Merry Christmas!!

Christmas is here! :)
And so was a special load of sales - another EL for a gray tabby picture at SS, and TWO big$$$ sales at Alamy - the super surprise of the week!! What an awesome Christmas present!

Here's one of the Alamy sale pics as a SS version



Merry Christmas to All!

$500!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday the 13th was THE DAY!! After a painfully slow DL weekend (worst in ages!) Monday's 7th DL took me to my first $500 earned and a raise to 33 cents per regular DL!
Party Time!!! :D

Here's the "hero" image of the day




Good Bye Quarters, Welcome 33 Cents!!!!

Then, it was December!

November had a couple of steaming hot weeks with DLs, with two slower weeks following. December stepped in, was quite nice to start with and then slowed down a lot again. On Tuesday the 7th I got my second ever EL, and had a great overall day with regular DLs and ODDs. The EL image was the white butterfly on a white Petunia from the post of October the 2nd - awesome!!! :)

The next goal is getting to my first $500 earned, and with the EL's help I'm at under $12 from that goal... could get there still this week if all goes all right :) That'll give me my first raise, 8 cents per regular DL which makes a big difference!!

Here's one of my favorite candle shots to celebrate the season :)

Eleven Days of November....

On the eleventh day of November
Shutterstock gave to me
A new user interface!
And a map of the world!
With live DLs showing on that map!!!
How cool is that??!!

MAN!!!

Now I can see how someone
in far far New Zealand
bought my Monarch butterfly!!
Now how amazing is that??!!

That's almost like having Christmas
in early November..... :)

And I'm 18 DLs short of my first 1000....
How Cool Is THAT???!!!
:)

Here's one for the spirit...





And hoping for many many more DLs this month!!!

November!

Oh noes... winter is definitely approaching. November has landed and we've had some overnight frost a couple of times. Butterflies have disappeared and the landscape has turned to muted fall colors. It is so dry the leaves are going straight to brown instead of the beautiful colors of a pretty, colorful fall.

October ended with a bang - the last week was mad with DLs, which was fun, of course. November has started out decent - No records yet, and no super low days. ODs are totally missing, which is sad for the $$.


One of my current best sellers is a pretty Viceroy butterfly that came to visit my flowers - what a welcome surprise! :)

My First EL!

Last week saw my very first EL - enhanced license - which means I got a bunch of money for it compared to the normal 25 cents, and also that it will be used for "merchandising and high-viewership commercial uses" i.e in a magazine or a product. I also had my best download day so far on the same day I had the EL, so it was a pretty exciting day :)

Here's the EL photo...



Christmas card material? :)


Also, I have another photo hat has been very successful after I uploaded it, and it's climbing up the DL ladder fast - here's the beauty



Today has been a fairly good DL day despite it being Sunday - I'm just hoping it doesn't mean Monday will be one of those obligatory slow days... fingers crossed for another good day...!!!

Snow, white flowers and butterflies!

This past week saw a load of snow photo uploads from last winter, and quite a few of them got downloaded, too! The only question was - why didn't I upload them long time ago?
I also played a little with "white on white" - or white on "white" as my background really wasn't pure white. It was fun and I plan to do something similar soon again. The pic I like best from those is this one




This week also saw a wild end to the month of September - in the three last days I had 20% of all the downloads for the month. The first day of October was just as good and it was fun seeing those DLs roll in :)
Now the weekend is here and things are quiet as usual. Good time to plan on new pics with new views! :)

Slow week

This week has been SLOW for downloads. Monday was excellent, but the three days after it have been very quiet. I have a huge batch waiting for review, hoping to get it through tomorrow sometime. The earlier the better, of course, but I really don't expect them to go through till later in the day. We'll see...


Pic of the day is MamaCat in dewy morning grass...

September!

September equals autumn. It's colder.. and wetter.. and the feel of summer is gone. It can be warm, but often with that cold feel to it, like when you're out in the sun, but the air is really cold instead of hot. And the Hummers are stocking up, it won't be long now till they're gone for the winter. I'll miss them!!

September started out pretty good as far as SS downloads go. Nothing spectacular, but solid DL days. I'll keep uploading and hope the buyers keep downloading :)

Here's today's photo - Officer Tux up in the tree. That cat has SUCH fun personality, he's just a riot :)

From butterflies to Hummingbirds

The butterflies are few and far between as the end of August is here. I have seen a Monarch fly through the yard a few times, but never got any new photos of it. The butterflies are fading away as the cooler weather approaches.
The Hummers will leave soon, too. I have tried to get more photos of them before they fly away, but it has been very windy which throws a twist at it. Also, it seems there aren't that many of them left, the numbers are growing thinner.

Here is one of this week's newcomers to the port

Another Friday!

Not as many uploads nor downloads this week - so much more quiet through the week. I did reach my hypothetical payout limit - just hypothetical because mine's actually set up much higher. Maybe if I let it roll over to next month it'll attract more quarters to my account, kinda like a magnet... ;)

Last week I uploaded a Monarch photo that has been rising steadily towards the top - maybe I should make a couple more like it as it seems to attract buyers! :)

Here she is...

Slowing down for the weekend

It's been a busy week. Anything I've uploaded has been reviewed in record time, and it's been hard to keep up with it! I've had 39 photos approved since last Friday, which is a lot for me!
It's been clearly slowing down for the weekend - one can only hope next week will be as good as this week has been :)

Here's a hummingbird from my last batch - they've been working hard emptying the feeders, too! :)

Busy!

This week has been quite out of the ordinary - I can't keep up with the reviews. I upload photos and before I know it, they've been reviewed and in the system! That's quite convenient :)

Today has been my "best day ever" - which is not much because I'm still new to this, but it does feel nice to get "lots" of downloads. Hopefully the rest of the week follows the same tune! I did redo all my keywords yesterday - it might be just coincidence, but you never know... I'm sure I'll find out... :)

My hide-a-kitty picture is trying to keep up with the pretty butterflies, and is doing a great job at it.

Friday the 13th!

I've always thought 13 is a lucky number for me... we'll see how that goes today, on Friday the 13th :)
I got some new photos accepted last night - all of them butterflies, in different colors. I had some illustration attempts, too, but they didn't make it. Next time better luck! :D

Here's another photo from my previous batch that I really like - the little Dude is so cute and snuggly looking! Someone should make a Teddy Bee huggable toy like that!

It's slow...

Not much sales this week - last week was much better. I guess people will only buy so many butterfly pictures :D
Got my new batch in - five butterflies, some moths and other bugs...
Here's my favorite of the batch...

Welcome!

My "port" (porfolio) at Shutterstock is still small, with just a little over 100 photos. Right now most of the pictures are of butterflies and other bugs, with some horses and cats thrown in. I'm sure the selection will expand - slowly but surely.

You can see my Most Popular on the right - the Monarch has been ruling the roost from the start. The blue Admiral (actually, Red Spotted Purple Admiral) is trying to keep up. This butterfly has a nickname, too, and I usually refer to it as OSEBB.

We have had a visitor from down South - a lonesome Gulf Fritillary that has been entertaining me for a while. It must have had a rough trip since its wings are pretty beat up. This is the visitor.

In case you're curious about Shutterstock, click on one of the links here and see what it's all about. They have a forum full of friendly people who will help you with tips and critique - that could just help you get started. And not just photos - they take illustrations, too, and as well as photo tips and critique, you'll find help for your illustration problems, too.

Later, gator!