Finding the right camera bag is a pain – some of us don’t want to spend $100-150 on a simple backpack to carry our stuff. If you spend too little, it seems that the thing cheaply falls apart in a short period of time (been there, broke that).
The problem with most camera backpacks is they either give away to the world that it’s a camera backpack, either due to the logo on the outside like TAMRAC or LOWEPRO or even CANON (hmm, I wonder what that dude’s got in that bag? Maybe 5 grand worth of camera gear – let’s go mug him) or the FUGLINESS factor.
I recognized the name Dakine because I have a winter snowboarding hat made by them that I bought at Eastern Mountain Sports. I was interested in the Dakine Camera Block due to the fact that you can shove it in any other bag, as long as it is the right dimensions. That way it’s kind of like getting a custom setup for your DSLR, glass, and photo gear. I’ve seen it online as low as $30 USD. What’s the main thing we need in a camera bag, anyway? Isn’t it the stupid little velcro-rigged, padded dividers that keep our lenses and camera bodies separately safely and securely? That, and obviously comfort, durability, and water resistance while outdoors.
There is also the Dakine Mission, which is a lot nicer looking than most bags. This bag is sold along with the Dakine Camera Block as an optional accessory. It comes in a variety of cool colors and textures, from plaid to other print designs. I haven’t picked one up just yet, but it’s next on my list. If anyone has any experience with the Dakine Mission or Dakine Camera Block, feel free to add your comments below. Another Dakine bag available is the Sequence, which looks to be a little bit deeper (which is always useful if you shoot with a 1D series or gripped body, like myself). The Sequence has a weatherproof rain cover that pops out in case you get caught in a storm.
This last fall my wife and I ventured up to Vermont to peep some colorful fall foliage. We aren’t huge travelers, but everyone needs to break away from the same old same old every once in a while just to get away and to break up the monotony of life in general. We didn’t even have an exact plan where we were going, but we had the trusty little TomTom GPS, a full tank of gas, and our cameras ready for action. The day was a little bit overcast, but sometimes that can be a good thing when it comes to creating softer shadows that aren’t as harsh. Skies can always be replaced easier afterwards, in Photoshop, anyway (tutorial here). Here are some of the stock images we captured that day.
Scenes like these are everywhere in Vermont. Gorgeous and untouched mountains, rivers, countryside and forests.
We stumbled upon Hogback Mountain and I captured these panoramic shots.
One more thing you can expect to find in VT is incredible beer! There are tons of microbrewers including Magic Hat, Long Trail, Otter Creek, Harpoon, and McNeill’s. Be sure to stock up on the brands not available in your area, before you head back home.
These portraits of us were taken at the river just underneath the Dummerston covered bridge.
I just found out that Mount Snow, Vermont is using this shot of the historic Dummerston covered bridge on their postcard to suggest things to do and see in the area during the “off season” for skiing.
Check out MountSnow.com for all sorts of affordable activities and local area attractions. They are so much more than just skiing!
Here’s my first impression on flick panning, a new feature added to CS4. When you click, drag, and release, the image glides and slides all over the place. ME NO LIKEY OKAY!?
I found the answer already, after I recorded the screencast, of course. It’s so easy – just go to: Edit->Preferences->General and then uncheck “Enable Flick Panning”
This little Indian kid named Varun on youtube is a pretty smart guy. I like this kid’s way of reasoning when it comes to mac vs pc. I love macs, but I’m not going to lie… I think they’re definitely way overpriced for what you get. I’m not taking sides, as I’ve worked with both for years. I actually just ordered a brand new desktop pc with an i7. It has more memory in the video card alone than my current (7 year old) computer has snapped into it’s motherboard DIMMs. Savings? $1000-1500 over the new incredible iMac 27″. That’s a lot of cheddar that can get redirected into new photo gear for me. Anyway, I’ll be sure to post a full review of my new setup once it arrives.
Amazingly, a lot of graphic design jobs you might find won’t always have you on a mac. Make sure you know how to use both – otherwise you’re going to have to educate yourself pretty quick once you land that first design gig straight out of college. That means knowing what the heck you’re doing in Windows XP and the all new Windows 7, as well as knowing OSX. Thankfully the Adobe programs are pretty much identical whether you’re on a mac or a pc, with the exception of the alt/option key on your keyboard (it’s not rocket science).
I thought I was pretty sure I was going to get the 7D as my next camera body. Right now I shoot with an older Canon 20D which I love, but is starting to show its age. I was originally decided on the 5D2, but when the 7D came out I was amazed my much of the response it was getting on the forums. Here are the benefits of the 7D I’ve learned about from all of my hours of research:
- the AF is superior to the 5d2, more focus points, better servo mode than the 5d mkii
- it has pop-up flash (comes in handy once in a great while for fill or to trigger strobes) will mount EF-S lenses (I only own one, the rest in my kit are EF mount because I have been planning on going full frame for a while now).
- it has wireless flash controls built in, if you own other Canon speedlights (I don’t have any yet – only Alien Bees B800’s)
- dual digic 4 processors (5d2 only has one)
- shoots video same as the 5d2
- very low noise up to iso 800, where the 5d2 then takes over
- a few more bells and whistles that the 5d2 doesn’t have like on-screen leveling
All of that is fine and dandy, but when it comes down to pixel peeping, I’ve been seeing a lot of softness from the 7D in the samples online. Not just studio stuff – real world conditions.
This review scares me a little. http://darwinwiggett.wordpress.com/2009/11/11/the-canon-7d/
I think we have to wait until Adobe updates ACR and Lightroom more the handle the Raw conversion a bit better, in order to come to the proper conclusions. Right now the 7D is looking softer than everything, at 100% native resolution. Sure, you can sharpen, but if there’s a little ISO 200 or 400 noise that low noise camera suddenly turns into worse noise than ISO 1600.
The 7D also out-resolves the glass you mount to it, much more than a 5d2. That means softer images, seeing that the glass can’t provide enough. There is a great explanation of what that means in this thread http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=73591 by my friend David Rehner.
In the end, either camera bodies are a world of a difference over my old 20D. I’m going to wait and see, at least until Spring of 2010, before I start whipping out my credit card. I’m waiting until I am absolutely 100% sure about this. I think I just might have to rent one of each for a week to do my own tests. I’m in the same boat as many other photographers, with the 20D or 30D. No doubt the 7D is 1000 times better in more than one way, but if I can make my daily photo editing a few steps easier by spending the extra grand on the 5d2 I think it might be worth it. Downsizing is fine, unless you shoot stock and want to utilize the maximum resolution that you possibly can, in order to make the most money from your images. If I’m going to drop even $1700 on a camera, it had better produce good enough sharpness and clarity at 100% at the fullest resolution. If not, I might as well spend the extra cash on the full frame.
So, you wonder if you can make any money selling your images online. I wondered the same thing, back when I was a full time graphic designer. I was purchasing hundreds of stock photos for use in my designs. Then I thought, “Hey – why can’t I sell my own photos?”. Professional stock photo collections can cost anywhere from $200-$500 per disc, with single shots costing anywhere from $80-$200 themselves. It’s thrilling to find places online where you can purchase high-res, professional quality images at a fraction of that price. In the past 5 or 6 years there has been a boom in the microstock photography and royalty free stock footage business.
Which stock photo agencies are worthwhile?
Trying to see which site sells more images than the next is tricky. There are a lot of elements involved, and it seems like sales figures fluctuate from month to month amongst the micro sites. Factors like portfolio size, photo types, site search engines, and even categorization all play a part. All I can do is give you my best sites – the ones that I personally think are worth my time to upload to. Below are the links to my top-selling sites – sign up, and try them out. Then you can make your own conclusions.
Everyone creates different types of art, and some of it is very marketable. Some has high commercial value, while a lot does not. It might look great, and you might want to make a print of it for your grandmother, but that doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to make enough money to make a living. How do you know how well you’ll do? You have to try it for yourself. Then make your own conclusions. This is definitely not a get rich quick scheme. You will “get back” out of stock photography, what you “put into it”.
Don’t forget to subscribe to the blog at the upper right of this page. If you are interested in one-on-one consulting regarding your microstock efforts, contact me for further info.
Today I discovered something that is going to greatly improve my workflow. This toolbar for firefox has a slew of features, the greatest of which (I feel) are the workflow functionalities. When you submit images to certain stock agencies, you always have to go through and check off boxes or click certain buttons before pushing through the submission. I always referred to this part of the job as “pushing” as many other microstockers do. Well, pushing just got a whole lot easier for Fotolia, Shutterstock, and Dreamstime. More features are sure to come, as the toolbar gets developed further as time goes on. Thanks so much to Rob Davies (follow him on twitter: @bobbigmac) for all of his hard work on this excellent tool.
You can also enter in your username for FT, SS, IS, DT, BS, SX, and 123 so that it will instantly alert you of any new sales, as well as your current total earnings. It reads all of this stuff from cookies, once you’ve logged into each specific website.
Aren’t you sick and tired of sticking your usb thumb drive in your computer to transfer files over to another machine? Or are you sick of having to email attachments all of the time, or host files on sites like rapidshare, imageshack, or yousendit? Then Dropbox is for you.
I wouldn’t host your entire stock photography portfolio on this service, or anything else that is private…but for quick transfers back and forth this seems pretty secure.
A fellow microstocker told me about this service, and I’m thankful for that – thanks Andres! This is a really cool free service.
If you’re looking for a cool phone with Verizon, as an alternative to going with AT&T and the iPhone, check this one out. If you get this phone, you can get wireless internet access for free, through wi-fi. This allows you to bypass any required data plans that Verizon forces upon you with newer smart phones or Blackberry phones that they currently carry.
First of all, you can’t get the i760 anymore in stores – BUT you CAN get it through customer service. There were 2300 left when I ordered mine about a week ago. Call them – it’s $220 minus $70 rebate right now. That combined with my new every two and I got a smartphone for $50 bucks. A phone that used to be like $300-400. I’m doing a happy dance!
I am LOVING the i760. All I do is mod the crap out of it, as much as I can in my free time. I’m still waiting for my 2gb MicroSD to get here in the mail, then I can go even more crazy . There is tons of freeware and shareware games ive found online including kevtris, greedy penguins, rats and spears, etc. I learned a lot on forums and watching youtube vids. I am loving this phone more and more with each and every new customization Hopefully I don’t screw it up. I’m thinking of getting spb backup just to be safe.
I love this site! Have you guys played around with it yet? Highly advanced looking slideshow videos that move along with your music. Feel free to post some of your favorite animoto vids in the comments section below.
Here is one of mine from my last NYC business themed stock photo shoot:
The problem with most camera backpacks is they either give away to the world that it’s a camera backpack, either due to the logo on the outside like TAMRAC or LOWEPRO or even CANON (hmm, I wonder what that dude’s got in that bag? Maybe 5 grand worth of camera gear – let’s go mug him) or the FUGLINESS factor.
. There is tons of freeware and shareware games ive found online including kevtris, greedy penguins, rats and spears, etc. I learned a lot on forums and watching youtube vids. I am loving this phone more and more with each and every new customization 
hfng
Matt Antonino
Cyril
Gracey
Bob Davies
Evan
mystockphoto
Eric Cote
Henrik
solarseven
