Union Pacific boxcar covered with a colorful graffiti on the siding track near Harmony Mill, Fort Collins. Abandoned? A home of homeless?

Camera: Canon EOS 40D with Canon EFs 17-55 mm lens on a tripod. 3 exposures +/- 2EV combined into a HDR image with Photomatix software.

MIller Block at historic old town of Fort Collins, Colorado. HDR image from three frames shot just after the sunset and processed with Photomatix software.

Camera: Canon EOS 40D with Canon EFs 17-55 mm lens on a tripod.

In July, I put less effort into microstock than in the previous months. I spent a week on vacations participating in the 3rd Missouri River 340 Race - kayak and canoe race race from Kansas City to St Charles. I took my cameras with me for the race, but I was shooting just for fun and paddling was my main focus.

iStock which was always my solid #1 performer went down last month. I hope it just a summer trend. Fortunately, Shutterstock with one EL took over and showed pretty good performance. So, my total microstock earnings in July went up with IS and SS providing 78%.

Other agencies are trading places in the remaining 22% of my income. DT and SXP looked the most promising in July.

As in my previous month report I added actual payments from microstock agencies to the plot of total earnings above. July was a good month concerning payments. In August I expect payment only from SS.

agency	portfolio size	downloads (EL)	earnings	return per image	sell-through rate	% earnings
Shutterstock	311	284 (1)	$98.75	0.32	78.4%	51.1%
iStock	279	63	$51.95	0.18	34.1%	26.9%
DreamsTime	255	21	$15.05	0.06	18.8%	7.8%
StockXpert	298	15	13.00	0.04	4.3%	6.7%
Big Stock Photo	300	5	$5.00	0.02	-	2.6%
Fotolia	246	9	$4.94	0.04	-	2.6%
123rf	324	10	$4.47	0.01	-	2.3%
FeaturePics	258	0	0.00	0.00	-	0.0%
total		407	$193.16

Some other bloggers are reporting monthly earnings from microstock:

• Microstock Diaries
• Microstock Experiment
• NiltoMil
• jrtb
• Driftless Ramblings
• bankizdjec.pl
• Photographing the Earth, one millimeter at a time ...

Related posts:

• The End of My Photography during the 2008 Missouri River 340 Race
• 150 Boats Starting the 2008 Missouri River 340 Race - Pictures from the Kaw Point
• Growth of My Microstock Portfolio in 7 Agencies: IS, SS, FT, DT, BSP, 123RF, SXP
• Microstock Photography Earnings for
  July 2008, June 2008, May 2008, April 2008, March 2008, February 2008 and January 2008
• What Sells in Microstock? My List of Picture Bestsellers
• How to Get Accepted by ShutterStock? Don't Give Up!