Hallo everyone, and welcome back to my site. Thanks to those who have the patience to follow my posts. A warm welcome to those who are here for the first time. My 10K Images Live, it’s the topic of the today’s post.
After a few years of using it, I’d like to say a few words about the SHUTTERSTOCK website.
My 10K Images Live
First, I’d like to point out that the first 12-18 months of using the platform saw virtually no photo uploads. If I remember correctly, especially in the first 6-8 months, I think I uploaded no more than a few hundred photos. After this initial period, I tried to make my photo uploads more consistent and continuous.
As of this post’s publication date, I’ve reached 10,000 photos. For a non-professional amateur photographer, I consider this a significant milestone.
What are my thoughts on the financial return on this platform?
Regarding the financial return, for each year (2023-2024-2025), the return was equivalent to ONE full dinner at a good-quality restaurant. Not fancy, but good quality.
So, I’d say it’s not exactly a profit you can count on. If you think you can earn enough from this platform to supplement your potential work income… well, I’d say… forget it.
The time you’ll have to dedicate to verifying and classifying images, titling and describing them, and researching at least 40-50 keywords needed for cataloging… is probably the activity that requires the most effort and time.
If you have free time, nothing better to do… and above all, you have the willpower and patience, you could, with time (not a little), reach and even improve on my modest performance.
Regarding the quality of the photographs I’ve uploaded, I have several doubts.
Sometimes photographs I considered NOT so good were accepted. Conversely, other times photographs whose quality I was more confident in were NOT cataloged and accepted.
Photography evaluation, as far as I know, is now delegated to a computerized analysis system, which evaluates the image’s technical quality, format, etc.
Human intervention is probably now delegated ONLY to a minimal extent to the analysis of these images. This is my guess, but I think it’s quite realistic.
To achieve better and higher earnings, I believe the only valid suggestion is to upload tens of thousands of photographs. Professional Italian photographers have given up uploading photographs because they are NOT profitable. On the contrary, there are agencies that work with millions of uploaded images, which in terms of revenue are probably the only ones with any kind of tangible profitability… perhaps… (to be verified).
I had the opportunity to verify the type of photographs they uploaded for a couple of these large agencies.
Well, for the sake of explanation and example, I’ll describe a typical photograph… uploaded by these agencies…
Egg on eggcup, with a white background. The same subject with a yellow background, then an ivory background, then azure, then blue, then green, etc… In practice, it’s a serial work, structured precisely to have the greatest number of photos and options in its catalog.
On the other hand, I myself have tried to create conceptually similar photographs, and they have been regularly accepted and, in some cases, even sold.
This way of working, however, is very far from the type of photography I enjoy, which, as you may have noticed, is primarily based on nature photography. This is very difficult to do at home and/or in a photography studio. Wild birds, frogs, butterflies, insects, etc., are not found in these environments.
My 10K Images Live
What can I say?!
I am now quite organized to make the process of uploading images, sorting, and everything else necessary as quick as possible.
I have little free time, and that’s my objective limitation…, but sometimes I carve out time to do this type of activity.
Who would I recommend doing it to? Well… I’d say retirees, unemployed people, people with a lot of free time and a good knowledge of English.
I wouldn’t recommend it to fathers/mothers, those who are normally employed and have other daily commitments.
Dedicating an hour a week is pointless; it doesn’t yield any kind of results or financial return.
Personally, I dedicate 5-6 hours a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. Obviously, that’s not even considering the time I much more willingly dedicate to traveling around taking the photographs I love…
In conclusion, I don’t think I can recommend this type of activity.
The only possible advantage (aside from the financial return… almost zero) is having a free online photography catalog.
Even with a watermark (Shutterstock) for the public, it’s a good indication of the quality and type of your photographs.
I think the summary of my experience is pretty much contained in the text above. As always, much more could be said, but for the sake of brevity, this is all, at the moment.
