ai will continue to increase, but won't eliminate other images for specific niches & SS will succumb to the ai memes

--- goals

• continue to add metadata to 15K+ images from last 5 years
  
• continue to add 500+ images to agencies each month
• lead a group tour of xmas markets on the rhine or danube in Nov
  
• continue to lead tours to Turkey & the Balkans with many photo opportunities - next year i'll take groups to Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Bulgaria & T�rkiye
• organize other discounted river cruises that offer multiple locations over a short period of time

Have to say I am not as optimistic about 2025 as I have been in previous years looking forward to the new year. That said, I have not given up and am continuing to upload.

Just generally, compared to 2023, this year 2024 has seen a big fall in earnings on Shutterstock and a smaller fall in earnings on Pond5. iStock has shown a modest rise in earnings in 2024 while Adobe Stock has seen a huge rise in earnings. The end-of-year fall off in terms of earnings has been earlier, faster and further.

Still I did reach some goals with every month since February to November achieving >$1k per month. I just passed my total 2023 earnings earlier this month but must be considered in light of uploading over 500 videos to each 4 portfolios this year, and over 2000 to 2500 to each 4 ports since November 2021.

I just hope 2025 doesn't see a greater fall in contributor earnings overall though I do acknowledged the exceptional performance of Adobe Stock many of us seen this year.       

So Far this year, I upgraded my camera to Nikon Z50 II which is doing great for videos and images. I like this hybrid camera. I am uploading 100 videos every week now. One trip provides at least 250 videos including editorials and commercial ones. I contribute to only Adobe, Istock, SS and DepositPhoto. I have an account on Alamy but seems like it is not accepting videos. I quit dreamstime and RF123 because I saw no growth there. My biggest disappointment is with SS thats where It sells almost nothing. Adobe has been nice.

This year I travelled to Himalayan Region, Mumbai, Tehri, Rishikesh, Hardwar, Mathura, Vrindavan and next on my list is Kerala or Moscow or Something in between. I like to go to places which either have mountains, river or both. Now Next in India, it will be monsoon season, there are great places to go to and capture amazing videos.

As of now, I have around 8000 images and 1200 videos on sale. My goal is build the post retirement income. Besides a day job, I edit and color grade  films for a Hollywood producer. The editing and color grading income is keeping me happy for now. Built some skills on Davinci Resolve and now have its studio version. 

Quote from: 5stock5 on Yesterday at 03:53

So Far this year, I upgraded my camera to Nikon Z50 II which is doing great for videos and images.

This camera is bad for video. No 120 fps in 4K and no 240 fps in HD.

You are right about camera specs.  Movie - 3840 x 2160 (4K UHD): 60p/50p/30p/25p/24p ・1920 x 1080: 120p/100p/60p/50p/30p/25p/24p.
This is the best what I could afford for now and it shoots in 10 bit Log. Nothing at this price was even closest to the specs. For all speed related stuff I can manage with Davinci well. I keep my camera at 24fps and 4K and then little zoom in DR to match DCI size. Acceptance rate at agencies is awesome. Only 1% Rejection at max.