This is one of my latest images that I really love how it turned out. The kids were playing with a tower of marbles, and I stole them from them (for 2 minutes) and photographed them in the jar. The setup was simple - I had my flash on a cord underneath the bottom of the jar. I had to play around with it a bit to get it right. In the end I think I had the flash about an inch or so from the bottom with the wide diffuser on it.

Sale number 3,000!

Well, here it is - my 3,000th sale!



And my 1,500th upload:




I've hit 2 downloads for every image online - a bit of a milestone in and of itself! The downloads per image ratio has always been of interest to me, because the fastest way to increase it in some respect is to stop uploading. If I were to suddenly post 100 images tomorrow, I'd be back under 2 - yet I've increased my sales potential. Hence why I don't try specifically to maximize the DPI number. I'm a lot more impressed by higher revenue per image online figures!

Leave IS turned on?

I've never really thought about leaving IS turned on, but a recent test I did proved to me that it is worth thinking about. When IS is first started up, the lens elements may move quickly to begin compensating for your camera's motion. This can actually move faster than the camera is moving! What does this mean? It means that if you take your camera from 'off' to taking a picture, the shot may be more blurred than without IS turned on, even with a fast shutter speed. I suggest turning IS off as a rule when shooting outdoors, unless you need it. Or pay attention and give the system the half second it needs to get working.

IS is great, but know when to turn it off, too. I find that with kids around you often want to take a shot 'right away'. With IS on you'll need to delay the shutter press just a bit to get optimal results... When I first got an IS lens it seemed like it didn't help at all until I learned this tip!

Focal length usage

I recently ran my images through a little program that tells you the number of times you've used a particular focal length, aperture, etc. Looking at the results, I can see why I'm so happy with my 24-105 zoom and 60mm macro. I'm pretty much focused on 28-100mm...
The 60mm macro explains the huge number of shots at that focal length, but clearly I don't get out the 17-24 range very much. The really low numbers indicate shots with a compact camera... There is a hump at 17mm, indicating that I'd probably go wider on occasion, if I had it, but not enough to justify an expensive lens.

2000 Sales

My stock photo sales are ticking right along - I passed 2000 sales this month! Here are some recent uploads:

Maximize your sensor

Different cameras have different aspect ratios, and this has various impacts on your photography. For isolated stock photos, I've found that there is a way to increase your use of the sensor. For example, on my Canon 40D it has a 3x2 ratio - 50% longer than it is high. If I'm shooting something long, I often find I can get closer (making the subject larger in the frame) if I shoot it corner to corner in the frame, rather than squared up. Ultimately, this means I get an image out of it that is longer in terms of pixels. In the example below, I did two shots:

1. Key horizontal in frame.
2. Key rotated about 40% so it went corner to corner.

The first obvious thing was that I had to actually move closer with my macro lens to fill the frame when I went corner to corner. Below you can see the result of taking the rotated key and making it straight (right side of image). I ended up with a larger image. Here I've just copped the head of the key to show the difference in size with a 100% crop.
What does this all mean? It means that for an isolated subject you end up with a larger file that normally possible with your camera - say a 12MB file by pixels from a 10MB sensor. I would expect a little loss of something when I rotate, but close inspection of these two images suggests it is more than made up by getting more pixels on each detail in the subject.

Happy shooting!

Happy Father's Day

I'm not the "Hallmark" Dad getting out and golfing, fishing or watching football with a beer, but I do love the actual 'Father' aspect of the day. I can't wait get away this weekend with the family and kids. Nothing else compares to the joy of raising kids and having a loving family... Happy Father's Day!