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.