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Messages - cascoly
3926
« on: June 30, 2011, 14:42 »
I'm curious how you all deal with your camera equipment on these trips. I just can't see myself taking lots of gear, for fear its going to get swiped either during a shoot, or somewhere in between. This is especially the case given I don't see myself spending the money for high end hotels where I know a safe will likely exist. Sure insurance exists, but beyond recovering the cost of lost equipment, this won't salvage trip wasted due to lack of gear. Thoughts?
Even considered going totally minimalist, and investing in a high end point and shoot that can take decent shots when light is decent.
i do use a high end point & shoot - sony HX1,[ but mostly because it performs best for my sometimes shaky hands], but even with a dslr, try to find a bag that doesnt scream 'big camera'. i found a black leather male purse that is light enough i take it skiing, and still easy to access. oterwsie i dont worry a lot - crap happens, but not much you can do beyond taking the usual precautions others have mentioned. i used to lead hiking trips to nepal, india, china and turkey, and have never had nyone lose their camera.
3927
« on: June 28, 2011, 16:23 »
when i make a first pass thru a shoot i check all images at 100% - but that's just a screen's worth of image; i dont check the entire surface of every image as i'm just culling; but i'm starting to suspect some reviewers DO it this way -- looking at only a portion of the image at 100%, which would explain the silly DOF and other selective focus issues
3928
« on: June 28, 2011, 16:13 »
Well i got the impression i apply online/download the application/sign and send two photos/my british passport/money and then need to be seen in person.Sent them an email for clarification.
I am going as a tourist but a good titp not to mention photography.Thanks
Well i certainly want it to hand before booking hotel and flight.... Oh and i dont eat curry so whats tasty in india? [/quote] i didnt have to see anyone in person for my visa -- to many people curry means curry powder - in fact, curry covers a wide array of spice mixtures, and indian cuisine is one of the most diverse in the world. http://hubpages.com/hub/Best-Recipes-from-Around-the-Worldgives some indian recipes i've discovered, and also some dishes we've enjoyed in india
3929
« on: June 27, 2011, 18:57 »
On the other hand, the editorial caption rejections from other sites are frequently silly. They want to play at being news agencies without understanding what that means and then set rigid caption styles when any half-baked news agency would edit the captions for house style itself as long as the required information was there.
exactly - the rigid captioning is just plain silly - there's basic info like what, where, when, but i doubt many buyers would decline to buy because someone used Sep rather than SEP, or placed the date after the place. combine that w reviewers who just dont know what they're doing and it's pathetic.
3930
« on: June 27, 2011, 18:54 »
Getting a Visa is going to be a PITTA imo....
getting a visa is easy and straightforward - i had mine within a week -- all the info you need is online
3931
« on: June 27, 2011, 10:00 »
does anyone know what the contributor earnings % is for editorial image? is it the same as RF except that it is for editorial use only? I can't find any info on 123rf FAQ 
% paid is the same, but my editorial portfolios, while smaller, earn about 2x what my RF images do - makes sense since i tend to shoot travel and people stock in the first place, rather than studio and isolated
3932
« on: June 27, 2011, 09:56 »
Thanks Cascoly.I am also hoping to travel down to Jaipur for the day.Train journey looks like 4 hours and read it might be best to hire a car/driver for the day ?
we almost always use a car & driver - first, it's faster than any other public transportation, but more importantly, you have flexibility and you see more. you dont get any pictures from a train. good drivers often seek out pictures FOR you - itinerant temple elephants, isoalted shrines, washing day, local festivals, etc we've done 6 week trips in 2003 and 2009 after several shorter trips. the major sites are in incredible, but it's the journey that makes india so fascinating http://hubpages.com/hub/Tips-for-Travel-in-Indiahttp://hubpages.com/hub/Darshan-at-Tirupati-in-South-India
3933
« on: June 26, 2011, 12:28 »
the general answer is there's no problem throughout India. railroad stations are supposedly off limits, but otherwise it's simple. - check any of my portfolios for examples of market shots, portraits, temples, etc.
at any of the major tourist spots you'll have more trouble keeping the locals OUT of your images; and we would sometimes be asked to pose with other Indian tourists for their photos [we even ended up talking to the provincial governor and appearing on local tv when we were watching a local festival]
the larger question is the ethical one. i've shot images that show poor people, but i dont shoot slums, garbage or similar. i'm not a photojournalist, so i'm not making a documentary, and i dont shoot any picture that i'd be ashamed to show to the subject of that picture. in general, whenever a shoot images where one person is the main focus, i try to at least establish eye contact and indicate i'd like to take their picture. most people dont mind, and if someone says no, i immediately drop my camera.
3934
« on: June 26, 2011, 12:20 »
123rf also rejects many shots of building exteriors and most shots of interiors.
i'm happy if this becmes the new policy and i think it should be available from more agencies - let the agency decide whether my image fits their RF or editorial criteria. if an image is accepted as editorial, it woud probably need additional editorial desc, so the photographer could still decide. [eg, shutterstock has an anally specific template for editorial]
that said, 123rf has the most generous editorial review i've seen -- and they accept [and sell] a higher % of my editorial than RF images
3935
« on: June 26, 2011, 12:14 »
definitely a conflict of interest - cant think of any other field that would get away with this - book reviewers, movie critics, etc are all screened for possible bias, PLUS the reviewers are known publicly, so their customers can determine whether there's bias or not.
at the very least, reviewers should not be allowed to review work similar to what they shoot. if the reviews are technically oriented, training, not experience is sufficient. i'm surprised that these agencies give so much trust to reviewers to determine what will show up in their collections.
another factor is how reviewers are paid - any per image payment is going to encourage quick reaction reviews. do every reviewer look at every image at 100%? or do they get an idea of the image from an enlarged thumbnail?
3936
« on: June 21, 2011, 14:34 »
In England, males over the age of 14 must practice with the longbow for 2 hours a day. In France, it's illegal to name a pig Napoleon. in George Orwell's Animal Farm, the dictator pig is named Napoleon
3937
« on: June 17, 2011, 13:13 »
another note - if they review an image, but find something missing [keywords, etc], it just stays in pending and you don't get any notification; so you need tp look at the old pending images to check. i had some in for weeks befoere i asked and was then told they were incomplete
3938
« on: June 16, 2011, 16:11 »
i used to sell on ebay -- until they banned it, i sold digital downloads of images
i've also sold CD collections of my own stock images, but people won't pay more than a few $, so the handling costs just werent worth it
ebay has become a much more hostile place for small sellers in general; i'm down to about 10% of what i was listing a year ago
3939
« on: June 15, 2011, 18:02 »
i had a mass rejection for white balance off - resubmitted two weeks later with NO changes, and most were accepted - the others were rejected for LCV
3940
« on: June 11, 2011, 12:18 »
>>>>>The other laugh to me is their editorial policy, which is just clueless and liable to cost them many potential sales. Their arbitrary standard that images must be "newsworthy" is silly. Who says what is newsworthy? The greatest use of editorial images is NOT because they are newsworthy, but because they INFORM and illustrate a story or article or book or web page. Merely a non-commercial application.
that's SS biggest problem - they define 'ediitorial' reasonably, but then dont train/inform their reviewers most of whom think editorial MUST BE newsworthy. % wise i sell more editorial than non on SS, but it now takes multiple submissions to finaly hit a reviewer who knows what they're doing
3941
« on: June 09, 2011, 13:26 »
yes they seem to have some reviewers who havent realized that real world lighting is different from studio
3942
« on: June 01, 2011, 14:24 »
there several other possibilities, and pricing is not a likely cause
--people had something else in mind when they clicked, eg, they were looking for something about how to take stock images, rathere than how to do the business side
--they thought they'd get something free [no reflection on quality]
-- hits are from bloggers, etc who may not be buyers
in any case, 1 day is too soon to make decisions. another possibility is to offer it for $10 thru clickbank and give a 50% commission
steve
3943
« on: May 30, 2011, 23:08 »
even on tours there are opportunities
first, there's the free models of "tourists looking at Taj Mahal"
i usually trail the group, keeping an eye on the guide, but it lets me take more time finding the images i want. evening sound & light shows are particularly useful this way -- you can usually wander the ruins with only a coupla other like minded photographers
another handy trick for any market is to walk behind the stalls, looking out over the sellers at the customers; often a good way to start conversations and end up with more candids of the vendors after you take the required "here i am holding my prize zucchini shot " of them
3944
« on: May 29, 2011, 12:31 »
if you're coming from a field other than photography, think about what aspects fyour current skills can help you in your new field - eg, i'd done computer analysis, database and internet programming for 30 years, so those portions of my photography business didn 't require outside help.
also, any costs you have for your new business are tax deductible, so it's effectively a 15-30% discount - you just have to show a profit eventually - check the IRS online for details. and, early on, you probably won't need a tax advisor if you're willing to read about schdule C, etc. and you have ZERO employees
that said, it IS tough, and getting harder, but if you're looking at it as a supplemental source of income, it's still possible.
3945
« on: May 29, 2011, 12:16 »
you can just ignore the ridiculous looking stuff and it will usually let you pass
Someone at Captcha relized they had a captched audience of testers - turns out that captcha is selling space to identify parts of scanned texts that don't make it thru standard optical scanners - smudged copies, older type faces, etc. crowd sourcing the results, they've been quite successful. so they don't use those pieces as part of the check, since they don't know what they are either! [written up in wired or NY times some months ago]
3946
« on: May 29, 2011, 12:10 »
millions travel, a few have trouble with theft.
we left a camera in a taxi in istanbul when we left near the Suleymanie - 2 hrs later, after visting several mosques, the driver tracked us down to return it
travel is a tough field, but most of my images are from travels; it's harder to take pictures on a hectic schedule. but definitely worth doing
steve
3947
« on: May 15, 2011, 12:35 »
i've had the same problems - there was a place somewhere in the profile where you could turn off the automatic freeing of images, but after doing that my older images continue to get listed as free
i've written support several times to no effect - best response has been that i can disabkle them indivudually! [extra hassle you have to give a FREASON why you want to disable EACH image]
3948
« on: April 25, 2011, 19:58 »
the most frustrating rejections continue to be editorial - some reviewers insist every editorial MUST be newsworthy - but that's not how SS defines editorial
i sent in a set of urban graffiti recently as editorial - all rejected as not newsworthy - then resubmitted as ordinary & rejected as lacking a release! that's precisely what editorial is supposed to allow - as witnessed by the many other editorial images
3949
« on: April 25, 2011, 19:44 »
the modified form has a problem - the last question is required even if you answered the one before, so if youu have seen an increase, you're then forced to answer a question that syas yoiu havent seen an increase
also, the date isnt clear - is it mm/dd or dd/mm??
3950
« on: April 15, 2011, 13:25 »
in addition to all the previous reasons, another abused category is rejection for 'NOT CROPPED THE WAY WE WOULD HAVE TAken THE PICTURE" -- especially annoying when the imavge is clearly labeleD "DETAIL" and shows a particular texture, architectural feature, etc
reviewers should be working on tecnical merits only [there's more than enough subjectiveity available there] and not ruling on artistic merits
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