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Thursday, August 02, 2007
Many photographers complain that microstock agencies are ruining the stock photography industry. That they are charging too little and replacing quality with quantity.
They argue that it is a bad thing that you can make 500 photographs with your digital camera for the cost of re-charging the battery. In the same breath they complain that people are charging less for a copy of the photo than it costs to make the photo. Obviously both cannot be true. I think that the real answer is that microstockers are charging less than it costs traditional stock photographers to make the photos.
On bit of accounting that I admit I and most microstockers overlook is the cost of the camera and lenses etc. Most microstock photographers are probably not including the price of their camera as a cost of making the photo. Even if they did, the cost of the camera would have to be divided between all the photos that they take, or at the very least submit to the agency. For me, from what I have submitted to istockphoto.com, each photo likely cost me around $10 in equipment expenses and maybe $2 each in my own time. I guess that means I have spent $12 per photo on average, to produce my portfolio. Over the last year and four months, I have made about $7 per photo selling them as stock.
That looks like a loss of $5 per photo on equipment, but here's the rub, the thing that the traditional stock shooters don't realize. Most microstock photographers had their camera before they started shooting for stock. The cost of their equipment is sunk. The money they spent is gone already. No matter what they do, that money is gone, they needed a camera to take pictures of the family and now they are using it for stock too. In the eyes of the microstocker, this is a $7 gain per photo.
I know how much I spent and realize that so far I am sitting at a $5 loss so far, but I have a spreadsheet that is predicting that I will break even at the end of November. If I shoot 250 more photos over the next year after that, my equipment cost will have dropped to $5 per photo meaning that suddenly the cost of my photos will have dropped to $7 but my profit per photo will have gone up significantly because on average it is likely the new photos will sell as well as the old photos and the old photos will continue to sell.
Another form of payment the microstockers get is hard to put a monetary value on. Many, many people love taking photos. Their friends enjoy modeling for them. They all love seeing the photos used. When a photo gets used it is an affirmation that you as a photographer are talented and that your friends as models are attractive. That is worth a lot. Self actualization, is worth big bucks to a lot of people. Heck, it is why I have the job I do, sure I would like to be making double what I am, but I love my job more than any other job I have ever had. I can't imagine a better job. I feel a lot the same about microstock. Over the last year and four months 2165 people have figuratively patted me on the back by purchasing my photos. That's almost 5 people per day, and it just keeps on rising.
Traditional shooters are moaning the death of stock as a viable career choice for photographers. What they don't mention is the high barrier to entry into the traditional rights managed stock photography agencies.
I looked into it several years ago, I can't remember what agency it was, Getty or Corbis, but they wanted potential photographers to submit a library of many thousands of photos and then, after a certain amount of time they would accept you or send you packing and by the way, don't apply again. Basically it was impossible for anyone except seasoned professionals with a huge libraries of photos to become contributing members of the company I looked at. Today I checked both of their websites and can't find a link on how to even apply anymore.
Now the barriers to entry to being a stock photographer are gone. Anyone can sign up at istockphoto.com. I've made almost $1600 since March 2006. $1300 of that came since the beginning of 2007. By the end of the year, all my camera gear will be paid off. Depending how hard I work making new stock photos, I will probably be able to buy a full set of studio lights as well. From only 240 photos so far.
They argue that it is a bad thing that you can make 500 photographs with your digital camera for the cost of re-charging the battery. In the same breath they complain that people are charging less for a copy of the photo than it costs to make the photo. Obviously both cannot be true. I think that the real answer is that microstockers are charging less than it costs traditional stock photographers to make the photos.
On bit of accounting that I admit I and most microstockers overlook is the cost of the camera and lenses etc. Most microstock photographers are probably not including the price of their camera as a cost of making the photo. Even if they did, the cost of the camera would have to be divided between all the photos that they take, or at the very least submit to the agency. For me, from what I have submitted to istockphoto.com, each photo likely cost me around $10 in equipment expenses and maybe $2 each in my own time. I guess that means I have spent $12 per photo on average, to produce my portfolio. Over the last year and four months, I have made about $7 per photo selling them as stock.
That looks like a loss of $5 per photo on equipment, but here's the rub, the thing that the traditional stock shooters don't realize. Most microstock photographers had their camera before they started shooting for stock. The cost of their equipment is sunk. The money they spent is gone already. No matter what they do, that money is gone, they needed a camera to take pictures of the family and now they are using it for stock too. In the eyes of the microstocker, this is a $7 gain per photo.
I know how much I spent and realize that so far I am sitting at a $5 loss so far, but I have a spreadsheet that is predicting that I will break even at the end of November. If I shoot 250 more photos over the next year after that, my equipment cost will have dropped to $5 per photo meaning that suddenly the cost of my photos will have dropped to $7 but my profit per photo will have gone up significantly because on average it is likely the new photos will sell as well as the old photos and the old photos will continue to sell.
Another form of payment the microstockers get is hard to put a monetary value on. Many, many people love taking photos. Their friends enjoy modeling for them. They all love seeing the photos used. When a photo gets used it is an affirmation that you as a photographer are talented and that your friends as models are attractive. That is worth a lot. Self actualization, is worth big bucks to a lot of people. Heck, it is why I have the job I do, sure I would like to be making double what I am, but I love my job more than any other job I have ever had. I can't imagine a better job. I feel a lot the same about microstock. Over the last year and four months 2165 people have figuratively patted me on the back by purchasing my photos. That's almost 5 people per day, and it just keeps on rising.
Traditional shooters are moaning the death of stock as a viable career choice for photographers. What they don't mention is the high barrier to entry into the traditional rights managed stock photography agencies.
I looked into it several years ago, I can't remember what agency it was, Getty or Corbis, but they wanted potential photographers to submit a library of many thousands of photos and then, after a certain amount of time they would accept you or send you packing and by the way, don't apply again. Basically it was impossible for anyone except seasoned professionals with a huge libraries of photos to become contributing members of the company I looked at. Today I checked both of their websites and can't find a link on how to even apply anymore.
Now the barriers to entry to being a stock photographer are gone. Anyone can sign up at istockphoto.com. I've made almost $1600 since March 2006. $1300 of that came since the beginning of 2007. By the end of the year, all my camera gear will be paid off. Depending how hard I work making new stock photos, I will probably be able to buy a full set of studio lights as well. From only 240 photos so far.
Labels: istockphoto
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Wednesday, May 16, 2007
I've seen people complaining that not many microstock photographers are posting their statistics online, so seeing no reason not to, here are mine.
Of course, May isn't over yet but you get the idea. It's pretty obvious that I need 1800 more uploads. Well, probably less, because as you build your portfolio, you clue in to what sells, and also become a better photographer. Another factor is the growth of the site itself, with more and more buyers joining everyday, each photo will perform that much better for you.
It's getting to the point that I can request a cheque about every two weeks or so. It's turning out to be a nice addition to my day job cheque which, although larger comes just about as often. It's like getting a $1.25/hour raise. Istockphoto.com is a good way to find inexpensive stock photos as well as a good way to make a few extra dollars.
-Gary
| Month | Downloads | Revenue | Uploads |
| Mar 06 | 1 | $0.27 | 3 |
| Apr 06 | 4 | $2.00 | 1 |
| May 06 | 7 | $3.80 | 25 |
| Jun 06 | 30 | $11.60 | 14 |
| Jul 06 | 63 | $24.60 | 42 |
| Aug 06 | 90 | $38.80 | 44 |
| Sep 06 | 93 | $42.20 | 7 |
| Oct 06 | 104 | $53.20 | 2 |
| Nov 06 | 82 | $33.60 | 14 |
| Dec 06 | 101 | $54.25 | 3 |
| Jan 07 | 169 | $113.56 | 36 |
| Feb 07 | 191 | $136.01 | 10 |
| Mar 07 | 217 | $206.49 | 10 |
| Apr 07 | 223 | $198.59 | 11 |
| May 07 | 160 | $123.25 | 0 |
| 1535 | $1,042.22 | 222 |
Of course, May isn't over yet but you get the idea. It's pretty obvious that I need 1800 more uploads. Well, probably less, because as you build your portfolio, you clue in to what sells, and also become a better photographer. Another factor is the growth of the site itself, with more and more buyers joining everyday, each photo will perform that much better for you.
It's getting to the point that I can request a cheque about every two weeks or so. It's turning out to be a nice addition to my day job cheque which, although larger comes just about as often. It's like getting a $1.25/hour raise. Istockphoto.com is a good way to find inexpensive stock photos as well as a good way to make a few extra dollars.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Wednesday, April 25, 2007
The cheques keep on coming in. I received my second today, for $213. My plan before was to keep a small balance on my Istockphoto.com account just so that I would always be able to make a payment request, but it seems like the balance rises fast enough that it will probably never be too big of a wait before I can request another cheque.
Looking at my sales graphs, it seems as if my monthly istock sales are rapidly approaching 10% of what I'm getting paid for my day job. That says to me that I need to quickly shoot another 1800 half decent photos to add to my meager 200, then I'll really be laughing.
My spreadsheet suggests that at the rate I'm going it will be four more years before I even hit 1000. I guess I need to step things up a little.
The real problem isn't so much shooting the pictures as much as coming up with ideas of what to shoot. The ideas are the real hard part.
-Gary
Looking at my sales graphs, it seems as if my monthly istock sales are rapidly approaching 10% of what I'm getting paid for my day job. That says to me that I need to quickly shoot another 1800 half decent photos to add to my meager 200, then I'll really be laughing.
My spreadsheet suggests that at the rate I'm going it will be four more years before I even hit 1000. I guess I need to step things up a little.
The real problem isn't so much shooting the pictures as much as coming up with ideas of what to shoot. The ideas are the real hard part.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Thursday, April 12, 2007
My first cheque came from istockphoto today. I'm pretty pleased with it. It is a big one too.
You can cash out in amounts greater than $100, but I let mine account grow a little before I requested my cheque. The microstock business is going very well for me. So far this month I'm averaging a little over $6/day.
Here is an upto date history of my downloads.
As you can see, I've already eclipsed my total downloads for last year and it is only April. Istockphoto.com is working well for me. I just need to get more photos posted and things will really start picking up.
I've got a couple of good ideas that I'm going to implement tonight.
-Gary
You can cash out in amounts greater than $100, but I let mine account grow a little before I requested my cheque. The microstock business is going very well for me. So far this month I'm averaging a little over $6/day.
Here is an upto date history of my downloads.
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 101
01/07 : 169
02/07 : 191
03/07 : 217
04/07 : 87 (So far)
As you can see, I've already eclipsed my total downloads for last year and it is only April. Istockphoto.com is working well for me. I just need to get more photos posted and things will really start picking up.
I've got a couple of good ideas that I'm going to implement tonight.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Thursday, March 29, 2007
I requested my first cheque from istockphoto. It's going to be a whopping $600 US. I'm getting pretty excited for it. They say that it will take about 10 days for it to get here.
My next goal is to make enough money to request another cheque before the previous one arrives.
Payment is available via paypal, but I don't have an account and it doesn't seem entirely clear how you get your money from them once someone has put money in your paypal account. You would think they would put that in their FAQ.
-Gary
My next goal is to make enough money to request another cheque before the previous one arrives.
Payment is available via paypal, but I don't have an account and it doesn't seem entirely clear how you get your money from them once someone has put money in your paypal account. You would think they would put that in their FAQ.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Tuesday, March 06, 2007
One of my istock photos was found out in the big wide world today. Jeff's friend Louise, from Brisbane, received this publication on her desk.
Louise told Jeff that she recognised Tracie from our photos on flickr.
This is the first time I've encountered on of my istock photos in print, and the second one I've found. The other one was on a website that emailed me to let me know.
I'm selling heaps of photos on istock and things just keep getting better and better.
-Gary
Louise told Jeff that she recognised Tracie from our photos on flickr.
This is the first time I've encountered on of my istock photos in print, and the second one I've found. The other one was on a website that emailed me to let me know.
I'm selling heaps of photos on istock and things just keep getting better and better.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Monday, February 26, 2007
In three weeks I'm going to hit the one year anniversary of my first download from Istock. Right now I've had 891 downloads, worth a little over $485 to me. I'm pretty sure that I'll have hit $500 by March 1st. I've cracked $100 This month and last month.
Here is a month by month breakdown, although I'll probably have at least 15 more downloads this month.
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 101
01/07 : 169
02/07 : 147 (So far)
It is going pretty well I'd say. A lot better than I had imagined.
I have 200 photos uploaded which means that my photos have averaged $2.43 each over the course of the year. I do have to point out that 74 of my images have never been downloaded. I also want to point out the fact that not all 200 of my photos were uploaded at the beginning of the year, in fact many of my early photos haven't sold at all, and many of my top sellers didn't get uploaded for six or more months later.
I guess there are several reasons why the average earning is important. The most important being that they throw out the stat that if you average ₤2 per photo from your rights managed stock, you are doing pretty well. The idea being that you have 10,000 photos in your portfolio. ₤2 in Canadian money is about $4.54
It would appear that I'm a little behind as far as doing pretty well, but like I said, not all my files were uploaded right from the very start which dilutes the yearly statistics a little.
In fact I only had one file the first month and then the next month only three more were added. It takes a little while to figure out exactly what good stock photography actually is, and particularly what will sell. It doesn't seem like it should be, but stock photography is an entirely different type of photography than any other genre which is weird because you can cover all the same subjects. You just shoot them differently.
Well, I guess I write more on the subject later. I hate to be constantly writing about the same thing, but I this is what is important to me right now and it is better than not writing at all.
In a brain flash, I just realized that how to decide what to write about would be a very good topic to write about.
-Gary
Here is a month by month breakdown, although I'll probably have at least 15 more downloads this month.
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 101
01/07 : 169
02/07 : 147 (So far)
It is going pretty well I'd say. A lot better than I had imagined.
I have 200 photos uploaded which means that my photos have averaged $2.43 each over the course of the year. I do have to point out that 74 of my images have never been downloaded. I also want to point out the fact that not all 200 of my photos were uploaded at the beginning of the year, in fact many of my early photos haven't sold at all, and many of my top sellers didn't get uploaded for six or more months later.
I guess there are several reasons why the average earning is important. The most important being that they throw out the stat that if you average ₤2 per photo from your rights managed stock, you are doing pretty well. The idea being that you have 10,000 photos in your portfolio. ₤2 in Canadian money is about $4.54
It would appear that I'm a little behind as far as doing pretty well, but like I said, not all my files were uploaded right from the very start which dilutes the yearly statistics a little.
In fact I only had one file the first month and then the next month only three more were added. It takes a little while to figure out exactly what good stock photography actually is, and particularly what will sell. It doesn't seem like it should be, but stock photography is an entirely different type of photography than any other genre which is weird because you can cover all the same subjects. You just shoot them differently.
Well, I guess I write more on the subject later. I hate to be constantly writing about the same thing, but I this is what is important to me right now and it is better than not writing at all.
In a brain flash, I just realized that how to decide what to write about would be a very good topic to write about.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Saturday, February 10, 2007
Saturday morning, I went out to get a few things done before the show. I wanted to get a hot shoe adaptor for my camera, but since B&H is closes Friday at noon until Sunday morning, I had to search around quite a lot. I found a place way downtown that had a huge store, but didn't stock hot shoe adaptors. This whole ordeal took up the whole morning and made me late for lunch with the istock crew.
I finally met up with them at some pub near irving plaza and was able to scarf down a burger and fries before we all headed over to the venue. We got into the building and started setting up for the shoot.
Things were a bit frantic but it was interesting to see how things were done. We were there for the soundcheck and got to see a little bit of a rehersal for the show. Some of the bands were more patient when it came to having their photos taken but most of them seemed to be in a hurry. Watching the sound check was cool.
About an hour before the show they made everyone with out working passes leave the building, until the start of the show. There seemed to be general confusion about this, but right on time, Bruce (the istock ceo) handed out recently obtained working passes and we were able to skip both the ticket holder line and the vip line.
The show was pretty cool. David Cross, from Arrested Development and School for Scoundrels was the MC for the night. He was pretty funny but some of their bits kind of bombed. All in all it was a really great show.
Concert photography is super fun. My #1 tip is to wear ear plugs. It makes the music much easier to hear and prevents your ears from bleeding. The music was so loud that my pants were vibrating from the all the bass. The fabric in my jeans was literally vibrating. That's loud, but it's part of what makes the event fun. The other great thing is pushing your way to the front of the crowd and then walking past the security guard into the space between the stage and the fence holding back the crowd and staying there for the whole show.
Sometimes I feel like a jerk for standing in front of the short people who fought their way to the fence to get a good view and then other times I just think boy this is just the greatest thing ever.
The show wrapped up at about midnight and because I wasn't sure when my flight was the next mornging I headed to Time Square to get a slice before going back to the hostel to rest before coming home.
I finally met up with them at some pub near irving plaza and was able to scarf down a burger and fries before we all headed over to the venue. We got into the building and started setting up for the shoot.
Things were a bit frantic but it was interesting to see how things were done. We were there for the soundcheck and got to see a little bit of a rehersal for the show. Some of the bands were more patient when it came to having their photos taken but most of them seemed to be in a hurry. Watching the sound check was cool.
About an hour before the show they made everyone with out working passes leave the building, until the start of the show. There seemed to be general confusion about this, but right on time, Bruce (the istock ceo) handed out recently obtained working passes and we were able to skip both the ticket holder line and the vip line.
The show was pretty cool. David Cross, from Arrested Development and School for Scoundrels was the MC for the night. He was pretty funny but some of their bits kind of bombed. All in all it was a really great show.
Concert photography is super fun. My #1 tip is to wear ear plugs. It makes the music much easier to hear and prevents your ears from bleeding. The music was so loud that my pants were vibrating from the all the bass. The fabric in my jeans was literally vibrating. That's loud, but it's part of what makes the event fun. The other great thing is pushing your way to the front of the crowd and then walking past the security guard into the space between the stage and the fence holding back the crowd and staying there for the whole show.
Sometimes I feel like a jerk for standing in front of the short people who fought their way to the fence to get a good view and then other times I just think boy this is just the greatest thing ever.
The show wrapped up at about midnight and because I wasn't sure when my flight was the next mornging I headed to Time Square to get a slice before going back to the hostel to rest before coming home.
Labels: istockphoto, New York
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Thursday, January 25, 2007
The other day Tracie and I went to the library to shoot some photos for istockphoto and we got a couple of really good ones. Especially Tracie, she got three or four that I really really like. This was from the best series at the library.
House sitting is going well, we're having a good time. Work is going well, we're just about ready for the cap and gown kids.
I feel kind of bad talking about work and istock so much/often but those two things are really taking up a lot of my time.
I hit 700 downloads this month. The last 100 of those came in the last two weeks. I'm uploading a lot more this month because I've been sparked into action so to speak, I can see that I could easily make a pretty decent income.
If I could be doing 15 times that well it would replace a full time job. The thing is, I wouldn't actually need 15 times more photos to do that well, because better more useful files sell more often. Realistally, the best 10% of my photos account for 62% of downloads. With 280 more photos that do as well as my best 20 photos right now, I would be there.
Another point is that some of my 20 most downloaded files might not even be my most profitable photos right now, because the new files could simply be too new, to be in the top 20 most downloaded. A one week old file probably has no chance of getting the same amount of downloads as a file that has been online for a little under a year, in such short a time.
Of course, they always talking about the ebb and flow of downloads. I could just be experiencing a short span of higher than normal downloads. We'll see how it averages out over the next few weeks and months, but I remain confident. I don't really have very many seasonal images. My top sellers aren't really dependant on it being christmas or valentines day for people to want them.
-Gary Milner
House sitting is going well, we're having a good time. Work is going well, we're just about ready for the cap and gown kids.
I feel kind of bad talking about work and istock so much/often but those two things are really taking up a lot of my time.
I hit 700 downloads this month. The last 100 of those came in the last two weeks. I'm uploading a lot more this month because I've been sparked into action so to speak, I can see that I could easily make a pretty decent income.
If I could be doing 15 times that well it would replace a full time job. The thing is, I wouldn't actually need 15 times more photos to do that well, because better more useful files sell more often. Realistally, the best 10% of my photos account for 62% of downloads. With 280 more photos that do as well as my best 20 photos right now, I would be there.
Another point is that some of my 20 most downloaded files might not even be my most profitable photos right now, because the new files could simply be too new, to be in the top 20 most downloaded. A one week old file probably has no chance of getting the same amount of downloads as a file that has been online for a little under a year, in such short a time.
Of course, they always talking about the ebb and flow of downloads. I could just be experiencing a short span of higher than normal downloads. We'll see how it averages out over the next few weeks and months, but I remain confident. I don't really have very many seasonal images. My top sellers aren't really dependant on it being christmas or valentines day for people to want them.
-Gary Milner
Labels: istockphoto
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Sunday, January 21, 2007
Working doesn't leave a lot of time for writing. Things have been going very well at work. It has been a little slow somedays, but that's good because it has given us time to do stuff around the studio. Like cleaning the garage for 4 days.
We've spent a lot of time reconfiguring a lot of the equipment, servers and printers and stuff. The idea is to make room for another printer as well as prepare for the graduation portriats.
The boss left me in charge of the studio on Thursday and Friday. It was a little lonely, but I managed. We had a couple of pretty big sales and I had a pretty good time. It showed me that would be possible for me to have a one person studio, but that it would also be a lot of work. I would probably have to learn photoshop a little bit better than what I know now.
I've been uploading a lot more photos to Istockphoto lately. It is going really well for me. On a daily basis I'm making about 3% of what it would take for me only do Istock for a living. If I could make 33X that I wouldn't need a regular job at all.
I have a spreadsheet that is predicting that it will take four and a half years at the rate I'm going now. That may not be the most realistic prediciton for several reasons. I could be working at it a lot harder than I am right now, even in my spare time, I'll probably learn what sells much more as time goes on, and I'll also be improving as a photographer. Also, once in a while they raise the price for photos and this lowers the number of sales that it would take to be a stock photographer full time. Another thing is that as more and more of your photos have been downloaded they give you a higher and higher royalty on each sale. In december I made an extra 5% on each sale. I'm prediciting a raise again next december.
House sitting is going well. The house is nice. The start button on the microwave in the kitchen doesn't work. Luckily there is a spare microwave downstairs. But what a pain. You miss half your tv show when you are making the popcorn. Why can't they just make a microwave/fridge/tv combo device? You'd win the nobel prize for sure.
-Gary
We've spent a lot of time reconfiguring a lot of the equipment, servers and printers and stuff. The idea is to make room for another printer as well as prepare for the graduation portriats.
The boss left me in charge of the studio on Thursday and Friday. It was a little lonely, but I managed. We had a couple of pretty big sales and I had a pretty good time. It showed me that would be possible for me to have a one person studio, but that it would also be a lot of work. I would probably have to learn photoshop a little bit better than what I know now.
I've been uploading a lot more photos to Istockphoto lately. It is going really well for me. On a daily basis I'm making about 3% of what it would take for me only do Istock for a living. If I could make 33X that I wouldn't need a regular job at all.
I have a spreadsheet that is predicting that it will take four and a half years at the rate I'm going now. That may not be the most realistic prediciton for several reasons. I could be working at it a lot harder than I am right now, even in my spare time, I'll probably learn what sells much more as time goes on, and I'll also be improving as a photographer. Also, once in a while they raise the price for photos and this lowers the number of sales that it would take to be a stock photographer full time. Another thing is that as more and more of your photos have been downloaded they give you a higher and higher royalty on each sale. In december I made an extra 5% on each sale. I'm prediciting a raise again next december.
House sitting is going well. The house is nice. The start button on the microwave in the kitchen doesn't work. Luckily there is a spare microwave downstairs. But what a pain. You miss half your tv show when you are making the popcorn. Why can't they just make a microwave/fridge/tv combo device? You'd win the nobel prize for sure.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Saturday, January 06, 2007
I guess it has been a while since I wrote about my success on istockphoto.
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 101
01/07 : 19 (So far)
I'm up to $277.98, I guess I should request a cheque, but I've been saving up. I don't know what for, but I just like to see the numbers go higher and higher. You must have at least $100 to get a payout, but can request any amount in your account higher than that.
This month so far, I'm averaging about $2.33 per day. Which ain't half bad. Pretty soon I'll be able to buy myself lunch instead of going hungry or having some water and a slice of bread. What I really should do is go to a country where they only earn a dollar a day and live like a king!
-Gary
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 101
01/07 : 19 (So far)
I'm up to $277.98, I guess I should request a cheque, but I've been saving up. I don't know what for, but I just like to see the numbers go higher and higher. You must have at least $100 to get a payout, but can request any amount in your account higher than that.
This month so far, I'm averaging about $2.33 per day. Which ain't half bad. Pretty soon I'll be able to buy myself lunch instead of going hungry or having some water and a slice of bread. What I really should do is go to a country where they only earn a dollar a day and live like a king!
-Gary
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Sunday, December 03, 2006
I haven't written anything about how well I'm doing on istockphoto in a while so I thought I would give a little run down on how things are going.
My first $100 took from March 18th to September 12 and 234 downloads. I averaged 42.7 cents per download.
I hit $200.00 about two weeks ago on November 22. It took 215 downloads for me to make it, and 69 days. That means I was averaging 46.5 cents per download.
I haven't been adding new photos very consistently, it is hard to think of things to shoot, but I have been getting downloads from with in each new series that I shoot. When I do come up with an idea, it does sell, and I am getting good growth from them.
Here is my data for downloads so far since the very beginning:
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 4 (so far)
I downloaded a spreadsheet that makes predictions based purely on past performance. It predicts that by this time next year, I will be making $100 per month. I get the feeling that this might be a little conservative because it is still taking into account my start up few months. It also doesn't take into account things that you have been learning about stock photography itself, like what sells, and how to make images more useful for buyers.
I'm pretty excited about how things are going.
-Gary
My first $100 took from March 18th to September 12 and 234 downloads. I averaged 42.7 cents per download.
I hit $200.00 about two weeks ago on November 22. It took 215 downloads for me to make it, and 69 days. That means I was averaging 46.5 cents per download.
I haven't been adding new photos very consistently, it is hard to think of things to shoot, but I have been getting downloads from with in each new series that I shoot. When I do come up with an idea, it does sell, and I am getting good growth from them.
Here is my data for downloads so far since the very beginning:
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 4 (so far)
I downloaded a spreadsheet that makes predictions based purely on past performance. It predicts that by this time next year, I will be making $100 per month. I get the feeling that this might be a little conservative because it is still taking into account my start up few months. It also doesn't take into account things that you have been learning about stock photography itself, like what sells, and how to make images more useful for buyers.
I'm pretty excited about how things are going.
-Gary
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Monday, October 16, 2006
It was my sister-in-law's birthday on Saturday. We took her out to Perkin's Family Restaurant on Friday to celebrate and then came home to play cards. We had a pretty good time. Becky is sure glad to be 16. She is pretty excited about getting her driver's licence.
My stock photo collection is doing quite well, here are my sales so far.
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 56 (so far)
I'm averaging 44.3 cents per download and I'm pretty close to hitting $2 per day this month. I just need to get a handful more pictures up and it would be pretty easy to get a check a month or more.
I'm getting my fill of photography at work right now because of the school portraits and family sittings that I've been doing. I'm finding it hard to have the desire to go out and shoot something for myself. I need to get on it. It would take much for Istock to be buying my a pretty good lunch everyday, as it is it could be close to being able to make the payments on my lowest student loan!
My sister is busily booking up my weekends to assist her doing wedding photography. She has me down for two already. I'm looking forward to it, because I really like working with her. It also gives me a pretty good excuse to go see her kids.
The blog is really taking off because of the pumpkin links. If I don't quadruple my normal monthly number of page views I'll be really surprised.
-Gary Milner
My stock photo collection is doing quite well, here are my sales so far.
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 56 (so far)
I'm averaging 44.3 cents per download and I'm pretty close to hitting $2 per day this month. I just need to get a handful more pictures up and it would be pretty easy to get a check a month or more.
I'm getting my fill of photography at work right now because of the school portraits and family sittings that I've been doing. I'm finding it hard to have the desire to go out and shoot something for myself. I need to get on it. It would take much for Istock to be buying my a pretty good lunch everyday, as it is it could be close to being able to make the payments on my lowest student loan!
My sister is busily booking up my weekends to assist her doing wedding photography. She has me down for two already. I'm looking forward to it, because I really like working with her. It also gives me a pretty good excuse to go see her kids.
The blog is really taking off because of the pumpkin links. If I don't quadruple my normal monthly number of page views I'll be really surprised.
-Gary Milner
Labels: birthday, istockphoto, pumpkin carving, restaurant
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Monday, August 21, 2006
The series of stock shots I did of Becky two weeks ago or so are now mostly online and ready to sell.
In fact this morning the first one sold on the first business day it was available! It is a picture of becky pretending to go into the school.
I had a small screw up with the model release, I forgot to write her name on the top line. Only the bottom half of the release was filled in propperly. What a pain. I really wish I could have had them all uploaded propperly three weeks ago. With less than three weeks to go, there isn't really much time for people to use my pics before school starts. I think that they will sell pretty well though. Becky is a cute girl and there aren't a lot of good teen shots. It doesn't surprise me at all how fast the first download came.
By the way, I'm already doing better than last month and there are still 10 days left!
-Gary
In fact this morning the first one sold on the first business day it was available! It is a picture of becky pretending to go into the school.
I had a small screw up with the model release, I forgot to write her name on the top line. Only the bottom half of the release was filled in propperly. What a pain. I really wish I could have had them all uploaded propperly three weeks ago. With less than three weeks to go, there isn't really much time for people to use my pics before school starts. I think that they will sell pretty well though. Becky is a cute girl and there aren't a lot of good teen shots. It doesn't surprise me at all how fast the first download came.
By the way, I'm already doing better than last month and there are still 10 days left!
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Friday, August 18, 2006
I read a good article about royalty free stock photo websites today. I found it interesting for lots of reasons, especially because they highlight success stories.
There has been some concern over the fact that microstock agencies are devaluing stock photography. I've read a few articles by people worried about this very topic.
I think they are missing the point and that they aren't really discussing what is bothering them. Here is a quote from one of the more thoughtful of the articles.
"Like many photographers, John sees new shooters moving into the field every day. They have their expensive new Nikons (or Canons) and are more than happy to blaze away with a piece of long glass on auto-everything and practically give the shots away for free."
The proliferation of high-quality digital cameras is diluting the profession right into the ground. Everyone has always wanted to be a photographer, and now everyone can. Sort of."
I think what photographers like John are worried about more than the fact that people are selling shots for a dollar rather than hundreds of dollars is that his photos are having to compete with tens of thousands of other people's photos who are doing it in their spare time.
In the article John even went on to complain about people putting free tutorials online that allow people to learn from someone else's 20 years of mistakes.
The business is changing. But more than that, it is changing in a way that allows more people to become customers of the business. Proponents of royalty free sites such as istockphoto.com all say this.
Kelly Thompson, vp of marketing for iStockphoto.com says, "What's really exciting is the small and medium businesses, the nonprofit groups, the church groups, —they flock to us by the tens of thousands, and they’ve never bought a stock photo before."
Antagonists of royalty free like, Betsy Reid, executive director of the Stock Artists Alliance said, "If IBM wants to use an image for an international campaign, no photographer in the world was ever going to offer it for a dollar,"
This is disingenuous at best. Companies big enough to international campaigns can get in to trouble by using non-exclusive stock images. Microsoft has had several screw ups because they cheaped out and didn't get exclusive rights to stockphotos on various occasions. Had microsoft purchased exclusive rights no one would have been the wiser. Large companies with international campaigns need to be sure that they are the only ones using the picture. Royalty free does not do that. If a right leaning political party use a royalty free photo of a family, there is nothing stopping a left leaning party from getting the exact same photo for their ads.
In anycase, I would like to be making something from my photos rather than nothing. Sure it might not be worth pouring hours and hours into it, but it is worth having as a hobby and doing it little by little to build up a portfolio big enough so that it doesn't matter how little each download pays.
-Gary
There has been some concern over the fact that microstock agencies are devaluing stock photography. I've read a few articles by people worried about this very topic.
I think they are missing the point and that they aren't really discussing what is bothering them. Here is a quote from one of the more thoughtful of the articles.
"Like many photographers, John sees new shooters moving into the field every day. They have their expensive new Nikons (or Canons) and are more than happy to blaze away with a piece of long glass on auto-everything and practically give the shots away for free."
The proliferation of high-quality digital cameras is diluting the profession right into the ground. Everyone has always wanted to be a photographer, and now everyone can. Sort of."
I think what photographers like John are worried about more than the fact that people are selling shots for a dollar rather than hundreds of dollars is that his photos are having to compete with tens of thousands of other people's photos who are doing it in their spare time.
In the article John even went on to complain about people putting free tutorials online that allow people to learn from someone else's 20 years of mistakes.
The business is changing. But more than that, it is changing in a way that allows more people to become customers of the business. Proponents of royalty free sites such as istockphoto.com all say this.
Kelly Thompson, vp of marketing for iStockphoto.com says, "What's really exciting is the small and medium businesses, the nonprofit groups, the church groups, —they flock to us by the tens of thousands, and they’ve never bought a stock photo before."
Antagonists of royalty free like, Betsy Reid, executive director of the Stock Artists Alliance said, "If IBM wants to use an image for an international campaign, no photographer in the world was ever going to offer it for a dollar,"
This is disingenuous at best. Companies big enough to international campaigns can get in to trouble by using non-exclusive stock images. Microsoft has had several screw ups because they cheaped out and didn't get exclusive rights to stockphotos on various occasions. Had microsoft purchased exclusive rights no one would have been the wiser. Large companies with international campaigns need to be sure that they are the only ones using the picture. Royalty free does not do that. If a right leaning political party use a royalty free photo of a family, there is nothing stopping a left leaning party from getting the exact same photo for their ads.
In anycase, I would like to be making something from my photos rather than nothing. Sure it might not be worth pouring hours and hours into it, but it is worth having as a hobby and doing it little by little to build up a portfolio big enough so that it doesn't matter how little each download pays.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Tuesday, August 01, 2006
The other day, I did a photoshoot with my sister-in-law Becky. I was doing a back to school theme so that I can have time to upload them for the graphic designers to do their projects before it is actually time to go back to school.
Becky is a good looking model, I only wish I was better a helping the models that work with me pose. I just have no idea. I really need to work on it, because although some portraits make good stock photos, you really need to have the models doing something.
I did a fashion shoot for a feature on 'fashion' for the Gauntlet, but being inexperienced myself and having inexperienced models hampered how good I could have made the photos.
I just realised that it is August first, hopefully it isn't too late already. Being August I have another month of success at istockphoto to report. July was my best month ever. I had 63 downloads over 31 days, I have 67 photos available for download, and 30 photos waiting for inspection. I have another 30+ photos to upload as soon as my upload limit is reset in a few days. I made $24.60 which is more than double the previous four months combined. I had my single highest day of downloads with seven and I also reached 105 total downloads.
I also was emailed a link to where one of my photos was used, http://arthritis.about.com/b/a/257354.htm This was the first use of my stock photos that I have encountered. It was nice of about.com to email me the link.
I'm so pleased with the photos I did of Beck, that I'm sure that August with be another istock best month ever if they sell even half as well as the photos of Tracie.
-Gary Milner, Stock Photographer
Becky is a good looking model, I only wish I was better a helping the models that work with me pose. I just have no idea. I really need to work on it, because although some portraits make good stock photos, you really need to have the models doing something.
I did a fashion shoot for a feature on 'fashion' for the Gauntlet, but being inexperienced myself and having inexperienced models hampered how good I could have made the photos.
I just realised that it is August first, hopefully it isn't too late already. Being August I have another month of success at istockphoto to report. July was my best month ever. I had 63 downloads over 31 days, I have 67 photos available for download, and 30 photos waiting for inspection. I have another 30+ photos to upload as soon as my upload limit is reset in a few days. I made $24.60 which is more than double the previous four months combined. I had my single highest day of downloads with seven and I also reached 105 total downloads.
I also was emailed a link to where one of my photos was used, http://arthritis.about.com/b/a/257354.htm This was the first use of my stock photos that I have encountered. It was nice of about.com to email me the link.
I'm so pleased with the photos I did of Beck, that I'm sure that August with be another istock best month ever if they sell even half as well as the photos of Tracie.
-Gary Milner, Stock Photographer
Labels: istockphoto
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Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Selling stock photos is going gangbusters for me. Let me just give you an update on how things are working out.
I was reading the istockphoto forums and someone, some sort of wine snob, was complaining that 99.9% of the photos with people drinking wine show them holding the glass by the bowl, not the stem. There were a few useful comments, and I'm sure that over the next few days a hundred or more wine shots will show up with the people holding the stem, but it quickly turned in to a jokefest about the photographers drinking straight from the bottle or box. The point I'm trying to make is that with a little research before the photos are taken, the photos become much more valuable. What winery wants to show hillbillies not holding the glass propperly? It is the same with everything else too.
Tracie has helped me a lot in this manner. My best sellers are her dressed in her nursing scrubs. The first batch were fine, but they were just a woman wearing scrubs. The next batch are even better though because Tracie helped me with the poses and props, because she actually knows what nurses do, while I don't really know. I'm sure the new ones will far out pace the old ones over the next few weeks.
If you are a designer that needs cheap stock photos, check out istockphoto.com. There might even be a link in my ads on the left hand side from time to time.
-Gary
- April : 4 Downloads 4 uploads
- May : 7 Downloads 25 uploads
- June : 30 downloads 14 uploads
- as of July 11 : 17 downloads 24 uploads
I was reading the istockphoto forums and someone, some sort of wine snob, was complaining that 99.9% of the photos with people drinking wine show them holding the glass by the bowl, not the stem. There were a few useful comments, and I'm sure that over the next few days a hundred or more wine shots will show up with the people holding the stem, but it quickly turned in to a jokefest about the photographers drinking straight from the bottle or box. The point I'm trying to make is that with a little research before the photos are taken, the photos become much more valuable. What winery wants to show hillbillies not holding the glass propperly? It is the same with everything else too.
Tracie has helped me a lot in this manner. My best sellers are her dressed in her nursing scrubs. The first batch were fine, but they were just a woman wearing scrubs. The next batch are even better though because Tracie helped me with the poses and props, because she actually knows what nurses do, while I don't really know. I'm sure the new ones will far out pace the old ones over the next few weeks.
If you are a designer that needs cheap stock photos, check out istockphoto.com. There might even be a link in my ads on the left hand side from time to time.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Monday, June 19, 2006
Tracie and I went on a very long walk yesterday. I just measured it using google earth and it was 7.5 km one way! That means that we went on a 15km walk. I can't believe that it was that far.
While we were out, we crossed the bridge and went down to Luna Park which is a small amusement park for younger type kids.
As you can see from the photo, we saw the Spirit of Tasmania heading off under the bridge on it's merry way to Tasmania. I get the feeling that it is worth the extra $20 to fly unless you have to bring your car with you.
The ship probably isn't that bad, but the time you save on a plane is the real deciding factor. Actually it may have worked out well for us to take the ferry so that we could have avoided spending the night outside in the cold in a park.
We got some really good photos, some of which I have uploaded to my flickr account and some to istock. I've just been cruising along, much like the ship in the picture, at and average of one download a day this month. Hopefully it holds strong. I have 11 photos in the inspection que right now. About half of those have Tracie in them so my hopes are pretty high that they will do well. I may have to work on my key wording a little bit.
The weather has been pretty good for the last week or so which is a big relief from the rain that we had for the entire week before that. Our flat mates were beginning to think they had never left the UK.
-Gary
While we were out, we crossed the bridge and went down to Luna Park which is a small amusement park for younger type kids.
As you can see from the photo, we saw the Spirit of Tasmania heading off under the bridge on it's merry way to Tasmania. I get the feeling that it is worth the extra $20 to fly unless you have to bring your car with you.
The ship probably isn't that bad, but the time you save on a plane is the real deciding factor. Actually it may have worked out well for us to take the ferry so that we could have avoided spending the night outside in the cold in a park.
We got some really good photos, some of which I have uploaded to my flickr account and some to istock. I've just been cruising along, much like the ship in the picture, at and average of one download a day this month. Hopefully it holds strong. I have 11 photos in the inspection que right now. About half of those have Tracie in them so my hopes are pretty high that they will do well. I may have to work on my key wording a little bit.
The weather has been pretty good for the last week or so which is a big relief from the rain that we had for the entire week before that. Our flat mates were beginning to think they had never left the UK.
-Gary
Labels: istockphoto
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Thursday, June 08, 2006
I've been reading a blog about lighting techniques called Strobist. It details some very interesting techniques for using off camera flashes and explains very effectively how to build an inexpensive lighting kit (sub $200).
He says that dollar for dollar a buying lighting system for your camera will give you much more bang for your buck than buying expensive lenses for your camera.
It makes me want to buy a flash and some other gear to help with the light in my photos.
I've been doing pretty well selling the stock photos. I'm averaging over one sale a day this month and I have already surpassed my results selling stock photos last month. In a day or two I will probably have sold double the number I sold last month. I'm already 10% of the way to getting my first cheque.
Things are going fast here in Sydney. We will be home in 5.5 weeks. That means only three more weeks of the most boring job in the entire world. I am beginning to understand the main character in Office Space more all the time. I really want to stop coming to work.
If only I had 100x the number of photos and downloads on the micro stock site, I would be able to quit my job.
-Gary Milner
He says that dollar for dollar a buying lighting system for your camera will give you much more bang for your buck than buying expensive lenses for your camera.
It makes me want to buy a flash and some other gear to help with the light in my photos.
I've been doing pretty well selling the stock photos. I'm averaging over one sale a day this month and I have already surpassed my results selling stock photos last month. In a day or two I will probably have sold double the number I sold last month. I'm already 10% of the way to getting my first cheque.
Things are going fast here in Sydney. We will be home in 5.5 weeks. That means only three more weeks of the most boring job in the entire world. I am beginning to understand the main character in Office Space more all the time. I really want to stop coming to work.
If only I had 100x the number of photos and downloads on the micro stock site, I would be able to quit my job.
-Gary Milner
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Tuesday, June 06, 2006
I though I'd post one of the pictures of Tracie in one of her nursing uniforms. She looks good doesn't she? Adding the stethoscope was my idea. It is always good to have a prop.
We were watching Scrubs a couple of weeks ago and she said that she thought that is was very funny that the chief resident of the hospital in the show had a $10 stethoscope. In fact everyone on that show has a $10 stethoscope. The one in this picture cost $200. They all look the same to me, to be honest. On the set of the show they probably just grab a different one out of a big bin every time they are about to do any shooting.
I wrote before that I uploaded a series of these nursing type photos and some photos of Tracie in the apartment complex pool to the micro stock photo site. Let me just tell you that I have sold more photos in the last week than in the last month! Tracie is fast becoming my most popular subject.
We're planning of doing more photos of her down in our apartment complex's fitness club and maybe a few more nursing uniform shots. It seems like it would't take an extremely large library of photos to make a nice amount of money selling these photos online. It gets a little bit easier once you develop a little bit of an eye for stock photography too. I think I'm getting a lot better at it already.
Having pictures of a person's face sure makes a big difference! Hopefully it will be easy to find more models once we get back home to Canada.
I have a large potential sale coming up, although I don't like to count my chickens before they're hatched. One of my flat mates is a writer for a large realestate "style" magazine, and she is doing a story about Perth, and her magazine may buy one of my photos. The money from the sale would go a long way towards buying a flash for my camera.
-Gary Milner
We were watching Scrubs a couple of weeks ago and she said that she thought that is was very funny that the chief resident of the hospital in the show had a $10 stethoscope. In fact everyone on that show has a $10 stethoscope. The one in this picture cost $200. They all look the same to me, to be honest. On the set of the show they probably just grab a different one out of a big bin every time they are about to do any shooting.
I wrote before that I uploaded a series of these nursing type photos and some photos of Tracie in the apartment complex pool to the micro stock photo site. Let me just tell you that I have sold more photos in the last week than in the last month! Tracie is fast becoming my most popular subject.
We're planning of doing more photos of her down in our apartment complex's fitness club and maybe a few more nursing uniform shots. It seems like it would't take an extremely large library of photos to make a nice amount of money selling these photos online. It gets a little bit easier once you develop a little bit of an eye for stock photography too. I think I'm getting a lot better at it already.
Having pictures of a person's face sure makes a big difference! Hopefully it will be easy to find more models once we get back home to Canada.
I have a large potential sale coming up, although I don't like to count my chickens before they're hatched. One of my flat mates is a writer for a large realestate "style" magazine, and she is doing a story about Perth, and her magazine may buy one of my photos. The money from the sale would go a long way towards buying a flash for my camera.
-Gary Milner
Labels: istockphoto, perth
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