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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .