Same here - I was always doing my payouts on Friday and getting then next Friday.

But now it is 15 days and still 'pending'. I think it has something to do with the free collection bonus - too many people requested payout higher than usual and that's why the delay.

Quote from: cobalt on September 03, 2024, 05:03


So now I have a new project, just make a nice breakfast table once a week and take photos and videos. No ai.

Once I get into that breakfast theme, I might start to expand with ai images. First from different regions on Europe or the Middle east that I know, maybe a little from the US, the places I have been to, but I might also try breakfast from vietnam or india, once I have done some research. Including ai people.

that's what I kind of do. it is sunday mostly 

but what else similar to this works for me - is when I order food from any restaurant - I take those 5 minutes and take photos before we start eating. And those photos sell pretty well.
The daily stuff are still missing on adobe. I mean high quality daily stuff. One of the first videos that I sold on adobe it was a close up of my hand putting nutella on the bread. and it is still a video that I sell at least once a month.

I'm in a good situation where I have my full time job -remote plus traveling for meetings once every 2 months).

So for me, my salary pay the bills, and stock pays traveling and new equipment.

I'm officially based in Berlin(Germany) but I have been traveling almost 24/7. I mostly spend a month traveling and then ca a week home. And yes, it is not traveling 24/7 when you have 'normal work'. I do my work, and then in the afternoons I go out do some sightseeing, take photos, enjoy the life and then spend the nights editing them and putting into stock.

Not a ideal for everyone (I'm single, no responsibilities at home etc).

But this is all thanks to stock. As I said - my job pays my bills, food etc. But traveling and all those extras in life are thanks to stock photography.

And yes, as some of you already said - it brings money if you treat it as a business and not as a hobby.

You might be laughing but every time I travel I make an extra list on google maps where do I want to go (exactly with street etc) where do I want to take photos, I research what has been already posted, what is missing - i have been doing this for years, so the process is not time consuming (maybe one evening before the trip).

Plus AI -again, you might be laughing - I have an excel sheet with all the key holidays but as well some funny celebrations, and I try to produce some AI for those occasions. But this is for me a fun time to spend an evening with calendar and AI and see what I can create.

To sum it up - if I wanted to stay at home, not travel, eat basic food then yeah stock money would be enough. But thats just exiting - if that's enough for some then OK.

Luckily, I have a job that I like, that doesn't collide with stock (and thanks to traveling is kind of supporting and adding to my stock journey) I enjoy this lifestyle.

Before 2020 I have been working in retail and for 8 years I couldn't see my family for Christmas (they are in Poland and I emigrated to Berlin) so I really enjoy and appreciate the freedom i have right now. And that's thanks to stock as well.

I have been on Adobe since 2016. Started with photos of my dogs and trees and sky and flowers in my parents garden in the middle of nowhere. So yes, going from lame photos to good income is possible if you treat it as a business (I don't say you have to travel the world, but do the research, upload the right photos, good titles, good keywords etc)

Quote from: Pacesetter on August 23, 2024, 10:31
Here's the real embarrassment for Shutterstock Inc.

On full public display, sinking share prices across all periods. If it's a bit hard to see in the attachment then below is a list of the results.

The only 'green' shoot is its MAX period share price which increased 49.23% but that's across almost 12 years.   

Clearly investors are not invested in this company. Not surprising.

Down 4.79% -1.65 Today
Down 10.47% -3.84 5 Days
Down 20.83% -8.64 1 Month
Down 29.81% -13.94 6 Months
Down 31.03% -14.77 Year-To-Date
Down 24.48% -10.64 1 Year
Down 5.93% -2.07 5 Years
Up 49.23% +10.83 MAX (Since October 2012)

So should I start shorting Shutterstock on wall street and I will earn more  than with stock photos? 

Quote from: Pacesetter on August 23, 2024, 23:33
My week started out pretty well but slowed right down from Wednesday through Friday. See what the weekend brings (as it's Saturday morning here) hopefully like last weekend where there were a couple of good sales.

Do you have any weekend sales? I don't mean like this weekend but generally? For me it is Monday till Saturday morning and then nothing. If I sell anything between Saturday afternoon and Sunday evening then it is kind of not usual.

Same happened to me - had few panoramas from last trip - uploaded one as editorial, was accepted in few hours. Uploaded one as commercial - still waiting to be accepted... Both are from the same city, same spot, just different perspective, different view.

Funny, that few Christmas AI photos were accepted in a blink of an eye as well.

the review time makes me sometimes crazy - I have had some videos uploaded yesterday (similar drone shots) - woken up today half of them already accepted. the other half still waiting.

At the same time - I have few videos that are almost the same - waiting in the review since May.

Deleting and re-uploading in the past didn't help me much.

Same with AI - I made a habbit of uploading at least one real photo and one AI photo per day - and it doesn't matter the theme or hashtags, the review time is just a lottery to me.