I don't do A.I. except for a few images when I tried a free option. I prefer real photos of real people, landscapes, places, my travels, etc. My earnings in stock are quite minimal but some months are suddenly better and that encourages me, although the next month may be dismal. As I don't have to earn my living with stock, I can't say this bothers me so much, it's just something to do in addition to other photo ventures now that I'm more or less retired.
As my portfolio has grown, I’ve noticed Adobe and Shutterstock are fairly consistent as long as I’m contributing something. I’ve noticed if I stop contributing, the sales slow. It’s always a battle with myself if it’s worth it or not.
Hey Matt, Thanks for your thoughts and insights. I find AI fascinating but not necessarily something I want to do. Meanwhile, I keep adding photos to the stock agencies and my sales keep dropping off. I guess it's becoming an AI world. The answer might be to just take the most boring photos in the world for stock. In other words, become non-creative and non-artistic. Nobody wants to use AI to create images like that. P.S. I didn't write this comment. AI wrote it for me.
Thanks Bill! The AI made a great comment. Pretty sure most agencies allow you to opt out, but they have enough of a catalog to put a dent in sales for sure. Most of my uploads are editorial which are not fed to the AI beast.
