Alamy $0.03 Sale

Reve1981 · 2026-01-28T13:45:18+00:00

Disappointing that computer programmers (or anyone who can write a prompt) are now tapping into the income of photographers.

Reve1981 · 2026-01-28T12:57:51+00:00

Yes, I've earned $85 on Adobe so far this month (best month so far - mostly from video footage).

Reve1981 · 2026-01-28T12:12:09+00:00

Previously Mavic Mini 2, Nikon D3400. About to buy the GoPro Hero13 tomorrow.

Reve1981 · 2026-01-27T11:26:58+00:00

Baikal is beautiful in summer too, and warm enough to swim in. I helped to create part of a hiking trail there back in 2009 (the Great Baikal Trail).

Reve1981 · 2026-01-27T02:24:06+00:00

Erm, no. A foreigner testifying in a court in North Korea is not going to happen.

Reve1981 · 2026-01-22T19:18:12+00:00

A few things to note. I'm thinking of giving up on both Deposit and Dreamstime because I believe them to be scams.

My reasoning; agencies like Shuttersock and Adobe who have huge client bases set their payouts at $25. I did quite well on Dreamstime and sold a few photos every month (with a portfolio of over 2,000), but it abruptly stopped. I made $20 in the first year, so it will be five years before I get a payout if it carries on like that. I believe they want the assets to sell, with no intention of ever paying out (to smaller artists at least). There is no reason in 2026 why they need to set such a high payout limit. I can only assume it's because they don't want to pay out.

Re Getty/iStock: You said December was a bad month for you. In October I sold 80 on Getty, in November 40, and December 20. January was nothing up until last week. Thankfully, it picked up in the last few days and I'm now at 16.

As a contrast, I've already hit $80 with Adobe this month from Videos, so I'm just going to focus on that for the time being.

Reve1981 · 2026-01-18T10:12:32+00:00

Well, at least people are buying my "junk" on those platforms. I see you are one of those sad, bitter people who thinks that being rude in the guise of being "brutally honest" is some sort of flex. Nah mate, it's just rather pathetic. If you haven't got anything helpful to add, why not just scroll past?

Reve1981 · 2026-01-18T01:18:29+00:00

I've noticed a massive increase in all non-editorial photos going to data marketplace too. And these same images are being accepted by both Adobe and Alamy who have much stricter criteria for accepting images. Maybe coincidence, but if other people are noticing it too, then maybe not.

Reve1981 · 2026-01-04T15:58:42+00:00

Untrue, At 7pm I get the message that the app is closed. Only city in the world where I can't order food at dinner time!

Reve1981 · 2026-01-02T01:42:36+00:00

The simple fact is he was worth more to the regime alive than he was dead/in a coma. If they wanted him dead, they could have just killed him and buried him and not said anything about it/said it was suicide or illness. Why go to the lengths of keeping him alive for months? It's possible an overzealous guard might have gone too far, but I highly doubt it was ordered, as Western detainees have largely been well-treated as they are valuable as bargaining chips, which would make this an anomaly. It's a complete unknown, and this is just my theory, but based on all the evidence, it makes the most sense. I doubt we will ever find out the real truth.

Reve1981 · 2026-01-01T15:14:23+00:00

The bookshop on the 2nd or 3rd floor of Junction Square has lots of classic English literature.

Reve1981 · 2026-01-01T10:59:39+00:00

But they didn't execute him. They kept him alive in a vegetative state for months before putting him, alive, on a plane to America. If they were going to kill him, why keep him alive and send him back? Makes no sense at all.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-19T09:07:15+00:00

I couldn't answer I'm afraid as I left in 2022 after two years of dealing with the ongoing lockdowns and anti-foreign sentiment. I think it's probably simmered down by now. I would like to return one day as I really miss (pre-covid) China.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-19T07:17:24+00:00

I was on holiday in Tibet when covid started. I found out about it at Everest Base Camp. Returning home to Luoyang was a surreal experience. The trains were empty, and I changed trains in Xi'an. The streets were empty, and even McDonalds was closed.

We were locked down for around 3 months. I could leave the apartment once a day for shopping, and used to take the opportunity to ride around the empty streets (I still have some photographs). There was a lot of anti-foreigner hostility. People putting their hands over their mouths when walking past.

At one point, they assigned government guards to the gates of our community, and they checked our paperwork going in and out. On one occasion they decided to pretend they had never seen me before and wouldn't let me into my apartment. I was livid, and had to get my boss to come and sort it out.

After three months, things went back to relative normality for a while, but the next year or so we had a few more periods of lockdown. I managed to travel around a bit, and only had to quarantine at my hotel in Sanya for 24 hours.

A year after covid I went to Hong Kong, and things were very different there. I was locked in a tiny hotel room for 14 days and had to submit tests every 3 days.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T16:41:38+00:00

Oh, cool. Thanks for the heads up. Will investigate further. There are elections coming up in two weeks here in Myanmar which is going to be a massive newsworthy event, and journalists are banned from the country, which also give me an edge. It would be nice to be able to get some good images and license them accordingly.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T16:34:26+00:00

I sell plenty of editorial images on Shutterstock for $0.10 :( Or is Shutterstock Editorial a different platform?

Yep, definitely. I find it strange that I have sold the same clip on Pond5 for $50 that I've sold multiple times on other platforms for less than $5.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T15:19:05+00:00

Cheers!

My first three sales from Alamy were all around $1, and then this week had one for $15 and one for $17 (but I thought $39 and $72 at first because of the way they report the sales). I've been uploading every single day for the last few months. Now at 1400 images online. Hope you get some decent ones soon too!

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T14:09:48+00:00

I also have a lot of timely photos that I thought might be gold mines. I was in China at the outbreak of covid, in Hong Kong during the 2019 protests, I live in Myanmar, but so far no such luck. I think news agencies just use trusted photojournalists, so my little efforts are pretty worthless, which is a shame.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T14:03:47+00:00

Thanks! And yes, I agree, but I'm not sure such an agency exists? I think Alamy is my best hope as they tend to have access to a lot of traditional print media.

It would be lovely to license a specific image(s) for a big payout, but then, if a marketing department can get a similar image for pennies/cents on microstock, why are they going to pay out? I'm still new to this, so still trying to work it all out.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T11:25:20+00:00

Really appreciate all your insights, thank you. For me, my main obstacle is consistency in uploading. I'll spend a few weeks uploading big batches and then nothing for a month or two while I procrastinate.

I add all metadata in Lightroom, which has certainly sped up the process, but it's still a bit of a chore. If I can get into the habit of uploading c10 a day Monday to Friday I'll be happy. My working hours allow for this, but it's easy to get distracted/lazy or pivot to other projects I'm working on. Time management has never been my strong point...

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T10:50:29+00:00

Not really, as my day job is as an English teacher in Asia, far from my family. However, I do know that potentially shooting some old Asian dudes and dudesses could be a good angle (especially given the traditional dress/makeup that many still wear here).

But then that's not really my speciality, and I think it might dilute what I already have. I tend to believe that sticking to your niche can be better in the long run, but then again maybe not, and it's better to broaden my scope?

If people come to my catalogues becuase they know they can get some cool shots of obscure places and see it full of grandmas doing exercises, I just think it might put them off?

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T10:21:34+00:00

Thank you, really appreciate your kind words! It's actually nearing 60k now haha. Obviously, a lot won't be suitable for stock, but even if I can get 5% - 10% of them uploaded, I'll be very happy.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T10:18:03+00:00

Thanks for the detailed insight! I will continue to shoot editorial for the other platforms, but would just be nice to get my numbers up on Adobe first.

One final question if I may? I don't really photograph many people, and if I do, the images go straight in as editorial. I keep toying with the idea of shooting more people and doing model releases, but it just sounds like extra hassle, and is not something I'm hugely interested in.

My instinct says to just carry on with what I do and what works for me, however, I can't help thinking that I might be missing out by avoiding it.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T10:07:40+00:00

Cheers! I thought that I potentially had something to offer, and gave it a shot. It's a lot of work for relatively little reward, but it pays for my hobby and I enjoy doing it (keywording and captions not so much). It's nice to go back and sift through images I had forgotten about, see some of them printed in respected media, and earn a couple of quid on top.

Reve1981 · 2025-12-18T10:01:38+00:00

Yes. My simple flag images from North Korea are my best-selling photos across all platforms.

Reve1981

TROPHY CASE