Wednesday, December 31, 2008

December Earning Breakdown

Almost the same result as in November but different agencies contributed to overall result:

Dec Dec/Nov
SS 58.37% 105.23%
123RF 20.96% 248.47% BME
DT 5.51% 62.40%
FT 5.26% 615.09% BME
SXP 3.87% 37.50%
SV 1.94% 200.00%
IS 1.94% 73.67%
YM 1.34%
CS 0.54% 80.00%
BS 0.27% 50.00%
100.00% 104.35%


StockXpert died in the middle of the month while Fotolia got surprisingly good result in comparison to previous months. Most low earners keep it low and IStockPhoto joined them this month.

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

Got tired asking for simple things on microstock websites!

I guess they only fix things that are annoying for buyers and ignore what contributors says. Fortunatelly many simple things can be fixed with bookmarklet or browser plugin.

1. No "Check All Checkboxes" on StockXpert
Solution. Check All bookmarklet or CheckBoxMate plug-in for Firefox

2. No multiple image delete on Dreamstime.
Solution. My own bookmarklet which simply deletes all 20 images on current page.

[ad#adsense-1]

Sunday, November 30, 2008

My first half of the year in microstock

It seems like ShutterStock is way ahead of all others. Next 3 are StockXpert, 123RF and Dreamstime which can achieve 10% of the leader sales.

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My November results show that 123RF is slowing down while Dreamstime is growing.

SS 58.06%
SXP 10.98%
DT 9.39% (BME)
123RF 7.99%
MSP 7.15% (BME)
IS 2.80%
SV 1.03%
FT 0.91%
CS 0.72%
BS 0.57%
FP 0.40%

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Google Flu Trends

Google Flu Trends showing the prevalence of flu outbreaks across America. it uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity in your state up to two weeks faster than traditional systems.Flu-related search terms are tracked to estimate when and where the flu happens, with data going back to 2003.

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They have found a close relationship between how many people search for flu-related topics and how many people actually have flu symptoms. Of course, not every person who searches for "flu" is actually sick, but a pattern emerges when all the flu-related search queries from each state and region are added together. They compared query counts with data from a surveillance system managed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and discovered that some search queries tend to be popular exactly when flu season is happening. By counting how often we see these search queries, we can estimate how much flu is circulating in various regions of the United States.

The data is tracked by state, so you can check and prepare when the flu starts to pick up in your area.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

PhotoFunia

If you have yet to master the skills in Photoshop to be able to make convincing fake photos. PhotoFunia gives you the opportunity to make some pretty cool stuff today in just a few simple clicks. If you have a good head shot of anyone, you can make convincing photos.

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photofunia_74c.jpg

photofunia_b911.jpg

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Friday, October 17, 2008

Which HDR software?

Taking the multiple shots may be easy, because most modern cameras have a "bracketing mode" that will allow you to automatically take a picture repeatedly at different exposures. HDR photography works by combining several photos of the same scene, taken at different exposure settings, into one photo. There are several HDR software packages, and I've had the opportunity to review some of them.

1. Photomatix Pro is a photography software developed by HDRsoft for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, primarily designed to make the process of creating high dynamic range photos easier and more streamlined. By automatically blending multiple exposures of photos, it has the ability to create fully 32-bit images as well as tone mapped images.

photomatix.jpg

2. Qtpfsgui - open source QT based GUI for pfstools, now including an automatic image alignment.

qtpfsgui.jpg

3. FDRTools Basic - FDRTools has bridged the gap between merging and tonemapping; the user has the ability to look at the tone mapped image then in real time edit the merging of source images.

fdrtools.jpg

4. Essential HDR Community Edition is a free HDR software that blows the others out of the water when it comes to tone mapping. Their goal is to better Photomatix, which has made itself the bench mark of HDR software. It has an easy interface that allows you to manipulate the image by tone mapping, histogram and color balance.

essentialhdr.jpg

5. EasyHDR - EasyHDR is an image processing program that produces High Dynamic Range images from normal, 24-bit, true color photos taken with a typical digital camera.

easyhdrpro.jpg

6. Artizen HDR - Artizen's feature list seems to grow by the day, not only is it a HDR editing package but it also offers a wide range of basic image editing functions, including painting tools, an image browser, raw converter and more.

artizen.jpg

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

September Earnings Breakdown

SS    61.49%
123RF    13.67%     (BME)
SXP    10.48%
DT    8.51%    (BME)
IS    2.51%    (BME)
BS    1.89%
FT    1.44%
SV    0.57%

Overall 18% less than in August due to poor SS performance. Finally reached payout at SXP and 123RF. 123RF and DT performed quite well in comparison to previous months so maybe it would start a trend.

monthly_microstock.png

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator

What would your name be if Sarah Palin was your mother? Well now you can find out! I would be named:
Beans Harpoon Palin


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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Canon EOS 5D Mark II has arrived

Specifications:

  • New 21.1 Megapixel CMOS sensor with improved EOS Integrated Cleaning System (E.I.C.S.)

  • New Full HD 1080 resolution movie recording

  • 3.9 frames per second continuous shooting

  • High performance DIGIC 4 providing superb image quality

  • Maximum 310 large JPEG images in a single burst with a UDMA card

  • 3.0” VGA (920k dots) Clear View LCD

  • ISO 100-6400 (expansion from 50 up to 25,600)

  • 9 AF points + 6 Assist AF points



Canon EOS 5D Mark II

Monday, September 15, 2008

Carl Zeiss SLR Lenses Now Also Canon EF mount

Carl Zeiss is expanding its successful line of SLR lenses: ZE lenses with EF bayonet for all analog and digital EOS camera models. As with all EF lenses, the new ZE lenses from Carl Zeiss transfer all information exclusively via electronic contacts. This means that all exposure modes such as programmed auto exposure, shutter priority, aperture priority and manual setting are supported. The camera’s automatic focus confirmation also remains available to an unlimited extent with these manual focus lenses. With digital SLRs, the lens data and all exposure data can also be accessed via the camera’s EXIF file. Even E-TTL flash metering is supported. The first lenses to be available will be the Planar T* 1,4/50 ZE and the Planar T* 1,4/85 ZE in the last quarter of this year. Further focal lengths will be added to the line within the next few months.

PlanarT1.4-50mm
Planar T* 1,4/50 ZE 579 euros (incl. 19% German VAT)

PlanarT1.4-85mm
Planar T* 1,4/85 ZE 999 euros (incl. 19% German VAT)

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Search for a Surname to view its Map and Statistics

Find out what countries your family name is most common in with Public Profiler's World Names search and map.

worldnames.PNG

Back Up Your Files to Google Docs Automatically

Webmonkey details how to automatically back up your files to Google Docs using a Python script.

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Photoshelter Collection closing

I got thismessage today:
"Today, we regret to announce our plans to close The PhotoShelter Collection, our stock photography marketplace, effective October 10, 2008.

Going forward, PhotoShelter will focus our energy and resources on enhancing the PhotoShelter Personal Archive our original product that today provides thousands of photographers worldwide with bulletproof backup storage and robust ecommerce capabilities for managing image sales online. We will continue our commitment to developing new ways to use technology to advance the art and business of photography."

I got only 19 pictures there.

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No sales so far:
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Cutcaster

I am trying new microstock site: Cutcaster. I uploaded couple hundred of pictures. Upload process is quite easy. This is one of the new wave of site which start with pretty usable UI. Aa interesting feature of Cutcaster is dynamic pricing algorithm which can vary the prices of your images or video to increase sales. Price is set by the photographer, then all calculations are based on this default pricing. This site uses up to five categories per photo but it's not mandatory to set them which is great plus cause I hate site required categories. Another feature, that I cannot really verify cause I do not have any sales, is that buyers can also bid on your work, and you can choose to reject, accept or respond with a counter bid to their price offers. I do not know I would have time for haggling, especially that I expect bids would ask for lower price :-)

cutcaster.PNG

No complains on workflow but site is still in beta so from time to time your submissions may fail. Usually it would show some message:

cutcaster_error.PNG

The Beta site, by definition is work in progress, so I guess most of the problems will go away with official release.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Flickr embeddable slideshow widget

Flickr added the ability to share a slideshow with other users. Just click the Share link when viewing any slideshow on Flickr. You get two options: a URL that links to the slideshow you're viewing or HTML code that will let you embed a smaller version on your web page.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Anti-Malware Toolkit

It is really just a downloader which fetches the current versions of programs like Super Antispyware, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, HijackThis, Spybot, Autoruns, CCleaner, and LSP Fix. It also grabs programs that you'll want to install to prevent further issues: Avast, Firefox, Comodo Firewall.

AMT

Virtual Volumes View

Free indexing app Virtual Volumes View (VVV) helps you keep track of exactly which file is located on which of those numbered DVDs. Once you've let VVV take a look at each of your discs, it can show you them in a physical view (each disc and its contents), a virtual view (one giant file system), or let you simply search through files

vvvv-win

vvv-lin

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

MostPhotos

Just started uploading to new microstock website. The Swedish based picture agency Mostphotos is different than other agencies. There’s no image review process, photos are rated by other contributors. The agency’s website offers free membership and is run and administered by the photographers themselves.  Also interesting new concept is introduced - New Exclusivity - you have the option to sell photos with an exclusive buyout license at a price of your choice.  The buyer isn’t buying the copyright, but contributors are agreeing that there are no other license holders for the photo and that it will not be sold again.

msp.PNG

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Ant Movie Catalog

Ant Movie Catalog is a free (really free, i.e. the source code is available) program made to manage your collection of movies on DVD, CD (VideoCD, DivX, ...) and tapes.

AMC

If you use GNU/Linux rather than Windows, you can try to use WinE to get this program running; some people notified me that this was working. You can also check Moviefly, which is a complete rewrite of Ant Movie Catalog made with Python.

Moviefly stores information on video media files, including title, actors, genre, descriptions, comments, rating, director, producer, picture, languages, subtitles, video- and audio format, video- and audio bitrates, resolution, framerate, file size and media type. Technical information can be automatically extracted, descriptive information on a title may be downloaded from the internet.

Moviefly

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Maya

Mariusz and Natasza are pleased to announce the arrival of Maya Hanna.

Born on July 16th, 2008 at 3:30pm
Weighting 7.3 pounds and measuring 22 inches


View Album

Get your own

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

100 push-ups

The push-up is the ultimate barometer of fitness. It tests the whole body, engaging muscle groups in the arms, chest, abdomen, hips, and legs. Web site One Hundred Push Ups details a training plan for going from 0 to 100 push-ups in a matter of six weeks.

100 push-ups

Wireless USB

Designer Windell Oskay has teamed up with Fred to produce "Hacked!" a 2GB production version of the flash drive.

Hacked!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

DriverMax

DriverMax is a new tool that allows you to download the latest driver updates for your computer. No more searching for rare drivers on discs or on the web or inserting one installation CD after the other. Just create a free account, log in, and start downloading the updates that you need.

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