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Messages - Brasilnut

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76
Dear Stock Colleagues,

It's that time of the month when I'm pleased to share with you my detailed monthly earnings report for March 2023:

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/03/31/march-2023-brutally-honest-earnings-report/

All the best,

Alex

77
Celebrating my one-year anniversary since my first drone flight (with no crashes yet) and put together this free short guide on on my experiences with some tips.

PDF available to download via the following blog post:

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/03/24/free-guide-five-brutally-honest-tips-to-achieve-drone-photography-photography-success-one-year-anniversary-edition/

I don't have a background in design but quite enjoying putting these together via Canva.

Alex

78
Alamy.com / Re: your biggest sale on Alamy? and when was it?
« on: March 22, 2023, 05:52 »
My largest one-off sale on Alamy was $113 net

79
Here's a potentially profitable business model.

Put up your images on your website in high resolution with a clear watermark, then chase thieves asking for damages and threats of legal action, etc. I know a certain photographer that earns more from doing that than actual sales.

Sad way to live though imo.

80
Keen to share this useful tip.

Was looking for some images back from 5+ years ago and found out that you can download a high-resolution copy from your own DP port instead of digging through backup drives archives.


82
What I didn't appreciate much was the lack of advanced notice about this latest change. For instance, I'm at 76% acceptance rate, they could have warned me like 2 months ago that they would be implementing the minimum 85% acceptance to get the free 300 images a month submissions (which is enough for me). If I had this notice I would have worked hard to only submit quality images that I knew would certainly be accepted to get above the 85% threshold.

Anyway, not the end of the world. My focus remains on book covers and aerial footage. The rest is just beer money.

83
" we have made the difficult decision to make marketplace submissions a paid service. As of 02/23/2023, only users with an approval rate of 85% or more will be entitled to receive 300 monthly marketplace submissions for free."

Surprised it has taken them this long to implement this. I can only image the number of crap images that they have to sort out on a daily basis. At least this will keep some of junk and junkies out.

84
General Stock Discussion / Re: Selling Book Covers Blog Post
« on: February 16, 2023, 08:12 »
Did the one with the woman behind or surrounded by bars, originally look like that or was there some modification after the fact? Do they license images and then alter them very often?

You have said that one sale might equal 100 Microstock sales. What's your average reward for a license on Archangel?

Nice useful review and instructional story.

Cool, glad you found it useful.

Here's what the original image looks like and the final. Glad I shot it with the full-frame so there were ample megapixels to work with. With a smaller sensor, no chance. Very common for designers to make major changes to the original.

My average differs to others, but 100 times is probably on the conservative time, on average....probably closer to 250x. So, about $300/net or so. Sales to US and the UK earn considerably more than anywhere else. 


85
General Stock Discussion / Re: Selling Book Covers Blog Post
« on: February 15, 2023, 07:23 »
Dear Colleagues,

I've just published a short guide highlighting some of my practical experiences as a book cover artist at Arcangel. Mainly trials and tribulations from a multitude of rejections/feedback going back many years.

Its 100% free to download as a PDF (6.5MB) and up to you if you want to share widely. Best viewed on PC.

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/02/15/free-guide-five-brutally-honest-tips-to-achieve-book-cover-photography-success/

Hope you enjoy reading it as much as Ive enjoyed drafting it. Book cover isn't for everybody but there are still some nuggets to be used more widely in the stock photo business such as thinking like a designer and targeting a niche.

Alex

86
I've heard they're delaying payments again, any news?

87
@Alex
I think you have some great drone travel images and footage.
There are lots of costumers willing to pay good money for those images and footage at macrostock.
And there is demand for travel content again.
quote Stock Photography Direct
"Business travel images from outstanding collection robertharding.com. Now that many countries are open to tourists and business travellers, publications and media will need fresh content. "
https://stockphotographydirect.com/index.php?q=Sellers&id_new=1645

Thanks, I also think they're pretty good...some angles aren't easy to get!

I've been with RH since 2017 and have had mixed experiences. I only managed to upload some 300 images or so and quit one quarter when I earned something like $15, but after a few decent quarters where I didn't upload anything and the results were OK I decided to give them another chance. They have some good placements over at Offset and Getty and also pics can sell as prints.

Here are my latest uploads on them from Rio.

https://www.robertharding.com/photographers/alexandrerotenberg/

88
^^^^^

Just best to avoid shooting minors altogether in public, imo, it's something I've completely stopped shooting/uploading. Also not worth the hassle if the parent/guardian gets upset. Moral police are everywhere and will blame first and ask questions later. In many ways having a giant DSLR + lens screams professional so a person with at least average intelligence may make less assumptions.

As for less intelligent people, it's more frustrating. For instance, I was shooting a security perimeter fence (for book covers) in a rural town in Brazil and some guy came up to me to warn me not to try to invade as the wires might be electrified. Ok, how does one go from taking pics to think that I'm going to try to invade someone's property. Plus if I was I certainly wouldn't be out shooting during the day with professional gear. I suppose for the person questioning me it's unusual to find something so ugly artistic but each to their own...maybe they do have legitimate security concerns from past situations.

Street photography is a weird field, not for everybody. I tend to enjoy it but becoming increasingly less interesting from a financial point of view vs the hassle I'm receiving, as written. The fact that situations are extremely unlikely to turn physically violent is a big plus. At worst some yelling back and forth and threats. Then some stories to share.

89
dont always agree on your editorial statements
(esp. with recognizable people + non matter of public concern (and data privacy concerns))

but in this case (unless shots were on non-public ground) i cant see the problem

did you ticked theres property and you dont have a release
+ sell for editorial only ?

would you like to provide some more information for readers here
to avoid a maybe unseen mistake?

thank you!

Correct, unreleased editorial.

Similar to this, quite a popular sport in Brazil so it can be used for a story:

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/coruripe-alagoas-brazil-01-25-2014-1972467716

did you specifically mark them as "for editorial only", or use the acceptable Alamy process of not filling the "Optional data" which would rely of buyers?

Had them not been deleted / managed to recover, I would have marked them as "editorial only" at Alamy. Nevertheless, I've had multiple occasions where Alamy has approached me to ask if I would be willing to license a unreleased image commercially.

90
dont always agree on your editorial statements
(esp. with recognizable people + non matter of public concern (and data privacy concerns))

but in this case (unless shots were on non-public ground) i cant see the problem

did you ticked theres property and you dont have a release
+ sell for editorial only ?

would you like to provide some more information for readers here
to avoid a maybe unseen mistake?

thank you!

Correct, unreleased editorial.

Similar to this, quite a popular sport in Brazil so it can be used for a story:

https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/coruripe-alagoas-brazil-01-25-2014-1972467716

91
what a great use of DALL-E to tell your story about the beach!  i esp'ly like the prompt that contained "while a short ugly middle aged man stands a few metres away upset

also liked the result of the prompt containing "wide angle, show more of the landscape than the people.  I've had problems to get DALL-E cropping out parts of main figure, and this may help. a bit (prompts including "no crop","no light crop" ,etc don't work

Thanks!

Takes a feel prompts and running out of credits but I find the more information the better when it comes to AI, then looking for the best variations. Plus I don't like the photos they have when it come to people as some weird disfigured body parts don't look great (yet). I like the painting type presets, illusionist or impressionist works well. Classical too. Probably worth a blog post soon on my experiences!

92
Greetings from Rio and happy to share my first detailed monthly report of the year where, as usual, Ill be focusing on my overall earnings for the month and other industry-related news, including news on uploading a portion of my images for free as an experiment, a legal complaint via Alamy and another nasty street photography episode (illustrated by AI). Lets get started!

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2023/01/31/january-2023-brutally-honest-earnings-report/

Hope you're having a great start to the year.

Alex


93
Exchanged some ideas with James and he provided the following tip which I'll follow:

Quote
Also, one  thing I started trying recently is uploading the lowest resolution allowed to pexels (which is 4 megapixels), this make them useful for online but not that useful for print.  The idea is that if someone sees an image they want on pexels but need a higher resolution image they need to buy it from me.  Hasn't resulted in much yet but another thing you could try.  Hope it helps.

94
Hey Theo, thanks for posting a link to the post. Interesting discussion.

I had a good think about this experiment and all your comments and will make the following adjustments:

1. For the sake of eventually getting more downloads which hopefully will become donations, I'll have to submit more quality content. This means that such quality images will probably lose all their value once given away for free (no doubt downloaded and re-sold by thieves), but then again perhaps most buyers won't bother shopping around that much (which is also part of the experiment). Perhaps what may work best are the dramatic fine artsty type shots that would do well on FAA. For the sake of experimentation it needs to be done as green bananas aren't going to be a hit; Here's some of my latest uploaded at Pexels - https://www.pexels.com/@brutally-honest-427052750/

2. As suggested by Trek, I'll conduct reverse searches on such images to see how many have ended up trying to be licensed by thieves at micros. Could be a fun little side project, doubt this has been covered elsewhere by other bloggers;

3. Curious to see if there's footage to be accepted by some of these sites to be given away for free. Perhaps footage would bring in more donations than stills. I don't mind giving away some footage that has never sold for many years, particularly if it's only HD.

Update: So far my images are pending review at Pixabay and Unsplash. Amazing how they still check for technical quality even if being given away. What they really should be checking for in view of rejecting unreleased content particularly at sensitive places which may lead to legal issues later on.

@justanotherphotographer

What I make from referrals is perhaps enough for a beer or two once a month and the way inflation is going soon will just be a chocolate bar/month! :D 

95
Shutterstock.com / Re: SS continues to deteriorate
« on: January 14, 2023, 08:18 »
Two weeks into the year I'm getting 2015 dejavu when my port was 6x smaller.   :'(

Getting out of micros asap and trying to squeeze the last little bit of juice before this fruit goes completely rotten.

97
Dear Stock Colleagues,

I've published a comprehensive review of my stock business in 2022, while providing a glimpse forward to 2023 with some realistic goals.

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/12/31/2022-year-end-review-good-bad-and-ugly/

All the best and happy new year - Alex

Happy new year Alex and great reading your 2022 year end review.
 
Given you like to travel and get drone video, have you considered going to Farol da Nazare beach and get aerial footage of the big waves (maybe with surfers) there?

Doing a search on Shutterstock looks like there's quite a number of clips but for the keywords 'Farol da Nazare' there's only 21 clips. I don't know, if I lived in Portugal and the place was not too remote to get to and did a lot of traveling I'd probably be keen to get some aerial shots of this coastline.

Thanks for reading.

It's on my list to go there with the drone...one of the reasons why I invested on a heavier drone is to be able to handle the wind and boy it gets windy there! What does worry me a bit is the saltwater spray from the huge waves getting into the engines and whether it's corrosive. Portugal does indeed have a long and beautiful coastline.

There are some apps that indicate when huge swells are expected which draw in the surfers, I'll be on the lookout when I go back to Portugal next month.

Meanwhile, I'm chasing waterfalls in the tropical jungle! https://www.tiktok.com/@top5_brutallyhonestguy/video/7184107237390945542?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1

98
Dear Stock Colleagues,

I've published a comprehensive review of my stock business in 2022, while providing a glimpse forward to 2023 with some realistic goals.

https://brutallyhonestmicrostock.com/2022/12/31/2022-year-end-review-good-bad-and-ugly/

All the best and happy new year - Alex


99
No wonder they got rid of the forum, it would be filled with threads about how useless this new update is.

100
If you shoot tourist sites in cities, it may be a profitable business. But most of the time should be devoted to obtaining permission.
Well, models in some angles are also not bad to shoot.
However, if there is no time to get permission, it is better not to buy a drone. Or buy the cheapest one.
This approach is wrong in general. To sell stock, you must pick your subject and it has to be unique, technically and logistically challenging - otherwise you will compete with millions of stock-monkey targeting "apples on white". Doesn't matter if it's aerial or not. If you are in stock for money, of course - I know many people who have different motivations to spend their lives here :)

Another hand... Drone photography is profitable because of less competition, and personally, I would like it will stay this way ;)

Sent from my LM-V600 using Tapatalk

Indeed, not everybody is willing or crazy enough to risk their drone to capture quite close to the sea top down shots of stormy waves! Fortunately, no close calls. I've uploaded a large batch for book covers.


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