Photomatter News
Stock Photos, and Print Store are open! - Feb 2010
After the Photomatter products store opening last month I thought it was time to get the
Stock photo, and print section of my site up to date. After spending entirely too much time
trying to re-invent the wheel - I decided to give in and go with a system that I have been a
member of for almost three years. Originally, this account was to archive my full resolution
photos, and make them accessible from anywhere on the planet. However, they have
continued to add services, and features until they morphed into what I had always wanted
in an online stock agency for my work. So now I get to build my stock galleries all over again
- what joy! Oh, and this time I get to add all kinds of mind numbing meta data to each and every
photo to make them searchable. Well over 1100 images are on the server ready to purchase
with many thousands more to come!
There are some differences that I should point out. First the current collection of stock photos
are all RM (Rights Managed) with quotes being generated by the industry standard Fotoquote - and
further amended to a fraction of the standard rates. Later, I will add a flat fee RF (Royality Free)
collections of stock photos. The prints are all done using the old chemical processes. This
permits a substantial price break, yet they are less "green" than the photos I print myself.
Photomatter Stock home page
Photomatter Stock galleries home page
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New Travel Articles - Jan 2010
I finally got around to html formatting, and designing a new articles section. Thankfully
Barb wrote wonderful articles for me to plug into photomatter's Travel articles section.
Stay tuned, more articles and photos are coming! I am looking for a good associate
travel advertiser to add to these pages. If you are looking for exposure - this is the site
for you! Contact me! Check out the articles link at the top of every page, or these specific
links below.
Binna Burra mountain camping in Queensland Australia
The Sydney Parks, and other historic sites
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Photomatter Advertising - Jan 2010
Another change for 2010 at Photomatter.com is the new advertising on the site. The site has
enough content, and traffic to justify this addition. If after you click an ad and you continue on
to the retailer and buy a product - then you are really supporting the site. It costs you nothing
to do this, and I would appreciate you clicking through my site to these top tier retailers . Other
targeted content advertising is going to be added to the site concerning particular topics like
travel. I am leaving the Google Ad Sense up for now, but the content of these ads I have little to
no control over. Therefore, caveat emptor on the Google ads.
I did spend the time to find the finest reliable retailers for these ad placements. Ad content will
also be germane to the topics, articles, and reviews. My intent is to add to the value of the content
here at Photomatter.com
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Photomatter Products Store NOW OPEN - Jan 2010
To kick off 2010 Photomatter.com is launching a products store featuring select photos on
products that include T-Shirts, Tote bags, Coffee cups, Postcards, Greeting cards, and
Note cards. The products are divided into 15 themes, or categories. Categories include:
Cats, Art, Humor, Cross Sections, Conceptual, Lighthouses, Butterflies, Flowers, Animals,
Covered Bridges, Birds, Fruit, Nature, Seascapes, and Landscapes.
Check out the Photomatter Products store here _________________________________________________________________________________________
Photomatter crosses the 4 million page hits mark - Dec 2009
I know, web stats can be boring, but little did I know the amount of interest my first website
would get. In the last 25 months, and on December 30th Photomatter passed the 4 million
page hits mark. During this period close to 100,000 unique visitors consumed 360 Gigabytes
of bandwidth. I plan to provide more content in 2010, and I want to thank you for your interest
in my photos, and website.
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Nikon Festival Contest - A day through your lens - Nov 2009
Nikon has a cool contest that melds video with capturing a day through your lens. I blended
video from my Canon 5D mark II, and images captured by my Nikon D2X, D300, and a boat
load of Nikon lenses. A limiting factor is the old style flash video format. The contest is
limited to 504 x 284 pixel (low resolution) video entries. So, below are two higher
resolution versions of my entry.
Additionally, there are celebrity judges like Rainn Wilson (Dwight from the Office), and Chase
Jarvis (a famous Photog)...as well as Ashton Kutcher (Nikon spokesperson/actor), and youtube
diva Justine Ezarik.
HTML VERSION HERE - after a right click choice....Windows only.
FLASH VERSION HERE - A higher resolution flash version of my entry.
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National BMW Photo contest WIN! - Oct 2009
The annual national BMW Oktoberfest was held in Atlanta over the last week. Out of six
categories and over 700 submissions my photo in the "BMWs in Competition & Action"
category took first place for client and car owner Harvey N. Harvey also got third in one
of the rallys.
Info on the BMW Oktoberfest can be found here.
The trophy photo is here.
Here is the winning photo.
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BREAKING NEWS......ArtPrize RECEPTION TODAY! - Sept 2009
Saturday September 26th there is an artist reception from 6-9 PM in conjunction with the Collins
fine art gallery. Come and meet all the artist in both venues, and me too! Both are located at the
base of the Mackay towers building - 146 Monroe center at the corner of Pearl and Monroe Ave.
I have never seen the downtown so alive. Parents with their children...couples old and young are
walking from venue to venue, and everyone seems to be having a wonderful time. Be a part of it
and come downtown and view the art!
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Surprise! Byron Bank features my studio for the month of September
I wasn't expecting this, but my local bank is featuring my studio for the whole month of September.
I have put up a display, and printed out some special offers that you can pick up at their 20th ave,
and Baldwin branch in Jenison. There is also a drawing each Friday for a free studio session.
September 2009 - Print your own "Back to School" Coupon
September 2009 - Print your own "Print Special" Coupon
September 2009 - Photos of the display and bank
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ArtPrize Venue secured - Aug 2009
I was getting worried there - that I would have nowhere to hang my entry, but Biggby Coffee came through - whew!
I sent my entry to a handful of venues, and Steve at Biggby liked mine enough to squeeze it in...thanks Steve!
August 2009 - My ArtPrize Home page
August 2009 - My ArtPrize Venue
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Registered for ArtPrize - July 2009
A new exciting adventure for me arrived in my home town via the philanthropy of a local families' love of the arts.
ArtPrize is a world wide competition of artists of all kinds; hosted within the city of Grand Rapids Michigan. It is
the largest art competition ever, and the prizes total almost a half a million dollars. I'm registered, but I need to
secure my own venue. Here is ArtPrize's home page
July 2009 - ArtPrize Home page
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Photomatter stats - July 2009
Somewhere around Christmas 2008 Photomatter got it's 3 millionth page hit! That is in less than two years. Other
interesting bits of Photomatter data are......
in 2007
1600 unique visitors per month (high was 10615 in December)
96,000 page hits per month (high was 557,653 in December)
4410 Page views per month
9 GB of bandwidth per month
average visitor stayed 4 minutes with approximately 20% staying 5-15 minutes
3100 google searches led to Photomatter in 2007
Platform stats: 82.1% Windows 15.4% Macintosh 1.3% Linux
Browser stats: IE=50.8% Firefox=33.8% & Safari=10.6%
in 2008
3500 unique visitors per month (high was 6705 in January)
155,000 page hits per month (high was 339,000 in January)
8865 page views per month
15 GB of bandwidth per month
average visitor stayed 4 minutes with approximately 20% staying 5-15 minutes
15,500 google searches led to Photomatter in 2008
Platform stats: 82% Windows 15.6% Macintosh 1.2% Linux
Browser stats: IE=47.5% Firefox=36.4% & Safari=11.4%
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Photomatter web redesign - June 2009 I have been redesigning the website. I hope you like it. The aim is to
have more continuity in the design for easier navigation. The sitemap is basically chopped into two areas...with
Portrait, and Commercial studios having their own seperate area. Common links should be at the top of all pages. _____________________________________________________________________________________________
BNI office - April 2009
BNI is one of the most successful business networking organizations in the world. After six months as a member
I have begun my term as a vice president of the Top Flight Grandville chapter of BNI on April 1st 2009. If anyone
is interested in becoming a member, or just wants some information on BNI - please don't hesitate to contact me.
Here is a link to our NBI Web site.
April 2009 - BNI Top Flight chapter web site
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Nikon Repair - March 2009
After my "Ice Safari" in Feb 2009 I damaged my D300. Climbing down from a 30 foot cone shaped mound;
I lost my balance and fell on my behind, and smacked my D300 on the ice. I could detect no outward damage, but
the top lcd was flashing "r007" no matter what I did I could not clear this error code. The error code had to do with
the number of images available in the buffer, but was displaying every time I depressed the shutter. The shutter also
refused to trip until I changed the shooting mode from C to S. I finished the day shooting with no other signs of
damage. A couple days later the rear LCD would not power up, yet the camera continued to shoot. I also noticed
that I had a rather large bruise on my thigh. Apparently, I had landed on the camera when I fell. I weigh about 260
pounds. I'm still amazed that nothing cracked, and that the camera continued to work. So, I packaged the
D300 up, and shipped it off to Melville NY to get it repaired. I wrote a detailed explaination of what had occured, and
exactly where the camera body had struck the ground + all the symtoms that happened afterwards. Got a short
"impact damage" estimate a few days later for $225 - $25 of which was shipping and tax. That was March 5th,
and here it is March 17th and the camera is already on it's way back to me. Impressively short time - I think.
The camera is like new - and I can't imagine how they get them so clean. I'm impressed with Nikon service!
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Adding Gear
I have always enjoyed good camera gear. Over the years I have had an incredible array of cameras from half
frame 35 mm up to 4x5. However, I have basically shot most of my work on Nikon's cameras. I still have a few
mental favorites from the past like the Zeiss Ikon 6 cm x 9 cm that would fold up so small it fit in my shirt pocket.
A Kodak retina IIIc with Schnieder lenses, original Bronica S with Nikkor lenses, or Exa's with Carl Zeiss lenses -
I could go on and on. My entire film camera collection is years ago gone - all sold on ebay for penneys on the
dollar. With the damage to one of my two main cameras, and the recent 25-30% price increase from Nikon on
a bunch of their gear + the 8K for the D3X - I decided to add to the manufacturing companies that I will use. A
new Canon 5D mark II with an amazing 24-70mm f2.8 prime lens quality zoom have been added to my kit. I am
also writing another review about it - though I doubt it will generate over 3 million page hits like the Nikon D300
review. However, it will contain an avid Nikon professionals "dark side" view about the "other" big manufacturer
of DSLRs. Not a spoiler, but the IQ out of the 5D mark II is simply outstanding...check it out...
February 2009 - Berries so red...hey, where is the short cake
March 2009 - Initial Impressions Review
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An Ice Safari
For 20 years I told my kids to stay off the ice on Lake Michigan. Well, a few weeks ago I was out at the lake on my
day off and I noticed these parallel ridges of ice along the shore. Ignoring my decades of warnings to the kids I
ventured out onto the ice. I got about 400-500 yards off shore, and photographed some amazing ice formations
near the open water. A pair of bald eagles even came to watch this silly venture as I was about a quarter of a mile
off shore. Remember kids, do as I say not as I do. See the ice formations here...slideshow button near top right
February 16th 2009 - Ice formations from Holland to north of Ferrysburg
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James Markus is voted "Tops in GR" in the Photographer catagory
Wow, I don't know what to say. I didn't even know mlive and the Grand Rapids Press were running a poll the last
two months of 2008 - let alone that I appeared in that poll. Thanks for the votes!
February 1st 2009
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Archived Photomatter News