April Sales Updates:

RAF parachute team The Falcons

A fairly average month for April with the usual dominance of one agency, ticking over from some of the rest and no action at all from a number of sites.

As ever, Shutterstock was way, way out in front of the rest. A strong comeback for On Demand sales made up around half of the total and just a couple of small Single and Other Downloads. No Enhanced Downloads at all in April.

Istock performed well to make second place with 5 credit sales and a very strong 45 sub/partner sales (in fact, a record month for those).

Dreamstime was some way behind in third place with 9 downloads. With a portfolio there approaching 2000 images I would really expect to see a much better performance from Dreamstime - a view that seems to be echoed in the forum there. Their levels system (where images with more downloads move up in price) seems to be working against them -at least in my case - as I rarely see those big sales anymore. Just lots of 35cent sub sales.

Peaceful harbour scene on Halki island

Close behind in fourth place were Bigstock with 10 downloads. As usual mainly sub sales. At least I don't have to do any work for them as all my accepted images on Shutterstock automatically get added there as part of the old Bridge to Bigstock program - I consider myself lucky to have got on that.

Fifth place went to 123rf with 10 downloads. The problems with not getting uploads reviewed seem to have been resolved for now with both commercial and editorial images being looked at within a day or two. Editorial continues to do well here and that might explain where my Dreamstime sales have gone.

One for the art sites, an inverted colour forest

Finally in sixth place were Fotolia with just a single subscription sale. Though I only have around 150 images in my port there I would expect a top ranking agency to be making more regular sales than this. I'm waiting and hoping for an announcement that they will start taking editorial images - seems like a logical move as they are the only large site not to accept editorials.

Uploading in April saw me continuing with my images from the Greek island of Halki including one of small boats moored in the harbour. I also revisited my airshow files for some images of the RAF parachute team The Falcons in action. For something a bit different I experimented with some inverted colour images. These weren't very well received by the main agencies but I'm hoping they might get some interest on the art sites like Redbubble. We'll see. May has been a busy month so far for shooting with more images of our newly opened pier, the Jack In The Green festival and then a last minute trip to Athens for good measure! More in due course. Regards, David.

Picfair.com introduce global price change tool:

Copyright: Duncan Andison/Dreamstime.com

For anyone that's not looked at the Picfair site for a while there is now a new feature that I have been asking for right from the start. A global price change tool that allows you to edit the price of all your images at once.

From the start I have always priced all my images at £10 per licence, however, I have wondered how different price points might influence sales. As I have written before £10 is expensive for, say, a blogger but cheap for a National newspaper.

To be fair, Picfair have previously offered to perform a bulk price change at their end but having the convenience of doing it yourself is much better. You'll find it on the top right of your portfolio page there. Obviously, this only works if you want all your images at the same price. You can still individually edit the price of each image just as you always could.

You will get a warning that any global price change is irreversible but it also says that you can bulk change your prices again. Confused? I assume that what they mean is that if you currently have a range of prices for different images and you bulk change them to a new single price you cannot go back to all different prices again (other than by individual editing).

Anxious to try this new feature I went for a dramatic 50% reduction to £5 per licence. The feature does say it will take a while to populate to all your images but it seemed to be pretty instant in my case. What has happened, however, is the bulk change button is still saying that it is updating my prices a week or so later and does not function  - so I cannot now change my price back even if I wanted to. I'm guessing they don't want people changing pricing on a daily basis -so be warned that once you use this feature it will be a while before you can change things again. I'll keep checking and see when it becomes functional again. Nethertheless, it's good to finally have this feature in place. Regards, David.
ETA - Just heard from Picfair via Twitter: They're looking into that as the button should have updated ready to be used again.

Hastings pier reborn:

Vast new space on Hastings pier

Wednesday 27th April 2016 saw a great day here in Hastings when our much loved Victorian pier re-opened to the public. Though the finishing touches were still being added ahead of the official opening in May, things were advanced enough to allow the public back on for the first time in some eight years.

I have written about our pier several times and have been documenting it in photographs since moving to Hastings in 2009. Designed and built by Eugenius Birch (responsible for a number of British seaside piers) it first opened in 1872. 2008 saw it closed for structural safety reasons and October 2010 brought a disastrous fire which destroyed most of the wooden decking and buildings.

However, that was not the end of the pier as after being awarded over 11 million pounds in Lottery Heritage

People enjoying the reborn Hastings pier

Funds rebuilding work has been ongoing for several years. What we now have is a very modern pier with large amounts of open space. It's a far cry from the traditional Victorian style pier with a ballroom at the end.


I must admit I did have my doubts about how it would look and, certainly from the shore, it still looks like something is missing with the Pavilion restaurant at the start of the pier and the new visitor centre in the middle and then nothing till the end.

Looking west from Hastings pier

That impression changed for me as soon as I paid my first visit on the Saturday after opening. The massive areas of uncluttered wooden decking make for an impressive space (who realised it was so wide?). The visitor centre with its roof top terrace makes for a great place to sit and watch the many visitors anxious to walk on the pier again.

The one thing that struck me was that everyone on it was smiling and enjoying this new space. And hardly a scrap of litter to be seen. I have already visited four times and look forward to enjoying the reborn pier for many years to come.

It's also great to have so many new photographic opportunities -both of the pier itself and the views of Hastings town that you get from it. It's been a pleasure to document the process and it's great to finally have it open again. Regards, David.