March Sales Updates:

Vintage tram in Lisbon

 A line up of nine agents to report on for March. Only Picfair and Pond5 fail to feature.

Redbubble took first place with 5 product sales including T shirts, poster and baby clothes.

Second place went to Shutterstock. An uplift in On Demand sales over February helped pull up the earnings here. Now closing in on Level Three which while it doesn't help much with many of the subscription sales will help increase the value of On Demand and Single sales.

Alamy came in third place with 7 downloads. Four of these were from my b/w archives with Sarah Owen MP and a Lidl supermarket making up the rest.

Fourth place went to Istock with 33 downloads. A low RPD this month dragged them down the rankings.

Fifth place was taken by an improved Dreamstime with 8 downloads. Two of these were the better $2 subscriptions. These were both from my WW2 rationing book series which I am pleased to say are starting to gain some traction across most sites. It's nice to see sales from something my parents used to keep tucked away in a drawer (perhaps they thought rationing might come back?).

Sixth place went to FineArtAmerica for another baby clothes product. Good to hear from them again after a bit of a gap.

Adobe slowed with 3 downloads. One of these was an editorial of a Monsoon fashion store sign.

Tenterden supporting Ukraine

Eighth place went to Bigstock with just a single download. Could be interesting to see how long Shutterstock keep this going as a separate agency. Still, with my SS uploads just automatically transferring over the odd sale or two here is just a bonus for no extra effort.

Finally, in ninth place we had a rare appearance from Mostphotos with a single subscription sale. I did opt out of subs for quite a long time but as my sales dropped to zero I thought I may as well get something out of them.

WW2 rationing books -gaining sales

At last I got back to travelling in March with an eight day trip to Lisbon. After over two years staying at home it felt strange to be getting on a plane again. Lisbon is certainly as charming as I expected and the vintage trams were my personal highlight. All very photogenic except for the fact that, though warm, the sun spent most of my time there behind clouds - making all the buildings and trams look dull and grey. It required a lot of patience and time just waiting for the odd moments the clouds cleared. Still, even if I didn't get nearly as many images as I had hoped for, at least I've actually been somewhere and seen a new place.

Other recent shooting (much nearer home) was more images of my home town of Tenterden including some more store signs and topically the historic Town Hall with a Ukraine flag draped over the balcony as a sign of support.

I'm already starting to think about my next trip but I think it is very likely to be a Greek island (either an old favourite or maybe somewhere new). I just hope all the easing of travel restrictions remains in place. We'll see. Regards, David.

February Sales Update:

Ken Russell - card on Redbubble

Given that it is a short month I tend not to have great expectations for February but I was proved wrong by one very large sale this time.

First place (by a very long way) went to Alamy with 5 downloads. Four were from my B/W archives plus one digital image of the Greek island of Halki. The winner here was my 1991 image of Body Shop founder Anita Roddick speaking at a rally in Trafalgar Square, London. Alamy contacted me to ask if I would waive the Editorial Use Only restriction as the client wanted to use it for a social media campaign. Assured that they had the required permissions, I agreed and was delighted to see a sale just short of $400.00 (gross) later that day. Following on from my biggest ever sale in January it was exciting to see that repeated and exceeded in February.

Staying on the subject of Alamy it is worth noting that April is the one time of year when you can choose to opt out of different selling options. In particular you can review the countries where they have distribution partners and opt out of any regions you would prefer not to have your images on sale. A few spring to mind at present. You can also opt out of the low value Novel Use scheme as well (though I must say I have never actually had any of those sales).

Shutterstock took second place. A few On Demand sales and two modest Single sales kept them up in

Anita Roddick - big sale on Alamy

the rankings.

Third place went to Istock with 19 downloads. A bit disappointing in quantity but, of course, these were mainly January sales being reported.

Redbubble took fourth place with 2 product sales. This month it was greeting cards of British film director Ken Russell and legendary WW2 singer Dame Vera Lynne.

Fifth place went to Adobe with 5 downloads though nothing on the editorial front this month despite my having a number of new ones accepted recently. Edit: I was wrong - one of them was of Waitrose supermarket trolleys.

Dreamstime made sixth place with 3 downloads. All editorials in their case.

Finally in eighth place were Bigstock with 2 downloads. Those months last year when I was getting dozens of airshow image sales seem line a distant memory now.

Ferry at Skopelos - archives to Pond5

New uploading still consisted mainly of my back catalogue to Pond 5. Not too many left to go on that front but no sign of any further sales at the moment.

I have continued to research travel ideas (in particular Lisbon) but have yet to book anything for certain. At least things are getting easier with most European destinations no longer requiring a Covid test before you go (for vaccinated people) and no testing required to return to the UK. There is also talk of the PLF (Passenger Locator Form) being scrapped for UK return. Having not travelled since November 2019 I am very much looking forward to seeing some new (and old) destinations this year.

Too early to predict how March will go but in general it is usually an upturn month. Let's see. Regards, David. 

January Sales Updates:

 

Robert Maxwell - mega sale on SS

A good end to January after a slow start with one exceptional sale making a big difference.

Shutterstock took first place not least because of a mega Single sale of the late media tycoon Robert Maxwell. TOS do not allow too much detail but suffice to say this sale came in at just over the start of $$$ amounts. This was, in fact, the highest single commission I have ever received while selling online. Even Alamy hasn't quite matched that (though they have come close several times). These big sales are rare, of course, but very welcome when they do happen.

Second place went to Alamy with 5 downloads. Three from my political archives and images of a Lidl store and my WW2 ration book series making up the total.

Redbubble made third place with 3 product sales. Two photographic posters and a greetings card.

Istock came in fourth place with 22 downloads. Nice to see a sale of St. Mildreds church from my home town of Tenterden in there.

At the lower levels Dreamstime made fifth place with 3 downloads. Two images of Folkestone and an

Tenterden - home town sales on Istock

archive B/W of  pop singer Alvin Stardust.

Adobe continued their long run of zero downloads which ran from the end of November right through to the last few days of January when a single download gave them sixth place. On the plus side I have had a number of new images accepted by them (mainly in the Illustrative Editorial category).

Finally we had Bigstock in seventh place also with a single download. 

Jamie Staff - archives to Pond 5

No new shooting in January (pretty dull weather most of the time here) but I have been going through my film archives and selecting a number of images for future scanning. I have pretty much exhausted my celebrity shots but have a variety of other images that might have value -especially to Alamy. 

I have also started to have a good look at travel websites with a view to making a booking in the coming weeks. Being someone that mainly does travel photography these days it has been sad not to gone anywhere new for such a long time. Lisbon has been getting particular attention from me as the architecture looks great and they have all those photogenic trams - but who knows what I'll pick as my first trip.

Uploading is still concentrating on getting my back catalogue to Pond 5 (plus filling a few gaps elsewhere at the same time). I now have over 2.5k images there including my recent uploads of Olympic gold medal cyclist Jamie Staff (2008 Beijing games) who I photographed making an appearance in his home town of Ashford, Kent.

Early days for February so far and, of course, it's a short month so we will see how it pans out. Regards, David.

December Sales Updates:

Hawker Hunter - Chinese sale on Alamy

A slightly delayed update for a fairly low key month in December. Hardly surprising when large chunks of the picture buying world shut down for the lengthy Christmas and New Year holidays. 

Leading the way in first place were Alamy with 7 downloads. Six of these were from my archive political shots with the exception being a distributor sale to China of a 1950s vintage Hawker Hunter. Notwithstanding the later horror of the Shoreham airshow crash when another Hunter caused eleven fatalities after crashing onto a road, this is actually one of my favourite aircraft. For anyone aware of the infamous Chinese sales incident when hundreds (thousands?) of sales were suddenly reported on December 30/31 for a sub microstock price of 15cents each ( paying contributors a whopping 4cents after commission deductions) this wasn't one of those and sold for $9 or so. In fact, I didn't get a single one of the 4cent sales I'm pleased to say. I suspect that this is because the bulk of my Alamy portfolio is Editorial. Alamy have responded to questions about these mass low payments and confirmed they are looking into the whole thing. I rather get the impression that they were as surprised as anyone when these sales came in. Further updates on their forum have been promised.

Second place went to Shutterstock (with only 3 On Demand sales and no Single sales pulling the total

Sa Calobra - sold on Redbubble

down).

Istock took third place with 39 downloads. As is usual, music festival and travel images made up the bulk of these.

In fourth place were Redbubble with 2 product sales (last minute Christmas gifts I imagine). A mug of the famous hairpin road down to Sa Calobra in Majorca (beloved by hardened cyclists) and a pack of postcards featuring the (old) Hastings lifeboat taking part in the annual Old Town Carnival.

Dreamstime scraped fifth place with just 2 downloads. Maybe 2022 will be the year sales will pick up again here?

Finally in sixth place were Bigstock with just a single download. 

Missing from the ranking is Adobe as I didn't get a single sale after the end of November (and still haven't at the time of writing). This was especially disappointing as it looked like sales were increasing there despite my tiny 400 odd portfolio.

Paxos - archives to Pond 5

Shooting and travelling didn't happen in December although I did receive an early Christmas present when my new passport arrived by courier on Christmas Eve. At least I am set to go as and when travel restrictions start to ease and which is already starting to happen.

Uploading in December saw me concentrating on getting more of my back portfolio onto Pond 5 including my images of the Greek island of Paxos. Whether or not I ever see much in the way of sales here remains to be seen but I am determined that it won't be because they are not available. Further any agency that lets you determine your own selling price and pays 50% commission deserves to be supported. That said, some contributors there are quite delusional - setting a price of  hundreds of dollars for routine travel shots. They probably wonder why they don't get any sales.

More next month. Regards, David.

November Sales Updates:

Leslie Nielsen -print sale on Redbubble

 A strong month in November boosted in part by the upcoming Christmas holidays.

Way out in first place were Redbubble with no less than 12 product sales. Items ranged from framed prints, mugs, t shirts and cushions. I have no doubt that many of these were destined to be Christmas presents (though the rush has come a little later this year). So, if you have always wanted a cushion with Margaret Thatcher on it your luck could in this year.

Istock took second place with 36 downloads and a good RPD (highest commission being just over $6). As is normal for Istock most sales were either travel images or my Tentertainment music festival images (a sure sign of some return to normality ahead despite the new variant).

Third place went to FineArtAmerica with a framed print sale of a vintage Hawker Hunter jet fighter. As a paid up member not only do you get unlimited uploads but also a commission on frames etc which helps push up the earnings.

Alamy came in fourth place with (sadly) no downloads but a worthwhile DACS payment which I always count as "earnings from stock" so they make the rankings.

Fifth place went to Shutterstock but a dearth of On Demand sales and zero Single sales pulled them down the earnings league.

Adobe made sixth place with 7 downloads (not bad given my small portfolio there). None of these were editorials this month.

Moving down to the minnows we had Bigstock in seventh place with 3 downloads and finally one time

Hawker Hunter - print sale on FAA

top tier agency Dreamstime in eighth place with just 2 subscription sales.

As two POD (print on demand) sites did well this month it might be worth mentioning that I did try US print/poster site Image Kind for a while. Hundreds of images uploaded but not a single sale. It may just be that my images just aren't what their buyers want so might be worth a look for others. Their near dead forum doesn't inspire much confidence though. Other sites that some report sales from are Society6 and British site Photos4Me. I might give these a try in the future -maybe.

Music festival -selling well at Istock

Another non selling (for me) site is Picfair. I love the ethos of the site (set your own fee and get 100% of that) but with a grand total of five sales (the last in 2017) and a portfolio of over 2.5k it doesn't seem to work for me. I suspect that sales there come from the photographer having their own buyer contacts and directing them to  Picfair. I also wonder if they are concentrating on selling Stores to photographers rather than images to buyers. I see an awful lot of Google ads for Picfair but they are never about buying from their great collection of images. That said my Store fee came up for renewal this month and I have signed up for another year. I think this be my final year with them unless I start seeing sales.

November saw the thirtieth anniversary of the death of media tycoon Robert Maxwell (see my post on the twentieth anniversary) but I didn't see the big flurry of sales I was hoping for. Perhaps the forthcoming BBC documentary and also a drama series about him will stir up some interest when they eventually air.

Very limited uploading in November (Christmas preps etc) and no new shooting. That said, I have just applied to renew my passport and hope to actually use it in 2022. We will see. Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas. Kind regards, David.