September 2014 Stock Earnings

Well September jumped back up again.

I could brag about best months ever etc. but then its not that hard to achieve those when your starting from such a low point and most of my portfolio are editorial images.

So what can I do to increase earnings, have already touched on people images, I havent made any moves on that yet. Getting access to objects at no cost is something I've already taken some steps with a local collectable store allowing me to photograph objects, although these will all be editorial, so just need to find some places where i can access objects which can be royalty free. Video is the third option, I just keep forgetting to charge the camera up and take it with me when I'm out.

July and August 2014 Stock Photography

Well July continued the upward trend, however in August while Shutterstock continued the upward trend unfortunately Istockphoto did not. Incurred a big dip in download numbers which obviously results in a dip in actual dollars earned.

I know from all the research I've done ups and downs are normal so I'm not concerned about it at this stage. Just keep plugging away.

Here's the graph

Also you should notice that unfortunately the graph shows that download numbers are increasing at a faster rate than the dollars earned. this is a worrying trend and quite clearly the result of the majority of stock photo sites pushing the price to the end user down.

Total downloads and earnings took a small dive for the month of August. I could spend hours trying to analyse why but will never really know the answer. I would assume though that it does appear that if you are not uploading regularly it effects your portfolios performance. The sites that I had previously mentioned I had stopped uploading to have all nosedived in August.

Would be nice to see at least one more zero before the decimal point but it appears that will take some time and perseverance.

Lego Minifigures

Recently posted an advertisement on gumtree offering to photograph people's Lego minifigure collection for free, unfortunately the only response was from a person in Canberra. Bit too far to go when there is no guarantee that i would make anything significant.

Maybe people thought there was a catch, there isnt!!! Plain and simple we will photograph your collection, provide you with copies of the images, which you can use for personal use and we use the images in our stock photography portfolio which is where we hopefully over time will get a return on the time investment.

So if you're in Adelaide let us know if you're interested.

Negative Feedback

In one way or another we all have copped some negative feedback regardless of what line of work you are in. Generally when it comes to the workplace this is usually handled privately, you are given the chance to discuss and resolve/improve on the situation.

However when working for yourself and with the rise of the internet you don't get that opportunity. With places such as Facebook and directories where reviews can be left without the right to respond you can really cop some very unfair representations of you and your business.

And the old wives tale where if people have something negative to say they will tell everyone but people with positive things to say generally don't share it unless asked seems to be very true.

I recently came across a negative review I was unaware of. This one negative review happened to be the only review on very high traffic site so I can only assume has been very damaging.

All the positive comments I've received,emails,letters and thank you cards would far outweigh this one negative review well you would think so but apparently not. 

Another old wives tale comes to mind here " There are two sides to a story and the truth will lie someone in between". 

Stock Photography Earnings for June 2014

Well a bit of a welcome spike in June 2014 earnings, still nothing to write home about but encouraging. I continue to work on my portfolio as really I dont have a lot of choice. All earnings from other forms of photography have taken a significant dive over the past 12 months. 

Its been an year of ups and downs, starting the financial year with the birth of my third daughter, then battling through the illness and eventual passing of my mother late February 2014. Then from early May have had some Family legal issues regarding access to the oldest two daughters which has taken its toll.

So haven't had as much time as I would have liked to work on my portfolio, I suppose the other issue holding the portfolio back is that I'm not keen on photographing people, particularly models who expect payment.


The sites I have images on are IStockPhoto, Shutterstock, BigStockPhoto, Dreamstime, 123rf, Canstockphoto, Alamy, Depositphotos, Fotolia and Mostphotos.

Unfortunately most of these sites dont provide with me enough Downloads/Royalties to bother reporting on. Hence the reason I now do not upload to 123rf, Canstockphoto, Alamy, Depositphotos and Mostphotos anymore.

The Graph

The above graph includes statistics from IStockPhoto, Shutterstock, BigStockPhoto and Dreamstime from May 2014 onwards, prior to that all sites are included.

I keep these statistics as it shows over time where I'm best to devote my time. Each of these sites have their own worksheets which include trendlines, so over a period of time i can quickly see where each site is trending.

For example Istockphoto is on a reasonable upward trend, Shutterstock is on a significant upward trend, Dreamstime is on an insignificant upward trend and Bigstock is on a downwards trend. Of course this is looking at the royalties only, you could analyze things to death but $$$$'s is really the only thing which counts. Istock and Shutterstock are on significant upwards trends for downloads, Dreamstime and Bigstock are stagnant.

Based on the latest review it appears that Istock and Shutterstock are the sites I should focus my efforts on and only bother uploading to the others if I have time.

After a big gap I have only started uploading to Fotolia again, so they are not included in the current stats but will be in the future.

So dont get sucked in by those ads that all of these sites run that give you the impression its easy to make money from your photos. Bottom line is that its not easy, the rewards are there if you have some patience and really put some concerted effort into what your doing but it will take some time. I'm not there yet! My first goal is to consistently receive a minimum of $1,000 per month from these sites, so I'm only about 5-10% of the way there.

Wedding Photography Special

We are currently offering a very special deal at the moment.

Any Wedding photography booking received by the 30th of June 2013 can expect 10% off our already pretty reasonable pricing.

Check www.ctrphotos.com or our facebook page for example images.


Our current packages

Package Name	Inclusions	Normal pricing	Winter/weekday discount
Bronze	4 Hours of photography Unlimited locations within time allocation High Resolution Colour and black & White Jpeg files on Disc	$690	$550
Silver	Coverage until 1st hour of reception Unlimited locations within time allocation High Resolution Colour and black & White Jpeg files on Disc DVD Slideshow disc	$1090	$890
Gold	Coverage until 10pm Unlimited locations within time allocation High Resolution Colour, black & White and Midnight Sepia Jpeg files on Disc DVD Slideshow disc	$1390	$1190

Weekday weddings are considered Monday to Friday excluding public holidays

Winter weddings are considered any day within the period 1^st of June to the 31^st of August

Travel charges may apply outside of Adelaide Metro Area

Fleurieu Peninsula Photography Day Tour

Recently ran our first of these day tours and was great to see it sold out!!!!! We encountered a little bit of light rain in the morning for about 10-15 minutes but otherwise the weather was perfect for the rest of the day.

Apart from one of the locations we have intentionally sought out locations which arent so well known such as

Talisker Mines
Cape Jervis
Second Valley
Ingalalla Waterfalls
Port Willunga

It was a very enjoyable day for all and a good learning experience using filters which most had not used much before. Filters such as circular polarisers, graduated filters and neutral density filters.

We have programmed in a couple of new dates, so if learning some more about your camera and filters, spending the day with other keen photographers appeals you can book in here

http://www.eventbrite.com.au/event/6115727305/eorg

Here's a few photos from the day

View from Talisker Mines lookout over Backstairs Passage towards Kangaroo Island

Rocky Beach at Cape Jervis

View from Cape Jervis Beach back towards the lighthouse and Kangaroo Island

Pebble Beach at Second Valley

Second Valley

Rock formations at Second Valley

Reflections in a water pool at Ingalalla Waterfalls

Typical australian rural scene outside of Normanville

Jetty ruins at Port Willunga

Light Painting Nights

Something new we have recently setup, not a workshop as such just a night that a group people can get together and have fun with light painting. We have quite a few materials we bring along on the night for people to have fun with including sparklers,laser pointers, torches, led lights.

And a special technique to create images such as the one below is used throughout the night.

The nights are run at various locations throughout the Adelaide CBD check them out here

http://www.eventbrite.com.au/org/2765568408

This link will take you to the booking site for all our workshops and tours, come and join in and have some fun with us.

Night Time Photography Workshops

Our popular night time workshop is currently live on scoopon

http://www.scoopon.com.au/deals/16093/cbd---master-the-art-of-night-photography-in-a-three-hour-workshop

Check it out and join in on the fun.

Photo Piracy

We are probably all aware of the piracy issues surrounding movies, software etc. but it seems when it comes to photographs many people have no clue they may be actually breaking the law when they copy that photo from flickr or google images.

As a photographer when you create an image you hold the copyright of that photograph and as a result you hold the right to make money from that photograph and to some degree control the usage of that image.
The main difference is that unlike the movie or software industries where there are major international organisations which enforce copyright no such body exists for photographers.

The reason I write about this was that when visiting the Royal Adelaide Hospital recently some of their promotional material displayed in public places clearly contained images which had been stolen. Its hard enough for photographers to make a living and it makes it even harder when our government bodies are either uneducated or couldn't care less.

Here's the image which you can quite clearly see the copyright warning from a company called Inmagine. Other images on the notices I would suspect were also lifted from the internet without payment as an easy give away is that the image has been blown up behind its resolution and becomes blocky. Our government departments should know better!!!!

Now this photographer deserves payment for their work, there is the potential that significant costs were incurred in the creation of this image. It could be a paid model, a makeup artist may have been needed, the cost of travel to this location etc.

I would encourage you to report these instances if you see them around, if there is a watermark or copyright notice on the image it has been stolen. Simply take a photo and send it to the company indicated in the watermark.

Unfortunately because there is no body protecting us we as individuals have to take action when we see things like this.

Sad Times

A bit of a shock to the system.

A fortnight ago my mother was advised that she basically had terminal cancer. It would be highly unlikely that medicos would be able to cure/remove the cancer and advised that she would only have a matter of months if she chose not to have chemo or 12-18 months if she did.

Well firstly let me say some doctors need to learn some people skills, fancy telling someone that when they are in hospital not well, already scared, no-one to support them at the time and until that moment we had been led to believe that the cancer could be operated on.

But the reason I post this is that we know that doctors arent always right with their predictions and was hoping someone out there might have some positive stories to share. People who have defied doctors predictions or even beaten so called inoperable cancer. Would love to hear them as I think she needs to hear some positive stories.

Spammers

Well maybe its just a coincidence but ever since the current workshop deal went live, a spammer seems to be clogging my inbox. A spammer is currently sending out emails but using our email address as the return email address, so therefore our inbox is getting clogged as they are sending out thousands of emails (over 6,000 since midnight last night).

Not sure how to resolve it or even if i can, any IT gurus out there following this blog? Would appreciate any advice as genuine customers emails are bouncing back because of this problem.



23/7/12 - Well an update.....after much searching around the net appears there is no real solution to this problem. Initially implemented Spam Assassin on our websites server, however unknown to us it was also discarding legitimate emails from our customers and not delivering them to us. It appears that it is blocking any emails being sent to us from free email services such as hotmail,yahoo,gmail etc. any messages sent from health services and a few others.  We are up to date on the emails we have actually received, so if you have not had a response, please let us know, we arent ignoring you, we simply havent received your email due to this software.
Its now been switched off so hopefully any emails will get through now. A word based filtering system has been implemented, which should block these spam messages from getting through and allow legitimate emails to be received.

Fingers crossed!!!!

Scoopon Workshops

Our popular day time workshop is currently on scoopon at the moment.

This will be the last time it runs at its current location as we are in the process of finding a new area to run the workshop in. If you have any suggestions let us know, currently looking at either the East end of Adelaide or Victoria Square.

You can find the deal at http://www.scoopon.com.au/deals/14615/three-hour-hands-on-photography-masterclass-in-the-cbd

Night Workshops

Very chilly last night in Adelaide and the usual from the city council not everything was lit up, this workshop it was the cross near St Peters that was not illuminated. Despite this the people that attended enjoyed themselves and appeared to learn a lot.

Here's a couple of photos I managed to have the time to take.

Experimenting with some light painting during the night we managed to come up with this shot.

 This one was taken without using a light source to emphasis the difference.

And this one is using the light source, notice in the first photo we cant see the tree in the foreground, however in the second we can clearly see the tree after painting it with some light.

If you would like to attend one of our workshops and learn some of these techniques please get in touch via the contact section on our website.

The Apeture Experiment

Different lenses will give slightly different results, so heres a little experiment you can do to test the capabilities of your lens and help you gain a better understanding of what will happen as you adjust the  apeture setting on your camera.

The experiment is to take three photographs of exactly the same thing, one photo at the lowest setting your lens will allow, one middle of the range and one at the highest setting, making sure each photo is focussed on the object.

You should see something similar to this happening.

The first photo is taken with an aperture setting of 2.8

The second is taken with an aperture setting of 8

The third is taken with an aperture setting of 16

You should notice as the setting increases so does the depth of field, bringing more of the background into focus as well.

Our photographs

Have been asked at workshops recently where people can find some our work. Here's a few places you can see it.

Our main website
http://www.ctrphotos.com/

Redbubble portfolio
http://www.redbubble.com/people/rickyc

Stock portfolio
Istockphoto

Upcoming Day Time Workshop Dates

We currently have the following times and dates available, please email any bookings or queries



Workshops are held in elder park and are subject to a minimum booking numbers of eight and the weather of course. If you missed out on grabbing one of the coupons offered over the past several months, no fear you can attend at the discounted price and just pay cash on the day.

Bookings via email are essential

Wed 6/6 1pm-4pm
Wed 13/6 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm
Fri 15/6 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm
Sat 16/6 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm (Scoopons with an expiry date of 15/5 will not be honoured past this point)
Wed 20/6 1pm-4pm
Wed 27/6 1pm-4pm
Wed 11/7 1pm-4pm
Fri 13/7 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm
Sat 14/7 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm
Wed 18/7 1pm-4pm
Wed 25/7 1pm-4pm
Fri 27/7 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm
Sat 28/7 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm

Moving Premises

Moving premises over the next few days, looking forward to having a dedicated workspace!!! :) Unfortunately Telstra advises I wont have internet access for a few business days, will back soon, posting lots of new info and tips!

Hayley and Aram's Wedding

Another day where the sky was a bit threatening and it did rain. Luckily the rain held off until we made it to the reception. The ceremony was a small church in Westbourne Park and the reception was at the Glandore Community Centre.

Here's a few photos from the day. We had plenty of time and visited Veale Gardens, Art Alley and Pinky Flat.

 Camera Settings  ISO - 1250   Shutter Speed - 1/500   F-Stop - 2.8    Focal Length - 70mm

 Camera Settings  ISO - 1600   Shutter Speed - 1/160   F-Stop - 5    Focal Length - 38mm

Veale Gardens

 Camera Settings  ISO - 200   Shutter Speed - 1/800   F-Stop - 8    Focal Length - 24mm

Art Alley

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/100   F-Stop - 5.6    Focal Length - 24mm

Art Alley

 Camera Settings  ISO - 200   Shutter Speed - 1/200   F-Stop - 2.8    Focal Length - 70mm

Art Alley

 Camera Settings  ISO - 200   Shutter Speed - 1/1250   F-Stop - 2.8    Focal Length - 98mm

Art Alley

 Camera Settings  ISO - 200   Shutter Speed - 1/160   F-Stop - 5.6   Focal Length - 70mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/80   F-Stop - 5.6    Focal Length - 14mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/2500   F-Stop - 2.8    Focal Length - 15mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/800   F-Stop - 5.6    Focal Length - 14mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/800   F-Stop - 6.3    Focal Length - 14mm

Pinky Flat

 Camera Settings  ISO - 320   Shutter Speed - 1/1000   F-Stop - 6.3    Focal Length - 14mm

Congratulations to Hayley and Aram.

If you would like to talk to us about your wedding check out our website at http://www.ctrphotos.com/

David and Hayley's Wedding

David and Hayley were married on the 2nd of March and I was lucky enough to be their photographer for the day.


The weather looked a bit threatening at times on the day but no rain arrived to spoil the day.
The lovely couple held their ceremony at Westminster College and then the reception at the Seacliff beach hotel. Photos were taken at Westminster and at seacliff.

Congrats to David and Hayley!!!!

The detail on Hayley's beautiful dress

Camera settings ISO - 1000     Shutter speed - 1/100  F Stop - 3.2  Focal Length - 38mm 

The beautiful Hayley

Camera settings   ISO - 2000   Shutter speed - 1/80   F Stop - 2.8   Focal Length - 34mm

The Ceremony Location - Westminster College

Camera settings   ISO - 400   Shutter speed - 1/1000   F Stop - 9   Focal Length - 24mm

My Favourite of the happy couple taken at Westminster

Camera settings   ISO - 400   Shutter speed - 1/125   F Stop - 2.8   Focal Length - 24mm

The view at dinner time

Camera settings   ISO - 400   Shutter speed - 1/6400   F Stop - 11   Focal Length - 70mm

The Standout of the day, taken about 10 minutes after the sun had dipped below the horizon, the lighting comes from my portable 100w spotlight, a similar effect could be achieved with flash. I love this photo as we catch the last moments of sunlight left in the sky in the background and we happened to catch the first star of the night just above them.

Camera settings ISO - 2000 Shutter speed - 1/125 F Stop - 3.2 Focal Length - 24mm