July Sales Updates:



Gaios harbour, Paxos

A rather late update of sales in July -which as regular readers will know usually indicates that the month didn't prove very exciting for sales. The so called Summer Slowdown certainly seemed to be in full swing in July. That is, if a Slowdown can be doing anything as lively as a full swing (full snooze maybe?).

Shutterstock proved the exception with a good number of downloads and good revenue buoyed up by a number of On Demand downloads and two Single Downloads. I am also, finally, getting seriously close to the next sales level -when my basic subscription download rate is increased.

Dreamstime saw some long gaps between sales and eventually amounted to 10 downloads ($12.37).

Dende Nation samba drummers, St.Leonards-on-Sea

Istock proved lively in July with 10 credit downloads ($10.40) but then added 18 PP sales ($5.04) and 8 sub sales ($2.24). My portfolio there is now circa 850 and I am starting to see the results of Editorial images now being available on Thinkstock (PP) and the new subs packages at Istock itself.

Bigstock managed 7 downloads ($4.28). Pretty much all subscription sales.

123rf saw 8 downloads ($4.78). Again, mainly sub sales, which at Level 2 only pay at $0.25.

Fotolia produced 3 downloads (1.85 credits).



Ilida II hydrofoil, Corfu

My uploading saw an increase in July, however. I do not hold the belief that because sales are slow you should hold off uploads. Some contributors feel that the new images just get buried in quite periods (and Weekends) and never connect with buyers. Because of the mainly Editorial nature of my images I am confident they will get picked up in keyword searches in the future regardless of when I uploaded them. As well as the Eastbourne Pier fire images previously posted I also uploaded images from the 2014 St.Leonards Festival (a local community music and entertainment event)
. Samba drummers Dende Nation took part in a seafront parade during the event. Also uploaded were more images of my June trip to Paxos island including the harbour at Gaios and the Ilida II hydrofoil on which I had just returned to Corfu. Hopefully, August should prove the last of the quiter months before an upturn in September. Regards, David.

Eastbourne pier -Another fire disaster:

Damaged section of Eastbourne pier

Back in October 2010 I posted here about the tragic fire that destroyed much of the historic Victorian pier here in Hastings.
History has recently repeated itself with fire destroying a portion of the pier at Eastbourne -some 17 miles along the East Sussex coastline.

Pier entrance -showing damage beyond

Breaking out around 3.00pm on Wednesday July 30, the fire was initially reported as being a small in nature but soon developed into a major incident with fire crews from around East Sussex attending aided by the RNLI lifeboats from Eastbourne. The band of smoke stretched along the coast to Hastings and beyond.

Thankfully, nobody was hurt in the incident and after some hours the fire was brought under control -leaving the rest of the pier intact. I took these images the next day which clearly show the extent of the damage.

Damaged section -with the saved section beyond

Opened in 1870, Eastbourne pier was one of fourteen seaside piers designed by Victorian architect Eugenius Birch -including Hastings Pier and the West Pier in Brighton (also a victim of fire some years ago).


The good news is that Eastbourne hope to have their pier rebuilt and re-opened sometime in 2015 whilst in Hastings work has been underway since last year with a planned re-opening in Spring/Summer 2015.
There is something especially British about these old seaside piers which generates much love and affection for them. Indeed, like Hastings before it, the fire at Eastbourne received National newspaper and television coverage here in the UK.
These images are currently available from all my main (editorial) photo agents. Regards, David.