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Messages - Bateleur

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 [7] 8 9 10 11 12 ... 35
151
Cameras / Lenses / Re: Buying your very first DSLR?
« on: August 16, 2008, 14:50 »
Cameras don't matter. Lenses do.

Unless I need to use high ISO or other advanced features, I can take as good photos with a D40 as with a D3. For stock photography, I mostly need ISO 100, aperture priority and a shutter release.

Agreed ... except for one other thing. The image size. The D3 has a full-frame sensor.

You can get a larger high-quality image from a D3 image than from a D40 one.

If you're looking to sell through the higher-end photo agencies you ain't got much chance with a D40 image.

152
Off Topic / Re: Olympic games: Canon vs Nikon
« on: August 15, 2008, 14:02 »
I'm just blown away by the guy in the yellow cap, front row, just to the right of the Olympic rings on blue.

Do you think he forgot his Really Big Camera and is having to make do with a P&S?

Or is he just showing up all those posers with their drainpipe lenses?

153
General Stock Discussion / Re: Selling art
« on: August 15, 2008, 11:21 »
Is it the same if you're selling your images as RM?  I was under the impression I could still sell fine art prints even though I have the same images on Alamy, PSC and MyLoupe as RM.

Yikes, am I wrong?

Is what the same? Calling them 'limited edition'? Or just selling them?

I think you can sell them as and how you want ... you are, after all, the copyright owner.

But if you sell an image as a 'limited edition' fine art print I would imagine buyers would be pretty pissed off if they then saw their treasure illustrating an article in a magazine, or plastered over billboards.

154
I think everyone's agreed ... yes is the answer to your question.

I have a Manfrotto 055, with a 229 head, for home/studio/local use. The only annoyance is that the head won't tilt backwards more than about 30 degrees so, for high-angle shots the camera has to be mounted in reverse.

The whole thing weighs a ton, so for hiking I have a lightweight Slik, but it doesn't support the camera (especially with a telephoto) nearly as steadily. The difference is very noticeable.


IMO quick release plates are an absolute must.


Watch out with quick release plates. They're great, but I've probably broken more photographic equipment through them releasing unexpectedly (I know ... probably for not being closed properly ... my fault) than for any other reason.

 

155
Dreamstime.com / Re: sharply_done featured photographer DT
« on: August 05, 2008, 12:08 »
pourquoi "mean" ??

Parce que 'mean' signifie 'really good' en anglais ... c'est l'argot ... at least, in the English I speak.

156
Dreamstime.com / Re: sharply_done featured photographer DT
« on: August 05, 2008, 11:12 »
Chapeau! A mean portfolio and well deserved. Hope it brings in lots of extra sales.

157

Honestly, you think the US government is going to track you down and take you to Cuba because you filed a tax form?


No. I don't think that. But, as a non US citizen who does not reside in the country and has never been there, I believe that my personal information is still none of a US Government department's  business.

Have you ever read George Orwell's 1984? Okay, he got the date wrong. But a lot of other things that he foresaw are now beginning to happen.


I know of an awful lot of people that are now deciding to holiday elsewhere in the world because of the US being totally ridiculous on the amount of information it "needs" to know on people in case they are terrorists.


I'm one of those people (along with the rest of my family). I would dearly like to see the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, New York, etc. But I will not go because of the amount of personal data the US Government collects. I mean ... why do they need my fingerprints and credit card details?

I'm also going to put a hold on Photoshelter. They've accepted me, but I'm not willing to fill in the forms. Why should I? Shutterstock doesn't require them.

158

I didn't see a problem with it, why not fill it in?


Because I am concerned by the way in which the US authorities are gathering data about individuals, worldwide. Will information about me stay purely withing the tax system ... or will it be sent elsewhere? There is no statement on the form that it will only be used for tax purposes.

I am not a US Citizen, nor have I ever been there, so I fail to see how my personal data are business of the US Government's.

I'm not a terrorist or a criminal either, and many people will say, "If you've got nothing to hide you've not nothing to worry about."

Unfortunately, as a number of innocent but unfortunate individuals will attest, this isn't always true.

 

159
I've just signed up with Phototshelter, and got a few images accepted. No sales yet, but I live in hope.

However I see that if you want a payment from them, are not a US citizen, and do not live in the US, you still have to complete some sort of a tax form - W-8BEN Certificate of Foreign Status of Beneficial Owner for United States Tax Withholding.

Anyone know anything about this? I'm a British citizen living in Europe and have never been anywhere near the States. I don't see why they want personal details from me. What business is it of theirs?

160
General Stock Discussion / Re: your most laughable rejection
« on: July 12, 2008, 04:27 »
I submitted some silhouettes and attached the MRs for the models.  Dreamstime rejected them for:

"Does not need model release"

Ha ha.... I got the opposite from IS. Submitted silhouettes of people, and the reviewer said "subjects can be recognised if curves are manipulated, release needed"   ;D

They were right actually, but by manipulating the photo that much, it was way beyond unusable. Oh well....

Wow! They must be dedicated inspectors.   ???

How much do they get per image? 5 cents? 10 cents? And for that, not only do they check for noise, artefacts, dust spots ... the whole shebang. They also open the image in an editing program and manipulate the curves.

Amazing!    ;D

161
Alamy.com / Re: Limited Use (Novel) Blog Update
« on: July 12, 2008, 01:00 »
At the moment I'm remaining opted out of Alamy's 'Novel Use' programme.

It's not because I disagree with it. Anything that brings me in more money is good.

But they don't seem to have thought through the concept well enough yet and they're having to tweak it. There's shades of iStock's famous 'woo-yay!' developments that went a bit haywire. (Anyone remember their keywording fiasco?)

When Alamy have got their act together then I'll decide.

162
General Stock Discussion / Re: Lifetime Microstock Goals
« on: July 11, 2008, 14:33 »
To be able to keep producing good saleable images for as long as I can.

Even if I was earning enough to live on, pay the mortgage, and to buy a beautiful sailboat on top of all that (and I'm still hoping), I'd still want to keep making photographs.

163

Please people, at least attempt to check your facts before bashing your customers!


I'd hardly call the original post 'bashing your customer'.

Eugenef wrote:

Also if you visit their homepage, this image is in the popular buys section. As well as far as I understood the agreement on IstockPhoto, extended license does not allow this... any ideas? or advice.... or similar experiences??

which is simply asking for advice.

The trouble is that there is an awful lot of image theft going on. I have found a number of my images that have been clearly stolen. Someone had one of my best selling images of a bunch of mistletoe on her site as though it was her own. Admittedly she wasn't selling it (but giving it away) and another site was using the same image as part of freebie images that could be used on MySpace/Facebook pages.

Nowadays it can be difficult to know if an image is being used legally or not, what with the number of agencies that may carry the same image, and their differing licensing options.

And a month or so ago there was another thread about some petty crook in London who clearly was stealing images and flogging them off as his own.

Seems to me to be fair enough to pose the question and get it sorted (as here).



164
Cameras / Lenses / Anyone know anything about batteries?
« on: July 08, 2008, 10:16 »
I bought myself a spare Ansmann battery for my Nikon D3 (EN-EL4 to be exact) and the d**ned thing doesn't work in the camera.

It charges up okay in the charger (which seems to indicate that the contacts are all right) but the camera remains completely dead when I put it in. I've even tried 'calibrating' the battery. No joy. The camera works perfectly with the official Nikon battery.

Does anyone know if Nikon have sneakily inserted some electronic thingummy in their batteries so alternative brands don't work? (Like some printer makers do with their ink cartridges.) I can't find out anything about it in Nikon information, other than 'only use Nikon batteries', which is what you'd expect them to say.

Or anyone got any other suggestions? I returned it to the supplier and they sent me what they claimed was a replacement (but how can you tell ... it was in the same packaging) and it still doesn't work.

Or any other words of advice - other than stick with the official batteries. I know I shouldn't have tried to economize. Won't do it again. Promise.

165
Cameras / Lenses / Re: Hasselblad H3DII-50
« on: July 08, 2008, 10:03 »
And how much does it cost?   :o

And how much memory do you need on your hard drive if you're gonna store more than about 10 photos?   ;D

Nice machine though.

166
General Stock Discussion / Re: Please Vote For My Model
« on: July 05, 2008, 12:54 »

Who . are you to challenge my integrity?

The answer to your question is simple.

To Applaud her achievement.


I'm me.

And I wasn't challenging your integrity. Simply asking a question.

I, too, suffer from a hearing disability. But it has no bearing on my photography, writing, or public speaking (all of which I do).

Furthermore, I wouldn't want it announced as a preface to a presentation of any of my work ... not because I'm in any way shy about it, but simply because it's not relevant.


167
PicNiche Toolbar / Re: picniche.com
« on: July 05, 2008, 04:32 »
Er ... I'm probably being very dense here, but I don't understand it.

In the 'About us' it states:

... our search system assesses the sales statistics (demand) for images found relating to that search, along with the competition (supply) for that phrase, and returns a rating indicating the likelihood of making a sale as a result of that keyword phrase on your image.

and they give a ratings table from <10 being bad to >100 being a niche.

Okay. So I do a couple of tests:

'business' and 'woman' gets a rating of 0.59 which is bl**dy awful.

'fungus' and 'smell' gets a rating of 24.69 which is half-way OK.

So does that mean that an image that illustrates 'fungus' and 'smell' has a greater likelihood of making a sale than one that illustrates 'business' and 'woman'?

Really?

168
General Stock Discussion / Re: I Wanna Be Elected!
« on: July 05, 2008, 04:05 »
Sorry couldn't take a look at your entry because it was telling me that I haven't got the right version of a flash player to see the page.  :(

Me too. And I don't want to upload yet another version of some (probably) increasingly bloated version of software. I fell into that trap once with Adobe.

Now, if a site tells me I have to upgrade my software to view what it has on offer I go elsewhere.

169
General Stock Discussion / Re: Please Vote For My Model
« on: July 05, 2008, 04:02 »

Oh Jeez this is ridiculous never mind she can win this without your help.  I have posted this in several communities and THIS is the only one to react with such vicious stupidity, what a bunch of children.


I am sorry that she is deaf. It's a serious handicap. But, let's face it, that has no relevance to the quality of the image.


I beg to differ with you. This is the third deaf model I have worked with and the first two were almost impossible to work with. If you can't communicate with a model it is unlikely you will be bookh makes it all the more amazing in myng models I have ever worked with whic able to produce a quality image. This model however communicates better then most fully heari

Sorry, I don't understand the last bit of that comment.

But as for the second sentence:

This is the third deaf model I have worked with and the first two were almost impossible to work with.

That just confirms that deafness has no connection with modelling ability.

So why did you highlight it so markedly in your first post if it wasn't to invoke the sympathy vote?


170
General Stock Discussion / Re: Please Vote For My Model
« on: July 05, 2008, 01:15 »

Oh Jeez this is ridiculous never mind she can win this without your help.  I have posted this in several communities and THIS is the only one to react with such vicious stupidity, what a bunch of children.


No. Not children. People here are a bit more critical.

That's why this is such a valuable forum. You don't get the vomit-inducing, sycophantic "Hey! Wow! That's sooooooooo coooooooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!" reactions that you tend to get on other photographic forums (fora?)

Let's face it ... in your first post you highlighted the fact that she was deaf by using capital letters amongst other things. In other words, you were invoking a sympathy vote.

I am sorry that she is deaf. It's a serious handicap. But, let's face it, that has no relevance to the quality of the image.

And people on this forum spotted that.

171
Cameras / Lenses / Re: Nikon D3 corner
« on: July 03, 2008, 14:52 »

Hows the noise?


Well controlled. I submitted a couple of images taken at ISO 800 to SS (who are notoriously picky about noise) and they breezed through.

172
Cameras / Lenses / Re: New Nikon D700 (announcement tomorow)
« on: July 01, 2008, 02:55 »
D@mn it!

And I've just taken the plunge and bought a D3.

Mind you, it's an awesome beast. If the D700 performs the same it'll be excellent value for money.

173
Do not talk about being payed in Euro becouse it is impossible for many reasons and NEVER gonna happen.

If anybody have any info about future of dollar, please write here, because I am real desperated ;/

Join Yay. They're going to pay me in Euros ... when I make a sale    ::)


174
Off Topic / If you go down to the beach today ...
« on: June 29, 2008, 08:12 »
... you could be in for a big surprise.

It's not just thieves who may be eyeing your gear.

Some of our 'colleagues' are getting a bad name ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/29/usa.pressandpublishing


175
Darn! Where d'you get it?

I want one.

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