Behind My Alamy Sales – September 2025
RICKY GUI . 5 MINUTES READING TIME . UPDATED 17 NOV 2025
Let’s take a look at the number of images I’ve sold, before that. I want to talk a bit about the weather and clothings to wear in Singapore.
Weather and clothings
The grim weather in Sept has been a mix of short storms, overheated air, and humidity that drenches every fabric designed — including Uniqlo’s AIRism singlet. Its comfort-conditioning technology supposedly absorbs and dissipates sweat and heat from the body.
I bought a few to try out and realized the absorption has its limits. I wore a piece for an outdoor shoot, and within an hour it “stopped” absorbing sweat. It wasn’t quick enough to dry out, and maybe my outer layer slowed it down. The fabric turned heavy and stuck to my torso. Kinda of disgusting.
I think it’s only worth the dollar if you wear it on a causal day, cloudy weather — say, walking from the office to a hawker centre for a meal, or just on a light day out. That should be comfortable enough.
But for any outdoor photo shoot on a really sunny or humid day? I highly recommend do not wear an inner singlet.
Hello Labubu
September sales on Alamy exceeded my expectations — 12 images sold by the 29th. I’m especially thankful for Labubu, which alone accounted for 7 of those sales! Here’s a look at some of the quirky little figures that made it to the charts. Let me know what do you think?
Pseudonym: Labubu
Spark of an idea
That gave me an idea. Why stop at two? We packed up the entire collection and headed downtown: Marina Bay Sands, Merlion Park, National Gallery Singapore. Each Labubu had its own portrait session. Then we did group shots. I uploaded those too — and boom, sales exploded, this time even better than before.
Now, on the surface these little figurines might look effortless — just put a toy down, click, and upload. But the reality? It’s sweaty, meticulous work. Battling Singapore’s scorching heat. Hunting for suitable spots. Constantly adjusting stands. Angling a mirror just to bounce the right light onto their odd little faces. And of course, hours spent curating, editing, captioning, keywording, and filling out metadata on Alamy. It’s the kind of behind-the-scenes grind that most people either overlook or never imagine.
But here’s the thing — as exhausting as it was, the whole process turned out to be incredibly rewarding. A little monster toy turned into a project that tested my creativity, patience, and eye for detail. Sometimes, even trends I don’t buy into can open unexpected doors. It is the market demand that win, but chasing market trend is exhausting.
Who’s the biggest winner? Kasing Lung and Pop Mart.
Labubu’s hype
These quirky little monsters went viral almost overnight, all thanks to Lisa from BLACKPINK. Labubu fever swept across Asia first — people scrambling to get their hands on these mischievous-looking creatures just to ride the Lisa trend. The power of celebrity influence is undeniable. Soon, clothes were being designed just for Labubu, and the hype machine was unstoppable.
Getting her Labubu
I witnessed it firsthand. My partner started with one piece, then two, then swore she’d “chop her hands off” if she bought another. Guess what? Her collection grew to eight in no time. At first, these big-eyed nine teeth monsters didn’t appeal to me at all — I just didn’t get it. But after a year, slowly but surely, they grew on me. By then, we were already on the third or fourth wave of releases.
Money making opportunity
For the record, I’ve never supported the whole blind-box craze. I saw people in Pop Mart stores shake boxes and listen for clues has always seemed absurd to me. It’s wild how a trend can completely hijack the human mind. Yet it was a picture opportunity for me and to possibly make a dollar.
Still, I thought — why not turn this craze into something creative? So I did a Labubu shoot for her collection. At the start we brought two of them along to Little India and Kampong Glam. I shot them against colorful or clean backdrops and against local architecture. Uploaded the images to Alamy, and to my surprise — the next day, someone bought a whole batch.
Scalpers are even buying it off the shelves, they are well organized, come as a group, pay for extra people who are able to enter and make purchase. As long any items are hype, limited edition there will always be resellers around, even for the next 50 years.
Scalpers: '“Wish you were here”, so we can buy more.
Stock images sold
Let’s see what are the remaining six images that were sold. Also if you are interested to make purchase of my images from Alamy, key in the Image ID on bottom right, it will bring you directly to the images.
I love the interior colors and the sense of action in this shot, which prompted me to submit it. I first uploaded it in 2019, and it just made its first sale—for $1.62. That’s the reality of an oversaturated stock image market.
Pseudonym: Buy my stock picture
This was probably the third time I’ve sold an image of this autonomous vehicle. Interestingly, after the pandemic period ended, I never saw it operating again at Gardens by the Bay to ferry passengers. Quite odd.
Pseudonym: Buy my stock picture
Another image was shot inside a sneakers shop—the brand’s first physical store outside Japan, opened in Singapore. After a short run, it closed in September 2025, following the sneaker market crash that came after the pandemic ended in 2023.
Pseudonym: Sneaker
I also submitted plenty of images in various angle, elevation, lighting and moment of Jewel Changi Airport back in April 2019, when it first opened its doors. It was a huge draw then, with locals flocking to see the magnificent indoor waterfall. Sold to France for editorial usage.
Pseudonym: Changi Airport
For another submission, I used a tilt-shift lens to capture the vast three-storey Nike interior shop. First time selling it as I took plenty of images after the opening, but mentioned earlier reselling of sneakers market was already over. Sold to Brazil for editorial usage.
Pseudonym: Retail space
Lastly, I photographed an old-school public telephone found under an old HDB block. That one was trickier to shoot—the lighting was low, and I only carried a long lens with me. Sold to United Kingdom for editorial usage.
Pseudonym: Buy my stock picture
What I learned from Alamy sales in September
For quick sales, trends matter most of the time. Usually are famous people on earth that agencies or someone might need it. But how do I know what to look for?
Alamy provides a search tool that shows contributors the most popular search terms clients are looking for, along with the number of sales in a given week. Many of the top 50–100 searches are dominated by famous people, politicians, soccer players, and premier league football teams mainly from UK and USA—subjects out of reach for photographers like me based in Singapore.
But that doesn’t mean I’m at a disadvantage. Take Labubu for example—it was trending in another market but never came close to the top 500 search terms on Alamy. Still, my photos of it sold well. I also know contributors who consistently sell huge volumes of images that don’t appear anywhere near the top 1000 search terms.
Geography plays a role too. Bigger countries often mean more variety—landscapes, events, streets, and buildings—all of which can feed into more sales opportunities. It’s a numbers game: the fewer images you upload, the lower your chances of making sales. Unless your work is so niche that no one else has access to it. Sometimes you might shoot something obscure simply because you love it, and it sits unsold for years. Then suddenly, someone endorses it—and boom, it takes off.
Nobody has the crystal ball. My advice? Shoot a variety of your interest subjects, or specialize and become a subject matter expert. If your subject has a scientific name, include it. Captions and keywords are critical—more important than the image itself—because clients find your work through words first!
If you’re shooting almost daily, or your hard disk is piled up with years of sitting images. Post consistently on a weekly basis. And if chasing trends excites you, go have fun.
Life is simply too short. Stop scrolling your phone, go out and see the world, and live it to the fullest.
