Ok I have clearly got you all stumped. The best earner is the first one of the white flower In a single sale. The last shot of the moth is the best seller so far on Adobe Stock but early days there. The blue clematis, joint no. 2 with the tape recorder, has proved most popular in Eastern Europe and occasionally places like Holland and New Zealand.

In case you are curious the chap in no. 8 is Deiter Rams, chief designer for Braun products in the latter half of the 20c and of which the two hifi items are examples. These are all most popular in Europe, South Korea and elsewhere in the Far East. How I met Dieter is quite an interesting anecdote if you bear with me; In Leamington Spa the furniture company Vitsoe built a stylish new factory on the site of the former Ford foundry but for a couple of years the site itself looked Just as when the builders left, none of the usual anodyne planting usually required by planners. Then one day I drove past and the whole site was covered in red poppies, a spectacular sight in the middle of a retail park so I rushed home for my camera and took photos which I sent to Vitsoe with a note saying thanks for such a wonderful scene. They thanked me and asked permission to use them to which I of course agreed. Next thing I get an invite to a private event when a permanent collection from the US of Braun products was being unveiled at Vitsoe, the guest of honour being Deiter Rams from Germany, the connection being that Deiter also designed Vitsoe products. A very pleasant chap with whom I had a long interesting chat. Deiter’s design approach has wide influences to this day and in particular in Apple products - the clock and calculator apps for instance are sourced from his originals. Interesting where this hobby takes us is it not, I have found it opens all sorts of opportunities.

Can anyone guess the highest earner?

Epsom and Canon are the two manufacturers of photo printers so it is worth seeing what they have. Ordinary printers for documents only have three colours plus black whereas dedicated photo printers have more colours plus matt and gloss black, sometimes a grey as well, and sometimes a gloss optimiser so that gloss prints get an even finish. Ink cartridges are more expensive and the printer should be at least switched on once a month so it can start its routine and prevent the jets clogging. I don’t think the inks dry up in their sealed cartridges so if not used they will keep.

Calibration sounds a faff but in reality using a calibrator such as those made by Spyder is a doddle as it automatically adjusts your computer; it does save disappointment with poorly coloured and dull prints which waste ink and paper.

I use an Epson SC400 which prints up to A3+ and rolls although it is now superseded by new models; I didn’t expect to use it much but it is rather addictive, there is nothing like seeing you best photos beautifully rendered as a large print. There is no denying the ten cartridges are expensive and they do seem to empty at an alarming rate. One option you might look at is the Epson Eco-Tank Photo A4 range which is not cheap but the refillable inks are claimed to be much cheaper and it can double as an everyday document printer.

Top seller - correct! Very popular in the US, as well as Mexico and Brazil. This came from a local photography group macro evening, a member brought this tiny model of the Enterprise which lit up so I snapped it with off camera flash and added the blue streaks in Lightroom.

Nope!

When I first got the K1 I was blown away by the sharpness of the Sigma 150-450, much better than I had found on the K50. As for tracking, not something I use much but I recall Cameraville did a comparison between the K1 and a Nikon mirrorless with much faster FPS. His experience was that the Nikon wasn’t able to refocus fast enough to keep up with the frame rate, on top of which he found it harder to keep the bird centre of the viewfinder; conclusion was that the K1 had fewer shots but more of them were useable.

I have been using the 77mm Limited a lot recently with moveable spot focus for portraits and many of the results have been superb; I suspect the rejects are down to the user but when I get it right it performs brilliantly. The same cannot be said of the 100mm macro which hunts a lot so is better in manual. All this tells me is that some screw drive lenses perform better than others but the best are up there with the latest electronic focus lenses.

Just two years ago I started uploading to a couple of stock sites, Alamy and Shutterstock and earlier this year to Adobe Stock as well. I am not a dedicated stock photographer, just doing this for fun and the occasional modest payout, so I don't set up special scenarios or use paid models and have a pretty small portfolio. However in June Shutterstock changed their payment structure which had rewarded those building large portfolios with higher rates and also reduced their minimum from a measly $0.25 to just $0.10; at that point I lost the incentive and haven't uploaded anywhere since. From the start SS has had many more sales and I like that they show a world map and list of where each download occurs, giving rise to queries such as why a middle eastern state would want a snap of morris dancers? And curiously snaps of the local hardware store have proved exclusively popular in southern Australia, the list goes on. Also curiously each site has a completely different list of downloads although the Adobe Stock portfolio is much smaller as they only accept images for commercial use. One thing I have learned is that you cannot predict what will sell and those shots you wonder whether it's worth uploading often turn out to be best sellers.

Anyhow I thought it would be amusing to share my most popular shots in terms of sales numbers, which isn't mirrored by the earnings chart where one sale of a photo on SS has earned more than others with multiple sales.

Can you guess which is my top seller? And which earned the most?

Some new electronic lenses like the DFA* f2.8 70-200 can be switched between auto and manual focus so manual can be used without using the on-camera switch, and some lenses focused by the screw drive can be overridden manually just by rotating the focus ring. I would guess then that a manual only lens would work the same way with a permanent disconnect between camera and focus mechanism.

Grew cherry tomatoes for the first time, delicious crop in mini greenhouse but outside ones still green. Recipes using the latter don’t look too appetising - green tomato jam anyone? Anyhow I have been embroiled in a photo project on the local allotments so have come away with sweet corn, beetroot, cucumbers etc. which is much easier than growing them. When the project reaches fruition (!) I will post here.

Nice one! Well done.