Category: Stock Photography

Sunset Cruise with Na Pali Coast Hanalei Tours

Update: I’ve updated this post with new information and reworked photos. You can find the new version of a Sunset cruise along the Na Pali coast in Kauai here. For something different, I thought I would post a review of a sunset cruise I recently took in Kauai with Na Pali Coast Hanalei Tours and illustrate it with some of the images that will be finding their way onto stock agency sites in the near future! I’ve been to Kauai...

Another Stock Photographer willing to post real earnings!

There is a lot of bluff and misdirection in the world of stock photography (a bit like politics?) but I came across a site from a fellow stock photographer who is willing to post what he actually earns, and he also maintains a pretty comprehensive site where you can buy prints of his portfolio as well as copies of books of his best images published each year. The photographer in question is Glenn Nagel and you can find his site...

Earnings from Stock Photography in May 2017

A steady performance during May – ending up with $2448 compared with $2469 in April. I am continuing to maintain my monthly earnings chart to see how my performance has varied by month over the years and it is showing some interesting results: What I hadn’t really noticed before is that the early months of the year have been showing a steady increase year by year. So the 2017 results are generally higher than 2016, 2015 etc. May is slightly...

My Experience with Adobe Stock

I was reading a discussion about the Adobe Stock Contributor Portal and a few people were complaining about how their sales had fallen since Adobe took over Fotolia. I was under the impression that my sales had gone very strongly in the opposite direction and so I decided to look at my stats and see what my experience was. As I suspected, the results have been very positive:   Adobe announced the purchase in December 2014 but not very much...

Stock Photo earnings in April 2017

Another month quickly goes by and it is time to add up all those earnings again! I didn’t need as big a calculator this month as Shutterstock seems to have dropped back into its old ways. After a great March with almost $1000, I’m back down at $597 on that site. Not a single enhanced license in the month! Overall, things are back to their normal levels as well (normal being “not so good”) with total earnings in April of...

Finding the best photography locations on vacation

I’m lucky to be just back from a 10 day vacation in California, starting in San Francisco, a stop in the Napa Valley then on to Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. Tons of snow about still, which makes for attractive mountain shots and I’m now happily processing my “holiday snaps!” I always do my research before I go, searching for best photography locations and I started using an iPad app called Pocket that allows you to keep a download of a...

Another Fine Art Sale – Washington DC

I’ve been on Fine Art America for a few years now, but it does seem that sales are coming a bit faster in recent months. I’ve not been uploading images very often (I keep telling myself to upload more!), but I get interesting and profitable sales almost every month. So far this year, I have had one sale in February, two in March and now a new one for April! This time it was a large framed print of the...

Stock Photography Earnings March 2017

It is that time of the month again, but Spring is in the air! Last month was good for me in earnings, this month actually surpassed that, so I’m definitely walking with a spring in my step! I decided to change the way I report iStock earnings this year and instead of estimating and then correcting the results later in the month, I’m simply going to consider the amount I am paid in the month as the earnings for that...

Breaking into stock video production

Ever since I got my Sony A7Rii last June, I’ve toyed with the idea of moving more into stock video production. Why? Mainly because the people involved seem to be doing very well, there is less competition (because it is harder) and the introduction of modern SLRs capable of handling 4K video production is opening up a new market for this ultra high resolution images. If you think about it, almost all the images currently in stock agency libraries are...

Using ImageBrief for ideas for new stock shots

As I’ve mentioned before, I have had some successes on ImageBrief – the best one being for the “head shot” that I sold first for $1050 and then was re-licensed for an additional $200: However, to be honest, these are relatively few and far between. Far more likely is that you submit some images which the client looks at, but then decides not to license anything and closes the brief. I don’t mind when they choose someone else’s image, but...