May Sales Updates:

 

Wing Walkers - soaring sales on Bigstock

A different line up in the rankings for May.

First place went to Alamy with 4 downloads. Three from my B/W archives and a Lidl supermarket exterior. Alamy also caused some reaction when they announced forthcoming contract changes. Chief among these was the dropping of the 50% royalty rate for exclusive images down to 40% (which non exclusive such as myself have been on for some time now). Cue a furore in the forums with a thread now running to 105 pages. According to Alamy only around 6% of their image database is exclusive anyway so I don't expect any reversal of that one. New is that anyone not generating $250.00 a year (in gross licensing fees -not in royalties earned) will drop to a new rate of 20% but not until after a year of sales up to July 2022. New contributors will start on 40% and have a year to clock up some sales. I do not expect this to affect me but anyone with a very small portfolio or not very in demand images have cause to worry. Further concerns were raised around changes to the contract wording emphasising that photographers take legal responsibility for the images they upload. This, in reality, was nothing new and I have always assumed this was the case with all agencies. A number of risk adverse contributors have given in their notice at Alamy rather than agree to the new contract - I'll be sorry to see some of them no longer posting in the forum there.

Redbubble took second place with 7 product sales ranging from T shirts to mugs to greeting cards.

Catkins - close to hand

Good to see them pick up after a slower April.

Third place went to Shutterstock. Biggest factor here was the almost total lack of On Demand and Single sales which are crucial to rack up the income.

Fourth place was taken by Istock with 26 downloads. A low RPD pulled them down here. On the plus side it was good to see music festival and travel images selling - a sure sign that some degree of normality is starting to return.

Fifth place was interesting as Bigstock had 17 downloads - all of the Breitling Wing Walking team. This was a smaller scale reprise of the Red Arrows event in April. Day after day somebody downloaded a few more images until they had the lot (sadly I have a much smaller number of images than of the Arrows!).

Adobe made sixth place with 7 downloads including two from my Illustrative Editorial uploads (Tesco shopping trolleys and newsagent WH Smith). Looking forward to getting more of these uploaded going forward.

WH Smith - Editorial sale at Adobe

Seventh place went to Dreamstime with 7 downloads. Interesting that four of these were also of the Wing Walkers which left me wondering if this was the same buyer.

New uploads included some of a John Lewis department store (which, sadly, was permanently closed this year) and some Silver Birch tree catkins which involved the great effort of opening my kitchen window and sticking my camera out :)

Real travel photography is still on the horizon as I now am fully vaccinated and good to go medically. I just need the UK Government to start green lighting more countries. I mean, I am sure the Falkland islands are very interesting but are not exactly a short hop on EasyJet. Portugal was a blow as I had already started researching that when they bounced it back to amber status after just a few short weeks as green.

Lets keep hoping for July. Regards, David.

January Sales Updates:

Alonissos -first Extended License on Istock

There were certainly some encouraging signs in January as we came out of the Christmas and New Year holiday slowdown.

Inevitably, Shutterstock came out on top by a long way with a sprinkling of On Demand sales (not the best month for these) and one modest Single sale.

A strong month for Istock putting them in second place with 6 credit sales and 12 sub/PP downloads. What boosted things here was getting my first ever Extended License sale on Istock with my image of the coastline on Alonissos island.

Dreamstime managed third place with a pleasing 23 downloads. Sadly, all but one were 35cent sub sales which pulled the actual income down. Greek island images featured strongly in this months downloads.

Breitling WingWalkers in action

Bigstock was just pipped into fourth place (by only 2cents) with 17 downloads. As I have mentioned before local Hastings images seem to do well here with 9 of the 17 being from my home town. In fact, images downloaded on Bigstock seem to be rather quirky -often being ones that haven't sold much elsewhere (as well as the usual Margaret Thatcher type good sellers).  This suggests that they have a distinctive group of customers -no bad thing in my opinion.

123rf came in at fifth place with 9 downloads. Now, I am quick to express disappointment here with 123rf
and January looked like it was heading the same way with only four sub sales for most of the month. However, things were redeemed by 2 LEL sales and a Large sale on the 31st (a Saturday at that!) which was enough to push me back to Level 2 at the start of February. Hopefully, I can remain at that level for some time now. Further, the backlog of pending Editorial images all got reviewed and accepted right at the end of January after sitting there all month.

Finally, in the sellers list, Canstock pulled in 2 downloads which was a nice surprise given that I do not often see much action with them.

Skiathos Town and harbour, Greece

Nothing from my other sites in January with Cutcaster becoming a casualty when I decided it was no longer worth my time and broadband costs to continue uploading new material. With a current port of 1498 files, I have had just 8 downloads since joining in January 2011. Increasingly picky reviews where images that are accepted and sell on the top tier sites were being rejected didn't help matters. I'll just keep my port there and check in from time to time in the hope of a surprise. If I had to speculate about the problem here I would guess that, though they accept Editorial images, they do not have the Editorial buyers that would be interested in my port. Lifestyle/models/isolation images may do much better here for some.

Uploads in January included new images of the Breitling WingWalkers (an ever popular seller) and some views over Skiathos Town taken during my 2012 trip to Alonissos. February has got off to a slow start but, hopefully, things will pick up as the month goes on. Regards, David.

Airshow Photography -Look to the Skies:

Breitling Wingwalkers

Now that the Autumn has arrived here in the UK it marks the end of the airshow season. Don't get me wrong, I am not a plane spotter but I do enjoy visiting and photographing airshows. Probaly my childhood spent growing up under the flight path of London Gatwick Airport sparked my interest. It was always facinating to see the airliners making their approach and, though I hate to admit it, many of them still had propellers back then!

These days most UK airshows tend to have a good mix of classic WW2 bombers and fighters through to the latest RAF jets as well as aerobatic acts such as the Breitling Wingwalkers team in their distinctive vintage Boeing biplanes.

Mustang P51D -Ferocious Frankie

To photograph at airshows you are going to need a longish lens. 300mm will usually be plenty for close up shots of single aircraft but you'll get away with less for formation groups such as the Red Arrows. You will also need a fast shutter speed to freeze the action -I generally aim for 1/1000sec. This does mean, that in the UK at least, you are probaly going to have to crank up the ISO way beyond what we as stock photographers usually aim for. But there it is, if you want to get usuable images of fast moving aircraft. Reviewers will generally understand that these images are not being taken in studio conditions!

I always use the panning technique -framing up the aircraft as they approach and then giving a burst of shots as they get closest to my position. 

Canberra bomber and Hawker Hunter fighter

One other problem you are going to have is overcast weather. Trying to get good images of a dark camouflaged aircraft against dark clouds is near impossible. Take the pictures anyway and see what you get but really the best you can do is hope for blue skies and some sunshine. Also check the weather before travelling any distance to an airshow as flying can often be restricted or cancelled altogether in adverse conditions. Low cloud is the worst offender here -it is obviously just not safe for aircraft to display when there is poor visibility.

Even if you are not a big aircraft fan, airshow images can make an interesting addition to your portfolio so when the Winter has passed why not check out the internet to see if their is a show near you. Regards, David.

(All images taken with Nikon D80 camera/Tamron 70-300 zoom lens)