PixelBrat's Blog

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May 21, 2006

One of my stock photos in action

As I mentioned in a previous post my latest obsession has been shooting photographs to sell as stock photography.  I've been doing it for a little over 2 months and I'm hopelessly hooked on it.  In that time I have sold over 800 downloads of my photos, which completely astounds me.  The only downside to the way my images are sold is that I will rarely know how my images are used.  The people who buy them are not required to tell me how they will use them, nor are they required to give me credit.  The only way I'll know is if I or someone else happens to see one of my photos out in the world and tells me about it, which again is very rare.  Well, today I found one of my photos being used on a website and they even gave me credit for it by adding my name!  The first image below is the one that was used. (Sorry, it has the iStockPhoto watermark on it to protect it from being copied - which is the faint 'X' that you see)  The small thumbnail photo below it is a link to a partial screenshot from the website where I found it. (I didn't want to link to it directly as I'm sure the site will change eventually)  Click on the thumbnail to see if full sized.

Sure, the picture is small and not very glamorous but I got paid for it nonetheless.    It's the first time I've seen my stock work in use, and as a bonus was given credit for it by name, so I have to make a big deal about it. If any of my family and friends would like to familiarize themselves with my photos so you can help me find where they might be used then please click the link below to view one of my stock portfolios.  If you stumble upon any of my shots being used in an advertisement, billboard, website or whatnot I'd be forever grateful if you'd shoot me an email letting me know.  I upload new images to this site fairly often so be sure to check it occasionally to see my newest work.

Shutterstock.com Portfolio

Are you a budding photographer?  Do people often tell you that your pictures are excellent?  Then you too can make money with your photos!  It's a lot easier than you might think.  If you would like to try your hand at stock photography please use my referral links below and try it out for yourself!

Shutterstock.com
iStockPhoto.com
Dreamstime.com
Fotolia.com

Posted by pixelbrat at 9:32 PM

May 13, 2006

We're home!

After a long 8 hour drive we made it back home safely today.  Our 4 kitties were very happy to see us, although Wasabi seemed a bit traumatized by the experience.  It took him about 3 hours to emerge from under our bed.  (My brother-in-law came and fed the kitties while we were out and Wasabi doesn't like strangers too much.)  Since the AC died right before we left we feared it would be like an oven in the house.  Fortunately this wasn't the case since it was fairly cool out.  We're not looking forward to dealing with that mess now that we're back, that's for sure. 

Overall we had a really nice time.  Admittedly, the house we stayed in wasn't quite as nice as some others we've stayed in before.  It was a little dated, both in it's construction and in the furnishings, so it wasn't quite as comfortable as we'd hoped.  The weather was crappy half the time too but we got a couple of good sunny days.  I have a nice sunburn to show for it. (I don't tan, I only burn. Ouch!)  That's OK because even a bad day at the beach is always better than a good day at work, right?  Below are shots of the house we stayed in.  The top one was taken from the street and the second one is from the beach.

The shot below is of the living room.  Yes, that furniture you see there is as uncomfortable as it looks, trust me!

I snagged a really cool shot a couple of days ago that I'll share real quick.  It's a pelican flying overhead.  You can see a larger version by clicking on the image below.

I got up early this morning to shoot my last Topsail sunrise before leaving.  I was pretty pleased with the result. You can see a larger version by clicking on the image below.

One very unfortunate result of this vacation is the amount of weight I have gained.  Rob and I live a low-carb lifestyle and have done so for almost 3 years now.  This lifestyle helped me to lose and keep off over 45 lbs.  The week before we left for vacation we decided to go ahead and begin cheating on our diet.  Well, after 2 full weeks of eating and drinking whatever my heart desired I have put on a whopping 17 lbs!!! (I can almost hear my sister laughing at me right now!) Imagine my horror when I stepped on the scale today!  I'll be going back on the diet tomorrow, I just won't be able to fit into my work clothes for a while! 

After 7 days on the beach I have taken literally hundreds and hundreds of photos.  Most of those were for my stock photography work, so I'll be spending the next week or so processing those.  Before I go and obsess over those I'll post one final shot of Rob and I.

Bye for now!

Posted by pixelbrat at 10:45 PM | Comments (1)

May 9, 2006

Gray skies, go away! I'm on vacation!

Apparently Mother Nature missed my memo.  I specifically requested sunshine and blue skies this week but so far the weather has been pretty crappy.  We have had tiny little hints of sunshine but they are fleeting.  So what do you do when you're at the beach and the weather looks icky?  You go to the cheesy gift shops, of course!  Check out the one below.  The gator wraps around most of the front of the store.  (I'll have to try to get a better shot of the whole thing later on)

During one of the brief bits of decent weather this evening I snagged a shot of the view from our deck.  If you squint real hard you can just barely see a hint of blue sky.  You can see a larger version by clicking on the image.

Lastly we have a shot of Rob and yours truly.  You can see the ugly gray skies in the background behind us.

Tomorrow's weather isn't looking much better than the last couple of days but maybe we'll get lucky.  I'm beginning to think that Mother Nature has a deal going with the cheesy gift shop owners to drive more business their way.  So far, it's working.  Bye for now.

Posted by pixelbrat at 9:40 PM | Comments (2)

May 7, 2006

We made it!

After an 8 hour drive we made it safe and sound yesterday with no problems.  The beach is just as gorgeous as I remembered it.  There is nothing on earth like the sound and smell of the ocean.  Shortly after arriving we unloaded the blender and commenced with crafting some Margaritas. (Yum!)  We walked on the beach and have already found a few shark's teeth.  The shot below was taken from the deck of our beach house a few hours after arriving.

Despite being on vacation I always get up before dawn when I'm here so I can shoot sunrise pictures.  I am far from an early riser by nature but the photographer in me can't resist the opportunity.  I was pretty disappointed with this morning's showing but I managed to grab an interesting shot of a sun rimmed cloud.  Here it is below.  You can see a larger version by clicking the image.

About an hour later I got this shot below.  It's not bad but it's not great either.  You can see a larger version by clicking the image.

The weather is a bit on the yucky side today with gray skies, high winds and choppy seas but hopefully things will look up later on.  Sounds like a good excuse to make more Margaritas to me. 

 

Posted by pixelbrat at 1:42 PM | Comments (2)

May 5, 2006

One day till vacation... oh @#&%*!!!!!

As I've mentioned in my previous post, Rob and I are headed to the beach for a long anticipated vacation, starting tomorrow morning. All seemed to be going as planned until we came home from work today. As I walked up the stairs from the foyer I noticed that the thermostat said 75 degrees. That's odd, I thought. I headed for the living room, grabbed the TV remote control and hit the power button... nothing. Right at that same moment we hear a beeping sound coming from Rob's office... it's his computer's battery backup beeping because his computer is dead. This can't be good, I thought. I head to the bedroom to try that TV... dead. Rob heads up to the attic to check on the air conditioner... dead. We can only assume there was a power surge or something got hit by lightening. Let me tell ya, this is not how you want to begin your vacation...

After several expletives were uttered we called our insurance company to begin the claim process. Of course we wont be able to really do anything until we get back but we at least felt a tiny bit better by getting the ball rolling. Fortunately, we have a portable AC unit that we bought during our last AC disaster so we'll be able to keep the kitties cool while we're gone. We went through the house and tried to check what we could. So far, here is the damage:

2 TV's (of course, the 2 biggest ones in the house)
1 Computer
1 AC Air Handler
2 Tivos, 2 DVD players and 2 satellite receivers (condition unknown)

The Tivos, DVD players and satellite receivers could be dead but we couldn't check them due to the dead TV's they were connected to. Rob hasn't checked any of his big power tools in his shop yet. We're almost afraid to. I think we'll save that for when we return. For right now we just pray nothing else happens to slow our vacation progress. Please wish us luck.

Posted by pixelbrat at 9:56 PM