The cheques keep on coming in. I received my second today, for $213. My plan before was to keep a small balance on my Istockphoto.com account just so that I would always be able to make a payment request, but it seems like the balance rises fast enough that it will probably never be too big of a wait before I can request another cheque.
Looking at my sales graphs, it seems as if my monthly istock sales are rapidly approaching 10% of what I'm getting paid for my day job. That says to me that I need to quickly shoot another 1800 half decent photos to add to my meager 200, then I'll really be laughing.
My spreadsheet suggests that at the rate I'm going it will be four more years before I even hit 1000. I guess I need to step things up a little.
The real problem isn't so much shooting the pictures as much as coming up with ideas of what to shoot. The ideas are the real hard part.
-Gary
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Old Ford
A kid came in the other day to pick up his photos. His buddy was out in the truck and their stereo was just blasting. The bass was shaking the whole studio, not just their old truck.
I said to the kid, "Is the knob that controls the bass on your stereo is broken?"
He said, "No, I don't think so."
It was a struggle for me and my co-worker to keep a straight face.
The kid continued, "In fact, I have a better stereo in my parent's basement. I just haven't put it in yet."
Apparently he hadn't decided which vehicle he wanted the better stereo in.
After he left, uncontrollable laughter.
-Gary
I said to the kid, "Is the knob that controls the bass on your stereo is broken?"
He said, "No, I don't think so."
It was a struggle for me and my co-worker to keep a straight face.
The kid continued, "In fact, I have a better stereo in my parent's basement. I just haven't put it in yet."
Apparently he hadn't decided which vehicle he wanted the better stereo in.
After he left, uncontrollable laughter.
-Gary
Friday, April 13, 2007
Idea Crack
Ze Frank, has just recently finished making a video pod cast everyday for an entire year. That's a lot of videos.
One of my favourites was his response to someone asking if he was afraid of running out of ideas. He said, of course, but that is why as soon as he gets an idea he goes out and does it as quickly as possible.
It might not work the first time, the second time or even the third time, but even if you can't get it to work after three tries, you have three times as much experience doing it as someone who didn't try at all.
It is Ze's belief that people can get addicted to ideas. They are so afraid of failure that they become addicted to having the idea in their mind, that they plan to do someday, and someday never comes.
The more they think about their idea, the more perfect it needs to be carried out. Eventually the completing the idea becomes so unattainable that it can never be anything but an idea.
Ze calls it Brain Crack, but I think that a better name is idea crack, because it is the ideas that we become addicted to.
I guess the reason that this idea of Idea Crack is so interesting to me is that I am somewhat addicted to having ideas.
Several years ago, I saw some boy scouts selling cotton candy at the Medicine Hat parade. It was such a compelling thing to me, I really wanted to sell cotton candy. I thought about the idea for over a year. I looked up cotton candy machines on the internet trying to find out how or where to get one. I used formulas I learned in my managerial accounting class to make a excel spreadsheet to figure out the contribution margin of each unit of cotton candy so I would know how much I would have to sell to make buying a machine worth while as well as run through various scenarios detailing different levels of sales.
Then after almost a year and a half of thinking about it, I pitched the idea to the entrepreneur club at my faculty at the U of C. The girl I talked to thought it was a great idea. I could rent a machine and find some other people to work the booth while I was in class. etc. I can't remember for sure, but I think they were willing to float a loan, but the profits had to go to some charity.
Well, the cat was out of the bag by that point. I didn't need to buy a $1500 cotton candy machine. I could rent one from a party rental company. Screw experience, I was only in it for the money. The experience would be a nice afterthought.
The next Canada Day I sold well over $300 worth of cotton candy at the stampede parade in Raymond.
The next bit of idea crack stay in my head for a lot less time. The U of C Chinese club at the used to sell Texas doughnuts at a booth in the Student centre. It seemed like a great idea to me, but I didn't want to actually do it. Then the next year the Chinese Club quit selling them. I don't know if a key member graduated but anyway, my friend James Keller started selling them for his club.
He raved and rave about how easy it was and that they practically sold themselves. Well selling them sold itself to me. I asked him lots of questions about it and found out all I could. Still, it took me a year before I took the plunge for the first time. I was more successful selling the doughnuts that I had been selling the cotton candy. I went on to do the Texas doughnuts a bunch more times. The best thing about selling the doughnuts was that the bakery where I got them gave them to me on credit. They said to have a cheque ready for them the next day when they came to get their trays. I had all the money from the sales before I even paid for the doughnuts. It was great.
Since then the incubating time for my ideas has continued to drop significantly but it is still much longer than I would like it to be. It isn't anywhere near the speed of my sister who can come up with an idea and be working on it before you even have time to put on your shoes.
Anyway, I've been thinking of doing a basketball shot like this for about a month. That may or may not seem like much, but it is my hobby and there were no hurdles to overcome, other than going to a gymnasium.
This photo was one of the out takes, because you can see the Wilson / NCAA logos.
-Gary Milner
One of my favourites was his response to someone asking if he was afraid of running out of ideas. He said, of course, but that is why as soon as he gets an idea he goes out and does it as quickly as possible.
It might not work the first time, the second time or even the third time, but even if you can't get it to work after three tries, you have three times as much experience doing it as someone who didn't try at all.
It is Ze's belief that people can get addicted to ideas. They are so afraid of failure that they become addicted to having the idea in their mind, that they plan to do someday, and someday never comes.
The more they think about their idea, the more perfect it needs to be carried out. Eventually the completing the idea becomes so unattainable that it can never be anything but an idea.
Ze calls it Brain Crack, but I think that a better name is idea crack, because it is the ideas that we become addicted to.
I guess the reason that this idea of Idea Crack is so interesting to me is that I am somewhat addicted to having ideas.
Several years ago, I saw some boy scouts selling cotton candy at the Medicine Hat parade. It was such a compelling thing to me, I really wanted to sell cotton candy. I thought about the idea for over a year. I looked up cotton candy machines on the internet trying to find out how or where to get one. I used formulas I learned in my managerial accounting class to make a excel spreadsheet to figure out the contribution margin of each unit of cotton candy so I would know how much I would have to sell to make buying a machine worth while as well as run through various scenarios detailing different levels of sales.
Then after almost a year and a half of thinking about it, I pitched the idea to the entrepreneur club at my faculty at the U of C. The girl I talked to thought it was a great idea. I could rent a machine and find some other people to work the booth while I was in class. etc. I can't remember for sure, but I think they were willing to float a loan, but the profits had to go to some charity.
Well, the cat was out of the bag by that point. I didn't need to buy a $1500 cotton candy machine. I could rent one from a party rental company. Screw experience, I was only in it for the money. The experience would be a nice afterthought.
The next Canada Day I sold well over $300 worth of cotton candy at the stampede parade in Raymond.
The next bit of idea crack stay in my head for a lot less time. The U of C Chinese club at the used to sell Texas doughnuts at a booth in the Student centre. It seemed like a great idea to me, but I didn't want to actually do it. Then the next year the Chinese Club quit selling them. I don't know if a key member graduated but anyway, my friend James Keller started selling them for his club.
He raved and rave about how easy it was and that they practically sold themselves. Well selling them sold itself to me. I asked him lots of questions about it and found out all I could. Still, it took me a year before I took the plunge for the first time. I was more successful selling the doughnuts that I had been selling the cotton candy. I went on to do the Texas doughnuts a bunch more times. The best thing about selling the doughnuts was that the bakery where I got them gave them to me on credit. They said to have a cheque ready for them the next day when they came to get their trays. I had all the money from the sales before I even paid for the doughnuts. It was great.
Since then the incubating time for my ideas has continued to drop significantly but it is still much longer than I would like it to be. It isn't anywhere near the speed of my sister who can come up with an idea and be working on it before you even have time to put on your shoes.
Anyway, I've been thinking of doing a basketball shot like this for about a month. That may or may not seem like much, but it is my hobby and there were no hurdles to overcome, other than going to a gymnasium.
This photo was one of the out takes, because you can see the Wilson / NCAA logos.
-Gary Milner
Thursday, April 12, 2007
What's Better than $599.99?
My first cheque came from 
www.istockphoto.com today. I'm pretty pleased with it. It is a big one too.
You can cash out in amounts greater than $100, but I let mine account grow a little before I requested my cheque. The microstock business is going very well for me. So far this month I'm averaging a little over $6/day.
Here is an upto date history of my downloads.
As you can see, I've already eclipsed my total downloads for last year and it is only April.www.istockphoto.com is working well for me. I just need to get more photos posted and things will really start picking up.
I've got a couple of good ideas that I'm going to implement tonight.
-Gary
You can cash out in amounts greater than $100, but I let mine account grow a little before I requested my cheque. The microstock business is going very well for me. So far this month I'm averaging a little over $6/day.
Here is an upto date history of my downloads.
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 101
01/07 : 169
02/07 : 191
03/07 : 217
04/07 : 87 (So far)
As you can see, I've already eclipsed my total downloads for last year and it is only April.
I've got a couple of good ideas that I'm going to implement tonight.
-Gary
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
How embarrassing...Iran captures 15 Brits
I just wanted to add my two bits about the Iranian Hostage taking event. Here's the deal. Lots of British people were embarrassed at the reaction of the British Goverment to the incident. In their own words they thought that Britain should immediately hussle to Iran and" cuff them about the head and ears." They also thought that the hostages should have made the Iranians torture the hell out of them before capitulating. Here's my reasoning. Had the British attacked Iran, the hostages would never have been released. They and thousands of others would have been killed. Also, it's a well known fact that noone can resist torture. People are willing to say anything to make the torturing stop. That being the case, why put yourself through it? I think I figured that one out when I was about five years old. Maybe I'm smarter than the Brits.
Monday, April 09, 2007
The Good Shepard? Not So Great
I watched 45 minutes of this movie and thought. If movies aren't good in the first 30 minutes, they ain't getting any better in the next hour and a half. I watched for another 30 minutes and decided not to waste anymore time.
Matt Damon starred in this turd parade. Usually a film watcher doesn't want anything bad to happen to the main character but to tell you the truth, I was hoping that he would get killed or possibly trip, maybe even get a splinter in his finger, anything just as long as something would have happened I could have been happy.
The only good thing about this movie is that I got it free because of Blockbuster's guaranteed in policy.
Matt Damon starred in this turd parade. Usually a film watcher doesn't want anything bad to happen to the main character but to tell you the truth, I was hoping that he would get killed or possibly trip, maybe even get a splinter in his finger, anything just as long as something would have happened I could have been happy.
The only good thing about this movie is that I got it free because of Blockbuster's guaranteed in policy.
Arrested Development
Watching tv series on DVD is the only way to go. I just finished watching all three seasons of Arrested Development and I really enjoyed them. I recommend them to anyone. It is a show about a rich family who lost everything and the one son that had no choice but to keep them all together.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Disney Redeems Itself
The new movie, "Meet the Robinsons" is so good, I can now say that I have forgiven Disney for making Pocahontas.
Tracie and I went to see it with Megan, Dan and Eva on Friday night. We both really enjoyed it a lot. I recommend it to anyone. It was the best movie either of us have seen in a long time.
It is the story of an orphaned inventor who meets a boy from the future and travels there on a quest to find his mother.
Very funny, and wildly entertaining, "Meet the Robinsons" is fine holiday fun. Two thumbs way up. In fact, my thumbs are higher than yours.
-Gary
Tracie and I went to see it with Megan, Dan and Eva on Friday night. We both really enjoyed it a lot. I recommend it to anyone. It was the best movie either of us have seen in a long time.
It is the story of an orphaned inventor who meets a boy from the future and travels there on a quest to find his mother.
Very funny, and wildly entertaining, "Meet the Robinsons" is fine holiday fun. Two thumbs way up. In fact, my thumbs are higher than yours.
-Gary
Friday, March 30, 2007
Should John Paul be made a saint
Because the late John Paul 2nd was a popular leader of the Catholic church, there are those that want to honor him by giving him the title of "saint". One of the criteria for becoming a saint says that you must have performed at least one miracle in your life. I think what this really means is that you must have had enough persuasion at least once in your life to get'God' to perform a miracle. According to a story I saw in the news tonight a catholic nun has come forward who says that John Paul gave her a blessing, and that very night she was cured of (some kind of incurable nueral desease) . If indeed John Paul carried off this miracle I think you have to wonder why he didn't perform lots of miracles. Why only the one?
Thursday, March 29, 2007
First Istockphoto Cheque
I requested my first cheque from www.istockphoto.com. It's going to be a whopping $600 US. I'm getting pretty excited for it. They say that it will take about 10 days for it to get here.
My next goal is to make enough money to request another cheque before the previous one arrives.
Payment is available via paypal, but I don't have an account and it doesn't seem entirely clear how you get your money from them once someone has put money in your paypal account. You would think they would put that in their FAQ.
-Gary
My next goal is to make enough money to request another cheque before the previous one arrives.
Payment is available via paypal, but I don't have an account and it doesn't seem entirely clear how you get your money from them once someone has put money in your paypal account. You would think they would put that in their FAQ.
-Gary
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Vote For Me
I submitted a photo so JPG Magazine. Three main topics for photos are chosen. They publish all user submitted photos, and they let the world vote on which photo to publish. If your photo gets published, you get $100 and a subscription to the magazine.
This is one of my entries.
This is one of my entries.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Baaaa RAM Ewe
So I've upgraded both my laptop and old desktop with more RAM. I thought that it would make a difference for both computers, but I never knew how much.
My boss at the studio gave me one of his old RAM chips to put in my laptop and I immediately noticed the difference, especially when I use photoshop to convert raw files into jpgs. Even for the rest of my daily use, it seems like the whole thing is running more smoothly.
For my desktop, I took a RAM chip from my parent's old computer that is having power supply issues. Well, it made a world of difference! I should have done it a long time ago. I don't have to wait nearly as long for anything anymore.
Don't skimp on RAM, it makes a huge difference.
-Gary
My boss at the studio gave me one of his old RAM chips to put in my laptop and I immediately noticed the difference, especially when I use photoshop to convert raw files into jpgs. Even for the rest of my daily use, it seems like the whole thing is running more smoothly.
For my desktop, I took a RAM chip from my parent's old computer that is having power supply issues. Well, it made a world of difference! I should have done it a long time ago. I don't have to wait nearly as long for anything anymore.
Don't skimp on RAM, it makes a huge difference.
-Gary
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Life Marches On
I've been in kind of a daze lately, not really in the mood to post about much of anything lately.
I went to Calgary with Jeff a few days ago, and we took part in a study about bloggers and blogging at the U of C. I was one of the most interesting conversations I have had in a long time. I wish I had been recording it. We discussed this history of our internet use and a lot about why we blog. It was a very enjoyable trip with Jeff.
-Gary
I went to Calgary with Jeff a few days ago, and we took part in a study about bloggers and blogging at the U of C. I was one of the most interesting conversations I have had in a long time. I wish I had been recording it. We discussed this history of our internet use and a lot about why we blog. It was a very enjoyable trip with Jeff.
-Gary
Monday, March 12, 2007
Since 1994
I’m in love with Tracie. I always have been. Since I saw her at the bowling alley and decided to go after her, I knew that I want her affection.
I can talk to her and she can talk to me. We have the most wonderful conversations. I love taking long trips with her in the car because they give us an opportunity to talk about life, dreams and goals. One of my favorite memories of her is our trip to Vancouver, sitting in the car driving along talking. We love to analyze things together and figuring things out, discussing movies, books, how birth order affects people’s personalities and things like that.
She is beautiful. Seeing her is great, I can remember having picture days with her and then looking at the photos everyday and carrying them around on my mission.
We have lots of common interests. We like similar things. If I see something I like I want to tell her about it and talk about it with her.
We want to do nice things for each other. I want her to be happy. Sometimes I think about what I can do as a surprise nice thing for her.
She works hard. She is very smart. She is very talented. Those are three attributes that I think are amazing. They are things that attract me to her like crazy. Work ethic, intelligence and talent are the most important things about anybody and she has them all.
Tracie supports my desire to be a photographer and wants me to succeed. She likes taking photos with me and is even learning how to be a photographer herself.
I can talk to her and she can talk to me. We have the most wonderful conversations. I love taking long trips with her in the car because they give us an opportunity to talk about life, dreams and goals. One of my favorite memories of her is our trip to Vancouver, sitting in the car driving along talking. We love to analyze things together and figuring things out, discussing movies, books, how birth order affects people’s personalities and things like that.
She is beautiful. Seeing her is great, I can remember having picture days with her and then looking at the photos everyday and carrying them around on my mission.
We have lots of common interests. We like similar things. If I see something I like I want to tell her about it and talk about it with her.
We want to do nice things for each other. I want her to be happy. Sometimes I think about what I can do as a surprise nice thing for her.
She works hard. She is very smart. She is very talented. Those are three attributes that I think are amazing. They are things that attract me to her like crazy. Work ethic, intelligence and talent are the most important things about anybody and she has them all.
Tracie supports my desire to be a photographer and wants me to succeed. She likes taking photos with me and is even learning how to be a photographer herself.
Daylight Savings = Heart Heart Unicorn Rainbow
I LOVE daylight savings time. I'm saving electricity right now! The lights are all off, and I can still see everything. It is like summer has started already.
I wish we could just have daylight savings all the time. Having a little more sun after work is the greatest thing ever.
-Gary
I wish we could just have daylight savings all the time. Having a little more sun after work is the greatest thing ever.
-Gary
Happy Birthday Jeff
It is my brother's birthday today. You'd think I'd choose a photo of him by himself, but I don't want him to get all full of himself.
His birthday is March 12th but I've sort of always wished he had come eight days sooner. That way if he was bugging me I could say, "March forth", to get rid of him. In a mix between "happy birthday and get lost kid ya bug me."
His birthday is March 12th but I've sort of always wished he had come eight days sooner. That way if he was bugging me I could say, "March forth", to get rid of him. In a mix between "happy birthday and get lost kid ya bug me."
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Istock in Action
One of my istock photos was found out in the big wide world today. Jeff's friend Louise, from Brisbane, received this publication on her desk.
Louise told Jeff that she recognised Tracie from our photos on flickr.
This is the first time I've encountered on of my istock photos in print, and the second one I've found. The other one was on a website that emailed me to let me know.
I'm selling heaps of photos on istock and things just keep getting better and better.
-Gary
Louise told Jeff that she recognised Tracie from our photos on flickr.
This is the first time I've encountered on of my istock photos in print, and the second one I've found. The other one was on a website that emailed me to let me know.
I'm selling heaps of photos on istock and things just keep getting better and better.
-Gary
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Babel Sucked
I hate to use the term turd parade to describe a movie and then I rented Babel and changed my mind. I could have spent the time doing the dishes or slamming my hand in the door.
I should have known it was a crappy movie from the trailer. Everytime the trailer came on tv I wanted to see the movie less than the time before. If when you see advertising for a movie and it makes you want to avoid the movie, do it.
Avoid Babel at all costs.
I should have known it was a crappy movie from the trailer. Everytime the trailer came on tv I wanted to see the movie less than the time before. If when you see advertising for a movie and it makes you want to avoid the movie, do it.
Avoid Babel at all costs.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
My Brothers Game
My brother made a new flash game to test how well you know the provinces in Canada. Try it and link to it right away.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Stock Photo Update
In three weeks I'm going to hit the one year anniversary of my first download from Istock. Right now I've had 891 downloads, worth a little over $485 to me. I'm pretty sure that I'll have hit $500 by March 1st. I've cracked $100 This month and last month.
Here is a month by month breakdown, although I'll probably have at least 15 more downloads this month.
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 101
01/07 : 169
02/07 : 147 (So far)
It is going pretty well I'd say. A lot better than I had imagined.
I have 200 photos uploaded which means that my photos have averaged $2.43 each over the course of the year. I do have to point out that 74 of my images have never been downloaded. I also want to point out the fact that not all 200 of my photos were uploaded at the beginning of the year, in fact many of my early photos haven't sold at all, and many of my top sellers didn't get uploaded for six or more months later.
I guess there are several reasons why the average earning is important. The most important being that they throw out the stat that if you average ₤2 per photo from your rights managed stock, you are doing pretty well. The idea being that you have 10,000 photos in your portfolio. ₤2 in Canadian money is about $4.54
It would appear that I'm a little behind as far as doing pretty well, but like I said, not all my files were uploaded right from the very start which dilutes the yearly statistics a little.
In fact I only had one file the first month and then the next month only three more were added. It takes a little while to figure out exactly what good stock photography actually is, and particularly what will sell. It doesn't seem like it should be, but stock photography is an entirely different type of photography than any other genre which is weird because you can cover all the same subjects. You just shoot them differently.
Well, I guess I write more on the subject later. I hate to be constantly writing about the same thing, but I this is what is important to me right now and it is better than not writing at all.
In a brain flash, I just realized that how to decide what to write about would be a very good topic to write about.
-Gary
Here is a month by month breakdown, although I'll probably have at least 15 more downloads this month.
03/06 : 1
04/06 : 4
05/06 : 7
06/06 : 30
07/06 : 63
08/06 : 90
09/06 : 93
10/06 : 103
11/06 : 82
12/06 : 101
01/07 : 169
02/07 : 147 (So far)
It is going pretty well I'd say. A lot better than I had imagined.
I have 200 photos uploaded which means that my photos have averaged $2.43 each over the course of the year. I do have to point out that 74 of my images have never been downloaded. I also want to point out the fact that not all 200 of my photos were uploaded at the beginning of the year, in fact many of my early photos haven't sold at all, and many of my top sellers didn't get uploaded for six or more months later.
I guess there are several reasons why the average earning is important. The most important being that they throw out the stat that if you average ₤2 per photo from your rights managed stock, you are doing pretty well. The idea being that you have 10,000 photos in your portfolio. ₤2 in Canadian money is about $4.54
It would appear that I'm a little behind as far as doing pretty well, but like I said, not all my files were uploaded right from the very start which dilutes the yearly statistics a little.
In fact I only had one file the first month and then the next month only three more were added. It takes a little while to figure out exactly what good stock photography actually is, and particularly what will sell. It doesn't seem like it should be, but stock photography is an entirely different type of photography than any other genre which is weird because you can cover all the same subjects. You just shoot them differently.
Well, I guess I write more on the subject later. I hate to be constantly writing about the same thing, but I this is what is important to me right now and it is better than not writing at all.
In a brain flash, I just realized that how to decide what to write about would be a very good topic to write about.
-Gary
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