Thursday 22 January 2009

A photo idea

This idea for a photo project just occurred to me on the way to work:

I have long been annoyed at what architects were able to sell to cities as being great, innovative architecture, which then turns out to be ugly or boring or impractical or all of the above. That's actually one of the few things that have ever tempted me to get into politics, just to be able to be on a committee to choose designs and go "No! That's ugly! Go away!" when needed. However, it'd be a lot of bother to get elected and do all the other stuff just to have that pleasure on occasion.

Instead, I could dig out the original architect's impressions and put them up next to a photo -- from the same spot, with the same perspective -- of how it turned out in reality. Maybe do it as a triptych with the original drawing, a photo converted into drawing style, and a full photo. Since I can't pass a law to require all architects to live in the buildings they design*, this would be one way to put the spotlight on "architectural marketing".

* And for children's books authors to read their books to children every night:)

Sunday 4 January 2009

Images on RedBubble, not on DeviantArt

I have been uploading a number of my older pictures on RedBubble. I am quite happy with how it works, upload is simple and fast, and they provide not only website creation tools, but also embedding of slideshow or semi-shops within your own website.

I am not uploading on DeviantArt, as I am less impressed by the overall quality of the pictures there, and I would have to pay $25 per year to be able to get more than about 10 % of the sales price. Given my sales so far, this would be money out of the window. If RedBubble gives some results, I may revisit other sites. Or just stick with them. I like them.

Monday 15 December 2008

Storefronts

Signed up for at DeviantArt and RedBubble after an evening of researching the alternatives -- there are many, but there were too many issues with the rest. I am 1000words at RedBubble and LarsRaeder at DeviantArt. My main purpose with this is to have a place where it's easy for people to order prints of my photos. I don't expect them to advertise for me, but I don't want to roll my own web shop yet.

No pictures up there yet, but there will be soon.

Thursday 11 September 2008

Reflector

These two photo show the difference between using a reflector and not:

Without reflector:



With reflector:



It's more than just a little more light, it gives volume. Definitely a useful tool.

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Rejected

Just got rejected at iStockPhoto, where I applied by sending these three photos:







I'm not very surprised, in fact I'd have been more surprised had I passed the first time. I saw a post on their boards by somebody who'd been in the stock photography business for 30 years, yet had an 80% rejection rate with iStockPhoto. They're tough, much tougher than the more expensive Alamy. No wonder I haven't had a sale through Alamy yet.

On the bright side, they give pointers to very useful advice along with the rejection, which was on grounds of composition and subject matter rather than technical matters. I am aware that those are my weaker points, I have technical matters pretty well under control.

Sunday 6 April 2008

More food picture

Though FooPhoMo may be over, I still like the "take a single food picture" idea. I took some threatening-looking ginger yesterday, which came out so-so. Todays picture has been planned for a long time, and came out almost better than I envisioned it - I love how sharp the knife appears.

"Bleeding Apple" ©2008 Lars Clausen
Buy this photo at RedBubble.com
Update: We now have this printed on canvas hanging over the dining table, and it has been exhibited in several places. It is definitely my favorite "made" photo, in the sense that I knew ahead of time what I wanted in the photo, and carefully arranged everything to get it just so.

Tuesday 1 April 2008

FooPhoMo is ended!

At the beginning of March, quaryn_dk suggested that I try my new macro lens by taking exactly one picture a day of food. Having done so (outside of travelling and stuff), here are the results - in black & white for reasons of learning about that. Comments and favorites are welcome.


Soup bubbles

Pancakes

Onion

Bananas II

Bananas I

Grovbirkes

Purple potatoes

Roasted pepper

Eggroll

Fried egg

Bread slice