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jeudi 30 avril 2015

Win a Apple iPad thanks to Dreamstime

Hey, you have 2 minutes ?
Good, because here is the SotD, the Share of the Day ! 

Good news and good game from Dreamstime.com, which proposes to reward theperson who will upload the picture n° 32 000 000 with an Apple iPad + 1 DT Tshirt
 
  will you be uploading the image no. 32,000,000 ?
  128,865 images left.





Thanks to those sharing, because don't forget, 1 like or 1 share = 1 happier koala !

If you're not registered on Dreamstime yet, you can subscribe here to sell your pictures online ! 

T. 

 

mercredi 29 avril 2015

Xavier Wttrwulghe - a nice discovery !

Hey, you got 2 minutes ? So read this, it's the SotD, the Share of the Day !

The picture hereafter (and his entire work, that you can discover on 500px) is made by Xavier Wttrwulghe (a french guy, despite the Mercurian name)

https://500px.com/photo/106311743/at-work-by-xavier-wttrwulghe?from=user_library

You'll see that this is not "just a first try" and i still like it very much ! So if you like this, you know what you can do, because don't forget 1 like or 1 share = 1 happier koala !
T.

The FB page ! 

mardi 28 avril 2015

Optimizing your photo upload on Facebook !

Hi all, welcome to this new daily SotD, the Share of the Day !

I just found a french article on how to optimize your photo uploads on FB, and since it was worth sharing, here is it's translation !

So here are the important points on this "optimize your Facebook photo uploads" (with 5 star remarks):
1/ FB for the amateurs, that allows for an easy share of your creations
2/ FB for the pros, that allows for an easy growth of your networking

***** 3/ FB pages are WAYYYY BETTER than FB profiles for the photographers, since the uploaded photos will be less compressed on pages ! !

***** 4/ On FB pages, you are allowed to upload PNG files, which won't be compressed at all if they are below 1 Mo !

5/ To limit the remaining compression factors, you can submit photos with 720, 960 or 2048 pixels on their largest side.

6/ Major comment : when uploading on Facebook, you DO NOT GIVE UP YOUR AUTHORSHIP !

Thank Francis Vachon for the original text again, and now, just go create/develop on your PAGE with correct-sized PNG files !
Special thanks to those who allow FB pages to live, like this information page, by sharing and liking !

Good share, good day !
T.

lundi 27 avril 2015

Videofort to join fotolia !

Re-hello !

Catastrophes, wildlife, superb aerian footages: Videofort strikes heavily and offers more than 10 000 clips online on Fotolia !




You too, you can now create videos using videoclips appearing in the last Grammy Awards celebration ! 


Video: the futur (very) good plan on microstocks ?

Good share, good day, because don't forget, 1 share or a like = 1 happier koala in the world !
T.

"Supermoon" - Aaron Groen in our SotD !

SotD, the Share of the Day !

One of the most viral pictures currently on the internet... has been actually present for 2 years on 500px by now !
Despite the weird internet progression of some messages, this great work by Aaron Groen clearly deserves this new publicity !!!

https://500px.com/photo/38616242/road-to-nowhere-supermoon-by-aaron-j-groen

Good share, good day !
T.

dimanche 26 avril 2015

WE + changing weather + Bordeaux = Photos !

The SotD, the Share of the Day !

Some shots from this WE, in Bordeaux, under a changing weather !

Hope you enjoy them !








The complete album is here

Good share, good day !
T.

vendredi 24 avril 2015

SotD: Christophe Correy, such a nice discovery, and a slap in the face!


The SotD, it's the Share of the Day, to discover useful and magical parts of the photography world !

Today, it's a big slap in the face with this frame by Christophe Correy. in HD on 500px
 
Christophe Correy is a french photographer, and you can also have a look at
- his website
- his FB 

Christophe Correy is a long-exposure-landscape specialist, and you can see on his portfolio that this fantastic shot is not just a lucky try. This picture tells a story to me: seeing the time passing by, trapped among walls in the city, under the critical superior looks of the neighbours.

If you want to support his work, you know how to do on social networks: like and share !

good share, good day !
T.

mercredi 22 avril 2015

Earth Day 2015 !

Welcome to the SofD, the Share of the Day  !
 
Today, 22nd of April 2015, we celebrate the "Earth Day". Even if that should be a perpetual thought, it's always a good thing to have some exterior pressure to do something great for our environment today.

Over here, it will be some gardening !


And don't forget all the good things this special day brought since 1970: :
- EPA creation (environment protection agency)
- "Clean Air" law approval
- "Clean Water" law approval
- "endangered species" law approval
- first sensibilisations to recycling
etc, etc, ...

And you, anything planned ? 

T.

mardi 21 avril 2015

Live webinar for Lightroom CC

Lightroom is annoucing a new version of its software, alias Lightroom CC: Kelbyone is making a special review on it for you guys, live tonight here ! http://kelbyone.com/lightroom-cc-live-webcasts/

Share to support his work ! 

dimanche 19 avril 2015

How to fill the W8BEN form easily and entirely !

Hello everybody ! 

As promised, here is the complement on how to fill completely the W8-BEN form!

This form is super-useful for people who earn money via any american site, including: 
- microstocks (istock, shutterstock, fotolia...)
- donation sites (patreon...)

As for a rule, on any amount of money earned on these sites, the US tax office is taking 30% ! But you shouldn't pay it if you declare your revenues abroad !

Therefore, simply filling the W8-BEN form allows you to avoid this 30% taxation ! You'll find the form under the "tax" tab of all your favourite websites

However, in this W8-BEN form, there is a need for a so-called "fiscal identification number".

In april 2015, what works is to fill this box with the siply and quicly-obtained EIN number. 

* US citizen apply only online here https://sa.www4.irs.gov/modiein/individual/index.jsp

* All the others
1/ Must know what the SS4 form looks like, here http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/iss4.pdf

2/ Then call the IRS (US tax office), based at Philadelphia, during opening hours
- their phone number is 1-267-941-1099 (then dial 1)

Then you simply fill the SS4 form with an agent of the IRS service. At the end of the conversation, you'll get the EIN number, and simply write it down in your W8-BEN form ! (notice that there is often a box on the W8-BEN form to be ticked to signal that you got this EIN number more recently than 15 days)

NB: The SS4 form can also directly be sent to the IRS by fax : 001(267) 941 10 99 (Attn : EIN operation Philadelphia, PA 19255) 

You don't have any excuse anymore to pay 30% tax in the USA for no good reason ! 
Thanks for sharing this useful tip !
T.

Here are some more useful links about the EIN obtention: 

samedi 18 avril 2015

mercredi 15 avril 2015

18th and 19th of April : sport photoshooting in Bordeaux ?

SotD, the Share of the Day !

If you don't know what to do this WE, come for sport photoshoots in Bordeaux.

On Saturday evening, Bordeaux is organizing the unique night-run marathon in France!
This edition received big success, with 20 000 participants. Just take an umbrella with you, since the shoots might be great but... needing some waterproofing.



And for the day-part of the WE, you can get at 50km from there, on the shore, since the Lacanau Surf Club organizes the last stage of the Winter Contest Tour, a high-level Surf competition !

T.

mardi 14 avril 2015

2 new lenses by Zeiss for the Sony A7 owners !

Good news for the Sony fans!

2 new lenses just got released by Zeiss for the A7 camera by Sony
 
The 2 released lenses are respectively
 === Zeiss 50mm f/2 ===
Launched at 715 euros, here you can find already its Flickr galery

=== Zeiss 35mm f/2===
Launched at 965 euros, here is its Flickr Galery for real on-the-field examples and tests 

T.

Why should we not blindly blame microstocks

The Share of the Day:

Since i see very harsh comments (or just insults) about microstocks, I wanted to share few points with you:

I understand the fact that people can be bothered with the "royalty free" notion, since that does not exist in the law, except in the USA, but that's where Fotolia and the other miscrotocks took refugee.

What are microstocks:
they are accused to endanger the entire professional photography business by selling photos for a very cheap price (sometimes even giving them up for free). The most frequent reason being that the production cost can't be covered by such cheap revenues.
THIS IS (partially) TRUE

So why not attack the microstocks ?
Just make a tour on a microstock site, and you will see that some photos are out of these websites and totally spare the money-maker niches of most of the professional photographers (who still hit on the back of the microstocks):
- you can't get your portrait photo there
- you can't get fashion photo there
- neither wedding photos
- no reporter photographer can expose on microstocks




Just go click on the "best sellers" section, and you will notice what a huge place the illustrations and 3D-rendered images take.

So the microstocks don't endanger the whole profession, but they DO bother the illustrators.
But that is true in ANY profession. Only specalized professionals will get paid big money for illustration work now. And also when a company needs a very specific and unique illustration.
For the rest, the advertisement companies won't bother paying a lot of money for something that fill their requirement level that they can find for much cheaper. Especially because some "amateurs" are now doing graphics with an EXCELLENT quality and make additional revenue out of it (if not a living).

This is also true in all the fields: you can choose for a fancy french perfume, but you can also go for a cheaper one if it suits you enough. You can go to a restaurant or order cheap fast-food...

And you, what are your recent contact like when you have been saying that you're working for microstocks ?
T.

my FB page
my Youtube channel

lundi 13 avril 2015

Crazy dream tonight : looking for a short movie scenario, here you have !




Tonight's dream... that I called « the jail »

I will tempt to share it, as I know that some of my readers are into filming and photo-shooting, so if anybody is in lack of inspiration at the moment, feel free to use this story. If you do so, I'm actually super-excited to see what you can do with it:)

In this dream, the story starts by seeing a wooden round closed basket (30cm high). However, inside this wooden basket, you realise that the indoor size is incredibly large... (10m high), and that it is actually filled with a staircase (1 round turn of a staircase).
In the next part of the stream, there are 3 stories, each time starting with a new character appearing inside this wooden box, but without him knowing what he does there.

=== 1st character ===
A young 25-year-old man, waking up, looking around, and noticing that the upper part of the staircase is blocked. The man is then obliged to go through a door at the bottom end of the staircase. The man appears in his usual environment, where he is in the middle of a very poch, rich, club : he is facing a restaurant, and very rich well-dressed people are facing a restaurant, in a sunny day of spring.
The character knows perfectly how artificial and superficial this universe is, but still maintains a very polite discussion with the people he encounters. He however does some « rebellion » with two of his friends, and shuffles the dishes or moves the cutleries so that they are not evenly spaced anymore, and things like this...

But the man thinks that's not enough, and he suddenly decides, in the middle of the following banquet, to get up and leave, despite all the other people to be extremely angry against this unpolite behaviour. He takes his car, drives to a beach, and walks on the beach. He sits down and falls asleep when the night comes. When waking up, he is now back in the wooden basket, but all the exits are now closed...
That is our « prisonner for the social conventions ».

=== Second character ===
A young man, in traditional east-european clothes wakes up in the basket. This time, only the upper end of the staircase is open, so the guy decides to cross the door there and ends in an inn. In this inn, people (but he can't understand the language) are prepapring a happy celebration. In his life, this guy was alone and he feels even more sad know while seeing other people being happy together.
He sees the preparations from the first stage of the inn, and nobody notices him. The celebration starts, and later in the evening, he notices a very pretty girl. He instantly feels the need to seduce her, and tries charming her by playing a magnificient piece of flute. The girl notices him but it doesn't go any further than a quick glance. The man decides to follow her and notices that she is already with someone, so he flees outdoor, and go cry under a tree. He falls asleep, exhausted, and when he wakes up, he is in the all-closed wooden basket...

That is our « prisonner from love », the one who can't live anymore for anything else than finally be « someone » for someone else.

=== 3rd character ===
The third man only has an exit at mid-distance in the staircase.
When he crosses the door, he appears in a very bright, white, museum, with huge rooms. He crosses the first rooms of the museum, but he only met 2 or 3 bronze statues in the dozens of rooms he crossed. The museum does not have a regular disposition, because each room is separated with long staircases. After a long while, he still didn't meet anybody, and notices that he is back to where he started from. He changes direction, but constantly, he falls back to his starting point : this is a labyrinthe.

When he shouts « Who built this ? », he suddenly realizes that he was the one ordering this gigantic construction, and that the bronze statues he passed next to where made at his image.

That is our « prisonner from megalomany ».

My dream (thus this story) ends with this guy screaming, and the « camera » zooming out of the wooden box, and you could see a little girl sticking a paper on the wooden basket with a message on it : « Lunatics, lovers, and poets all are ruled by their overactive imaginations.  », William Shakespeare

*******
Each time, « only one exit » in these characters' life, and each time they trapped themselves or got trapped by others, in a life that they finally don't like, but it would kill them to try to escape this.

That was my special daily contribution,
Have a great day all and lots of inspiration!
Share this if you think that people love crazy dreams , ahah
T.

vendredi 10 avril 2015

Commenting the first photo ever shot in the World !

Let's take some calm time for the Share of the day !

Here is a movie about what the first photo of humanity could have looked like !

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2kf4n3


"Come on, let's do it again, i think i blinked"

T.

jeudi 9 avril 2015

Breaking News: Youtube gives more information for the subscription !

Hey all ! 

In the previous article, I announced that Youtube was going for a monetization system based on VOLONTARY subscription fees for viewers. 

The principle has 2 sides
- allow the subscribed viewers to skip the ads.
- allow the viewers to financially help their favourite youtubers for the time (and equipment) spent to think, create, film, mount and share their work. 

Now, here are some new and fresh details obtained from Youtube on this new system !

For the creators
Preliminaries: 
- Your Youtube account should be in "partnership" state
- You must have a validated google adsense account attached to your youtube account
- You must have enabled the monetization of your videos on Youtube
- You must only produce and share 100%-created content (video and music included)
The money will only come in your pocket if you are ok with all the preliminary points.
"the following YouTube Partner Program Terms apply to your participation in the YouTube Partner Program "

YouTube will pay you as follow:

For the "old" system of advertisement, Youtube will give you "55% of net revenues recognized by YouTube from ads displayed or streamed by YouTube or an authorized third party on your Content"

for the new subscription system, here are the rules:   
"1.2 [...] YouTube will pay you 55% of the total net revenues recognized by YouTube from subscription fees that are attributable to the monthly views or watchtime of your Content as a percentage of the monthly views or watchtime of all or a subset of participating content in the relevant subscription offering (as determined by YouTube)."
To be clear:
- if someone subscribes only to your channel, you will receive 55% of this monthly fee
- if several channels are subscribed by someone, then you will receive a pro rata of this amount, based on how much time the viewer spent on YOUR content. Better catch them for the longest possible time then !

How much ? 
Some american magazine (The Verge) announced that this subscription could cost 10 dollars (9,3 euros).
 


Concerning your next uploads: this new system does not come with requirements in terms of production rate (time between 2 uploads) or any exclusivity term with regards to Youtube. 
What do I have to do to take advantage of this offer ?
NOTHING, if your content is monetized, then Youtube will make your content available for the subscription process. If you disagree with it, then you should set your sharing of your videos in private mode only.

For the viewers
Paying for a monthly subscription allows a viewer to support his favourite youtubers and gives him the exclusive advantage to skip the ads on youtube (except if you are that dedicated to support AND support your favourite youtuber by clicking on the ads !)

This application would allow the viewers to download the videos to watch them off-line.
More news 
This new system is supposed to arrive "very soon [...] in 2015". Knowing that the new General Terms and conditions apply starting on the 15th of June 2015.  

Particular case: those who want can still make their videos not available in certain countries.

Have a great day !
A share or a like of this work = 1 happier koala in the World !
T. 


Youtube extends the offer to pay a monthly subscription to help your favourite creators !

Excellent news coming from the Youtube newslettertoday !

In this newsletter, Youtube announces (among other things) that they are laucnhing the monthly fee option (option!) in new countries !

Not only will that allow you to support your favourite creators, but also, paying for this subscription will allow you to get rid off all the advertisements. You're finally free to let your adblock system on while supporting the Youtube creators you appreciate !

A good idea, then, from Youtube, even if a bit copied on its neighbours/concurrents (dailymotion, twitch.tv and other streaming sites). This system proved itself to be working great and received already big success in the USA and on the other platforms, both from the creators and from the fans who want to support the creation on Youtube.


We are now waiting for the exact launching date and for the asked price for this monthly subscription (or maybe this price can be adjusted).

Good day to you all !
And don't forget, 1 like or 1 share = 1 happier koala in the world ;)
T.

mercredi 8 avril 2015

CC, copyright and plagiarism

Welcome back for the SotD, the Share of the Day !



This story is about a (too) common non-respect of the attribution of the credits  when using or copying a work from an artist / photographer / illustrator.
Comment une agence a préférer plagier mon illustration que respecter mon droit d'attribution
the original image from Stephanie Walter (left) and its copy by Cera (agency, right)




 The image of Stephanie Walter (left) has a CC (creative commons) protection, which just asks for the users to put her name as copyright.

As too often, Cera decided to re-use her image (left one) without citing her name. Stephanie Walter tweeted them to correct this. What happened then surprised her a lot.

Instead of just correcting their mistake (as often happens, by users who don't know the rules or forgot in their website creation), they decided to replace her creation by a plagiarism: The new image was now on the website (right one), but without her name. Their justification was now 'we replaced the image, their is no need for a CC no more'.

This is tireing, but once again, here is the legal explanation:
- CC does need quoting the name of the creator.
- CC still means that there is some copyright
- the agency said afterwards that "ideas can't be protected by copyright", except that here, they copied a concrete materialisation of an idea, so it's just not an idea anymore.
- plagiarism can be legally suited as well as the non-respect of copyright.

In this case, the author didn't decide to suit the agency and just wanted her name to be associated with her work. Sadly, she didn't get respected, but that's not a reason for making commonplace of this story !!

Don't forget, 1 share or 1 like = 1 happier koala :)
T. 




vendredi 3 avril 2015

transiting from argentic to numerical camera !

In the Share of the Day, the story of people truly crazy about photography!

The story takes place in a french photo group (french text)


Their technical staff has been working for 2 years on the resarch, tests and development of an element allowing for a smooth transition from argentic photography to numerical photography, starting with an argentic body camera !

Facing the rarefaction of the offer in the argentic development domain, and thus exploding prices, we can spectate nowadays
- an increasing demand (without much hope) to offer a second life to an argentic body camera and helps it transit towards the numerical world.
- The giving-up of the argentic technique, and the ridiculously cheap price of these equipements, when the tools are just not given for free.

The team from pixelistes.com is working on an independent element, which WON'T NEED ANY ADDITIONAL ACCESSORY, to be inserted in the body of your argentic camera and include a sensor to your camera.

test
@pixelistes.com

This new tool is developped under 3 different resolutions:
- CMOS 8 megapixels (4:3 format) (17.3×13)
- CMOS 16 megapixels (Full Frame) (24×36)
- CMOS 32 megapixels (Full Frame) (24×36)

The price and the deadlines have not been released yet, but they are on the verge of starting building the first few prototypes and are looking for beta-testers ! Thank you all that can support them !

Have a great day, and don't forget that 1 like = 1 happier koala !
T .

jeudi 2 avril 2015

Share of the Day, Thought of the day

The Share of the Day is a simple but important thought about how important is to keep sharing our knowledge when we have some time, may it be practical or theoretical.

http://teacherkoala.blogspot.fr/2015/04/thought-of-day-week-month.html

Good curiosity day to all of you !
T.