "music, festival, grass" . I tried the same search at SS (under Editorial images) and there it was: Page 1, Image 1 in the results. That's why it keeps selling! I only spent a few minutes taking these images but with an excellent payback. I guess you just never know. Regard, David.