Shutterstock is bad for your photography business

 

Yes.  You read that right.  Shutterstock is dead.  Whoever uploads to the site is a total moron.  Why would you upload your images or videos to a site that pays you pennies on the dollar?  I sell my photography and videos on various sites including 123RF, Adobe Stock, Bigstock, Canstock, Deposit Photos, Dreamstime, Pond5, and Storyblock.  I also sell on Fine Art America and Redbubble along with my own website.  All of my sites outsell Shutterstock.  I sell one photo on Canstock for 25 cents to several dollars and still outsell Shutterstock.  I so far have sold 18 photos on Shutterstock this month for a grand total of $4.24.  On Canstock, I’ve sold 2 photos this month for roughly $17.  Tell me how Shutterstock is better than any other site?  They’ve almost won the race to the bottom but iStock beat them to eat several years ago when they started selling our photos for $0.10 a photo and even less.  I closed my iStock account in 2019.  I still get sales for a whopping $0.07, $0.08 and $0.09 a piece.  December of 2020, I got a $75 sale of a picture on Shutterstock and that was the biggest sale I got there since January of 2020.  

Dealing with companies like iStock and Shutterstock is just not worth the time.  It’s actually insulting.  I look at the comments sections of Shutterstock and people get butt hurt if Shutterstrock doesn’t approve their photos.  Why would you even bother uploading anything to Shutterstock or iStock when they’ll sell your photos for $0.10 a photo and $0.24 for a 4K video clip?  Why?  Why would you do that to yourself?  Why do that to your business?  

Even if you’re uploading shots you took with your Android or iPhone?  It’s just not worth it.  Shutterstock and iStock have killed the microstock photography business.  Stop supporting them if you’re a photographer/videographer or a buyer!!!!  Just stop!!!!

An update on the Sony RX100 Mark VII

I honestly don’t use my Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder anymore.  I think I’ve used it twice this year.  I hardly use my Sony a7ii with the battery grip and the Sony f3.5-6.4 24-240MM lens.  Whenever I go out shooting, I use the Sony RX100 Mark VI.  I don’t do any astrophotography anymore.  I hardly go to Parc Omega anymore because I think the park has been pretty much ruined for photographers.  It’s also pricey at $35CAD per person, per visit.  I still go once in a blue moon.  I’ve gone I think twice or three times these past few months.  The weather has been horrible this spring and summer.  We went directly from a cold winter to the warmest summer on record.  All the animals would hide in the forest.  I honestly like going in the fall and winter anyways because the animals are more active.

The Sony RX100 Mark VI and the Sony RX100 VII have the same f2.8-4.5 24-200MM lens which is actually fantastic for a point and shoot pocket camera.  I can use it for wildlife and landscape photography.  They both have pretty much the same 20.1 megapixel sensor.  Depending on edits, I can get 18-33 megabytes files out of each RAW file.  They both shoot fantastic 4K videos and the Sony RX100 Mark VII can shoot up to an hour of 4K footage before the battery dies on it.  That’s according to reviewers on YouTube.  The Sony RX100 Mark VII finally comes with a mic jack so that you can attach a microphone to it.  I don’t use the camera for vlogging because I don’t do vlogs at all.  I just shoot 5 second to 60 seconds video clips and publish them to my portfolios on Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks which are all available on the home page of this blog.

Yes the Sony a7ii and theCanon Vixia HF G40 are more professional equipment.  But if they’re sitting here unused, they are costing me money.  I do a lot of travelling and a lot of walking.  Especially downtown or local walking trails where I look for animals to photograph and take videos of.  Carrying around huge camera bodies and lenses.  I’d rather carry around the Sony RX100 VI or the VII in my hand or in my pocket.  I like the anonymity of the Sony RX100 line of cameras.  I’ll probably switch back and forth on this over the coming weeks but in all likelyhood, I will trade in the pro gear for the Sony RX100 VII when it come out in a few weeks.

Wondershare Filmora 9

Wondershare Filmora 9.  For about $85 Canadian I'd say this is by far one of the easiest and best NLE editors on the planet.  I was able to pick up what I needed to learn in literally a few minutes.  The stabilization and color correction features are just amazing.  It was able to stabilize my DJI Spark footage with ease.  I find the color correction so much better than FCP X.  It also edits the clips amazingly quickly just taking about ten seconds or so on my Asus ROG 502 laptop.  I have the Intel i7-7700HQ CPU clocked at 2.8GHz with 32GB worth of RAM.  My main hard drive is a 256GB NVME SSD and I have a 1TB SSD I use to store my video clips and photos. 

I am completely switching from my late 2013 Macbook Pro to my Windows 10 machine till iPadOS comes out for my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  Then I'm dumping both laptops and just editing everything on the iPad.  

Wondershare Filmora 9 is very easy to use.  Much easier than FCP X for the Mac.  It is a lot more intuitive to use.  Just the color correction is fantastic.  I will have to make a more detailed review of Wondershare Filmora 9 at a later date when I start using it more.

May 16, 2014

May 16, 2014.  That was the first day I got accepted at Shutterstock to sell my photos.  Today I had my 4800th sale.  I sold my first photo a few hours after my photos were accepted.  It was an exciting time for me.  I had 7 photos that were accepted.  This is my first photo sold.  This is my 4800th download that a buyer bought.

As of 16:36 EST, I have 14,462 photos accepted and 1,527 clips accepted at Shutterstock.  I cant believe it's been five years already.  I only now post to Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.  I really, really enjoy photography and videography.  It's so much fun.  Please support me by buying from either my microstock portfolios or my website.

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.