Ingenious 24

The problem with anything that is too difficult in our busy lifestyles is the fact that eventually we will stop doing what we perceive to be too hard and look for alternatives that are easier.

It’s not that we are inclined to give up when the going gets tough; It is because there are generally easier alternatives these days due to the advances that have been made over the years and in particular with weight loss there have been many advances in both nutrition and fitness training. So get ready to lose weight!

Unfortunately most diets are just too difficult for people to maintain for any length of time and that is why the failure rate is so high.

Where there are two alternatives for you to lose weight (provided of course they are genuine weight loss opportunities) then you should generally look towards the easier option as this will be the one that you will be able to continue using long enough to get your desired results. There is an idiot proof diet.

You should not feel as though you are on a diet because that in itself often means you are working hard to achieve something.

Just the word diet in itself instantly strikes fear into the minds of many people because so many times in the past they have tried various different diets and not had any long term success.

You should think more in terms of making small adjustments to your lifestyle as this is a better alternative than to think you are on a ‘diet’.

For many people ‘dieting’ is rejected in their minds eye as being something unpleasant that is hard to endure.
Improving your nutrition and fitness is not nearly as difficult to maintain as ‘dieting’

Focus on lifestyle changes rather than a reduction in food and you won’t feel like you are having to give something up that you probably enjoy.

The more difficult you make your diet the less likely you are to stick to it and succeed.

If you are constantly having to think about your diet throughout the day and keeping account of all the foods that you eat and the calories that you are counting then it becomes very difficult to maintain for the long-term and eventually those types of diets result in failure for most people.

By keeping your weight loss program simple you are going to achieve a lot better results because it allow you to get on with enjoying everyday life without having to think about food and cutting back on your food for all of your waking hours.

Even mention of the word diet has negative effects for many people because it immediately places restrictions on their lifestyle.

There are enough things to contend with in modern day life without having to constantly keep a track of what you’re eating although you do need to be aware of the types of food and the portions that you are consuming because this is what determines whether you gain or lose weight.

Healthy weight loss can be achieved quite simply by just reducing by small amounts the portions that you have at each meal even if you don’t change the types of foods you are eating.

This is generally the best way for people to start dieting as it doesn’t require anything that is too difficult and too hard to maintain for enough time to see results.

Once people see results from the weight-loss program then there is an incentive to carry on and do better and particularly if these results have come about by using simple techniques that haven’t burdened the enjoyment of life.

Before you start on any diets consider the consequences and how it will impose on your life and whether you have the type of personality that will allow you to maintain what is required for that particular program.

If you were watching Oprah recently, then you may have heard of Resveratrol, which was featured on her show for a couple of minutes. Resveratrol is an interesting substance. It is most commonly found in red wine, and scientists feel that it helps against aging. The verdict on this is not yet in, since it’s really pretty new. Drinking red wine has in fact been shown to give certain health benefits if you do it in moderation.

To get the recommended resveratrol dosage, you’ll need to actually have a supplement. It would take around a dozen glasses of red wine a day to really get the benefits of resveratrol (and that’s not recommended for obvious reasons). Fortunately, however, there are at least a couple of products out there that are focused on giving a concentrated resveratrol supplement that will help you out.

And even though the main benefit is anti-aging, it seems there are a number of other side-effects. Other resveratrol benefits include things like weight loss (this is still debateable), possible reduced risk of cancer, protection against sun damages, increased metabolic rate and more energy. Research is still being conducted on the power of resveratrol, but it’s already clear that it is potentially very powerful.

If you’re thinking about getting this stuff, then you may want to consider sirtris resveratrol. Sirtris is a very large health company so at least you know it should work. However, you should ALWAYS consult a doctor before trying any of this stuff, and always consult a doctor before taking medical advice online.

For those of us who are interested in personal development, we at some point in time we have all been told that we need to get intensely involved in goal setting in order to improve our lives, unfortunately the facts show that the majority of people out there stop at that point of just learning about setting goals. There are various levels to goal setting and the whole field of personal development and when we get down into dealing with the success secrets that are known by those in society who are the highest achievers – it is then that we can really get to understand what it takes in order to be, do and have whatever we want to in life.

When we work on our personal development then we see benefits in various areas of our life including increased self confidence and self esteem and then we become able to move forward unstoppably to being the kinds of people that we wish to be – this can be clearly linked to the level of self esteem that we have.

In considering the subject of personal development – we can see how all things in life tie together and how the levels of our positive thinking feeds directly into how we program our minds, this leads to the actions that we take and therefore leads to us moving on to actually creating the lives that we picture in our minds eye. All we need to do is to keep focused on that which we want, keep the level of our positive attitude high and then move forward with our lives whilst continutally developing.

Introduction

Welcome to An Insight into Stock Photography. This article is based on a talk given at Focus on Imaging 2007. I hope you find it interesting. Just remember these are my views only, they are not gospel and have been put together based solely on my experience of shooting and making money from stock photography, primarily through Alamy and photographic magazines.

We’ve seen a lot of change in the markets and the economy in general. This has affected the stock photography market. But don’t lose faith , magazines and newspapers have an insatiable appetite for images.

One Approach

Fingers in pies – and finding opportunities to build a business from photography. And stock photography is just part of that – a chance for someone else to promote your pictures for you and to for you to get paid, while off doing something else. It’s like having commission only sales people working for you. The thing is you have to give them something saleable but you can’t give them a kick up the backside if you’re not selling much!!

Some professional photographers don’t do it, some do, some make a living from it. The choices and balance is up to you, as a commercial photographer I do some of it.

It may seem like an uphill challenge but it’s not and it’s within most people’s grasp. Provided you understand the customer. This applies to both the Picture Library and the Ultimate Buyers.

Take a look around you. Pictures are everywhere – the printed media in its widest context has a massive appetite for images on a daily basis.

Humans generally don’t like reading online – well not for very long – they like tactile magazines to flick though and dip into and if they didn’t, the magazine industry would be long gone by now – wouldn’t it !!

Every magazine, exhibition, web site, company brochure and newspaper all need pictures on a regular basis – and if they don’t have it or can’t send a photographer to go out and shoot it – then they’ll buy it.

Printed media works on deadlines that go right down to the wire, so immediacy is important and the shots can’t be the same old ones used month in month out.

The picture buyer generally will work to longer lead times and less tight deadlines – but not always – the images they buy can be more general or iconic – like these motivation posters you see in some offices .

Take for instance a sports shot of runners on a track – you might see it in the sports pages of a newspaper for a day, then maybe in a Athletics magazine that month – but it can soon become a poster with a motivational statement “Defeat” or “Winner” that has a whole new market.

So where are you – the photographer – in the food chain so to speak. Take a look below.

• The Photographer
• The Stock Library
• The Picture Buyer

You’re on the top of the list with the image library between you and the buyer, but at the bottom of the food chain when it comes to getting paid. But whilst you need to meet the technical specifications of the library and other submission requirements, it’s the image buyer you must be thinking of long before you even contemplate picking up the camera.

The picture library will do the sales and marketing of your images, for a fee which varies from library to library, but they must have images that buyers want.

Before you sign up, read through the agreement and see if the set up suits your requirements.

Diverse Sectors

Each of these publications, Gossip magazines, The Times Newspaper, Corporate Publications, serve a different market – but each buy photos from Alamy to mention just one library – they also buy from many others too – in order to make the publication that day, week or month.

So what sort of pictures do these publications buy? Well it’s very varied. Just glance through and look at the side of the shot, it’s likely to have an image source next to it.

• Take a Break – items / products, staged poses – youth etc.
• Daily mail – travel
• Environment – utilities, waste, pollution etc, – front cover.

Get Rich Quick – NO!

Some say it’s a numbers game – true to some extent, but the way I look at it is this, if you’ve got 10,000 images of shots that won’t sell – you’ve got nothing .

For me as a professional photographer that provides photography services, it’s the long term view – looking to build up and maintain a set of saleable images.

Remember pictures are perishable – i.e. – they become stale – and this will vary dependent upon the industry sector or subject they relate to.

Transport, fashion, IT, business, communications all need, in my view, re-shooting each year. For example a man in a suit by a computer the size of a house in the 1950′s isn’t the modern industry image of today.

Wildlife, sky scenes, landscapes, travel pictures – less so – but look at any developing city – take London – since the Wheel and the Gherkin went up all the skylines are different, also look at Dubai – changing all the time.

Easy money – no it’s not – but you can build up an underlying income if you think about saleable pictures and keep them relevant – remember they have to illustrate a story – so need to tell a story in their own right.

What is Stock

So let’s take a look at how you get started and who there is to choose from. Each Library has its own benefits and key target markets, so find one that suits you and what you are good at shooting.

• Getty
• Alamy
• Comstock
• Jupiter
• Superstock
• Fotolibra
• Istockphoto,
• Pixtal
• Jumpimages
• Adams
• Nevstock

Most will have web sites and these will stipulate how to join of make submissions.

$ Sites

Personally I don’t like them and here’s why. I’m going to set you a project and at the end of it I will buy the photograph from you. So you go and shoot a subject you like, do your research, do the shoot, post produce the image and upload it to my site and hey presto – I pay you 50p at today’s exchange rate — any takers ? I rest my case!

Submission Rules

All picture libraries will set technical requirements and these will vary depending on how much server space they want to invest in.

Alamy work to 48mb TIFF minimum – 1, to keep the bar high enough that only the serious photographer applies and 2, to give their customers’ choice and immediate access to high quality images. Now they’ve changed this from the above to accept JPEG images – so your file size is down to around 8 meg.

Others work on thumbnail sizes then let the buyer contact you. Personally, I think, trying to judge a shot off a 100 or 200k image is not doing the shot justice.

Others specify minimum specifications of camera / model, or make you go though an approval or recommendation process. The thing with this is to find a library that matches your needs and capabilities. Also the amount time you have available to dedicate to stock photography.

Licenses

Non-Exclusive License

The buyer pays a licence fee each time they use the picture , but another image buyer can also purchase and use the image under the same licence.

The image buyer must specify, each time: intended use, media, territory and duration.

Pricing is based on intended use, media, duration and territory. The territorial pricing will be matched to the specific country.

Exclusive License

The picture buyer pays a licence fee each time they use the image.

The picture buyer obtains exclusive use of an image under the terms of the licence: these terms may affect the use, media, territory and/or duration in which the image can by used by other buyers.

Rights protection can be an advantage for high-profile projects such as ad campaigns and promotions.

Royalty Free (RF)

The image buyer pays a one-off fee – they do not have to pay royalties to contributors on a use-by-use basis.

The picture buyer will not know who else is using the image.

The picture buyer should check that the image has the appropriate releases before using the image where a release is required, for example Model release for people and property release for prominent buildings or logos.

Commission

• 50/50
• 60/40 but with global distribution
• 70/30
• 80/20 – Photographers Direct

Again find a picture house that works for you and also find out when you’ll get paid and any minimum balances you must have to get paid. Sometimes you can wait 3 months for your money.

Work Flow

As a provider of photography services I shoot RAW and make minor adjustments to pictures . Now I’m using Adobe Lightroom in place of Raw Shooter and it’s speeded up my work flow considerably. Photoshop – I use this far less now but only to colour and touch out any dirt or what might look like dirt – by this I mean the occasional bird in the sky can look like sensor dirt if it’s a way off in the distance. Resize your image. Output the file to the required format.

Then depending on the library upload over the Internet or cut a CD / DVD.

An Example

Take an older camera the Nikon D70 – 6.1 mega pixel camera. Raw files were around 4 or 5 MB and a TIFF was at 17MB with the JPEG at 4MB.

To meet the submission guidelines you need to Interpolate the image – make it bigger. In Photoshop this was Image > Image Size>Percent. Increase by 168% to give a 48 – 50 MB sized image. Then Save as Jpeg – 5 – 7MB.

I now shoot on a Nikon D300. RAW files are now 18 – 19 mb, opened in CS3 at 34 mb – requiring interpolation by only 20%.

What I’ve Sold

Wonderful sunsets, superb travel pictures, glamour images, or maybe my Dad’s cat! These are just a few examples of shots that have sold.
My dad’s cat, police cars, road signs, street scenes in New York, studio models and traffic jams.

Finding More Value

There are plenty of publications that will promote your sold work, FPME (Now out of print March 2009) is just one of them and if you have sold a shot just let the editor know – chances are it can earn you some more money.

Not only that, look out for sites like Photographer Direct that offer an Image Request service – all you need to do is send 1 email. Also look to the corporate clients – they too may take an image if it fits with their style – be brave, make that approach, but do your research first.

Top Tips

Check out how many images of your subject matter already exist in a library, then ask yourself – can these be improved, shot differently or updated.

Read the images needs issued by Stock libraries, they tell you what sells and what is needed, don’t ignore them.

Thank you for reading this article, I hope you found it interesting, should you have any questions, please feel free to make contact through the web site.

Author : Peter Davey Ma DipM
First edition Feb 2007 – updated March 2008 and March 2009 

Technology Blog

I was headed to work again, it was Friday, not to be mixed up with the weekend and the now shady braided rugs for sale incident. These days it appeared like I labored everyday and most days at least 12 hours. I’m not gonna lie, I’m completely worn out. I could hear my own thoughts, but it was as if I couldn’t or wouldn’t do anything.

Numb is the word I’m searching for, dazed. I knew I seemed edgy, but I was too tired to care and honestly I was kind of floating from exhaustion and strangely I was enjoying it. It had been more than three weeks on this last case, and still no luck. Yeah, I had somewhere around 7 or 8 other jobs I could be thinking about , but this one had me in its grasp.

I was obsessed. Either way, the drive to work was a blur and all I remember was that crazy lady, Dolly was what they called her. I think her authentic name was Sharon. She always has that far off look in her eyes. Sad really. You can see she was probably a wonderful lady at one time. Now she heaves a cart around and grumbles as she stares off into space. Tony would call any minute and want to know what the thought for the day is.

All I could think of were the oval braided rugs, covered with coffee. There were sheets right there and a blanket on the floor two feet away from the espresso maker. Why braided rugs? Were they already in the condo? Did the woman bring them with her? There weren’t any other rugs in the apartment. They looked hand crafted. Pretty nice from what I could tell, except for the coffee stains of course. Why braided rugs? Ring. Ring. Yep. Ok, listen I think those silly rugs are the answer. Lets look more into those things and phone Miss. Delgado about all the files she had at the scene.

Much information is contained in Public Divorce Records. It includes the personal particulars of the people involved and details surrounding the divorce such as date and location, filing number, alimony, child custody, asset division and so forth. A Divorce Certificate can be present too although its certified copy may have to be separately requested.

Divorce Record Access is apparently taking another turn. Before 1966, it was near insurmountable for the public to find any access to divorce records. That changed when the Freedom to Information Act (1966) came into effect the following year. It has never been the same ever since, the coming of the Privacy Act (1974) notwithstanding. The computer age and internet explosion propelled it through the roof but it is now under threat because of its exposure and vulnerability to identity theft.

Being public records, divorce records can be requested free-of-charge at any government agencies tasked with the function. The best way to obtain Free Divorce Records is directly from the county courthouse where the divorce proceedings were held. Anyone has the right to access anybody’s Free Divorce Records Online as long as procedures are followed.

With the internet explosion and e-commerce boom, commercial record providers of Online Divorce Records are expectedly found in abundance on the web. As mentioned, prices are self-regulated at very reasonable levels by the keen competition within the industry itself, boding very well for the subscribers in terms of value for money and overall quality. Review sites are also an ever-ready source of guidance. These guys enjoy referral commissions but they also stake their professional credibility on their recommendations.

<!– @page size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in P margin-bottom: 0.08in –>

Food dehydrators are great instruments for making your own snacks. Kids love dehydrated snacks as do adults and now it’s even easier. However, often time we forget that it’s easy to make unhealthy snacks by adding too much sugar or salt to our food dehydrator recipes. At food dehydrator pro com you can find several recipes for your dehydrator for free.

If you’ve ever made dehydrated beef jerky you might note that you combine sugar and salt to make to sweeten and prep the meat for it’s time in the dehydration unit. The problem is that people typically over salt and over sugar the meat which ends up making a would be healthy snack, unhealthy. An easy way to avoid a unhealthy problem is to cut the sugar and salt you use down by substituting healthier herbs and spices for your meat. If you are looking for more recipes for food dehydrators you can find those here.

If you’ve never made fruit rolls (fruit roll ups) from your food dehydrator you should consider it. These are very healthy snacks and you can easily substitute these instead of unhealthy snacks. Dehydration isn’t anything new but it’s a great way to keep snacks healthy and tasty all at the same time. Keep in mind that you don’t have to get rid of sugar altogether just tone it down and enjoy a healthier snack instead. If you are looking for more healthy food dehydrator snacks and recipes visit this site here.

We have been developing and hosting web sites online for 5 years now and we felt a need for a comprehensive web hosting review. I thus collected some reviews by actual users from forums and blogs and publish them here for you to compare and review.

Website hosting is at an all time high. This is because of the record number of websites being launched every day from almost every continent on the globe. The proliferation of a great number of websites has been attributed to the emergence of what we call WYSIWYG software that can create and deploy sophisticated websites quickly regardless of the user’s programming expertise.

Startlogic Review offered the web hosting solutions I needed, and most importantly, helped me build the actual website. I can rebuild a truck in the dark with a butter knife and a monkey wrench, but when it comes to using the keyboard and mouse to design a site, I’m all thumbs. The plan I went with was the ProLogic, aimed at medium-sized businesses. This gave me unlimited storage, unlimited free domains, choice of shopping carts, unlimited transfer, a Google webmaster tools kit, and more.

Lunar Pages Hosting Review is the hosting site I ended up going with. Their slogan is “Solutions reside here,” and as far as I’ve found, they pretty much have websites covered. The first thing I liked about LunarPages was their plethora of options for those wanting a website. They have a Personal option, Small Business, Microsoft Hosting, Dedicated Servers, Resell Hosting, VPS Hosting, and Email and Domain Hosting. I wanted the first option, personal, and the price on that was great: $4.95/month… READ MORE

Hostgator Hosting Review has good support, a 30-day money-back guarantee, unlimited disk space and data transfer, the ability to host unlimited domains, and they even threw in $75 worth of Google and Yahoo ads, which ended up being a second income on the same site. PowWeb’s hosting took my business into the 21st century in a matter of days.

Website hosting means signing up for a service which provides web accessibility via Internet-connected webspace. There are many hosting companies and their charges vary depending on disk space and features. A typical hosting package will include about 10 GB of space, 10 email accounts and a control panel where you can manage your hosting features.

Well, I tell you what, I am a 100% convert to the whole colon cleansing thing.

I must admit I was sceptical for years but the other week I found this free colon cleansing 14 day trial, threw caution to the wind and signed up.

Sure enough a couple of days later I received my herbal colon cleanse product. Double-checking the ingredients I made sure the product was indeed totally natural as they claimed.

Yep, no problems there.

The manufacturers claim it’s a natural colon cleansing alternative to products like laxatives and even going so far as to have an enema.

In fact herbal body cleansers have been used for centuries it’s just that these days we eat so much more processed food and we are seeing more problems with impacted faeces and blocked up intestinal tracts.

Anyway to cut a long story short I proceeded to follow the instructions exactly as they appeared, raised an imaginary glass of red wine and toasted to the next 12 hours!

They were to be a very interesting 12 hours

Needless to say the product worked and it worked very well. I can’t tell you how much better I feel after using this herbal body cleanser.

I honestly feel like I can do anything. My whole mindset has changed and I feel so positive. I think all the clogged up waste was having a direct effect on my personality!

Anyway I highly recommend you check out the free 14 day trial and get yourself on the road to seriously increased energy levels, clarity of thought and purpose and so many other benefits.

Like I say, I’m totally converted and I will be using herbal bowel cleanse products for many years to come.

This article is not intended as medical advice and should not be taken as such. If you have any concerns about your health you should consult a qualified medical practitioner. Should you take any sort of action after reading this article you do so entirely at your own risk.

It is common and even accepted for men to be bald. Although it is accepted it does not stop some men feeling embarrassed about their baldness and start looking for a way how to prevent hair loss. So can you imagine how it must be for a woman as their hair is one of the main areas that makes a woman feel attractive, and when it starts to fall out confidence can go with it too.

If you are a woman that is experiencing quite a lot of hair suddenly starting to fall out, before panicking ask yourself if there is an obvious reason as to why this is happening, such as wearing your hair in a style where the hair is tightly tied back? Are you undergoing a lot of stress in your personal or professional life at present? Has your diet been poorer than normal lately?Now these things may seem trivial, but they can have a huge influence on what is happening with your scalp.
Now of course non of these things may be happening in your life, and you are actually losing more hair than any of the above would warrant, well if that is the case there is a strong possibility it could be a hormonal issue, as changes in hormones can hugely effect the growth of your hair.

Following are some of the common things that can happen to a woman to adjust hormones and interfere with the hair growth.

The first thing to consider is if you are going through the menopause. If you are then there is a high probability that your hormone production is slowing down. Women who are post menopausal and also have bald patches is probably higher than you would imagine, in fact it can occur in up to 2/3rds of the women in that group. The most common way of treating this slow down is with HRT and following is a little explanation of the hormones which slow down, and why it can cause hair loss:-

Normally a woman produces estrogen and testosterone, however estrogen acts like a shield and stops the testosterone moving about the body much. However when a woman goes on to become menopausal, the production of estrogen slows down and this allows testosterone to start moving around the body, and if the production of it is particularly high then this can lead to DHT and DHT is what has been linked as the reason for baldness in men.

Another thing which will change the hormone balance in a woman hugely is if they are forced to undergo a hysterectomy. In a sense this is like being menopausal as estrogen levels plummet and again this can lead to hair loss.

The final big upheaval in a woman which causes massive hormonal change is pregnancy, and this can really play tricks with the hair. As you will have already guessed, being pregnant causes huge changes within the body and hormones can pretty much run amok. During the pregnancy thick hair can thin and thin hair can thicken, straight hair can become curly and vice versa. Some women claim their hair is never the same again after pregnancy and this is all down to their hormones.

This is not an exhaustive list of hormone changes that can cause hair loss in women but it covers the most common, however remember if you are not menopausal, pregnant or had a hysterectomy and are losing hair, then remember to check your lifestyle, particularly your stress levels and diet and you may want to think about having some vitamins for good hair growth.

Car Insurance Quote