Fun with Dry Ice

Originally uploaded by inlina

Here is a little sample of some fun with dry ice in colored water I was working with on the weekend. I have a few variations on the theme and A LOT of shots with all manner of lighting and backdrops.

I will be submitting a number of them for microstock. Hopefully it will get me over the line with ShutterStock.

This shoot has given me a lot of ideas for more stock and the confidence to do more product photography. Some more lighting would help though (Ranger Quadra…wink, wink).

ANZ Centre and Melbourne by night from Docklands

Originally uploaded by inlina

Via Flickr:
A view over the marina at the end of Lorimer St on the Yarra River looking at the new ANZ Centre (ANZ Head Office) and the sity skyline.

I shot some of the racing at the Victorian School Cycling Cup Mountain Bike Metro Final a few weeks ago for fun. Check out the pics on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
2011 Victorian School Cycling Cup Metro Zone Mountain Bike

About a month ago I submitted a range of 10 images of a variety of subjects to what seems to be considered the “Big 4″ of Microstock agencies. It was interesting to see what was accepted or rejected by each agency, and what the reasons for the rejections were. I also figured it was worth publishing the acceptance results of my submitted photos and some comments about the process so other prospective Microstock contributors can understand what you go through when you set off into the world of Microstock photography.

The Microstock Photography Agencies

Shutterstock

Acceptance rate of 1st 10 images: 1/10 (may have even been 0/10!)

Wow, they didn’t like a single thing I submitted apparently, and since you need to hit an acceptance of 7 of 10 of your first submission I am not yet a contributor at Shutterstock. Since Shutterstock were the first Microstock agency to reject my photos, I was a bit depressed on my first foray into Microstock. However, I have read that even regular contributors have found their acceptance rates droping in the last 6 to 8 months. I am not going to speculate why that is, but clearly Shutterstock is the most difficult Microstock Agency to get your photographs accepted to.

Their back-end and submission system is reasonable, but I wouldn’t say it was the best. You can submit via FTP which is a plus, but the system to add descriptions and key wording was a little clumsy. I cannot comment on the management side of their back end given I am not acepted to the agency yet.

Dreamstime

Acceptance rate of 1st 10 images: 9/10

Dreamstime only rejected the image I felt was most likely to be rejected (more on the images later). I was pretty happy with Dremstime in general, especially since they are the only one of the Microstock agencies I have made any sales through so far (2 sales in the first week…YAY! But none since then).

The backend is reasonably good with a Java based batch uploader you use from the web browser. There is no FTP upload option though. The system for adding key wording, categories and descriptions is also good, but the best part of Dreamstime’s back end is the account management system. It is almost everything you could ask for in a back end, including good (but not awesome) account statistics.

Fotolia

Acceptance rate of 1st 10 images: 7/10

The three image rejected by Fotolia were generally accepted by one or more of the other agencies, and I found the rejections a little odd on two of the images given Dreamstime and iStockphoto both accepted them. Fotolia also accepted the one photo that all other agencies rejected, being the image I most expected to be rejected.

There are multiple upload options, and I chose FTP as I would recommend everyone should. Adding keywords and descriptions is good although their category options are a bit lacking (but not as much as iStockphoto). There are some statistical options once you have accepted images, but they are a bit lacklustre.

iStockphoto

Acceptance rate of 1st 10 images: 6/10

I was expecting iStockphoto to be the most difficult to gain entry to, but after they accepted my first three samples I was hopeful. In the end I was reasonably happy with getting 6 from 10 of my photos accepted.

The disappointing part of iStockphoto is the back-end systems. There is no FTP or HTTP batch upload option and the category selection is confusing. I am not sure if my photos have hit the right categories and their categories are not particularly logical. Disambiguation of key wording with each upload is both good and bad. It is good to be able to define the meaning of your keyword more specifically and add new ones, but the process is quite painstaking.

The Images and Rejections

The images I submitted to all 4 agencies are below, along with the status of those images at each agency and my own comments. Feel free to provide comments or feedback through the comments form at the bottom of the page.

ShutterStock: Rejected – Reason/s: Poor Lighting, Focus
iStockphoto: Accepted
Dreamstime: Accepted
Fotolia: Rejected – Reason/s: Type of photograph – No commercial value for stock

My Comments: Accepted at 2 of the 4 agencies, so something must be OK, but I can understand why ShutterStock might have concerns with the focus.

ShutterStock: Rejected – Reason/s: Focus
iStockphoto: Accepted
Dreamstime: Accepted
Fotolia: Accepted

My Comments: (Note – image above is not the full crop) Even better, 3 of the 4 agencies accepted it. The shallow depth of field was intentional and it was in the description for the file, so I think this one is just ShutterStock being picky.

ShutterStock: Rejected – Reason/s: Lighting Problems
iStockphoto: Rejected – Reason/s: Keywords, file may include content subject to copyright, requires model release, unsatisfactory motion blur
Dreamstime: Accepted
Fotolia: Accepted

My Comments: I was suprised that iStockphoto was concerned with with need a model release. There are a couple of ride attendants visible at 100%, but they are very blurry. I guess ShutterStocks ‘Lighting Problems’ means they don’t like the motion blur.

ShutterStock: Rejected – Reason/s: Focus, Poor Lighting, Composition
iStockphoto: Rejected – Reason/s: Composition of lighting
Dreamstime: Rejected – Reason/s: Focus – depth of field too shallow
Fotolia: Accepted

My Comments: Yep, I agree the depth of field was too shallow and I should have rejected this from my own list. Other than that, iStockphoto appears to be happy with the focus, but they agree with Shutterstock on the lighting quality.

ShutterStock: Accepted/Rejected?? – Reason/s: I am not actually sure if this file was accepted or rejected as no comments were provided by Shutterstock other than my first 9 images had been rejected, so I gather they didn’t even bother looking at this one.
iStockphoto: Rejected – Reason/s: File contains artifacting, image is slightly underexposed
Dreamstime: Accepted
Fotolia: Rejected – Reason/s: Quality of the photograph

My Comments: I think this is the last image ShutterStock reviewed, so when they decided I was denied on this submission that there was no point looking at this one.

ShutterStock: Rejected – Reason/s: Poor lighting
iStockphoto: Accepted
Dreamstime: Accepted
Fotolia: Accepted

My Comments: Hmmm, Shutterstock seems to be clutching at straws on this one. If the other 3 agencies were happy with it, I don’t really understand ShutterStock’s issue with it.  The lighting composition is different, perhaps creative, given that the flash was off camera and from the bottom, but I guess I needed to light it front on and lose the contrast.

ShutterStock: Rejected – Reason/s: Focus, Poor lighting, Noise, Composition
iStockphoto: Rejected – Reason/s: File contains artifacting, poor composition of lighting
Dreamstime: Accepted
Fotolia: Accepted

My Comments: I was worroed about the noise in this one, and I can understand that maybe the lighting was not the best.

ShutterStock: Rejected – Reason/s: Poor lighting
iStockphoto: Accepted
Dreamstime: Accepted
Fotolia: Accepted

My Comments: Again 3 of the agencies accepted this, so I am not sure what Shutterstock’s problem is with this image. In fact this is the only image with sales to date, and 2 sales at that.

ShutterStock: Rejected – Reason/s: Focus, poor composition
iStockphoto: Accepted
Dreamstime: Accepted
Fotolia: Rejected – Reason/s: Quality of the photograph

My Comments: Actually, I totally agree with the focus not being ideal, but to suggest that the composition has no commercial value intrigues me, especially given there are similar images making sales.

ShutterStock: Rejected – Reason/s: Poor lighting
iStockphoto: Accepted
Dreamstime: Accepted
Fotolia: Accepted

My Comments: And 3 of the agencies accept, yet ShutterStock rejects. I really don’t understand what is wrong with the lighting…composition maybe, but lighting??!!

Conclusion

Let’s just start by saying ShutterStock is very picky, and perhaps they can afford to be. But given that there were 4 images that were accepted by the other 3 agencies, I really don’t understand what they want. I will not be disheartened though and I will try again with Shutterstock once I am allowed to try again (you have to wait about 30 days before you can try again with ShutterStock).

As for the rest, I can somewhat understand their rejections. The problem I have overall is the Microstock agencies don’t all agree what is a suitable Microstock image or what the specific problemwith a given image may be.

All in all it was an interesting first time out. I will be submitting another batch of photos to all 4 agencies this week. I have given myself a target of submitting 20 images a month for at least the next few months and then hopefully I can ramp up once things quieten down at my day job. I may also dabble in a bit of HDSLR stock video once I build my new, fast workstation in a few months.

I have been left at home alone for the week to fend for myself whilst the chef/housekeeper/dog walker/drink wench/entertainment has taken the child to Cairns for BMX nationals. Now this has left me with a dilemma when I looked in my underwear drawer this morning. I currently appear to have 5 days worth of underwear to last 9 days.

So I brainstormed up a few potential solutions and threw together an options matrix (sorry, no 5-phase on this one ).If you are having trouble reading the options matrix, click here to see a larger version. My ‘Big-3′ metrics on this issue are;

• Cost – what will the impact be to my bank account considering the potential nett upside/downside
• Time – how much time could be lost or saved
• Quality – will the result have a potential positive or negative outcome

My assessment is based on a basic red/yellow/green status being applied to the options based on my own judgement. For those that don’t grasp the R/Y/G status, red means I judge the option as being poor for achieving the metric, green is good and yellow is in the middle somewhere.  If you don’t agree with the R/Y/G status applied or the comments I have made for the option vs. the metric, feel free to make a comment on this post below.

I now ask you, the public, to assist in determining the best course of action going forward. Please review the options matrix below and select the best option in the poll. And do it quickly or you may encounter me later in the week having chosen a weak option of my own volition.

It’s been a while since I last posted here. I thought life would slow down after BMX nationals in May, but life just seemed to get busier. Well I have a little bit of time this weekend…no BMX, no major plans and a day off on Monday. So here I am, blogging from my new Samsung Galaxy S.

This is the phone I really needed a couple of years ago when I got my Blackberry. After a week with it, I highly recommend it to anyone looking at a new smartphone.

The phone runs on the Android platform which has been developed by Google. With the app store for it (Android Market) catching up with the Apple App store for content, this phone is a real contender when you put it up against the iPhone4.

One of the things I love about the phone is the Swype method of text input. When some people, often iPhone fanboys, see me using Swype they ask me what I am doing. I show them and they just have to have a go. They love it. In fact, this whole article has been written using Swype.

So there you go. Blogging from my Samsung Galaxy S. Great phone, great platform. Expect more blog posts from me on the go now!

The first time out on the rink was ‘Tight A$$ Tuesday’ which is half price entry (but not half price skate hire). I hired ‘premium’ hockey skates and hit the ice with a Canadian (ice in the blood?!) and another work friend who used to play ice and inline hockey. Just a note on the Tuesday night session…it is BUSY. I asked on my return visit on Sunday how many they put through the doors Tuesday night and they said 700 skaters…HUGE. Previous weeks had been between 250 to 400 skaters.

I haven’t ice skated for about 10 plus years and last time I did I was terrible at it, so I had low expectations when I got out there this time. I did however have a lot more inline experience under my belt including playing some high level inline hockey.

I got out on the ice which I am told was reasonably hard and good quality (better than the last times I skated at Ringwood or Oakleigh…from memory). At first I was a little shaky when I got on the ice, but I felt at home after a while.

After about a half an hour or so, I decided it was time to figure out the difference between ice and inline hockey stops. I knew the way it needed to be done was essentially the opposite to inline, and there were some other old friends at the rink I knew from my inline hockey days that gave me some tips on the differences. I started to get it working to the left, but the break through didn’t come until I was reminded to bend my knees more. By the time I had it sussed, it was time to go home.

I headed back the the Icehouse on Sunday with my family after my brother invited me. My daughter has spent minimal time on inlines lately (too much BMX) and my ‘wife’ (no we are not married, but partner doesn’t sound right) also skated and played inline hockey. So they picked it up OK. My brother even got out and did some spins on the hire hockey skates to upset the figure skating dude that was there.

The covers were also down on the main Henke rink (aka rink 1) where I assume a lot of hockey and figure skating will take place. They were still working on the ice there, as apparently roof leaked in the crazy weather we had on the weekend and set them back. There are only stands on one side of that rink which I find odd, but I guess they may have been space and budget constrained.

On the whole the facility is good. The cafe prices are OK and not as high as I expected. The DJ had no real idea how to run a session so I guess he may be an outsider, but ice rinks also don’t seem to run their sessions quite like roller rinks. There was a comment from another experienced skater that the management has no idea how to run an ice skating facility, and I would agree at this point in time. They seem adamant to get as many people through the doors in as many sessions as possible while the buzz is there. But the way they are operating is making it very easy for patrons to just sit around between sessions and skate the whole day after their first admission (trust me, I saw it happen first hand). We will see what happens in time.

Given that there is a fair bit of government support behind this facility it should last, especially since it is home to the Winter Australian Institute of Sport. But if Australia doesn’t start getting hockey teams, figure skaters and curling teams into medal contention at future Winter Olympics, will it be fully privatised?

Here is a little video with some of the Tuesday night session and my attempts at hockey stopping for the first time, and some pictures of the rinks.

http://www.icehouse.com.au/

Video

Pictures

]]> http://blog.inlina.com/2010/03/08/icehouse-ice-skating-in-melbournes-docklands/feed/ 0 http://blog.inlina.com/2010/02/05/dps-life-competition-week-2/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dps-life-competition-week-2 http://blog.inlina.com/2010/02/05/dps-life-competition-week-2/#comments Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:55:12 +0000 Corey http://blog.inlina.com/?p=4513 Doh, I missed week one. So here is my entry for week two…

Steven Gedye at Park Orchards Track Attack 2010 (Round 5) - Used with permission of Xenon Photography

]]> http://blog.inlina.com/2010/01/31/track-attack-bmx-2010-photos/feed/ 0 http://blog.inlina.com/2010/01/12/digital-photography-school-assignment-show-us-your-camera/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=digital-photography-school-assignment-show-us-your-camera http://blog.inlina.com/2010/01/12/digital-photography-school-assignment-show-us-your-camera/#comments Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:04:27 +0000 Corey http://blog.inlina.com/?p=4506 Here it is then. Tried to get a star bokeh hood to work but it didn’t quite do what I wanted.

Camera: Canon 450D
Lens: EF50 f1.4
Shutter: 1/200
Aperture: f1.8
Sensitivity: ISO100
Program: Manual
Flash: Yes, off camera