Welcome to my March 2026 Brutally Honest Earnings Report where I try to separate what looks good on Instagram from what actually pays the bills and hopefully eventually covers my travel costs. Let’s start this earnings report with one of my pics captured with the 150-600mm lens that I’m absolutely loving. Also, a small reel of an afternoon at Guincho beach also using the drone…

Last week I was in Romania and I’ll share my thoughts.

Exploring Bucharest: Embracing its “Ugliness”

Three months into 2026 and I’ve already been through three countries. January was Malta, February took me to Slovakia, and now, as I write this draft, I’m still in Romania.

Having spent the entire time in Bucharest, my first impression was immediate: this is not a beautiful city, especially when you arrive from somewhere with colour and visual warmth as I’ve become used to in Iberia. Also the traffic is an absolute nightmare with some pretty crazy drivers.

Still, the historic pedestrian centre has its charm. It’s lively, full of cafés and restaurants in the compact historical centre and some of the architecture does have that vaguely Parisian feel that explains the old nickname, “The Paris of the East.”

A city of contradictions

You see pristine cathedrals, palaces and monumental buildings, while much of the surrounding urban fabric feels rough, neglected and in some places downright bleak (although I felt safe throughout my trip). That contrast is striking, but that’s a discussion for another day. Seems like the more I travel the more I tend to notice these types of injustices.

Beautiful scenes are overrated

By now I’ve been in this business long enough to know that “beautiful” images are overrated. Pretty doesn’t automatically mean profitable, far from it. Great for Instagram likes, not so great for running a business. Hugo describes this in detail on his vlog and he’s doing very well financially especially when comparing to my results.

What I’m constantly scanning for are images that are commercially useful: visuals that can help sell products, promote services, illustrate ideas, or serve some editorial or newsworthy purpose. On that front, Bucharest has been far more interesting than it first appears.

There’s no shortage of raw material there. Despite the windy days and weak light, when things cleared up sufficiently I managed to get the drone up a few times. One notable shoot was capturing a power plant in the distance rising behind endless Soviet-style apartment blocks using my 70mm lens. That instantly felt more commercially relevant than yet another pretty church façade or generic old-town street.

Friendly locals

Romania has plenty of genuinely beautiful places outside of Bucharest and I fully intend to explore more of them on future visits. Brasov, Transylvania and Constantia come to mind. But what really stood out to me this time was how friendly people were.

Even when their English was limited and even when my attempts at speaking another Latin-based language were met with blank stares, people were generally open, patient and surprisingly relaxed about me photographing around them.

And yes, the food is pretty good too. Unless you’re a vegetarian, in which case good luck surviving on cabbages and corn.

Street photography in Bucharest

I even had one of those rare funny moments that helps to restore your faith in humanity, somewhat.

I was photographing the cathedral far into the distance when I heard some guy yelling at me in Romanian but not aggressively. Usually, when that happens, I assume it’s someone complaining, being territorial, or some private security guy taking himself too seriously. My default strategy is to play dumb and keep moving especially as I wear Airpods and sunglasses, usually it works.

But this time I had completely misread the situation. The guy was actually trying to help me as he wanted to point me toward a better angle of the cathedral far into the distance. Maybe I need to give people more the benefit of the doubt in public while shooting, not everybody is trying to ruin my day.

In town also for personal reasons: My half-Romanian roots

This part of the report is going to be a bit more brutally personal than usual, which is fine.

I was also in Bucharest for family reasons as my roots are half Romanian. One of the things I wanted to do on this trip was visit a famous pastry shop where my great-great-grandfather worked exactly 100 years ago, from 1920 to 1927, before immigrating to Brazil.

Matus was born in what is now Moldova in 1898 and moved to Bucharest as a teenager. My grandmother was later born in Brazil in 1929, so this trip felt like a strange but meaningful way of reconnecting a few scattered pieces of family history.

I really wanted to visit the café, tell them the story, and show them a digital copy of the recommendation letter he received when he resigned. And, naturally, I also wanted an excuse to try some of their delicious pastries.

To their credit, they were warm, receptive, and even let me photograph freely inside, which was a very nice touch.

If you’re ever in town the pastry shop is called Cofetăria Casa Capșa – Tradiție și Rafinament.

I also caught up with a British university friend that I hadn’t seen in over 10 years and now lives in Romania. He’s not running a football agency for players.

More family retracing soon

My next family-tracing heritage trip will take me to Warsaw, Poland where my dear and wise grandfather was born in 1926. Here’s some wise words on reaching such an advanced age in great health…it’s not just genetics!

Recap on my trip expenses

This was a relatively inexpensive trip and, based on the content I captured, I don’t expect covering the costs to be a major issue over time (always the optimist until reality bites, right Elijah? hehe). I estimate the total investment at around $800 for six days, including flights, food and the apart-hotel.

As always, I’ll keep tracking how long it takes for the resulting content to fully repay the trip. That remains, in my view, one of the most honest ways to judge whether travel for stock was commercially worthwhile. But also keep in mind that I don’t just travel for stock as for me it’s personally rewarding.

That said, I also have to be realistic. The light wasn’t great, the weather wasn’t great and some of the street work would almost certainly perform better in spring or summer, with happier-looking people, better light, and trees that don’t look half-dead. So it’s always a trade of between traveling in low season with fewer expenses but worse content vs traveling in high season with higher expenses but better conditions.

Nevertheless, think the trip will pay for itself eventually (will probably take longer than the default two years), I’m not expecting miracles from the more generic city imagery.

Next, congratulations to Hugo on getting his YouTube Channel monetised (while stuck in East Asia)

Excellent storytelling, Hugo. Your video gave me super-wanderlust to travel to Asia which I plan to visit next year.

Now, let’s move swiftly onto this month’s earnings report.

Monthly Earnings Breakdown

📸Image Earnings (USD)

Agency	Number of images (new images Mar)	Net Revenue Mar	Avg Return Per Download
Amazing Aerial (photos and videos)	300 (80)	15	–
Alamy	17,324 (79)	38	2.38
Arcangel (RM-exclusive)	6,291 (103)	TBD	TBD
Adobe Stock	4,925 (14)	108	0.72
DepositPhotos	8,859 (12)	15	0.50
Dreamstime	9,869 (53)	5	0.45
Freekpik	1,219 (2)	4	0.06
iStock (Feb)	9,343 (10)	91	0.88
MotionArray	476 (0)	13	0.31
Robert Harding (Q3 2025 monthly average) – RM/RF exclusive	731 (20)	52	3
Shutterstock	12,835 (5)	80	0.38
Wirestock	3,066 (0)	4	N/A
Total		425

🎥Clip Earnings (USD)

Agency	Number of clips (new clips Mar)	Net Revenue for Mar	Avg Return per Download
Adobe Stock	1,611 (17)	59	5.36
Pond5	3,427 (24)	7	7
iStock (Feb)	1,215 (1)	7	1
Shutterstock	2,793 (37)	12	4
Total		85

Grand Total: $510

Thoughts on the month: Really disappointing.

📈Best-Sellers

This one wasn’t a best-seller by any means but I can see it selling regularly soon. Back in early-2020, I wrote about how I was creating flag composites and trying to predict geopolitical events. Here’s a link to the post:

Creating Useful Flag Composites

Well I created some relating to the current Israel-Iran war that was bound to happen.

The world is a mess now and conflicts between nations are on the brink, so I might create some more of these. For instance. I’ll put the money earned towards my WWIII preparations.

As for actual best-sellers, this month there really weren’t any but my collection of images taken at a supermarket in Orlando back in April is selling regularly. There’s currently a movement in the US to MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN – “MAHA”, so I’ve included that in the keywords.

✈️Upcoming Travel Plans

2026 is rapidly becoming my “new country every month” year which is both creatively exciting and strategically useful for portfolio diversification. Also personally rewarding.

Month	Location
March	Bucharest
April	Rest in Portugal (Poland will be postposed until next year)
May	Brazil
June	Brazil (perhaps Peru or Argentina as well)
July	No plans yet
August	No plans yet
September	No plans yet
October	Brazil (Grandfather turning 100)
November	USA and Canada (arrive on cruise)
December	USA and Canada
2027	Asia and Poland, perhaps Israel when/if things calm down

I’m a big believer in planning travel early, especially as geopolitical tensions are causing inflationary pressures, while clients are increasingly devaluing photography work.

For the time being I’m happy and relaxed in Portugal until my next trip to Brazil in May and boy it’s a great place as you can see below in an epic drone shot I recently put together.

Until next time and stay safe!

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About Alex

I’m Alex, eccentric, based in Lisbon, and on a mission to explore every corner of the globe while capturing stock images and footage along the way.

For the past 12 years, I’ve been grinding as a travel photographer/videographer and freelance writer. Along the way I’ve also written The Brutally Honest Guide to Microstock Photography, a book packed with war stories and practical tips for anyone crazy enough to enter this business and more recently, The Brutally Honest Guide to Drone Laws in Europe.