It must be some overseas kind of marketing strategy.
Remember I wrote about Natmag Rodale awhile back? I’ve been a subscriber to US Outdoor Photographer now for two years. I got the subscription from an offer two years ago when it was discounted with about 60% and I paid something like $35.00 for two years. It was a good trial period, and it was nice and cheap compared to the £70,00 I pay for the UK Practical Photography (which I find an excellent magazine and well worth the price). But I guess also in these matters you get what you pay for. The first couple of issues were ok, but it got boring very fast. There’s very little variation in the topics and save for the occasional exception to the rule most of the pictures all look the same (and I kind of not like it that to participate in anything they organize you need to be a citizen of one of the 52 US states or…)

And thus I decided not to renew my subscription. I must honestly say that I expected a lot more persistence (especially because every single issue has about 4-5 “Get your subscription NOW!” cards tucked in. What a waste of paper!!), but I got only two reminders. To which I of course didn’t reply. I get it that the sales people try to keep their subscribers subscribed, but if you don’t get a reply to the first reminder, please, LET IT BE!
And if you really are so desperate to remind people, do also think of the international subscribers.
Today, August 30th, I received the (with big yellow letters on a firey red envelope) FINAL NOTICE and they wanted me to respond by August 14th.
So, suppose I missed the first reminder, and for some idiot reason I also missed the second reminder… If you send a third reminder and send it in such a way that it’s delivered two weeks after the last respond date, you seriously need to check up on your marketing strategy…

So after my positive rave about PhotoDeck yesterday, I’d like to move the attention a bit more to my own side (site) again.

As you may have noticed, there’s no longer the “search for my pictures on Photoshelter” box on the right side here. It has changed now to a box that will search for my images straight from my own site, which is how I have envisioned it to be.

Stock @ arnoenzerink.com

The library is growing every day and you can purchase online with PayPal and your credit card, without a hassle. If you want me to make a (discounted) quote for the use of one or more images, you can also contact me straight from the site.
The advantages? You get a better price and I get a better price, because I don’t have to pay commission to an agent (unless of course you have a good bulk deal with one of the agents, can’t fight that kind of discount ).

Ordering single prints is also possible. It’s not yet implemented in the features, but will be soon, so for now if you’d want a print, it’s going to be good ol’ manual labor

So… head on out to the stock site and see if there’s anything you want/need.
I don’t do micro stock, so it’s going to cost you a tad bit more than 5 bucks, but still… You get good stuff for a good price.

Not my own post, but something rather hilarious everyone should read:

http://www.shapelessmass.com/index.html/?p=578#comment-104

One of the pictures apparently has been doing the round already for quite awhile, but I bumped into this blog post only now.
And after reading and after I had recovered from my initial surprise I giggled myself silly.

It’s about an artist who had put up some pictures on his website. Another guy had made a website for his business and bluntly hotlinked -not even copied- the images to his own website and also used it in other things.
Then after awhile the artist took down the website or the images from the website and prompt got a mail from the other guy who threatened to sue the artist with legal actions if he didn’t put back the pictures, because he had used them in all his business material and had no longer access to them and this would damage his business.

I know… hard to believe, but geesh, did it crack me up

Värileikki

I’m having an exhibition with a fellow artist the coming two weeks. It runs from May 12th-May 24th.

The official opening is on Sunday May 10th, from 18:00-19:30 in Kässän Taidetalo in Virkkala (Tynninharjuntie 21).
If you’re from around, you’re around and you feel like popping in: welcome!

… with a pang of pain…

The weekend’s been a terribly busy one. I got a brief for a brochure of about 200 pages last Friday and I have to have the first pdf for correction ready by Tuesday, so you can imagine what schedule I’m on. I spent probably 35 hours at the computer in the past 2,5 days. Not exaggerated.

I’ve been playing a lot of music and when I just turned on Amy MacDonald and track 2 (This is the Life) started playing I found myself wandering off to a -so it seems- distant past when I spent three months in the US.
I remember playing this CD quite a lot when I was there and for some reason I always have a very strong association with music to events or things I was doing at the time I was listening to a certain song or CD.

So there I was…
Looking at myself biking to school, going out for trips with people and spending time with the great, wonderful people I met during those three months. It’s been one of the best summers of my life, and it’s been the summer that has gone by the fastest. Those three months were like a week, it was that intense.
I’m feeling a sting in my gut as I write this.

I miss you guys. I miss you all a lot. And I wish we could do it all over again.
When are we going to do a reunion?
I mean… SERIOUSLY!!

…shame on the camera?

Hmm… I guess it doesn’t work like that, eh?

Last Monday was full moon (at least on this latitude). I was in a hurry, and on my way down town. They said it would be a clear evening, but hey… Who ever believes the forecasts, right? So I was driving on the freeway and BAM! Right in my face. A HUGE full moon. HUGE! I’ve rarely seen it this huge. It was civil twilight. There was a business park to the left which cast some great reflections in the partly frozen water in front of it.
And I’m sitting in my car. Looking at the moon, looking at the business park and its reflections, looking at the back seat, where I usually always put my camera bag, and I go “Sh*T! SH*T!!! I HATE MYSELF!!! SH*T! That moon’s probably not going to be like that for another year or so. SH*T!!!”
Usually I’m very decent and not really all that wound up, but this was one of those situations, well, you know…

Today I came back from helping out a friend. I did bring the camera, but of course not the stuff I really needed for this shot. I was driving home on the freeway, when all of a sudden I see a big owl in the field next to the freeway. It was in full flight, wings spread, a magnificent image. If only…
I would’ve been able to slam the brakes and stop dead from 110 km/h, park the car on the side of the road, get my camera out of the bag, change the lens to the zoom, get out of the car, and…
I probably could’ve done most of that (let’s leave it in the middle whether or not it would’ve been wise to do it), but of course I didn’t have my zoom with me.
*sighs*

I will probably drive back there some time via the country roads. It’s said that owls usually stick around in the same area, so maybe I get a second chance…

Anyway…
You know what NOT to do…

Last summer, when I was in the US doing that photography course, one of our teachers gave us a checklist on what to check before we go out and/or take pictures. It’s become quite an automatism over the past half year to go over that list in my mind. But not this afternoon.

A couple of days ago I was out shooting in the late afternoon. Cloudy, overcast day, and too dark, really, to take pictures. But well… stubborn… I wanted to try anyway, even if I knew better.
Upped the ISO to 1600, screwed up all my pictures, as expected. D200 doesn’t really handle high ISOs as well as the newer models.

Worse, today I shot a couple of pictures and forgot completely to check the checklist. So I left the ISO on 1600.
Bright daylight, so this image wasn’t as ruined as the rest…

Anyway… Rambling…
Doesn’t have anything to do with what I actually wanted to write.

IT’S WINTER!!!
We finally got a decent pack of snow, and cold weather!
Love it, LOVE IT!
It was kind of funny when I shot this picture.

D200, ISO1600, 1/180 sec @ f/8, Tamron 28-75mm

This image is unedited. There was a gorgeous orange sunset behind me, turning everything on the opposite side this shade.
We live a bit uphill and when it’s clear there’s a sunset like this every day. Lasts only about 5-10 minutes, but when I’m home, I’m always looking.
I still have to nick the keys to the roof of our building some time. Set up there and take a shot from bird’s eye view

And this… Well… sunset through a glass pot with some frost in it…
Never mind me…

D200, ISO1600, 1/500 sec @ f/19, Tamron 28-75mm

In addition to the previous post in this blog I also wrote NG a mail in which I noted this particular picture. To be honest I hadn’t really expected any reply to it, so I was positively surprised when I found not one, but TWO mails in my inbox this evening (GMT+2). One from Public Relations (see below) and one from Chief Researcher Marilyn Terrel (see her two comments in the previous post).
They both basically had the same content:

Hi,

I read your blog post about the National Geographic photoshop story. I work with National Geographic wanted to provide you with the official statement on the matter:

The International Photography Contest from National Geographic has sparked unparalleled interest from photographers around the world, with some 220,000 submissions this year worldwide. The rules of the competition clearly state that no altered images can be submitted. It has come to our attention that one of the Viewers’ Choice Award winners of the English-language competition might be an altered image. When we asked our panel of photography experts to review it, they believed it to be questionable. To give the photographer the benefit of the doubt, we asked him to send us the source negative, which we have not yet received. For now, we will remove the image from the Web site until the matter is resolved.

Here’s a link to Rob Covey’s blog post on the issue as well. Rob is SVP of Content Development and Design, National Geographic Digital Media.

http://ngm.typepad.com/ngmcom_feedback/2008/12/photo-contest-c.html

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Best,

Ashley

So… It’s gone… For now.
Until the photographer can dig up the original negative or the original RAW file.
Let’s see. I’m gonna be kept posted (or so they said), so maybe this will be continued.

I had to get something small from the local camera store…
And I walked out with…

Myeah… dream on…
But it was there for real. And it looked massive, heavy, but oh so sweet.
And if the price tag had only shown one zero less, I would probably have walked out with it and forgotten all about the small thing I had to get.

Sigma 200-500 f/2.8 / 400-1000mm f/5.6

Sigma 200-500 f/2.8 / 400-1000mm f/5.6

But yeah, at € 16,000 I would’ve kind of maxed out my credit card, so I decided to let it pass this time.
*ahem*

But it was purdy.
Oh, and I did get my sync cord in the end. That was only € 29

by Don McLean. Well, really by me, but we needed some music to go with it
And it was the first thing that popped to mind.
It wasn’t really such a starry night at all, since it was raining, but well… Sometimes we can help, can’t we? (no filters were used here.)

D200, ISO100, 10 min 39 sec @ f/27, Tamron 28-75mm