January Sales Updates:

Poll Tax Riots - poster sale on Redbubble

A pretty slow month in January overall with some highlights here and there.

Leading the field in first place was Alamy with 3 downloads. Two small sales of a Lidl supermarket and a good $$ for my archive shot of tv mogul Lord Lew Grade. There was also a modest payment for ASCRL (the US counterpart to DACS) fees.

Second place went to good old Redbubble with 4 product sales. Three T shirts and a poster print from the 1990 Poll Tax Riots in London.

Lord Lew Grade - archive sale on Alamy

Shutterstock could only manage third place with only one paltry Single download and one On Demand. Being bounced back to Level 1 didn't help matters here though I expect to be up to Level 2 during February.

Istock had another slow month with 20 downloads and a low RPD.

Fifth place went to Dreamstime with 5 downloads. Their new upload interface went live for me this month and so far I seem to have made it work. It didn't seem to have made the process any easier and the changes seem mainly cosmetic. 

Bigstock scraped into sixth place with 2 downloads.

Back to life (just) were Adobe in seventh place, also with 2 downloads. My hoped for surge of Illustrative Editorial downloads is yet to happen here.

Medieval windmills in Rhodes Old Town

Apart from getting my back portfolio onto Pond 5 (still no sales as yet) uploads were limited to a set from my 2019 trip to the Greek islands Rhodes and Tilos, including the medieval windmills in Rhodes Old Town.

Some early good sign in February but, then again, I said that about January. We'll see. Regards, David.   

December Sales Updates:

Ferry boat Prevelis at Halki island, Greece

An uninspiring month in December as you might expect in a year of pandemic and lockdowns combined with the usual lengthy Christmas and New Year holidays. However, it is what it is and my own plan is just to carry on until we get to better times - hopefully later in 2021.

In top place were Alamy with 2 downloads both from my archives. John Major, former Prime Minister and the late Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop retail chain. Both decent $$ sales.

Redbubble were just behind in second place with 7 product sales. The usual mix of products and images here from prints through to T shirts.

Third place was the best Shutterstock could manage with a low number of downloads overall, no Single

Quality but short lived Sunday Correspondent

sales at all and a limited number of On Demand sales. On a more positive note my short lived Level 4 status brought me a sub sale paying $1.16 - the highest I have seen yet. Obviously we all crash back to level 1 from the start of January. Happy New Year SS!

Fourth place went to Istock with 19 downloads and a poor RPD. What I am really noticing here (as everywhere) is the lack of sales of my music and food festival images which previously sold on a daily basis. The cancellation of almost all events in 2020 meant little demand to illustrate forthcoming outdoor events. This may not improve much in 2021 as Summer events (on this side of the World) are needing to be planned and booked right now and it is a brave person who lays out money without any certainty.

Historic old White Lion, Tenterden

Fifth place went to Dreamstime with 6 downloads. On the plus side, reviews at DT are lightning fast -often just a few minutes after submission.

Finally in sixth place was a welcome back to Bigstock with 5 downloads. No idea why sales just stopped there for months and then suddenly restarted again. 

Nothing from Adobe at all in December which was disappointing after my first three illustrative editorial sales in November. I had hoped to see that continue.

Uploading recently saw me going back to my 2016 Halki island trip for a set of ferry boat Prevelis as well as a more recent images of my local Oasis fashion store (now closed down for good) and the historic old White Lion Hotel. My main emphasis was, as before, getting my back catalogue up to Pond 5 and filling in gaps in my Picfair and print on demand sites at the same time. These included images of the short lived Sunday Correspondent which was an excellent quality UK Sunday newspaper. Launched in 1989 it closed down in 1990. I still have the first issue.

January has started off slowly for myself and others on the forums are reporting the same but, as the month goes on I'm detecting a small glimmer of an upturn. More next month. Regards, David.  

Christmas 2020

At the end of a strange and unexpected year, wishing everyone the best Christmas possible and a much better 2021. Stay safe.
Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Tenterden town hall -editorial sale at Adobe

A fairly strong month in November with a nice boost at one agency.

Down to business we had Shutterstock taking a strong first place. A reasonable Single sale and a slew of On Demand sales (making up circa 50% of earnings) pushing things up here.

Second place went to Redbubble with 5 product sales. The usual range from prints to T.shirts here. As last month, I would expect some of these are destined to be Christmas gifts.

Dreamstime gave a pleasant surprise by coming in third place with no less than 31 downloads. This was another of those unusual events where the same buyer bought a whole load of semi related images (Hastings pier fire, Eastbourne pier fire etc). This is not the first time DT has produced something like this.

Istock managed fourth place with 21 downloads. Again, a disappointing RPD this month.

Fifth place went to FineArtAmerica with a single T.Shirt sale. 2020 has certainly seen some steady results at FAA.

Alamy disappointed with just a single Personal Use sale of Professor Stephen Hawking to give them sixth place.

Seventh place was interesting as Adobe produced 3 downloads. Interesting because all three were from

Hastings pier fire - surge at Dreamstime

my newly submitted Illustrative Editorial range. We had a Barclays Bank, Laura Ashley store front and my own local Tenterden town hall. What they seem to like and accept is branded stuff - store fronts, petrol stations, a Boeing airliner. What failed were just travel type shots which had an editorial element in them. These were all rejected. They also stipulate No Recognisable People. People in the distance or people you can't really make out seem to be ok here. Truth is I'm not sure I have that many in my portfolio that will qualify but I've added about forty so far on Adobe. I'll update on how these do in coming posts.

Finishing off in eighth place were Bigstock with just a single download. As previously posted this was my first sale there since August! I still have no idea why they just stopped.

Rt.Hon. John Smith - archives to Pond 5

Also stopped (briefly) were my uploads to Picfair. This is because they now only offer unlimited uploads if you upgrade to their Picfair Plus store. I probaly did well to get to over 2000 images before the upload button grayed out. With a 20% discount code I upgraded for circa £55 (normally £69 p/a). It certainly looks nice though I am yet to make the most of the customising features available. The key thing is will they actually sell anything now that I have forked out my money? I do have a rather uneasy feeling that they are concentrating their efforts on selling nice websites and not on selling images. I'll see in the coming year and then make a decision.

Not much photography shooting since last time but I get out to do a few store fronts and the like (all accepted at Adobe!). I also continued to get my back portfolio up to Pond 5 - well over 1000 images now including some of the late John Smith (former Labour party Leader). We shall see what happens there as well but if they are not uploaded they certainly cannot sell them. More updates next time, Regards, David.

October Sales Updates:

Dreamstime sale: George Best

 An overall OK month in October but with some moving around in the rakings.

Alamy took first place with 2 downloads (both from my political archive files). On these alone they would have made second place but a worthwhile DACS payment pushed them to the top. Personally I think it correct to include this as it comes under the "income from stock photogaphy" category.

Second place went to Redbubble with a pleasing 9 product sales. Christmas is certainly coming (and I know what some people are getting!).

Shutterstock slipped down to third place with not even a rise to Level 4 commission keeping them at the top. A distinct shortage of On Demand and good Single sales dragging them down.

Dreamstime perked up to take fourth place with 10 downloads. Certainly signs of improvement there.

Istock had another poor month with just 19 downloads and an unexciting RPD to make fifth place.

John Major - archive upload to Pond 5

  Easy to spot the problem here as my music festival images normally do well here but, sadly, life has been anything but normal this year.

Bringing up the rear in sixth place were Adobe with 3 downloads. Adobe have now opened the Illustrative Editorial category to Bronze level contributors (that's me). More on that next time.

Bigstock managed a second month with totally zero downloads. Not sure what is happening with them as despite never being a big seller I usually get a few sales each month.

Over at Pond 5, i am still awaiting my first sale but continued to upload my portfolio. I'm alternating between my old archive editorials and modern day travel images. I now have just short of 1000 images with them. At Set your own Price and 50% commission I'm happy to take a long view on this site.

Lidl - Illustrative Editorial now open at Abobe

I didn't upload anything much too my regular sites during October as I concentrated on uploading to Pond 5 though I continued to use this to fill gaps in at Picfair and, where suitable, to my POD sites.

More next month which I hope and expect to get posted earlier as I am upping the time allocated to photography...... Regards, David.