I wanted to try out my new journal so I'll tell you what I've been up to lately.
At the end of March, I decided to join Shutterstock, it's a micro stock site where photographers, upon acceptance, submit pictures which are downloaded by subscribers for use on web sites, in magazines, brochures, on billboards and so on. They pay different amounts and the photographer in turn gets a small percentage of money for each download. I submitted my first batch of pictures and had 7 of 10 approved. Since then I've managed to get my portfolio up to 24 images and I'll tell you, is it ever challenging and fun. They are extremely picky; the full resolution must be dead on with the proper focus, lighting, composition, NO NOISE (they hate noise), and it must be commercially valuable, otherwise it's rejected. I've really learned a lot and it's so fun to wait for approval/rejection and to watch the statistics. I'm looking forward to finding one of my images in use in a magazine someday. I've had 37 downloads so far including 2 "on demand downloads" which pay a lot more than the regular ones.
If any of you want a challenge, or want to become better at your craft and make a little extra money, I recommend you check it out. There is also a referral program whereby you get a small percentage if someone you referred to the site sells any pics. I'm not trying to spam you guys but if anyone wants to join and use my referral code, I wouldn't be mad.


This is my top seller on Shutterstock right now with 22 downloads, (although it is a different version with a much smaller crop and less noise).
Have a great week! The sun is shining and the hummingbirds are back so I'm happy.