Today's image is again from the Spinnerei. We had been on our way to a ceramics painter's workshop. We passed by this window and I was struck by the way the sun came through all this fresh green inside and outside. The limited color range, dominated by green and white made me want to capture this image.
There is not much to say about today's image. An apple blossom in the garden. Beautiful spring.
Today's image is another one from the Spinnereirundgang last weekend. As I wandered through the different halls at the Spinnerei, I found interesting hallways and staircases. This one was particularly intriguing because of the window from above lighting up an otherwise dark and somewhat intimidating staircase.
Today's image was shot just before Easter when, after a few days of intense sunshine and warmth, flowers had started to bloom. Nature changed quickly this year and to capture tulips in bloom was really a question of time. I found this one in my mom's garden. It had already lost one of its petals giving me the chance to go inside the tulip and photograph style, stigma and stamen of this tulip. Image was taken with the G12.
In March the British newspaper "Guardian" recommended Leipzig as one of the best travel destinations within in Germany. I whole heartedly (but not very objectively) agree. What made Leipzig so special to the british newspaper, was, among other things, the old Baumwollspinnerei (cotton mill). This former cotton mill has become a center for modern art and home to modern artists over the years after industrial production there stopped in the early 2000s. On a regular base, the Spinnerei offers gallery tours where all the buildings, galleries and ateliers are open to the public. This past weekend I went to the so-called "Spinnereirundgang". While I was mainly interested in the photography exhibitions ("Changes" remembering the events around 9/11, but also Thomas Steinerts "Eyes wide open" images featuring scenese from Leipzig during the last years of the GDR) and some of the ceramic works, I found myself most inspired by the buildings themselves. Every one of the large buildings had its own unique smell, its own unique flair. I tried to capture some of that with the G12.
Time to bring you some news again. Robert Kneschke collected some stock news in German a few weeks ago. In that he covered Istock's move to claw back income from contributors that were apparently earned when some "buyers" used fraudulent credit cards for credit purchases. Some contributors lost several thousands dollars of income. Given that Istock pays some of the industry's lowest royalties, one would think they would compensate the losses from their own wallet.
Dreamstime introduced a new price structure, created a new level as well as a time limited extended license. For more information about the price structure check here.
Dreamstime allows contribtuors for a while already to see the keywords with which buyers find their images. Shutterstock plans to offer this feature to their contributors soon too.
Mike Spinak from Naturography offers some great advice on why to shoot horizontal and vertical versions of a scene. I've tried to work in this advice into my photography and offer alternative orientations to several of my images (though not all).
John Lund debates the usefulness of Facebook for photographers. Facebook isn't equally useful for all types of photographers, he argues. He thinks, that having a facebook page for stock photographers may not be that useful, especially giving the time spent to create and keep the page up vs. the return it may bring. He might be right about it as it is hard to determine the return from the input that goes into the page. To me the page also offers me to link quickly to some news, events, debates that relate to stock photography or photography in general without always running up a new blog entry. But then again, I am not a full time photographer, I am just a hobbyist.
On this note I'd like to make you aware of Guy Tal's 10 Week creativity contest. First assignment has almost closed: Natural Abstracts. But there are 9 more weeks to go.
GDT, the Society of German Nature photographers, announced its Nature Photographers of the year 2011. There were some beautiful nature images in the winner's galleries. Certainly one of my favorites was Thomas Block's image of the Old Man of Storr, which reminded me to my own trip to the Isle of Skye last year.
The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.
For Easter I bought two bouquets of tulips, one yellow with red stripes, the other red with yellow stripes. They looked wonderful, especially in front of the green wall in my living room. However, they did not last too long, but even when they had bloomed and (almost) died, they still looked pretty.
BTW, the title for today's post was inspired by a song with that title by the Norwegian band Minor Majority.
This image was inspired by the recent developments and questions regarding the nuclear energy after the earthquake in Japan. These events sparked a discussion here in Germany about green alternatives. So I took the concept "replacement" a bit further to realize a concept where green things, habits or even ecologically minded people replace traditional things.
