Hunting for heather

 The North York Moors usually have a splendid display of heather from early August until late September but this year it's patchy at best.

It was extremely dry from Mid-March until early June  - which it didn't like - and that also favoured an exceptionally large attack of heather beetle.
There were so many beetles that after laying their eggs in the heather they ended up in the Sea in such large numbers that there was a tide line of them inches deep on the beach back in May.

Anyway the best areas are generally higher up and younger stuff which has been burned in the past decade or so.
Old leggy heather in many areas looks practically dead with only a few purple sprigs.
But curiously here and there small patches look OK.
It's just the effect of great purple expanses is missing.
The past week has been largely foggy and drizzly but that can add a certain something to photos on occasion.

Harland Beck cascade

This is just before where Farndale becomes Douthwaitedale.
With hindsight a polariser would have reduced the glare on water

Rosedale Ironstone Ruins.

Stock photography

Through the winter and spring I've been taking stock photography and to some extent video more seriously, Shutterstock has been the go to for photos but I mainly use BlackBox for videos.
I've been getting one or two sales per week which slowly adds up.

Shutterstock dropped a bombshell at the end of June, with massive reduction in minimum payout from £0.33 to $0.10 - however the way it's calculated now depends on the contract the buyer has gone for, and in many case you might get more than the minimum, as it's a percentage of what they actually paid for it. In practice you can get a rather random fee usually between $0.10 and $1.60
If they have package allowing (say) 1000 downloads per year you get less than a one off purchase.

Video is similarly affected but I only sold two of those so not sure I will see much difference!

Initially I wasn't going to bother uploading anymore but have relented and slow sales continue but with wildly unpredictable return. I only do it for fun really but as you gradually upload more the amount earned does clock up.

There are various other agencies and I have a few on those too with limited success 'Dreamstime' was doing OK but has gone quiet.
They do pay a little more but I still only made about $5 there.
It is tedious uploading to multiple sites when they don't even sell many files.

 Top seller so far by some margin has been an uninspiring but clear photo of the Honda CRF250L just parked up, it was taken with the Canon S100. By reverse image search I see it has been used to illustrate hired bikes available on websites in Thailand and the US

As a general rule they don't buy a pretty or famous view so much as pictures of random objects they want to illustrate in a blog post or media. Another good seller has been a run of shots of electric car charging points I think someone is using them in an online directory.

Another surprise seller has been good close ups of wild flowers fully identified with latin names (and must be super clear plus well composed of course)

Spring returns

It has been a troubling time through late winter and spring, not a lot of photos and video has been done. Spring weather has been very favourable for 2 or 3 drone flights though and hardly anyone about until teh end of May at least.