A Stocking Full of Bitsas

Time for another “bitsa” post, with some links, a photo from the past and a kick in the teeth.

A Big Thank You

I’d like to say a big thank you to my blogging buddy Brian Auer of Epic Edits and PhotoNetCast. The most recent episode of the excellent photography podcast PhotoNetCast discusses the sexy new Canon 5D MkII (you know, the one that will be my new camera sooner or later ;) ). I listened to this episode for that reason alone, but lo and behold, Brian actually selected my recent post on going photographer full-time as his link of the week! He graciously offered it to his listeners as something they may want to watch as I learn the ins and outs of a career in pro photography. Well I plan to live up to that and you can look forward to some interesting posts – I hope – as I build up my new career.

Have a listen to PhotoNetCast episode 19!

A Plug for Brian

Brian has a fascinating project going on over at his blog, and as usual this one takes a very unique and interesting angle. Rather than taking photos, Brian wants you to make an action or preset to help with the processing of your photos. If you have any Photoshop, Lightroom, or other application shortcuts that you use (Actions in Photoshop, presets in Lightroom), Brian wants you to write about it and submit the link to his project. And the best thing is, there’s over $1000USD worth of prizes to be handed out to ten talented winners. But you’d better hurry, the due date is January 2nd! Read about the project here.

Don’t Forget to Shoot Your Paperclip!

On the topic of projects, don’t forget about our Iron Chef Photographer – Paperclip project! The due date is just TWO DAYS away! So get out the camera, scrounge up a paperclip and get creative. Read the full details here.

Photo from the Archives

This is a photography blog, so this post should still have a photo. So here’s one from the archives.

This was taken in 2006 on the first evening of our driving trip through Southwestern Western Australia. Our friend Antanas holds the setting sun in his hands, as it disappears behind the clouds in the Pinnacles Desert, near Cervantes.

Yes, I Said Kicked in the Teeth

Finally a short story about a road bump on my way to being a pro photographer. I was very excited to receive an email yesterday from a large Philippine advertising agency, who wanted to use my image of The Night Sky over the Church of the Good Shepherd. The image was to be used in three of the country’s newspapers, with a combined circulation of 300,000, as a double page spread! I was very excited by this prospect, and knew that such a huge scale, prominent use of my photo would command a good price.

I used the very handy Stock Photo Price Calculator to work out what I thought was a reasonable price – I even discounted the image use in the third newspaper, a kind of volume discount. In the end I quoted around $2000USD. I was very excited about this potential sale and I must admit I got a little giddy with the good news.

The reply brought me back to Earth however. A choice quote from the rejection email was: “Getty & Photolibrary … have quoted a much much much lower rate with a similar image.”

It seems that the ad agency were given an extremely restricted budget by their client. Alright, I’ll say it, they were tight. What makes me think this? 1) They found my photo on Flickr, where I suspect they hoped to find a photo from an amateur who would be more thrilled by the idea of being published than being paid. 2) They asked if I could do it cheap because it’s only going to be published “for one day“. All newspapers are only published for one day, and I priced my quote accordingly. 3) They asked if I could do the price cheap because “it’s only going to be used for a christmas greeting“. Excuse me, but what?!

I guess the lesson here is stick to your guns, and don’t get your hopes up until your quote is approved.