Friday, December 17, 2010

Sold HD Video on CanStockPhoto

Can Stock Photo rarely sells anything for me so it was big surprise to see that they sold my footage. Hopefully it will start a trend. Check out my portfolio there.



Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California


Can Stock Photo is one of the world's largest microstock photography agencies, home to thousands of photographers, and tens of thousands of active members from around the world. Representing some of the most talented photographers online, and service clients from small businesses to major television networks.

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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Extended license sold on Shutterstock

First time I sold extended license of marine life sold. I am happy cause it was shot hand held in dark room of the public aquarium.


[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Chrysaora fuscescens"]Chrysaora fuscescens[/caption]

Chrysaora fuscescens is a common free-floating scyphozoa that lives in the Pacific Ocean, and is commonly known as the Pacific Sea Nettle or West Coast Sea Nettle.

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Thursday, December 2, 2010

November 2010 earnings breakdown

After records in October I was expecting worse result next month. It was not that bad overall. Actually it was 6th best month this year and second in this half of the year. Previous month was very bad for FT and it looks like they recovered in November. Everybody in top 5 made around their average so SS have only 56% of total earning. SXP keeps getting less than it was before but Veer returns are now almost at the same level so I hope it will replace it in future.
[caption id="attachment_781" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Microstock November 2010"]Microstock November 2010[/caption]
Portfolio size increased mostly on Veer, SS and FT. DT keeps rejecting most of my submitted images. RPD went down almost on every single site except IS but I have not got Thinkstock results yet. After adding plenty of subs from there IS RPD would drop dramatically. Also I have had a single extended license anywhere.
[caption id="attachment_782" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="2010 Microstock Trend"]2010 Microstock Trend[/caption]

Nov Nov/Oct RPD
SS 56.14% 56.31% 0.52
DT 9.68% 90.82% 0.74
123RF 9.07% 50.28% 0.48
IS 8.75% 105.40% 1.42
FT 7.37% 208.97% 0.58
SXP 3.91% 111.76% 0.25
Veer 3.31% 115.00% 2.01
BS 1.44% 140.00% 0.88
CS 0.21% 100.00% 0.25
CSP 0.12% 7.89% 0.30
Total 66.74%


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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Video sold on Shutterstock

This is actually first time I able to sell video clip on Shutterstock. I got only 36 movies there so I has never took off for me. Maybe it's a good sign. This time it is Pacific coast dusk at Pfeiffer Beach in Big Sur, California.

[caption id="attachment_778" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Pacific coast dusk at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California "]Pacific coast dusk at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California [/caption]

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Thursday, November 11, 2010

New contributor page on Shutterstock - Beta

This "closed beta" test of new landing page packed full of new statistics, a new header and footer and a messaging center. I have been invited to participate in this beta I feel great about this page and new improvements.

Lets take a a quick look at what new.

Pros:
1. Latest Downloads with geographic location of image buyers.
2. Earning statistics
3. Current earning and number of downloads on a top of the page
4. Expandable Message Center below page header


Cons:
1. Page does not fit one screen in resolution 1600x1200
2. According to feedback survey we can see Acceptance Rate, I do not see it.
3. Smallest period for stats is 3 months, I wish to see monthly stats.
4. I wish for more statistics like Return per Download.

[caption id="attachment_769" align="aligncenter" width="214" caption="New Shutterstock Contributor Page"][/caption]

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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Another Flickr image accepted by Getty Images

Couple days ago I got site mail on Flickr informing me that Getty Images picked one of my photos. It was a photo from our vacations in Poland. I guess I will have to keep posting and see what happens.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="507" caption="Mother and daughter walking with a stroller"]Mother and daughter walking with a stroller[/caption]

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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

October 2010 earnings breakdown

It was best month ever since I started my adventure with microstock 2.5 years ago. It was BME for SS and totally but mostly because my best earning agency scored 67% of royalties. I am also happy with results form 123RF and DT, both earning more than average. For others I do not have anything positive to report. FT clearly got worst results this year while SXP never recovered to previous levels after acquisition. Thanks to their poor performance they both were passed by IS.

Oct Oct/Sep RPD
SS 67.37% 206.15% 0.80
123RF 12.19% 203.86% 0.54
DT 7.20% 102.82% 0.81
IS 4.36% 86.77% 0.98
FT 2.38% 42.35% 0.61
SXP 2.36% 100.00% 0.25
Veer 1.94% 20.00% 3.50
CSP 1.06% 100.00% 1.27
BS 0.69% 166.67% 0.83
CUT 0.29% #DIV/0! 1.06
CS 0.14% 14.29% 0.25
Total 133.02%


Portfolio size increase is much slower now. Most of the sites reject much more images recently but still it is less than at the peak which was this summer. Surprisingly Veer accepted largest number of images this month so maybe I can see some sales there. At the moment I see most growth on 123RF and FT. Number of downloads has grown on many sites but still I got 5 times more from SS than any other site. I am also obesrving increase of numbers from SXP and IS but this means mostly 25 cents subs from ThinkStock. Return per Download (RPD) usually is better on the sites which are low earners for me. In other words I sell mostly subs. Extended licenses are extremely rare and so far I got them only on SS, CSP and 123RF.



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Friday, October 22, 2010

Nature photo extended license sold on Shutterstock

I went for a trek to Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska in 2006 then when I started doing stock in 2008 I uploaded these to most microstock sites I am working with. Nature shots are not huge sellers on commercial sites so I happy to see extended license sold.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Wrangell-St. Elias National Park"]Wrangell-St. Elias National Park[/caption]

Kennicott Glacier is a glacier in the U.S. state of Alaska. It trends southeast 43 km (27 mi) from Mount Blackburn to its terminus at the head of the Kennicott River in the Wrangell Mountains. It is located in the middle of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park near the small town of McCarthy, Alaska and the historic ghost town of Kennecott, Alaska.

It was named in 1899 by Rohn of the United States Geological Survey for Robert Kennicott, pioneer Alaska explorer and director of the scientific corps of the Western Union Telegraph Expedition in 1865.

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Third extended license this month sold on Shutterstock

Great month so far, hopefully it will be the best this year.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Modern apartment buildings on a sunny summer day "]Modern apartment buildings on a sunny summer day [/caption]


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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

5D Mark II Firmware 2.0.8 Available

This firmware update (Version 2.0.8) incorporates the following changes and fixes.

  • Fixes a phenomenon in which movies are not taken at the shooting mode registered in the user’s settings if a shooting mode Aperture priority (or Shutter priority) is registered in any of the camera’s user settings (C1, C2, C3) and the user attempts to shoot a movie.

  • Fixes a phenomenon in which the shutter will not release when pressing the shutter button when the auto power off function is set to “on”.

  • Fixes a phenomenon in which overexposure occurs when shooting a Live View shooting simulation with the ISO speed set to L.

  • Fixes a phenomenon in which the settings of the Speedlite transmitter ST-E2 revert to the default settings when both the camera and the ST-E2 are set to auto power off.

  • Fixes a phenomenon in which the Macro Ring Lite (MR-14EX, MT-24EX) and slave flash do not sync while shooting wirelessly.


[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="5Dmk2 firmware update"]5Dmk2 firmware update[/caption]

The Version 2.0.8 firmware being released this time is for cameras with firmware up to Version 2.0.7. If the camera's firmware is already Version 2.0.8, it is not necessary to update the firmware.[ad#adsense-1]

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Another extended license sold on Shutterstock

Week ago I sold extended license for the same photo, interesting. I wonder who is going to use it?

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Father having fun with his daughter on the beach"]Father having fun with his daughter on the beach[/caption]


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Thursday, October 7, 2010

Extended license sold on Shutterstock

It looks like I haven't had any extended licenses sold for 3 months. This time it is a photo of me and my daughter having fun on the beach.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Father having fun with his daughter on the beach"]Father having fun with his daughter on the beach[/caption]


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Thursday, September 30, 2010

September 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall it was third best month this year. I do not know if it is possible to beat results from the beginning of the year during last quarter. SS result are almost identical for last 3 months, far from April's best performance. 123RF revenue keeps declining for 4th month. DT has 2nd best result and 4th month of slow increase. FT was able to rebound strongly after August disaster. IS without ThinkStock results is on the same levels as before. SXP growing slowly for last 4 months since they started posting results again. Veer posted earnings from Dash For Cash program which were good enough to give them second place this month. YM posted some earning too, maybe they will do better during holiday season. All others are not worth mentioning.
[caption id="attachment_743" align="aligncenter" width="654" caption="SEP 2010 Microstock"]SEP 2010 Microstock[/caption]


Sep Sep/Aug
SS 44.41% 100.96%
Veer 13.22% 384.62%
DT 9.52% 119.75%
123RF 8.13% 78.52%
FT 7.65% 245.28%
YM 5.89% 1559.00%
IS 4.65% 55.15%
SXP 3.21% 113.33%
CSP 1.43% 253.33%
BS 0.57% 75.00%
CS 1.32% 1400.00%
121.52%


It looks like I hit a bottom in June. For last 3 months earnings has been growing slowly. Hopefully last quarter will be at least as good as first one.
[caption id="attachment_744" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="SEP 2010 Microstock Trend"]SEP 2010 Microstock Trend[/caption]

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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Reception problems with Verizon

Couple months ago I moved from Cupertino to Mountain View. In my new apartment I could not make a phone call so I decided to change cell carrier from AT&T to Verizon. It seems like instead of zero bars I got one. So making calls is not possible either. I am stuck with them for next two years so I had to by their Network Extender so we can use our phones at home. Just in case of emergency I also got us land line, you need internet and electricity to make calls so it would not not work if we got some disaster. Land line should have higher survival potential :-)

The second part of the story is my workplace reception. AT&T worked great there, while it is a dead zone for Verizon. I can barely send text message. I was wondering why all other carries could work in this area while "nation's most reliable" network is completely dead. It looks like Verizon got only 2 cell towers in whole South Bay. Wonderful, even T-Mobile got more :-(

[caption id="attachment_739" align="aligncenter" width="560" caption="Verizon Cell Towers in SF Bay Area"]Verizon Cell Towers in SF Bay Area[/caption]

You can visit CellReception site to check what are locations of cell towers in your area.

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Friday, September 17, 2010

Image spotting

It looks like one of my images from Fotolia was used on French job board ad for kindergarten teacher :-) That's what I can guess from Google Translation of this page.

[caption id="attachment_736" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Ouest France"]Ouest France[/caption]

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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

webOS 1.4.5 available for Verizon Pre Plus

As usually I have learned about update from third party site, Verizon does not have any updates notification in place. Searched their site, searched Palm's release notes page and nothing. I downloaded it this morning at home while I was still on my WI-FI and in network extender range. It took more than advertised 15 minutes but update was non-problematic so far.
[caption id="attachment_732" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="webOS 1.4.5 update"]webOS 1.4.5 update[/caption]

I do not know if GPS issues are resolved so I used GPS Fix before my morning bike commute and it seems like nothing is better than it was before.

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Monday, September 13, 2010

AlienBees Vagabond Mini Lithium

I have noticed that AlienBees announced next generation of portable power source. Vagabond Mini Lithium is small and lightweight. weighing just 3.5 pounds including quick-change high capacity lithium battery. The unit additionally includes a light stand mounting mechanism and a convenient carrying strap.The product utilizes the very latest LiCoxNiyMnzO2 lithium battery chemistry to provide extremely high power density and elimination of battery sulfating and poor efficacy that plagued previous battery-operated systems using heavy and inefficient sealed lead acid batteries.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="800" caption="Vagabond Mini Lithium"]Vagabond Mini Lithium[/caption]

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Thursday, September 2, 2010

August 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall slightly worse than previous month, maybe 5% less. Top 3 are staying on the same positions. SS is first, also slightly worse than in July. 123RF is below this year's average while DT keeps basically same level for last 3 months. IS after few month of growth starts sliding down. FT got worst month this year. SXP came back from dead, still weak but soon might be better than FT. So far ThinkStock experiment is not very optimistic. SXP produces 1/3 of what it used to do before Getty acquired them. Finally all others combined are less then SXP. On the side note, Veer results are shown but it is effect of using free credits given to me in promotion. I purchased my own photos :-)
[caption id="attachment_724" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="AUG 2010 Microstock"][/caption]

Aug Aug/Jul
SS 55.23% 97.24%
123RF 13.00% 73.32%
DT 9.98% 102.78%
IS 7.27% 83.10%
Veer 4.31%
FT 3.92% 56.54%
SXP 3.56% 157.89%
BS 0.95% 200.00%
CSP 0.71% 63.83%
FP 0.47%
YM 0.47%
CS 0.12% 20.00%
95.83%

[caption id="attachment_725" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="AUG 2010 Microstock Trend"]AUG 2010 Microstock Trend[/caption]

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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Palm has released the webOS 2.0 Beta SDK to developers

Palm introduced webOS 2.0, the next generation web-based operating system! We've got lots of new and updated
features to make your apps more powerful and flexible. New features include:

  • Stacks - grouping related cards in stacks, reducing clutter, and making it even easier to move quickly between task

  • Quick Actions - Start an email, create a message, update your status, search your favorite websites—all without having to launch an app

  • Apps can have custom Touchstone at-a-glance views with Exhibition

  • Synergy is opening up to developers

  • HTML5 and Javascript support is much improved

  • Hybrid PDK/SDK apps will be fully supported


[caption id="attachment_720" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="webOS 2.0 SDK Beta"]webOS 2.0 SDK Beta[/caption]

Monday, August 30, 2010

Lightroom 3.2 update now available

Lightroom 3.2 is now available as final releases on Adobe.com.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Adobe Lightroom 3"]LR3[/caption]

The version 3.2 update includes these enhancements:

  • Direct publishing to Facebook and SmugMug is now available

  • Tethered capture now supports the Leica S2

  • Fixed authentication issues that could be experienced with the Facebook publish collection

  • Adressed performance issues that could occur while reviewing images in Loupe view

  • Corrected several Adobe Photoshop Elements upgrade issues

  • Corrected a file renaming bug involving date or time fields

  • Export with watermark will now function correctly when choosing the Limit File Size option

  • Additional camera support for several new camera models including the Panasonic DMC-LX5, Sony NEX-5 and Canon EOS 60D and over 120 new lens profiles

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Google Voice in Gmail

Google Voice has become a part of Gmail. You'll need to install the Google voice and video chat plug-in. Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free. International calling rates are available here. Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="521" caption="Google Voice in Gmail"]Google Voice in Gmail[/caption]

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Beta launch

Microsoft will hold a gala in San Francisco on September 15th to celebrate "The Beauty of the Web", official launch of IE9 Beta.



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Monday, August 9, 2010

Palm Pre+ GPS issues update

For a while I was not able to use GPS hardware on my Palm Pre+. Some people suggested that it might be crippled by Verizon since they want to sell subscriptions for their GPS software - Verizon Navigator. I read reports claiming that when you start Navigator first, GPS working in other apps auto-magically. This thing was probably inspiration for writing a small app called GPS Fix. GPS Fix is designed to wake your GPS, then keep it alive by continually pinging it at a set interval. I got following recipe to make possible to use SmartRunner to track my cycling rides.

  1. Start GPS Fix and enable it

  2. Call Verizon Navigator from GPS Fix and wait until it will ask you to purchase this app.

  3. Start SmartRunner.

  4. Wait. I figured out that it takes a while to sync with satellites. Unlike my PhotoTrackr device it cannot really sync when I am moving. That was always problem cause I am used to start and let it sync while I am riding. This is not working with GPS hardware from Pre+. Once you are synced you can start tracking in SmartRunner and GPS Fix will keep pinging hardware to make sure it will be running.





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Sunday, August 8, 2010

HTML 5 Test

I found a test page that will check your browser compliance with HTML 5 standard. I am using mostly Firefox at work and at home. I quickly run tests for 3 different browsers on my Mac and it seems like FF is not a champion of HTML 5.

1) Firefox 3.6.8 - scored 139/300 mostly because it has 0 or 1 in 6 categories: Parsing Rules,Local Devices, Elements, Forms, Microdata, WebGL

2) Safari 5.0.1 - scored 208/300. Still 5 categories were not covered.

3) Chrome 6.0.472.25 - is a winner with score 217/300. It looks like 4 categories are not yet implemented.


It seems like all browsers fully support Canvas, Geolocation and Workers. Safari and Chrome got almost 100% in Audio and Video categories, each one got one codec missing. Safari got best support for Forms and Web Applications but is totally behind in Files category.

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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Short route from work to home

I moved from Cupertino to Mountain View and my daily commute has been reduced by few miles. It used to be 9 miles one way. Now it is only 3.6 miles if I go straight so I have to find longer route. Unfortunately part of it is now resurfaced so I am taking short way to work and back.

[caption id="attachment_698" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Work to Home"]Short route[/caption]

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Monday, August 2, 2010

July 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall worst month of the year. SS recovered a little from disaster last month but average performance of others was not good enough to make better numbers. For a second month SXP got results from ThinkStock and it way below it used to be before IStock acquired it. I guess it is a middle of summer slow down.


Jul Jul/Jun
SS 55.31% 138.68%
123RF 17.26% 49.43%
DT 9.46% 104.06%
IS 6.91% 57.76%
FT 6.74% 129.41%
SXP 2.19% 316.67%
CSP 1.08% 391.67%
BS 0.46% 18.18%
CS 0.58% 500.00%
95.52%


[caption id="attachment_692" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="JUL 2010 Microstock"]JUL 2010 Microstock[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_693" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="JUL 2010 Microstock Trend"]JUL 2010 Microstock Trend[/caption]

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Monday, July 19, 2010

My first week with Palm Pre

This is my first smartphone so I cannot compare to my past experience. I decided to have Palm device cause I wanted two from the same manufacturer after we switched to Verizon due to reception problems in our new apartment. Also I wanted a smaller form factor than most of present smartphones. My wife was not very interested in smartphone so Pixi for her was also kind of compromise.

[caption id="attachment_689" align="aligncenter" width="320" caption="Palm Pre"]Palm Pre[/caption]
Pros:

1. It is fast. GUI is really responsive and you only wait if you are connecting to outside world
2. Multitasking. You really can do many thing at once. Did not try if you can make calls while doing other things but music playing with surfing work.
3. Works as USB drive.
4. Syncs with my Gmail address book.
5. Video. Shoots better video than point'n'shooter even if it has less megapixels.

Cons:

1. Keyboard is pretty small or my hands are too big.
2. Entering numbers is a nightmare.
3. Battery life is very short.I would say it is more like 5h instead of advertised 8h. Do I really have to switch everything off?
4. No way to filter out Facebook contacts.
5. Photo. I am not so impressed with still camera. I need to do more test but built-in flash is not very good.

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Friday, July 16, 2010

Shutterstock Raise Confirmation

I have reached $3000 or more in all time Shutterstock earnings and my Standard License payout rate has been increased to $0.36 per download. It took me a little over two years to reach this level despite of global slowdown.

Pay per download is determined by your total lifetime earnings:
























Earnings per Download Lifetime Earnings
$0.25 Less than $500
$0.33 $500 to $3,000
$0.36 $3,000 to $10,000
$0.38 Over $10,000

Extended license sold

It has been a while since my last extended license on Shutterstock. Hopefully it would break a spell and I will have more this month.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Green beans"]Green beans[/caption]


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Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Moving to Verizon Wireless

I was tempted to buy new iPhone 4 but I decided to wait till end of July for resolution of all problems reported by early adopters. In meanwhile I moved to Gemello neighborhood in Mountain View just to find out that AT&T got no reception there. We got two phones there and we cannot call each other cause we have zero bars and phones do not even ring. According to AT&T map it should be good reception there but I do not think zero is good.

[caption id="attachment_676" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Gemello AT&T Coverage"]Gemello AT&T Coverage[/caption]

The only real alternative seems to be Verizon. Their map shows that they have this area covered all in red which should be best reception for voice and digital services. In reality after switch we can talk but 3G is almost not possible to get. It's just pathetic. In the middle of Silicon Valley both major carries got mediocre services.

[caption id="attachment_677" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Gemello Verizon Coverage"]Gemello Verizon Coverage[/caption]

If rumors are true Verizon will have iPhone next year but now I am on two years contract and two Palm phones. So until iPhone 6 will be released I will be testing webOS on my Palm Pre phone :-)

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="245" caption="Palm Pre Plus"]Palm Pre Plus[/caption]

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Friday, July 2, 2010

June 2010 earnings breakdown

It was bad month overall. I got almost 30% less than in May which was also worse than previous month. Hopefully it is just summer slowdown, otherwise trend does not look good.

Individually SS made worst result this year and could be worse than 123RF. 123RF on the other hand made the second best result this year. I guess January record will be hard to beat. Others, DT and FT are pretty stagnant. I would call their results average, one month they are slightly above next one a little below their own median. Positive surprise in recent months are results from IS. They actually beat FT and grab 4th place this month. I am talking only about results without third parties which are published later. After adding these results they may be third this month. On positive side we got SXP which finally transferred my images to ThinkStock and started posting earning. I have to wait couple days to see how I am doing there. BS got BME which is so low that it was sufficient for 6th place.

June Jun/May
SS 39.54% 62.34%
123RF 34.62% 248.07%
DT 9.01% 82.56%
IS 8.08% 79.15%
FT 5.17% 98.52%
BS 2.52%
SXP 0.69%
CSP 0.27% 40.00%
CS 0.11% 100.00%
Total 89.04%



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Thursday, July 1, 2010

Crestock acquired by Masterfile

If you logged in to your Crestock account today you were presented with new contributor agreement. It would not be anything worth mentioning if I would not notice new copyright statement in a footer of the page: "© 2010 Crestock Corporation. A Masterfile company." When does it happen, I asked and looked at About page. Voila, it states that it happened today: "Crestock was purchase on July 1, 2010 by Toronto-based Masterfile Corporation, a premium stock photography agency with over 30 years experience in commercial licensing." There is no official press release on neither of websites but there is an article on Crestock blog. Let's see what other changes new management would bring.

[caption id="attachment_665" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Crestock acquired by Masterfile"]Crestock acquired by Masterfile[/caption]

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Friday, June 25, 2010

Three extended print licenses in a day on 123RF

Print-Only Extended License on 123RF is allowing to use media in print if it is published in less than 10,000 copies. So far I sold only Comprehensive Extended Licenses which are 3x more expensive but if you got 3 PELs a day it seems like the same :-) I wonder it this images are going to be used in magazine or book. It's not possible to get customer info from this site so I am hoping somebody will let me know if these images are spotted in some publication.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Bryce Canyon National Park"]Bryce Canyon National Park[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Bryce Canyon National Park"]Bryce Canyon National Park[/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Arches National Park"]Arches National Park[/caption]

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

Lightroom 3 upgrade

I did expect to have my LR3 Upgrade shipped so soon but couple days ago I got info from Amazon that it will be sent earlier than at the beginning of July. I got it today and installed it without making any special preparations. I have been doing upgrades on this machine since version 1 and so far no problems. This time installation was quite fast and it asked if I want to upgrade my current catalog. I confirmed and it did it quickly. I tired all my archival catalogs and no problems were detected. I quickly launched it to see how much difference I could see at first glance. It's almost no visible signs that I am using new version besides big logo it top left corner. It seems to be faster. Maybe because it optimized my catalogs to make them smaller. It is also truly 64-bit. Preview generation also seems to be faster. I read that raw processing engine has been given a complete overhaul so I tried it on few images and sometimes it is immediately visible and sometimes I cannot tell a difference. I cannot see any setting to turn it on permanently but I assume it will import using new 2010 process. Lens calibration recognized two of my lens and visually it seems to have bigger impact on image than just switching a process. I need to play with it more especially when I got images where distortions or chromatic aberrations are more visible. I cannot tell much about noise reduction until I try some high ISO images. Next I wish to see how it handles videos :-)

[caption id="attachment_657" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Adobe Lightroom 3"]Adobe Lightroom 3[/caption]

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I am glad I did not pre-order iPhone4



It looks like early adopters are facing all sort of problems which may be sorted out when there is no longer pressure to ship it ASAP. Apple was trying ship iPhone so quickly so they did not have enough time to let bonding agent used to bond layers of glass to dry. When it happens after few days of usage discolorations should disappear. Great, at least one problem has logical explanation. Other problem related to external antenna seems like software bug cause rather than design problem because I read than some users of earlier models who upgraded to iOS4 reported similar behavior and they do not have metal band around their devices. And finally something went wrong and manufacturer of devices cannot make white glass so this variant will not be available till end of July. Here you can read official statement on Apple site.

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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Finally, 3rd party 5dmk2/7d batteries

I took a while to reverse engineer Canon batteries. LC-E6 is expensive and sometimes hard to find in stores. The Series 7 SL-E6 is a 7.4v, 1800mAh Lithium Ion battery pack which can charge on the Canon LC-E6. The SL-E6 battery also communicates with the EOS 5D Mark II and 7D digital cameras, allowing you to check the remaining capacity on the camera's power source info screen. The SL-E6 does not have the data chip necessary to provide storeable information on the Canon 5D/7D's battery registry screen.


[caption id="attachment_646" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="SL-E6"]SL-E6[/caption]

It is available on Amazon from $56.49.

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Thursday, June 17, 2010

Getty Images invitations for everyone on Flickr

Last year Getty Images picked around 100,000 images from selected Flickr contributors. Now gates are open for everyone and there are 40 million images to choose from. Every contributor can have now license request button next to any image on Flickr. Anyone interested in licensing your photos can let Getty Images know by using the "Request to License" link which will show under the license on your photo page. An editor will review the request and send you a FlickrMail. You can then approve or deny the request. Once a photo has been accepted, it will automatically be added to the Getty Images Flickr Collection.

[caption id="attachment_640" align="alignnone" width="324" caption="Request to license"]Request to license[/caption]

Read FAQ for more info.

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Wednesday, June 16, 2010

FFmpeg 0.6 with WebM support

New version of FFmpeg codenamed "Works with HTML5" is released. It is first version that supports Google's newly released libvpx library for the VP8 codec and the Matroska demuxer was extended to support to WebM container.

WebM is an open, royalty-free, media file format designed for the web. WebM defines the file container structure, video and audio formats. WebM files consist of video streams compressed with the VP8 video codec and audio streams compressed with the Vorbis audio codec. The WebM file structure is based on the Matroska container.

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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 released.

Beta was out for while so we got a glimpse of what is going to be there. Briefly I want highlight what's new:

  • Noise reduction - natural-looking results from your high ISO images with noise reduction technology

  • Lens correction - automatically reducing lens defects like geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting with single-click profiles

  • Flickr integration - uploading your images directly to Flickr from within the Lightroom

  • Image watermarking - embeding your identity or your brand and logo in your images

  • Tethered shooting - importing and viewing images as you shoot them with tethered capture

  • Perspective correction - nondestructive perspective correction


[caption id="attachment_635" align="alignnone" width="232" caption="Adobe LR3 Release"][/caption]

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Thursday, June 3, 2010

May 2010 earnings breakdown

Overall worst month this year but it hard to achieve record level from previous months. SS continues to dominate with 58% of my earnings. 123RF stopped downhill trend and earned more than last month. I hope it will keep growing now. DT is climbing slightly every month. FT is third but it is oscillating around average, one month it is above, next below. No signs that it would change in future. This month was so weak that even IS scored more. I should stop writing right here cause everybody else is just random. No earning from BS this month but I got sales from FP after nothing for months. YM actually earned more than FT but from third-party sales and I have no idea how many images were sold.

May May/Apr
SS 58.62% 78.38%
123RF 12.90% 108.89%
DT 10.09% 169.51%
YM 5.75% #DIV/0!
IS 5.62% 61.72%
FT 4.85% 47.53%
FP 1.44% #DIV/0!
CSP 0.63% 10.64%
CS 0.11% 16.67%
Total 92.41%






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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Google announces WebM open media format

At Google I/O conference: WebM, a new project that will attempt to offer a standard, open format for audio and video on the web.

WebM includes:

  • VP8, a high-quality video codec we are releasing today under a BSD-style, royalty-free license

  • Vorbis, an already open source and broadly implemented audio codec

  • a container format based on a subset of the Matroska media container



[caption id="attachment_627" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="WebM Project"]WebM Project[/caption]

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