Saturday, December 14, 2013

Crisul Repede in Oradea by autumn


Today as I haven't posted for a while I quickly searched for an image and I decided for this one :)
It is from downtown of my city, Oradea. It was taken in this autumn from tower of city hall. Very nice day.

Crisul Repede(The Quick River) in Oradea.
Have a nice day ;)

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Relaxing in an autumn day in Suncuius

After a hard working week it seemed that I got too much tired. So I decided that hiking on nearby mountains is the best decision for: "What do I do this week-end" question.
I had to go alone, so it was quite a relaxing day. There are days in your life when you must stay alone and talk to yourself. Only trees, two deer and a fox heard me.
The place I went to visit, called Suncuius, is 50 km away from Oradea. Easy to get there by train which makes 1 hour and half. Not forget we use CFR which goes pretty slow. :)) Hope that one day they will decide investing in the infrastructure.
Ready with description, enjoy the view. In case you like the images it helps me a lot to know it so I am encouraged to post often. Share buttons can make wonders :) See you.


Beech branch in autumn colors


Add caption

Beech trees




Fallen autumn crocus

Old tree reflected in water


Old house in Transylvania

Bio golden apple tree 

Bio golden apple tree 

Old house of Transylvania

Yellow branch

Just hear the noise



Equipment: Canon 450D with Canon 17-85mm/Canon 50mm 1.8.
Don't forget to share :)

Monday, October 14, 2013

Stock stats by Octomber of 2013

As I promised in previous article, which in case you did not read so far you can do it by going to How I started in Stock Photography, I want to show you some of my incomings.


I want to tell you that in case you do not involve much time on stock photography you may not expect extraordinary results. In my case, being a software developer, after at least 8 hours a day working on a computer I find hardly to continue on after I arrive at home selecting images, processing and then upload. In fact there are more steps. But anytime I fill in a good shape or on weekends I try to continue on. For example now I am still having images from June unprocessed. That is 4 months so far. So, it takes time. That is all depending by you.

I will show you the statistics for September. Honestly being with you it was the best month so far. I never earned so far in a month. It helped me a lot the Enhanced Download. At the bottom of image I attached the total earnings row. I am very close to first 100$ from ShutterStock. I can't wait for it. This are the results since January this year.


As concerns DreamsTime so far I have earned: 17.08 $. I am still patient.

Saturday, September 28, 2013

How I started in Stock Photography

Well, it is a while since I plan to tell others about me and web stock photography agencies experience.

First I would like to describe you what are web stock photography websites and what they do.
Basically it is like this. There are many designers, web designers, news portals, owners of presentation websites, and the list goes on, which they need very high quality images. I like to say images of 11 grade (in Romania maximum grade in school you may get is 10 :-) )

Telling my story: I heard about these websites many years ago. Actually in 2008. By that time I had a Nikon 4100 and just after that a Canon PowerShot S5. They were good but so good for this purpose. I always said: "Man!!! You got to buy a better one!" It is the ideas we always have. "I need something extra in order to do something better." The truth is you should begin with equipment you have in hand, I refer at a decent camera, though. After you understand truly what kind of images are required by agencies then you may go to a highest level. It is the idea I like to follow.

Well, the truth is that I just started with a very poor image which I don't know how, guys from DreamsTime accepted. It as an image of a crop detailed orange. Nobody bought it :) Finally after 4 years I removed it. Anyway, since then they raised higher their standards, which of course is better.

Continuing... in 2010 I bought a more decent camera, which I still have. It was a Canon 450D + a Canon 17-85 mm lens, and later I also acquired Canon 50 mm 1.8 lens + Canon 430 EX II speed flash. So I kind of fulfilled my thoughts. I had good equipment.

Then it started the challenge. What I noticed is that always when I was thinking what images to do in order to upload on stock sites is something that I never done. It was a bad approach. You should always do in life, generally speaking, what YOU know best. Improvements you get as you go on.

As I have seen on websites(the list you will see bellow) there were food images or object images with fruits, vegetables and stuff like that. So in order to take nice images of that you must have a light box and other light equipment. Well, I bought one from a friend of mine. I started to take shots of nuts, apples ... Then I edited them a while in Photoshop and submitted.

There are many stock photography websites. First I applied it was www.dreamstime.com.
After the experiment of above, I upload some of the images on dreamstime. Some got accepted some didn't. When you get accepted of course you are happy. When not - you are not. It is that filling - why, why didn't they liked it? So it is time to dig more about stock concepts.

The second one is www.shutterstock.com. Each time you upload images somebody must check them strictly and only then if they say is a good image, market oriented - so somebody will need your image - the image gets approval. It is a long journey. On ShutterStock you must upload 10 images at once, your best and various categories. If you get accepted at least 7 out of 10 you go on otherwise you must wait one more month. In the while it is assumed that you learn more and you may try again.

After all shots, I gathered 10 of my best images(especially those that were also approved on dreamstime) and uploaded them. Eh, mostly all of them got rejected. I was very disappointed.
It passed a while. In the meantime I visited many places so I upload some of the images I took in my journeys. I uploaded also some images of my city, Oradea. Some got accepted, some received a reason why not. I tried to learn from mistakes: issues of composition, white balance, lack of commercial value, crop, noise, focus, and the list goes on.

The time passed on and only few downloads.

In 2012 I was sent by company in Florence where is our mother company :) By the way, I work as a software developer. In that week I took many images in beautiful city of Florence and on last day I visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa. There I took also many images. Maybe to many. I say this because it was so hard to choose the best of them. This time I started to take in RAW though I was not expert how to process raw images :P

It passed almost 2 months and only then I had time to process images and upload on stock sites. Some got accepted for my happiness, and since then I am very happy because some of them are bought for many times.

As this post is already so long I will write another post where I will tell you about revenues.
Hope that this encourages you in case you have just heard about this business and may help you to start on. For the moment I based myself on travel photography but is not the one that sells the best, as I heard. But in future, by God's grace I would like to take a step higher.

In case you would like to apply as a submitter use these links as they will help me, for is about referrals. Finally I will thank you ;-)

For dreamstime you may use: http://www.dreamstime.com/register#res109945
For shutterStock use: http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=282376
For Fotolia use: http://eu.fotolia.com/partner/204329949

Friday, August 30, 2013

Peisaje din Piatra Craiului - iulie 2013

(In acest blog am preferat sa scriu in limba romana fata de postarile anterioare. If there is anybody that wants this blog to be posted also in English please tell me.)

Am pornit intr-o zi de iulie, 25, 2013 cu Timotei, fratele meu pe un traseu din Muntii Piatra Craiului. Am dorit sa ne incepem urcarea pe partea dinspre Plaiul Foii.  Traseul a inceput pe un drum de tara prafuit, cam 3 ore dupa care intr-un final am ajuns la zona numita - Plaiul Foii. Pana aici am vazut multe cabane frumoase, pensiuni, hoteluri. Ce m-a impresionat e ca multe din ele aveau panouri solare pentru a-si produce energie electrica si posibil pentru incalzirea apei. Aceasta desigur e pentru ca nu exista curent electric tras pe aceasta vale. Ceea ce e bine :)
De la plai incepe adevarata urcare. In aceasta imagine se vede cum ne primeste Piatra Craiului cu 'stancile deschise'.

Parte din Creasta Muntilor Piatra Craiului.
In drumul nostru dupa ce ne-am intalnit cu o capra neagra chiar pe traseu ajungem intr-un loc numit "La Zaplaz" - o adevarata minunatie creata de Dumnezeu prin puterea vantului, apei, inghetului/dezghetului. Nu stiu nici eu exact cum.
La Zaplaz

La Zaplaz

La zaplaz - vedere de deasupra.
Dupa ce am trecut de acest monument frumos al naturii a urmat adevarata urcare 'sustinuta' a traseului asa cum scria si in ghidul ce il aveam la noi. In imaginea de mai jos se vede ceea ce urma sa urcam in urmatoarele 2 ore. A fost un traseu chiar foarte dificil. Am auzit ca ar fi defapt cel mai dificil din Carpatii Romaniei. Cine cunoaste poate sa ma contrazica. Am avut de catarat multe stanci unde ne foloseam de lanturile montante acolo de ani de zile. Cu grija, cu 16 - 18 kg in spate, cu apa luata cat sa ne ajunga pentru doua zile, cu ochii pe norii din spate, cu sudoare pe fata, cu ajutorul lui Dumnezeu am ajuns in creasta seara. Sus in creasta ne asteptau vreo 5 capre negre, un tap si un apus de soare superb plus un refugiu unde aveam sa ne petrecem noaptea. In refugiu am dormit vreo 8 persoane. Erau vreo 3 romani, un neamt si cativa cehi. Unii din cehi au dormit si la cort sau chiar sub luna plina pentru ca nu mai erau locuri in refugiu.




Apus de soare in Piatra Craiului.

Tapul admirand asfintitul soarelui.
A doua zi ne-am continuat drumul de la Refugiul Grind 2 pe creasta catre Cabana Curmatura, prin Vf Ascutit, unde aveam sa si campam. Am avut din nou parte de fenomene ale naturii foarte frumoase. Desi am mai fost aici cu 5 ani inainte de data aceasta peisaje m-au suprins inca o data. Am avut parte de ceata si vreme racoroasa fata de cea caniculare din vale. Pe traseu am gasit foarte multe garofite, clopotei de munte, cimbrisor cu un parfum ce il simteai de la 10 metrii cel putin, si multe alte flori ce nu le cunosc numele :) Pentru cei care nu stiu, doar in acest lant muntos al Pietrii Craiului exista aceasta floare numita "Garofita Pietrii Craiului" ce este unica in toata lumea. E incredibil de frumoasa.

Abis in Piatra Craiului.

Garofita Pietrii Craiului.


Garofita Pietrii Craiului.

Clopotei de munte.

Clopotei de munte crescuti din stanca.

Cate o felie de stanca pentru fiecare :)

Jos, Plaiul Foii.

Hrib, Funghi Porcini

Cabana Curmatura

Paznicul emblematic al Cabenei Curmaturii.

Poiana de flori.

Cimbrisor.

Garofita Pietrei Craiului


Albinuta la munca in zi de vara.

Garofita alba








Un fluture foarte frumos.






A treia zi si ultima am facut un traseu pe 'la lanturi' de doar 3 4 ore dupa care am coborat de la cabana Curmatura la Zarnesti, un traseu de 5-6 ore.
Ei bine, daca va placut aceasta galerie de imagini atunci da share si la prietenii tai sa se bucure si ei :) O zi cat mai frumoasa.