Photo sales

I've been doing a lot of research and thinking (and a little action) into the best way to try and sell some if my photos.  While I've done some event photography and shot some weddings, my real passion creating amazing landscape, nature and still life prints... so I figure I should follow it.  This article is basically some rambling and thinking out loud, hopefully it will give you some ideas about directions to go in photography or maybe you can leave some comments giving me some direction.  Anyway here it goes...

Right now I have many of my 'art' photos for sale on Redbubble, I also have them displayed on my web site with links to my bubblesite where appropriate.  I also use my web site to sell photos from events I've shot, so I could use this option to sell my art photos as well.  I really like Redbubble because I don't have to do anything when someone orders a photo.  I don't like Redbubble because the base price is high, the don't offer 'normal' prints and they only have a few products I really like.

There's also a printer in Brisbane called Brilliant prints who do excellent affordable canvas prints and have recently started doing block mounted photos prints which look great and are even more affordable (I have to two photos below block mounted on my wall).  But the don't do framing, cards, calendars or 'normal' prints.  I've often wondered about giving up on redbubble and just using these guys and maybe supplement it with another standard photo printer but it would be a lot of work to set-up (print sizes and cost on web site) and I'd have to do 'stuff' whenever an order came through.  I'm still pondering this option if I could find a (singular) good printer and framer to work with.

Another option is that I've just joined Imagekind who do 'normal' prints, framing and canvas printing in a Redbubble type set-up with lots of size, paper type, mat and frame options.  But they are US based and I don't want to have to point to both redbubble and these guys from my web site. Just to make things interesting I've got a Zazzle account that is somewhere inbetween Imagekind and CafePress (I also have an account with these guys but the 'free' account isn't much use to me) which I'm using to create posters, postcards and different calendar formats.

The other thing I've found is that people are more likely to buy a print or calendar if it is physically there in front of them, particularly for less-computer-savvy generations.  This is hard, because it means you need to have up front $$ to buy the products and you need somewhere to display them.  It is even more important if you are going to sell postcards, these are normally bough from a store, somewhere near when the photo would have been taken.  So this involves doing more research into printers that have products you want at good prices which also involves buying in bulk to save $$ but first requiring you to spend more $$.

This means I now have images strewn all over the internet, three sales sites (four if you include my attempts with cafepress), one flickr site, facebook site, my web site, I have a blog (two actually), a twitter account, myspace account, a printer in Brisbane and are pondering getting calendars, prints, cards and/or postcards physically into various stores/galleries/cafe's.  Which all adds up to one big mess.

So I hope you weren't expecting me to come to a conclusion about the best way to do photo sales coz I'm going to leave it there for now and keep thinking and working to, well, see what works.  Let me know if you have any comments, thoughts or ideas.  If you are in the same place as me, GOODLUCK!

Night vision, photography and dung beetles.

Ever wondered what dung beetles have to do with photography, night vision and road safety?  Check out this article for nature inspired pixle binning, HDR and image processing being used to try and help drivers see in the dark.

Dung beetles' secret superpower: ultimate night sight

Christmas pressies!

As we are all well aware, Christmas is looming fast and the race is on to find gifts for everyone. While I'm sure I'm not the only one that's a bit over all the Christmas marketing hype, it'd be silly not to take this opportunity to give you a few nice, unique, artistic gift ideas (and if it helps I can beg and plead as well . . . ).

Cards:
The quality of Redbubble cards is fantastic and they are excellent value as well so it's not surprising they are my best sellers (thanks Mum)! But if you are looking for a vibrant unique Christmas (or any other occasion) card then this is a great place to start! Order some now!

Prints:

There are a variety of options if you are want one of my photos as an art print, the easiest one is to go through Redbubble who have a large variety of print formats, or if you want something a little more specific (or just a bigger print) then I can probably arrange something for you. With Redbubble you can order; framed prints, canvases, mounted prints, laminated prints and posters. If you want a custom job then I can arrange canvas prints or photo prints mounted on a foam core backing. I've ordered canvas prints of both the images shown below, the bottom one from Redbubble and top at 1.2m wide from Brilliant prints and both look excellent. Order from Redbubble or contact me for custom prints.

2010 Calendars

The Redbubble calendars are fantastic and I've just finished putting together another one of the Sandy Point area (show to the right). It gives you the chance to have a new photo displayed on your wall every month and at the end of the year you've got 12 photos to do what you like with. I actually cut up my old calendar and stuck the photos up around my desk at work (my day job that is) to bring a little tranquility to my day. RedBubble calendars are printed on high quality satin art paper (A3 - 297x420mm)and have a hanger and white wire binding along the top. Free shipping on calendars if you order 3 or more!
Check out my calendars here.

Christmas shopping deadline

For all the Redbubble products listed above you need to order by 17 December if you want them before Christmas!


I think there are links to all the various products or sites but if I missed anything, here's my Redbubble store/site or you can contact me through my web site if you want something special.

New Zealand - Dec 08

Those that know me would have heard me dreaming about a trip to New Zealand for years and years, particularly after falling in love with REAL mountains in Canada, and in December last year a few things came together to make it possible at last! Basically we started in Christchurch with a hire car and 7 days to get to Dunedin and managed to fit in a nice little tour of a small part the South Island.

In brief we headed straight for the West coast via Arthur's pass, headed down the west coast, across to Wanaka, then Queenstown and on to Dunedin to fly out.

Christchurch cathedral:


Road out of Christchurch:


Kura Tawhiti (Castle Rock):


Just before hitting Arthur's pass:


Beach at Okarito:


Lake Matherson:

Thunder falls (great name!):


Lake Wanaka:


Drift wood:


Obligatory sheep photo:


For those that are interested, my gear for this trip was:

• Canon 50D
• Tamron 17-50 mm
• Canon 10-22 mm
• Canon 100 mm macro
• Canon 430EX
• Manfrotto 785B Modo tripod
• Lowepro slingshot backpack
• Macbook black + portable hard drive
  
• Polarising filter, gels, flash triggers, batteries, etc.
  

2010 Redbubble Calendars

My 2010 Calendars are now for sale on Redbubble! I've got 4 different calendars for sale this year with the New Zealand Landscapes and a Still Life calendars new this year!

Links:
Will's Calendars
Will's Bubblesite
Will's Redbubble profile

Yongnuo 2.4 GHz flash triggers (RF-602)

This is just a quick post to say that my Yongnuo 2.4 GHz triggers last week and they are great! I haven't yet used them for an actual shoot but I've done some quick tests.
These remotes are designed as wireless triggers for either a camera shutter or a flash and because the operate on the 2.4 GHz frequency the seem to avoid a lot of the interference problems that some other flash triggers have. In the wireless flash flash trigger market there is now a wide variety of options from cheap 'ebay'/GI/Cactus triggers (with various levels even in this category) to the expensive pocket wizards. These triggers fit into the top end of the 'ebay' triggers, they cost a bit more than most in this category but seem to have good reliability. There is a very long thread with loads of info in the Strobist flickr group if you want to read more.

So my first quick test was to plug some things in and see how they work. My test camera was a Canon 50D and my flashes were Canon 430EX, Nikon SB-24 and Nikon SB-25 which were fired against a white wall. I did not have any misfires with any of the flashes and I was able to get full sync at 1/250 (the 50D's max sync speed) with all flashes, when I went to 1/320 I got a black line (shutter curtain) at the bottom of the frame. The triggers were also able to keep up with continuous shoot at 6.3 fps, I only tested short bursts but I figure the flash is going to run out of power first anyway.

My second test was try remotely firing the camera, there's not much to report here except that it work. I haven't tested the half press autofocus thing yet because I'd have to chance my custom functions to allow a half press to do autofocus.

That's about all I have to report for now, I may add some details later with some pics but it seems I finally have a set of reliable triggers for not too much $$ which is exciting, particularly since I've been taking on some paid gigs.

--------------------------------------------------

In other news, I may have started up yet another blog that I won't have time to update, it is all about food and till I find a better name it's called "Will's food ideas", creativity was never my strong suit. Anyway, hope to bring you some more posts soon!

Gear-a-holic

Hi my name's Will and I'm a gear-a-holic . . Ok so I'm not as bad as some but here is a bit of a review of my photo gear that gives me a fix and fuels my addiction.

• Canon 50D
• Canon 30D
• Canon 300D
• Canon 10-22mm (I love this lens!)
• Tamron 17-50mm f2.8
• Canon 100 f2.8
• Sigma 50mm f2.8 Macro
• Sigma 70-200mm f2.8
• Canon 50mm f1.8
• Sigma 17-70mm (more or less unused)
• Canon 18-55mm (unused)
• Canon 430EX Speedlight
• Nikon SB-24 Speedlight
• Nikon SB-25 Speedlight
• Nikon SB-22s Speedlight
• Manfrotto 055PROB tripod with joystick head
• Manfrotto 785B Modo Tripod
• Olympus lightweight tripod
• Light stands, umbrellas and remote triggers
• Polorising filter, shutter release, CF cards, ND filters, Grad ND filter, Batteries etc.
• MacBook Black to process it all

How did it all start?

Well years ago when I was in year 9 I started with a compact film camera and grew to love taking photos, particularly of wild places, and the more I took the better I got and the more I liked it.

Fast forward a few years when after a year of engineering placement at uni when I had some $$ I thought about upgrading to a new digital camera. This brought on much research into high end compact cameras reading review after review, I wanted something that I could take landscapes and sports shots with. Eventually I gave up and got talked into buying a 300D kit, so begins my camera addiction . . .

My upgrades from there were a long time coming, but after I finished my degree I started to add to the kit. Frist what I didn't have a loved, W I D E, with the 10-22, next, sports 70-200 f2.8 for volleyball, then the 50mm macro to give me a 10-22 + 50mm macro hiking kit. Then I added a flash with the 430EX and then with the prospect of a sports job I upgraded cameras to a 30D and picked up a new mid-range zoom, the Sigma 17-70.

So that held off my addicitons for a while untill I discovered off camera lighting and of course now needed a lighting kit to go with my camera kit! So flashes, light stands, radio triggers, umbrellas and a bunch of home made stuff and I had a pretty good set-up for doing still life and portraits and all sorts of things, the one day I was doing some still life photos and my 50mm macro died! So I jumped online and found out I could get a 100mm macro from the US cheaper than in Australia, so out came the credit card . . . again! In the mean time the 17-70 proved to be very good for still life close-ups!

Further upgrades have slowed a little, I was not particuarly happy with the focusing of 17-70 for more distant subjects so I went and got a tamron 17-50 with has been very nice though I still have some doubts about it's focusing. Then when I started to get some wedding work I got myself a Canon 50D. The main thing that I wanted over the 40D was the lens micro adjustment for a couple of my lenses however it didn't prove very useful as they were backfocusing at one end of the zoom range and front focusing at the other. So I'm not entirely sure it was worth it, image quality is said to be not much different to the 40D with similar noise levels and 15MP chews through the memory, but time will tell and and the autofocus live view has been useful a couple of time.

So yeah, I guess that is my camera journey to date. Did I make some mistakes, well probably, there are some things I'd probably change a little but hopefully my experience is useful in your own decision making. I'm looking at upgrading some lenses and pondering full frame so the journey isn't over yet . . .