Algonquin Park - Landscapes

It is 23:15 on Saturday night.  Just got home from Algonquin Park maybe half an hour ago.  I transferred all my photography and videos from my various SD cards and here are the first two shots that I edited from our day at Algonquin Park along the Highway 60 corridor.  Quite the successful afternoon from the park.  3 moose and lots of lakes that were photographed.

From looking at most of the photography today, it looks amazing.  Tomorrow will be more video stuff from the Tulip Festival here in Ottawa.  Thankfully they opened up the city parks this past week.  Most people are social distancing thankfully.  I still think this whole corona virus is way overblown as pretty much all the deaths are in long term care facilities which everyone knew was going to happen.  But that's just my opinion.

Our trip to Algonquin Park

We wanted to go see some wild moose and Algonquin Park is a great place to go and see them.  Within 5 minutes of entering the park we got to see this yearling and it was the only moose we saw the whole day.  Not even a fox, coyote or anything.  It was a dreary day anyways and I got to fly my drone too.  So it was a good day.

October came in like a lion

October came in like a lion and came out like a kitty cat.   A few video sales at the beginning of the month raised my hopes for a good month of October.  But its been just subs (subscriptions) for the rest of the month.  Nothing but $0.36 sales.  Seems like anything of quality sales is hard to come by now on any stock site.  I haven't sold a video on Pond5 or Storyblocks in months even adding a few hundred to each site this month.

We are moving at the end of the month so for the next couple of days, we'll be packing up all our stuff and we both get to work during the move so it's going to be long days and no opportunity for photography or to shoot footage.  We got our first snow last night so winter is pretty much here in Ottawa.  I still have my all seasonal tires on until November 5th.

I think it's time to go for breakfast.

Sales are picking up on Shutterstock

The last two years have been abysmal for photo and footage sales.  When Shutterstock allowed pretty much everybody to submit photos and videos 2 years ago, sales went down 40-60%.  Since anyone with an iPhone could submit photos, the photo and footage pool got swamped with crap photography and crap footage, all the good stuff sank to the bottom and the crappy stuff just poured in.  This week I even sold a 4k video for $1.80US which is a joke.  This month seems to be starting really well.  So far I've sold 3 videos and 13 photos just on Shutterstock.

I hope the U.S economy keeps going the way it is.  The Canadian economy sucks thanks to our Zoolander PM.  I sell a lot of my stuff in the States and Europe along with the far east.  All I have to say is #MAGA.

Tomorrow we go to Algonquin Park to see the leafs changing colors.  Hope there is no rain.

Back at Parc Omega

I went to Parc Omega over the weekend and got some good shots.  They are upgrading some areas of the park.  It's still not as good as it was when I first started going there.  The fences are higher making photography more difficult.  I don't like having fences in my photography.  It distracts from the animals and footage I am trying to photograph.

This upcoming weekend, the girlfriend and I are heading up to Algonquin Park to see the tree leaves turning colour.  It's going to be a gong show with all the tourists from the Toronto area.  I've been going there for the past three years and it's always a gong show.  This year I want to bring my DJI Spark to get some arial footage of the trees and the natural beauty of the park.

Photo & Video

Lately, I've been doing shooting a lot of video as I have had plenty of photos on the various micro stock agencies.  I'm just trying to build up my video portfolio.  It's time consuming doing both but I do love doing both.  Video clips sell for a much higher price but they are far and between what I typically sell.  I do still sell a lot of photography.  Not as much during the summer as most people are on vacations.  I'm hoping sales of both video and photos pick up again in September.

July is the slow time!

The summer months are the slowest times for photo sales.  At least from my experience.  As people take vacations, they purchase less from micro stocks where I do pretty much all of my business.  I travel as well to various parks to do my photography.  The above shot is from Barron Canyon in Algonquin Park, Ontario.  Took it just before I got to the Algonquin Radio Observatory.  I'm thinking next weekend going to Algonquin Park again.  But this time to the southern Highway 60 corridor.  There are a lot of moose sightings.  I also want to do some astrophotography imaging.  Hopefully the weather will co-operate.  If not Algonquin Park, maybe one of the other parks which are located 2-3 hours just west of Ottawa.  Weekends in Canada are just amazing with the weather and scenery.  

I typically go to Parc Omega in the fall and winter seasons as the landscapes are amazing as the tree leaves turn colours.  I hope to make it to Tremblant as well for a day or two.  It's a good time to be living and doing photography.  The technology is just amazing.

Algonquin Radio Observatory - The short version!

The shorter version.  Because attention spans are shorter than gnat lives.

Algonquin Radio Observatory shorter video

There is just something about this place

There is just something about Algonquin Park located in Central Ontario.  You get a real sense of the wilderness.  Even with this 46 metre telescope, you just feel the size of the park and it's natural beauty.  Especially on a bright sunny day with large, puffy clouds making their way across the sky.

On my way out of the park, right before exiting the radio telescope location I did encounter a female moose which was a perfect ending to a perfect weekend.  Well, almost perfect as I left two or three pints of blood as I was eaten alive by the mosquitoes and black flies.

The photo and videos from Algonquin Radio Telescope are up for sale

Photos and videos are finally being accepted on the various micro stock sites listed on the right of this blog such as Bigstockphoto, Fotolia, Pond5 and Shutterstock and my own site.  Hopefully I'll make a sale or a dozen off from my fun trip to the Algonquin Radio Observatory at Algonquin Park, Ontario.

The photo and videos from Algonquin Radio Telescope are up for sale

Photos and videos are finally being accepted on the various micro stock sites listed on the right of this blog such as Bigstockphoto, Fotolia, Pond5 and Shutterstock and my own site.  Hopefully I'll make a sale or a dozen off from my fun trip to the Algonquin Radio Observatory at Algonquin Park, Ontario.

Hurry up and wait

So now that I've uploaded everything to the computer, edited everything in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC or Apple Final Cut Pro X, I uploaded everything to the various websites.  Now I have to hurry up and wait for the various websites to curate all my submissions and update their various databases so my images and videos can be sold to everybody.  Waiting is the worst part as I'm not in control of anything.  Waiting always kills me.  But at least now I can go shoot some more photos and video my surroundings.

I've also added some of my other portfolios for more customer options.  I hope you enjoy!

Algonquin Park weekend!!!!

I have been waiting for this weekend for quite some time.  I've always wanted to go to the Algonquin Radio Telescope in Algonquin Park but never had the chance because life and certain events just got in the way.  The weekend has finally come when I actually get to scratch something off my bucket list.  Today I head up to the radio telescope for the whole weekend with my cameras and camcorder.  I'm just hoping the sky clears up.  At least that's what the weather channels are predicting.  At least it won't rain like it did yesterday on Canada Day.  Missed the fireworks for the second year in a row.

The sink hole

Finally made it to the sink hole in downtown Ottawa.  Pretty funny to see it in person.  A lot of people just watching the workers and equipment fill in the hole.  What a mess!

Noiseless Pro

Noiseless Pro is a noise reduction plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom which reduces the noise or grain in your night or indoor photography.  Currently it only runs on Apple Mac computers.

As someone who shoots outdoors in low light or in night time, there is a lot of noise and grain in my photography.  Even using the latest camera bodies and lenses, you will get noise and grain.  Noiseless Pro gets rid of the noise and grain artifact in the photos quite easily.  You can check my night photography on my website or my microstock portfolio here and here.

I have been using Noiseless Pro for about 9 months now and have been going thru my previous shots and running them thru Noiseless Pro.  Everything is being accepted for sale whereas before it was not accepted because of high noise values.  The software is on the pricey side but you do get what you pay for.  The noise reduction in Photoshop and Lightroom CC is good, but not as good as Noiseless Pro.  That is why I would ask you to try and buy it here.  Purchasing the product also helps me out as I am an affiliate of MacPhun.

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.

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.

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.