The Shutterzone Photography Blog

NatGeo and Travel+Leisure

Terry Smith Images — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:00:00 GMT

I just discovered that both NationalGeographic.com and TravelandLeisure.com have published a couple of my images in the past few months for slideshows. National Geographic used one of my pictures of Oahu, Hawaii for their "Ten Best U.S. Beaches of 2011" slideshow, and Travel+Leisure used a picture of Casco Bay, Maine off the coast of Portland for their "World's Most Beautiful Ferry Rides" slideshow.

Emma

Terry Smith Images — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:41:39 GMT

Pictures of The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Terry Smith Images — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 07:00:00 GMT

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opens on November 11, 2011 in Bentonville, Arkansas. Alice Walton, the daugher of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, founded and largely funded (through the Walton Family Foundation) the museum. The museum takes its name from nearby Crystal Spring and the bridge construction incorporated in the building design by world-renowned architect Moshe Safdie.

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas

A broken heart... or a torn heart?

Terry Smith Images — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 20:56:14 GMT

This torn rose petal image was recently exclusively licensed for the front cover of a book. I don't know which book. Photo agencies are kind of like the CIA... everything is on the "down low". I created it several years ago, but it was never licensed until now. It too was on the "down low". Luckily, the sale made up for its previous lack-luster earnings. "Exclusive" in "exclusively licensed" is industry parlance for "good money", not to be confused with "big money" which is the taking of photos of the famous and then naked. The order is important. If the subject is first naked and then famous, then it's "dirty money", otherwise know as porn. That's enough industry parlance for today. This particular photo was actually not taken at all but made on a flatbed scanner, otherwise known as "bed money". If you see it on a book let me know.

Torn red rose petal

Project Imagin8ion Photo Contest Rip-Off

Terry Smith Images — Wed, 25 May 2011 12:08:26 GMT

"Project Imagin8ion" is the latest photo contest rip-off in a sad, long line of rights grabs to screw unwitting photographers.

"Project Imagin8ion is the first user-generated photo contest in history to inspire a Hollywood short film. Over the next month, Ron Howard, with the help of Canon and the Project Imagin8ion community will select 8 imaginative photos to set the stage for his next production. These 8 winning photos will inspire the 8 movie themes for this film: setting, time, character, mood, relationship, goal, obstacle and the unknown."

Amateurs get lured in by a free trip to New York and a chance to see Ron Howard. (Oh Boy!)

READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE YOU SUBMIT PHOTOS TO ANYTHING!!!

"Entry constitutes an irrevocable grant of permission to Sponsor and its parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, promotional partners, contractors, agents, Go Freestyle, LLC, and those each of them may designate from time to time, including without limitation all persons and entities involved in the production, distribution and/or marketing of the Film (as defined below) (all of the foregoing, the “Sponsor Parties) to use the entrant’s name, likeness (including without limitation photographs and/or recordings of the entrant), voice and biographical information, and the Photograph submitted by the entrant, including without limitation modifying, altering, excerpting or amending the Photograph and/or creating derivative works based on the Photograph or any component thereof, for purposes of trade, publicity or promotion and any other purpose, in all media and formats whether now known or later developed, throughout the world in perpetuity, without any notice, permission or compensation (except where prohibited by law)."

Summary:

You will never be paid.
They can modify your photos any way they please.
They can use your photos FOREVER for ANY purpose whatsoever.
They can license your photos (and all of the thousands and thousands of others) and generate income without ever paying you.
They can contract with third-parties to license your photos and make money off of them.
They can create derivative works of your photos (composites, black and whites, etc.).
They can license those derivative works too.
You get SCREWED.
BUT WAIT! You can submit 5 photos per category! Hurry now and you can get SCREWED 40 TIMES!!! "IN PERPETUITY!"

Thank you Canon! Great job! Your behavior makes me proud I shoot with Nikon.

How to Sell Prints on the Web

Terry Smith Images — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:00:00 GMT

I've been reading New York photographer Dave Beckerman's blog for many years. In this great article he shares what he has learned after over a decade of selling prints online through his own website:

http://www.beckermanphoto.com/blog/general-notes-about-selling-photos-on-web/

Mental Illness Concept Image

Terry Smith Images — Mon, 02 May 2011 12:00:00 GMT

The image below is a studio self-portrait I did as a stock photography concept image. It can be used to represent a variety of concepts like depression, disappointment, stress, failure, sadness, etc. It has been successful and licensed several times since I created it less than a couple of years ago. Most recently, it was published in The Guardian in this piece on mental illness.

Man holding his head in his hands.

Back from Paris

Terry Smith Images — Sun, 01 May 2011 21:01:00 GMT

We got back from Paris this morning after spending a night in Chicago due to a 4-hour departure delay in Paris, our second "maintenance issue" and overnight-layover in a row. At least it wasn't as bad as the total nightmare of the last return flight. If possible I never plan to fly out of Paris again. Let's face it, the French are much better at pastries than airplane mechanics and they certainly don't get in a hurry for anything. I've flown into Paris several times and have never had a problem with that, but I'll be passing through and flying back home from somewhere else the next time, whenever that may be.

We had a very good week though. My game plan of traveling around light and agile with small, non-zoom lenses (a 35mm and a 50mm) lasted about half a day. I just couldn't handle the fear of mentally setting up a shot but not being able to execute, so I hauled my mid-range zoom and heavy 70-200mm 2.8 around all day long. My prayers were answered and my hip and back problems totally disappeared for the whole week -- until we landed in Chicago last night. So I either need to pray for an extension or leave the country more often.

We rented an apartment in Paris this time which worked out quite well. Our room was at the top of a 5-story building built in the 1600s. No elevator, just a spiral staircase. I've stayed in several very small European hotels in old buildings, plenty with no elevators, but this one was one of the steepest and tightest staircases I've ever seen. The closest thing I've ever seen was the stairs to the top of Notre Dame which start out wide and get narrower and narrower the taller you climb, except these were all wood instead of stone.

The apartment's location was great though. We were a block-and-a-half from the Louvre, so I walked over at sunrise one morning and photographed the Louvre and Tulleries gardens. Our window had a view of Sacre Coeur from which I setup my tripod one evening and photographed from dusk through dark.

I'll try to share more details and photos soon, but for now I'll leave you with just a snapshot I took while walking along the street in front of our apartment. This is actually a perfectly "normal" parking scene in Paris:

Wooly Hollow State Park, Arkansas

Terry Smith Images — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Waterfall on a creek running through Wooly Hollow State Park in Greenbrier, Arkansas

1st Birthday Party

Terry Smith Images — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:00:00 GMT

Some assembly required...

10 Years + 24 Countries (but whose counting?)

Terry Smith Images — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 09:00:00 GMT

This past January was the 10th anniversary of Terry Smith Images. (Sorry, I didn't get a party invitation either, but the IRS told me it was great!)

I started out as an aspiring travel photographer who wanted to travel to as many countries as I could. I had a goal at that time of getting to every continent except Antarctica (too expensive) before I was 30. Well, I didn't meet that goal. I've checked a few countries off the list though.

My first international trip (not including to Canada -- sorry Canadians) was to Paris in 2002. I spent a week in Paris traveling alone as I did in those days. I covered a lot of ground in that week as a tourist. Unfortunately, my travel photography at the time was... well, let's just say it was an on-the-job learning experience.

Ten years later and I've now been to Paris several times. Though at the detriment of checking other places off my list, I've always loved returning back to Paris. Each time my depth of subject matter there gets a bit deeper, and my Paris photography has been licensed many times worldwide.

My other goal, like any travel photographer, was to get my trips paid for via photography. I'm going back to Paris soon, and TSI pays for my travel now. :)

Parisian Cafe Roussillon at night on the corner of Rue de Grenelle and Rue Cler, Paris, France.

I was looking through my license sales from my stock distributors recently. I've had many, many worldwide licenses so this is not a complete number, but just counting licenses for publications in specific countries, my work has appeared in 24 countries and counting. In most of those 24+ countries my pictures are traveling there even before I get too! (I wish they would write, but no, they don't.)

Newest Family Member

Terry Smith Images — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:00:00 GMT

Here are some baby photography shots of my newest family member from a few weeks ago. All of these were shot in one session at my relatives' home which, besides being blessed in many ways, is also blessed with great light. Here are just a few of my favorites:

New TSI Logo

Terry Smith Images — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 07:00:00 GMT

After two weeks of work I'm very excited and relieved to decide on a new logo:

It may seem simple enough, but I've been going through different designs every day for the past two weeks trying to find something that I liked. Plenty of nights I went to bed thinking I finally had it, only to decide the next morning, NO. I settled on this one Saturday night and thus far I'm still happy with it. It's a combined effort based on previous designs I did along with ideas from my Art Director/Stylist/Designer/Wife.

My website will be undergoing a major overhaul soon as well, so keep checking in.

John Lund's Stock Sales for 2010

Terry Smith Images — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 12:36:56 GMT

Stock photographer and Blend Images co-founder John Lund has shared statistics on his stock photo sales for 2010. He has certainly raised my eyebrows.

Backing out the numbers he's provided, by my calculations he made well over $231,601.00 last year in stock sales. That does not include 1,214 photos which were licensed for less that $50.00 each. Once you see the numbers in his blog post you will see that I can't really estimate those. If the later averaged out to $25.00 each in sales, a total guess, then that would be an additional $30,350.00.

These are figures are net profit too, after agency fees, although he says about half of his 7,000 images online were shot by others and for which he is acting as a distributor. His net profit then would be, roughly, half of the estimated $250k plus his percentage commission on the other half.

Pro Styled - Herb Ritts Lightroom Presets

Terry Smith Images — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:00:00 GMT

X-Equals has released a set of free Lightroom presets called "Pro Styled - Herb Ritts". They are "designed to allow you to quickly take your image to one approximating the style of Herb Ritts".

First, it's not quite as easy as running a preset to get the "Herb Ritts look", and second, I'm not sure they have the legal right to be using his name even though he is deceased. However, they look like cool black+white presets to have in your toolbox, and they are FREE.

Here are some tips from the X-Equals website on getting the Herb Ritts look:

Do note, most of Herb Ritts’ style is produced in camera, as with many other great photographers. You really need to focus on getting your images as close to the desired goal at time of capture, you simply cannot rely on post processing to accomplish the feat of simulating his unique style.

A few tips you may want to consider:

Use a yellow filter to view your subject before shooting. Visualizing your shot through a yellow filter helps you see the difference in tones in your subject, eliminating much of the color.

When shooting outdoors, go ahead and put that yellow filter on your lens. Since our target image will be a black and white image, the yellow filter will help by eliminating excess blue light, which will level out skies and bring a better balance to your image.

Shoot both High Key and Low Key images, but be sure to have good contrast when doing so. Especially with abstract shots of parts of the body, you will want to consider a bright overall image with deep darks in the subject or vice versa. Use your environment and subject to your advantage.

When shooting with your full dynamic or even high dynamic range, focus on a good balance of dark and light with good, but not extreme contrast. Look for emotion in your subject for these shots and pose for either strength or vulnerability depending on your specific goal.

When shooting with natural lighting, think outside the norms of photography. Put the sun at your subject’s back, or shoot at high noon, and kick up the contrast wih filters or post processing.

When using studio lighting or strobes, use some extra lights on a light back ground for High Key images. Or shoot on a dark background and focus more light on your subject, enhancing contrast.

Here is what is included in the download:

PS Ritts Curve 1 – This preset contains a fairly conservative Tone Curve, designed to enhance contrast, while maintaining the general brightness of the image. It has a moderate increase in Clarity to get a bit more pop.

PS Ritts Curve 2 - Another custom curve, this time shifting the Tone Curve much darker, while retaining a high level of contrast. Also maxes out Clarity to enhance fine detail in darker images.

PS Ritts Curve 3 - Again, a custom Tone Curve, dramatically brightening the image, with a minor kick to Clarity, creating an overall high-key and soft effect.

PS Ritts Mix HIE - A customized version of the Cold Storage Kodak HIE infrared preset, providing a palette suitable for Ritts type work.

PS Ritts Mix Pan-X - Another customized film emulation, using Kodak Panatomic X as its base.

PS Ritts Mix Plus-X – Customized Kodak Plus-X preset for a more natural appearance.

PS Ritts Mix Tech Pan – Kodak Technical Pan emulation tweaked for Ritts style use.

PS Ritts Mix Tri-X - Tri-X as well, of course.

PS Ritts Punch – A preset that endows a bit of surreal realism to your image. Brings out detail using Recovery and Fill Light and brings it back to Earth with a hit of Blacks adjustment.

PS Ritts Yellow Filter – A preset that adjusts White Balance to emulate a yellow filter being used. Not for every photo, but can drastically lighten many.

As with all our presets, these are designed to be used in unison to create the desired effect. Also, be sure to try other black and white color mixes, such as the Curve presets from our own Cold Storage to open up a world of new B&W effects. After you get the effect about where you want it, adjust Exposure or Brightness to balance out your image.

Download the Pro Styled - Herb Ritts lightroom presets here

When you Travel, Bring your Passport - with Seth Resnick

Terry Smith Images — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:06:00 GMT

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of watching a free webinar by Seth Resnick, stock photographer and co-founder of D-65. Based on the title and its sponsorship by X-Rite, I went into it with the assumption that it would mostly be a marketing piece for their ColorChecker Passport. (I've been working the ColorChecker Passport myself for awhile now and absolutely love it for creating custom camera profiles in Lightroom. I hope to blog about it in more depth soon.) But... I was pleasantly surprised. Seth spent about 75% of the time talking about his workflow in Lightroom, captioning and keywording in Lightroom, and his archival system... plus his use of the Passport as well.

This is a small slice of the information that he covers in his workshops, but those cost $1,000+. This was free, and better yet, it was recorded:

When You Travel, Bring Your Passport! with Seth Resnick from X-Rite Photo on Vimeo.

You may also be interested in Seth's book: D65's Lightroom Workbook: Workflow, Not Workslow in Lightroom 3.

Notre Dame - Paris - Night

Terry Smith Images — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 21:04:47 GMT

Shot from a side street in the Latin Quarter, just a short distance from Notre Dame (obviously), I was trying to come up with something a bit different than just a straight-on night shot of the Parisian icon (tried that already). What do you think? Share your comments on my blog.

Notre Dame cathedral at night, Paris, France

Ambulance Chaser, Rome

Terry Smith Images — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 07:00:00 GMT

I was walking through Rome on my way to the Pantheon when this ambulance came screaming through. I thought it would make a good editorial shot, and moments like these always test your reflexes with your camera. :)

This shot was recently licensed by a UK newspaper.

Ambulance in Rome, Italy

Light-bulb Concept Illustration

Terry Smith Images — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:00:00 GMT

This simple illustration has always been one of my favorites. While simple, it can be used in both an editorial and commercial context to convey a lot of different concepts: brainstorming, education, discovering, electricity, new ideas, learning, thinking, or... just a light-bulb.

It has been used multiple times, most recently for the front cover of a book. Sorry, I don't know which one, but if you ever see it let me know!

Light-bulb concept illustration

New Imaging and Video Workstation

Terry Smith Images — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:43:00 GMT

I've been taking a blog holiday, just too much other stuff to do, but I'm finally back to it. After we moved last fall I've been busy with construction projects in my shop/(one day) studio and well as some other construction projects in the house. Along the same time my imaging workstation had to be rebuilt. I've been wanting to upgrade it to handle video anyway, both for TSI and for Stunique. Speaking of, we have also been busy building out Stunique's new Home Accessories and Decor line which we are launching this year. We will be adding a lot more products and announcing some new website features soon.

So while I procrastinated in ordering new components for a new media workstation, I was doing work on my laptop. The LCD quality for image selection is fine, and it's nice to sit back and "relax" with a laptop on a couch or but a nice leather chair, but for more intense work it's just not the same. I'm transferring 58GB of images from my laptop to the new computer as I type this. I need a real computer to help me catch up!

I had put all of my upgraded components into my old computer case, but last Friday night I moved everything into a new Cooler Master case which is MUCH quieter. My old one sounded like a jet engine. Seriously, several people have told me that before. I tried replacing the fans in the old case and removing a few of them as well, but it didn't help.

I tried to keep the costs down (running your own business has a profound effect on that). I went with an AMD processor for the first time as part of my cost savings. Everything below was purchased for less than $800. Here is the spec list:

AMD Phenom II X4 945 Deneb 3.0GHz Quad-Core Processor
ASUS PRO/USB3 890GX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard
G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) - I love knowing that I still have room to upgrade to 16GB later.
EVGA GeForce 9500 GT 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card - VERY happy with this card. I'm not a gamer, and this video card is cheap but still has all the quality I need to run dual monitors. I color calibrate my monitors, and the performance is fine for what I need for photography. For video... we'll see.
Crucial RealSSD 64GB Solid State Drive for the OS
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive- This hard drive is for my workflow drive. I keep my image workflow on one hard disc and my archive on another disc. Then I backup both. I've ran RAID in the past but purposely do not anymore. I'm looking very forward to the 6.0Gb/s and the 1TB capacity for video as well.
Antec TruePower 750W Continuous Power SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Power Supply
COOLER MASTER HAF 912 RC-912-KKN1 Black SECC/ ABS Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - If you build a PC, buy this case. Period. It's quiet and the easiest to install drives and components in that I've ever seen.

It's a lot of power (by yesterday's standards... it won't last!). Not top-end by any means, especially for those in the video editing crowd, but good for now.

Then again, just a few minutes ago I deleting 1GB of data off of a thumb-drive and guess what? Windows 7 locked up for several minutes. Yeah... but it locked up really fast!

London Slideshow

Terry Smith Images — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:50:19 GMT

New work + some previously new work...

London - Images by Terry Smith Images

Hump Day

Terry Smith Images — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Americans refer to Wednesday as "hump day". Today is Wednesday. Here is your sign.

Humped crossing sign in London, England.

Go

Terry Smith Images — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:07:32 GMT

I've debated whether I should give any commentary on this image or leave it as a curiosity; however, I will share that the original capture of this shot is from a traffic light sculpture at a roundabout in London's Canary Wharf (financial) district.

Choices

Terry Smith Images — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Recently photographed along a rural highway in Northeast Arkansas...

Choices, road sign in the Arkansas delta

Happy Halloween

Terry Smith Images — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 20:45:33 GMT

When the cat meows... you will already be dead.

Halloween Black Cat

Happy Halloween from Terry Smith Images

Big Ben, London - New Pictures

Terry Smith Images — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 09:00:00 GMT

I may come back to some of these later to share some "making of" notes, but for now, here are the pics:

Big Ben, London, England

Hand holding Union Jack flag with Big Ben in the background. London, England.

Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament at night, London, England.

Big Ben and Westminster Bridge at night, London, England.

Big Ben at night, London, England.

I really like how the detail in the reflections came through with the above shot. No, this wasn't shot as HDR. I just used a high-pass filter technique. Here's a closeup:

Big Ben and Westminster Bridge at night, London, England.

Jardin des Tuileries and the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.

Terry Smith Images — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 06:00:00 GMT

This could have been a really great photo. I missed the peak fall color in Paris though. Jen and I both love the Louvre so much that it would probably be hanging on our wall right now had we been there a couple of weeks earlier. Even still, it was recently licensed for the front cover of a book, to my pleasant surprise. Magnifique!

Look closely at the tiny little people... then the Louvre. Yes, the whole building is the Louvre... It is HUGE. You can see Notre Dame in the right background and the Pompideau in the left background.

Aerial view looking over the Jardin des Tuileries toward the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France.

Top of the World in London

Terry Smith Images — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 11:00:00 GMT

This aerial shot of London was taken from the London Eye. It has been licensed for a travel advertisement appearing in a national UK newspaper.

Aerial view of the Thames River and the London skyline looking toward Westminster Bridge; the Houses of Parliament, and Big Ben.

Where's Terry?

Terry Smith Images — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 08:00:00 GMT

Wow, time flies! It's been over 2 months since I last blogged. So where have I been?

We've moved. Not far, but far enough to throw our lives into total chaos for... well, going on a long time now.

One thing led to another and Jen and I bought a new house in North Little Rock (maybe 20 yards from Maumelle) and, after turning down three other offers, finally sold our old place.

The plus side is that we have a lot more room now. The down side is that I'm not getting to use much of it yet. What will be my much larger upstairs office is empty at the moment pending me ripping out the carpet, repainting the walls, installing some new lighting, hardwood floors, expanding a closet, and a few other enhancements. Yes, all of this in a brand now house. My wife has been known to call me "picky" though. Everything that was in my office is now in boxes in another bedroom in the meantime.

Lately though I've been spending way more time than should have been necessary building shelves and a bench in a shop area in the garage. This is a prerequisite for unpacking all of the boxes in the garage so that we can actually park our vehicles in the garage. Hopefully this will come to fruition before the first blizzard comes.

Luckily, this space will also double as a photo studio. I'll have room both in this area and in my, one day finished, office to setup lighting, etc. Maybe even leave it setup for a few hours... or even days... so I can come back to it and reshoot everything over again (over, and over, and... over). That would be a nice change. My models might get tired though.

I've installed new daylight-balanced fluorescent lights in the shop/studio area. I don't expect to be using these for photo lighting much, but day-light balanced is better than not. I also hope to mount a background roll support to the ceiling. I should probably measure for that soon. There are also two windows in shop/studio which serve well for some still-life shots.

Anyway, I'll try to post pictures as everything comes together. My computers are set back up in a temporary location, so I'll be posting new updates on a more regular basis now.

Please keep checking back!

Cabin Picture in Men's Journal

Terry Smith Images — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 20:17:26 GMT

The cabin shot below is currently in the September 2010 issue of Men's Journal on page 38. (Available at newsstands everywhere!) I first blogged about it a year ago (one year ago + one day to be exact). It's of a cabin in Devil's Den State Park, Arkansas. You can read the original blog for the "making of" description.

Young couple sitting on the porch of a rustic cabin in Devil's Den State Park, Arkansas drinking morning coffee with the dog.

Credit goes to my wife Jennifer as Art Director on this shoot.