I'm getting a bit confused with that answer because the search "Christmas basket with red apples and pomegranates decorated with fir branches" now only shows two images.

Perhaps the contributor in question might be reading this forum.

Err. I think a few of us suggested that earlier. A lot earlier. 

Nothing wrong with sticking to the plan!

I think you've invested a lot more time in this for any returns you might make over and above what you'd get selling it as stock.

I admit I'm getting tired of contacting publishers / university departments etc. Putting the photo up on a stock site's going to be so much easier.

Of course, if you are not going to specify your rights in a written contract signed by the user then anything could happen.

Okay, you've convinced me to write up a contract. Definitely better than the more casual approach.

An image like that dont really need to be RM, there are thousands of them, tension water, oil, air etc.

There would indeed be thousands of photos demonstrating surface tension. Though I haven't found all that many like mine, and certainly none in any of the stock agencies Ive looked through.

I once shot a bomb detonation in the pacific as a military experiment! it was huge and awsome. This was in the good old film days

That would have been an awesome experience. Must have been a big bomb...hope it wasn't anything like Bikini Atoll?

Ive contacted a university research department and they got back to me this morning. The associate professor from the department said that he's writing a book and working with a publisher and he might be able to use my image in about a month's time (he's still deciding whether to go with an illustrated version of the book or a text-only version.)

When I initially contacted the department at the university, I was open to the idea of them using my image in electronic presentations in seminars and lectures etc. In that kind of scenario, it would be the department who would be paying me for the usage of the image. I mentioned to them that I would be happy to negotiate the amount with them. I also mentioned that I was open to discussing other potential uses of the image as well.

With the publishing of this book, the publisher is not sourcing the image from a stock agency or from me so I doubt I'll see money from them. Ive heard that with a number of science publications, the author simply supplies the images. Looks like that's the scenario here.

At this stage, I don't even know if I'm going have any direct contact with the publisher. I'm assuming that all correspondence will be done through the professor. If any money comes into my hands, it will probably be from the university department so I wouldn't expect much in the way of $$. In any case, it would be good to find out how long my photo is going to be published in the book (if it is included.) That will determine when I can upload the photo to Alamy as Rights Managed if I choose to go that route one day. Though I guess I could upload it as RF in the meantime?

With Alamy, I wonder if you can have RM licenses that are only available to certain geographical regions. That would be one way that I could still license the image as RM to other clients if my photo is used in the book and it's restricted to a certain part of the world (unless the book is published world wide.)

This is assuming that I would retain my rights to the image (which I will definitely try to do.)

Something really weird is going on at the Alamy forum. I'm being logged out every few seconds. I keep signing in repeatedly only to be logged out a few seconds later.

I recently signed up to Alamy and just now received an e-mail from them, stating that my first three images have been accepted. After playing around with microstock for the past two years, this will be my first venture into midstock. Now, Ive got to familiarise myself with Alamy's unique key word system.

That's what he wants though! He wants them to not sell, or offer for sale, any of his work.

I only requested iStock to delete three of my photos, not all of them. Though I may request some additional deletions in the future. Ive also removed the same images from SS, DT and Adobe.

John, thanks for the directions. I found my images. My gosh, iStock must be making a killing - I noticed they put a $13 price tag on each one. I'd probably only make about 15c or maybe 2c from any sales.

I'm hoping that me saying I'm going to set them as RM on Alamy will be enough to persuade Getty to take them down,

SpaceStockFootage, yea I wish that was the case (as the copyright holder of the image.) Though really, none of us formally agreed to Getty holding on to our images. We certainly didn't sign anything. It was just a mention of a date that we could remove our images by (which seems like a pretty weak defence from a legal point of view.) Then again, I'm no lawyer. Regardless, they probably changed their terms and conditions which most people (including myself) wouldn't bother rereading.

I still can't work out how to view my port. Ive looked in both the ESP and the iStockphoto websites and there's no sign of my photos. Though surely they're there somewhere.

Looks like I'm not alone. There have always been cycles of good sales / bad sales before but at the moment, I reckon I'm having the longest period of no sales / low sales ever.