Wednesday, August 11, 2010
I've moved
I'm no longer trying my hand in micro-stock, too stressful and not enough use of my creativity, so I made a journal called From SAHM to WAHM where I show off my talents through other endeavors at attempting to become a work at home mom. So keep an eye out for me there!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
I *need* to learn more about my lenses & camera
I'll admit currently my lenses are not the best. I have the lens that came with the kit, and then bought the cheapest longer zoom lens I could find - the Canon Zoom Lens EF 75-300mm 4-5.6mm. I get decent shots on it but lately I've noticed something odd happening (and not consistently). Some of my shots are turning the background to watercolor. Like everything in front is in focus, but 100% zoom on a structure usually shows different. For example:
What causes this? Is it an unsteady hand? And if that's the case why does anything closer not look like that as well when I view it in 100%? If any one wonders, it was taken with ISO 100. If that makes a difference. It's frustrating to say the least when you don't know what is causing the issue.
I'll have to scan through my photos and see if there's anything I notice from others that may show why it would be happening, but I am 100% it hasn't been that way until this past two weekends of taking photos. I had the same watercolor effect happen last weekend when I was on a mountain taking a photo of a lighthouse in the distance. The photo looks great until I viewed it at 100% and saw a problem. Oddly not all of my shots look that way.
I really am at a loss. Hopefully I'll learn more about my camera & lenses and be able to work through the problems. Right now I feel like such a beginner. When does it get easier?
What causes this? Is it an unsteady hand? And if that's the case why does anything closer not look like that as well when I view it in 100%? If any one wonders, it was taken with ISO 100. If that makes a difference. It's frustrating to say the least when you don't know what is causing the issue. 
I'll have to scan through my photos and see if there's anything I notice from others that may show why it would be happening, but I am 100% it hasn't been that way until this past two weekends of taking photos. I had the same watercolor effect happen last weekend when I was on a mountain taking a photo of a lighthouse in the distance. The photo looks great until I viewed it at 100% and saw a problem. Oddly not all of my shots look that way. I really am at a loss. Hopefully I'll learn more about my camera & lenses and be able to work through the problems. Right now I feel like such a beginner. When does it get easier?
Saturday, February 20, 2010
This past week...
This past week I didn't get much accomplished since my mother was here to visit for my son's birthday. He's four years old and it amazes me how time has been flying! Unfortunately I didn't get much good pictures, definitely nothing I'd be sticking on micro-stock! My son is quicker than the camera.
The only thing I did accomplish was joining up to more websites and getting some of the same images accepted onto their sites. Some accepted one or two, some accepted almost all of them. However no sales made at all on my others accepted last week, and rejections on my photos left and right from Istockphotos and Can Stock Photos. They're a little more strict than what I've been able to accomplish and I don't know if I'll ever please them, but I'm sure I'll continue to try!
The highlight was I bought photoshop last week and got it downloaded from adobe! An expensive program but in the end worth it. Like I told my family everything I invest into photography I have to make up for it. So I have a ton of money to put into this that's for sure! I wish my husband didn't have to work graveyard so we'd be able to go out and take some pictures - it's a rare occasion when it's beautiful here. I guess I'll be focusing on learning more about photoshop. Currently taking interest in vector imaging, so we'll see how that goes!
The only thing I did accomplish was joining up to more websites and getting some of the same images accepted onto their sites. Some accepted one or two, some accepted almost all of them. However no sales made at all on my others accepted last week, and rejections on my photos left and right from Istockphotos and Can Stock Photos. They're a little more strict than what I've been able to accomplish and I don't know if I'll ever please them, but I'm sure I'll continue to try!
The highlight was I bought photoshop last week and got it downloaded from adobe! An expensive program but in the end worth it. Like I told my family everything I invest into photography I have to make up for it. So I have a ton of money to put into this that's for sure! I wish my husband didn't have to work graveyard so we'd be able to go out and take some pictures - it's a rare occasion when it's beautiful here. I guess I'll be focusing on learning more about photoshop. Currently taking interest in vector imaging, so we'll see how that goes!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Rejection
Now I'm not normally one to "complain" about rejection, because I deal with it all the time. However one of the micro-stocks I found and applied for today and sent in my top three photographs rejected them. They sent me an E-mail saying:
"Unfortunately we cannot accept your contributor application with these photos.
Here are the reasons why:
Unfortunately these images are not unique enough to warrant adding them to our
website. Your images are good, but we have enough flowers, landscapes, pots and
pans, etc. and we are not approving more of this type of image. Our best advice
is to expand your horizons and look for something new and unique to photograph.
Do some searches on CanStockPhoto.com and sort by \"downloads.\" This will give you a great example of the types of images that are actually being purchased."
I'm rather lost by the suggestion in this E-mail. They're telling me the images are not unique enough to add - however to look through the images they already have pictures of and get ideas of the things that are being downloaded already. Wouldn't that warrant them as still not being unique?
I did E-mail them asking about the pictures themselves and if at least one applied (one was a llama, one a golden retriever and one was a mannequin holding a heart). Hopefully I'll hear back from them.
Give them a try - Buy & Sell Photos at CanStockPhoto.com and tell me your luck!
*Wanted to add I'm not really complaining, just confused about how they want me to be unique by following other people's ideas. I understand their need to find things suitable to what sell best or are wanted on their site, that makes sense to me. I know in a week I'll be trying my luck again!! Hopefully this time armed with things they want!
"Unfortunately we cannot accept your contributor application with these photos.
Here are the reasons why:
Unfortunately these images are not unique enough to warrant adding them to our
website. Your images are good, but we have enough flowers, landscapes, pots and
pans, etc. and we are not approving more of this type of image. Our best advice
is to expand your horizons and look for something new and unique to photograph.
Do some searches on CanStockPhoto.com and sort by \"downloads.\" This will give you a great example of the types of images that are actually being purchased."
I'm rather lost by the suggestion in this E-mail. They're telling me the images are not unique enough to add - however to look through the images they already have pictures of and get ideas of the things that are being downloaded already. Wouldn't that warrant them as still not being unique?
I did E-mail them asking about the pictures themselves and if at least one applied (one was a llama, one a golden retriever and one was a mannequin holding a heart). Hopefully I'll hear back from them.
Give them a try - Buy & Sell Photos at CanStockPhoto.com and tell me your luck!
*Wanted to add I'm not really complaining, just confused about how they want me to be unique by following other people's ideas. I understand their need to find things suitable to what sell best or are wanted on their site, that makes sense to me. I know in a week I'll be trying my luck again!! Hopefully this time armed with things they want!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Getting started!
Considering I just started uploading my pictures to microstock yesterday I think I'm off to a rather nice start!!
Shutterstock is really quick!! I got my photos up and accepted within a day which was wonderful. They require you to submit 10 photos for initial approval and if you don't have at least 7 they approve you have to wait 30 days to try again. I got 7/10 approved and was able to find out why the others were rejected and after seeing it from another person's view I agreed. I'm pending 6 more photos for today.
Fotolia has up to a 90 hour wait for accepting images which stinks (in the terms of being anxious), so I have 16 pending currently. I'm anxious to see what they like.
123 Royalty free is pretty quick as well!! However only 7 out of 15 photos downloaded were accepted which kind of brings me down. I currently don't know which ones were rejected because they must have been barely approved. *Edited: Found out which ones were disapproved and I'm rather surprised on a few other them. They only down "Poor Lighting/Composition" on all 8 of them which boggles my mind. But as my husband said, "each one wants different things."
Istockphoto currently has my three main images still pending, but I have a feeling I won't be approved with them. I am sure my instincts are correct - I totally chose the wrong ones to send.
Dreamstime is pending my 15 photos.
Big stock photo is pending the 13 images I've uploaded.
DepositPhotos required I upload 5 photos to be accepted, just sent them off a few hours ago so I'm pending.
So far 7 images accepted in two nights on two websites, which isn't bad because my original goal was 5-10 accepted images each week if I can keep it up. Hopefully I'll see more approved in the next few days!
Shutterstock is really quick!! I got my photos up and accepted within a day which was wonderful. They require you to submit 10 photos for initial approval and if you don't have at least 7 they approve you have to wait 30 days to try again. I got 7/10 approved and was able to find out why the others were rejected and after seeing it from another person's view I agreed. I'm pending 6 more photos for today.
Fotolia has up to a 90 hour wait for accepting images which stinks (in the terms of being anxious), so I have 16 pending currently. I'm anxious to see what they like.
123 Royalty free is pretty quick as well!! However only 7 out of 15 photos downloaded were accepted which kind of brings me down. I currently don't know which ones were rejected because they must have been barely approved. *Edited: Found out which ones were disapproved and I'm rather surprised on a few other them. They only down "Poor Lighting/Composition" on all 8 of them which boggles my mind. But as my husband said, "each one wants different things."
Istockphoto currently has my three main images still pending, but I have a feeling I won't be approved with them. I am sure my instincts are correct - I totally chose the wrong ones to send.
Dreamstime is pending my 15 photos.
Big stock photo is pending the 13 images I've uploaded.
DepositPhotos required I upload 5 photos to be accepted, just sent them off a few hours ago so I'm pending.
So far 7 images accepted in two nights on two websites, which isn't bad because my original goal was 5-10 accepted images each week if I can keep it up. Hopefully I'll see more approved in the next few days!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
More equipment
In hopes to advanced further my husband and I have been discussing needs and wants when it comes to photography. For me to grow I really want to get photoshop because my pictures are not always coming out 100% how I want them to. The past few days I've been playing with Inkscape, which allows you to make vector images and I'm finding out the simplest edits on that is killing my computer.. which leads me to want a better computer. I know if Inkscape is causing this much freezing that photoshop will be a death sentence.
Now I'm not sure if I'll be able to convince him that I need these items, but I'm getting closer to that goal. In fact I already have a new bigger corner desk that we bought yesterday for a lovely price of $99. Not too shabby! Step #1 complete. There is one catch - my husband wants me to start putting my photos up on microstock sites within the next few weeks. So I'm sorting out the pictures I love that do not require any edits, renaming them so I can organize them better, and already am eying this website called Isyndica which will upload your photos directly to the microstock sites you enter. When they say they can save you up to 80% of your time uploading they're not kidding! If you think about how you have to individually upload to all the different microstock sites, add model and property releases, and then keyword everything it sounds very time consuming! I'm still looking into it, but I think it's a given I'll be using it soon!
*Updated: Convinced husband to get a new computer and monitor as well. He's such a doll. The monitor is an LG 23" monitor, 2 ms response time, 50,000:1 Digital Fine contrast ratio, and 1920 x 1080 maximum resolution which to me equals a nice monitor! The computer is an HP - Pavilion Desktop with AMD Phenom™ II quad-core processor 820; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; LightScribe labeling; 1TB hard drive; wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g/n); Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - all that matter is it handles a lot of pictures, photoshop, editing pictures, and everything else I'll be doing on this computer. The guys at the place we got it from say it will so they'd better be right ;)
As our agreement, now I have to start getting my photos up and selling. Some reason I'm nervous!
Now I'm not sure if I'll be able to convince him that I need these items, but I'm getting closer to that goal. In fact I already have a new bigger corner desk that we bought yesterday for a lovely price of $99. Not too shabby! Step #1 complete. There is one catch - my husband wants me to start putting my photos up on microstock sites within the next few weeks. So I'm sorting out the pictures I love that do not require any edits, renaming them so I can organize them better, and already am eying this website called Isyndica which will upload your photos directly to the microstock sites you enter. When they say they can save you up to 80% of your time uploading they're not kidding! If you think about how you have to individually upload to all the different microstock sites, add model and property releases, and then keyword everything it sounds very time consuming! I'm still looking into it, but I think it's a given I'll be using it soon!
*Updated: Convinced husband to get a new computer and monitor as well. He's such a doll. The monitor is an LG 23" monitor, 2 ms response time, 50,000:1 Digital Fine contrast ratio, and 1920 x 1080 maximum resolution which to me equals a nice monitor! The computer is an HP - Pavilion Desktop with AMD Phenom™ II quad-core processor 820; 8GB DDR3 SDRAM; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; LightScribe labeling; 1TB hard drive; wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g/n); Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit - all that matter is it handles a lot of pictures, photoshop, editing pictures, and everything else I'll be doing on this computer. The guys at the place we got it from say it will so they'd better be right ;)
As our agreement, now I have to start getting my photos up and selling. Some reason I'm nervous!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
I apologize
I apologize while I get this blog looking a lot better, although I think I have done a decent job just starting off! I've just started this blog because I finally got my new camera - a Canon EOS Rebel T1i!! It's a lovely camera - 15.1 MP, RAW uploading setting, etc etc. Overall I like the camera but I'm so used to point-and-shoot cameras that my skill is lacking and my education over things like ISO, F-shutter speed, and everything else is also not there. I've been learning it very quickly and hope to continue educating myself about digital photography and how to improve.
I'm not sure what I'll do with my photography. First it's educate myself, second it's figuring out what makes a better photographer, then third I'll probably start publishing it places for money. I've been reading deeply into micro-stock photography. Of course a lot of photographers hate doing this but I think it's acceptable. I understand you get only $0.20-$1.00 for your photos being sold once but at the same time it doesn't mean you can't do more with your photography or take it off to be sold elsewhere! I know it's taking away some of the profit professional photographers make, but you either get on the bandwagon or fall trying. I personally think it'd be nice to make some change for the pictures I take that sit around on my hard-drive, what about you? But that's in the future. Right now I'm learning and practicing as I go.
If you see this blog change a few times it's because I cannot find a professional looking XML template that is working with me!
I'm not sure what I'll do with my photography. First it's educate myself, second it's figuring out what makes a better photographer, then third I'll probably start publishing it places for money. I've been reading deeply into micro-stock photography. Of course a lot of photographers hate doing this but I think it's acceptable. I understand you get only $0.20-$1.00 for your photos being sold once but at the same time it doesn't mean you can't do more with your photography or take it off to be sold elsewhere! I know it's taking away some of the profit professional photographers make, but you either get on the bandwagon or fall trying. I personally think it'd be nice to make some change for the pictures I take that sit around on my hard-drive, what about you? But that's in the future. Right now I'm learning and practicing as I go.
If you see this blog change a few times it's because I cannot find a professional looking XML template that is working with me!
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