August Sales Updates:

Mickey Jupp - Alamy sale to The Guardian

Coming to the end of the Summer Slowdown (I hope) August proved to be a slow month.

In first place again Shutterstock was the exception with a good number of downloads. On Demand and Single downloads made up 40% of the earnings here and as posted last month I am continuing to get a number of higher paying subscription sales and these seem to be on the increase.

Istock took second place with a reduced 20 downloads but a higher RPD pulled them up the rankings.

Third place went to Alamy with 3 modest paying downloads. Two were archive images - David Mellor (former politician) and Seventies musician Mickey Jupp. I got a bit concerned when the same image of Mickey sold elsewhere but tracking my Alamy sale down to The Guardian (with full name credit) it turned out that, now aged 78, he has got a new album out of previously unreleased songs. So a good news story then. The third image was of Puerto Pollensa beach on Majorca. Always good to see something other than my archive stuff sell here.

Dreamstime took fourth place with 5 downloads.

Fifth place went to Redbubble with 2 product sales - a greeting card and a fridge magnet featuring the

Puerto Pollensa - Alamy travel image sale

Greek island of Skiathos.

Adobe came in sixth place with 3 downloads including an editorial one of the disused Strand underground station in London. Quite a lot of history to this station which opened in 1907 and closed for good in 1994. It was, unusually, the end of a little branch of the Picadilly Line from Holborn Station. At various times it was known as Aldwych station (and was when I used to use it back in the Seventies). These days it sometimes gets used as a set for films and television.

Seventh place went to FineArtAmerica with a mug sale featuring the same image of Skiathos that Redbubble sold as a fridge magnet!

Strand Station - editorial sale at Adobe

Bigstock came back to life to take eighth place with 4 downloads including one I shot last year of vehicles queuing to get into a petrol station during temporary shortages (AKA public panic buying).

Finally, in ninth place were our Swedish friends Mostphotos with a single small download. Still nice to hear from them again. For those that don't know this is one of few (only?) agencies that let you download your own images for free. Handy bit of extra back up for your files though I would totally not recommend using them as your only back up.

Nothing much to report in both uploading and shooting. I'm still considering a late Summer trip somewhere but repeated strikes and flight cancellations and other disruptions are making me a bit cautious to commit.

Early days of September but I am seeing a few good signs. Regards, David. 

July Sales Updates:

1977 traffic jam - card sales on Redbubble

Super late posting this due to various personal reasons. A positive month in July with the old regular at number one (and zero sales at Bigstock).

Shutterstock was back in first place with one good $$ Single sale of La Toya Jackson and a good number of On Demand sales. July saw me climb back to Level 4 which will help with non subscription sales for the rest of the year. I'm also noticing an increasing  number of higher paying sub sales ranging from $0.56 right up to the best at $1.23 in one case. To be clear, these are not replacing On Demand sales which are still coming through.

Second place went to Istock with 55 downloads including several paying around $4 in commission so a good month for them.

Alamy took third place with 2 downloads. A low value shot of a Lidl supermarket and a good $$ sale of a

La Toya Jackson - good single sale on SS

2010 Conservative party election poster. That poster was on a farm gate near where I live so it was a simple matter to stop the car and get some images.

Fourth place went to Redbubble with 4 product sales. By coincidence two of these were greetings cards of a 1977 traffic jam near Brighton. I was surprised that one buyer in the USA and another in the UK should both choose that very old image within days of each other.

Adobe were back in fifth place with 7 downloads including an Illustrative Editorial image of an ESSO petrol station. In a significant move Adobe announced they were dropping their (proper) editorial section. This was a feed from various news organisations such as Reuters and USA Today. Any hope from regular contributors that the editorial section might be opened up to them as well is now gone. Still no idea why editorial is such an issue for them when just about every other agency takes them.

Election poster - nice sale on Alamy

Finally in sixth place we had Dreamstime with 8 downloads. 

Nothing much new to report on the shooting front. I need to start going through my Ithaca island images and also revisit my Lisbon shots. 

I shall endeavour to get my August report out in a more timely manner! Regards, David. 

June Sales Updates:

Gordon Brown - good sale on Pond5

 Just as May saw Alamy going from hero to zero June saw Pond5 going from zero to hero!

So, straight into first place were Pond5 with 5 custom licence sales of archive images of former British Prime Ministers. Margaret Thatcher, Ted Heath, John Major, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. These were all for decent amounts and I got the usual 50% commission for each. Whilst photo sales on Pond are not frequent when they do happen they are for reasonable amounts (though whether that will last now they are owned by Shutterstock we will see).

Shutterstock took second place with a big increase in downloads and 8 On Demand sales plus 3 modest Single sales making up over 50% of the total. They would have been an easy winner but for that nice Pond surprise.

Third place went to Istock with 37 downloads. A low RPD this month pulled them down a bit.

Fourth place went to FineArtAmerica with a T shirt sale. FAA never seem to break through in mass

Tony Blair - sticker sale on Redbubble

sales for me but always do enough each year overall to make them worthwhile.

Dreamstime took fifth place with 6 downloads including two rare credit sales of my former home town of Hastings. Just a few cents until payout now.

Alamy made a small comeback in sixth place with a $ sale. This was another from my set of WW2 ration books and Identity cards. I'm really pleased with how this series is doing as they seem to be getting regular sales across all my agencies.

Seventh place went to Bigstock with 4 downloads. No sign of the Bridge returning.

Redbubble disappointed in eighth place with a single sticker sale of Tony Blair (making another outing this month. Not sure what you do with a sticker of a former Prime Minister but there you go.

Bringing up the rear in ninth place was a very rare appearance from Mostphotos with a single subscription sale. I don't know if anyone does well with this site but it certainly has never worked well for me. The big plus is that you can download your own images for free so it's another form of backup.

Food Ration book - gathering sales

Missing from the rankings list above is Adobe where I didn't get a single sale during June. I still hope for the day when they take proper editorial images and not just the limited (no people) Illustrative Editorial. Hard to figure why they are so adverse to this when just about every other agency going accepts them.

As mentioned in my last post shooting was concentrated on my Greek islands trip to Ithaca. I have yet to start editing and uploading these. I'm still continuing to go through my archives looking for further images to scan and upload.

July now takes us into the famous Summer Slowdown so we'll see what the month brings. Regards, David.

May Sales Updates:

Rua Augusta Arch, Lisbon

Late posting this month as I have been travelling. One old regular took top place and Alamy went from hero to zero.

First place then was Shutterstock. This placement was down to no less than 9 On Demand sales backed up by 6 modest Single sales. I'll have more of those On Demands please.

Second place went to Istock with 33 downloads. Usual suspects did well here as they do every month.

Redbubble took third place with 2 good T Shirt sales.

Fourth place went to Adobe with 7 downloads including an editorial of a Woolworth store. Two of the downloads were of an electric vehicle charging point sign. This is becoming a regular seller both at Adobe and elsewhere. Nice because it was literally a five minute walk from home to get the picture. I also did images of the charger unit itself and of the icon painted on the tarmac to indicate the space.

Anne Bancroft - new archive scan

Fifth place was taken by FineArtAmerica with another T Shirt sale.

Dreamstime came in sixth place with 3 downloads. Getting very close to payout there so I'm just
willing those sales to come.

Last in seventh place were Bigstock with just a single download. No sign of the Bridge programme returning and various people have reported mixed messages from it being broken to having been discontinued. As I have said many times before, the number of sales on Bigstock doesn't warrant the time involved in uploading them directly so I guess my portfolio there will be static from now on.

As mentioned at the start, I didn't get a single sale at Alamy. I cannot remember the last time that happened as I seem to have been getting some sales every month for a long time now. On the plus side I came top in the monthly forum contest with an image of the poll tax riots and got to set the June challenge choosing the theme of Transport. There have been some great entrants and in July I will have the pleasure/headache of choosing eight finalists for people to vote on. These contests are just a bit of fun really but as the Alamy forum is viewable to the public It's also a bit of extra exposure.

EV charging point - getting regular sales

Uploading in May was a mix of my Lisbon trip plus I have been having another trawl through my archives and came up with a number of images to scan including a different one of actress Anne Bancroft and actress Deborah Barrymore (daughter of Roger Moore).

Back to the travelling (and the late posting) I have just returned from two weeks on the small Greek island of Ithaca. It was great getting back to Greece for the first time since 2019. Contrary to the horror stories on the news of massive queues at the airports, flight cancellations and luggage going missing both my outward and return flights went like clockwork and on time. School holidays are coming up fast and that's when all the trip prices go up in price so I might be leaving a while before my next one. Regards, David.

April Sales Updates:

 

Chancellor Lamont - archive sale on Alamy

A steady if undramatic month in April with with the usual suspects keeping their place at the top end of the rankings.

In first place for the second month running were Redbubble with 5 product sales. Three T shirts, a greeting card and an artboard print were purchased here. 

Second place went to Alamy with 2 downloads. Both of these were from my B/W archives - Norman Lamont (then Chancellor of the Exchequer) and a good $$ sale of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Shutterstock took third place. I hit 5 On Demand sales this month and 3 Single sales. As expected, I also moved up to Level 3 which gives a 25% commission on credit sales. I have already noticed higher amounts earned for On Demand and some bigger subscription sales in the $0.50 to $0.70 range (i.e higher than the old fixed $0.36 I used to get under the previous schedule). Obviously, still plenty of the $0.10 sales in the mix as well.

Fourth place went to Istock with 31 downloads and a reasonable RPD. Travel and music festival shots

Bexhill Hospital - welcome to my portfolio

featured heavily here as ever. Barcelona University seems to be an ongoing seller.

Fifth place was taken by Dreamstime with a bigger than usual 9 downloads (including the rare beast of an actual credit sale).

Adobe came in sixth place with 5 downloads.

Bringing up the bottom of the list in seventh place were Bigstock with just 1 download. There's a problem here as the Bridge to Bigstock link seems to have stopped working. No images approved at Shutterstock from the last week of April have moved over. Its been mentioned on the Microstockgroup forum so it's not just me. It's not the first time this has happened and previously got sorted out in the end.

New shooting included some images of the welcome sign at Bexhill Hospital in Sussex. I had an appointment there so made the most of the opportunity!

Thames Television studios in London, 1989

I have also been revisiting my old archive material and scanning some images that I never got round to before. The Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper building, Capital Radio in London and the Thames Television studios featured in these. Because these were all shot between 1987-1989 I didn't bother uploading to Shutterstock because of their strange rule that any images taken before 1990 have to have a signed property release for each one. Like they cannot believe that any contributor could possibly have taken photographs before that date and must have stolen them from somewhere. Nobody else has an issue with this. 

For anyone that's interested in the technical details of scanning I am using an Epson Perfection V300 Photo scanner. This comes with a special holder for both 35mm negative strips and 35mm colour transparencies. I have scanned some medium format (120) negatives where the point of interest fell within the 35mm size area (if that makes sense). The V300 is an old model but they may well have an updated version available. 

It is always strange initially to be working with these old images because they look so different to todays grain free crisp digital images but, of course, that is exactly the appeal to photo buyers looking for an authentic older look. Regards, David.