have to say Rich I'm feeling a real lack of a walkaround lens at the moment, I probably miss a few shots fiddling around changing between the 10-20 and the 50... surely the 17-85 must be on the camera a bit when on the move? I absolutely loved using my dad's 28-300 when travelling in France.. the convenience means you're much less likely to miss a shot but I have to say there are always going to optical compromises in a lens like that (personally I thought the colours were a little flat, it was pretty damn soft wide open and gotta watch out for CA).... got my eye on the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 to fill the gap when I have some dosh!

of those in the link I liked the first 2, also the church interior, and the one with the green boat in the foreground... the rest I don't reckon were anything special.... and speaking of that 'gap', I'd say at the moment I'm shooting about 70% of the time with the 10-20, but yearn for a bit more reach for street shots..

ok here's my first try but I don't think I'm so happy with the edit... I'll have another crack later in colour and see if that ends up being gallery-worthy...

hey nice versions everyone, impressive stuff cheers for getting involved =)
have to say, I do really like that b&w version Tunde... just taking a break from work so might do something with it right now... keep an eye out in the galleries in a bit I guess..!

very nice David, I like this compo... sounds like a neat feature, wish I had cs4! the sky looks mad, bordering on the believable but anything's possible with nature!

very nice! puts the onus on me to do something pretty with it if it ends up being gallery bound ;)

actually.. this kind of reminds me of those 'DITI' threads a while ago... if anyone fancies treating this as one of those you're most welcome to now that the initial crop issue has been discussed...

I like the balance to this one better, with the split between sky and sea.. I've no qualms with cropping off a bit from the left, and I think I'd go quite close at the bottom like you have too..
I was even considering cloning out the leftmost darker rock to make it more of an isolated object.... cool, thanks for the replies everyone ;)

thanks for that, I did have a little play with a narrow crop and also a square one.. I think eventually yes I will crop out a bit of the upper sky, not sure how much, but I think I want to leave the whole of the reflected rock within the frame. cheers for all replies so far

cheers =)
yeah no probs I could have a look at them towards the end of the week if you like... let me know and I'll sitemail you my email address.... if it helps any, here's a link to the 7 which made it from my initial batch: http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery.mhtml?id=353383
7 sales on my first day meaning its already my top earner in the very short time I've been doing all this... seems worth the effort persisting to get on there for sure... and I also got accepted at iStockPhoto today which seems fairly similar to Shutterstock, i.e. a market leader and fairly low prices..
it may just be down to what each collection has plenty of already, but almost all the files making sales on one site have been rejected from one of more others in my case...which I think goes to show that exclusivity with any one site would be a foolish move.
it's all very interesting though, and definitely requires a different mental approach to shooting when you know the photo's final destination is stock....
out of interest when did you register with your first agency Christo?

Adam

well having had a look at your site I think you're quite justified in thinking so.. seems to be working okay for you and like I said before there can't be too many people with the variety of aerial views you have in certain areas.... have to be honest though, I wasn't a huge fan of the pink/purple background, but then that's just one opinion.... so I'm assuming you don't have an automated download or payment system, rather that a client contacts you in each circumstance, and you work out what they want and send it to them?.... it's an idea I may look into in future years but may be biting off a bit more than I can chew at the moment...

oh and Christo I just got accepted at Shutterstock on 3rd attempt... and only 7 of the 10 passed ;)
for the record I now have some on Alamy, Fotolia, Dreamstime, BigStockPhoto and Shutterstock and think I'll just stick with these until my portfolio is large enough to warrant going further afield..

Adam

there are some really nice ones there in your gallery, congrats for gom!

interesting... I'll surely have a browse a little later on when I have a few minutes to spare. I'm pretty familiar with your aerial views tho and always thought they might do pretty well as stock, offering a viewpoint not many people will be able to...

in my experience the stock agencies are much stricter with their quality control until you vaguely impress them with your initial submission... once the foot's in the door I think you can 'get away' with submitting shots which might not have passed initial QC but you know would be useful to someone... true, they seem to care more about a lack of noise/blemishes than they do about artistic integrity but then again that depends on the site.... I don't take rejections as saying 'this was a bad photo', merely that they don't see a potential use or market for it.... I pretty much thought they would be, but my last 6 submissions to dreamstime were rejected solely on the grounds their library already had enough of that subject (clouds, trees, flowers etc).... that itself is fair enough to me, but I get a little irritated when I see a shot online being given the chance which I think is similar but technically no better than mine, which wasn't given the opportunity.

it's no longer about just uploading the 'chancers' that happen to have found their way into your archive over the years I feel..... these days technical excellence is expected, and with archives that cover pretty much every subject, the agencies are looking for innovative types of shots which, personally, I probably wouldn't shoot unless I had this final destination in mind. I guess what I'm saying is that to get ahead it seems you have to have a large archive already then treat the process like a job, adding new files to your online archive each week....

you have the advantage of having a USP for your stock - the aerial viewpoints - I can see how this might work nicely from your own personal site as long as enough people knew of it.... I mean, if someone needs an aerial shot of, say, Scotland, then find your site, I'd say you have a good chance of repeated sales....

my 2p's worth ;)

fair point, always nice to make 100% of the commission eh? ;)
but that middleman is however pretty essential in reaching a worldwide audience and I think most people who participate in stock are content to pay for the ability to reach a far greater potential market.... I don't quite understand what you mean by selling stock 'direct'.. I am guessing you mean putting all your (maybe thousands) of photos on your own site and letting people contact you if they want it... would you then sent it to them or have a file available for download? it could potentially clog up the space available on the website which is something you wouldn't have to worry about hosting your pics on a large stock site. also, hosting them on your own site would rely on generating business from the traffic arriving there, which is in most cases much smaller than the largest stock agencies' traffic. if you had a large number of images a search function would be necessary too and people have become used to the keyword system... you would also have to offer a range of prices and licenses which were competitive with the existing stock sites... seems an awful headache just to keep a higher % from fewer views when you could be reaching a much larger audience, making more sales etc... sure a lower % with micro sites but still potential for large payouts with the 'macro' sites...

sorry to splurge thoughts, I guess a few just came to mind and I'm interested in this discussion as I get more involved in this pursuit. if you can tolerate another question, could you also clarify 'you get just what you want'..? is this from a buyer or sellers point of view?

cheers

just a modest selection so far but thanks for the kind words Christo ;)
I think I've ironed out my colour workflow now (slight discrepancies between photoshop, windows, web), got a feeling the harbour ones in particular might be a little dark/saturated tho so may re-upload at some point....
at least now I have the peace of mind knowing the family has just opted for a spyder 3 monitor calibration package which I should get use of by the end of next week, so hopefully will be more confident the review staff are seeing exactly what I'm seeing..
any experience with Fotolia btw?

Adam

interesting to know Christo, having had a look at what seems to do well on the micro sites I'm kinda yearning for some proper lighting equipment... early experiments with desk lamps and tissue paper as diffuser are better than onboard flash but still a bit fiddly...
anyway I just had my first rejection from Shutterstock, seems 6 were ok but that ain't enough... I'll try again with a better selection in a month I guess...
really I'm still building my portfolio and will have much more time to dedicate to this in the coming months... so far I have 32 online at Alamy, 15 at Dreamstime, 10 pending at BigStockPhoto... not much yet but at least I've made some sales =)

should there be a kind soul out there with a properly calibrated monitor and a spare moment perhaps you could take a quick gander at my alamy page and let me know how the photos look in terms of brightness/darkness/saturation...? there might be a slight difference between the newer ones and the ones on page 2, I've been struggling to get consistency reproducing the same colours on the web as on my computer with that site..

cheers in advance for any feeback, here's the link:
http://www.alamy.com/stock-photography/54D0238E-74C4-4228-99EB-7B0DA36AAF1E/1/Adam%20Edwards.html

had to rescue this thread before it dropped off the bottom... got my new car a few weeks ago (and managed a speeding ticket the day after getting it... oops! first one though so not to worry, and not to be repeated hopefully now I've gotten a bit more used to it... bit of an odd angle/distortion and just in the regular spot it's parked outside the house. you can make out the reflections of the house and the wall in the car (and possibly even me, not sure at this resolution, maybe worth a fullsize click)... anyway it has replaced the car I posted a pic of above, and not only that it brought a huge grin to my face in the process =D

hope you get your car restored somday mila, looks like a first car with plenty of character....
and also hope you're enjoying your combi Citroen Geert

cheers,
Adam.