Uploaded: June 2012
Collection: Vetta
Love this one! This composition happened by intervention of a Getty art director at the Berlin Istockalypse. I had asked the models to start slow dancing in the kitchen and was shooting versions of this when I was pulled aside by the AD who moved me to this angle. I’m quite thankful.
You can view my images from the Berlin Istockalypse here.
Uploaded: April 2013
Collection: Sig+ / E+
Ah, the always useful lived-in interior shots. The messiness of life, and the homey feelings… it’s got atmosphere! I don’t nearly shoot enough of those. Perhaps it’s because they’re not especially fun or challenging to do. I sent this one in after another shot from the same apartment became quite a hit for me (more on that later), and it’s done surprisingly well, income-wise. And… uh… I don’t know what else to say.. it’s a lovely room with a window?
Uploaded: June 2012
Collection: Vetta
One of my first images uploaded upon my return from the 2012 Berlin Istockalypse. I don’t know exactly what story the models decided to develop here (I was far away with my long lens during one of the walkabouts and didn’t get to really direct the models until later that morning), but it made this scene work. It looks genuine, candid and fun. One of many during this outing. I put a heavy hand in post processing (I think I had 12 filters in my Nik recipe to do this) as I really wanted to break that Vetta barrier and felt I needed to lay on layers upon layers of special effects to achieve that because the lighting was so drab that day… Well it did land in Vetta, and then sold at both agencies, so I guess I did a proper job.
You can view all of my lifestyle photographs shot in Berlin in this lightbox.
I’m back at work on post production for the many, many shots I made at the 2012 Istockalypse in Berlin. This one just made Agency so I’m delighted to share it with you all today. Lovely work from the two models. They look so natural and intimate, it’s hard to think they only met each other a few hours prior. I was fortunate enough to work with them way beyond my allotted 20 minutes since strangely enough they were under-utilized after I did my time. Plus they kept hanging around me so I guess they liked my style. I’ll make a special lightbox for Ingrid once that feature returns on IStock.
It’s been 10 days since the big 2012 update introducing the cash sale on Istock. I’ve had a few of those and so it’s probably a good move on their part. Prices appear to be high, but of course it’s meant to show new buyers that they’d be better off buying credits and in doing so to come back to the site for further purchases. It’s all good marketing.
What’s not so good is the way the update was pushed without proper testing and quite a few unexpected bugs showed up. Reporting for contributors is now dodgy with cash sales and a large chunks of “views” not showing up in the latest sales screen and people have reported concern over bugs preventing people from completing sales. Some have also reported wrong commissions made on cash sales under a foreign (non US$) currency.
My top two ego-driven selfish concerns at the moment are these:
Bring back the Zoom function at once! My sales above medium size have decreased a great deal since this was taken away.
Bring back the lightbox option! Maybe they want to lead buyers to enjoy the new cart function… still, it’s not that practical.
So, after all the trauma, questions, reflections and conversations spurred by the events at election night and ensuing reactions on the social media (or should I say the bully media, where the loudest, most obnoxious people make the greater impact), I’m back to business. Before I do, just one last comment: if you start feeling afraid or disgusted while watching or reading the news, get up, go create something, go hug your significant other or go walk the dogs. Get back in touch with your own, personal humanity. Otherwise, you’re being manipulated, distracted and changed at a level so deep that it defines the current social reality. It all greatly hinders personal freedom of thought and expression, and certainly any hope of getting organized enough to ever change the system. But why would we want to change it when we’re fed hope that it can work for every single one of us? It’s 1984 in full swing folks… go read Orwell again.
So erm, back to business, then. Did you know that Istock now added a function to let you pay instantly by credit card? That’s right, the option to bypass the old credit system (which is still there if you buy a lot and want cheaper rates) is live. So for all of you who aren’t professionals in the image/design business, that means you can go download that one, favorite shot of yours you saw on this blog, pay directly and enjoy the file without any hassle or waste. Sean Locke explains how it works here. We all hope this will help everyone access the materials simply and efficiently.
The launch was a bit chaotic, and done on a weekday (!), but things mostly are functional again today. There are still a few things being worked at, such as a possible updates on the rather old-fashioned zoom function and ratings system, the add to lightbox on the product pages is missing and reporting on the contributor side is a bit wonky with some missing data. Things have been efficiently fixed so far, so I’m impressed. Much better than some of the other updates we’ve had these past few years.
I’ve been working diligently at a new farm-to-fork series, which you can view on my New this month photoshelter page (links to purchase at Istock are below the photographs) and I’m already well into a new batch of Berlin shots. I’m leaving for Switzerland in a month and I’d like to finish the Berlin Lypse material before I leave.. so go, go, go!
Well another stepping stone vanquished: my first Agency photograph! I was delighted to receive a personal invite yesterday to participate to the Agency collection after my portfolio was brought to the attention of the senior inspectors due to the quality of my work in Berlin. Strangely enough, all of my past technical issues that prevented me from submitting to that collection vanished and now the sky is the limit. Two of my files went straight into Agency. Two more to Vetta, and a bunch are still pending. A great way to end this rather lackluster month sales wise.
Aren’t these models great? Very nice work. You’ll see a lot more of them these next few months: I have so many images to process, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
So here is my first sale off of my recent Berlin Istockalypse. It’s an editorial (unreleased) shot too, which is a good sign ’cause I shot many and was really wondering if they’d sell. This was shot in between two touristic photos on my first night in Berlin, where the sun slowly set past 10PM, giving the golden hour a more proper 3 hours span. As in many of my shots in Berlin, I tried to photograph into the sun or with the sun at the edge of the frame to create flare effects, since they appear to be trendy at the moment. It can end up being beautiful, such as here. I wonder how long this trend will last…
My new Berlin stock photo gallery is beefing up on photoshelter and enables everyone to see all the recently available photos days in advance of Istock. So check the new stuff there. Links to purchase are below the photo description on their respective pages.
McComber Photo 