Today, we bring you a candid and insightful conversation with Paul Prescott, founder of Amazing Aerial, a boutique stock agency rapidly gaining attention for its premium positioning in the aerial content space.

Amazing Aerial are looking to expand. Stick around until the end for a breakdown of how to apply to become a contributor if you shoot aerial photos and videos. Let’s get started!

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Thanks for this opportunity, Paul, and welcome to the Brutally Honest Blog! Please tell me about yourself. When and why did you decide to launch Amazing Aerial? What gap in the aerial stock market were you trying to fill when you launched Amazing Aerial?

Thanks for this opportunity, Alex. I started my career as a travel and stock photographer over 19 years ago as a full-time stock photographer. After building a successful microstock portfolio with over 30,000 assets and earning more than $500,000 in royalties, I saw both the potential and the limitations of traditional stock platforms. The turning point came in 2017 when I launched Amazing Aerial, a platform built to elevate aerial photographers by offering better visibility, higher royalties, and stronger distribution through curated partnerships.

What I saw missing in the market was a platform that treated contributors as partners rather than as content suppliers. I wanted to create a place where photographers could earn premium rates, get published in world-class media, and become part of a global community. Amazing Aerial fills that gap between artistic value and commercial viability, between creators and high-end buyers.

Roughly how many contributors are currently working with Amazing Aerial, and from how many countries? What’s the current size of the collection in terms of assets?

We currently represent over 350 photographers across 85 countries. Our curated collection has grown to over 200,000 photos and videos with hundreds more added every day. It’s a living, breathing portfolio of the world from above, always fresh and diverse.

With the Getty-Shutterstock merger and other consolidations shaking up the stock world, contributors are understandably anxious. How does Amazing Aerial position itself in this volatile landscape and how do you plan to stay relevant?

We position ourselves as the premium alternative to mass-market agencies. Rather than compete on volume, we focus on quality, curation, and building long-term value for contributors. Our strategy is rooted in human relationships, smart distribution, and real-world assignments, not algorithms alone.

While big platforms consolidate and lower contributor earnings, we’re forging new partnerships and offering more transparency. We’ve signed contracts with over 40 premium agencies and built direct relationships with clients like Nat Geo, Microsoft Bing, British Airways, and production companies worldwide. Relevance comes from impact—not scale alone.

This curated, boutique approach ensures your work isn’t buried in an over-saturated market. Instead, it’s presented with purpose, licensed at higher rates, and supported by a team that champions your creative voice. In short: we’re not just growing, we’re leveling up. And we’re bringing our contributors with us.

As a curator and Siena Drone Awards jury member, what makes aerial footage not just beautiful but sell-able? In other words, what separates art from commercial stock in your eyes?

Great aerial content is about more than just being high up, it’s about perspective. What sells is work that’s both visually striking and useful to a client. Clean compositions, strong light, storytelling elements, and a sense of scale are key.

Art may live in a gallery, but commercial stock lives on websites, book covers, magazines, and documentaries. The best contributors understand both worlds, they bring aesthetics with function. A photo might be award-winning, but if it lacks usability (due to clutter, poor framing, or niche appeal), it won’t sell.

What kinds of aerial content are selling best right now? Could you give us a few examples and perhaps name a few locations that consistently perform well.

Drone footage of energy (solar farms, wind turbines), agriculture, infrastructure, and tourism are consistently strong sellers. Urban environments, especially global cities like New York, Dubai, Tokyo, and London, perform very well. Culturally rich, less-documented regions (like Ethiopia, Colombia, or northern Vietnam) also see demand, especially when shot with a cinematic eye.

Happy to announce that Fabio Nodari, who was interviewed on your blog, has recently joined Amazing Aerial.

Interview with Fabio Nodari, Travel Photographer & Blogger currently based in China

We’re excited to see more of his work from China.

What are the most common mistakes you see drone contributors make when submitting work especially factors that hurt their chances of being accepted or selling?

Too many similars is one of the biggest issues. Such as uploading 30 shots of the same scene dilutes your impact and hurts search visibility. Poor keywording is another; if buyers can’t find your content, it won’t sell. We have developed an AI tool that makes the quality more consistent and higher quality than otherwise done by humans.

Other factors that may hurt someone’s chances are, overly stylized edits, heavy colour grading, or incorrect white balance can make even great compositions unusable.

On the business side, many photographers don’t think long-term, they focus on Instagram likes rather than licensing potential. Stock is a marathon, not a sprint.

For anyone looking to join Amazing Aerial what’s the process like, and what are you really looking for in a contributor? Any red flags or green lights?

Photographers apply through our website, and our team personally reviews every portfolio. We’re looking for technical excellence, strong editing, good metadata, and a sense of storytelling. Green lights include a consistent visual identity and an understanding of licensing. Red flags? Over-processed images, lack of permissions (especially in restricted areas), or an “upload and forget” mentality. We want proactive, engaged creators who see stock as part of their creative business, not just a side hustle.

Beyond commission splits, what do you offer contributors?

At Amazing Aerial, our commitment goes far beyond payouts. We believe in empowering contributors through worldwide distribution, education, and community.

Worldwide Distribution

Earn through global licensing with our unmatched reach. Your content will be available across 40+ premium partner agencies and direct clients, including National Geographic, Microsoft Bing, Expedia, and others. Our distribution network ensures your imagery is seen and purchased by top-tier media, advertising, and creative industries around the world.

Education & Photo Tours

Learn, teach, and earn with Amazing Aerial. Contributors get access to exclusive educational resources and have the opportunity to co-host global photo tours.
We’ve already captured Bangladesh and Iran.

In September 2025, we’re headed to Bhutan, partnering with the Ministry of Tourism for a 15-day aerial shoot with special drone access. These tours offer contributors both creative fulfillment and a new revenue stream, while producing exclusive collections for our clients.

Community

Join a network of 350 photographers across 85 countries. Our contributors connect locally and globally via:

• Our private online community platform, where you can:
  • Post updates
  • Share feedback
  • Join live webinars
  • Host your own sessions

Together, we’re building more than a stock platform, we’re cultivating a movement of visual storytellers.

You can also engage online through our dedicated community platform:
 Join the community

There, you can post updates in our feed, join live webinars, host your own training, and participate in creative direction challenges. And of course, our online connections often turn into real-life meetups when our artists travel the world and link up with fellow creators.

For those artists looking to become contributors, Amazing Aerial has taken a somewhat unconventional approach in charging contributors the option between three monthly plans. Could you please expand on this decision, the different plans and what contributors can obtain in return for the monthly fees.

At Amazing Aerial, we’ve taken a bold but deliberate step in flipping the traditional model. We’ve built a contributor-first platform, one that empowers photographers and videographers as creative entrepreneurs.

We, at Amazing Aerial, believe in value for value. For less than the cost of a couple stock downloads, our monthly plans give creators access to:

• Premium global distribution
• AI-powered tagging
• Direct client briefs
• Masterclasses, tools, and educational resources
• And most importantly: a tight-knit, opportunity-driven community

Although $50/month may seem like a lot, it’s peanuts compared to the potential returns. This includes considerable time-saving services such as editing, clipping, colour grading and AI keywording for up to 100 videos/month. Simply send us the footage in D-Log and we’ll handle the rest, including metadata. All you have to do is shoot and send us your files.

Also, by using your Brutally Honest link we’ll give contributors 10% subscription costs – Simply use the coupon code “BRUTALLY-HONEST”.

Let’s talk numbers. If possible to discuss, what’s the average royalty per sale your contributors are seeing and how do you justify it when so many creators feel earnings are shrinking across the board at other agencies?

It varies widely depending on the client and usage, but contributors earn from $25 to $500+ per license. This is a far cry from the micro prices you see on microstock, on average. Because we focus on premium clients, we can maintain higher pricing and share better royalties.

I often say: “You’d need to sell 100s of microstock licenses to equal one from Amazing Aerial.” That’s not just a slogan, it’s the reality our contributors are living. In the last year our revenue has increased by 73%.

Our intention is to build profitable portfolios for our artists, that they understand that this takes months and years. Again, it is not a sprint, it is a marathon. By consolidating a strong portfolio, and adding fresh photos and videos regularly, this is a recipe for success. Having done this personally, I want to share my knowledge with others, so we can all grow together.

The key is to diversify revenue sources, so licensing is just one of the revenue streams, and as we move forward, all the revenue streams Amazing Aerial develops, our whole community will be able to benefit from it.

What plans are there in place for Amazing Aerial for the near future that you would like to share?

We’re excited to announce the next chapter for Amazing Aerial, a major evolution that transforms us from a licensing distributor into a true premium marketplace.

Our new platform will allow us to host and license exclusive video content directly, no longer relying solely on third-party stock channels. While photos will continue to be distributed globally as premium editorial content, our video strategy is changing.

We’re launching a Premium Video Section, featuring:

• 8K footage
• Drone shots captured with special authorizations (e.g., flights over restricted zones in major cities like London and Paris)
• High-end cinematic clips tailored for documentaries, features, and premium media

These videos will be available exclusively on our platform, bypassing traditional microstock channels and unlocking higher licensing rates for our contributors.

Thank you, Alex for this opportunity.

Call to Contributors – Becoming an exclusive Amazing Aerial Contributor

Amazing Aerial aren’t looking for microstock content dumpers, they’re building a collective of world-class visual storytellers. That’s why they have so far limited the number of contributors. But now they’re expanding.

If you’re a professional aerial photographer or videographer with a sharp eye, solid technique, and a passion for cinematic or editorial imagery, they want to see what you’ve got.

Follow these simple steps:

1. Submit your portfolio (drone, photo, or video, simply show them your best work)
2. Tell them about your creative journey
3. Get reviewed by their curation team consisting of real humans, not bots
4. Worst case scenario, you’ll receive feedback if you’re not accepted to improve for next time.

—> APPLY NOW WITH 10% OFF SUBSCRIPTIONS EXCLUSIVELY VIA THIS LINK – Simply use the coupon code “BRUTALLY-HONEST”<—-

Final Thoughts

In a world of AI-scraped content and shrinking royalties (my last drone clips are selling for less than $2 on iStock and Shutterstock), Amazing Aerial is a breath of fresh air. I’m also consider joining but to be brutally honest, as always, I’m so focused right now on book covers at Arcangel that I can’t commit enough to a new agency at least for now.

But you’re free to try and please feel free to get in touch with me directly and I’ll try to advise you on making the perfect application, as well as following up on your journey if you’re accepted. By the way, I’m putting together a comprehensive drone guide on legally flying in Europe, so this would be useful to fly safely and legally – to be published in June 2025.

Big thanks to Paul for this brutally honest deep dive and stay tuned, because we’ll be revisiting this platform as it evolves.

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About Alex

I’m an eccentric guy. I am based in Lisbon, Portugal. I am on a quest to visit all corners of the world. I want to 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.

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 and soon a Europe-wide guide on flying your drone legally to be published in June 2025