Monday, December 11, 2006

My First Sale with Alamy!


Canon 10D - 17-40L - 17mm - f11.0 - 1s

What a good surprise this morning when I found out that my "Sun Beam entering Antelope Canyon" sold on Alamy! Exactly 2 months after being accepted with this stock agency based in UK.

This sale is worth thousand of sales with microstocks, so hopefully there will be many more to come!

Antelope Canyon is the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest. It is located on Navajo land near Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon formed over the course of millions of years by erosion of the Navajo Sandstone, primarily due to flash flooding and secondarily due to wind erosion. Rainwater (especially during monsoon season) runs into the wash that Antelope Canyon is part of, picking up speed and sand as it rushes through the narrow passageways. Over time the passageways are eroded away, making the corridors wider and smoothing hard edges in such a way as to form characteristic 'flowing' shapes in the rock. Upper Antelope Canyon, called Tse bighanilini, "the place where water runs through rocks" by the Navajo, is the most frequently visited by tourists, due to two considerations. First, its entrance and entire length are at ground level, requiring no climbing. Second, beams (shafts of direct sunlight radiating down from openings in the top of the canyon) are much more common in Upper than in Lower. Beams occur most often in the summer months, as they require the sun to be high in the sky.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Most Popular Picture of the Week: Fall Color


Canon 100mm 2.8 macro - f20 - 0.5s

This macro shot of an orange/red leaf is my most popular picture this week with Shutterstock. I have a few other pictures in the same collection:

Canon 100mm 2.8 macro - f20 - 0.6s


Canon 100mm 2.8 macro - f11 - 1/4s

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Célia


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 29mm - f4 - 1/30s

Our little angel Célia joined big brother Léo on November 6th, 10:27am. She is very healthy and came to home one day after her birth. She's already my new favorite model :) I'm working on a blog for my 2 kids that should be up shortly.

Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 35mm - f4 - 1/80s


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 27mm - f4 - 1/160s


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 40mm - f4 - 1/60s

Friday, November 03, 2006

Most Popular Picture of the Week


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 40mm - f9 - 1/320s
Waves on Half Moon Bay Beach

Waves in Half Moon bay is my most popular picture this week with Shutterstock. We went to Half Moon Bay 2 weeks ago and the weather was gorgeous. The wind was brushing the waves in a beautiful way. Here are a few other interesting pictures taken on the beach:


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 40mm - f9 - 1/400s
Seagulls


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 40mm - f9 - 1/250s
Brushing the Waves

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

San Francisco at Night - Pier 14


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 17mm - f10.0 - 25s
Bay Bridge view from Pier 14

10 more days before my office moves to Oakland... and every day is a picture opportunity! Tonight I stopped at the newly opened Pier 14, with a beautiful view on the Port of San Francisco and Ferries Building. The sky was cloudy but luckily I did not get any rain and I managed to get one more time some 20 to 30 seconds long exposures.


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 17mm - f14.0 - 20s
San Francisco Sky Line from Pier 14


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 40mm - f20.0 - 20s
Reflections along Embarcadero


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 32mm - f14.0 - 15s
Ferries Building

Monday, October 30, 2006

San Francisco - Pier 7 at Night


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 17mm - f13 - 20s

Tonight I went on Pier 7 to do long exposures at dusk. I really enjoy longer (20 to 30 seconds )exposure because it gives a very smooth effect to the water. Temperature dropped rapidly to the mid forties and I promised myself to bring a warm jacket next time!


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 17mm - f5.6 - 3.2s


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 17mm - f18 - 30s


Canon 20D - 17-40mm L - 17mm - f5.6 - 3.2s

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Most Popular Picture of the Week


Canon 10D - 17-40mm L - 17mm - f5.0 - 1/100s

The San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, 101 Market Street between Main Street and Spear Street, is my most popular picture with Shutterstock.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

My Pictures now on Sale at Alamy!


Canon 10D - 17-40mm L - 40mm - f6.7 - 1/90s
Kodachrome Basin State Park, Utah

Alamy is one of the leading Stock agencies with Corbis and Getty Images. I sent my first submission of 10 pictures back in February and all were accepted. But since then I did not have much time to build up my gallery, or even enter keywords for my approved images!
After all that time invested in Micro-Stocks I decided to go a step further and sell some of my best pictures in "Right Managed" with Alamy, and I sent another batch of 94 pictures. To my surprise 92 of them were accepted. One was rejected because I sent the wrong size, the other one because it was too soft...
All Pictures were taken either with my old Canon 10D, or 20D, with the canon 17-40mm L lens, and then up sized to meet their minimum size requirement. They do not have yet an online upload system, so I had to CD a DVD for my first submission, and a CD for the second one.
Here are a few pictures that I'm selling with them:

Canon 10D - 17-40mm - 17mm - f11 - 1s
Lower Antelope Canyon, Arizona


Canon 10D - 17-40mm - 17mm - f6.7 - 1/180s
Grand Canyon Overlook


Canon 10D - 17-40mm - 24mm - f11 - 4s
Upper Antelope Canyon, Arizona


Canon 20D - 17-40mm - 40mm - f11 - 1/160s
Climbing Mt Whitney, tallest mountain in continental US


Canon 20D - 50mm - f3.5 - 1/320s
Léo at 7 months

Follow this link to see my gallery: My Alamy Gallery

Friday, October 06, 2006

33 Weeks Pregnant


Canon 17-40mm - 23mm - f10.0 - 1/25s - handled - natural light


Canon 17-40mm - 30mm - f9.0 - 1/50s - handled - natural light

Soon we're gonna have a little baby girl :) This time my wife's pregnancy is much more difficult; she even got some strong contractions this week!
Hopefully the last few weeks will go smoothly.


Canon 17-40mm - 40mm - f9.0 - 1/20s

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Most Popular Image of the Week - Strawberries

My Organic Strawberries isolated on white background is this week most popular picture with Shutterstock



Canon 100mm 2.8 macro - f6.3 - 0.8s - natural light

Monday, October 02, 2006

The Moon Festival


The MOON FESTIVAL OF SILICON VALLEY is a cultural fair that will take place in the Cupertino Memorial Park annually on a weekend right before the eighth full moon of the Chinese Calendar. It usually falls in September of the Gregorian Calendar. The event is based on the traditional Chinese celebration of the full moon.


On the 15th day of the 8th month of the lunar calendar, the moon is round and the Chinese people mark their Moon (or Mid-autumn) Festival. The round shape to a Chinese means family reunion. Therefore the Moon Festival is a holiday for members of a family to get together wherever it is possible.



The Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival is the second largest holiday in East Asia after the Lunar New Year, a type of "Chinese Thanksgiving" which emphasizes family unity.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Smile of the Week - Léo 29 Months


Canon 17-40mm L - 40mm - f4 - 1/125s - natural light

Portrait of my son Léo taken last weekend in a parc.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

San Francisco - Part 3 - 'Passage'


Canon 17-40mm L - f10 - 1/125s - CP

Today it was a bit foggy in the city. On my way to work I stopped at Pier 14 to take a few pictures of 'Passage', monumental and amazing sculptures representing a mother and child.

The two 30-ft welded sculptures made from recycled metal objects, including horseshoes, herons (and even a kitchen sink :) will remain located at the entrance of the newly opened Pier 14 for another 3 months.

Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito created the sculptures for the Burning Man 2005.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Best Isolation of the Week - Snail

I had quite some fun trying to capture the perfect "escargot" image. This one was taken outside, an hour or so before sunset, with very minimal photoshop work. I used the 17-40mm; this lens is incredibly versatile.

Canon 17-40mm L - 40mm - f16 - 1/160s

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Most Popular Pic of the Week - Clouds

Every week I'll post my most popular picture on Shutterstock. Their new algorithm is actually pretty cool because it takes into account the number of download and the time the picture has been available. This make the most popular result very dynamic across the weeks.

Canon 17-40mm L - 17mm - f7.1 - 1/500s
This picture was taken at 33,000 feet from a business trip between Dallas and San-Francisco, and was my most popular for about a week.

Friday, September 22, 2006

San Francisco - Part 2

Today my destinations were the Financial District and the "Old Ladies".

First I found a neat reflection in a skyscraper on Market St:


Then I biked all the way to Alamo Square to find a spot where I could capture the "Old Ladies", Victorian houses that are some of the most photographed place in SF. Unfortunately one of them was being renovated, so I will be back in about a month and try again...

Thursday, September 21, 2006

San Francisco - Part 1 - Embarcadero Center

Today was a beautiful day in San Francisco, perfect to take pictures. I started early morning on my way to the office with a few building shots from Embarcadero Center:


Some beautiful staircase, my 17-40mm was barely enough to capture everything I wanted to put in the frame.

Then for my lunch break I visited the Hyatt on Embarcadero and took some pretty interesting shots. I did not have a tripod with me so the pictures inside were taken at 800 ISO, but they came up pretty well.

For the following two I was glad to have with me my CP to darken the sky and cut the reflection on the glass:


This is the same one as the first one, in black and white:

Canon 17-40mm L - 17mm - f4.0 - 1/40s - handled