Microstock Photography Forum - General > Newbie Discussion
Which stock agency is worthwhile for nature photographer?
ShadySue:
I've never submitted anywhere other than iS and Alamy, and IIRC Martha now is focussing on AdobeStock, so it would be hard to say where would be 'best'. I'm not really a landscape specialist anyway.
cascoly:
--- Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on December 03, 2020, 13:13 ---“Nature” as in “stuff in my backyard” or as in “I made a ton of effort going to unique places and finding uncommon things”?
--- End quote ---
as usual, it all depends - my port is mostly travel & nature but the best selling images from my antarctica trip are of traffic jams in buenos aires; on another cruise the best sellers are of the casino. and some of my home garden ferns outsell more exotic locations. i dont try to predict.
as far as agencies, sales are different across agencies, so i wouldnt depend on just one. exotics locations may be a disadvantage compared to generic hills &dales when buyer wants an image that complements but doesnt overwhelm their message
mj007:
Travel/Nature sells ok on most sites if you can have good , different nature travel pictures that are well caption with good info for the user/reader.
Jo Ann Snover:
There are tons of variables, but in general, I sell a lot more at Adobe Stock than I do at Dreamstime (and when I still had a Shutterstock account, it sold more than or more recently about the same as Adobe Stock).
If you were uploading to Dreamstime because they accepted everything, figure out what the issues are and fix them.
Even though the Poll results at right aren't really precise, they give you the general idea of the relative sales strength of the agencies: 41.6 / 3.2 = You could make about 10 times the money at Adobe Stock as you do at Dreamstime (ignoring zeroes, obviously).
wordplanet:
I'm primarily a travel and editorial photographer but I shoot a fair amount of nature, both landscapes/seascapes, some weather related images, and detail images of plants and insects. I agree that good shots with precise and accurate captions and keywords sell across various sites.
More than half of my images licensed by Alamy this year were landscape or seascape shots; some of them were licensed for personal use for one-off prints. About one-third of the images that sold on Adobe Stock this year were nature images, including landscapes and flowers. At dreamstime, different images sold, but again nature accounted for about 1/3rd. (When I was with shutterstock, they also sold there).
Nature sells best for me on Fine Art America, a print on demand site that sells photo prints. All types of nature sold there - landscapes, seascapes, flowers/plants, animals, and seashells. 16 out of 30 sales there so far this year were nature, so just over half.
It is essential to caption and keyword accurately and to include the scientific (Latin) name for the trees, flowers, or other plants that are significant in the image, and to include the location if it is relevant. This is the only way your images show up in searches. "Pretty flower" won't cut it, but I'm assuming you know this.
While nature images are not a huge stock sellers, they are evergreen, that is, unlike lifestyle shots, they will keep selling for many years. If your nature images are well composed and interesting, not simply pretty snapshots, and if they are also keyworded well, they should sell.
Good luck!
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