Gekko Images Image Quest Finalists

Well, I didn't win first prize, nor one of those Asukabooks, but it looks like I'm up for some Microsoft software after three of my images placed in the finalists selection in the recent Gekko Images Create09 Image Quest competition. First time I've won anything in my life .... wish Gekko would hury up and make some sales for me though :)
Anyway, here's my three finalist winning shots.

Photos of the Avon Valley

The Avon Valley is one of my favourite locations, but there always seems to be new areas to find and explore. From up near Cobblers Pool, to the Avon Valley National Park and down to Walyunga then Bells ... it's a great area to get into on foot with the camera bag, a 1.25 litre bottle of water and of course, the tripod ! Some shots from yesterday, not the best weather, but we did find the waterfall I'd been meaning to scope out. Quite an exhaustive 1-hour hike (legs turning to jelly, heart pounding in my throat, yes I am 45 ...) to get the angles I wanted, but well worth it. Unfortunately, scum bags like Peet & Co. want to turn this area into a yuppie housing development. Yet another area of natural beauty and endemic importance on Perth's doorstep under threat by money grabbing developers in bed with corrupt politicians ...

Australian wildflower photos

OK, let's make the announcement.
Garden Picture Library in the UK accepted our work about a month back and after the first submission of 50 images, another 30 went away yesterday. Adam Stevens from GPL came back last night on email with news that we had an acceptance of about 40 images from the intial 50. I'm very happy with that ratio, which is excellent for an exclusive library.
In addition to ramping up for GPL, I am now looking at pulling down suitable images from Alamy.
There'd be a 6 month wait for deletion from Alamy and of course, I'd have to make up the shortfall with other material.
Not sure what to do on that front to be honest.

Another Alamy sale

Do I have education photographer stamped on my forehead or what ?
The latest Alamy sale is yet again another education book and yet again another car shot.
Hey, I am not complaining ... well, maybe about the price of US$70, but at least I haven't been caught by any of those Russian Federation spot size prices yet, nor the UK newspaper subscription thing.
Still, we've got heaps more car type shots going up on Alamy at the moment, so the more we can help with World education in the right direction the better :)

Perth stock photos for sale

Just a quick note.
While our work is mainly for Image Libraries, most of our images can be sold directly for genuine commercial purposes. This is well within the boundaries of any contracts we have with Alamy, Gekko etc, etc.
Wether it's for a book, a brochure, presentation or whatever, this Blog gives a good indication of the imagery we have available.
If you think we can help out with a suitable image, simply send an email to ricphoto@iinet.net.au.
Naturally, we adhere to what might be called industry standard pricing - all we need to know is how many copies of the book / brochure are to be printed, wether Worldwide or just one country, size the image is to be used etc, etc.
We look forward to being of service.

Photos of Perth Redevelopment

Just had another couple of shots of the new Perth city skyscrapers go through Alamy QC. Will be interesting to watch these new buildings grow over the coming months and we'll be recording their development all the way.

Gekko Image Quest

I never win anything and hardly enter competitions, but I reckon I might have a chance with the new Gekko Images Quest comp'. It's all a part of Gekko's Create09 push and I've already put a mix of motorsport and nature images through for the Quest Comp. I've just loaded up two of my all time favourite panoramas - Yanchep lake on dusk and Into the Gimmlet. We shall see what happens !

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 :)

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.

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.

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.

Ah the Perth Wheel !!
Just because every other city in the World has a big wheel or a big eye or a big banana or whatever, someone in the Perth City Council figured we needed a Big Wheel. There's a few photos of this monstrosity starting to get about, but this is a bit of a different approach.

Continually looking for new angles in and around the city. I stil reckon the Bell Tower is a waste of space, but this angle took my fancy for some reason.