March Sales Updates:

Plaza de Espana -spectacular building in Seville

Far from a stellar month in March as even my usual number one agency failed to hit payout and several others produced no sales at all.

In first place were Shutterstock with a good number of downloads - but few On demand sales and no Single downloads conspired to drag down the earnings to just a few cents short of payout level. It's not often this happens but at least I can look forward to a bumper payout next month.

Istock took second place with 21 downloads but a low RPD (rate per download) dragged down the earnings.

Third place was for Dreamstime with just 4 downloads. All subscription sales but with two of them at the higher $2 sub level. In a normal month DT would have been lucky to get third ranking on those sales.

Fourth place went to Bigstock with 6 downloads.

Fifth and final place went to Redbubble with just a single sale - a sticker of the Greek flag keeping

Fishing at Piraeus port in Athens

them in the rankings.

Notable absentees in March with no sales at all were Alamy, Adobe and FineArtAmerica (my recent revival of sales hitting the buffers there). Alamy was, of course, the especial disappointment.

No disguising this was a poor month but stock is a long game and needs to be viewed over a much longer period than just a few weeks. My portfolios continue to grow and new subjects added so one bad month needn't be of concern.

New uploads in March saw a return to my 2016 trip to Athens with a series of temples at the World famous Acropolis as well images from Piraeus port (the biggest passenger port in Europe and the second biggest in the World so my research turned up - a useful fact for editorial captions).

Historic Acropolis site in Athens

New shooting saw my first ever visit to the Spanish city of Seville at the end of March. Lots to photograph here in this old, traditional City. Highlights of my visit included the Plaza de Espana (built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929). A spectacular semi circular building with huge public space in front. A moat with rowing boats just added to the photographic interest.  More modern, but equally impressive was the Metropol Parasol (Las Setas de Sevilla) - a 2011 wooden construction resembling giant mushrooms. A walkway on the top affords fantastic views over the City. I'm looking forward to working on my Seville images in the coming months so expect to see more in future posts. Hopefully, April results will see some good improvements. Regards, David.

August Sales Updates:

Greek marine research vessel Aegaeo at Piraeus

August proved another slow summer month with not even the unexpected leap to top place which I saw from Alamy in July (in fact, nothing at all from them in August -though that is the nature of how Alamy works with various billing cycles meaning I could have had sales which are not reported yet).

So, as in a normal month, Shutterstock moved back to first place. A good crop of On Demand sales and several modest single sales helped stabilise things here.

Istock made second place with 37 downloads. Down on recent months but still maintaining higher sales since the Unification process at the start of 2017. I finally got round to signing up for the free Todayis20 site which helps you make sense of the inscrutable sales reports from Getty. Once signed up just upload your Getty sales file to them to have all revealed -including thumbnails of all the sold images. There is a wealth of information available which you can break down in multiple ways. This site was created by a Getty contributor and, though free, donations are welcomed.

In third place were Redbubble with three product sales (including one order of 10 stickers of a CCTV camera image - I suspect they are going up in someones shop or similar!).

Fourth place saw Dreamstime with 7 downloads. Some higher priced subcription sales here but no big credit

Torrent De Pareis on Majorca

sales this month.

123RF perked up with 18 downloads to make fifth place. As seems frequent here the sales started off slowly before picking up towards the end of the month.

Sixth place went to Bigstock with 10 downloads. My images of the Tenterden Food and Drink Festival continued to sell here.

Finally in seventh place were Fotolia with 3 downloads (still waiting for them to accept Editorial images so I can really upscale my portfolio. Who knows if this will ever happen but I keep hoping).

Xara gate at Alcudia on Majorca

Recent uploads included some of Greek marine research vessel Aegaeo in Piraeus port, Athens. Operated by the Institute of Oceanography this ship is involved in all sorts of marine research work so I have hopes for some sales there. I'll be honest -this was just a harbour shot made while heading out to Aegina island. I only found out how high profile the vessel was when I researched it at home. You just never know what you might capture by chance.

Recent shooting revolved round my week long trip to Port Pollenca in Majorca during which I covered a lot of ground and added a lot of new images to my portfolio including the stunning gorge of Torrent De Pareis at Sa Calobra and the picturesque Old Town area of Alcudia. It certainly made a change from Greek islands and I am already considering a return visit as there were many more sights to photograph than I could manage in a week. Regards, David.