Shooting editorial photography and videos

I've been shooting a lot of editorial photography and video.  A lot more video than photography.  It's a lot of fun.  I'm selling the photography as well.  Shutterstock is a great platform to sell your photography and videography along with Bigstockphoto.

Glad I went!

I seem to be shooting a lot of video lately.  More video than photography.  I didn't even bother taking my cameras today.  Only took my Canon Vixia HF R62.  I'm glad I went to the Gatineau side of the Ottawa river after work today.  There were big puffy clouds that were moving at a quick pace over Ottawa today.  

I'm sitting at a Timmie's right now editing the videos while listening to a YouTube video on Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC and the Google Nik Plugins.  Pretty cool software.

The importance of computers and post processing.

I have two Apple computers.  A late 2015 iMac with a 5k 27" retina monitor with a 2GB video card, 1TB fusion drive and 32GB of memory.  I also have an early 2013 Macbook Pro with a 2.7Ghz processor, a 500GB SSD hard drive, 1TB video card and 16GB of RAM.

I absolutely love both of these computers.  Why?  Because they just work.  They're responsive and I don't have to fix them every couple of days.  They just work.  I edit 1080p 60fps video on both using FCP X and edit 20.2 megapixel photos created with multiple Canon EOS 6D bodies and various lenses.

I use Mac computers because the administration and upkeep is pretty non existent compared to any Windows bases PC's.  I work for a federal government department that use Windows 7 and Windows 8 PC's.  Let me tell you, they are a headache compared to Macs.  Driver updates, software updates, hardware replacements etc.  For home, you go Mac or nothing else.  Yeah, Macs are more expensive, but you get what you pay for.  In my time, I've built my own Frankenstein PC's and used different MS operating systems from Windows 98 to Windows 10.  When I need things to work, I use an OS X based computer.

This weekend

Some people are crazy.  It's roughly plus thirty degrees celsius in Ottawa this weekend.  With the humidity, temperatures are nearing plus forty degrees celsius.  The reason I say people are crazy in Ottawa is because it's Race Weekend where people run either 2km, 5km and 10km or in some cases all three.

I was there in downtown Ottawa yesterday photographing the event.  I heard one of the announcements that they had a record number of people needing medical attention due to heat stroke and heat exhaustion.  Most of the people running wither either my age or older.  These people are going to end up with hip replacements or needing work done on their knees if not now, later in life.  But it does offer great photography.  So keep doing it you crazy people.

First to 2500!

I always thought that Fotolia or iStockphoto would be the first to 2500 images and/or videos to 2500 files available for sale.  Today at about 14:00 I reached 2519 files on Shutterstock.  Shutterstock accepts Editorial shots along with videos and that's what put me over the 2500 mark.

I only started micro stock just about 2 years ago.  I had a pretty good go at Fotolia and I have 2352 files available for sale.  Fotolia was pretty much outpacing Shutterstock until about a few months ago when I bought the Canon EF f2.8 70-200MM L series lens.  After that, pretty much everything I photographed was accepted on both sites.  

I absolutely love photography and videography.

Shutterstock continues to impress

Now I know photography wouldn't make me rich.  It's a hobby for me that I make some money from. I'm more of a semi-professional as I make some money from selling my photos and videos on stock photography sites.  I sell on about 7 sites from 123RF to Videoblocks.  But my best site is Shutterstock.  In the last 8 months, my acceptance rate at Shutterstock has been incredibly high as I've added over a thousand images and videos to my portfolio.  Sales have been steady with my last month being my worst since October of 2015.  

Fotolia continues to be my second best site as far as acceptance and sales.  They unfortunately do not accept editorial shots or footage so they're losing out on a great number of photographs and stock footage.  

Shutterstock and Fotolia continue to impress me both.  I think they're the top of the top of micro stock sites.

My Shutterstock and Fotolia portfolios are available to view here by just following the previous links.  My own website is here if you are interested in any of my photography.

If you're interested in selling with either Shutterstock or Fotolia, just click on the respective links.

Shot some new video today.

Went on a walk today at lunch with my Canon Vixia HF R62 1080p 60fps camcorder.  Shot some video of stuff I never knew Ottawa had.  I kinda like discovering new stuff in my own city.  A lot of my stuff is getting approved on the various micro stock sites but some of it isn't.  Some is selling.  Some is not.  Just gotta keep shooting and uploading and hope for sales.

Shooting video for stock.

I've started to shoot video for uploads to the various micro stock agencies that I deal with.  If you asked me 2 years ago or even 18 months ago, I'd say you'd be crazy saying I'd be shooting video as well.  I was all photography, all the time.  I knew Photoshop and Apple Aperture 3.0 inside out.  That's all I wanted to know and do.  Now I just use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC to edit my photos and Apple Final Cut Pro X to edit my videos.  I am learning Photoshop CC again to get my certification.

As far as shooting video I just use a Canon Vixia HF R62 to shoot 1080p 60fps video that I upload to sites like Pond5, Videoblocks, Fotolia and Shutterstock.  I mostly edit the video on my early 2013 Macbook Pro which has enough horse power to edit 1080p video.  Last year I bought a 2015 iMac with a 27" 5k monitor to do 4k videos.  After shooting with the Sony FDR AX33 4k camera and uploading to the various websites, I only sold 1080p video.  Nothing 4k.  So I sold the Sony FDR AX33 4k camcorder earlier this year.  Since my early 2013 Macbook Pro has the horsepower to edit 1080p 60fps video, I'm looking to trade or sell my 2015 iMac for a Canon Vixia HF G40 video camera which is more of a prosumer camcorder than the Canon Vixia HF R62.  Mind you the R62 is a great little camera which does what I want.  Another reason I want to sell the iMac is that I want to be portable.  My 2013 Macbook Pro allows me to do that.  I just add an external hard drive to my laptop for off line storage and I'm ready to go anywhere at anytime.  

So if you're looking to buy a mint 2015 iMac with a 27" 5k monitor with upgraded RAM, let me know.

Unofficial start to the long weekend in Canada

The May two four weekend is the unofficial start to the Canadian summer as it's the first long weekend in a while.  I spent the day in Algonquin Park yesterday and today I just went to Jack Pine Trail and a bit of the Tulip festival.  

Warm weather and a nice sunny day.  I really wanted to do some night photography at Algonquin Park yesterday but I left the park at around 6:30pm as I was running low on fuel and if I left at 11 or midnight last night, I figured I'd miss all the gas stations on the way him since they all would have been closed.  I made it back to Ottawa with enough gas that I could have gotten some today.  I averaged 5.7L/100km in my 2015 Hayandai Elantra.  This was the first time I put over 700km on a tank of gas.  Now I know how far I can go on a tank of gas.

Anyways, back to photography and my plans.  I think, depending on weather, I may go back again next Saturday and might stay the night or stay much later.  I found a place where I can get decent horizons for astrophotography which is great.  A nice quiet place just off of the main highway.  So if the weather cooperates that will be my plan for next weekend.  

What a day at Algonquin Park

Got to the park at about 11:30am and within half an hour of getting there, saw my first of three moose.  Unfortunately, the first one was in deep brush so pretty much unseeable and unphotographable unless walking through a foot of water and about 30 metres full of brush.  The next 2 moose displayed amazingly well in clear fields along Highway 60 which runs the souther corridor of Algonquin Park.  Both got within 10 metres of the road stopping traffic along both sides.  Too tired to edit photos and videos tonight.  Editing will be done tomorrow along with uploading to various websites.

My eyes are really heavy so it's time for bed.

Algonquin Park

Heading up to Algonquin Park today.  Hope I see some nice wildlife.  Probably not, but it'll be a nice drive up and time time spending it in one of the most amazing parks in the world. And, best of all, the cameras are coming with me.  :)

Shoot. Edit. Upload. Repeat.

Basically what I have been doing the past couple of weeks is shooting, editing and uploading over and over and over.  Spring finally made it into Ottawa.  Sort of.  Plenty of warmer temps and a bit of sunshine.  Got the cameras and camcorder out to shoot and video the spring in Ottawa.  Tulips are out and the trees are finally greening up from a long and cold winter.  

Hibernation is finished I think.  Finally!

Tulip Festival - Ottawa, Ontario - May 14, 2016

Shot today before the rains came.  Tulip Festival held in Ottawa, Ontario - Canada every year since Canada help the Netherlands in the second world war.

Today was people hell.  Crowds upon crowds of families and people taking photos of the tulips with cell phones, point and shoots and actual DSLR's.  All of my photography was taken with the Canon EOS 6D and either a Canon EF f2.8 100MM L v2 macro or the Canon EF f2.8 70-200MM L v2 lens. The above was taken with the macro lens.

Currently just sitting at a Tim Horton's editing photos.  They will be up on my website later this weekend.

International Astronomy Day 2016

The event held every year by the OAOG at the Gloucester Shopping Centre has been cancelled due to weather being bad.  Clouds and rain all day.  I was going to go to the event and photograph it but with the weather cancelling the event, I will have to make other plans.  

I will now get to catch up on stuff that I couldn't do during the week.  I have to go buy a power cord for my telescope mount and buy a book on Photoshop.  I want to get my Adobe Certified Expert certification in the next couple of months.  Although I use Lightroom for all my photo editing, Adobe has not offered the Lightroom CC certification yet.  So Photoshop CC certification here I come.

Back to Astronomy Day.  If your city has nice weather and an Astronomy event going on today, I highly suggest you go as you will learn a few things about the universe you live in.  Astronomy got me into photography.  Astronomy and photography are two amazing and amazingly expensive hobbies.  But as I always say, at least I don't spend my money and time on foolish things like alcohol and drugs.  

Time to go and enjoy the day.

Editorial away!!!!

I've been photographing a lot of editorial content lately.  It's been accepted on Shutterstock and I'm waiting for Bigstockphoto to go thru the shots I've taken and curate which shots they want to keep and which shots to not keep.  Since Bigstockphoto is owned by Shutterstock I don't see a problem with acceptance.  I uploaded several shots to istockphoto but they were all rejected for some reason or another.  So no more editorial content for iStockphoto anymore.  Their loss, not mine.

I went up to the Hill today and noticed these peaceful protestors.  I've seen them there in years past.  They're not like your typical sjw.  Quite peaceful actually.  I uploaded the above photo to 500px and apparently it's Up and Coming along with another photo.  I personally like the composition of this photo.

The next two days are supposed to be clear and sunny here in Ottawa so I will have to get out at lunch and after work.  Unfortunately I have an appointment for an oil change on Thursday so I don't know if I will get out.  More than likely I will go out after the oil change since it shouldn't take long.

Differences between the microstock sites

It's always good to make sales on multiple microstock sites.  The shots from yesterdays events on the Hill were 100% accepted on Shutterstock but not on iStockphoto.  My acceptance rate for photography lately has been at or near 100% on Shutterstock and Fotolia.  It's always good to have portfolios on different websites because they may be accepted on one but not the other.  Plus multiple sales of the same image on different sites is always nice.

Mercury transit of the Sun

So I got to shoot the Mercury transit event on Parliament Hill.   A few MP's showed up along with  Canada Astronaut/Politician Marc Garneau.  I don't usually photograph people, let alone Liberal members of Parliament but photography has no sides in politics.  I spent about an hour and a half on Parliament hill spending the time photographing the event and the people.  The event was put on by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Ottawa chapter) and the federal government.  About 28 telescopes and 32 volunteers showed up for the event.

Several media outlets like the CBC, CTV News along with one or two radio stations showed up to document the event along with several photographers such as myself.  The good thing about lugging around a Canon EOS 6D and a Canon EF 70-200MM L series lens makes you look really professional.  I could get up really close to the speakers and get an unobstructed view to photograph the speakers.

After getting home from work, I uploaded all photography into Lightroom CC and finished editing fairly quickly.  I've uploaded a few of the best shots to Shutterstock, Bigstockphoto, 500px,  123RF and my website.

Hoping to have most, if not all shots accepted on the various websites.  Check back soon!

Tulip Festival - Ottawa 2016

The Tulip festival starts next weekend here in Ottawa.  Nearly half the bulbs planted have bloomed and I expect the rest to bloom over the next few days as we get warmer weather and some much needed rain in Ottawa.

I always love to go down to Dow's Lake to shoot these beautiful flowers.  A few of my shots are on sale at my website.

Another beautiful Saturday

It's another beautiful, sunny day here in Ottawa with warm temperatures as well.  Packing up the cameras for another fun day of photography.  Today on the agenda will be the tulips followed by some city scape photography.  Hope you all have fun with whatever you're doing today.

Selfie rant

Descent sales seem hard to come by.  $0.33 here and $0.33 there but where are the sales for $20 or more?  Or larger sales like $120 per file?  Or $500 for a sole picture or video?  In a tough economy where people are working 2 or more minimum part time jobs to make ends meet is a tough market to try and sell your photography in.  

With people using iPhones and Android devices to take pictures, it's harder and harder to sell quality photography.  People think they take quality photos with their phones not realizing they're using tiny sensors with tiny pixels to take their photos.  People store their photos on their devices not ever printing them.  Just share them on Facebook or Pintrest.  The online world is killing photography.  Specifically social media is killing photography.  Instant selfies.  Instant gratification.  As a society, we have devalued quality with quantity.  How many bathroom selfies can you only take?  Narcissism at its best I suppose.

People spend $200-$500 on an iPhone or an Android phone every two years to take selfies that they shoot and forget but bitch when they go to a photographer to have a proper photo taken.  Photographers spend literally thousands of dollars on equipment alone.  My Canon EOS 6D, battery grip, SD card and Canon EF 70-200MM L series lens cost roughly $5000 Canadian.  That's one camera, battery, lens and SD card.  Then there's the computer and software which cost me roughly $3000.  Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Lightroom cost roughly $14 monthly for me to run.  Then there's the education which cost me roughly $4000.  Upgrading my education costs even more.  Learning online costs money.  Watching YouTube videos costs me time and money in a sense instead of watching a Youtube video using a different technique I could be marketing my skills and photography.  And yet people wonder why photographers charge $100 an hour or more.  You're asking a professional to make a memory for you.  Clients just tell you, you're just pressing a button and the camera does the rest.  I'm here to tell you the rest costs money.  

If you want a selfie, use an iPhone.  If you want a real photo, a real memory, something that looks professional, use a real photographer with a real camera.  Hire a real photographer!

Shooting Editorial

I haven't been shooting many editorial shots for fear of them being rejected on sites like Shutterstock and Fotolia.  What if they're rejected or they don't sell?  Well, they haven't sold anywhere yet but they are being accepted.  Which is a good thing of course.  I'm not one for photographing people much just because there are so many photographers that do people photography.  I would rather shoot inanimate objects such as the kayaks above.  

Plus if I put the shots onto micro stocks like Shutterstock, Bigstockphoto or my own site and people find themselves in my shot which is for sale, they'll probably come after me for money or some other reason.  Could it just be paranoia?  I don't know.  I just know I hate having my picture taken.

Back to shooting editorial.  I've been shooting it for a while now but just haven't posted them to the micro stock sites and if I did they were rejected for some reason.  That all changed in the last month or so when practically every editorial shot has been accepted which is a feat in itself.  Now I wish they would just sell.  Considering they're on micro stock agencies, I'll probably sell them for pennies on the dollar.  But if people would just buy off of my site where I get a higher percentage of the sale, that would just be awesome.  I host my photos on FAA (Fine Art America) because it only costs $30 a year and you can upload as many photos as you want and they take care of all the printing, framing and shipping to your client.  Less administrative head ache for moi. 

Daffodils

The Tulip festival begins in about a week and a half here in Ottawa, Canada so I thought that I could go do some macro photography practice.  I was joined by a friend after work today and we shot some flowers.

The tulips are not in full bloom yet as we've had a very cold spring with seasonally low temperatures.  But it's been warming up and the flowers are coming out.

I'm just glad I got out today again.  Will have to go out after work again tomorrow.  I do enjoy my photography.  So glad this hobby found me.

Ottawa tired!

I've lived in Ottawa since 1983 when I was just 8 years old.  I took up photography seriously in 2008 or so.  Started taking classes in 2010 and finished in 2012.  It is now 2016 and I'm tired of photographing Ottawa and the surrounding areas.  I fee like I've done it all in this quaint town of a million plus people.  You have your typical tourist sites like Parliament Hill, the museums, galleries and such.  I've been to Parc Omega more times than I can count.

Don't get me wrong, I like living here in Canada's capital.  It's quiet, relatively cheap and there are jobs here.  I'm just tired.  Tired of the same.  Mind you, I'm not the kind to just pick up and move to a new place.  I have to have things figured out.  Need a job.  Need money to eat and put a head over my head.  I need a place where I can edit my photos and videos.

I've felt the need to move somewhere for the past several years.  I've come to realize that I've spent too much time here.  I'm still finding it hard to be alone after my divorce.  I see no future girlfriend in the near future.  I don't know if I'll get married again.  I'm scared to move to a new place.  But I'm more scared if I don't and things stay in the same place and do the same things.  I don't know if I can keep doing the same job for the next 20+ years.  A job I hardly enjoy.  A job that is just the means to an end.  I'm not overly happy doing the same thing day in day out seeing the same people, doing the same job.  

I love photography.  It's the only hobby/job that keeps me happy.  I don't think about anything else when I'm out photographing the surrounding world.  I think the only other person who would understand is a photographer.  Photography is something that lives in you.  It's more than a feeling.  It's more than a passion.  It's in my DNA.  Honestly it's what I love to do.  Just put me in a national park with a camera or two and I'd be happy as a kid in a candy store.

Another walk around the hill

Another nice day and another nice walk around Canada's Parliament Hill.  Photography seems to be the only thing that brings me joy.  Not just lately, but the last 5-6 years.  Considering I went through a battle with cancer and a divorce, you can imagine I was not in a very good place mentally.  The only thing that kept me going were my camera's.  I felt like I had no support anywhere else.  Everything seemed distant and remote.  Except for my cameras.