Silver on iStockphoto

In December 2007 I started selling my photographs through iStockPhoto. Basically I take photos of things like people (I can't sell photos of people without a Model Release which states the person in the photo has agreed), landscapes, objects, food, whatever and upload them to the iStockphoto website and people all over the world buy them for use in websites, magazines, newspapers, advertising, books, products, etc. When someone buys a photo you get a cut of the purchase price. The process is such that you don't actually know who has bought the photos or how they have been used (there is a fairly strict set of rules about how you can use them though, so they wont turn up somewhere unsavory). I have been told about my photos appearing on websites like Yahoo.com, ABC Nightline news in the US, various technical websites, and a number of other places. There are a few examples here.

On the iStock site you rise up levels depending on how many sales you have. Each level is repersented by a little film cannister (which is a bit of a throw back to the old days because almost all photos submitted are digital - although there are some scans of old film shots). In September 2008, I was awarded the Bronze cannister when I reached 250 sales. I also went exclusive at iStockphoto which means that I don't sell my photos anywhere else (there are a number of other similar sites out there). This meant I got an increase in what I earned per sale.

Yesterday, I was awarded the Silver cannister for reaching 2500 sales. It has been a fun process uploading and selling photos and has more than paid for itself and indeed has helped us to pay for various things over the past few months which has been great. The next cannister is Gold but it is not until 10,000 sales which is a long, long way away!