Monday, July 27, 2009

Western Australian endemic flora





The push continues to produce 50 initial images for the new exclusive flora library in the UK that has kindly accepted our work. Just plodding along in stock and producing images is fine, but having a set target is really quite difficult to achieve. We just clicked over the 40 mark an hour ago. Should get the final 10 sorted in a day or so. Then of course we have to keep it going ...

Create 09 Gekko Images

A post without any photo, well yes !
Image libraries seem to be on a push with 'Self Help' options for us struggling photographers in these days of economic woe ... Alamy have just released FAP (Find A Photographer), while Gekko Images here in Australia are celebrating the launch of their Create 09 website. It's fantastic that libraries such as Alamy and Gekko can offer these services to photographers, but it has taken me nearly an entire day to work out Create 09, build galleries, tag options, enter the Image Quest competition .... it seems so true that the days when you could just be a photographer and leave it at that are long gone. Now the photographer has to be a self marketer, a web site guru, computer specialist, Java know-it-all and, quite possibly, a rocket scientist to survive let alone earn a few miserable dolleros :)

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Eucalyptus Wandoo


Two endemic Western Australian trees I really admire are Eucalyptus Salubris (Gimlet) and Eucalyptus Wandoo. Hard to believe that Wandoo is under threat, but there are good stands remaining just out of Perth. A beautiful tree with amazing bark, even more so after rain when it goes almost blood red. The attached photo in full colour format is part of our first batch to a new exclusive library in the UK dealing with flora images. Been a busy month getting the first 50 ready for them.

Alamy Sales








It is always said that one never knows what will sell in stock, but this year seems to be the year of the educational book in the US of A as far as my Alamy sales go. Curiously, my two recent sales are not what one would expect for a school book. Well, not in my day anyway ! Still, no complaints.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Western Australian Fungi

Think wildflowers and most people don't think Fungi, yet these are an important part of the bush and do some really important jobs like helping with decomposition. Unfortunately, there are very few scientists studying our native fungi and as more of the bush is cleared, we lose knowledge of this fascinating flora. And unlike the so-called wildflower season that lasts for many months, July is basically the key month for fungi activity. Oh, and before anyone asks, you have to be really careful about eating any of these. Apparently some are as deadly as any snake bite, even worse.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Western Australian Wildflowers


With wildflower season started, it's probably the right time to expand the stock endevours to include a specialist image library as well as the generals. I won't reveal which garden / flora specific library we are 'negotiating' with at present, but the wheels are in motion to have them as the exclusive source for our endemic Western Australian flora images. More details in a future post.