Welcome to the July 2023 Brutally Honest Report, where as usual I’ll discuss my happenings, industry news and of course earnings for the month. Let’s get started!

Busy July 2023 Highlights

July was a super busy month for me in terms of travel and new content – here are some highlights:

• Interview with Dave Wall, Book Cover artist and educator extraordinaire
• Will Contributors Soon have to Pay Microstock Agencies to Host their Content?
• Capturing and Selling Airplane Images & Video, a Detailed Workflow Analysis
• Review of Topaz Sharpen AI Tool

Exploring Portugal’s Silver Coast

On the usual theme of how fucking expensive it is to travel these days, I’m visiting new local places. This month I visited Portugal’s Silver Coast, just 100km north-west of Lisbon and boy what a stunning place it is!

Obidos Medieval Festival

Nearby to where I was staying, Obidos was hosting its annual medieval fair…had a great time and highly recommend to visit. It’s held every year in July for ten days.

Now, onto my detailed earnings for the month.

Detailed Earnings Breakdown

Image Earnings

Agency	Number of Images in port (images added July)	Net Revenue for July (US$)	Avg Return Per Download (US$)
Alamy	15,405 (88)	53	4
Arcangel (RM-exclusive)	2,804 (136)	0	0
Adobe Stock	4,358 (56)	71	0.62
DepositPhotos	8,588 (114)	17	0.31
Dreamstime	8,594 (78)	5	0.35
Freekpik	925 (59)	19	0.07
Fine Art America	373 (0)	0	0
iStock (June 2023)	8,515 (89)	85	0.39
Robert Harding (Q2 2023 monthly average) – exclusive	464 (12)	5	1
Shutterstock Editorial	931 (2)	0	0
Shutterstock	11,783 (87)	378	1.45
Pond5	1,819 (0)	0	0
Photo4Me	389 (0)	0	0
SignElements	1,398 (10)	2	N/A
Vecteezy	575 (45)	0	N/A
Wirestock	1,960 (0)	9	N/A
Total		644

Clip Earnings

Agency	Number of clips in port (added July)	Net Revenue for July (US$)	Avg Return Per Download (US$)
Adobe Stock	935 (30)	14	5
Pond5	2,311 (52)	34	17
iStock (June 2023)	713 (36)	2	Negligible
Shutterstock	1,716 (31)	44	7
Total		94

Net Total: $738

Let’s now break down for the individual agencies.

Shutterstock

Super month at Shutterstock at a combined $422, which feels like the good old days, in fact the best month in almost 4 years at SS (Sept 2019). Obviously this result was completely skewed by just one extended-license sale earning me $271. This image was taken in Venice as passengers waited to board a delayed Frecciarossa high-speed train to Milan.

Weird business this is when prices range from 1cent to $271.

Clips

When it rains it pours and this month also brought me a drone clip sale from Rio for a decent price of $36 – link to clip.

Rest of the 5 clips that sold earned me just $8 in total. Ouch!

Alamy, back to being microstock

The rollercoaster that is Alamy is back to being a microstock agency after a superb June where I boasted a whopping $235 net, July was just $53 net, around the historical average. No major sales to speak of.

Adobe Stock

Likewise, Adobe Stock was about average at $85 with no major sales to speak of.

Pond5

Two sales at Pond5, including one from my trip to Spain in April when I got my drone up in Bilbao, second month in a row that this clip has sold – link to it here.

iStock

Pretty average month at iStock with $87. Nothing really special to report as no huge sellers, including clips.

RECORD 136 images accepted Images at Arcangel

As usual, the highlights for the month are the massive time/effort that I’m putting in to increase my port at Arcangel, both in quality and quantity. This month proved super successful adding a record 136 images (with the Obidos medieval fair being truly fruitful). Sales will come, when I don’t know but soon!

Out of these, I’ve selected 30 of my fav on this slideshow:

Featured!

Hard work is paying off and is cool to be featured on Arcangel’s monthly showcase video which is distributed to their clients!

Huge congrats to Ruben Ramos for two full pages of mention, amazing work sir! and super congrats and being promoted to Elite Contributor!

DJI Air 3, should I upgrade?

In other news, I’ve just seen some promo videos on the new DJI Air 3 and I have to say that I’m thoroughly impressed and am thinking about upgrading from my Air 2s, particularly interested in shooting stills at 70mm at full resolution keeping me further away from catastrophe. Here are the details!

What do you think of this new drone, is it worth upgrading from the 2s?

Support the blog!

Throughout my blog, as you can appreciate, I’ve given quite a bit of my time to help you make sense of this complicated stock industry and help you to focus on making money. If you feel that the information below and throughout the blog is useful I kindly ask you to buy me a coffee.

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Keep in mind that I’ve put in many many hours of my time to compile these comprehensive reports when I’m not chasing the sun!

Next up on the interview series is Jasmine Aurora, Book Cover Photographer / Designer

About Alex

I’m an eccentric guy, currently based in Lisbon, Portugal, on a quest to visit all corners of the world and capture stock images & footage. I’ve devoted eight years to making it as a travel photographer / videographer and freelance writer. I hope to inspire others by showing an unique insight into a fascinating business model.

Most recently I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and also recently purchased a DJI Mavic 2s drone and taking full advantage and perhaps a Mavic 3 soon.

I’m proud to have written a book about my adventures which includes tips on making it as a stock travel photographer – Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography