Review of Adobe Stock. And it’s not good.

I started with Adobe stock about 2.5 weeks ago.  I realize my portfolio is small.  About 1150 photos and clips.  I’ve sold two photos on there within the last couple of weeks.  When I started with Shutterstock, I sold a photo on my first day and I had 7 photos accepted.  My portfolio grew and so did the sales.  I have 15,000+ photos and 1,500+ footage clips on Shutterstock.  I make sales daily pretty much on Shutterstock.  Weekends are a disaster on every micro stock agency.  So I should not be surprised that I’m getting very view sales on both Adobe and Shutterstock.  I typically now sell 46 to 60 shots on Shutterstock monthly.  That’s down from 120+ monthly from 2 years ago with a portfolio that is 75% larger.  My portfolio is varied on both sites.  I’m adding to Adobe and Shutterstock daily.  I’m hoping sales increase next year when I move out west.  The last two days here in Ottawa have been miserable weather wise with rain and more rain every day.

I thought Adobe Stock would be much better than it is.  Reading the reviews of other contributors I thought I would get a few more sales than I have.  I am going to continue to upload shots that I’ve taken over the last seven or so years, picking out the best ones and adding them to both Adobe and Shutterstock if I haven’t already done so.  Pond5 and Storyblocks aren’t doing that well either.  Sales have fallen over the past two years to very minimal.  Maybe one or two sales on Pond5 a month.  Storyblocks has a subscription model on their site now.  I sell less than twenty dollars on average over the past two months which is atrocious.  

Also, I’ve decided, today, I am going to buy the Sony A7RII camera, lens and battery grip when I save enough photography money.  I want to do this as my full time job.  I will be using my Canon Vixia HF R800 for my YouTube channel I think.  As good as the Sony RX100 Mark VII is at video, the 2018 Apple iPad Pro with iPadOS just doesn’t function well.  It takes too long to import gigabytes of data just for a 10 minutes video.  The Sony file structure doesn’t work well with iPadOS.  

I just have to weather the next 5 months here in Ottawa till I move.  It’s just very depressing.

I am back

Well, after a few years of being permanently banned on a particular micro stock agency, I decided to try and upload some of my photography.  I added about 10 photos and 9 of the 10 were approved.  So I started adding more.  And more.  And more.  Apparently a few years back I was spamming their agency with the same photos.  Apparently I was spamming all the agencies but I was only banned from this one.  

Well, after a few years, I guess I am able to upload again.  Which is fantastic. I sold quite a few photos and clips on there.  Hopefully I can replicate the success on this site again.  I hope I sell as many photos as I do on Shutterstock on this site.  The more photo and footage sales, the better.  I just want to buy a better drone for my Ariel photography.

Canon Vixia HF G40

So today I finally picked up the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder.  I wanted this prosumer camcorder so bad.  I upgraded it from the Canon Vixia HF R62.  The G40 provides a few bit more controls when shooting video like Exposure and ISO settings.  I can actually physically attach an external mike as well to the G40.  It's more of a prosumer camcorder rather than a top of the line consumer camcorder. I will post a better review when I actually start using the camcorder in real life situations.

My experience with micro stock agencies

For the most part, my experience has been rock solid dealing with micro stock agencies such as Shutterstock, Bigstockphoto, Fotolia, Alamy, Pond5 and Videoblocks.  There are agencies that I will not work with again such as Dreamstime, Canstockphoto and 123RF.  While having portfolios on those last three agencies, the work is just not worth the return.  In 2+ years of having portfolios on those agencies, I've gotten one payout between the three of them totalling $51.00USD.  Uploading, keywording and submitting your photos or videos is just not worth the time and effort.

By far, Shutterstock is where the action is.  That's where I have my biggest portfolio and that's where I make the majority of my sales.  I've just start shooting video in the past 9 months and have had a great success with it on Shutterstock, Fotolia, Pond5 and Videoblocks.  I suggest doing both video and photo work.  Doing video as well gives clients potential options as well.  

As you can see on my blog I have links to my various portfolios.  If you want to sign up, please use the necessary links provided and sign up that way.  I spend about an hour or two a week just uploading to the various websites including editing, keywording and uploading.  It's a great return on investment and time.

First to 2500!

I always thought that Fotolia or iStockphoto would be the first to 2500 images and/or videos to 2500 files available for sale.  Today at about 14:00 I reached 2519 files on Shutterstock.  Shutterstock accepts Editorial shots along with videos and that's what put me over the 2500 mark.

I only started micro stock just about 2 years ago.  I had a pretty good go at Fotolia and I have 2352 files available for sale.  Fotolia was pretty much outpacing Shutterstock until about a few months ago when I bought the Canon EF f2.8 70-200MM L series lens.  After that, pretty much everything I photographed was accepted on both sites.  

I absolutely love photography and videography.

Shutterstock continues to impress

Now I know photography wouldn't make me rich.  It's a hobby for me that I make some money from. I'm more of a semi-professional as I make some money from selling my photos and videos on stock photography sites.  I sell on about 7 sites from 123RF to Videoblocks.  But my best site is Shutterstock.  In the last 8 months, my acceptance rate at Shutterstock has been incredibly high as I've added over a thousand images and videos to my portfolio.  Sales have been steady with my last month being my worst since October of 2015.  

Fotolia continues to be my second best site as far as acceptance and sales.  They unfortunately do not accept editorial shots or footage so they're losing out on a great number of photographs and stock footage.  

Shutterstock and Fotolia continue to impress me both.  I think they're the top of the top of micro stock sites.

My Shutterstock and Fotolia portfolios are available to view here by just following the previous links.  My own website is here if you are interested in any of my photography.

If you're interested in selling with either Shutterstock or Fotolia, just click on the respective links.