We found Dreamstime and ShopArtGallery in our exhausting search for new ways to make our work visible to potential buyers. In the past we sold mainly to photobuyers who were editors at magazines or book publishers. The stock agencies representing us, Science Photo Library, Bruce Coleman USA, and PhotoShot were helpful with that.
We also want to enter the microstock market and hope that Dreamstime and ShopArtGallery will open the door.
September 27, 2011
New Markets for Photography
March 17, 2010
Photographing on Sanibel Island, Florida
The Florida Gulf Coast has had the coldest winter in 20 years. Several of our bird photography sites have not had the usual birds. So, we went down to Ding Darling Reserve on Sanibel Island to look for the migrating birds.
While there we had the unusual experience of photographing a fisherman who caught an infant hammerhead shark. The hammer head is still bent back toward the tail as it is when first born. Although most sharks come from eggs, the hammerhead is born live.
October 13, 2009
Fish Photography
The 2010 Annual Marine Fish & Reef USA magazine was just delivered. Three of our pictures were used to illustrate the article “Marine Biotopes.
One of Derk’s pictures of 4 pieces of coral is titled “A variety of commercially available bleached coral pieces can be used to recreate rubble zones.” Another of his is a top down view of an aquarium with two different kinds of gravel beds. It is titled, “The key to any good biotope is to know your fishes and invertebrates. Are they sand sifters? Are they diggers? The substrate should accommodate their needs.”
The third picture is one Sally made in a pet shop. She asked an employee to pose with a piece of coral in his hand inside a fish tank.
It is titled, “Well-planned placement of corals in an aquascape can go a long ways in creating a more realistic biotope look.”
The secret to making pictures that will be purchased by magazine and book publishers is to know the subject. Sally kept tropical fish tanks herself for several years. She is familiar with the needs and problems of the hobby. So images can be made ahead of time which are then available to the publishers.
September 1, 2009
Marketing Update
We have not been on vacation for the past 5 months, although the lack of postings here may have led you to think so. We have been diligently increasing our visibility on the internet.
We joined Squidoo last year to promote our photography on products at Cafe Press. Then Cafe Press changed its business model this spring. The owners of CP now determine the prices on all products listed in their Directory, not the shopkeepers. It’s just not possible to maintain a profitable stock photography business with the current arrangement.
In March of this year we began the tedious and time consuming job of duplicating all our photographs used on CP products to products at Zazzle. Come and visit KPhotos. Our second shop has less photographic value but is a money maker Irish Names.
ImageKind was acquired by Cafe Press last year. Some of our time was required to re-arrange our work for sale there.
March 12, 2009
Celery Fields park burned.
Since my last post to this blog, there was a fire in the grasses at Celery Fields park, Sarasota, Florida. We haven’t had rain in weeks and the whole county is under a fire alert. The shallow ponds in which sandhill cranes spent the nights have almost entirely dried up. That would have happened even without the fire. But, now the surrounding area stinks with a scorched smell. There are only vulture birds, now.
March 5, 2009
Bird Photography in Florida
Here is a picture of the stilt sandpiper birds that are one species of stilt bird found in ponds at the Celery Fields park, Sarasota, Florida. These birds are in the pond most of the day. The sandhill cranes are usually there only in the hour before sunset. This is a well known birding spot with a lot of cameras and scopes waiting for sandhill cranes. There’s not much interest in the stilt birds, but, they are photogenic, too.
Stilt Sandpiper birds at ImageKind
We are off now to photograph on Siesta Key, Florida. Today is the first warm day after a week of cold and wind.
March 4, 2009
Bird Photography
We have been busy traveling between birding spots in the greater Sarasota area. The best places to see large groups of birds that we have found are Celery Fields park, Turtle Beach on Siesta Key, and the Venice Rookery, Venice, Florida.
Celery Fields park, east of I-75 and south of Bee Ridge Road, in Sarasota used to be a celery farm. There is a gazebo on a small hill near the road with room to park about 10 cars. There are several species of very small water birds in the ponds, red wing blackbirds in the low shrubs, a hawk can often be seen in distant trees, and turkey vultures sometimes circle overhead. But, the big attraction for bird watchers are the sandhill cranes that fly into the pond just before sunset each night. They fly in groups of 2-5 and eventually there are 15-25 cranes in the shallow ponds.
Turtle beach has the usual pelicans and several varieties of gulls. Sometimes a big Louisiana Blue Heron is seen shadowing a fisherman and hoping for a handout. There are lots of stilt birds walking in and out of the waves looking for a meal. The largest number of birds appear in flocks of 40 or more in the late afternoon. Sometimes there are more gulls than one can count.
The Venice rookery is a small collection of trees on a small island in a pond off Route 41 near Jacaranda Blvd. in Venice, Florida. Blue herons, night herons, ibis, anhinga, and other birds fly in just before sunset to spend the night in the trees.
December 19, 2008
Loggerhead turtles
For the first time in my life I saw newly hatched loggerhead turtles emerge on a Florida beach. What a privilege to see those wonderful creatures on their first day of life. The babies are so small they fit in the palm of your hand and grow to be bigger than you could lift. Here is the picture we made using the inexpensive zoom lens camera we keep in the car. No tripod or add on lenses. It is not too sharp focus because the baby turtle was covered with sand. We did not see if the turtle made it out into the Gulf of Mexico. It had a lot of beach to cover and there was a lot of wave action. 
December 10, 2008
Mexican Pictures
On a trip to Veracruz, Mexico, we photographed local people at work. A mask maker invited us into his home where his workbench had the rough beginnings of a face mask. Bracing up against the bench with an old Leica camera Derk squeezed off a few shots. Then another mask maker posed holding some of the wood masks that would be used in Mexican festivals.
In the blacksmith shop we looked through the open door where the smithy was working. Our photograph caught sparks flying off the hammer as a glowing iron rod was beaten. The hot furnace can be seen in the background.
The most unusual work we encountered in Veracruz was a man who chiseled salsa bowls out of rock. He proudly lifted a finished bowl. We photographed it through his barred window.
In the cities people walking the streets all became photo ops. We photographed a meat market, shoe store, churches and more. It was surprising to see a Nintendo store. And homes with barred windows close to the sidewalk gave glimpses of daily life. All are available on ImageKind as posters, prints or framed prints.
October 17, 2008
Flip Mino Camcorder
Our beautiful picture of the London, England, icon, Big Ben has found a new home on a flip mino camcorder. Cafe Press has a new product. The pocket-sized Flip Video Mino camcorder has a USB arm that flips out and hooks up to a PC or Mac. This charges the battery, and has built-in software to view, edit, and upload video and photos to internet sharing sites.
We are busily adapting our photographs to the new product format. So far we have the following flip mino camcorder designs available: Big Ben, exit graffiti, Irish shamrocks, kitty cat, and several abstract fractals.
As of October 26 we have a section of 25+ flip mino camcorders. Take a look . 
