May 16, 2014

May 16, 2014.  That was the first day I got accepted at Shutterstock to sell my photos.  Today I had my 4800th sale.  I sold my first photo a few hours after my photos were accepted.  It was an exciting time for me.  I had 7 photos that were accepted.  This is my first photo sold.  This is my 4800th download that a buyer bought.

As of 16:36 EST, I have 14,462 photos accepted and 1,527 clips accepted at Shutterstock.  I cant believe it's been five years already.  I only now post to Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.  I really, really enjoy photography and videography.  It's so much fun.  Please support me by buying from either my microstock portfolios or my website.

My favourite photo from the last 2 years

I can’t believe how time flies.  2 years ago, I was in Calgary, Alberta ready to come home.  Not knowing I was to be extended for another month on my contract for another month and I wouldn’t be in Ottawa until July 2017.  My girlfriend was going to fly out from Ottawa to Calgary and we were going to drive back to Ottawa together.  We were gonna go through the northern states and see some of the National Parks in Montana, Oregon, South Dakota etc. That didn’t happens as I got extended by a month.  Honestly I really miss Calgary and being in the mountains.  I remember getting a smile on my face every time I headed out to the Rockies from Calgary.  It was only about a 45 minute drive.

I took the gondola up the mountains when I was in Banff, Alberta one weekend.  I remember the wind was howling up at the peak of the mountains.  The light wasn’t good as well.  The sun was to my left casting a shadow over the centre mountain.  It had blown out the sky and clouds.  I didn’t think much of the shot at all.  Certainly not one of my favourites at the time.  I decided to turn it into a black and white and throw it up onto Shutterstock thinking it would be rejected.  If it was accepted, it would never be bought.  It would just get lost in the millions and millions of photos.  As it turns out, I sell it once every 2-3 days on average and it’s turned out to be one of my very photos.  I’ve been told by acquaintances that it’s their favourite photo of mine.  You can purchase it here here from my Shutterstock portfolio or here to hang on your wall.  I would really appreciate your support.

My girlfriend and I have pretty much decided that next spring, probably in April, that we will be moving to Alberta permanently as neither of us speak the French language and it’s virtually impossible for us to get permanent government jobs here in Ottawa, ON Canada.  With everything that’s going on with federal politics, and if the current guy in charge federally, we believe, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta will eventually separate from eastern Canada as the two are so different from each other.  But that’s another story.  

ON1 Photo Raw 19.5 is updated

Newly updated today.  Well, I updated ON1 Photo Raw 19.5 today.  They finally updated the profile for the Sony RX100 Mark VI thankfully.  It used to fringe on all four corners but that's been finally corrected.   With what's going on with Adobe, suing everyone, I am glad I don't subscribe  to Adobe CC anymore.  Affinity Photo and ON1 Photo Raw 19.5 is fantastic.  You should consider getting it if you're sick of paying a fee every month.

Podcasts

Spring is finally here in Ottawa.  Doesn't feel like it today with a windy, cold day.  Had to run around and get stuff done today.  I start a new contract on this coming Monday.  It's a long one.  Till March 31, 2020 with the possibility of two one year contract extensions.  I don't think I have to worry about a job looking for a job anytime soon.  Which is a good thing.  I need this.  It pays well too.  Above sixty five thousand dollars a year which is fantastic.  I'll be able to pay off some credit card debt and maybe go on a vacation or two.

To help out, I am thinking of creating some podcasts and doing photo reviews as a YouTube channel to earn some other money on the side.  I of course am not getting any support from family or the girlfriend.  They do not support my photography career.  But luckily I am not here to make everybody else happy.  I have to do what I enjoy doing.  And that is spending time with the camera.  

The good thing working in downtown Ottawa is I can bring my Sony RX100 Mark VI with me.  If you've read any of my previous posts, this is by far THE best pocket camera out there.  So after work, I can go walk around downtown Ottawa and take photos incognito with the Sony RX100 Mark VI and no one will notice.  During the summers, every Wednesday, there a lot of people doing yoga on Parliament Hill.  A few years back, I was on the hill with my Canon EOS 6D and a Canon f2.8 16-35mm lens.  I of course got stopped by the RCMP and told to show them what pictures I had taken because there were complaints about photographers "peeping" women with the spandex pants on.  I showed the RCMP my shots which were all wide angle shots of people on Parliament Hill.  With the Sony RX100 Mark VI, I can take those peeper shots and put the camera in my jean pocket and no one will be the wiser.  Except for me of course.  Now, I upload pretty much all my shots to Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks, so those peeper shots won't make it onto those sites.  This would of course make an excellent podcast about peeper photographers and the RCMP.

No social media

So I basically shuttered all my social media accounts a few months back.  Not that I was ever on Instagram, Twitter for long.  I was on Facebook for a long time but about two months ago, I closed my Facebook account for good.  Of all the “friends” I had on there, only two noticed.  Only two besides my girlfriend and her sister.  No one else noticed except for a photography friend and one guy that I worked with and remained friends with since 2014.  But people I’ve known since high school and college did not notice.  I don’t think any of them cared.  We didn’t talk daily, weekly or even once a month.  A few I’d talk to maybe a few times every couple of months but other than that.  No phone calls, no texts, no emails.

I’ve also noticed that since I’ve shuttered my Facebook account, I’m getting less and less job offers for photography and my full time IT job.  My day job as a matter of fact.  The red tape in government now, especially in Canada is amazingly bad.  A decision that could take half an hour now takes weeks, if not months.  As an example, I was notified a month ago that a company submitted my resume for a position that I’m extremely capable of doing.  My resume has wast on someones desk in Procurement for a month now.  The company cannot get a hold of the person in procurement for a status update.  Apparently my resume has been under review for that month.  Now, my resume is about 4 pages long.  I can read 4 pages in a few minutes.  This should take about 10-15 minutes for review.  Maybe half an hour to an hour max.  But four plus weeks.  I tell you, when people tell you government is inept, believe them.  Ninety five percent of the people working for government do not live in the real world where results matter.  When I have a client, I communicate daily with them.  If I run into any trouble, I let them know and most people understand.  Governments are just inept and they will fall under their own crushing weight and mismanagement.  

New place

Street corner at dusk

So, it only took 3 weeks to fully move in and get everything setup.  Finally pulled out the Sony A7ii camera with the 24-200MM lens.  We live on the night floor facing north ward towards the Gatineau Hills.  We had a really nice sunset tonight.  I wanted to do some long exposures tonight of the cars passing by.  This is probably the best shot I got tonight.  I really miss using the camera.

No more Parc Omega

After today, I am not planning on going to Parc Omega any time soon.  Lousy customer service, over priced and lack of photographic opportunity.  The animals were inactive today for the very first time.  The wolves and coyotes were sleeping all day.  I've been to the Timber wolves twice since they've moved them from one en-closer to another.  There are physically no angles to photograph the timber wolves at all.  You either have glass or fencing in front of you.  You also have little kids pushing in front of you and the parents aren't any better.  

Parc Omega has increased their prices on admission as well.  The food portions are small and extremely over priced.  Five dollars for a hot dog.  Three dollars for a warm pop.  It's almost like going on vacation in Cuba.  I've been going there for almost eleven years now and I've found the last four years, the photographic opportunities have been cut by seventy five percent.  The fences are high and the animals seem not to be as healthy as they used to be.  They are not as accessible as they once were.  My Shutterstock portfolio is mainly animals/nature shots.  Some of the photos and videos are my best sellers.  I think it's time I start photographing another subject.

The Sony RX100 Mark VI

 

Have I mentioned that I absolutely love the Sony RX100 Mark VI as a camera and a video camera???  It's an awesome pocket point and shoot camera.  Much better than any cell phone camera.  Of course it costs more than any cell phone and that is why it's a better camera.  If you think you're a photographer carrying around an Apple iPhone or a Samsung Galaxy or any other phone, you're not a photographer.  You're someone who just takes snaps with your cell phone.  That is it, that is all.  Sorry, not sorry to disappoint you.

By the skin of my teeth

I always seem to make it by the skin of my teeth.  I’ve been applying for jobs for 6 weeks now.  And finally got one.  I was supposed to have an interview today with a big government department.  Get down there half an hour early.  The guy I’m supposed to meet shows up 3 minutes before my interview.  We start talking.  He tells me the interview is going to be in French.  I tell him this was not discussed and no one told me this was a bilingual position.  I of course leave.  I email the pimp who sent me an email telling her what happened.  Do you think she replied to me?  Nope.  Not a word.  I honestly don’t know if I’ll ever deal with again.  This is the second time she’s done this to me.  I waste my time, money, wear and tear on my vehicle.  No apology.  No nothing.  

Luckily I got a position with another big department today.  Pay is absolutely horrendous.  But it’s a job and it’ll keep me from collecting Employment Insurance.  

I went and had a fantastic day yesterday at Parc Omega.  Got only 666 shots yesterday and only maybe a dozen good ones.  I do love my Sony A7II full frame camera.  Darkroom 4.1 came out last week and seems more stable.  Luckily I sold about $500US in photography last month which will save my arse to pay bills, rent and other stuff.  I love that photography is saving my rear end in the end.

Darkroom 4.0.2 versus Apple Photos

Darkroom 4.0.2 (current version) blow Apple Photos out of the water.  Apple Photos is just a digital asset management piece of software.  It doesn’t even do that well as Darkroom 4.0.2 does it much better.  Darkroom 4.0.2 is much more feature rich than Apple Photos.  There are of course a few things missing in Darkroom 4.0.2 like noise reduction, retouch, dodge and burn, layers, a graduated ND filter like feature and masking.  I would love if noise reduction and retouching would be added to the software.  That would be enough for me currently.  I hate switching apps to do just one thing in that app and finish off in Darkroom 4.0.2.  Apple Photos is just used for the import of photos and clips for me.  I’ve tried to use the software to edit my photos but it’s just not worth it.

Years ago, Apple had a really good digital asset management for semi-pro and pro photographers but discontinued it as apparently no one was buying it which I find kinda bullshitty.  I knew a lot of photographers in my area who had a Mac who used it.  At that time Adobe’s Lightroom DAM was buggy, slow and a waste of money.  I refuse to buy into Adobe’s subscription model especially on the iPad.

If you’re a photographer working on solely on the Apple iPad, I highly suggest Darkroom 4.0.2.  It’s not Photoshop or Affinity Photo but if you need quick, good editing software that acts like Lightroom without the monthly subscription I’d recommend Darkroom 4.0.2.  After publishing this blog post, I will go on the Apple App Store to write a review and ask for the necessary features to be added to Darkroom 4.0.2.

Pixelmator on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro

I went to Parc Omega yesterday to test out my new Sony a7ii camera with the new lens.  Took about 1800 or so shots.  I’m just processing them right now and I cam up to this shot of an American Field Buffalo with an American Field Buffalo calf.  As you can see from the photos above, one is more pleasing than the other.  The bottom shot has the result of what appears to be a very good meal.  With Pixelmator on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro, I was able to get rid of said poop and the image is more pleasing.  

I find it incredible that in 2019, I can sit at a local Tim Horton coffee shop and edit a roughly 47MB photo on a slab of glass that is roughly 5.7MM thick.  This slab has a 12.9” screen, 4GB of memory and a 512GB hard drive.  I wonder what we’re going to be using for photography in another 10 years and what we’re going to be editing on as well.  We live in interesting times.

Sony a7ii and the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-200MM lens

So I traded in some of my old Canon gear along with my Sony RX10 Mark II for the Sony a7ii camera body and the Sony f3.5-6.3 24-200MM lens.  I really wanted to go back to a full frame camera.  I loved the Sony RX10 Mark II but it was getting long in the tooth as far as tech goes.  I upgraded to the full frame Sony a7II full frame body as I want to do more landscape and astrophotography photography this summer.  A few weeks back the girlfriend and I traded in our cars for SUV’s so this summer we plan on going camping at various locations.

I tested the Sony a7ii for the first time today at Mud lake in the west end of Ottawa.  The lake was pretty much frozen over and the ice is probably a few feet thick due to the freezing temps we got this year along with the tonne of snow.  The only animals I saw today was a bunch of squirrels, nut hatches, chickadees and a few other little critters.  I am planning on going to Parc Omega tomorrow to further test the Sony a7ii.  Today I ordered an extra battery charger and a battery grip for the camera.  Hopefully the battery grip will be here in a few days.  I think Henry’s has some in their warehouse in Toronto so I’m hoping I get it by tomorrow or Thursday.

I am so done with shooting Canon and Nikon products.  I never really shot with Nikon but Canon is done for me.  It’s over priced and the camera bodies are lacking in features.  The Canon lenses are fantastic though.  Probably best in the photography business.  But the bodies are lacking features.

Darkroom App for 2018 Apple iPad Pro

It is so much better than the Apple Photos app on the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  Apple Photos is a piece of crap basically.  It is a featureless digital asset management app.  Darkroom is feature rich, almost like Adobe Lightroom CC.  I believe it cost less than $15 Canadian.  It is such a much better deal than any Adobe product.  I honestly hate the subscription model that Adobe, Microsoft, Apple use to sell their products.  Yes Apple is turning into a service company with services like Apple Music and their online storage services.

The only thing I haven’t found in the Darkroom app is noise reduction.  I typically shoot at ISO 100 during the day and I don’t see any noise at all when using the SOny RX100 Mark VI.  I can edit pretty much everything else with the Darkroom app.  I am just in love with the Apple iPad Pro and its simplicity and ease.  I’m off for a couple of days between contracts so tomorrow I am taking out the Canon Vixia HF G40 and shoot some footage.  I don’t know where yet but somewhere.

Some shots from Parc Omega

Just a sample of my day at Parc Omega this past Tuesday.  Wish I could get out there more often but work gets in the way.

My full 2018 Apple iPad Pro setup (Well, almost full setup)

So this will keep me pretty mobile since it all fits in a slim laptop bag.  I have my 2018 Apple iPad Pro with a 512GB SSD hard drive, my Sony RX100 Mark VI camera and a WD My Passport Wireless Pro (4TB) hard drive.  I just got the WD hard drive yesterday so I am still learning how to configure it and how to use it with the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  It seems like the WD wireless hard drive is pretty easy to setup over the network.  I’m sitting at a Tim Horton’s coffee shop right now and I’ve backed up a few thousand photos to the hard drive already.  It takes a while to upload all the photos and videos from the SD card used by the Sony RX100 Mark VI but it’s actually fast.

LumaFusion, my footage editing software actually has direct wireless access, once setup of course.  I still have to learn how to use LumaFusion as I’m coming from Final Cut Pro X on an early 2013 MacBook Pro.  I have to of course start watching some YouTube videos on the software.

But this setup is simple and easy to use.  I can set it up quite easily and be up and running in about a minute.  You can of course always email me here.  I am still learning how to be a film maker and such.  I never actually went to school for it.  Just took accounting, computers and photography in school.  This I will pick up on my own.  Oh yeah!  The photo was taken with an Apple iPhone 8 Plus.  Another tool in the pocket of a photographer.