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: July 2010
Collection: Sig + / E+
Alright, so this is not actually a lake, but a wide section of the Saint-Lawrence River. When I heard my mother was staying at a lovely cottage on the banks of the River, I just had to go and organize a shoot. I love my composition on this one, especially since I just had one go at it. I added a little fog effect on the horizon to add a mythic element to the journey. This is the best shot we did that afternoon, although I have a soft spot for that other shot even though it has resoundingly flopped. This one had its best year yet in 2013, more than doubling the income it generated in the past 3 years combined. Sometimes they just take a while to get discovered…
Uploaded: September 2012
Collection: Sig+ / E+
Have I said that I loved pros? Well I do… such generosity and openness. This is why I invest in going to Istockalypses, we get to work with people who do this with 20 cameras (or 3 in this case) in front of them. It was fascinating to watch them work, doing this fake conversation and giving a different reaction every 5 seconds according to our direction. Loved it.
You can view all of my photographs of this model in my Berlin Istockalypse lightbox.
Uploaded: September 2012
Collection: Sig+ / E+
And.. back to the Berlin Istockalypse. I just love this one. I’m one of those crazy shooters working with a 200mm when everyone else is shooting wide. I just love to capture the character of someone with that lens. I attempted a few versions of this concept, but this is, I think, the best. It’s just him, that moment and that expression… What else do you need?
Uploaded: July 2011
Collection: Sig+ / E+
And here’s mom! Three big cheers for her to be brave enough to pose for me so simply. You see, she dislikes close-ups, posing without glasses and showing her age. But I find it interesting and much needed in this era where the nature of life is hidden away to sell more beauty products. Here is a healthy wonderful senior woman in full command. Her expression here is just delightfully complex and mesmerizing. You can read it in so many ways, but always starting with a strong confident vibe. This is quite exceptional as well for me as I almost never frame this close, cutting into my subject. I tend to frame wider, trusting the designer can crop to their satisfaction. But in this case, the human being being the sole subject, I needed to get close.
There are some variations as well as other photos of here available in this lightbox.
Uploaded: August 2012
Collection: Sig + / E+
Funny how things turn out. When I visited my mom and her long time companion, pictured here, during the Christmas 2011 season, I set out to photograph some Christmas images in and around the house, plus some skyping shots – cause they love skyping with my bro in California. But so far, this is the top earner (thank you Getty – it missed the mark on Istock) I shot on that location. I remember fiddling around with some settings on my camera and when I looked in his direction I saw the light, then the frame around him and I liked the scene so I shot it. Multiple times. Until he gave me that smile. I edited it some 10 months later, not thinking too much of it except that he looked really homely and satisfied, and I guess that in itself made it work. Or maybe it’s the toaster.
You can view all the photographs of this model in this lightbox.
Uploaded: September 2012
Collection: Vetta
Here’s one from the 2012 Berlin Istockalypse. That was a very successful event for me, much better on a strictly revenue standpoint than all the others event I’ve attended. This was shot after I had my 20 minutes with the family at the first shoot for full attendees. The two actors on the photograph came to me after we were done and offered to pose some more, so I had them sit on the sofa and talk about wonderful things. This is the wide version of this concept, and there is another closer crop version here. When I was editing the shoot, I hesitated for a second on this one because although the man looks warmly at the camera, the lady is lost in happy thoughts, creating a slightly confusing moment, but maybe that’s what makes it different and real. So I sent it anyways, thinking it looked candid enough, and it was accepted with flying colors, making Vetta, then appearing on Getty,.
Nice first sale today! Late last Summer, I returned to this small farm to do a series for a Farm to Fork project that an art director at Getty was interested in. And so there I went for a couple of days and I think I did some very nice work. I was working a lot with my prime lenses, and trying to really give depth to the shots by adding foregrounds and backgrounds to the action. This particular shot was done with my trusty 50mm 1.4 lens, an affordable quality lens that every aspiring photographer should get. This was an early evening capture and the sunset was getting quite harsh, so I did move my model into the shadows for a bit to get some softer lighting. These cabbages were awesome and so I featured them in a number of shots.
You can view most of my photos from this session in larger format on my photoshelter vegetable patch gallery (links to purchase are provided below the photos on their respective pages), or all of my sessions at this farm in my agriculture lightbox on istock.
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.
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.
McComber Photo 