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I have had a computer since the mid 80s & this is the first time I’ve gotten anything. I started with PCs & had maybe two before going to Macs because the PCs crashed too often. It stinks to finally succumb. Still, you guys came through for me. 😘

Since the invasion of South American Fire Ants (Solenopsis sp) in Australia seems to be in the news almost on a daily basis, I thought I would upload a few shots of my unfortunate experience with them. I have avoided to show you gore, but if anyone is curious about the damage they inflict, you can search for 2X3B774 after the search engine update. Yes, that was me in the photo.

You are painting tight, then. Not that tight isn’t good, it just takes so long I’m bored with it before finishing. I paint looser, more impressionistic. I want it to look like a watercolor with artist’s liberty in colors, than have it look tight & realistic. I have a camera for that. The beauty of painting or any art is that we all have our own style & there is no wrong style, just the style that fits. I’d love to see your work, I’ll bet it’s beautiful.

Wow...!! Takes me 20-60 hours for a watercolour and 100+ hours for acrylic... 🙈

The Wikipedia article on the breed is worth reading, too. There are a few very rare breeds with similar ears, apparently, in Latin America. Also the name is spelled with and without moe than one capital letter: LaMancha and Lamancha. The Oklahoma U site is very useful for IDs of domestic breeds of just about anything, including yaks and camels.

All it takes is one bad programmer, and all the script kiddies download his program and run it. Ir's amazing how much damage IRC kiddies could do with programs from the Dark Web.

I feel Alamy might slowly go down the tubes as a result of their stance. Oh, well. I sold two of my watercolors this afternoon for more than I get here, and 100% of it is mine. Of course I have materials expenses, but they aren’t as much as camera equipment, a computer to develop the pictures on & software costs. Plus fuel for one’s car. These expenses we take upon ourselves to be a stock photographer seems to be disregarded by Alamy with the pittance we get these days. I could supply 50 watercolor artists with paints & paper for what I spent on one of my cameras. I can make a painting in the time it takes me to develop, keyword, upload & ready 10 images for sale in AIM. Add shooting the images to that, especially if I leave the house on a shoot, and I could make two paintings.

For decades of my life and career I was doing field expeditions, related to wildlife, sometimes quite tough. And I was so happy (and busy, actually) with that job that did not pay much attention to photography. But I lost all that a ~decade ago, am now just a laboratory rat and a weekend photographer-hobbyist..

One thing about it. Whether they license or not, you must like the out-of-doors & nature, or you wouldn’t be taking these images. When I was more able-bodied, that was me. I love to fish. I love catching fish. Whenever I’ve sat in a boat or on a bank, I don’t feel it was a wasted excursion if I don’t actually catch fish. I just love being out in nature. Watching fish leap, gulls swoop, and Great Blue Herons or egrets wade & fish. Didn't much care for the Mayfly swarm while fishing off a bank in the dark, though. Hundreds of those soft bodies hitting me in the face & everywhere, leaving their juices behind.

That's the first thing I noticed. No definition at all. Jill

Thanks, the baby-turtle is actually sunbathing on piles of algae at water surface 🙂 But otherwise yes, am a fan of an action... The coyotes is a different story. Spent another month to bring this girl to the stage where I could photograph her manually, with a short lens, combining flashes with long exposure to show the stars.

Yes - I noticed that in the meta-data. Newer tools have MUCH better noise reduction capabilities, which could have avoided this QC problem altogether. If you still have the RAW file, then try Adobe's new Denoise AI. Alternatively, if you want to post the RAW file somewhere I'll happily run it through Adobe Denoise AI and return the denoised DNG to you for your further processing. This gives an insight into what is now possible https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/04/18/denoise-demystified I also wondered if, (although you said the image was downsized to 4500 x 3000), whether it was actually cropped first as it just doesn't feel like a 50mm focal length shot to me. If so, that won't have helped either. Mark

Yes indeed. If Alamy continue with this approach (charge up front for costs, irrespective of likely validity of complaint) I'm concerned any images I've submitted which contain unreleased property or people are now a liability because Alamy are likely to charge me costs irrespective of whether the complaint has any merit. IMO this really isn't a viable approach for a photo library selling largely editorial images to take because contributors will simply stop submitting and/or remove the very images they need. I've no problem with paying costs once it's proven I've done something wrong, but not "up front" on a "just in case basis". I deleted a significant number of images when Clause 5.1 was introduced (images featuring unreleased artworks or focussing on individuals). Now I'm thinking of removing any images with logos in them. It reminds me of the assurances we were given that Alamy wasn't going to change the commission levels... Mark

Still using Elements 9, if you can believe that. Does the basic things I really need it to do for my pictures

Tickled me when I saw it too.

Got new specs a couple of months ago, special ones just for the computer. Maybe I need ones for using the camera. 😁

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to look and reply. Much appreciated. From what I'm reading it seems to be mostly the processing of the picture that is at fault, especially the amount of NR making it look plasticky. The amount I use is my standard setting for pictures shot at ISO 1600 but it seems to have been overkill for this one. I'll try reprocessing it with less and see what that does to the look of it. I was focusing on the splintered wood of the tree as I felt that was where the interest lay, so the foreground bark came out where it did. I do like the image so I would still like to upload it. It was a really, really dull day but it was my day off and I found the tree while taking the dog (and the camera) for a walk. A week later, in much better conditions, the tree had been cleared away, so it was a case of shoot it then or lose it. I will definitely try again because I feel there is potential there. Once I get it done I'll post it to the same site and I hope you'll be able to offer your opinions on it before I upload. Thanks again for your time and wise words. Brian

Adode sez this about whats needed for Denoise: "Need for speed. Denoise is by far the most advanced of the three Enhance features and makes very intensive use of the GPU. For best performance, use a GPU with a large amount of memory, ideally at least 8 GB. On macOS, prefer an Apple silicon machine with lots of memory. On Windows, use GPUs with ML acceleration hardware, such as NVIDIA RTX with TensorCores. A faster GPU means faster results." https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2023/04/18/denoise-demystified

In May 2021 there was considerable contributor concern expressed at the indemnify clause in the contributors contract. A forums Search shows that thread is still available. It appears that despite some assurances to the contrary ("...don’t worry if you don’t have a property release as all of these images can be sold editorially.") the fears expressed then have become reality.

Some last minute monochromes... The Lost World (El Mundo Perdido), Tikal, Guatemala CBXK3H Garden Buddha and friend 2X2YDR7 Art Deco design 2ACHYGE An empty chair FD3M3C Hydrangea flowers EBWDFR Marshland in Delta, British Columbia E9GPRC

I have become so careful to not click on anything that I didn’t expect to come my way. Still, the bad guys are one step ahead, thinking of new ways to get you. Such a shame that clever people use their skills for bad purposes.

I like the way you capture the movement. Not just a bird on a stick. (Like mine) Even the red-eared slider is swimming.

When I turned the computer on this morning, the box popped up but it asked me if I wanted to use it. I said no, & it disappeared. I’m not sure if all the bits are gone, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. Bridge is working again. Yay! I told my family I would no longer look at the links they send me. There’s only two culprits. 😎🥷

Give the credit to Rebecca, I only brought your attention to it!