Adventures in Stock Photograhy

Have you ever thought something was going to wildly successful, only to find out it was a bit of a flop? That has been my experience with selling stock photography.

In September of 2017 I was reading one of the many articles online with tips on how to earn extra money, and one suggestion was to sell stock photography. I already had the DSLR and hundreds of photos in my portfolio, so I thought, "wow, this is it! This is my low-effort side gig that will passively rake in money!" Turns out… that's only partially true.

I researched the rates of what a photographer can earn per photo and the minimum withdrawal amounts. I chose to go with Shutterstock and Adobe Stock. We use Adobe Stock at work, but Shutterstock has a lower withdrawal amount, and I figured it'd be good to connect with customers on whatever platform they use. I skipped iStock because last I checked, their minimum withdrawal amount was $100 which seemed like it would take a long time to accrue. 

My strategy was to only upload photos that I was taking for myself so that it was truly "passive" - no use in taking photos just for the chance that maybe someone will download it. I also don't have many photos of people uploaded to my stock portfolios, which is really where the money is.

Over the months I uploaded photos and learned what makes a photo likely to be accepted vs rejected and refined my strategy. Early on I got a disproportionately large commission from a quick photo of my dog - $5.86 from Adobe Stock! I was so excited and thought I would surely hit their $50 withdrawal amount quickly. I’d just need 9 or 10 of those!

Over a year later, I have not hit the withdrawal minimum on either platform. I have uploaded over 300 of photos and some have performed very well - I have 10 downloads of a photo of a single leaf, and 9 of a photo of downtown Helena, Montana. I have 5 downloads of a photo of a set of stairs in Alcatraz. I have searched and found my images used in news articles which is a huge confidence boost! And on Shutterstock you can see where in the world the person is who downloaded your photo. I have people who have downloaded my photos from all over the US, but also Australia, India, Germany, the Philippines, and Israel, which is super cool to me.

But while every notification that I have a new download encourages me that my skill is valuable, it's certainly not getting me richer. Here are my current earnings on Shutterstock after 14 months and over 324 photos uploaded:

So I’m earning an average of 53 cents per download, and I get about 3 downloads per month. At this rate, I should be able to withdraw the minimum $35 next year. But, I could earn more than $35 in a single photoshoot session.

I’m hoping that as I go on with my photography, I’ll eventually get to a place where the earnings just compound. After all, Shutterstock has been around for 15 years as of this writing. Maybe in 15 more years when old images of mine are selling for the first time, it will be worth it.

Now that isn’t to say you shouldn’t try stock photography - just to have reasonable expectations at the amount you’ll earn from it if it’s a side hustle.