Breaking a long silence on my blog with a series of images I took last week. These bicycles I found up on the range above Mclaren Vale in South Australia. Beautiful.

Running on a Thursday and Sunday evening the Mindil Sunset Market is a visitation highlight of Darwin. We decided to drop in on the midweek Thursday market and it was a great evening out. Make sure you take an empty stomach as I have never seen so many food vans in the same place before! From Tai food to kangaroo skewers and everything in between all the food looked amasing and you have plenty of time to make your choice and walk over the dunes to the beach to watch the sunset while you dine.

After the sun had set for the evening we went down into the market and looked at all the local wares that were on offer. The quality of the crafts were high and all the stalls were fantastic, there were tarot card readers and other entertainments as-well. A big thanks to Mick from Micks Whips who helped me achieve #164 on my bucket list “Learn to crack a bull whip” he put on a great display of skill promoting his stall with bull whip tricks.

As the evening got later live music from lots of artists kept the market in full swing and the atmosphere fantastic.

Related articles

• Darwin- Mindil Beach Night Markets (australiablog.com)
• Things to Do in Darwin (australiablog.com)
• Darwin’s Dry Season Has Begun! – Darwin, Australia (travelpod.com)

Click image to visit Craft & Vision Website

Being new to the Ebook format I decided it was about time that I had a look to see what books were out there to spend my hard earned money on. Conveniently this conscientious thought co-insided with an article about a new book released by Alexandre Buisse called Extreme Perspectives, from online blog PictureCorrect. It seemed too good an opportunity to miss with my interests in outdoor, extreme sports and photography combined this could be a good way to start my ebook library!

It has to be said that I thoroughly enjoyed this Ebook which is largely made up of an informative self critique by Buisse of some of his favourite and most successful images, which guides you through the dos and don’ts of mountaineering photography.  As Buisse says himself, he believes that his learning in climbing and mountaineering photography can be applied to any outdoor extreme sports and I would have to agree. You don’t have to enjoy the great outdoors to appreciate the outstanding stories depicted by his photographs and the use of fine technique. Within the book Buisse explains his gear choices and includes some photographic philosophies he tries to uphold whilst shooting and with his post production.

Craft & Vision who published this Ebook has a mission statement on their website to: create the best value in photographic education through ridiculously low-priced eBooks.  Their website also carries titles from photographers like Dave Delnea and Andrew S. Gibson as-well as  David duChemin, the best-selling author of Within The Frame.

Extreme Perspectives – Alexandre Buisse is available from the Craft & Vision website for immediate download for just $5.  In my opinion it is a fantastic ebook which I thoroughly enjoyed reading and no doubt I shall be referring back to the Craft and Vision website to extend my ebook library.

Related articles

• Extreme Perspectives: an eBook to keep your DSLR (pixiq.com)

To get a sense of just how bad things are for professional photographers right now, the story of Robert Lam is instructive. When Time needed a photo to illustrate its “New Frugality” cover story in late 2009, it purchased Lam’s image of a jar of change from stock-photo agency iStockphoto. The going rate for a Time cover had typically been $3,000 to $10,000. Lam was paid $31.50. Nevertheless, Lam declared, “I am happy”—the payment was more than he’d expected the photo to generate, and he was delighted to have a Time cover in his portfolio. Veteran professional photographers were livid, calling Lam an “IDIOT,” among other unkind words.

Lam told me by phone that he’s only a part-time photographer—he makes most of his income through a furniture store he owns. Last year, he earned $4,000 from stock photography. Since it’s his passion and hobby, not his job, that sum is fine by him. Most of what Lam has learned about lighting has come from reading online, on Strobist and similar blogs. Typical of the DIY approach of this set, Lam’s Time cover was shot using materials Lam found at a local sign store.

My reply is this:  Good for Robert Lam!

The truth of the matter is that the majority of professional photographers would laugh at the thought of setting up their studio to take photos of regular objects. Many do not have the time to carry out a shoot that may or may not create revenue for them.

I have spent time shooting random objects like this at a time when I was struggling as a young, fast-learning freelancer.  It is incredibly time consuming.  If “semi pro” and “amateur” photographers like Lam can create and make a revenue from such images good on them, not many pros have the time to put images like this into their libraries.

Much of the doom and gloom on this issue in trade journals and on blogs is incredibly daunting for young photography students and people wanting to be photographers. Some of the comments left on related articles online are to this effect.

For new professionals and students it would be good to concentrate some of your studies towards understanding royalty-free and rights managed photographs as-well as the usual curriculum.

I will always be an advocate of every photographer having stock images available. Some of the photos I have put up in stock libraries are similar to that of Robert Lam’s.  It takes time to shoot stock and have a library of images but even if you have only take 5 photographs there is no reason why you cannot make them available for sale today.  The initial setting up and editing of photographs to meet submission guidelines is time consuming as is meta-tagging and key-wording but when they are there, they are available indefinitely.

Related articles

• David Hobby: A Baltimore Sun photographer took a buyout, started a website, and changed photography forever. (slate.com)
• A Baltimore Sun photographer who took a buyout, started a blog, and changed the photography business forever (3quarksdaily.com)
• Stock Photography at Its Best (Worst) (brandieraaschphotography.wordpress.com)

Jumping Crocodiles! Well that was something we had to see! We were having a few days in Kakadu National Park which has been hit with one of the worst wet seasons for a while with plenty of flooding and plenty of roads in disrepair.

It has to be said this is par for the course during the wet season up here but this year the prolonged nature of it has delayed the arrival of the dry season here when all the tourists flock to the Darwin area.  Despite the fact much of the park was closed we thoroughly enjoyed our time in Kakadu National Park with the crocodiles, snakes, ants and millions of mosquitoes!

One of the places that was very much open was the Jumping Crocs boat cruises and after paying our $35 per adult we all jumped on the two story boat that would take us up the Adelaide River. With only a few people aboard our 3pm boat we were able to roam round the boat to see these magnificent creatures. With an informative and interesting patterthe captain steered us down the river introducing us to the crocs whilst his crew hung the meat off the side tempting the crocs to jump.

We didn’t have long to wait and I shall let the pictures show you how cool it was, absolutely top notch! An added bonus was the Kites on the way back who were lured in by the crew before they opened the bar and we had a cold cider on the rest of the journeyback. A fantastic tour.

Related articles

• Kakadu – Kakadu National Park, Australia (travelpod.com)
• Becoming Croc-wise – Jabiru, Australia (travelpod.com)

A couple of photographs that I missed off my Uluru article were these two.  They were both taken in the morning and I think the one of the clouds over Uluru, Ayers Rock may be one of my favourites due to its individuality.

Related articles

• Uluru – Ayres Rock – The Red Heart Of Australia’s Outback (thomasjupe.com)

After the long drive along the first part of Route 87, Stuart Highway and the detour along the Lasseter Highway to Ayres Rock Resort. We arrived (thanks to daylight savings!) at 3.30pm with plenty of time to check in to the resort’s campsite and get our powered pitch (a special treat after roughing it through the outback!) Ironically this campsite has been the cheapest one of our tour down under so far a bargain at $39 for the two of us and Dori to stay the night.

Leaving Adelaide was bitter sweet, we have thoroughly enjoyed our time in Mclaren Vale thanks to our Wwoofing hosts Angie and Leon yet it was time to move on. Our next stop was Alice Springs via Uluru, Ayers Rock.

Wwoofing is an acronym for Willing Workers on Organic Farms and we signed up to be Wwoofers not long after we left Phillip Island. For more information on Wwoofing please visit their website.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time working for Angie and Leon in return for our bed and board. We learned many things during our visit from fencing & gardening to looking after their animals and many things in-between and outside of these!

Here are some pictures from our stay!