Back in the Seventies and Eighties I founded and ran several Fleet Street photo agencies specialising in stock images of celebrities from pop stars to politicians. These were syndicated to the National and International press and Television. These days I am active in the Microstock world and this blog charts my journey as well as, hopefully, providing inspiration and ideas to others. Image buyers should also find this blog useful with links to my portfolios and regular updates on new uploads. Unless otherwise stated all images are my copyright and may not be reproduced or copied. Comments are very welcome but will be reviewed before publication. Enjoy your visit. Regards, David.

Wednesday 1 April 2020

March Sales Updates:

Church of Santos Juanes in Valencia
A mixed month for March with my three top agencies continuing to hold up despite the horrors of the Coronavirus pandemic which is bringing so much tragedy and hardship to so many lives around the World. It goes without saying, I hope, that sales of stock photos are irrelevant in importance compared to everything else that is happening. That said, my results went like this.

First place was held by Shutterstock with a strong number of downloads. Nearly half of my monthly income came from an uplift in On Demand sales aided by a couple of modest Single sales.

Alamy took second place with 3 downloads. A substantial $$ sales of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell and 2 very small sales of two Members of Parliament. All three were from my B/W archive collection which seems to have scored a hit at Alamy.

Istock came in third place with 37 downloads and a respectable RPD. As usual my music festival
Colonnades in the Turia river park, Valencia
images came tops here with Greek and Spanish travel images also doing well.


In the runners up section Adobe took fourth place with a single download at well above usual
subscription rate payment. I assume this is their equivalent of the On Demand sales that Shutterstock have.

Fifth place went to Bigstock with 4 downloads.

Redbubble disappointed with just a single sticker sale to give them sixth place. With everything else to worry about I guess people are not ordering art products.

In bottom eighth place were Dreamstime with just 2 subscription downloads. There is nothing more I can say about Dreamstime that I haven't already said before and I just hope they can find their way back again.

Turia river park in the heart of Valencia
Shooting in March was to have centred on a six day trip to Barcelona. I haven't been for a couple of years and had a lot planned including a day trip out by train to the mountain top monastery at Montserrat. Sadly, the night before I was due to go I took the decision to stay at home as the situation was clearly escalating. My early morning Easyjet flight did still go but by mid morning Jet 2 had cancelled all flights to Spain (even turning flights back mid air) and soon after the Government advised against all travel to the country. It was the best decision I could have made as Spain shortly went onto lockdown and my return flight was cancelled. Again, my lost trip (and money) is nothing to the losses Spain is suffering. I look forward to the time in the future when this is over and normal life can resume.

With time on my hands I turned to editing and uploading more of my Valencia images from 2019. A series of images of the Turia river park (the 9km long park was created after the River Turia was diverted away from the City following severe flooding in the fifties). I also uploaded some images of the 13th century church of Santos Juanes in central Valencia.

In the coming weeks please follow all official advice and do not put yourself or others in danger in order to take photographs. Stay safe. Regards, David.