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.

It’s not the camera

Still in a conundrum.  Luckily I have until March 2020 to make a final decision.  Now I’m leaning towards just shooting with the Sony RX100 Mark VI and the VII.  I realize the Sony A7RII has more than twice the amount of megapixels which means higher resolution photos and 4K footage.  But I mainly shoot for micro stock agencies and I’ve gotten excellent photos and 4K footage with the Sony RX100 Mark VI and the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I am trying to convince myself to just shoot with those cameras instead of the Sony A7RII.  I could edit the A7RII photos on my 2018 iPad Pro.  It does have enough horse power to colour grade and edit the images unlike my early 2013 MacBook Pro or my Windows 10 laptop which has 2 SSD hard drives and 32GB of RAM.  I want to be as minimalist as I can.  I don’t want to carry around large amounts of equipment.  

There are photographers with YouTube channels who shoot on Sony a6400 bodies with pretty much kit lenses.  I think I can do well with just the Sony RX100 Mark VI and the VII.  I should really save my money for a better drone than the DJI Spark.  I want to go out west and do more drone photography in the mountains.  

I think I’m just going to keep saving my photography money and finally make a decision in March 2020.  I am kind of hoping that Sony comes out with the next Sony RX100 Mark VIII which has more resolution and better battery life.  I should have about $2000US saved, if not more by March 2020 to make a good decision.

Tonight after work, I’m going out to do some more photography.  I want to go to Nepean Point and get an HDR shot of the Ottawa landscape.  It’s a sunny day right now and there are white fluffy clouds in the sky.  I hope to get some good light tonight to get a spectacular image of the Ottawa landscape.  If I do get a good image tonight I will show you here tonight.  

Just an update

I have a huge conundrum right now.  I have the Sony RX100 Mark VI and the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  They are both my primary cameras for my stock photography and landscape photography business.  I want to move away from the I.T business and do the photography business full time.  I started this I.T contract just over a month ago.  I know I’m not getting extended past December 31st of this year.  Our apartment lease is done at the end of March 2020.  At that point I want to move to Calgary to be closer to the mountains, nature and wildlife.  I am currently saving all my money for a Sony A7RII camera body, lens, battery grip.  I figure it’s going to cost me about $4500 for the camera, lens, battery grip combo.  I think the Sony A7RII is more of a professional camera setup.  Since I shoot majority stock which only requires a 5 megapixel resolution sensor.  The Sony A7RII has a 42.4 megapixel full frame sensor.  I think I would only print 13” by 19” if I choose to get back into printing my photography.  The Sony RX100 Mark VI and VII are good enough to print 13” by 19” prints.  I’m currently planning a YouTube channel as well to market my photography.  I don’t do the Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc marketing since I can’t stand Facebook and all its scary privacy breaches.

For me, it’s not the equipment that matters.  I’m more worried about the perception. The Sony RX100 line of cameras are awesome cameras for travel photography and videography.  If people see the Sony RX100 Mark VII in the field used for landscape photography versus a Sony A7RII camera with a Sony 24-240MM lens, they’re more likely to perceive better quality coming out of the bigger Sony A7RII camera.  I have until March 31, 2020 to think about my conundrum.  I love the portability of the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  It allows me to take excellent photos and videos as does the Sony A7RII camera.  I just wish my photography would sell better.

As you can probably tell, I have extreme doubt about my abilities to take this on full time.  I just don’t know if I can make it.

Adobe stock first sale

I’ve been on Adobe Stock for a week now.  I have 800+ photos on the site.  Today I sold my first photo on the site.  It’s a shot from Monument Valley which I visited about 3 years ago.  You can click the following link to see the photo and I hope you view some other photos I have for sale.  The photo is ok I guess.  Not my best work but I like it.  My plan is to add about 100-150 photos/clips a day to my Adobe portfolio.  Hopefully in a month or so, I’ll have 3-4000 photos available for sale on Adobe.  I have 15,000+ photos and 1,500+ footage clips on Shutterstock.  I hope Shutterstock lets me download my footage clips since I lost them all when my hard drive got corrupt when I moved last year.

I really fell in love with the southwest American landscape when I was there back in 2016.  I am going to move to Calgary in April of next year to be closer to the national parks in Canada and the United States.  I love photographing the landscape of the parks.  It is truly beautiful out there.  I think I won’t need a tent or anything.  Just sleep in the back of my vehicle.  The problem I’ll have is finding a toilet.  I’ll just have to watch what I eat so I don’t need to visit Mother Nature as often.

Free Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom Classic CC

As of today, I had 372 photos and videos accepted on my Adobe Stock portfolio.  As per the Adobe site, once you reach 300 photos or videos accepted, you get either the photographer or the all in package for free for a year.  You'll receive a code within 6-8 weeks to redeem this offer.  Typically I wouldn't install any Adobe stuff on my computer or at least I wouldn't pay a subscription for software.  Now that I get it for free for a year, it's not that bad.  Once the year is up though, I will of course cancel the subscription and only use Pixelmator and Affinity Photo to edit my photography.  I'm actually using that right now and submitting it to Adobe Stock.

New portfolio

Got a new place where you can buy my photography.  I've submitted my photography and footage to Adobe Stock.  I only started submitting in the last week or so.  The portfolio is small but it is growing.   So please have patience.  You can click here to see the portfolio.  It's limited right now but I'm adding photography and footage on a daily basis.  Once it gets approved, it'll be on there.  Usually takes a day or so to get approved once I submit it.

I want to give my customers choices for where to shop for my photography.  Adobe Stock is another good, quality choice.

Adobe Stock

So after a few years of avoiding the website, I am on the Adobe Stock site.  My portfolio is very small as I just started uploading there this week.  I will be working over the next 2-3 months in adding more photos and videos to the site.  I’ll be going out more on weekends doing more of my photography.  I need to add more photos and videos to my Shutterstock, Pond5, Storyblocks and now Adobe Stock portfolios.  I just want to give people more options to buy my photography and my videos.  You can also go to my own personal website and buy photos there to hang on any wall at home or office.

I wanted to go do some photography after work but it looks like we’re going to get rained on starting today and ending at some point tomorrow.  This weekend, the girlfriend and I are heading down to Lake Placid, New York.  She’s never been and I haven’t been in about 3-4 years.  The fall colours are amazing this year in the north east of Canada and the United States.  Hope you will buy some of my prints.

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.

This is scary Shutterstock

Going on the 4th day with absolutely no sales on Shutterstock.  I've added a few new photos and vids but nothing.  No sales!!!  Nothing.  This is the longest dry spell I've had in a few years.  Sometimes I go one or two days, typically weekends without a sale.

I've taken my Sony RX100 Mark VII to work with me the last week or so.  There is absolutely nothing to photograph around the place I work at.  It's a pretty drab area of Ottawa I work at.  Nothing but buildings from the 1950's.  The area consists of buildings built in the 1950's that were used as a hospital.  Home dwellings were built in the 1950's as well so they are pretty old.  Maybe I can go for a walk tomorrow and do some black and white photography.

I am so looking forward to moving out of Ottawa and Ontario to Calgary in 2020.  I can't stand Ottawa anymore.

But, back to Shutterstock.  I a stuck at 8 sales for the month.  8 measly sales with a portfolio of 15,000+ photos and 1,500+ footage clips.  It is kinda sad.

Update:  I wrote this post and within half an hour, sold 4 photos to someone in San Diego, California.  Went to bed at about 10pm and sold another 4 photos overnight to someone.  Yup.  Thanks shutterstock.

This has become a joke

So I’m starting my third week at work and my admin account is still fubarred.  Still doesn’t work properly.  That’s one thing.  I setup my late 2013 MacBook Pro yesterday, installed the new operating system and signed up for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC.  I upgraded my Apple online storage back to 2TB.  I have about 6TB of photos on an external drive that I want to back up onto the Apple storage plan.  I doubt I’ll be able to put all of that photography on there.  I want to keep using just my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.

I am really not in a good mood today.  I created a Facebook account temporarily today.  Creeped my ex.  Learned my dog had died back in November 2018.  It was a golden lab we got back in 2009.  It was only 9 years old.  Most labs, if you take care of them live to 12-14 years old.  So Stella, died fairly young which pissed me off.  She died about 3-4 years too young.

In all honesty, I missed the dog more than I miss my ex wife.  I need to get the F out of Ontario.  Honestly.

Back to using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC

So after several months of using my 2018 Apple iPad Pro 12.9" with the 512GB hard drive, I am back to using my 2013 Apple MacBook Pro with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC.  It is totally frustrating.  I've been using my Sony RX100 Mark VII as my main photography camera.  Apple has not updated the RAW engine so my photos are incompatible with iPadOS.  They are incompatible with Windows 10 as well.  Recently Adobe released the RAW software for the Sony RX100 Mark VII and the Sony AR7 Mark IV.  I absolutely love my Sony RX100 Mark VII.  It's my go to camera/camcorder.  I know the 2013 Apple MacBook Pro can handle editing pictures and 1080 video from the Sony RX100 Mark VI and VII.  Just takes a while to edit 4K footage.  

I was at Mud Lake for a bit today and I was thinking that I really want to use the photos from the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I read somewhere online that Adobe finally updated the RAW plugins for its software suites to finally use the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I'm going to use Lightroom Classic CC on my MacBook Pro for a while.  

I really wanted to use my iPad Pro with the iPadOS but iPadOS and the photography software is just not there yet.  Maybe give it another year and it'll be there but it's not there yet unfortunately.  The apps I use have to be fully upgraded for use with iPadOS and external hard drive support.  I'm just going to use Lightroom Classic and Affinity Photo even though I do have access to Photoshop.  I like Affinity Photo much better.

Apple iPadOS 13.1.2

So I had an issue with the new iPadOS.  Some of the keys would not work when I had my Bluetooth mouse connected.  I posted the issue on the Apple Communities Support Forum about 2 weeks ago.  Today, someone posted the solution to my and others keyboard/mouse problem.  Now, I literally have no issues with the iPadOS.  I just got rid of my Windows 10 laptop permanently.  I still do have one issue with iPadOS.  I actually have the same issue on Windows 10 and Apple desktop operating system.  My Sony RX100 Mark VII is not yet supported.  Not the RAW images anyways.  That should be updated probably within a month or so.  Luckily I have my Sony RX100 Mark VI which works fine with all operating systems.  I am happy with the iPadOS now.  Thankfully.