Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately here on the blog; it’s been a crazy summer. We just got back from a vacation to Puerto Rico and Culebra Island about a week ago, and then my sister got married this last weekend. Stay tuned for a post about some of the places we visited while in PR.
Travel can easily wear you out, especially when you’re like myself and don’t get out very much. Lots of traveling, walking, and an unfamiliar bed are definitely a perfect recipe for wearing down your immune system. My vacation sort of got a little bit extended due to a nasty virus I must have caught on the airplane on the way home (you’ve got to love recirculated airplane air). There’s a nasty sore throat virus going around… a friend that lives a few towns over from me said he has the same exact thing. I’m on day 7 of it and was hacking up a bit of blood last night, because my throat was so sore and irritated. It’s basically a constant post nasal drip that just won’t stop. Orange juice burns if you try and drink it. Water is even like trying to drink gravel at times. Today I’m feeling better, but be careful not to catch this thing you guys, it’s a beast to kick. Keep your immune system strong so you don’t get this
This message was brought to you by organic honey throat losenges, vitamin C, echinacea, garlic, tylenol, salt water gargle rinse, rum, listerine, and mucinex
This is a summer thunderstorm rolling through the neighborhood on a muggy, humid summer evening. My wife caught multiple bolts of lightning in this clip. In the background you can hear our stressed out beagle dog panting and walking around the room. I was trying to catch some still shots of the lightning on my Canon 40D at the same time. The best display of lightning is around 00:38 of this clip if you want to fast forward to the best part Enjoy
Out of any other area of the US, New England probably sensationalizes the weather and forecast the most. A few days prior to this we had a rash of tornados that popped up around the area, causing multiple downed trees. Driving through a local town we spotted sights like this:
Not cool.
Below are some screen grabs from the video, as well as a few I crappily captured hand held with my DSLR. To do lightning right, you need to have excellent timing, a slow enough shutter, and a sturdy tripod.
Graduation time is fast approaching for high school and college students. Many of them are thinking how they will even afford college. Will they be able to get help from their parents? Or, maybe some help from the government through financial aid? Will they need to take out loans that will come back to haunt them once they are done with school? Be smart when choosing your educational path. Debt can stab you over with many pains, so be very careful when planning out your education. I can’t stress enough how thankful I am for paying my way though a state university with a part time job working nights and weekends. If you are a high school senior, be sure to apply for all the scholarships or grants that you can. An extra $500 -1000 from smaller or local scholarships might not seem like much, but they will add up over 4 years.
Timing is everything… I think I might be a little late in the year for this image, but nevertheless it was a subject I wanted to cover.
Over 150,000 images licensed in a little over 4 years in microstock. Holy crap…
I was definitely taken by surprise with this statistic. I only wish each one of those images sold for $30 each instead of 30 cents – Haha! I don’t even know what the total size of my portfolio is right now, so that’s the next thing I’ll have to figure out.
Want to know how many images I’ve found in use? Ha, probably only around 100.
Alright; you got me. Let me be totally honest with you. As of today, I’ve only sold 149,110 images. But close enough… I know I must have missed a bunch somewhere, on some random site I’m forgetting to record. In another week or so it should be there It’s fun running business related stats once in a while, and you’re going to be surprised with the results, almost always. Give it a shot with your own accounts, if you sell stock. I think you just might be pleasantly surprised!
Okay, so I dumped my old crappy web host, and it looks like I’ve got everything finally transferred over to my new one. You live and you learn. Now that I’ve lost about a week’s worth of work time, it’s time to forget about this blog for a while and get back to culling, editing, and keywording stock photos
Sorry about the downtime, in case you guys clicked any bad, non-working links in the last day.
“Oh my gosh, check out that look on your face!”, says your friend on the comments section of your newest facebook photo (you know the one where you didn’t realize was being taken while you were acting dorky). I’m sure you’ve seen something similar to this before, if not directly. It’s true, though; a simple facial expression can MAKE or BREAK a photo. It can convey the RIGHT message, or possibly even the WRONG message.
Oh yeah, she definitely looks like she did it.
Check out little miss right here in this funny “motivational” style poster. Usually these are pretty hilarious, and get passed all around on the internet. Was this shot intentional? Maybe the little girl was just trying to smile for her mommy or daddy while they took a snapshot of the neighborhood house fire. But no – she has that evil, devious look on her face. Almost a sort of a smirk like she’s thinking, “See? I told you not to mess with me…”
Okay so now that we’ve all had a little chuckle, what is my point? It’s that facial expressions are important! I’ll admit – when I’m shooting portraits, sometimes I’ll catch someone at the wrong moment, or maybe it was their fault altogether. Some people just smile weird, or in their own unique sort of way. Later when I’m culling and editing, sometimes I can make an image work that I might have initially thought was a total mistake. Here are some examples.
The infamous blink shot, converted to an “I’m dreaming of a Caribbean vacation!” concept:
Or the “model blinked by accident but it looks just like shes laughing really hard” shot:
We all have a few like this in our portfolios. You just really need to make sure that you can make it work. Obviously it would be foolish to take an image of a guy smiling and say he’s sad or depressed. I’ve had models try and pretend to be sad (who really just couldn’t nail the acting) and instead it come out like they were giggling. Maybe it was me making them feel uncomfortable, or acting goofy like I normally do during shoots. Hey, I like to have fun.
…and don’t forget about those Girl Scouts slinging those cookie boxes…they remember who doesn’t buy!
It’s probably happened on a highway or city street near you. First, the shock and astonishment of what just occurred.
You might even gnash your teeth in sheer anger and hatred!
Why would someone do such a thing to you, someone that was totally just trying to drive safely, minding your own business!?
Ah the frustration. I think I’ve probably seen the worst drivers of my life in Connecticut and New Jersey. Worse than New York! New York will cut you off, but at least they’re professional about it. They expect each other to drive like that. If you don’t, they will even get road rage towards you!
The best thing to do in this situation is to try and not let these other drivers rattle your cage. You have to just let it go, and try and maintain your composure. If someone however is road raging against you for something you didn’t even do, you might want to dial 911 on your cell phone. There are a lot of crazies out there, and I’ve heard some stories about people getting out of their cars at red lights, walking over to other cars, and trying to pull the other person out. I’ve even seen people get out of their cars and go at each other, and it’s definitely a scary thing to witness. Take a chill pill, people! You don’t know what kind of day the other guy has had. Cut them some slack! You have to be understanding, and try and maintain the peace. Your heart and blood pressure will thank you, and you might just live a longer and happier life.
hfng
Matt Antonino
Cyril
Gracey
Bob Davies
Evan
mystockphoto
Eric Cote
Henrik
solarseven
