Parc Omega

It's been a while since I've been to Parc Omega.  Last time the girlfriend and I went was probably in March of this year.  With the heat wave we've had this summer it's just not worth going.  The animals just hide in the forest to get away from the heat.  Today I did photography with maybe a dozen or so footage shots.  I did not take my camcorder with me.  Only shot 4k a few times today.  The next time I go, I will be going during the week and alone so I can concentrate more on composition of my nature shots.  We left the house around 10am and got back around 9pm after visiting the park and going for dinner after.  Let's just say it was a long and exhausting day.  But we had a lot of fun

I think this week I'll be going back to Parc Omega by myself with the Sony RX10 Mark II and the Canon Vixia G40 to do some more photography and more footage shots.  I shouldn't have taken any 4k footage yesterday.  It's just takes too much space and too much time to edit and upload.  That's why I like shooting with my Canon Vixia G40 camcorder.  It's great 1080p/60fps footage.  I also like the colours of all the Canon products.  Much better colour reproduction.  

And the month isn't even over yet

Thanks to a $96US video sale, August has turned out to be the best month of 2018 yet.  Compared to 2017 or even 2016, this year sales are down at least 50%.  Shutterstock has probably doubled the amount of stock it has in the previous year so the sales cut is to be expected.  I have right now 12,372 photos and 1462 footage clips.  That's an increase of 50% of stock for me so I should be making the same if not more sales.  I've increased my portfolios on all three sites I deal with and sales are not increasing.

What I've noticed on Shutterstock especially is the low quality of photos available for sale.  When I signed up 4 years ago, it was tough to get onto Shutterstock.  I had to get 7 out of 10 photos accepted.  Now it's just 1 out of 10 photos.  It also seems like Shutterstock will accept anything and everything to its stock database.  When I first started I picked my best photography and footage to go up.  Now it seems like I can throw up anything and it'll be accepted.  Which is not good for the good photographers and videographers along with customers because they'll have to find the good photos and footage among the crap.

Of the 3 agencies I deal with Shutterstock seems to be the best with consistent and constant sales.  Image and footage acceptance is fast and easy.  Approval is quick, typically within 24-36 hours.  Pond5 is easy as well.  Acceptance for me now is with 48 to 72 hours for both photos and footage.  Pond5 seems to have hired staff to review photos and footage over the last several weeks or maybe people are not contributing as much during the summer time in the northern hemisphere.  Storyblocks takes it's time.  It can take up to 3 weeks and sometime 5 to get your photos and video either accepted or denied.  Sales on Pond5 are sporadic.  I can sell between 0 and 10 files a month.  With Storyblocks, I can go months without selling some footage.  I have not sold a photo on Storyblocks at all.  Come to think of it, I think I've sold 1 photo on Pond5 since I started.  I get the vast majority of my sales on Shutterstock followed by Pond5.  I'll break the $5000US barrier on Shutterstock either this month or next depending on how Shutterstock does in the next 8 days.  With Pond5 I might break $2000US by either the end of the year or mid next year.  Depends on sales as usual.

Shot this in July 2015 with the Canon EOS 6D and the Canon EF f2.8 17-35MM L series lens.  I think I had the lens about a month and I was still testing the lens out.  It's a great Canon lens.  

I'm editing a few photos from the past couple of years as it's raining pretty much the whole weekend. Trying a new technique in editing and re uploading the files to Shutterstock, Bigstockphoto, Alamy and Fotolia.  Most have already been accepted on Bigstockphoto so I'm just waiting for the others to catch up.  Hopefully they'll be accepted soon.

Sinkhole

Time to go see and do some video of the sinkhole in Ottawa.  Way to go City of Ottawa.  Ottawa, a city a sinkhole never forgot!

Baby woodpeckers!

Just got home from taking some videos and am editing them now.  Got some cute, little Pileated Woodpeckers being fed by both parents.  Videos to follow.

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.

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.

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.