Welcome to my August 2026 Brutally Honest Earnings Report, where the long-term goal remains unchanged: trying to cover all my gear and travel costs entirely through stock income. A tough ask but I’m up for the challenge.
Read towards the end where I’ll discuss a special drone announcement!
Three days in Coimbra
I’m continuing with my little experiment of travelling around Portugal, producing new stock content and most importantly trying to spend as little as possible doing it. In Portugal it’s relatively easy to do, outside the major cities most things are quite affordable.
You may recall that in July I spent a few days in Porto. Sales from that trip are already slowly beginning to trickle in, which is encouraging.
In August, I headed north again, this time to Coimbra.
Here’s a one-minute reel from the trip:
It was my first proper visit and I really enjoyed wandering through the medieval streets, climbing up towards the enormous university complex and generally getting exploring with my drone. Coimbra is a very manageable city for a short photography trip not too big, plenty of history, lots of viewpoints and enough visual variety to keep me busy for three days.
Even the rain didn’t ruin it, in the end I managed to get some nice moments of sunshine.
Trip costs
Less than €300 for three days, including accommodation, transport and food.
At that level, I don’t need a spectacular commercial return. A few decent stock licences over the next months or even years should eventually cover the entire investment. Of course I’ll keep you all updated with what comes through that is interesting to report.
Monthly Highlights
Eclipse passed Iberia
Had a rare chance to experience and photograph a rare solar eclipse that passed my hometown.
Although I would have had to go further north for a total eclipse, it was still quite impressive and a bit surreal since the light changed so much so quickly. Tried to capture it on a 5 minute hyperlapse and you can sort of see what I mean.
I really enjoyed the overall vibe and was capturing peoples’ reactions to the experience.
Towards the end I risked my eyesight for one memorable shot…much to the detriment of my eyes the next day 🙂
Dmitry reached his Madeira goals
Happy to report that it’s been almost two years since Dmitry visited Madeira and I blogged about it here.
Thanks for the update, Dmitry and congratulations!
Highlights on the blog
Let’s now discuss my earnings.
Monthly Earnings Breakdown
📸Image Earnings (USD)
| Agency | Number of images (new images Aug) | Net Revenue Aug | Avg Return Per Download |
| Amazing Aerial – photos and videos, exclusive (July) | 2,779 (722) | 112 | 7.46 |
| Alamy | 17,500 (36) | 26 | 2 |
| Arcangel (RM-exclusive) | 6,705 (44) | ugh | ugh |
| Adobe Stock | 4,927 (3) | 89 | 0.86 |
| DepositPhotos | 8,884 (0) | 15 | 0.36 |
| Dreamstime | 9,876 (0) | 3 | 0.37 |
| Freekpik (now Magnific wtf) | 1,217 (0) | 10 | 0.06 |
| iStock (July) | 9,363 (1) | 54 | 0.48 |
| MotionArray | 480 (0) | 8 | 0.31 |
| Robert Harding (Q2 2026 monthly average) – RF exclusive | 741 (0) | 22 | 2 |
| Shutterstock | 12,849 (2) | 38 | 0.38 |
| Total | 377 |
🎥Clip Earnings (USD)
| Agency | Number of clips (new clips July) | Net Revenue for July | Avg Return per Download |
| Adobe Stock | 1,612 (0) | 64 | 8.86 |
| Pond5 | 3,419 (0) | 42 | 42 |
| iStock (July) | 1,251 (0) | 29 | 3.65 |
| SS | 2,787 (0) | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 135 |
Grand Total: $512
Thoughts on the month
Let’s address the most obvious first, my pathetic Shutterstock results.
Sure, we can all be accommodating and give a million excuses like it was August. I know half of Europe is sitting on a beach somewhere drinking Aperol Spritz. But excuses only go so far.
My Shutterstock results were the worst August I’ve had in both download volume and earnings since 2013. That says a lot since back then I only had at most 1,000 images and a few dozen clips.
This isn’t a random bad month anymore, it’s a long-term structural decline. Almost goes without saying that I have no intention to ever upload to Shutterstock anymore.
Another agency to watch out for, in a negative way, is Alamy. With September starting and me on 20% earnings, it’s sure to be “exciting”.
Aerial News
In better news, Amazing Aerial produced a solid July at $110, although it’s early days since I’ve only started mass-uploading to them quite recently.
📈Best-Sellers
Some decent sales over at Amazing Aerial:
Also Cape Town aerials keep selling well over at iStock.
In fact the series is doing OK, earning me $500 so far.
Arcangel
….
Plans for September
I’m continuing on my Portugal adventures and with slightly cooler temperatures I’m heading inland eastwards deep into the Alentejo region, specially Evora where I’ll be spending four days. I have visited there once but only spent two quick hours for a quick wanger and to get the drone up for a quick panorama.
Then towards the middle of the month I’ll be covering another poker tournament at Casino Lisboa. These are always fun even though the pay is quite low even for Portugal standards.
✈️Upcoming Travel Plans
| Month | Location |
| September | Brazil on the 29th |
| October | Brazil and back on the 19th |
| November | USA then Canada (arrive on cruise) |
| December | Maybe Greece around Christmas or a roadtrip through Spain |
| 2027 | East Asia, India (Dmitry?) Poland |
Drone Announcement!
Life is full of “coincidences” or not, I do believe that our thoughts do have power. We can attract what we want. As you know I’ve been eyeing investing in the FPV drones for a while but have put off this plan until next year.
During the eclipse I began chatting with someone who was also a professional photographer. He mentioned he’s also into drones and has an Avata2 but almost never uses it and is looking to sell it, wow crazy.
So we meet up a few days later and I test it for the first time on an empty field and it was soooo much fun. So yeah, I’m going for it! Gonna crash some but it’s part of the learning experience.
Until next time.
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.
Alexandre Rotenberg's Brutally Honest Guide to Stock Photography & Footage 
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