Welcome to my August 2024 Brutally Honest Report! This month, I’ll be diving into my monthly earnings as usual, but also sharing an exclusive story from an Adobe Stock contributor who faced – and fought back against – copyright theft. Let’s dive in!

I’ve decided to publish this report slightly early because, honestly, my results are secondary; I’m more eager to get the message out on other matters!

Highlights of the month

This month, I published three blog posts:

1. Photo Justice: Top 5 Tools for Stock Photographers to Combat Infringement and Potentially Earn
2. “Exciting” Times Ahead: Pond5 Reduces 1,000 Prices to Just Two
3. AI in Stock Photography: Revolutionising Creativity or Breeding Complacency?

Additionally, I’m excited to share an exclusive story about Dmitry Rukhlenko, a stock photographer who successfully fought back against image theft but before let’s discuss another agency shutting down: PhotoCase.

PhotoCase shutting down citing a tough environment, including AI threats

In an industry where often times there is so much “corporate-speak”, it was super refreshing to read PhotoCase’s brutally honest take on why they’re shutting down. You may read it in full here which I won’t paste in full except for this key paragraph:

“Why, why, why?
Sales stagnated for five years, which must be seen as a success given the simultaneous development of the industry. Corona came, then a war in the neighbourhood – but what hit us as a company the hardest was the emergence of easily available free images, flanked by an economy that simply didn’t want to grow. For a little while, copyright infringement tracking kept us afloat, but generic sales kept going down. At the same time, costs rose without us being able to pass them on in the form of price increases. Now the first half of the year has gone so badly that we will probably not achieve our annual targets. We are at a point where we have to pull the emergency brake. Unfortunately, there is no utopia for Photocase, no plan B. In fact, things could only get worse, because the deluge of AI images has only just begun. For me, it feels like a defeat.”

PhotoCase did mention copyright infrigement which fits right into the next segment.

Dmitry Rukhlenko’s Battle Against Image Theft

Since Dmitry Rukhlenko’s interview on this blog, we’ve kept in touch through a photography-focused WhatsApp group where we help each other out. A frequent topic of conversation is image theft, which is a frustratingly common issue that most of us have faced. Dmitry recently shared how one thief downloaded hundreds of his images and began licensing them under their own name across various agencies, including Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, and 500px.

How it all started

A few months back, Dmitry spotted one of his images on the header of a blog post, “Paradise Expert City Guide to Nice“, attributed to a “Smaranda Angelica”. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an isolated incident.

As well as other blog posts, such as this one “The Best Cities to Visit Europe” licensed via Getty:

and also here at Conde Nast Traveller “13 Best Places to Visit in India this January“:

There were many more spotted…

Issuing DCMA notices

Dmitry quickly contacted the agencies using the standard DMCA procedure. While all images were eventually removed and the accounts shut down, Dmitry’s attempts to recover royalties were largely ignored by Shutterstock and Getty, even though some of the stolen images, such as the above, may have sold for as much as $372 on Getty (via 500px).

Good job, Adobe Stock

Adobe Stock investigated the situation and transferred $29 from the thief’s account to Dmitry. While it’s not a significant amount, it’s a symbolic victory. Dmitry encourages other contributors to persist in pursuing such royalties and to follow up multiple times even if the process is tiresome (more on this later).

Dmitry and I both applaud Adobe Stock for doing the right thing. We only wish other agencies would follow their example.

The Need for Stricter Measures Against Theft

Dmitry also expressed frustration over agencies that, despite removing stolen images, often leave fraudulent contributor accounts active. For instance, a portfolio with over 1,000 images remains intact on certain platforms, including Shutterstock and iStock (see links below), despite some of Dmitry’s stolen images being removed.

“Agencies should make it easy to report,” Dmitry said. “But instead, they make the process tedious and cumbersome. On Adobe and iStock, it’s difficult to even find the form. Shutterstock makes it hard to find an email address for copyright infringements, and they constantly reject your claims over minor DMCA technicalities.”

And this port is also at iStock.

SEPT 16 UPDATE: CARDINAL ILLUSTRATION THIEVING PORT FINALLY SHUT DOWN!

High-Fraud Regions

In keeping with the brutally honest nature of this blog, it’s important to note that fraudulent contributor accounts often originate from South Asia, including countries like Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. This is unfortunate for the honest contributors from these regions who may unfairly get caught up in the backlash.

Interestingly, within the Adobe Stock Contributor Facebook Group, there’s been an uptick in complaints from contributors in these regions about account shutdowns, which is music to my ears.

Combating Image Theft

Image theft remains a serious problem in this industry. For more strategies on how to protect your work, check out my recent blog post

Photo Justice: Top 5 Tools for Stock Photographers to Combat Infringement and Potentially Earn

Hope this good news will carry on with my monthly earnings, next up.

Monthly Earnings Breakdown

Image Earnings (USD)

Agency	Number of Images in port (new images Aug)	Net Revenue Aug	Avg Return Per Download
Alamy	16,265 (19)	29	2.64
Arcangel (RM-exclusive)	4,582 (77)	0	0
Adobe Stock	4,683 (27)	68	0.69
DepositPhotos	8,431 (21)	10	0.35
Dreamstime	9,333 (24)	5	0.44
Etsy	9 (1)	0	0
Freekpik	1,133 (12)	15	0.06
iStock (July 2024)	9,090 (10)	52	0.44
MotionArray	268 (32)	20	0.16
Robert Harding (Q3 2024 monthly average) – RM/RF exclusive	569 (5)	10	N/A
Shutterstock	12,407 (12)	70	0.45
Wirestock	3,066 (0)	9	N/A
Total		400

Clip Earnings (USD)

Agency	Number of clips in port (new clips Aug)	Net Revenue for Aug
Adobe Stock	1,202 (21)	22
Pond5	2,786 (25)	79
iStock (July 2024)	947 (58)	59
Shutterstock	2,137 (26)	14
Total		174

Grand Total: $574

Reflections on the month

August and January are typically the slowest months due to holidays and a general business slowdown. As such, I take this month’s results with a grain of salt. If September brings similar results, I may need to pull a PhotoCase and reconsider my approach to this business such as quitting micros altogether to focus on more profitable avenues.

However, there was a silver lining: for the first time ever, clips outperformed images at iStock. This might signal a growing trend, as I’ve been focusing more on uploading clips recently. Also almost half of my total earnings were from clips which is encouraging as that’s where I’m placing / have placed most of my efforts and perhaps it’s starting to show in the results.

iStock

The following clip I captured in December 2023 in Teresopolis, Rio de Janeiro State, earned me $33.18.

Pond5

Rio featured again and finally two nice sales this month for clips I captured in 2019 in Rio, while shooting a poker tournament at the iconic Copacabana Palace.

Now, let’s discuss one of the minnow agencies, Shutterstock.

Shutterstock (Minnow)

Nothing to showcase as it’s been an absolute disaster of a month at only combined 161 downloads on $84 earned. In fact, it’s been a disastrous month with the lowest number of downloads since December 2015 and worst total earned since August 2015. Pathetic.

Theo’s Big Screen Moment

Theo, from Bestravelvideo, recently told me his story of how he accidently spotted one of his clips, licensed via Pond5, on nothing less than a high-production film, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3.

Here’s the clip of the greek cheese pie/pastry.

Here’s the clip in the film:

As for how much he earned….$95 net, enough for a few of those pies.

Theo has the following to say about this sale:

“So you can now tell your friends that yes, ProRes sells on movies, like I always said!”

On that cheesy note, I leave you and until next time!

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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 ten 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 while shaming scammers.

I’ve gone all in on submitting book cover images to Arcangel Images. Oh and was also flying a DJI Mavic 2s drone regularly (although it crashed into Botafogo Bay on NYE – here is the story), which I’ve upgraded to a Mini 3 Pro and the Air3.

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