Looks like...

...Shutterstock is picking up.  Although sales are still down 25%-50% they could be worse.  What's saving me is video sales.

Two video sales, one late last night and one really early this morning actually put me over the $5,000.00 earnings mark.  I'm averaging about $1,250 a year in sales right now.  I started in May 2014 where I earned only $5 to $20 a month for the first year.  So that average is probably higher.  I'd say around $2,000 a year.  I am starting this month to actually save my photography earnings to buy a new camera.  I want to buy the new Sony RX200 Mark IV point and shoot.  I want to buy the Sony RX100 Mark IV just because of its size and the fact that it now boasts a f2.8-4.5 24-200MM lens.  It's a perfect little travel camera that shoots awesome 1080p and 4k video.  Plus the picture quality is outstanding.  Next year I want to get into doing some astrophotography so I also want to purchase an entry level DSLR like a Canon Rebel T7i or if they bring out a new T8i, I'd buy that.  I already have a telescope and a tracking mount so I just need the body.

This heat wave!!!

This heat wave we've had for the past month has to break at some point.  29 degrees Celsius not including the damn humidity.  Haven't slept well for the past 3 days.  I want to get out and do some more photography.  I've been only using my Apple iPhone 8 Plus for some random shots in the past couple of weeks.  Luckily it looks like sales are picking up on Shutterstock.  Pond5 and Videoblocks have been totally dead the last few months.  Hope they both pick up soon.

 

On another note, fall is coming and I'll be heading out to Algonquin Park and Parc Omega more often in the coming weeks.  I love those two places.

Still adding photos

Still going thru my photos from my trip to Arizona and I keep finding more and more photos that I like.  I'm of course adding them to my Shutterstock portfolio and my own personal website.  Arizona is certainly a beautiful state with extremely nice people.

It's been a while

Well 2017 is here and what a year.  Got a new girl in my life, work is going well and finally doing more photography.  Finally.  Busy, busy, busy.

Photo & Video

Lately, I've been doing shooting a lot of video as I have had plenty of photos on the various micro stock agencies.  I'm just trying to build up my video portfolio.  It's time consuming doing both but I do love doing both.  Video clips sell for a much higher price but they are far and between what I typically sell.  I do still sell a lot of photography.  Not as much during the summer as most people are on vacations.  I'm hoping sales of both video and photos pick up again in September.

July is the slow time!

The summer months are the slowest times for photo sales.  At least from my experience.  As people take vacations, they purchase less from micro stocks where I do pretty much all of my business.  I travel as well to various parks to do my photography.  The above shot is from Barron Canyon in Algonquin Park, Ontario.  Took it just before I got to the Algonquin Radio Observatory.  I'm thinking next weekend going to Algonquin Park again.  But this time to the southern Highway 60 corridor.  There are a lot of moose sightings.  I also want to do some astrophotography imaging.  Hopefully the weather will co-operate.  If not Algonquin Park, maybe one of the other parks which are located 2-3 hours just west of Ottawa.  Weekends in Canada are just amazing with the weather and scenery.  

I typically go to Parc Omega in the fall and winter seasons as the landscapes are amazing as the tree leaves turn colours.  I hope to make it to Tremblant as well for a day or two.  It's a good time to be living and doing photography.  The technology is just amazing.