One of the things I don’t like about the Sony (perhaps the only thing?) is that it seems to attract dust on the sensor. I try very hard to avoid dust – putting the lenses face down on a hard surface and keeping the camera body facing down as I unscrew one lens and move across to the new one – but somehow dust just gets on that sensor! Dust is more visible when you have stopped down to a...
Ever wished for the chance to see me speak about stock photography? No, well move onto the next post! I’m giving a talk to the Shenandoah Photographic Society in Winchester, Virginia, on Monday 20th August. I know that will be out of reach for almost all my readers, but if you happen to be in the area, feel free to come along and listen! It will be at Bethel Lutheran Church, 2077 North Frederick Pike, Winchester, Virginia at 7pm. Everyone is...
I’ve entered the Dreamstime Blog Contest on Locations with an entry that hopefully gives some ideas about how to be a success at travel stock photography. If you are a Dreamstime member (either as a buyer or contributor) you can vote on the entries to determine who wins their prize! You can find my blog post here, and you vote on it by clicking on the “Useful” tag under my name: You don’t see this box unless you are logged...
I think this is the 83rd posting on earnings – I hope you still find them interesting! July (and August) tend to be the lowest period of the year for sales and this year was no different. Watching the earnings in Microstockr Pro was pretty painful and the more agencies they add, the less the surprise when I finally put all the results into my spreadsheets. However, I just managed to maintain my steady progress of beating the previous year’s...
Actually, not technically free as the authors are asking for a “pay what you can” donation, but that payment is totally separate from the actual download, so you can read the book and decide if you liked it and then make a choice about donating. The book in question is “How to create Stunning Digital Photography” by Tony Northrup and the free site is available here. I’ve downloaded it and am currently reading it – so far I would say...
Earlier this week I talked about Steadify – a new approach to a tripod for relatively slow exposure times. The project to actually build and sell this is now live on Kickstarter, so if you want to take advantage of the early bird offers, now is the time to do so. I’m planning to buy one and review it in due course – I’m always looking for something to reduce weight and this might help for some types of shoot....
I’ll start with a confession. Eight years ago, I spent $216 on a carbon fiber monopod and I’ve used it maybe twice in all those years! It just goes to show how we are always seeking something to provide stability in those difficult lighting conditions that travel photographers both seek and struggle with. A tripod is great, and I almost always take one on vacation with me, but that doesn’t mean to say that I always have one with me!...
This July 4th, I went up to Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania to see and photograph the fireworks display over the city. Although only 70 miles away, we decided to stay for a couple of nights both to get the best idea of where to shoot the fireworks and to get some other images of the city as well. As I started to realize, getting everything right about fireworks, especially if you want to position them with the city itself to give...
The months seem to fly by and now I’m writing again about earnings from stock photography (and video) at the end of the second quarter of the year. June really felt like a slow month as I was tracking my earnings on Microstockr Pro. One downside of them adding more agencies (Canva was the most recent) is that there is much less of a surprise when I finally put my spreadsheets together, but I was caught out by how much...
We have all been there – we travel to some location, perhaps on vacation, and then the weather isn’t really that good for photography. Do you still take your photos and then what do you do with them on your return? I recently went to New York City for a couple of days and although it was generally dry and a partially sunny, we took a trip to Staten Island on the (free) ferry past the Statue of Liberty and...
