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...
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...
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...
After moving from being a long-time Canon shooter to the Sony mirrorless full frame system last June, I started questioning one of my lens choices. I started with the 16-35mm F4, 24-70mm F4 and the 70-200mm F4 Sony lenses and carried those around in my backpack. Right from the start, I was a bit uncertain about the sharpness of that 24-70mm lens and even had some rejections from stock agencies about lack of sharpness. Even though I did some tests...
There was an update to Microstockr Pro last night that added support for the new Getty/iStock ESP reporting system. I reviewed Microstockr Pro in the past and find it a really useful way to keep a daily track of what is selling on the various sites. It is currently free for desktop users. The latest release picks up the details of the sales of individual images from the ESP site and shows those with thumbnails in the appropriate months: Of...
Like many of you, I have struggled with the move to the Getty ESP, being unable to access the site at all for almost 2 or 3 weeks in February. I mentioned earlier that when I compared the tax forms I got from Getty with my own records of earnings taken each month from the site, it turned out I had earned perhaps $200 more in the year than I expected, and I’m glad to say that has continued into...
These don’t happen very often, but it is always nice to see a sale, especially of a large print, on Fine Art America. Yesterday it was a 36 inch x 21 inch glossy canvas of my images of the Canadian Falls at Niagara. I was walking on the Canadian side of the waterfall, and there is almost always a rainbow there and I waited until the tourist boat was just at the end of the rainbow. It was a single...
Interesting how things change from month to month. February is normally a poor month because of the number of days (although aren’t all months poor months these days!), but this month I actually did better. Quite a lot of that is because I report sales from Getty when they are actually cleared, and so that adds some delay, but overall it was a good month for me with total earnings of $2719. Here is the comparison agency by agency with...
Since my earlier review of StockSubmitter back in December, I’ve really grown to like the system and it really does save time! As I explained last time, my basic process is to keyword in Lightroom (which is alphabetic order) and then to export the files as Jpegs to a new folder structure ready for uploading. Once I open StockSubmitter I first check to see that the categories have been guessed correctly – they generally are, but it is worth a...
I haven’t uploading anything new to Fine Art America recently, but I do get sales from time to time. The latest one this week was for a 24 x 24 inch metal print of some seeds from the Swamp Milkweed plant: They obviously cropped it a bit to get a square format, but I have always liked this series of images – in fact I have two different versions on the wall of my bathroom! This one sold to make...
