3 months have passed since I last update this blog! In that 3 months I have increased my stock images for sale in my Shutterstock portfolio to 1230 with 42 images dedicated to the Occupy London Stock Exchange protest in London:

This is the MIchael Flatley, aged by booze, trying to revive his Riverdance career, by giving a free performance at the Occupy London protest at St. Paul’s Cathedral HAHAHA

…And this is a David Cameroon, trying to tell the Brits that he is relevant, after being clueless is getting England out of economic woes!

As for Christmas 2011: How about a bunch of dancing snowman!

Ok! Go visit my portfolio at Shutterstock and buy, buy, buy

Meanwhile write to me and use my 1230th image as your mail box icon!

Shutterstock have and will always be the best micro-stock agency in the world. Try it… your images may be worth $$ on the agency rather than in your hard-disk.

This the image that took me to 500 :

My approval rating now stands at approximately 43%, which is computed including the massive rejection rate in the early stage of my submission. This is something that I should aim to improve in YR2011. A target of 60% by the 1st half of the new year and then re-evaluate a new higher target

The sun will never set on me! I have six!

Something for me to ponder: 11.1.11 is the day I hit my 500th approval image upload. It is kind of a coincident taking into account that when I hit my 300th approval, the date was 10.10.10! Can this mean that by 11.11.11 another landmark would be achieved by me? Maybe that is when I reach my USD3,000 sales target and get a pay rise to USD0.36 per image Yarhoo… that can really do me good.

A well composed landscape scope however could be “destroyed” by an out of focus and/or soft image. Landscape shot of sunset and sunrise, which is basically in a lower light can also be effected by bad handheld technique resulting in hand movement blur (shake).

While the elimination of hand held shake blur is easily resolved by either using a sturdy tripod (or to some extend a monopod) and improving your hand-held shots technique, focus and soft image are more technically inclined.

To understand “focus”, one must first understand the meaning of “depth of field” (DOF). DOF is the range in distance whereby an image will remain in focus. This range vary on each selected Aperture size/focal length/distance of subject combination.

Theoretically, the smaller the aperture size, the greater the DOF and “more” focus an image will be just as Ansel Adams (the world renown famous landscape photographer that is known to have used up to F64 for his image) will profess! BUT! No… we are not Ansel Adams, we are simple Joe and using a super small aperture size will not be the key to our tack sharp landscape image.

Why? The reason is simply the fact that in order to get the theoretically sharp image with really really small aperture size, the quality of your lens must be exceptionally superb. Using a $200 zoom lens for your landscape photography will give you exactly that! A limited image. That is why, most photography books and website always advise photographer to search for their lens sweet spot! That is the aperture size/focal length combination that gives them their sharpest image AND it differs for each different lens and camera body.

My advise to get a sharp landscape image for most lens is to acknowledge that landscape subject is always located 50m and beyond to infinity (note that the sky and clouds in your landscape are pretty far away). AND because the subject is at such a distance worrying about the DOF is of not much concern. When focus aim at object at a distance further than 50m, DOF is no longer an issue, even at F2.8, a subject will be in focus.

To pull out an image effectively, I always select an aperture size of F8 to F11 at a fraction above my widest end focal length (i.e. on my full frame 5D MkII  using 24-70mm, I will use the wide end at 28mm and on my APS-C 500D using the 18-200mm, I will use the wide end at 24mm). AND focus at a point slightly below the horizon before reframing for my final shot. I would use the Auto Focus for the shot to eliminate any focusing error of Manual Focus resulting from wrong diopter adjustment (I do not possess a 20/20 eyesight).

I would also like to highlight that there are factors that may affect the sharpness of the landscape image that is beyond our control. 1. the humidity of the air; 2. heat;  and 3. pollutants that is suspended in the air. All the factor mentioned affect the viscosity of the air which light travels through. I personally conclude from the many adventures in different part of the world taking landscape, is that any area with humidity above 75% affect the sharpness of distance object as I find the viscosity of air is appears like a veil across my sight. And when the heat of the air is above 34 degree Celcius, the convectional effect also affect my image. To add salt to wound, outdoor heat rise 34 degree Celcius will affect an unprotected camera sensor resulting in more grainy and noisy image. As for pollutant, nothing is more obvious that could affect the sharpness of an image.

My work around solution for the uncontrollable factor mentioned above is to work along it. This means taking my landscape shot during the magical hour (i.e. 1-2hrs before and after sunrise or sunset). This are the time when air temperature is the coolest, humidity the lowest and the light is naturally well diffused. And then I will look out for pollutant… that is one I cannot solve but petition my local politician for stronger pollution control laws

Now, go forth and get get your super sharp landscape and contribute to Shutterstock Stock photography. to make some money

Hell have no fury like pollutants released wantonly!

Ever wonder why some landscape photos just stand out and some fizzle out? Ever wonder why some will invite so many praises while some is just ignored! Wonder no more, I have been studying postings after postings of professional photography forums in the past few months to try to find out why, AND I concluded that the main 3 basic rules to create a great landscape composition are simply :

1. No clouds! No landscape photo!
2. Horizon in the centre kills a landscape photo!
3. Never ever crop any object in a landscape photo, its either in or its out!

Rule #1 : What is a landscape, if it has a dull boring sky? It simply leaves the landscape feeling empty. The drama and mood is always express with a cloud formation! A good photographer create a great sunrise or sunset by playing sunlight against the cloud. Clouds are the tapestry of a landscape image and what would a scenery be if clouds are missing. So always remember, unless you can get image of Moses coming down from Mount Sinai on a cloudless day, the landscape photo will always be dull and uninteresting!

Rule #2 : What is the meaning of the position of a horizon? Our human eye always perceived images with odd number mathematically proportion as being more aesthetic than those that is proportioned in even number. Don’t ask me, ask all the photographers that study the Art! Even ask yourself, if you split an image into two halves, your brain will be fighting to determine which half is supposed to be the main focus of the image. Ease your viewers brain by leading them to see the foreground or the background depending on how interesting each is! If you have a dramatic sky with majestic rainbow, give two third attention to the sky BUT if you have a fantastic colourful agricultural rows of rapeseed plantation, then by all means dedicate two third of the image to the foreground. Try it and see for yourself the different!

Rule #3 : Imagine what could be more ugly than a house decapitated in half or a protruding head of a person stuck at the bottom of your image!? Imagine too, a marine marina with a yacht without a mast against a sunrise!? Not really beautiful isn’t it? Exactly! In fact, it makes the image really weird or strange. So always remember to always frame your image to either include or not any object that is in your peripheral view AND never chop them into any pieces.

So what are you going to do now!? Grab your camera (SLR or not) and try out this three simple rules and see for yourself an improved landscape photo.

Exemption clause : Note that following this simple rules will give you a nice composition BUT getting the killer image will depend heavily on the subject you are shooting

In my next blog, I will share tips on how to get tack sharp landscape image with the right colour cast and exposure, which is the technical aspect of getting the right aperture size, focusing method and white balance correct. They too are very important in making a landscape image even more aesthetic.

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Stay tuned to see me which is the 500th image that take me there…

The triplet Hindu goddess dress for the coming procession.

My 299th image is an image of isolated toilet rolls. Shutterstock’s secret message to me: “take a break, go to the toilet, but don’t smell the air” before approving my 300th

If you like the image and would like it on a T-shirt. It’s available at my Zazzle T-shirt store at :

www.zazzle.com/gwoeii

All original design on quality cotton with best printing tech. Check it out

30 September 2010, the last day of the month! I achieved my first milestone in my stock photography adventure, I made my 600th sales with Shutterstock. 

Ironically the 600th sales is an image of a periodic element table model in a local science centre. Sign that I have educated myself and is elemental?

And in the traditional “Oscar award”style, I would like to thank my wife, my brother and my camera for my first milestone achievement.

And most of all I would like to thank the buyer that use Shutterstock and purchased my photos. May your life be prosperous and let my image help you get there.

Shutterstock rules!

They powered up my photography experience.

This is image #250 approved on my portfolio.

…And this is image #555 sold via Shutterstock!

And since I am pimping my image, I might as well pimp my online T-Shirt store in Zazzle (www.zazzle.com/gwoeii). My T-Shirt is all about surreal art of dreamy landscape. It’s unique, artistic and great for sending out a message to the world Ok! You think I have gone overboard with the praises? Then visit my store and see for yourself…

www.zazzle.com/gwoeii 

is my online T-Shirt store!

1. The first image was taken in Kuala Selangor firefly sanctuary, those sampans are the boats used by the locals to give a tour of the firefly habitat. Old by safe… I hope.
2. The second image is taken just off the Sentral Train station in Brickfields, KL! Sneaking onto the track is not what anyone should be doing but it helps getting some nice perspective of the railway track.
3. The third image is off the coast of Sekinchan town. A graveyard of sorts for all those abandoned fishing boat. Not too nice for all those people that depended on the sea for a living to dump their rubbish in the sea. It’s akin to putting poison on ones on plate.
4. The fourth image is from an old dilapidated building in the historic city of Melaka. Historic Melaka is an old port city with lots of old building. It surprises me that Melaka have got it right at least for maintaining its heritage.
5. The fifth is a special original composition by myself! Plasma power hovering above my hand. Takes a lot of effort to generate enough energy to create that small ball of power. Trying rubbing your hands together for five hours straight!
6. The sixth & seventh photos are different perspective image of rice field taken in Kedah, the rice bowl state of Malaysia. Hot & sunny… and got me burned to the hilt.

Shutterstock is the stock photography microstock agency that sets its standard beyond any others I have been with! (Note : I am with Dreamstime, Bigstock, Fotolia, 123RF, Alamy.… to name a few) Their quality standard may be slightly higher but once approved, it assures sales, a small price to pay for higher rate of rejections.

Shutterstock, required a photo resolution of a minimum size of 4.0MP, saved at the maximum quality of JPEG  format. A maximum file size of 25Mb is allowed for each photo. File size and resolution size should not be confused with each other. File size is the volume of data that is saved for a picture, this is usually depending on the complexity of the image, colours, etc. Meanwhile, resolution size is about the dimension of the image, e.g. a 2,000 x 2,000 size image is estimated to be a 4MP size photo (this does not mean that the image file size is 4MP, it could be smaller or bigger). Shutterstock’s standard for the hygiene of the photos is also extremely high, look out for the noise and artefacts, Shutterstock’s reviewer sees them! They see all of it!!

Anyway! I do strongly recommend to anyone wanting to try out stock photography to try out being a contributor to Shutterstock.

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Stock photographers feel their images for their buyers, the end-user of their images! They know what their customers want. They care about the needs of their customers and not about their own. They care even less in the effects of manipulating light as they go for the perfection of tack sharp images. Bokeh? Noise? What is that to a stocker! They are the “Wall Street” sharks that goes for the jugular, the extra twenty dollars to flatten the 70yr old auntie in Grand Theft Auto! They are the corporate men in black suit in the photography industry.

STOCK!

Artistic photographers! This is the hungry type! I mean really biologically hungry as they starve (deprived of nutrition from lack of income to buy that sandwich in Pret-A-Meal)  because they won’t bow to mainstream photographic rules & regulation. This is the photographer that always intend to bend the imagination of an image by constantly attempting to manipulate light to reflect their soul. So, they call art. Who cares if the sky is grained out by noise!? Who cares if the subject is blurred out of focus to depict the tormenting agony!? Who cares if the colour temperature (WB & colour cast) is too cold to reflect emotion of the moment!? Artistic photographer don’t give a hoot if you purchase their photos or not. They want to show the world what they feel. They are the naturalist, the world is their canvas and they want to keep it pristine, so that they can paint on it over and over again with their film or sensor (in the digital world).

ART!

Everyone else with a trigger finger, you are the happy lot! You care neither for the money nor the art. You care only for converting your memory into a tangible form, film or file. Nothing bothers you, you owe no one any explanation as you consume what you produce. May your image be derived from a 0.1MP Nokia 6230 or a 12.1MP Nikon D5000, it is the same to you. You aim, you frame, you shoot! And then its into your scrapbook or personal album. The memory, remembrance, that is what they cried out.

SNAPSHOT!!

I love photography! I love it to bits!! I want to be part of all, to savour everything. I want to step into all boats at the same time and not fall into the river. Can I?

ART OR STOCK??

Of-course there are photo-journalist, fashion photographer, etc, etc! But are they actually any different than the two mentioned? Or a combination?