Photos of the Perth City Skyline

The recent cold weather in Perth might be hard to handle, but with a big High in the Bight and calm, almost glassy waters on the Swan, it has been a perfect opportunity to grab some classic South Perth foreshore images of the ever changing Perth City Skyline. Here's a panorama we cobbled together last week.

Destruction of Bells Rapids ...

I don't often get political, but word came through overnight that Peet & Co. have been given final approval to send the bulldozers into Bells Rapids and that work will start this spring. The last remaining native forest on the banks of the Swan River around Perth is to be trashed for Political / Corporate greed. Peter Garrett has approved the decimation of habitat for the endangered Black Cockatoo, the EPA didn't even consider the area worthy of their consideration and once again, Developers and politicians have done their usual back-door deals to line each other's pockets. Nice, very nice indeed.

Alamy 24Mb size

Alamy's decision to drop its uncompressed minimum size from 50Mb down to 24Mb has opened up a whole new World of possability and we're now back-tracking the entire collection. Already we've had 30 images I previously couldn't get up to size through and passed QC in about 4 days. Complacency will be the thing to watch however, as the Alamy QC process still exists and pixelation, shadow noise and more all have to be factored into wether an image gets uploaded or not.

Perth City Skyscrapers

We've added even more Perth city skyline and skyscraper images to the portfolio. Our range of Perth skyline and skyscraper images is now becoming rather extensive and most of the images show on-going development of the skyline and city.

Perth City Council Lights Up !

The Perth City Council have managed to give their ageing administration building in the heart of the city a whole new look with a rather amazing light show. Obviously in a still image you don't see the patterns or colours or combinations of effects. Clearly the Perth City Council is spending money in the right areas :)

Fremantle

A few touristy pix from a quick few hours in Fremantle the other morning. These are off to Alamy and Gekko.

Stock Photography Sales

After a bit of a hump at the start of the year, stock sales have dropped off and so too Zooms on Alamy. Nonetheless, I have identified specific subjects that are being searched for and which are not being offered out there and which I can provide. In addition to which we have managed to keep getting images loaded and passed at Alamy. The value of constantly re-visiting keywords has also been made clear in recent weeks too. All of this aside, the goal for the immediate future is to crack the 900 images on Alamy mark within the next few weeks ... only about 50 images to go !

Alamy Keywords and keywording

Anyone who thinks they can just add and then forget about their keywords with stock is fooling themselves. Every time I check 'Your Images' on Alamy I always end up discovering words or phrases that were initially left out. And you know what one of the biggest mistakes is ? Yep, it's plurals. Even if the image doesn't have more than one of whatever, the plural version might just be a commonly accepted description or phrase used for that subject. And don't forget those American spelling variations either. Or even commonly accepted wrong spellings for certain words.

Alamy Sales - stock photography

Quite a bit of activity on the stock front this past month or so. January rounded out with two more editorial RM sales via Alamy, again, engineering and automotive mechanical images going to US publishers. Also managed to get a set of endemic Western Australian flora images up to Garden Picture Library and am currently preparing the next set for Adams Picture Library. Zooms and views at Alamy seem OK, but stock has now become a monster ...

Western Australian reptiles & insects

After several busy weeks work with the car mags I finally managed to head bush, but rather than endemic flower images for stock, it was time for some creature feature action ! I'm still trying to identify the lizard, but it certainly appears to be a 'Dragon' species of some description. Had himself (or herself ..) a neat little sand cave going, which thankfully I saw before putting the right foot down. I've always found Dragons have an aspect of curiosity about their character and a slow, steady approach generally won't scare them away.
The insect action is a mother crab spider with a fresh moth / butterfly (sorry, more identification to be done !), but the thing to note is the baby crab spider on mother's back.
Once correct identifications are complete, both images will be off to the stock image libraries.

Alamy Stock Photo Sales

Alamy have just scored me another sale, this time for an Australian consumer magazine - editorial useage of course. Image shows Chris Michel winning the 2007 Motorvation burnout comp. It's the 2nd Alamy sale to arrive in the last month and comes hot on the heels of my 2nd Gekko Images sale in a month. Stock photography looking up ? Here's hoping.

Stock Photo Sales - Gekko Images

Another sale has just popped up on my account with Australia's Gekko Images.
This time it's one of my drag racing images.
It's also the second Gekko sale in a month and again for a figure that rivals any individual amount earned through Alamy.
I'm feeling quietly confident about the stock photography game at present, with Gekko coming through like this, Alamy zooms are back and other endevours are giving positive vibes.

Latest Alamy sale

A quick check on Alamy and there's my first Alamy sale in about 6 weeks and a cut out or Silo too.
Not a bad sales figure either and yes indeed, it's for another educational book in the USA.

Digital camera POTY 2009

Yes, it's time for another photo competition. This time the Digital camera Magazine Photographer Of The Year 2009.
I have to say that there are some stunning entries in the various categories and I've basically given up already on the 'Landscape' category. However, the 'World In Motion' category is perfect for a lot of my drag racing work, although the 'Planet Earth' division seems to be a good spot for an old favourite and a new favourite.
That Heron stood there basically stock still for the full 30 seconds exposure and says a great deal about species adapting to man's interference with the natural environment.
The Thomisidae species crab spider meanwhile, was sitting on a Ricinocarpos glaucus bush in my local Craigie Bush.
I only just spotted it there, but wasn't happy with the original shots.
Ducking back in the very next morning, the spider was still there on the very same flower - I wish my kids were that patient for their food !

More Western Australian wildflowers for GPL

Another batch of 21 endemic WA wildflower images have been accepted by Garden Picture Library in the UK. From a set of 30, that's another quite high accpetance rate. Must try to keep this going.