The interoverted photographer

I am by my very basic nature an introvert.  I like people for the most part.  I can even be around them.  But, by my very nature, I am an introvert.  I like to go out and do photography by myself.  Just to recharge and get my thoughts together.  I could spend days and weeks alone with just my cameras.  That is why I miss being out west in the Rocky mountains sitting by a lake with crystal clear water and the mountains as a background.

There is something to be said sitting by a river and listening to the water rushing by.  Breathing in the fresh alpine air.  I truly miss the Rockies just to the west of Calgary.  I could get away from the city for days, just driving in my SUV, stopping to take pictures and videos.  There is a genuine peace with no people around you.  Just you and the natural beauty of the Rocky mountains surrounding you.  I would love to wake up at 4am, walk out to a beautiful lake somewhere in the mountains, compose the camera on the lake in the mountains and just wait for the sun to come up.  The Rocky mountains out in Alberta are my heaven.

Nicki and I are getting married at some point this summer and then heading out west.  We hope to find gainful employment out in Calgary.  Thankfully we have financial stability right now to go to Calgary.  I hope to work in some other industry then computers.  I am done with the I.T. field.  I have to follow my true passion.  I do love photography and it is my very passion.  I have the necessary equipment and skills to make a living with photography.  I just need to be more comfortable in front of a camera.

Canada’s War Memorial

Decided to go for a walk yesterday after work.  The War Memorial is located 2 blocks from the building that I work at.  It was a snowy, grey day yesterday in Ottawa.  Decided to shoot the War Memorial in black and white as I think black and white does the memorial more justice.  I really like doing photography with the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  It’s such a compact and powerful little camera.

Time lapse time

I haven’t shot a time lapse in a long time.  Decided to shoot one this morning going to work.  I shot it using my new Apple iPhone Pro Max with the new camera system.  It was quickly edited in Apple Photos.  I am actually quite impressed with the Apple Photos app on the iPhone and the iPad Pro.  The link is here: https://youtu.be/_BDz-Z4Jfz8  Please feel free to like and comment.  I think I’ll be putting it up for sale on Pond5, Shutterstock, Videoblocks and Adobe stock.  I’ll upload to all of them when I get home tonight.  Luckily don’t have to go anywhere tonight and see anyone so I have time to upload the time lapse.  It’s a short 23 second video.  I wish it took me 23 seconds to get to work.

Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max and the 2018 Apple iPad Pro

I finally did it.  I braved the crowds on Black Friday at Best Buy in the east of Ottawa yesterday.  Needless to say I was not pleased with the crowds in the store after work.  But in the end I got the Apple iPhone 11Pro Max(64GB) model.  There were a few reasons I wanted the iPhone 11 Pro Max listed below:

1. The 3 camera system
2. New network
3. More portable than the Sony RX100 Mark VII
4. Battery life
5. Apple ecosystem

Ok.  So these are a few of the reasons.  I am really enjoying the three camera system on the iPhone.  I can shoot time lapse, slow motion and standard HD photos.  All cameras use the 12 megapixel sensor which is good enough for stock photography which is what I shoot.  I also sell my photography on Redbubble and Fine Art America.  You can find all the links on the right hand side of the front page on this site.

Secondly, I was on Freedom Mobile.  If you want a reliable network, do not go with Freedom Mobile.  If I was in the middle of downtown Ottawa, I’d have the crappiest reception that you can imagine.  I’d on their, what they call “Nationwide” LTE network.  On this network, I’d have 500MB of downloads per month before I’d hit their limits and my speeds would drop to 3G.  I’d get descent reception in my apartment but I’d be on my own Wi-Fi network.  If I was out of city limits, I’d be on their “Nationwide” network again.  I decided to go with Rogers.  I’m not a big fan of their customer service but they’re slightly better than Bell.  I was with Rogers before I switched to Freedom and not I’m back again.  

Thirdly, yes the Sony RX100 Mark VII is a very versatile and portable camera.  I love it and will continue to use it as my main photography camera.  But for quick and easy stuff, I’ll be using the iPhone 11 Pro Max.  The iPhone doesn’t provide as much control as the RX100 Mark VII but for quick and easy shots, it’ll do.

Fourth, the battery life seems to be fantastic.  I haven’t had it for a day yet but with daily use the battery is great so far.  More daily use will be needed to judge the value.

And fifth, I love the Apple ecosystem.  Especially using the iPhone, the iPad Pro and Apple iCloud.  I pay Apple about $13 a month for 2TB of data storage to back up my photos and necessary documents.  I don’t do any dongles, even with my iPad Pro.  Especially now if I’m going to use the iPhone 11 Pro Max for the majority of my photography.  Especially if just go do walk around photography in downtown Ottawa.  For wildlife photography, I’ll still use my Sony RX100 Mark VII.  Even for my landscape photography I’ll use the Sony RX100 Mark VII camera since I can add physical filters.

What’s the point of having a Point and shoot or a DSLR camera?

I’ve been thinking about the state of photography over the past decade. How things have changed in the last 10 years.  I’ve been shooting for stock photography for the past 5 years.  That’s how I make a part of my yearly income.  I’ve noticed over the past three years, while my portfolio on Shutterstock has gone up five fold, income has gone done by at least thirty to forty percent.  I’m still shooting with a Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I shot with a Sony a7II and Canon EOS 6D camera bodies with various professional f2.8 lenses costing thousands of dollars.  The return on investment has not materialized over the past several years.  I don’t shoot weddings, portraits, school kids.  I do mainly landscape and wild life stock photography.  I haven’t printed my photos in about 4 years or so as ink costs about $240.  That’s $240 for 8 cartridges to fit into my printer which lasts maybe 15-20 prints.  I don’t shoot do art shows.  Just shoot for stock.  

I’ve been thinking of getting rid of the Sony RX100 Mark VII and just shooting with the Apple iPhone 8 Plus for now.  I’m probably going to upgrade my phone to the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max in early 2020 when my contract with Freedom Mobile is up.  From what I see, the Apple iPhone 11 Pro Max is an excellent phone with a fantastic camera setup.  I hardly go to Parc Omega to do wildlife photography as the park no longer offers viable spots to photograph the animals without getting some fencing or glass in the shot.  Particularly,  it’s difficult, if not impossible to photograph the Arctic or Timber wolves as there is either high fencing or glass in between my camera and the animal. 

I’d be crazy to get rid of the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  It’s a very convenient, portable Point and Shoot camera.  I can fit it into the same case as my iPad Pro and not have to worry about braking it or losing it somewhere.  I find the iPhone to be more convenient but the Sony RX100 Mark VII a far more professional camera especially for travel.

I think my next photographic purchase will be a better drone.  I don’t typically fly a drone in the winter since, by the time I get home, it’s pitch black outside.  I’m saving up my photography money for a better drone than the DJI Spark.  I don’t know what kind of drone I’ll get since I have a huge hate on for DJI and the way they treat customers.  Plus, DJI being a Chinese company does not help.  I’d rather support a Canadian or American drone company.

Consolidate and simplify your photography

I started doing photography seriously back in 2006 or so.  I bought my first DSLR that year with the kit lens.  I had no idea how to use the camera at all.  I never took a class.  YouTube was not a thing back then so I couldn’t learn off of what others did.  In 2010 I took classes at my local college.  In 2017, when I was in Calgary, I was using three Canon EOS 6D bodies with three different lenses.  I left Calgary with a Sony RX10 Mark II and a Sony RX100 Mark V.  Today I shoot with the Sony RX100 Mark VII and edit everything on a 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 12.9” screen and a 512GB hard drive.

I am consolidating and simplifying my photography setup along with the rest of my life.  In May 2020, my cellphone plan comes up.  I currently have an Apple iPhone 8 Plus which takes really good photos.  I’ve uploaded a few shots to Shutterstock, Adobe Stock and some of those photos have sold.  I’m not saying I’m going to get rid of my Sony RX100 Mark VII because it’s really an excellent camera.  It’s portable.  It’s got an amazingly wide lens at 24MM and it can extend to 200MM.   I’ve always stated that the best camera is the one you carry with you.  I always carry my iPhone 8 Plus and my Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I always have my iPad Pro with me as well.  I am totally sucked into the Apple ecosystem.  I subscribe to Apple Music and Apple TV+.  I also have the 2TB iCloud subscription.  Basically I give Apple $25 a month for the services.  I don’t use my Windows 10 laptop and my 2013 MacBook Pro.  It’s too old and slow for me now.  And Windows 10 sucks.  I really enjoy the Apple ecosystem.  It’s really seamless and works really well.

Whatever equipment you have, I hope you use it and are happy with it.  Just keep using it.  Keep learning.  Keep supporting.  And all that fun stuff.  I’m still looking forward to moving to Calgary in the spring of 2020.  

Why the Sony RX100 Mark VII is the best camera (for me)

As a stock photographer, I carry my camera with me everywhere.  It’s either in my coat, jeans or shorts pocket when I’m out and about.  it’s just the perfect camera for me.  Some may say it’s just an overpriced point and shoot that’s a bit better than a phone camera.  I actually beg to differ.  Just because it’s got a one inch sensor with an attached 24-200MM lens, doesn’t mean it’s not a professional camera.  It is a professional camera because it’s with me every minute of the day.  I was going to buy the Sony A7RII with the 24-240MM lens.  But that combination would cost me about $4000.  And that combination would not be with me all the time just because of the size.  I carry the Sony RX100 Mark VII with me everywhere along with my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.

I can do all sorts of photography with the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I can do portraiture, street, landscape and wildlife photography.  I can shoot during the day and at night as seen with the above photograph of the fireworks.  This was a 3.2” photograph at f9 and ISO 100.  No noise.  No shake since I had the camera on a tripod shooting with an intervalometer.  I can attach all the adapters I need to.  It is essentially the perfect camera for me.

I am a stock photographer

No weddings. No portraits.  No family shots.  Only landscapes of nature and wildlife.  With my Sony RX100 Mark VII and my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  No huge cameras.  No heavy laptops.  If I need to get closer to something, I walk towards it.  If I need to be farther away from subject, I walk away from it.  Easy as that.  I enjoy my independence.  I would rather be in my car with my camera driving to somewhere new.  Photograph something new.  Experience something new.

I honestly don’t need the latest and greatest anymore.  I am truly happy with what I have.  I have the best camera.  I have the best computer.  Why?  They are always with me.  I have decided to just do photography and shoot footage with the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  High quality photography and high quality 1080p video.  4K files are way too big and take too much time to process.  The 2018 Apple iPad Pro just flies through 1080p footage.  I keep learning about the iPadOS everyday.  Learn something new with it.

April 2020, I have decided to move to Calgary and be near the mountains.  I want to pay off my debt and just live simply.  That is my goal.

Review of Adobe Stock. And it’s not good.

I started with Adobe stock about 2.5 weeks ago.  I realize my portfolio is small.  About 1150 photos and clips.  I’ve sold two photos on there within the last couple of weeks.  When I started with Shutterstock, I sold a photo on my first day and I had 7 photos accepted.  My portfolio grew and so did the sales.  I have 15,000+ photos and 1,500+ footage clips on Shutterstock.  I make sales daily pretty much on Shutterstock.  Weekends are a disaster on every micro stock agency.  So I should not be surprised that I’m getting very view sales on both Adobe and Shutterstock.  I typically now sell 46 to 60 shots on Shutterstock monthly.  That’s down from 120+ monthly from 2 years ago with a portfolio that is 75% larger.  My portfolio is varied on both sites.  I’m adding to Adobe and Shutterstock daily.  I’m hoping sales increase next year when I move out west.  The last two days here in Ottawa have been miserable weather wise with rain and more rain every day.

I thought Adobe Stock would be much better than it is.  Reading the reviews of other contributors I thought I would get a few more sales than I have.  I am going to continue to upload shots that I’ve taken over the last seven or so years, picking out the best ones and adding them to both Adobe and Shutterstock if I haven’t already done so.  Pond5 and Storyblocks aren’t doing that well either.  Sales have fallen over the past two years to very minimal.  Maybe one or two sales on Pond5 a month.  Storyblocks has a subscription model on their site now.  I sell less than twenty dollars on average over the past two months which is atrocious.  

Also, I’ve decided, today, I am going to buy the Sony A7RII camera, lens and battery grip when I save enough photography money.  I want to do this as my full time job.  I will be using my Canon Vixia HF R800 for my YouTube channel I think.  As good as the Sony RX100 Mark VII is at video, the 2018 Apple iPad Pro with iPadOS just doesn’t function well.  It takes too long to import gigabytes of data just for a 10 minutes video.  The Sony file structure doesn’t work well with iPadOS.  

I just have to weather the next 5 months here in Ottawa till I move.  It’s just very depressing.

Just an update

I have a huge conundrum right now.  I have the Sony RX100 Mark VI and the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  They are both my primary cameras for my stock photography and landscape photography business.  I want to move away from the I.T business and do the photography business full time.  I started this I.T contract just over a month ago.  I know I’m not getting extended past December 31st of this year.  Our apartment lease is done at the end of March 2020.  At that point I want to move to Calgary to be closer to the mountains, nature and wildlife.  I am currently saving all my money for a Sony A7RII camera body, lens, battery grip.  I figure it’s going to cost me about $4500 for the camera, lens, battery grip combo.  I think the Sony A7RII is more of a professional camera setup.  Since I shoot majority stock which only requires a 5 megapixel resolution sensor.  The Sony A7RII has a 42.4 megapixel full frame sensor.  I think I would only print 13” by 19” if I choose to get back into printing my photography.  The Sony RX100 Mark VI and VII are good enough to print 13” by 19” prints.  I’m currently planning a YouTube channel as well to market my photography.  I don’t do the Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat etc marketing since I can’t stand Facebook and all its scary privacy breaches.

For me, it’s not the equipment that matters.  I’m more worried about the perception. The Sony RX100 line of cameras are awesome cameras for travel photography and videography.  If people see the Sony RX100 Mark VII in the field used for landscape photography versus a Sony A7RII camera with a Sony 24-240MM lens, they’re more likely to perceive better quality coming out of the bigger Sony A7RII camera.  I have until March 31, 2020 to think about my conundrum.  I love the portability of the Sony RX100 Mark VII.  It allows me to take excellent photos and videos as does the Sony A7RII camera.  I just wish my photography would sell better.

As you can probably tell, I have extreme doubt about my abilities to take this on full time.  I just don’t know if I can make it.

Adobe stock first sale

I’ve been on Adobe Stock for a week now.  I have 800+ photos on the site.  Today I sold my first photo on the site.  It’s a shot from Monument Valley which I visited about 3 years ago.  You can click the following link to see the photo and I hope you view some other photos I have for sale.  The photo is ok I guess.  Not my best work but I like it.  My plan is to add about 100-150 photos/clips a day to my Adobe portfolio.  Hopefully in a month or so, I’ll have 3-4000 photos available for sale on Adobe.  I have 15,000+ photos and 1,500+ footage clips on Shutterstock.  I hope Shutterstock lets me download my footage clips since I lost them all when my hard drive got corrupt when I moved last year.

I really fell in love with the southwest American landscape when I was there back in 2016.  I am going to move to Calgary in April of next year to be closer to the national parks in Canada and the United States.  I love photographing the landscape of the parks.  It is truly beautiful out there.  I think I won’t need a tent or anything.  Just sleep in the back of my vehicle.  The problem I’ll have is finding a toilet.  I’ll just have to watch what I eat so I don’t need to visit Mother Nature as often.

Adobe Stock

So after a few years of avoiding the website, I am on the Adobe Stock site.  My portfolio is very small as I just started uploading there this week.  I will be working over the next 2-3 months in adding more photos and videos to the site.  I’ll be going out more on weekends doing more of my photography.  I need to add more photos and videos to my Shutterstock, Pond5, Storyblocks and now Adobe Stock portfolios.  I just want to give people more options to buy my photography and my videos.  You can also go to my own personal website and buy photos there to hang on any wall at home or office.

I wanted to go do some photography after work but it looks like we’re going to get rained on starting today and ending at some point tomorrow.  This weekend, the girlfriend and I are heading down to Lake Placid, New York.  She’s never been and I haven’t been in about 3-4 years.  The fall colours are amazing this year in the north east of Canada and the United States.  Hope you will buy some of my prints.

I am back

Well, after a few years of being permanently banned on a particular micro stock agency, I decided to try and upload some of my photography.  I added about 10 photos and 9 of the 10 were approved.  So I started adding more.  And more.  And more.  Apparently a few years back I was spamming their agency with the same photos.  Apparently I was spamming all the agencies but I was only banned from this one.  

Well, after a few years, I guess I am able to upload again.  Which is fantastic. I sold quite a few photos and clips on there.  Hopefully I can replicate the success on this site again.  I hope I sell as many photos as I do on Shutterstock on this site.  The more photo and footage sales, the better.  I just want to buy a better drone for my Ariel photography.

Photo sales suck

Last month I only sold two footage clips for a whopping $79.20 and photo sales were a measly $41.62.  August sucked and September is looking like it's not getting any better.  This makes me hesitant to go out full time to be a full-time photographer.  I have 15,258 photos and 1,544 footage clips on Shutterstock.  On Pond5, I have 1528 clips and 2024 photos.  On Storyblocks, I have 2,148 items from photos and video clips.

I have a really, really strong urge to do the travelling photographer bug.  I've had it since about 2014.  I really, really want to do it but I have a fear of not being able to support the travel.  I want to travel full time in my 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport AWD SUV.  I want to do it in Canada and the United States full time.  I'm going to have a hard time in the States because of not having a work visa or a green card.  I will have to do a lot of research on how people support themselves on the road while travelling.  

If you have any suggestions, please let me know.

Wondershare Filmora 9

Wondershare Filmora 9.  For about $85 Canadian I'd say this is by far one of the easiest and best NLE editors on the planet.  I was able to pick up what I needed to learn in literally a few minutes.  The stabilization and color correction features are just amazing.  It was able to stabilize my DJI Spark footage with ease.  I find the color correction so much better than FCP X.  It also edits the clips amazingly quickly just taking about ten seconds or so on my Asus ROG 502 laptop.  I have the Intel i7-7700HQ CPU clocked at 2.8GHz with 32GB worth of RAM.  My main hard drive is a 256GB NVME SSD and I have a 1TB SSD I use to store my video clips and photos. 

I am completely switching from my late 2013 Macbook Pro to my Windows 10 machine till iPadOS comes out for my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  Then I'm dumping both laptops and just editing everything on the iPad.  

Wondershare Filmora 9 is very easy to use.  Much easier than FCP X for the Mac.  It is a lot more intuitive to use.  Just the color correction is fantastic.  I will have to make a more detailed review of Wondershare Filmora 9 at a later date when I start using it more.

Which micro stock agencies are worth it?

I have a portfolio on a few micro stock agencies.  There are small, medium and large agencies.  Here is my list of all my portfolios:

• Canstockphoto.com
• Bigstockphoto.com
• Depositphoto.com
• Dreamstime.com
• Pond5.com
• Shutterstock.com
• Storyblocks.com

Are they all the same?  Do all perform the same way?  The answer is of course no.  The first four on my list are not worth your time.  I make 90%+ of my sales on Pond5, Shutterstock and Storyblocks.  Shutterstock also has a referral program where if in this case I sign up a photographer or a videographer, I get a bit of a payback from Shutterstock.  Granted, it's not a whole lot but could turn into a bigger paycheque if I sign up a lot of people.

Photography and using my camcorder to crate footage is an awesome hobby for me.  I also make a few bucks with it every month.  I really, really enjoy doing it and I wish I could do it full time.  With 4 plus years experience with microstock agencies I'm only uploading to 3 agencies now where the return is half descent.  With Pond5, I'm able to set my own price where with the others it's a set price set by the agencies.  I may say 1-4 videos a month on Pond5 and generally it's a good return.  Currently I sell my videos for $299US per clip.  I get half of that.  With Shutterstock, I sell my photos starting at $0.36US a photo and videos start anywhere from $12US to $120US.  The clips are generally 5-60 seconds in length.  I only shoot 1080p/60fps so it takes a few minutes to edit my footage and about 10-20 minutes to upload my videos to each agency.  Of course this depends on how many clips I have and how fast my internet speed is.

Overall it's a really good passive income for me.  It's something I enjoy and wish I could do full time.  So if you're looking for a photographer who does photos and videos, hit me up.  I'm sure we can work well together.

Fort Henry, Ontario - Arial view

Just one of the videos I took over Fort Henry when we were in Kingston, ON over the August long weekend.  The drones are a lot of fun to fly but I fear losing it.  I try and keep it in visual site.  I think next year I will upgrade from the DJI Spark to the DJI Mavic Pro just so I can take better video with the drone.  The DJI Spark takes really good videos but I want something better.

My experience with micro stock agencies

For the most part, my experience has been rock solid dealing with micro stock agencies such as Shutterstock, Bigstockphoto, Fotolia, Alamy, Pond5 and Videoblocks.  There are agencies that I will not work with again such as Dreamstime, Canstockphoto and 123RF.  While having portfolios on those last three agencies, the work is just not worth the return.  In 2+ years of having portfolios on those agencies, I've gotten one payout between the three of them totalling $51.00USD.  Uploading, keywording and submitting your photos or videos is just not worth the time and effort.

By far, Shutterstock is where the action is.  That's where I have my biggest portfolio and that's where I make the majority of my sales.  I've just start shooting video in the past 9 months and have had a great success with it on Shutterstock, Fotolia, Pond5 and Videoblocks.  I suggest doing both video and photo work.  Doing video as well gives clients potential options as well.  

As you can see on my blog I have links to my various portfolios.  If you want to sign up, please use the necessary links provided and sign up that way.  I spend about an hour or two a week just uploading to the various websites including editing, keywording and uploading.  It's a great return on investment and time.

Shooting editorial photography and videos

I've been shooting a lot of editorial photography and video.  A lot more video than photography.  It's a lot of fun.  I'm selling the photography as well.  Shutterstock is a great platform to sell your photography and videography along with Bigstockphoto.

First to 2500!

I always thought that Fotolia or iStockphoto would be the first to 2500 images and/or videos to 2500 files available for sale.  Today at about 14:00 I reached 2519 files on Shutterstock.  Shutterstock accepts Editorial shots along with videos and that's what put me over the 2500 mark.

I only started micro stock just about 2 years ago.  I had a pretty good go at Fotolia and I have 2352 files available for sale.  Fotolia was pretty much outpacing Shutterstock until about a few months ago when I bought the Canon EF f2.8 70-200MM L series lens.  After that, pretty much everything I photographed was accepted on both sites.  

I absolutely love photography and videography.