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Messages - ErickN

Pages: 1 2 3 4 [5] 6 7
101
123RF / Re: Anyone had their payment this month?
« on: May 20, 2008, 16:42 »
Mine came on the 14th also.

102
@ZymmMan : Thanks again for your thoughts and such an elegant way to talk about the Lady. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury to spend as much time in NYC as I'd like to, but I'll try my best to make Her react to my charming dance !

@Stu99 : Thanks for the recommendation. Actually, I did already browse the main RFC website among many others but not the one you linked to, and I intended to do exactly what you suggest. I've seen many pictures taken from the top of the Empire State Building, but the RFC seems to be an equally good platform for such cityscapes, including the ESB and the Chrysler building.

@GeoPappas : Wow ! I didn't expect such an helpful and documented answer. Thank you very much for taking the time to look for and share those informations. I'll try to get in touch with the companies you mentioned, and I'll definetely take into account your safety warning.
At first, I couldn't see the exif of the image I linked to, because it didn't work in IE. After reading your post, I went back to it using Firefox, and I could read it. I wasn't hoping to get such a close-up anyway, but something more like a Manhattan skyline with the Statue in the frame. And a focal length of 460000mm sounds wrong to me. 460 m ? That must be a giganormous lens/scope ! Even Hubble has a focal length of ~58m (189 ft) :) But you may be right in the fact that a scope was used, as it may not have reported its focal length to the camera, thus the erroneous exif value.

My head is turning, so many things to do/see/shoot in NYC, so few time for it !

103
@Darryl : Indeed, living myself in Paris, I know air quality can be problematic sometimes, though I find it's less of a problem in the evening than during the day. But again, it seems that distances in NY are longer than what we're used to in other parts of the world !

@ZymmMan : Yes I had noticed the orientation of the statue facing towards Brooklyn. I expected to get a profile view if I could get access to Port Jersey Blvd. Yes, from Liberty State Park, I won't have both the Statue and Manhattan in the frame, but was hoping to try a composite, as suggested by GeoPappas. Anyway, the Statue is such an iconic symbol that even a silhouette from the back is easily identifiable and shouts "NYC" (unless it is the Parisian Statue or another replica).

Looking at this picture, I found that the angle of view was quite low (ie. probably not from an heli) with the perspective highly "compressed" by the use of a long lens. But as it seems a bit blurry in the larger size, maybe it was shot from a boat, with some kind of stabilisation, or maybe it was cropped heavily.

Maybe I'm overthinking this. After all, Lady Liberty has been shot thousands and thousands times. Maybe a very classical shot could sell as well as a more thought out one. On my last trip to India, I shot the Taj Mahal from many different angles and tried to be somewhat creative and not only shoot the "clich" frontal perspective. Guess which one sells best ? Bingo, the latter. Go figure...

Thanks to both of you for your help.

PS: Any tip about how to resist going to B&H ? My wallet would be very grateful !

104
Thanks for your answer GeoPappas.

I also considered the fact that there aren't many such images, that's why I was wondering if it was possible at all. The few ones I've seen, I can't tell if they were composites or not.

From looking closer to the map, I can see there's a road called Port Jersey Blvd leading to that place, so maybe there's still some hope I can get there, if it's open to the public.

If not, I'll get by with a trip to Liberty State Park from where I should get some nice Manhattan skyline shots and also some views on the Statue.

105
Off Topic / NYC location scouting - any NewYorker here ?
« on: May 17, 2008, 08:54 »
Hi,

I'm going to NYC at the end of the month. I try to plan my stay and find some nice photo vantage points, knowing that photography is the main goal of my trip.

I'd like to shoot twilight/night views of the statue of liberty from a location where I could frame lower Manhattan buildings in the background. I exclude shooting from a ferry as I expect very low shutterspeeds at that time of the day. Looking at the Google Earth screenshot below, it seems the best location should be somewhere on Jersey's east coast.

Does someone here know if this place on Jersey is accessible and open to the public (it seems to be some kind of industrial area) ? If it is, what is the easiest way to go there at twilight (and go back to midtown Manhattan afterwards) ? I won't have a rental car, I'll just use public transportations and taxis. Does this place have a name, so that a taxi could drive me there ?

The Google Earth measure tool indicates a distance of ~6.2 kms (3.85 miles) from this part of Jersey to lower Manhattan (the statue being approx. in the middle). I guestimate I'd need at least a 200 or 300mm on a canon crop body to get a decent framing of the scene. Am I completely wrong ?

Thanks for any information.
Erick


106
Computer Hardware / Re: Confused about graphic cards
« on: May 16, 2008, 07:41 »
Tom's hardware website has a lot of information and reviews about computer hardware, including graphic cards. I'm used to read the french version (www.tomshardware.fr) but other languages are available on www.tomshardware.com.

107
Cameras / Lenses / Re: Pinhole photography
« on: April 29, 2008, 07:47 »
I don't have any picture to share, but a fun link related to pinhole photography :

Download, print and build your own pinhole camera (by Corbis) :
http://www.corbis.readymech.com/en

108
Software - General / Re: Digital Image Mover (DIM)
« on: April 29, 2008, 06:52 »
On a related note, a warning for Lightroom users. When I came back from my trip in India, I tried to rename my images (shot with 2 bodies) within Lightroom following the same date/time scheme, and some photos were not sorted in the correct order. I discovered that those photos had been renamed after a date/time slightly different from the correct EXIF date/time. It seems Lightroom has a bug in the interpretation of the EXIF timestamp.

This bug seems to be well known.

That's why I used Bridge instead (before discovering DIM recently).

109
Software - General / Re: Digital Image Mover (DIM)
« on: April 29, 2008, 05:45 »
I second that. DIM is what I use also, and it's a very neat little software. I began renaming my files in a similar format (20080429_122705.jpg) last year when I got myself a 40D and kept my 350D as a second body. That way, no risk of conflicting filenames when shooting with both bodies. I just have to keep the date/time synchronized on both bodies.

And another neat feature of DIM is that it can automatically create subfolders named after the year, month, day, or whatever format string you want. You can include a "job name" (%J) or a "client name" (%L) that you define each time you start a new transfer. Click on the help button in the settings dialog to see a list of placeholders.

I also renamed my files within Bridge before, but now DIM is my default image manager.

110
123RF / Re: Iris
« on: April 25, 2008, 09:05 »
Looks interesting indeed, and NO categories needed 8)

But I tried to register with my usual username (ErickN) and it's already unavailable.  I tried with other usernames I sometimes use, they're also unavailable. Did anyone manage to register yet ?

I've read the contributor agreement, and was wondering about :

"3.11. Contributor agrees not to sell Submitted Images elsewhere at a price lower than the price package explicitly chosen for each individual Submitted image."

If I want to submit some of my Alamy images, they (Alamy) sometimes sell images for less than the calculated price. So how can I set a price at IRIS and be sure my images won't sell elsewhere for a lower price ?

Also in 10.1, they talk about "[...] finance charges incurred during money transfer." though in the flash presentation, they say "no hidden charges, no admin. fees, no credit card charges, no storage fees". Did I miss something ?

I was also wondering about editorial images, but I found the answer in the FAQ :

"5. Are editorial images accepted?
No, at the current moment we do not accept editorial images (without release). However, there are plans to accept Editorial Images in mid May 2008. Please look out for our IRIS Contributor Newsletter for the announcement."


In case you missed it, there is a pdf about their submission guidelines. They seem to be seeking mostly released lifestyle photography.

111
iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock to start Subscription packages.
« on: April 21, 2008, 21:01 »
Just playing with the calculator :

scenario 1 : buyer buys an XL
- non exclusive
- 60 credits/day - 1 user - 3 months
- credits used by buyer : 15
- credits used on your files : 15
==> total royalty : $3.90

scenario 2 : buyer buys an XXL
- non exclusive
- 60 credits/day - 1 user - 3 months
- credits used by buyer : 20
- credits used on your files : 20
==> total royalty : $3.80

Conclusion : in this particular case, you earn less for an XXL than an XL >:(

After trying several scenarios, the "minimum royalty per credit" case seems to be the most common unfortunately, which would lead to a decrease in $/credit and $/download averages.

To get more than the minimum royalty per credit, you have to hope that a buyer will spend only a small part of his daily quota, and only on some of your images.

112
iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock to start Subscription packages.
« on: April 21, 2008, 11:20 »
I have not found the minimum guarantee per credit language (please correct me if I am wrong).  It seems moreso that they guarantee a bare minimum, that no file can be sold that will net a royalty of less than .19, but that only relates to the smallest files.  From what I have seen it is entirely possible that for larger files that # can in fact dip below .19 per credit, they just guarantee that you will get at least .19 for the download.


In the FAQ page, they talk about a "minimum payout per credit", not per download : http://www.istockphoto.com/opt-out-info.php

Though, they insist on saying : "You will never earn less per credit than you do now", which (as I said in my previous post) is at least misleading (you can earn less per credit than you do now, if you currently earn more on average than the minimum).

  However I do think that the two extreme cases, where the customer downloads the quota completely triggering the .19 floor, or vice versa where you get an only sale lottery ticket, will be rare cases.  The full quotas will show up at first, but over time as the novelty wears off we'll see on average that just about every sub sale is from a customer partially using their quota. 


I hope you're right about the future partial use of the quotas. But I don't think that the triggering of the minimum payout ($0.19) will be such a rare case. Sub buyers don't need to use their full quotas to make it happen :

- In the FAQ first example, a buyer with 30 credits/day uses 10 credits including 5 on one of your images, you earn $1 ($0.2 per credit, we're already almost at the minimum)

- If the same buyer uses only 12 credits, including 5 on one of your images, your earning ends at a calculated $0.83 ($0.17 per credit), so it will be increased to $0.95 (the minimum $0.19 per credit). That's for a buyer using only 40% of his/her daily quota.

(examples are based on non-exclusive minimum $0.19/credit, but they remain valid for exclusives too).

113
LuckyOliver.com / Re: Fill LO Piggy Banks
« on: April 21, 2008, 10:32 »
Doesn't load for me either today (from France). Even a "ping" command doesn't return any answer from the server.

114
iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock to start Subscription packages.
« on: April 21, 2008, 06:55 »
I think the "you're guaranteed to earn at least as much as now for each downloaded image" mantra is a little bit misleading. If I understand it correctly, it's more like : "you're guaranteed to earn at least as much as the current minimum $/credit" (that is $0.19/credit for non-exclusives).

But a quick and dirty analysis of my recent (ppd) sales shows an average royalty of around $0.24/credit (26% more than the minimum $0.19).

If most subscription buyers are smart consumers, they will spend enough of their daily credits to make it a good deal. Which would make $0.19/credit royalties more common and may result in a decrease of our average $/credit (and therefore, lower earnings).

But on a positive note, we have to take into account the random sub buyer who spends only a few of his/her daily credits on one of our images (which would increase the average $/credit), and the fact that buyers may be tempted to buy more images than they need, or to buy bigger sizes than they need (which would increase the volume of purchased credits).

I guess time will tell if it's a good move for us, contributors.

Erick

115
123RF / 123RF new prices and licenses
« on: March 04, 2008, 08:33 »
123 RF announces new credit packages, new extended licenses and new download sizes :

http://www.123rf.com/blog/blog.php?idblog=b1000041

Erick

116
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7925

117
Site Related / Re: What happened?
« on: February 06, 2008, 16:11 »
Leaf,

Already joined you by PM, but once again, thanks for keeping such a nice and informative forum alive.

I'm in for a donation if ever needed.

Erick

118
New Sites - General / Re: Has anyone tried Photoshelter
« on: February 01, 2008, 19:31 »
Hi all,

Did anyone already go through the hassle of Photoshelter's tax form submission ?
It seems that even non-US-residents have to request a US Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) in order to claim a reduced rate of withholding under a tax treaty. Otherwise, PS will withhold 30% from all payments.

Does it really have to be that complicated ?

See : http://psc.photoshelter.com/mem/learn/payment/tax
(you may have to be logged-in to access this link)
 

119
iStockPhoto.com / Re: Microstockgroup Challenge - Eggs (september)
« on: September 04, 2007, 18:14 »
So Leaf, I guess it's you who bought my egg on black picture today at LO  ;) Thanks very much !

The challenge is a nice idea. I will try to participate.

Erick

120
Featurepics.com / Re: FeaturePics search
« on: September 02, 2007, 06:05 »
Still no answer to my mail from FP, but it seems they have fixed their search engine now.

Quick and efficient !

121
Featurepics.com / FeaturePics search
« on: August 31, 2007, 04:57 »
I just tried a search on FP, and found a strange behavior.

From the home page search box :
I typed "dollar" : only irrelevant results
I typed "red car" : the same irrelevant results

From the "advanced search" page :
I typed "dollar" : only the first page with relevant results. Next pages are all irrelevant images. Same behavior for other searches.

I don't know since when it's been like that, but I didn't have a single sale in the last month.

I contacted FP about it. Waiting for an answer.

122
I'm also looking for a good 24" LCD, so I can't answer your questions yet.

Though, you may be interested in the following article, which is a shootout of eight 24" LCD screens (including the Dell 2407WFP). The review is in french, but all the results are numbers/charts, so you should be able to get some useful information :

http://www.hardware.fr/articles/680-1/lcd-24-iiyama-b2403ws-samsung-245t.html

The Iiyama B2403WS seems to be a good deal overall and is way cheaper than the Dell (at least in France, where the Dell costs twice as much as in the US !).

Hope it helps !

123
Mostphotos.com / Re: Most photos - new "midstock" site!
« on: August 29, 2007, 04:55 »
How about watermarking ALL the images ?
When you browse through the collection, some of them are watermarked, but many aren't.
Even easier than with FT's watermark, and in 640x480 size !

124
iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock referred members
« on: August 28, 2007, 17:41 »

But then, how could that be in iStock's interest to give me $10 just because a new buyer has clicked on my profile ?

...

signed up and bought something  ;)

Yes I understand this  ;)

I meant that if the buyer came to my profile through a referral link that I had put somewhere on the web, I understand that iStock would like to reward me with $10 (as an incentive for me to promote the site). But if the buyer simply cliked on a google search result, iStock has no interest in giving me $10 (after all, it's their web programming that made my profile appear in web searches).

Humm... I guess I should stop wondering about it before someone at iStock reads this and decides to change their referral program !

125
iStockPhoto.com / Re: iStock referred members
« on: August 28, 2007, 12:13 »
Yes Stephen, this vox blog thing could be a possible source of referrals. I had forgotten about this partnership.

Lee, I didn't know that a mere link to a member's profile had the same effect as a referral link. Search engines may then be the source of my referrals, since my profile page appears in them (as any of yours too, I guess).

But then, how could that be in iStock's interest to give me $10 just because a new buyer has clicked on my profile ?

Anyway, thanks for your insights 'til now.

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