Assignments, News, Art, and Stock

[John Mitchell]

17 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

You remind me of me in a whole different way. Your shyness vs my fear.   I’m terrified of spiders but put a camera with a macro lens at my face and I can get closer than I ever imagined I could. Weird how that works.

 

That's quite a ferocious looking beast. Very effective lighting. I've always been in awe of spiders. They are nature's engineers. Mind you, sharing a sleeping bag with one isn't much fun. 😨

[John Mitchell]

On 01/12/2020 at 22:05, Colblimp said:

 

I don’t do art, there’s not an artistic bone in my body!  

 

I don't know about that. We're all natural artists as children. I think that Edo's comment about trying to put some art in every image wins the prize.

[Betty LaRue]

3 hours ago, John Mitchell said:

 

That's quite a ferocious looking beast. Very effective lighting. I've always been in awe of spiders. They are nature's engineers. Mind you, sharing a sleeping bag with one isn't much fun. 😨

You should see me when one has crawled on me. People hear me scream in the next town. Then I hurt myself.
I once stripped all of my clothes off after walking through a web in the dark. The snap was so loud it was like a rubber band breaking. I had seen the spider before and it was huge!  After the clothing left me, I went to work beating my hair. Why my heart continued beating is a miracle.

[Betty LaRue]

1 minute ago, Betty LaRue said:

You should see me when one has crawled on me. People hear me scream in the next town. Then I hurt myself.
I once stripped all of my clothes off after walking through a web in the dark. The snap was so loud it was like a rubber band breaking. I had seen the spider before and it was huge!  After the clothing left me, I went to work beating my hair. Why my heart continued beating is a miracle.

Edit: yes, it was dark, I was in my own backyard, and nobody saw me but my husband who enjoyed the show while laughing hysterically.

[Chuck Nacke]

I don't do insects, except for once on assignment for TIME on Killer Bees, I was attacked by one and it chased me about 100 feet

and stung me on the left eye lid.  Somewhere I have a chrome of the bee that chased me and stung me in the eye (shot on the run with

a Canon T90 and 20mm f2.8 prefocused),  I was working with California biologists who confirmed it was a "Killer Bee." 

 

PS Andy, 

 

Did not mean to offend you, somewhere back there in the forum, if you are going to do news you need a bit thicker skin....

My comment about "Youth is wasted on the Young" is a cliche' that I say often. I often say to kids covering demonstrations

"I have shoes older than you and I'm standing in them."  In the news picture business, the bottom line is the picture you produce.

 

Best,

 

Chuck

[John Mitchell]

54 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said:

You should see me when one has crawled on me. People hear me scream in the next town. Then I hurt myself.
I once stripped all of my clothes off after walking through a web in the dark. The snap was so loud it was like a rubber band breaking. I had seen the spider before and it was huge!  After the clothing left me, I went to work beating my hair. Why my heart continued beating is a miracle.

 

Here on the BC coast, we see mainly common garden spiders, which look harmless -- even pretty -- compared to the big, hairy one in your pic. One of these "nursery orbs" showed up in a plant in our front yard. Not sure I'd ever seen one before. It's amazing how many babies are crammed in there.

 

Edited December 3, 2020 by John Mitchell

[Jose Decio Molaro]

On 01/12/2020 at 11:58, Bill Kuta said:

I got into stock photography as a retirement avocation--started planning and gearing up in the late 1990's. What appealed (and still does) is the chance to make a little money (although "little" is becoming a bigger factor) while shooting photos, which I have been enjoying since the 1960's, with a large degree of freedom. I'm still enjoying the whole stockosphere, including this forum.

 

Along the way, I got to experience submitting slides, then digitizing slides, then the digital epiphany. Tried a variety of stock sites, most of which have disappeared. Alamy is the last one standing for me. 

 

Have never really done assignments or news. 

 

Apparently I too put some art into some of my stock photos, since the 15% of my stock that I put on FAA have made more than my Alamy portfolio this year (am having a down year here).

what is FAA, any association related to art or photography? 

[Colblimp]

12 minutes ago, Jose Decio Molaro said:

what is FAA, any association related to art or photography? 

Fine Art America, I think.

[Marianne]

Double post - the quote was missing

 

Edited December 3, 2020 by Marianne

[Marianne]

15 minutes ago, Jose Decio Molaro said:

what is FAA, any association related to art or photography? 

 

FAA is Fine Art America - it's a place to sell prints with your more artistic images, or travel, landscape and nature images that people would enjoy hanging on their wall. 

[AM Chang]

1 hour ago, Jose Decio Molaro said:

what is FAA, any association related to art or photography? 

 

FAA (Fine Art America) is an art marketplace and print-on-demand technology company.
They print the images on different products.

 

[Portuguese]
FAA (Fine Art America) é uma empresa de tecnologia de impressão sob demanda y mercado de arte.
Eles imprimem as imagens em diferentes produtos.

 

andre

[Betty LaRue]

Not only wall art, but some recent sales were mugs and face masks. It’s a nice place to go for that arty face mask. I have a few of my own work, and have three more coming along with a new phone case to fit my iPhone 12 Pro Max that’s on order.

[Betty LaRue]

On 03/12/2020 at 02:25, Colblimp said:

Isn’t it really strange?  I couldn’t shoot a spider, though, I detest them 😂

It seems the most often things people have an extra shot of fear of is...spiders and snakes.
Once when we only had one car, I’d kept it for the day. Took my husband to work, then went back to pick him up. I’d moved over to the passenger seat when he came out with a box with a lid, about 8”x 8”. He sat it down in the middle, and said he forgot something and went back into the building.

Little did I know he and his coworkers were peeking through tiny slits of the blinds watching me.

I look at the box. Look away. Look at the box, look away. Reach over and pick up the box to see if it was heavy. Set it down. Finally I nudge the lid off. A realistic-looking imitation snake, mouth open showing fangs sprang up.

Everyone got a good laugh watching me claw at the side window, too panicked to find the door handle.

Edited December 4, 2020 by Betty LaRue

[Colblimp]

11 hours ago, Betty LaRue said:

It seems the most often things people have an extra shot of fear of is...spiders and snakes.
Once when we only had one car, I’d kept it for the day. Took my husband to work, then went back to pick him up. I’d moved over to the passenger seat when he came out with a box with a lid, about 8”x 8”. He sat it down in the middle, and said he forgot something and went back into the building.

Little did I know he and his coworkers were peeking through tiny slits of the blinds watching me.

I look at the box. Look away. Look at the box, look away. Reach over and pick up the box to see if it was heavy. Set it down. Finally I nudge the lid off. A realistic-looking imitation snake, mouth open showing fangs sprang up.

Everyone got a good laugh watching me claw at the side window, too panicked to find the door handle.

Oh my goodness, that alone is grounds for divorce!  Any spiders I see, my GF has to deal with them, I just can't do it and yet I wouldn't want them squashed under a shoe, just released into the wild.🤣

[Allan Bell]

I'm fearful of gorillas. Don't know how some people can go and sit in the wild surrounded by them.

 

Allan

 

[NYCat]

Here you go, Allan.  

 

 

Paulette

[MizBrown]

On 01/12/2020 at 11:46, Betty LaRue said:

As far as travel goes, I’m sitting here with no glorious scenery to shoot. No mountains, oceans, mesas, deserts. Just blah. Not even pretty lakes here.

I doubt I’ll be getting to do much, if any, travel.

 

Ever been to the Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas?   I only had a point and shoot with me when I was out there, and would have like to have had a better camera.   Also, some historical sites in the area -- a friend of mine and I and my little dog stayed overnight at a small luxury hotel in Cottonwood Falls. 

 

The Preserve had plans to reintroduce bison when we were there, but hadn't done it yet.  They have now: 

 

https://www.nps.gov/tapr/index.htm

 

The woman who ran the hotel and restaurant introduced us to a cattle buyer and to someone who knew about a falcon breeding program (closed by that time) that had sold hybrid falcons to middle eastern falconers.  I think they had moved  on to reptile breeding. 

 

And I haven't photographed the luffa gourd plant growing out over the telephone or electric wires over a street near here, with the gourds dangling, or the two volunteer plants (weeds) that my phone's app ID'ed recently in my courtyard.  I feel sorry for myself being stuck in Jinotega, Nicaragua, sometimes.  Most of what Alamy offers for Nicaragua outside Granada are scenes of violence and civil strife or concocted graphics about a non-existent lockdown here (nope, Ortega said given how poor Nicaragua was, that would kill the country).   I'm currently moderating a Spanish-language orchid lovers group and have come to the conclusion that the people north of the Rio Bravo are clueless about Latin America. 

 

Don't know if you have a car or not.   These days, Alamy seems to be calling for local travel inside various countries for those country's citizens.   After the pandemic, getting around should be easier, but I wouldn't get on a local bus until after the vaccine, and even then would probably wear a mask.   Here does have local buses to about everywhere, though often very crowded. 

[Ed Rooney]

On 05/12/2020 at 09:54, Colblimp said:

Oh my goodness, that alone is grounds for divorce!  Any spiders I see, my GF has to deal with them, I just can't do it and yet I wouldn't want them squashed under a shoe, just released into the wild.🤣

 

On an airline shoot in the Amazon, I was sitting with my guide, resting, when something fell from a tree and bounced off my head. It was a goliath birdeater tarantula, the largest spider in the world. I made no attempt to pet it. 

[spacecadet]

1 minute ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

On an airline shoot in the Amazon, I was sitting with my guide, resting, when something fell from a tree and bounced off my head. It was a goliath birdeater tarantula, the largest spider in the world. I made no attempt to pet it. 

Our Ed, eh? He's been there, got the T-shirt, and been bounced off by the tarantula.

[Allan Bell]

51 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

Our Ed, eh? He's been there, got the T-shirt, and been bounced off by the tarantula.

 

He has been everywhere, done everything and danced with famous ladies.

 

Allan

 

[Ed Rooney]

Did I tell about dancing with Myrna Loy?

 

I've not been everywhere. Never been to India, Greece, Cuba, or New Orleans. Too late now. Of the places I've stayed in theses last two years, San Miguel has the best, healthiest, and most affordable food. 😉

[spacecadet]

1 minute ago, Ed Rooney said:

Did I tell about dancing with Myrna Loy?

😮Now that's a name to drop. Extra respect (on top of the existing respect).

[Avpics]

I'd choose news and stock from the given options. I still don't really know how I ended up here as it was never a plan but there came a realisation about five years or so ago that I had drives full of acceptable quality images of who, what, where's and whens, and forty odd years of reading publications and that there was a correlation between the two that the former might be of use to the latter. And that was all there was to it, initially. A few years of just uploading old images, then adding some new ones, and then the new shoots took over. Never had any training. A weekend warrior, the type that some love to hate. Being an hour's train ride from London I learned that you can just rock up at a protest march, or catch an MP outside Parliament, and sell that as news, so that became another string to the bow, and then some sport. Having finally finished working through the old stuff 2020 was going to be a year of pushing to get into more events and finding outlets to sell more...... I'll try again in 2021!

[Betty LaRue]

3 hours ago, MizBrown said:

 

Ever been to the Tall Grass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas?   I only had a point and shoot with me when I was out there, and would have like to have had a better camera.   Also, some historical sites in the area -- a friend of mine and I and my little dog stayed overnight at a small luxury hotel in Cottonwood Falls. 

 

The Preserve had plans to reintroduce bison when we were there, but hadn't done it yet.  They have now: 

 

https://www.nps.gov/tapr/index.htm

 

The woman who ran the hotel and restaurant introduced us to a cattle buyer and to someone who knew about a falcon breeding program (closed by that time) that had sold hybrid falcons to middle eastern falconers.  I think they had moved  on to reptile breeding. 

 

And I haven't photographed the luffa gourd plant growing out over the telephone or electric wires over a street near here, with the gourds dangling, or the two volunteer plants (weeds) that my phone's app ID'ed recently in my courtyard.  I feel sorry for myself being stuck in Jinotega, Nicaragua, sometimes.  Most of what Alamy offers for Nicaragua outside Granada are scenes of violence and civil strife or concocted graphics about a non-existent lockdown here (nope, Ortega said given how poor Nicaragua was, that would kill the country).   I'm currently moderating a Spanish-language orchid lovers group and have come to the conclusion that the people north of the Rio Bravo are clueless about Latin America. 

 

Don't know if you have a car or not.   These days, Alamy seems to be calling for local travel inside various countries for those country's citizens.   After the pandemic, getting around should be easier, but I wouldn't get on a local bus until after the vaccine, and even then would probably wear a mask.   Here does have local buses to about everywhere, though often very crowded. 

Yes, I do have a car, (dependable Subaru crossover) and going to the Tallgrass Preserve is on my bucket list. I will wait until everything is green again. I have driven around in the countryside and photographed some barns, crops and such. I need to go back to the Amish community less than an hour away and see if I can get anything there. I came up dry the first time I went.
My crossover SUV sits up high enough I can go off-road if I need to.
I had thought to go to Dodge City for the history,  but a local said it isn’t what I would expect...wasted trip. Plus it’s already well-covered here.

[Ed Rooney]

Are you far from Kansas City, Betty? I did a piece on the famous BBQ place there. But they had good BBQ in Dallas too. I get the brisket. 

 

Edited December 7, 2020 by Ed Rooney