My name is Fabrizio Misson.

I am an art teacher who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, Italy, and in my spare time I carry on my passion for photography and graphics.

Through this site (and the Italian version of it: stockfootage.it), in 2016 I learned about microstock. Since then I have been creating and uploading stock images and stock footage (thanks also to the course and to Daniele's book).

In 4 years on Shutterstock, I have achieved a portfolio of:

  • almost 2000 photos
  • 600 videos

These earn me earn more than 1000 euros a year.

On this page you can find my portfolio on Shutterstock.

My best-selling photos both have more than 1000 downloads:

Lovely cat in human hands (ID: 520870675)

Downloads: 1273

Total Earnings: $754.01

Date Uploaded: 11/23/16

People drinking wine vintage effect (ID: 461202166)

Downloads: 1221

Total Earnings: $589.67

Date Uploaded: 07/31/16

The story of a single $750 sale

An unusual thing happened to me recently: I sold a stock image to Shutterstock for $750.

Having been bought exclusively, I cannot show it here, but the photo shows a person from behind on the shore of a lake.

I'll tell you the story behind it.

The Holiday on Lake Garda

At 31, I didn’t remember when the last vacation I had spent with my parents was.

Last March, just before spring took over winter, we decided  to stay together for a week. We left at 3 from Udine (North-Eastern Italy) and took a journey of 3 hours through 3 regions: Friuli, Veneto, Lombardy.

We stayed in Santa Maria di Lugana, where we spent the whole holiday visiting the wonderful places bathed by the southern waters of Lake Garda. If the season had been more mature, I probably would have dedicated myself to sunbathing and diving into the lake, but the summer was still far away in Northern Italy, and therefore the activities to which I decided to focus were resting, eating, and taking pictures.

I remember with pleasure the Zen peace of an enchanting garden in Gardone Riviera, the delicious brioches offered every morning by the hotel, and the historical and environmental beauties of places like:

I always carried my camera with me and sometimes even a tripod to take videos.

The photographic intent was two-fold: on the one hand to discover the world through photography; on the other hand, to increase my portfolio on Shutterstock.

These two objectives sometimes intersected, and there were moments when the pleasure of discovering, filming and photographing coincided with the creation of content to sell online. After returning from vacation, I would think about selecting, post-producing and uploading to the various microstock agencies.

Note what Daniele Carrer told me:

Photos with “people doing things” sell more.

One day I asked my father to linger on the lakeshore near the hotel. I had been keeping an eye on the location for a while (In the previous days, I had also come to understand how the light was in that spot at different times of the day). In my mind, I had already outlined the composition of the shot and the communicative strengths that be in those photos. I just had to wait for the right time, give some simple indications to my model and shoot.

A few months later I received an email from a Shutterstock agent offering me the exclusive purchase of one of those photos of my father watching the lake. They offered me $750.

I accepted, meeting their requests:

  1. Delete that photo from all the sites where I had uploaded it, including Shutterstock
  2. Send the raw file
  3. Sign a contract giving them exclusive rights

Within two weeks, I found that figure on Shutterstock's earnings summary page.

The Negotiation with Shutterstock

Below I report the emails we wrote to get to the sale:

A laptop

Hi Fabrizio

I Hope you're well

We are interested in buying all rights to image "XYZ" your portfolio for $750, (in perpetuity, Full Buyout exclusive copyright transfer to Shutterstock)

For this offer to proceed, I would like to know the following from you as soon as possible:

  1. Are you interested in an in perpetuity, full buyout copyright transfer of this image to Shutterstock for $750
  2. Has the image been made available for licensing through any sites other than Shutterstock? (If terms are finalised, the images will need to be removed from all other agencies, including Shutterstock, as an example).

This is a rather urgent project so please confirm as soon as possible whether you are interested in this offer. I will then confirm the next steps.

Thanks very much in advance.

N.

Hi N.

  1. Yes I'm interested
  2. Yes. Only in Shutterstock and other two agencies. There's no problem, I can remove it from all agencies.

Thank you.

Fabrizio.

Hi Fabrizio,

Thanks for confirming, much appreciated

I'm still waiting for sign off from the client, as soon as they confirm I will let you know

Have a nice day

N.

Great, thank you.

Hi Fabrizio,

Hope you had a great weekend

Good news, the client has confirmed they would like to use your image exclusively.

Can you please start removing the image off Shutterstock, we will get your agreement over to you to sign shortly

Thanks

N.

Man with thumbs up

Hi N.

That's a great news.

Ok, I've just removed the image "XYZ" from my Shutterstock portfolio.

Thank you

Thank you Fabrizio,

Is this image on any other websites? If so can you please remove?

Yes, only in two other agencies. No problem, I've just removed the image from all the agencies.

Thanks Fabrizio.

Could you please send me the RAW file of image "XYZ"

Thanks

N.

Sure, here it is.

A few days later, an email arrived from another person who worked for Shutterstock with the request that I sign a contract through a platform called DocuSign (this contract was to give the exclusive license of that image to Shutterstock).

A 5 dollars banknote

I signed, waited a few days, and the payment arrived.

Fabrizio Misson

© Daniele Carrer 2023